UK Parliament / Open data

Defence Reform Bill

Proceeding contribution from Jim Murphy (Labour) in the House of Commons on Tuesday, 16 July 2013. It occurred during Debate on bills on Defence Reform Bill.

My point is that in the same context, Regular Army numbers increased. I do not want us to bat each other about the head on this; I am assessing how we can make a success of the boost in reservist numbers. The comparison the hon. Gentleman invites

me to draw, however, is with the Labour Government, and we boosted the size of the Regular Army. His party said that it was not big enough; it wanted an even bigger Army and was elected on a manifesto of going in that direction. The comparison is clear: we boosted the number of regulars. Of course, there is always pressure when it comes to reservists, who were under-recruited for about nine decades, so this is not a short-term problem for us or the current Government to grapple with.

About this proceeding contribution

Reference

566 c972 

Session

2013-14

Chamber / Committee

House of Commons chamber
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