We are ensuring that our Armed Forces and security services can keep this country safe at home and our interests secure abroad, writes Defence Minister Earl Howe in The House magazine.
Returning to the Main Building HQ of the Ministry of Defence in May this year was a strange experience. It does sound trite but a great deal has happened in defence since I was last a minister here in 1997. What reassured me from the start though was the sense of continuity. Many of those who worked closely with me in my last tenure, both service and civilian are still involved in defence, and their function remains the same – defending the United Kingdom, its people, and its interests, in the most effective, efficient, and cost-effective manner.
Continuity is also evident when I meet those at the front line of defence. Our sailors, soldiers and airmen remain second to none in the world, and many things that during my first ministerial term were almost untested have been proven to work well. For example, our Reserve Forces have been mobilised in huge numbers, serving with great success and often great gallantry on operations ranging from Iraq and Afghanistan to Sierra Leone. We have shown that we can deploy and sustain around ten thousand people to remote locations for long periods and even – to the horror of logisticians – hundreds of miles from a seaport, and with uncertain ‘lines of communication’.
Looking forward, the key to what defence is doing is a secure underpinning – the 2% pledge on defence spending. It is hard to express how good that is in so many ways – for the forward equipment programme, for our personnel, and ultimately for what we can do to defend the interests of the UK. I know that we won’t be able to afford everything, but the budget is growing again for the first time in six years, and in some ways our fate is now in our own hands, since by relentlessly improving efficiency we free up resources to re-invest elsewhere. With the new Joint Security Fund providing £1.5bn of funding a year by 2020/21 this government is putting defence and security first.
The Strategic Defence and Security review is now approaching its concluding stages. This SDSR has been run very differently from the last – consultation has been wider, consideration has been deeper, and under the lead of the Cabinet Office, it has been a truly cross-Government effort; it is certainly the only review of its type in the world. What is also clear is that it will confirm the Chief of the Defence Staff’s view that the world is a more dangerous place. Importantly, it will ensure we can face multiple, concurrent threats while advancing our security and prosperity.
On a more immediate note, ISIL remains the most serious threat to Britain. As part of the global coalition we’ve cut ISIL territory by 30%, we are disrupting their ability to refine oil, tackling the flow of foreign fighters and freezing finances. But ISIL’s terror is directed from north eastern Syria. That’s where the threat to the UK comes from.
The Government believes there is a strong case for extending our operations but we will only return to Parliament to seek approval for this if there is a consensus. Meanwhile, the international drive to seek a political settlement for the Syrian conflict has been made more difficult as a result of Russia’s intervention.
Against a backdrop of a more dangerous world, the Government’s duty is to ensure that we do not put our security at risk. Nowhere is this truer than on Trident, where one of the biggest decisions for this Parliament is committing to build four new ballistic missile submarines. The Government is appealing to all moderate Labour MPs to support the consensus that has existed for 60 years and support our independent nuclear deterrent.
We were elected to put national security first. We will ensure that our Armed Forces and security services can keep this country safe at home and our interests secure abroad. We will stand up for our values, confront aggression where we find it, and help our friends and allies across the world.
