Health and Social Care

Richard Drax Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Richard Drax (South Dorset) (Con)]

I start by congratulating all those who have made their maiden speeches today. I have listened to some and they have been excellent, as one would expect, from all parts of the House.

I welcome the broad thrust of the Queen’s Speech. Unfettered by coalition partners, we are now free to pursue a most welcome Conservative agenda. As it would take too long to cover every point in the Queen’s Speech, I have highlighted a few and I shall speak about them in the order in which they were presented in the Gracious Speech.

The first, and without doubt the most important, relates to the economy. Her Majesty referred to

“bringing the public finances under control and reducing the deficit”.

This must be right and we made great strides in the previous Parliament to prevent our beloved country from falling into an economic abyss.

During the election, I could not help but notice the level of vitriol, mainly from the left. The word “austerity” was hijacked and repeatedly and contemptuously spat out to delude voters into thinking that some belt-tightening and control of Government spending was almost evil. Balancing the family budget is not evil, nor is attending to the country’s. In the case of the latter, it was imperative, lest we leave our children and grandchildren saddled with debt and the inevitable misery that goes with it.

Secondly, on apprenticeships, our record has been second to none and the Government are to be congratulated on pursuing this important policy even further. Perhaps promising millions more apprenticeships could be reworded along the lines of “We aspire to create more apprenticeships”. I am always uncomfortable with promises, as so often factors outside our control conspire to make the target an impossible one. However, having helped to establish our first two apprenticeship fairs at Weymouth College in my constituency, I have a lot of feedback from local employers. They, too, welcome the general thrust, but agree unanimously that the reward for taking on an apprentice should be higher. May I suggest to the Treasury team that perhaps some money from the welfare budget could be better targeted at apprenticeships?

Thirdly, on the vexed question of giving housing association tenants the right to own their own home, I have some reservations. I agree in principle but have concerns about it in practice. As I understand it, tenants could buy their house at a large discount. The money would then be used by the association to build more homes. It all sounds very enticing and brings back memories of Mrs Thatcher’s successful and empowering policy of allowing tenants to buy their own council house. There is no doubt that the first generation would be extremely grateful, but what about those who follow? In seats such as mine, which is dominated by the green belt, there are few places to build new homes, and selling off the association homes that we have could surely lead to a shortage of affordable housing stock. Will the Government add some flexibility to this policy, particularly in rural seats such as mine?

Fourthly, I welcome plans to ensure that decisions affecting England, or England and Wales, can be taken only with the consent of the majority of MPs representing those constituencies.

Fifthly, the long-awaited EU referendum is now imminent. For me, and I think for many in the country, the question is simple: do we wish to be a truly sovereign nation, with our own identity and laws, or do we want to be consumed by a federalist state run from Brussels? I have no doubt that the majority of British people want the former. With the referendum now promised by the end of 2017, our negotiating hand has been strengthened enormously. I am sure that I am not alone in hoping that the Prime Minister’s demands are stringent and meaningful, and aimed at repatriating powers that for too long have been signed away, not least control of our borders. It is time, after 40 years, to have our say.

Finally, I want to talk about defence. As a former soldier, my heart sank when I read that defence spending is to be reduced by a further £1 billion. Quite apart from upsetting me—and, I am sure, every man and woman who serves in our wonderful armed forces—it caused US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter to speak out. I know from friends who work closely with Americans in the political field that they do not like speaking out against the United Kingdom unless they have a genuine reason for doing so. We should therefore listen to what they are saying. He calls on us to commit to spending at least 2% of our GDP on defence, which is the NATO minimum. It is an arbitrary target, and in my view it should probably be closer to 5%, as it was in my day, back in the ’80s and during the Falklands campaign. Of course, the kit is now far more expensive, and our manpower has been depleted to the point that some generals and admirals seriously question whether we have enough men and women to man all the new kit we are going to get.

How on earth can we ring-fence the overseas aid budget when we cannot afford to defend our nation and dependants and meet all our responsibilities? I just do not understand the Government’s thinking. It is beyond me and everyone else I speak to on the subject—everyone else. They just cannot understand it. Have we not learnt the lessons of history? It is no good having all this wonderful kit if we do not have the manpower to operate it. Even if we did, this further cut is bound to affect training, which is key if our troops, sailors and airmen are to be the best. I call on the Government to change tack before it is too late.

How sad I am to end my first speech of the new Parliament on a downbeat note, but I am afraid that I, like many others, am disillusioned, disappointed and angry that our armed forces and the defence of the realm are being treated in such a short-sighted way.