Speeches by Baker.

“How radical can and should the UK be when it comes to working with allies in the region?”

“I look at what happens in defence and it seems that we do the same thing over and over again. Sometimes we need to do radical and different things, and prove that we can do things differently. What does that look like, and what could it look like in the context of our work with an ally such as Canada in the High North?”

“What does this look like in terms of the landscape of intelligence? The Five Eyes relationship is so important. We would like to start sharing some of that intelligence—it may be helpful for our European partners to be able to have access to some of it—but how will that play out with the US? What are the sorts of radic…”

“I want to ask about the United Kingdom and our allies, and in particular about our sister nation, Canada. That relationship is incredibly important. It is the only nation with which we share a NATO relationship, a Commonwealth relationship and a Five Eyes relationship, so it is right up there from my perspective in ter…”

“Canada has been doing a lot of pioneering work on the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank. I have been campaigning for the UK to be a member of that bank. It is something that Canada cares deeply about. I have been talking to Canadians and there has been frustration that we have not been on the same page. It was good…”

“The Canadians will have sent you the charter, probably about 10 weeks ago. It is a 60-page document, having been through charter negotiations. I am really keen to push you: have you read that document?”

“Minister Pollard, the previous Secretary of State, who you worked for, sent an observer to the charter negotiations. We had a UK observer in the room for those charter negotiations. That observer presumably sent a read-out of those negotiations. Have you read that read-out? If so, could our Committee and the Treasury C…”

“I am just not convinced that this has been properly looked at. I would love you to take away a commitment to properly look at this going forward.”

“My actual worry, Chief Secretary, is that you do not know the facilities that are there—we are pretty dismissive of NATO facilities; we always think we know best—and that we are just recreating the wheel. Is that true?”

“We have NATO facilities for joint procurement. We pay in and, as part of that contribution, we get facilities like the NATO Support and Procurement Agency. The UK does not use that agency. We are at the bottom of the user list, but the agency is set up for joint procurement. Have you assessed whether going down the MDM…”

“Will the right hon. Member give way?”

“The debate about percentages of GDP is slightly irrelevant, because even if defence spending were raised to 3%, we have no ability to spend that money within the industrial base, as we do not have the capacity. Does my hon. Friend agree that we need to look at a much more innovative approach to some of these things, wi…”

“Thank you, Chair. I want to ask about international co-operation, particularly the debate between the multilateral defence mechanism and the defence, security and resilience bank. Chief Secretary, can you set out your understanding of the defence, security and resilience bank?”

“It is a multilateral bank; obviously, multilateral banks have been used in lots of different sectors, but they have not been used in defence. You will have experience of multilateral banks doing other things for UK Government. Have you read the DSRB charter?”

“Canada, one of our closest allies, has been trying to speak to us about this for months and we have not really engaged. Where is the UK-Canada relationship? Obviously, they are an ally that is in Five Eyes, NATO and the Commonwealth. We should be standing as close to them as possible. Where is the relationship at at th…”

“We had nine nations sign a declaration for the defence, security and resilience bank at the NATO summit yesterday. Ukraine is one of them. Canada has led on this. Turkey also signed. Minister Pollard, are those serious defence nations?”

“So you have not read that read-out.”

“There is a narrative that the MDM is for high credit-rated nations with established defence industries and the DSRB is for lesser nations with smaller defence industries. Do you think that is helpful in this debate?”

“Clearly, from what the Chancellor said last night, she would ideally like the MDM and the DSRB to merge and become one thing. What does that mean in practical terms? Are we talking one balance sheet, separate balance sheets, shared governance or something else? What does this look like?”

“The Treasury’s position on this seems to have changed overnight. Many parties out there have acknowledged that MDM and DSRB do different things. I have been asking questions. For over a year, I have been campaigning on this and being told that we do not need DSRB because we are doing MDM. ADS and Make UK Defence are re…”