Yesterday, I spoke on the topic of Defence in the HoC. The central theme of the debate was No More Cuts!
At a time when we are pushing a better deal for our forces, we cannot overlook the supply chain. It's time for the MoD to leverage its power as a customer. In Stirling, we currently host the Babcock military vehicle and armament repair facility over at Forthside, but there are plans for this to shut and move far away from Stirling. We could find ourselves in a situation where there are no vehicle and armament repairs facilties in Scotland.
Babcock's move from Forthside is a wrong decision, especially given the calibre of the highly skilled and extremely loyal workforce, whose support of our armed forces included regular and repeated tours of duty in war zones such as Afghanistan and Iraq. These workers are my constituents and I believe they deserve better from the MOD.
I also spoke on Russia and recruitment.