Steve Barclay
Main Page: Steve Barclay (Conservative - North East Cambridgeshire)Department Debates - View all Steve Barclay's debates with the Ministry of Defence
New Medium Helicopter Contract
Steve Barclay Excerpts(1 day, 10 hours ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Watch Debate Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Urgent Questions are proposed each morning by backbench MPs, and up to two may be selected each day by the Speaker. Chosen Urgent Questions are announced 30 minutes before Parliament sits each day.
Each Urgent Question requires a Government Minister to give a response on the debate topic.
This information is provided by Parallel Parliament and does not comprise part of the offical record
Luke Pollard
The hon. Gentleman is certainly right that we inherited a number of very old helicopters. That is one of the reasons that we made the decision to retire Puma—a helicopter that had in many cases been flying for many, many decades. We will continue to look at the military needs and to match those with the capabilities from a rise in the defence budget, but the NMH decision will be made in the DIP.
Steve Barclay (North East Cambridgeshire) (Con)
The Minister said that he welcomed the questions from my hon. Friend the Member for North Dorset (Simon Hoare) and my right hon. Friend the Member for New Forest East (Sir Julian Lewis), but he did not answer either; he did not tell us whether the defence investment plan will be published this financial year and he did not speak to the critical nature of a decision before going into the next financial year. He has explained missing multiple deadlines by simply refusing to give any further deadlines. Does he accept that this is a choice of this Government, without blaming the previous Government? If this Government can find additional funding for welfare, they could find additional funding to meet this contract.
Luke Pollard
The right hon. Gentleman knows that we have found additional funding for defence; there is £5 billion extra in our defence budget this year. We have an increasing defence budget for every single year of the decade ahead. Let me challenge his point, as I did answer the questions to which he referred; I just was not able to give the answer that he wanted. The NMH decision will be made as part of the defence investment plan, which will be published shortly.