Today, in the House of Commons, the Secretary of State for Defence announced that HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark are to be decommissioned. I have been campaigning for many years to get clarity on the future of the Devonport based warships. The last Government refused to tell people in Plymouth what was happening to these ships. We now know that they had planned for these ships to be tied up alongside until their out of service dates in 2033 and 2034. This means that these ships would have never returned to sea and were not available to the Royal Navy and Royal Marines.

HMS Northumberland is also being decommissioned, this frigate is 30 years old and has sustained extensive damage. These frigates are being replaced with new ships that are currently being built in Scotland. Paying millions of £ for an extensive refit, only to be replaced with a new ship doesn’t make good financial sense.

Defence spending is rising under the Labour Government, with the Chancellor announcing £3 billion for defence in last month’s budget. The Prime Minister has launched the Strategic Defence Review, chaired by a former NATO Secretary General, Lord Robertson. The SDR will report in the first half of next year, which will inform the Chancellor to pass spending decisions up to 2.5% of GDP on defence. This is good news for Plymouth, the Royal Navy, the Royal Marines and our national security.

In the Commons, the Secretary of State for Defence, John Healey MP, agreed to meet with Plymouth’s local MPs to talk about how we can drive forward the Devonport Deal, that I have been championing alongside the City Council. We know the dockyard will create over 5,000 new jobs in the coming years to support our submarine refit works. The Devonport Deal will also, I hope, help us build the 5,500 homes in the city centre, a new skills centre for the dockyard and improve our transport.

This Labour government is fixing the foundations and dealing with the dire inheritance left by the Conservatives. We are delivering for defence with a budget boost, the biggest pay rise for our Armed Forces in decades, a 35% increase of new recruits, and refreshing our military capabilities.