Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Defence – in the House of Commons at 2:30 pm on 30 March 2009.
First, I think that the hon. Gentleman may have prepared his extremely long question before he heard the answer that I gave to Mr. Amess about the present programme. If I may respectfully say so, the question asked by Dr. Lewis also confuses the issue of current numbers and the issue of the current construction programme. I repeat that the current construction programme is the largest that we have engaged in, in terms of capability and tonnage; the 65,000-tonne carriers will be the largest ships ever built by the Royal Navy in her history. The hon. Gentleman would do well to reflect on that, and to consider the fact that that is a decision taken by this Government. I shudder to think what might happen under a future Conservative Government, if there were one, to our naval shipbuilding programme, or to our procurement programme, because the Conservatives still have not told us how they would finance the three new battalions.