Speeches by Carns.

“Thank you all very much for your support for veterans all over the country. I really appreciate all your hard work. I have spoken to the representative Ministers within your devolved Administrations. I suppose this is focused on you, David. Do you foresee difficulties in applying the Covenant duty in Northern Ireland, …”

“Do you think there should be an English veterans commissioner?”

“First, thank you very much for all your support and your work over the last couple of years moving this forward. I would be interested in your view about holding other Government Departments to account, whose responsibility it should be and, importantly, the annual report on education and communication capability not j…”

“I have one final question. In three and a half years’ time, what does good look like?”

“First, I would like to thank you for your service. I always say that, when one person serves, the whole family does, so thank you very much for everything and for all the support you have given me over the last year and a half. The Covenant extends due regard to a multitude of different policy areas. Do you think they …”

“A theme that I have a feeling we are going to pick up throughout the evidence session is co-ordination, coherence and, particularly, consistency in the implementation of the Covenant across Government Departments, local authorities and all the different bodies that we rely on. What would you like to see to help us—not …”

“The hon. Member has my word that I will continue to engage with him and move that forward. I say to my hon. Friend the Member for Truro and Falmouth (Jayne Kirkham) that there is no Navy without the Royal Fleet Auxiliary—it is as simple as that—so well done for pushing that ten-minute rule Bill and including in it deli…”

“In the strategic defence review, we have committed to an increase of 20%. First, reserve spending went up in 2023-24 from £189.9 million to £202.4 million, so what the right hon. Gentleman says is factually incorrect. Secondly, on personnel statistics, in the last quarter our trained strength in the reserves has risen …”

“It is a true honour to close the debate. I thank hon. Members across the House who have spoken well in support of our brave servicemen and women, upholding Parliament’s proud cross-party tradition of expressing our profound gratitude to those serving in the UK’s armed forces. It is not lost on me who is not here today.…”

“I am grateful to right hon. and hon. Members for their thoughtful and considered contributions, and for their continued commitment to a free and sovereign Ukraine. It is worth pausing to note that Russia has now been at war with Ukraine longer than it was involved in world war two, and just last month there were 35,000…”

“I can assure the hon. Member—and I note his background—that the safety of our armed forces will be the No. 1 priority when we commence those trials. That has to be the baseline common denominator as we move forward. I reiterate that the Defence Secretary said that we must back it or scrap it; the evidence will allow us…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stuart. I am grateful to the hon. and gallant Member for Huntingdon (Ben Obese-Jecty) for securing this debate. It will not be lost on the audience that I am not the Minister of State for Defence Readiness and Industry, but I am a former Royal Marine with 24 years o…”

“We will always provide the briefings at the appropriate levels. I would like to thank the Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, my right hon. Friend the Member for Islington South and Finsbury (Emily Thornberry). She made a really important point about hybrid warfare. This is important. There have been several commen…”

“I completely agree. I think our Prime Minister has done exactly that, but the only people to decide the future of Greenland are those in Greenland, and NATO as a whole provides a collective security agreement for Greenland and other countries in the High North. We cannot be naive about the challenges that we face. For …”

“As my hon. Friend will know, we have various multilateral treaties, including working with the JEF and NATO to ensure that any implications from global warming are carefully considered and that security recommendations are put in place to deal with them should they arise. NATO has made it clear that defence of the High…”

“The reality is that this is not about politics. This is about sincerity around our national security decisions. An independent Scotland would weaken not just the security of the UK—of Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland—but the whole European security architecture and NATO as a whole. At this point in time, a…”

“It is a delight to speak under your chairmanship, Ms Vaz. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Dunfermline and Dollar (Graeme Downie) for securing this debate and for all his work as chair of the Labour back-bench defence committee. In an article published last week, he stressed the critical importance, in these volat…”

“For a long time during the cold war, a large proportion of our time was predisposed to looking to the high north-east and north-west in the Atlantic and the High North. It is a case of relearning some of our old lessons, and ensuring that our capability and technological mix is adapted into our doctrine, training tacti…”

“Security in the Arctic must be achieved collectively, with NATO allies including the United States, by upholding the principles of the UN charter on sovereignty, territorial integrity and the inviolability of borders. These are universal principles and we will always defend them. It is worth noting that we completed Ex…”

“The Haddon-Cave inquiry is an independent inquiry established by the last Government, and we must allow that to continue. We are focused today on ensuring that the correct protections are in place and written into law to ensure that no veteran who served so valiantly in Northern Ireland has any concerns about the North…”