International Relations and Defence Committee
16 June 2026
Speaker dots
- Speakers in the chapter
- Colour: political group
- Grey: no group
Tap or click a chapter's dots to see names and groups.
Contents updated on 16 Jun 2026
Legend
Transcript markers
- text Sentence being played
- text Search result
- text Intervention cited by the link you opened
Click a sentence to play the video from that moment. Select text to quote it with the speaker, timestamp and link.
More options
Official source
Offset
Transcript offset
0s
Text size
Export
Replay
Versions of this video
Transcripts may differ slightly from one version to another.
International Relations and Defence Committee House of Lords
00:05 - 01:52
Speaker 3
Can I welcome you Sir Richard as Chief of the Defence Staff to the International Relations and Defence Committee of the House of Lords. The session today will be live streamed on the Parliament website and a transcript will be taken. You will be sent a copy of the transcript and you can make some small corrections if they are necessary. Members will be obliged to declare interests before they speak today and I should declare that I am a senior counselor with the Cohen Group in Washington DC and I was the lead reviewer in the Strategic Defence Review published last year. Sir Richard, we had originally intended this would be a session devoted to the follow-up to the recommendations in the Strategic Defence Review, but since that intention was declared, clearly events have moved very fast and therefore we might ask a few questions about the current situation if you're willing to answer them before we get on to the particular issues concerned with the Strategic Defence Review.
But we're very, very grateful for you taking time today to come and address the committee and maybe you would like to say a few introductory remarks before we ask the questions.
01:52 - 02:09
Speaker 1
Well thank you my Lord and it is a pleasure to be here. I would be surprised and disappointed if you didn't ask about defence spending and recent activities, but I've found generally the best thing is just to get straight into the questions, so please over to you my Lord.
02:09 - 02:56
Speaker 2
Right, well I would like if I can to exercise the privilege of the chair and ask you about the resignation of the last Defence Secretary, John Healey. It appears from the leaks that have appeared in the press that there was actually only 10 billion pounds worth of new money allocated to the defence investment plan as proposed to John Healey and that provoked his resignation. Was that in your view, was that uplift enough and what do you think the appropriate level would be?
The rest of the transcript is for Pro customers
Unlock the full transcript, chat, and every analysis feature with Polyfact Pro.
The video itself stays free to watch, in full, no account needed.
Ask anything about this video — I analyse its transcript to answer.