Monica Harding

Monica Harding

Liberal Democrat — Esher and Walton

Speaking in the House of Commons on 25 February 2025

Debate

Defence and Security

Contribution

The former United States Defence Secretary Jim Mattis once said: “If you don’t fund the State Department fully, then I need to buy more ammunition ultimately.” Can the Prime Minister not see that funding this uplift through official development assistance is short-sighted and a strategic and moral mistake, because prevention is cheaper than wars, because this gives more leverage to Russia and China, and because we do it on the backs of the world’s poorest? In fact, it is something that I never thought I would see a Labour Government do, and a pitiful inheritance from 1997. Given that it is a policy choice and not a retrospective fiscal one, and given that it is in direct contravention of the law passed here in 2015, which rules out the link between levels of defence and development funding, will this Labour Government be repealing that law?

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