This afternoon, personnel of all ranks from Royal Air Force Halton exercised their right to the Freedom of Aylesbury, marching through the town with bayonets fixed, King’s Colour flying and drums beating. They looked absolutely superb, and the Central Band of RAF Music played brilliantly.
This parade is a long-standing tradition, but it is especially timely now, as a reminder of the debt we owe our armed forces in an ever more dangerous world. I was really pleased to see this recognised and appreciated by local residents and Aylesbury Town Council at today's ceremony.
Of course, as well as paying respect and applauding at civic parades, it's incredibly important that we demonstrate an unwavering commitment to the British Army, Royal Air Force and Royal Navy in concrete terms, ensuring they have the resources they need to win against any threat. That's exactly the commitment the Government has made this week with an increase of £75bn in funding on Defence, ensuring our spending reaches 2.5% of GDP by 2030.
I've had the privilege of spending a lot of time with our armed forces over the past four years, from meeting sailors on the Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier in Portsmouth to undertaking exercises with the Army on Salisbury Plain and joining the Quick Reaction Alert pilots in the Falklands, and I've spoken about Defence many times publicly in the House of Commons and privately with ministers - all because I take extremely seriously the prime responsibility of Government to protect its citizens and of MPs to ensure that's being done in the best way possible.
I feel both pride and privileged to be able to support our brilliant Armed Forces in so many ways, but this is nothing compared to the huge commitment and dedication they show to us, serving day in, day out, to keep our country safe.
We must do right by them, and today's parade perfectly illustrates why.
