Calvin Bailey MP: speeches

Speeches

• 3 Jun 2025 · Armed Forces Commissioner Bill · Hansard source

  More

  Indeed they are not. We need to restore trust and deliver meaningful change for all of those who serve.

• 2 Jun 2025 · Strategic Defence Review · Hansard source

  More

  This SDR underpins the reason that I left the Royal Air Force: to be part of a Government who take their commitment to defence and security seriously and will bring about the end of the hollowing-out of our armed forces that took place under the last Government. The measures taken within this SDR reverse fundamental and damaging delays caused by the previous Government within our defence programmes, supports our personnel and provides a clear and credible path to meeting the challenges presented to us by Russia. But as General Barrons has said, the greatest threat to this SDR is in its delivery, so can my right hon. Friend provide us with an understanding of what measures are being put in place to ensure that we deliver the SDR and the defence proposition that underwrites our defence, our security and our prosperity?

• 2 Jun 2025 · UK Nuclear Deterrent · Hansard source

  More

  There is a consensus in this place about the importance of an independent nuclear deterrent to keep us safe, but there is far less understanding about the need and use of tactical nuclear weapons. Does the Minister agree that we need to foster a much better understanding of how the logic of deterrence works, and how it can be and is being undermined by countries like Russia? Only then can we explain why our nuclear deterrence needs to change to remain effective in protecting us.

• 15 May 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

  More

  First, I welcome the Leader of the House’s remarks on the intolerable situation in Gaza and her commitment to ensuring that our Government do everything they can to bring about a swift conclusion to this situation. What Israel is doing to blockade what is necessary to sustain life offends every principle of international humanitarian law—the same laws that our own armed forces have to uphold when defending us. Alongside arms sales, one of the biggest issues is the continuation of RAF overflights from RAF Akrotiri, a base from which I once served. Although I have no doubt that our people are serving honourably and in line with assessments of international law, further clarity is required on the purpose and extent of UK military co-operation. We must be open and transparent and assure our constituents that nothing is being done to aid Israel’s disgraceful acts against the people of Gaza. What can my right hon. Friend, alongside our colleagues in the Ministry of Defence, do to address this matter?

• 30 Apr 2025 · UK Airstrike: Houthi Military Facility · Hansard source

  More

  Freedom of navigation in the Red sea and the gulf of Aden is essential to the global economic system, and anything that impinges on it impacts the global economy, increases the cost to the environment and impacts the poorest people in the world. It is for this reason that I am proud to be the former commander of the expeditionary air wing whose Typhoons and Voyagers were launched last night to carry out these strikes. Does the Defence Secretary agree that this action forms part of the joined-up international strategy to end the attacks and defend freedom of navigation?

• 28 Apr 2025 · Football Governance Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

  More

  I thank my hon. Friend for giving way. He is telling a very similar story to that of my local club, Leyton Orient. Its fans warmly welcomed the reinvestment from David Gandler, building on the leadership of the chairman, Nigel Travis, who has delivered sustainable growth, promotion to league one, clear championship ambitions and a new stadium, and has strengthened the community with up to £6.7 million in social value. Does my hon. Friend agree with me that all ownership transitions should be like this and should follow this model of fan engagement?

• 24 Apr 2025 · EU Trading Relationship · Hansard source

  More

  The hon. Member is making an extremely powerful speech. On SMEs, does she recognise that the defence industry in Bristol suffers from the inability to receive adequate funding from across Europe, and that a defence, security and industrial bank underwritten by the UK, alongside its European partners, would be able to unlock the investment that Bristolian businesses vitally need?

• 8 Apr 2025 · Armed Forces Covenant · Hansard source

  More

  I am aware of the work that my hon. Friend is doing to support the armed forces community in Lincolnshire, particularly in Donny, which was an old and well-loved RAF station. Bringing back jobs to the community that will provide opportunities for veterans is very important. I agree with him that we all need to go out and champion the armed forces covenant because it impacts us all: if we do not get it right, we will adversely impact recruitment and retention and therefore our armed forces’ ability to serve us.

• 8 Apr 2025 · Armed Forces Covenant · Hansard source

  More

  I concur with my hon. Friend and am sure that other examples of that will be brought forward. The difference in applications across England are quite stark, but when we extend into Scotland, they can be marked and almost unjust. The only place in the world where our service personnel are applied a differential rate of taxation is in Scotland; it is in Scotland that our service personnel have different access to provision of family support, in particular childcare; and it is only when our service personnel are posted to Scotland that they receive differential treatment in terms of their education. The report highlights that and I think it will be quite a challenge for the devolved Government to say that they are they are actively meeting the armed forces covenant until those things are addressed.

• 8 Apr 2025 · Armed Forces Covenant · Hansard source

  More

  I thank the hon. Member for raising that incisive point. The covenant must be consistently applied across the UK, and I think that is going to be a big challenge to the Government and to the regional Governments. It will take a review, and that is something that the Defence Committee has agreed to do once the armed forces Bill is being considered and is under way.

• 8 Apr 2025 · Armed Forces Covenant · Hansard source

  More

  As the hon. and gallant Member knows, this matter was not raised—correction, he indeed raised the issue and received a response from the Minister about how our veterans are being handled and the complexities involved. I do not agree that they are under attack. I believe in justice and the rule of law and that those have been equally applied. The Government’s approach is valid and honest, and it will do right by our veterans in the end.

• 8 Apr 2025 · Armed Forces Covenant · Hansard source

  More

  As we say in our report, the covenant gives us all a duty to our servicemen and women. We must take it as seriously as they have taken their duty to us. I commend the report to the House.

• 8 Apr 2025 · Armed Forces Covenant · Hansard source

  More

  In short, yes, the covenant is going into law. The report shows the stark contrast between governance in the UK and in Scotland.

• 8 Apr 2025 · Armed Forces Covenant · Hansard source

  More

  My hon. Friend is a great champion for the Royal Navy community in her constituency, and she raises an apposite question that goes to the heart of an area where the armed forces covenant has been overlooked, which is education. I am sure that the Minister for Veterans and People will take this on as part of his deliberations.

• 8 Apr 2025 · Armed Forces Covenant · Hansard source

  More

  I will. As someone who was impacted thus myself, this is something I am aware of, and I will take it back to the Defence Committee for a response.

• 8 Apr 2025 · Armed Forces Covenant · Hansard source

  More

  I thank the hon. and gallant Member for his question, which focuses on what the Committee learned about armed forces families and their service. What strikes me is the amount of unseen trauma the families suffer as a result of their movements. There are some very upsetting tales of how people have been forced to move around the country and not received adequate support from other Government Departments that would allow them to have a normal existence, or an existence that would be considered normal to anyone that is not in the military. It is those things that we need to go after, and it is those things that the armed forces covenant should protect. I would like to thank him for his service as well.

• 8 Apr 2025 · Armed Forces Covenant · Hansard source

  More

  I thank the hon. Member for his intervention and for raising a valid and valuable point that the Government must take forward and consider. It was not part of the Armed Forces Act 2021, but it is the type of thing that other Government Departments should be looking at. A series of questions about that have gone to the Department to see whether it is something that could be tackled. I know that the Minister for Veterans and People, my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham Selly Oak (Al Carns), who is here on the Front Bench, is working on that. We must remember, however, that there is a difference between death in service and death while serving. There is an important distinction there, because to not recognise that can create a whole load of complexities that people who have served will understand probably more uniquely than others.

• 8 Apr 2025 · Armed Forces Covenant · Hansard source

  More

  I thank the hon. Member for her powerful and incisive question. The armed forces continuous attitude survey consistently shows that the armed forces feel as though the covenant is not applied. Two figures that just fall out of the report are that about 31% of our service personnel feel as though the covenant is not being applied to them in terms of the NHS, and about 40% feel the same in terms of education. The net upshot of those failings is the continual erosion of the feeling among service families and service personnel that they are being supported by the state and broader society. One in three people who enter the military do so as a result of meeting someone in the military. If we apply those figures to that number of people, we must expect that they are not passing on a good story. That will continue to erode people’s ability to join the services, which is why this is so important.

• 8 Apr 2025 · Armed Forces Covenant · Hansard source

  More

  I thank the hon. Member for his points. I join him in thanking our servicemen and women for their service and recognising their sacrifices. On the role of the Armed Forces Commissioner, the report states in part 3 that there have been no recognisable measures of success. The Minister and his Department will have to take that on and bring forward some answers. It is probably within that framework that the Armed Forces Commissioner will have some role. However, it is a critical failing of our application of the armed forces covenant that success is not measured, so it is not monitored almost anywhere.

• 8 Apr 2025 · Armed Forces Covenant · Hansard source

  More

  I thank my hon. Friend for raising such an important point. She does a great job in representing the home of the British Army and raises the issues consistently, both with the all-party parliamentary group on the armed forces community and on the Defence Committee—indeed, she did so throughout the inquiry. My hon. Friend’s point is powerfully made because it supports what the forces’ families federations brought forward in their evidence. They pointed out that: “There is no other immigration route in which someone legally in the UK isn’t allowed to work or claim benefits whilst their application is being decided.” That is a massive travesty and a failure, and an example of the armed forces facing a unique disadvantage. It is exactly the sort of anomaly that an updated covenant should attempt to address.

• 8 Apr 2025 · Armed Forces Covenant · Hansard source

  More

  I am proud to present the Defence Committee’s fourth report of this Parliament, which is evidence of how hard the Committee has been working on behalf of Parliament and the British people in these highly volatile and uncertain times. I thank the Committee, the staff—in particular George James—and my hon. Friend the Member for Slough (Mr Dhesi) for his leadership. I am pleased to share the armed forces covenant report. As the House knows, the covenant is our society’s commitment to the armed forces community—a commitment to recognising and rewarding their service, and ensuring that they are not disadvantaged in civilian life as a result of that service. The Government said in their manifesto that they would strengthen the covenant by putting it “fully into law”. Our report does two things: it looks at the covenant today to examine how well it is living up to society’s commitment to the armed forces; and it looks at how the Government should make that commitment stronger when they bring forward legislation. We heard that they plan to do so through the Armed Forces Bill next year. We decided that the best way to understand how well the covenant is working was to ask the people it is designed to help, so we invited serving personnel, their families and veterans to share their experiences with us. We are hugely grateful to everyone who took the time to write to us. Their powerful contributions helped us to get to the truth on where the covenant is succeeding and where it is falling short. We are so grateful to the Secretary of State for giving his permission to serving personnel to send us their stories, as well as to the organisations who provided evidence directly to our inquiry. The evidence painted a mixed picture of how the covenant is working today. We heard some positive stories, including from an individual who said that citing the covenant to their local NHS trust helped them get a timely mental health assessment for their child; but unfortunately such stories were in the minority. Most of the stories we received came from people who had expected the covenant to help them but found that it was ineffective or, worse, disregarded. One person who was on a waiting list for NHS treatment was told that their position on the list would transfer when they moved from Scotland to the south of England on service, but after they moved, they found themselves at the back of the queue. When they raised that with the trust, they were told that the trust “didn’t recognise and therefore follow the armed forces covenant.” We heard many stories like that. It is hardly surprising that those people viewed the covenant as “a gimmick”, with “no real substance”, or as something that “looks good on public bodies’ websites but in practice means nothing at all.” The Government are therefore right to recognise that the covenant needs to improve. Their proposal is to extend its scope, so that more areas of central Government are subjected to it. We welcome that, and we recommend that the covenant be applied to all Government Departments. With that, we expect to see Departments paying better attention to the needs of the forces community when they make policy, and we expect to see the covenant applied to areas of life that the existing duty does not cover, and areas in which the forces community experiences disadvantages, such as employment, social care, welfare and immigration, in particular for non-UK passport holders. However, we are clear that legislating is only part of the solution. Our evidence shows that one of the biggest issues is that the covenant is not consistently applied, either because people are not aware of it, because it is not well understood, or because it is not given a high enough priority. That is why we heard that the armed forces community’s experience of the covenant varies massively depending on where they live. If the law is not consistently applied, amending the statute book will make little difference. That is why our report says that the Government need a proper plan for implementing the covenant, in tandem with introducing new legislation. That needs commitment from all Government Departments, and we should not underestimate the scale of the commitment necessary. Getting this right is as important as updating the law, if not more so. The armed forces covenant is a noble proposition, but sadly we do not always live up to it as a society. We want to get to a place where our service personnel and our veterans can be in no doubt that when they deal with their local council, doctor or employer, the covenant will support them. New legislation will help, but it is not a silver bullet. We also need to embed the covenant more deeply in our institutions, and particularly across Government and in wider society.

• 3 Apr 2025 · Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme: £25,000 Cap · Hansard source

  More

  8. What assessment the Church Commissioners have made of the potential impact of the £25,000 cap in the listed places of worship grant scheme on church repairs.

• 3 Apr 2025 · Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme: £25,000 Cap · Hansard source

  More

  I thank my hon. Friend for her reply. Christ Church in Wanstead in my constituency is a wonderful community hub in a beautiful building, which sadly needs urgent repair to prevent dangerous stones falling from the belltower. In total, the repairs cost around £2 million, but grant funding and donations for a project of that scale are very challenging to find—a challenge that will be increased by the cap and the reimbursement of VAT. Has my hon. Friend had conversations with the Government about the impact of the cap, and uncertainty over the scheme in future years, on such large-scale essential repair projects?

• 3 Apr 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

  More

  Growth and job creation are central to rebuilding this country. On Monday, the Office of Rail and Road found that the cross-channel rail network could achieve higher capacity. That is an exciting opportunity for my constituency, as the potential doubling of Leyton’s Temple Mills depot offers opportunities for meaningful local jobs and the strengthening of our European relationships. I have written to the Rail Minister and look forward to his reply, but seizing these opportunities is crucial. Will the Leader of the House support a debate on the expansion of HS1 services in order to hear the totality of the benefits that it could offer us across the UK?

• 3 Apr 2025 · UK-US Trade and Tariffs · Hansard source

  More

  War does not benefit anyone. A trade war between the UK and its closest ally will not benefit our industry nor our people and will stifle our ability to grow our way out of 14 years of Conservative mess. For that reason, I thank the Minister for his pragmatic and cool-headed approach. However, the measures also threaten our ability to prevent military conflict here on the continent of Europe. Will he detail what action he is taking to ensure that our air and space industry can work with our European partners to implement the defence industrial strategy, which is central to ensuring peace here in Europe?