Speeches by Healey.

“As the right hon. Gentleman knows very well, the system in the US is very different from ours. The Administration who are in place at present are in place until inauguration day on 20 January. That will be the point at which we in the UK Government will start to pick up direct discussions with the incoming Administrati…”

“I can absolutely give the hon. Gentleman that assurance. I can also tell him that this is a national enterprise of the utmost importance that maintains the underpinning security for this nation, as it has done over decades, and that the management of our nuclear enterprise and the budget controls are in place and stron…”

“Yes, and I trust that the hon. Gentleman does too.”

“The US is the closest ally of this country, and this country is the closest security ally of the US. That has been for case the decades—it has withstood the ups and downs of the political cycle on both sides of the Atlantic—and we as a Government will work closely with the incoming US Administration.”

“The Finnish investigation into what caused the damage to the Estlink 2 cable is continuing, but many analysts conclude that it is likely that the Eagle S was the cause. That reinforces the case for Operation Nordic Warden, which I confirmed to the House in response to an earlier question. It is being run from the North…”

“My right hon. Friend makes the powerful point that this discrimination, harassment and abuse—systematic in some cases—is not and was not confined in the past to the military. That concern has been raised by civilians at times within the wider defence field. I and Ministers in this team are as concerned about it there a…”

“I beg to move, That this House has considered Lord Etherton’s independent review into the treatment of LGBT veterans. In July last year, Lord Etherton’s report on LGBT veterans shone a much needed light on a dark period in Britain’s military history: an era between 1967 and 2000 when LGBT people were banned from servin…”

“They can expect to be able to get the full details from 9 o’clock tomorrow. They can expect to be able to complete the details and respond to the information required from tomorrow. I am conscious that, for many of these veterans, time is ticking, and I am determined that the scheme will not take long to make its prope…”

“The hon. Gentleman makes a sensible point. The shadow Defence Secretary will know—he and his colleagues started this work before the election—that one of, I would argue, the strengths of the announcement and the scheme we are able to put in place today is the close work we have done with veterans’ groups and Fighting W…”

“My hon. Friend makes a moving and powerful intervention. Although courageous, relentless, energetic groups such as Fighting With Pride have in many ways led the charge, that was opened up by the stance of courageous individuals such as her constituent who had suffered but were prepared to speak out about their experien…”

“My hon. Friend has been one of the most consistent and forceful voices on this historic abuse and demands for the Government now to provide some justice. He has raised that case in this House before. I do not know whether his constituent gave evidence to the Etherton review. If he did, he would have been one of over 1,…”

“You make the point that I made to the Committee earlier. These are serious times, with war in Europe, conflict in the Middle East and rising global threats, as you say. That is precisely the reason why we must increase defence spending to 2.5%—everyone agrees with that—in order to deal with the threats that we face and…”

“That was an unhappy period for defence. There were delays in major programmes and conscious ministerial decisions to put back major programmes by four or five years. There were decisions made and then changed on major procurement programmes, as well as decisions driven by an austerity Government that cut the defence bu…”

“Mrs Lewell-Buck, that is a question that is, in all honesty, not possible to answer at this point. The purpose of commissioning the defence review, and doing it in a way that is unique to the UK—it is externally led but draws on the deep expertise within both the Department and the military, as well as more widely—mean…”

“I have met some of these ageing, and some ailing, nuclear test veterans. I have enormous respect for the campaign that they have run, and share their frustrated anguish at not being properly recognised. But with respect, that sort of judge-led inquiry could take years. The important thing is that we get to the bottom o…”

“We were dealing, as you will remember, with the aftermath of a global financial crisis driven by the over-extension and recklessness of the global financial system. We were helping to pull the economy out of the deepest recession that we had had for decades. In fact, in the first quarter of 2010, the economy was growin…”

“I am certainly not expecting the reviewers to produce a fudged report. You can get, Mr Norman, some indication of the priorities that will be in the review, because they are what we have set to guide them. For instance, we are a Government who have made the commitment to a NATO-first approach to defence. That helps to …”

“You are entirely right, Mr Norman. One focus within the terms of reference for the reviewers was to assess the adequacy of our homeland defences. Clearly, there is a recognition in recent months, not least because we have seen damage to essential undersea cables in different parts of the north Atlantic, the North sea a…”

“Can I make one point to build on that? I really do not want the Committee to be under any impression that we have somehow set up the strategic review and the Ministry of Defence is sitting back, waiting to see what it has to say. We are dealing with the Russian spy ship, the Yantar, which has been in our waters. We tra…”

“First, and I say this as a Labour Secretary of State, it means a recognition and a sense of pride that it was a Labour Foreign Secretary who was the architect of the NATO alliance when it was first established, particularly the article 5 collective defence at the heart of it. I feel that Labour is the party of NATO and…”