MPs always say how ‘proud’ they are to represent their particular part of the country but I think I have a genuine claim to pride: not just because we are the ‘sourceplace’ - where the main rivers of southern England rise, and where our neolithic ancestors built the centre of their civilisation - but because East Wiltshire is the base of the British Army, the place where our soldiers live and train. Not all of them but most: we have more defence personnel living and working here than any other constituency.
Not long ago the Commander of the Army South West took me up on Salisbury Plain and showed me with a sweep of his arm the camps and garrisons - from Trenchard Lines near Upavon, through Netheravon and the super-garrison at Tidworth-Bulford-Larkhill, to Perham Down - where 20,000 soldiers and contractors, and their families, live. I have long teased my colleague the MP for Aldershot that his town might have the sign saying ‘Home of the British Army’, but we have the reality.
The pride I feel is strongly tinged with anxiety. After 1990 the UK sought to cash in the ‘peace dividend’ - a reduction in defence spending from its high of 5% of GDP during the Cold War. My first foray into public politics was as a student in 1994, speaking at a Scottish Conservative Party conference in support of ‘Front Line First’, John Major’s programme of defence cuts. I loyally agreed we could afford to cut the Army by 11,000 men.
How wrong I was. In 2001 the world erupted into war again. No sooner had we extricated from Afghanistan in that chaotic summer of 2021, when Russia invaded Ukraine. I am proud and relieved that the British government responded properly to that outrage - indeed that we anticipated it, supplying Ukraine with weapons from 2021 onwards - and that we are making historic increases to the defence budget. We have already increased military spending by nearly a quarter since 2019, and are now committed (unlike the other parties) to get to 2.5% of GDP by 2030.
Of course the strength of an Army is not just about size, but its lethality, and I am pleased the new Chief of the General Staff Sir Roly Walker is committed to the current direction of travel for our armed forces: investment in electronic warfare capability and air defence. He also notes the vital importance of stockpiling sufficient weaponry to cope with the multilateral threats we do and may face - with our costly support of Ukraine being a prime example. I am very concerned by reports of troops struggling to train for want of ammunition.
But headcount matters too, and I very much hope we get to the point soon where, with sufficient kit and capability to ensure they can actually add value, we start to build up the Army once again.
At a dinner in the Gunners’ mess in Larkhill earlier this year I spoke to the Estonian Chief of the Defence Staff. He told me his country has 40,000 reservists, out of a country of 2 million people. Proportionately for the UK’s population, if we did the same we would have 3 million trained soldiers on standby. We don’t need that. But I do think at 30,000 people our current Reserve is too small, and we should be building it up - not least as a means of communicating to the public that we are under threat, and that all of us, not just professional military personnel, have a role to play in our nation’s defence. I particularly welcome the proposed National Service as a means to recruiting the right young people into the Armed Forces.
Rightly for an area which is home to the Army, we need maximum attention on the home base: accommodation, support for families, and support for veterans. I am proud of our recent record here, and the work of Johnny Mercer, the Minister for Veterans, in particular. I am pleased that the condition of Army housing continues to improve - and though I was sorry I (and others) had to campaign against the recent changes to the accommodation offer, it’s good we won and a rethink is under way.
After decades of assuming we were somehow insulated from the threat of war in our own region, no such complacency applies anymore. I want to play a part in the reconstruction of the UK’s national defence, championing the heroic men and women living in this constituency who keep us safe - and those who, being retired, deserve all our respect and our support.
