Conservative Party Conference: Philip Hammond speech

Conservative Party Conference: Philip Hammond speech; Hammond speech (continued) SOT - Meanwhile, I am pleased to be able to tell you that British troops in Helmand do now, at last, have the equipment they need for the job - the helicopters, protective kit and armoured vehicles they have lacked in the past. The message from the canteen in Camp Bastion when I ask about kit is "no complaints" (same about the food by the way). And one thing I've already learned in this job is that if there are any complaints, I will know about them as soon as I sit down in the canteen! This Government is clear that if we ask our brave troops to do a dangerous job, we have a moral obligation to equip them to do it ** applause ** - And that brings me to my second point: the transformation of Defence and of Britain's armed forces. Because the twin drivers behind our transformation programme are the need to change the culture in the MOD so that Defence never again gets into the mess that Labour left us, and to ensure that our forces are properly prepared for the very different challenges they will face in the post-Afghanistan world. Now, I know that most people in this hall, most people in our party, will feel instinctively uncomfortable about the reductions we have had to make in the Defence Budget. About the difficult decisions we have had to take to balance the books and get defence back on track. No one more so than me. The truth is, none of us came into politics to cut the Defence budget or to reduce the size of our forces. But in May 2010, we were faced with Labour's catastrophic legacy: one of the biggest deficits in the developed world and a black hole in the Defence budget bigger than many countries' GDP. Faced with that legacy, we had to make some tough choices: My predecessor, Liam Fox, grasped the challenge. He ended the out-of-control equipment projects; He cut unaffordable capabilities; He recognized the need to reduce the size of our forces. Two years on from those ...