Ukraine at the heart of Lords debate

Lord Coaker (Labour), Minister of State at the Ministry of Defence, put forward the debate.

This was a general debate. During debates, members put their experience to good use to discuss current issues and draw the government's attention to concerns. 

Members speaking

Contributing members included:

• Lord Hannay of Chiswick (Crossbench), former permanent representative to the United Nations
• Baroness Helic (Conservative), former consultant to the BBC and ITV on Eastern Europe
• Lord Risby (Conservative), former chair of the British-Ukrainian Society
• Baroness Smith of Newnham (Liberal Democrats), professor of European politics at the University of Cambridge
• Lord Stirrup (Crossbench), former Air Chief Marshal of the Royal Air Force.

During the debate, Lord Stirrup said:

'European leaders need to do a much better job of explaining to their citizens the dire consequences that would attend a failure of nerve over Ukraine.'

Baroness Helic added:

'We must be clear: freedom, security and peace have a cost attached to them. Is the minister confident that the defence budget will be set at 2.5% not in some distant future, but on 30 October?'

Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Labour), Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, responded on behalf of the government:

'If Putin wins in Ukraine, the threat posed by Russia to UK and European security will increase. The credibility of international law will be severely undermined, and a signal will be sent to authoritarian leaders elsewhere that aggression pays and that the commitments and statements of the UK and her allies are worthless.'

Catch up

Watch and read the debate

Watch the debate on Parliament TV or read the Lords Hansard transcript.

Explore background information

Find out more about the issues the debate covers in the House of Lords Library briefing.

Learn more about how the House of Lords checks and challenges government.

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