Chris Coghlan

Thank you for calling me to speak, Madam Deputy Speaker. I also thank the Minister for his time today—he has a very distinguished record of military service. My grandfather, Austin Coghlan, was told that he was too old to serve in the war, so he lied about his age and joined the Navy. On one convoy, he sailed into Havana, met a girl in naval intelligence and, after seven days, married her. He moved fast with Grandma, because he knew he was a lucky man. But he also did not expect to survive. That he did was in many ways due to the codebreakers of Bletchley Park, who diverted convoys away from U-boats. In the process, the codebreakers invented the world’s first computer, Colossus, which went on to power the economic development of the post-war world. The spillover effect from publicly developed military technology to private sector civilian use is one of the most powerful forces for economic growth. We can use it now. I commend the Government’s decision in the Budget to borrow, jointly with our allies, and invest £5 billion in dual-use military technology. It is a great start. We now need the confidence to scale it, knowing that even with extra borrowing, the debt-to-GDP ratio will fall as a result of higher growth. The London Business School’s Paolo Surico has shown that innovations that are funded by the Government, but taken forward by the private sector, develop productivity and economic growth that is eight times larger than for innovations funded by the private sector alone. Just look at how innovations in military train technology have led to disruptions in civilian industries, from 3D land mapping and crop monitoring to rapid cost-effective manufacturing. UK Government support for nuclear submarine technology has led Rolls-Royce to develop small modular nuclear reactors for civilian use. I would like to know whether the Government are open to scaling their £5 billion initial investment. With annual £2 billion increments over 10 years, academic research suggests that, along with improvements in AI, we could choose to double our annual growth, to fulfil our NATO defence spending commitments and, together with our allies, to secure liberal democracy. British politicians in the 1930s were labelled guilty men because they failed to prioritise defence over the deficit. My grandfather’s generation paid the price. As a reservist, an infantry officer and an MP, I want to ensure that our generation does not.