Defence In The New Parliament

A lot has happened in the 7 weeks that Parliament was in recess for the election.

Now MP’s who are returning to the House of Commons, or joining for the first time, will have to get grips with it all.

There’s the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean and any military response, the debate about Trident alongside new questions about safety and security, and the ongoing operations against IS militants in Iraq.

We won’t see MP’s discussing these issues in public for a little while yet, this week they’re focused on electing a speaker and the swearing in of the 650 election winners.

Business proper will start on Wednesday of next week with the state opening of Parliament, when the Queen’s Speech will detail what bills David Cameron and his government plan for the next year. Trident renewal is probably the big defence one to watch for in there.

Questions about the future of Britain’s conventional armed forces may take a little longer to be addressed.

The Chancellor’s ‘emergency’ budget in July may give us some hints about what he plans to do on Defence spending, but the real answers will only come later in the year when spending and defence reviews are completed.

Some Conservative backbenchers may not wait until then to make their views known though, there is a significant number who are vocally opposed to the idea of any new cuts, and they may use David Cameron’s slim majority to keep pressure up on this.

But much of the defence discussion happens away from the Commons chamber, in committee rooms just off the corridors of power.  The Commons Defence Committee is in for a shake-up, with the election of a new Chairman, and while some previous members may return there will be new faces too.

Some of the new intake of MPs have hands on military experience to share including Conservatives James Heappy, Johnny Mercer and Tom Tugenhadt.

They might not take the limelight straight away but Labour’s Dan Jarvis, a former Para, will be getting a lot more attention in this parliament.  He has ruled himself out of running for the party leadership, but many will want to see him on the opposition front bench in the coming weeks.