Oral Answers to Questions
Matt Turmaine Excerpts(1 day, 19 hours ago)
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Matt Turmaine (Watford) (Lab)
Euan Stainbank (Falkirk) (Lab)
The Secretary of State for Defence (John Healey)
With your indulgence, Mr Speaker, on behalf of those serving in our armed forces, I would like to thank you for the parliamentary flag-raising ceremony to mark the start of Armed Forces Week last Monday. I thank hon. Members across the House for the support that they gave to more than 200 local Armed Forces Day events over the weekend.
On housing, we are a Government who are delivering for defence. In January, we bought back 36,000 military homes into public ownership. In April, we launched a consumer charter to deliver basic housing rights and standards. In May, we announced an additional £1.5 billion for forces family homes—part of £7 billion that we will invest in military accommodation in the next five years.
Matt Turmaine
I meet servicemen, servicewomen and veterans in my constituency at events such as Remembrance Day and the recent VE commemorations. We all know the challenges that servicemen and women have had with housing and its quality in recent years. Does my right hon. Friend agree that it is this Labour Government who are finally making them proud?
John Healey
Indeed. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend for his strong working links with veterans in Watford. He is right: as he will recognise, my hon. Friend the Minister for Veterans and People recently launched Operation Valour, the first ever UK-wide approach to veteran support, with £50 million of funding to establish a new network of Valour-recognised support centres right across the country.
Oral Answers to Questions
Matt Turmaine Excerpts(7 months, 1 week ago)
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Lillian Jones (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (Lab)
Matt Turmaine (Watford) (Lab)
The Secretary of State for Defence (John Healey)
With tomorrow marking 1,000 days since the start of President Putin’s brutal, illegal invasion of Ukraine, our commitment to stand with the Ukrainian people is absolute. We have stepped up with more military support, we have sped up deliveries, and we are now spending more on military aid as a country than ever before.
John Healey
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. What she really says is that the Ukrainians have been fighting with huge courage—military and civilians alike—and the best way we can help the Ukrainians to defend their own civilians is to step up our support for Ukraine. That is why we have increased military support and aid to its highest level ever. We have signed a new industrial treaty with Ukraine worth £3.5 billion to increase military hardware. We have hit the £1 billion milestone for the UK-led international fund for Ukraine. We will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes. This is a Government delivering for defence and for Ukraine.
Matt Turmaine
I thank the Secretary of State for his previous answers. Will he outline some of the detail of the support that has been offered to Ukraine and how that support is evolving as the conflict continues?
John Healey
At each stage, we have tried to respond to the requirements that the Ukrainians say that they have to match the state of their battle to defend their country. We have announced packages of artillery, of ammunition and of air defence, which is one of their most critical needs at present, including recently a new contract to supply short-range air defence missiles—the lightweight multi-role missiles. Those will be in Ukrainian hands at the turn of the year. We expect to step up that production and delivery during the course of next year.