Today, during Prime Ministers Questions (PMQ’s), Former Armed Forces Minister and Rayleigh & Wickford MP, Mark Francois, urged the Prime Minister “not to forget the lessons of history” in relation to the growing insecurity around the world and the funding of our Armed Forces.
In his question to the Prime Minister, Mark Francois MP said:
“Prime Minister, in the 1930s, one of your less illustrious predecessors, Neville Chamberlain, so denunuded the British Armed Forces of funding until it was too late. "We failed to deter Adolf Hitler, and 50 million people tragically died in World War Two. Russia has invaded Ukraine. China is threatening Taiwan. British shipping is being attacked by Houthis in the Red Sea. As the son of a D-Day veteran, could you please assure me and the House of Commons we are not going to forget the lessons of history and make the same mistake again?"
In response, the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak said:
“Can I thank my Rt Hon Friend, for his tireless campaigning for our Armed Forces. He is right to champion them and the role that they play- and I agree with him wholeheartedly that sadly, the world that we are living in is becoming both more challenging, strategically, and more dangerous. And in response to those challenges, we must invest more in our armed forces, that is exactly what we are doing with the largest uplift since the Cold War." The Government has recently pushed through "billions of pounds" to strengthen the UK's nuclear enterprise and rebuild the country's nuclear stockpiles.”
