[Several hon. Members rose –

James MacCleary: I will give way to my hon. Friend the Member for Tunbridge Wells (Mike Martin). [Interruption.]

Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani): Order. Sir Julian Lewis, I have never seen you behave so badly.

Mike Martin: Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. My hon. Friend is making a powerful speech, is he not? The egg is now on the other face, and Conservative Members are very excited. Which of the Tory cuts does my hon. Friend think was the most damaging – was it the cuts to the frigates, the destroyers, the minesweepers or the troops?

James MacCleary: I thank my hon. Friend for his valuable contribution, and I support the point he makes. All the cuts he mentions were damaging. Probably the most damaging thing of all was how the Conservatives failed our serving troops, in particular with their accommodation and the deal they gave our veterans over some time.]

Sir Julian Lewis: Can I share a little secret with the House? For slightly longer than the duration of the second world war, I was a shadow Defence Minister, but in 2010, I found myself back on the Back Benches because the Liberal Defence spokesman was appointed Minister for the Armed Forces. I was told that the reason for this was that the powers that be knew that I would never have gone along with the cuts that were made in October 2010 by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition. I think the hon. Gentlemen’s amnesia is therefore somewhat selective.

[James MacCleary: I thank the right hon. Member for his intervention; that was very informative. ….]