Dr Julian Lewis: I am sure that my right hon. Friend has done the very best possible under the fiscal constraints in which he is operating, but will he take back to his Cabinet colleagues the message that in parts of this House, and in the country, there is a feeling that expenditure on defence does not rank as highly as it should in the scale of the nation's priorities?

[The Secretary of State for Defence (Mr Philip Hammond): My hon. Friend is very capable and has, indeed, effectively made that point and his view on it known to my Cabinet colleagues.]