Speeches by Martin.

“I specifically said that I am fully in favour of moving to autonomy as fast as we can. All I questioned was whether we could go from a PowerPoint concept for multiple vessels to their being at sea on operations within nine years. That is all I questioned—not the idea that we need to move to autonomy.”

“The original sin is divorcing the strategic defence review from the DIP—divorcing the vision from the resources. For the past year, the Department has been arguing first with itself about whether it can downgrade some of the things in the strategic defence review—there are a couple of instances where that has happened,…”

“I am afraid that I will not because I want to make progress. We are privileging a good diplomatic relationship, which would weather the storm of our pulling out of GCAP, over military capability. We must consider whether we want manned fighter jets in 2040 or a Royal Navy right now. Do we want frigates and destroyers i…”

“I think we have all heard stories of firms such as the one in the hon. Gentleman’s constituency, whether in our own constituencies or in the conversations we have as Members of Parliament who are interested in defence. It has been catastrophic for British industry, and rushing out an unfunded DIP, which is effectively …”

“I thank the Minister for all his efforts in trying to sort out a Tory mess. As a fellow Kent MP, I like and greatly respect the right hon. Member for Herne Bay and Sandwich (Sir Roger Gale), but is it not a bit cheeky to ask the Government of the day to sort out the mess that the Conservatives voted for? Will the Minis…”

“All I will say is that the defence of the realm is the most serious issue for any Government.”

“I will not list the constituencies of all the hon. and right hon. Members who have contributed; they know who they are and I thank them very much. Three themes came out of this debate that were interesting and bear repeating. First, we are already in a war and it is happening in different ways and it is happening below…”

“This actually speaks to the delay. Had the DIP come out when it was meant to, in 2025, it would have been a 10-year plan, because it would have gone from 2025 to 2035. However, the Government were unable to get their ducks in a row and the DIP was delayed by a year. If we had waited for them to rejig the plan to go up …”

“I beg to move, That this House recognises the danger that Russia’s renewed illegal invasion of Ukraine poses to European and British security; further recognises the threat to the international order and the UK posed by China; also recognises the increasing uncertainty surrounding the reliability of the US as an ally w…”

“I will make some progress because I am having eyes made at me by Madam Deputy Speaker. The DIP commits £8.6 billion to the global combat air programme, which is the sixth-generation fighter jet that we are building with Italy and Japan. Realistically, we will get the jets in service sometime after 2040. They are manned…”

“I will give way to the former Minister.”

“I agree with everything that the hon. Member has just said, and I thank him. However, all I am highlighting is that, on past performance, going from PowerPoints to ships at sea in nine years with several classes of ship seems extremely risky. Moreover, the DIP sets aside only £1.3 billion in the first funded period to …”

“Good morning. I would like to talk about alignment between the SDR and the DIP. I have a couple of specific examples that I will come to, but in general terms, how well do you think the DIP is aligned on delivering the priorities that you articulate in the SDR?”

“The digital targeting web has only £7.5 billion spending before 2030, and a massively backloaded £17 billion after 2030 that is as yet unfunded. Would that be an example of that?”

“On that, our current Type 45s are going out of service in 2035, yet we have a new suite with the hybrid navy of the CCVs and Type 9Xs that will cluster around them. Currently, that is a PowerPoint. Does nine years from PowerPoint to power projection on the high seas seem realistic? Does it speak to the SDR?”

“I rise to present this petition regarding water supply resilience in Tunbridge Wells. This is further to a local petition on the same matter started by the fantastic students at St John’s primary school, which has gathered 610 signatures—children’s signatures—and has since been shared with 15 other local primary school…”

“If it is nine years, is £1.3 billion over the next four years enough to kick-start that project?”

“Do they articulate that in the DIP?”

“Back to the theme that I started with, Lord Robertson, are there any gaps in the DIP in terms of what you expected to see based on the vision of the SDR?”

“Got it. But specifically on my question about taking nine years from PowerPoint to being at sea—”