Clive Lewis, Shadow Defence Secretary, Responding to Michael Fallon’s speech at Conservative Party Conference, said:

 “Michael Fallon’s speech was a smokescreen, designed to deflect from the Tories legacy of failure on defence. The reality is their devastating cuts since 2010 have weakened and demoralised our Armed Forces, leaving them poorly-equipped, over-stretched, under-paid and too often living in squalid conditions.

 “The Tory obsession with cost-cutting means they are not even using British steel to build our ships and vehicles. They have systematically undermined our industrial communities, ripping up Labour’s Defence Industrial Strategy and spending billions overseas, instead of investing in British jobs and British steel.

 “For Labour, our Armed Forces personnel and veterans will always come first. We will tackle the decline of wages and pensions, the decay of on-base housing and the shocking lack of support for veterans.

 “And we will always ensure the defence of the realm, by meeting NATO’s spending target of at least 2 per cent of GDP of defence, as every Labour government since Attlee has done. Our ongoing open, strategic defence review will ensure we are equipped for the challenges of the future.”