Almost a fortnight – time flies when you’re having fun. Thank you, Conference. My foremost responsibility is to our service personnel. As I speak, members of our armed forces are deployed on dozens of operations across the globe in every domain. All are serving at an increasingly dangerous moment in history. It’s now my duty to make sure that we rise to meet that moment. So while people’s attention is understandably ...
Almost a fortnight – time flies when you’re having fun. Thank you, Conference. My foremost responsibility is to our service personnel. As I speak, members of our armed forces are deployed on dozens of operations across the globe in every domain. All are serving at an increasingly dangerous moment in history. It’s now my duty to make sure that we rise to meet that moment. So while people’s attention is understandably focused elsewhere, my focus today, tomorrow and beyond will be dedicated to the job in hand. Twelve days ago, I was at Sandhurst on a visit to meet with cadets, thirty years after I marched into the place, awkwardly clutching a rifle and pining for a memory that will be familiar to a number in the room. The instructors’ faces had long changed; somehow the same dread that they inspired had not. Again, a feeling I’m sure is also familiar to many. Being in the company of those cadets was an inspiring experience; being in the company of those who step forward to serve always is. That evening I was asked to serve as the Defence Secretary. Now some people want to know why I accepted. The answer is because I was asked and it’s not my nature to back away. I crossed over the river from Downing Street into the Ministry of Defence, and honestly, it felt like I was coming home after fifteen years away. Soon afterwards, I was receiving briefings confirming what I already knew. But in those intervening years, tactics, technology and threats had changed beyond all recognition. The one thing, however, that had remained constant is the professionalism, courage and extraordinary skill of our servicemen and women. I should probably admit – and I think it’s fair to say – that I haven’t spent all of my professional life in uniform. People will always be our most important asset in the end. No doctrine, no technology, no plan, however sophisticated it might be, can succeed without the determination of the men and women whose experience and excellence is built from the ground up, shaped by history, hardened by experience. We produce the finest soldiers in the world. Those uncompromising standards develop exceptional NCOs who demand nothing less than the very best from their senior leaders, a truth borne out in the middle of the South Atlantic just last month, when our personnel deployed to Tristan da Cunha to help someone in desperate need of medical attention. As the then Security Minister, I worked with COBR on that operation. I did so with the utmost confidence, knowing that despite the complexity of the task, those involved would execute with precision and success. I think we will ask much of our service personnel in the years ahead. I know the immense weight of responsibility for every single member of the armed forces and their families that I now carry, and I know that I need to get them what they need, and I am utterly determined to make sure that I do. Now, it is of course a matter of public record why my predecessor and friend, John Healey, is not delivering these remarks. I accepted this job with full awareness of the task before me, and my priority is to get the Defence Investment Plan done, but not at any cost. I have a responsibility to get it right. There will be a change of Prime Minister. There will be no change in the urgent need to produce the Defence Investment Plan. The DIP is a significant and vast piece of work. The department has been working on it for twelve months. I’ve had twelve days, but I’ve made the most of all of them. I am now working to finalise and publish it before I travel to Ankara with the Prime Minister. And today I want to talk to you about where we are and where we’re going. This is a learned audience, but let me tell you what this government inherited: almost every single major programme behind schedule, delayed upgrades to our nuclear deterrent, and an army at its smallest size in centuries. There is no overnight remedy. There is no single defence review or funding settlement that can erase the legacy of accumulated neglect. Our armed forces and the British people they are sworn to protect deserve honesty when it comes to our national security. Given recent commentary, a casual observer would be forgiven for believing defence spending is somehow going down. Under this government, defence spending is going up. In fact, it’s going up by more than anyone currently in uniform has known before. To date, there is eleven billion more in the annual defence budget than there was when we entered office. Last year, we will invest two hundred and seventy billion in defence over the course of this Parliament. The DIP will mean more money added on top. We will have another spending review next year in which I expect defence to be the number one priority. Don’t get me wrong – the DIP will shape how our armed forces fight, direct what our industry builds and deepen the strength of our alliances and partnerships. It is important, but it is not yet complete. Now, the measure of Britain’s security is the strength of those who defend it. The purpose of the DIP is to ensure that our armed forces are strong in the coming years. We made a promise to our allies as they did to us: 3.5% by 2035. I told the NATO Secretary General last week that promise will be met, and a credible plan will be produced to ensure that it is. I said the same to Secretary Hegseth in our first meeting — or, as Pete put it, just a couple of majors getting together to talk about defence. NATO has been the foundation of our security for seventy-seven years. Everyone is familiar with Article 5 — but that famous promise is only made real by the hard principle of Article 3: that we can only stand up for each other if we are able to stand up for ourselves. Britain has always met NATO’s spending commitments; under this government, we always will. Britain has always stood with our allies; under this government, we always will. Last week, I gave President Zelensky my personal guarantee that the UK would stand in full support with his people — today, tomorrow and for the long term. The first UK interdiction of a Russian vessel, followed by the funding of one hundred and fifty thousand Ukrainian-made drones, were a seven hundred and fifty-two million pound expression of that promise. The most profound change in defence during my time away has undoubtedly been the pace of innovation — where once it was measured in years, now it is measured in months. It is of course a cliché to say that we only ever prepare for the last war. What is not a cliché is doing something about it. Putin’s brutal war of aggression altered everything — from NATO’s assumptions on collective defence, to attitudes on defence spending, and not least, the way of war. The conflict in Ukraine began with troops in Soviet-era tanks. Today, it is waged with drones that think for themselves. Conflict always forces us to reach into the future. But these four years have accelerated military technology in a way that we have never seen before. A drone rules the battlefield. It would be reckless to ignore the lessons of Ukraine. Artificial intelligence, autonomy and uncrewed systems are no longer capabilities of the future. They will receive investment that reflects their strategic importance. There are some who hold the view that we should trade everything in the locker for drones. I understand the temptation, but there are important distinctions to make. For as long as we remain a member of NATO, we won’t fight alone. And for as long as we maintain our independent nuclear deterrent, we will always command our own destiny. Even in Ukraine, amid extraordinary advances in technology, it is still a war fought in the trenches where ground is held street by street, and where the reach of artillery and deep precision strike has proven invaluable. Just this year, our armed forces have been called on to protect the seabed in the High North and the skies in the Middle East. They are now readying themselves for the prospect of regenerating Ukraine’s forces and reopening the Strait of Hormuz. All the while, they protect our island home and retain the ability to respond to crises in dangerous and distant lands. Britain needs a flexible, hybrid, integrated force that can deter and fight across every domain. The land forces which prevail tomorrow will be those who combine high-end platforms with mass, agility and considerable expertise. General Walker has achieved this. He has done more to modernise the British Army than any other Chief of the General Staff in living memory. You heard his vision earlier. The DIP will make real those ambitions — and that includes investing in the uncrewed ground vehicles the Army requires to build the next generation of land forces. And let me say this: all of the Chiefs have my full support, not just during this process, but way beyond it. Now, I’d like to take just a moment, if I may, to address our friends from industry. Because to say recent months haven’t been easy would perhaps be an understatement. But I’m grateful to you all, and I will be relying on you to implement the DIP and to make it a success. Though my life has been spent in public service, I have never mistaken where prosperity comes from. Our defence industrial base represents a commitment to excellence and to entrepreneurialism – hallmarks of the British spirit. You are a source not only of a pay check for many, but of pride for communities across our country. Most of all, you exist to equip the finest armed forces with the most advanced technology — kit they can rely on, operate with confidence and employ with precision. Something I saw during my first engagement in this role, at the opening of the Pulsar Systems Centre in Swindon. The problems with how we spend money in defence are well known and long established. So too is the ritual of every Defence Secretary promising to fix them. I’ll skip that particular ritual and just ask to be judged on what I do rather than what I say. I know that I have a unique responsibility, given what Cabinet colleagues have foregone from their budgets to support mine. My commitment to them, and indeed to the British public, is that with the need to spend more comes the duty to spend wisely. The DIP will lay out significant savings, and I will continue to scrutinise every line of spend to make every pound count. Look, I’m acutely conscious that there is something far more important that many of you would rather be watching. I don’t want to deprive anybody of a good vantage point. So I will draw my words to a close. Before I do, let me say this. Above all, we must never lose sight of what service in our armed forces can demand. It can be bloody hard. It asks more than any profession ever will. I tell those considering it to think about it carefully – but in return, you have the opportunity to serve your country in a way which no other profession can offer. Purpose, responsibility and belonging. You become part of something bigger – a force which secures the safety, values and interests of every person in our nation. My only real ambition when I arrived through the gates of Sandhurst all those years ago was to survive the place. Not for one moment did I think that one day I would be accountable for every member of our armed forces. To do so is a privilege and a responsibility beyond measure. This moment calls for leadership, and it calls for action. That is what I will provide. And I promise every single member of our armed forces that I will seek to serve them as well as they serve us.
Speech Brief