The Minister of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Coaker) (Lab)

I first thank the noble Baroness for the very kind remarks she started with. I thank the former Secretary of State for his work and wish the former Armed Forces Minister well. I know the whole House will also join me in paying tribute to the UK commando forces who intercepted a Russian shadow fleet vessel over the weekend. Their courage, skill and professionalism are what we have come to expect—but we should not just expect it. The DIP is now being finalised, and details of that will emerge in due course. On the conundrum that the noble Baroness mentioned, I draw the House’s attention to the comments made to the BBC by the Prime Minister on Friday, when he said directly to Chris Mason: “We have another spending review coming up before the end of this Parliament and defence will be a number one priority” in that spending review, which is in 2027. The defence investment plan is outside a spending review, so all I say to the noble Baroness is that we have already increased defence spending. Whatever the outcome finalised in the details of the DIP, there will be additional money contained within that. As the Prime Minister said, defence will be a number one priority in the spending review in 2027.