Sir Julian Lewis

Sir Julian Lewis

Conservative — New Forest East

Speaking in the House of Commons on 11 November 2026

Debate

Russia: Military Threat

Contribution

I think that answer suggests that the Prime Minister accepts that the threat we face today is comparable in dangerous intensity to that we faced during the cold war years. If that is the case, may I urge him to try to persuade his fellow Ministers to stop using the standard line that the Government have made the greatest increase in defence spending “since the end of the cold war”? At the end of the cold war, the threat largely declined, but we have to look at the level of spending during the cold war, which was regularly at 4.5% to 5% or more during the 1980s. As someone who has criticised successive Governments for cuts I am not trying to make a partisan point, but please stop making a comparison between the post-cold war years and now. The threat we face now is similar to that of the cold war years, and our defence investment has to match that level.

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