|
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Volume 56 Number 2, January 31, 2026 | ARCHIVE | HOME | JBCENTRE | SUBSCRIBE |
Armed Forces Bill 2026
The Armed Forces Bill 2026 was presented to the House of Commons for its Second Reading on Monday, January 26 [1]. John Healey, the Defence Secretary, introduced the Bill in such a grandiose manner that showed he expected no challenge from any part of the House, and indeed many MPs from all the cartel parties felt obliged to echo the Defence Secretary in saying that it was "a privilege" to speak in the debate, including the Shadow Defence Secretary in his contribution.
John Healey began: "It is a rare privilege to open this debate. This is only the second ever Labour Armed Forces Bill, yet the provenance of this legislation reaches all the way back to the Bill of Rights, and more than three centuries on, granting authority to maintain our armed forces remains one of the most important - if not the most important - formal constitutional responsibilities of Members of this House." He used these words designed to secure responses in Parliament that were broadly supportive of the Bill's aims, but with the scrutiny of MPs mainly focusing on the welfare of those in the armed forces, on their housing and justice reform, whilst skirting around the huge-scale increases in defence spending as the government's particular aim with this legislation.
These measures in the Armed Forces Bill are being put in the service of the government's Strategic Defence Review announced by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in June [2]. This, as Starmer said then, aims to turn Britain's already military-dominated economy into a fully militarised economy and to put British society on a war footing. This is why Healey went on to say in his statement to Parliament that the Armed Forces Bill was a "substantial Bill - a reflection of just how much the world has changed over the past five years. It is more dangerous and much less certain, and this new era of threat demands a new era for defence." He avoided completely Britain's role in the creation of this dangerous world, in Britain's role in the escalation of Anglo-US and NATO proxy war in Ukraine against Russia and their direct military support and complicity in Israel's genocide against the Palestinians, as well as the government's complicity in US interference and threats of war to Venezuela, I ran and in every part of the globe.
The history of the Armed Forces Bill is that it is required every five years to maintain the legal basis for the UK's armed forces "in peacetime". This although Britain's interventions and wars abroad have continued since the end of World War II almost unabated. The lineage of the legislation goes back to the 1688 Bill of Rights [3], which requires Parliament to authorise a standing army in peacetime. The 2026 Bill does more than simply renew the Armed Forces Act 2006, an Act which consolidated the previous separate service acts into a single system of service law. Since then, new Armed Forces Acts have been passed in 2011, 2016, and 2021 to renew the 2006 Act. Even according to some media reports, the 2026 Bill "is being used as a major policy vehicle to reshape defence for what ministers describe as a 'more dangerous and much less certain world'." Healey's justification for the Bill was not welfare of armed forces service members "in peacetime" but rather the plans for escalating wars. This was further revealed when the Defence Secretary said, "It is why we are proposing, through this Bill, to increase our war fighting readiness and homeland security, and why we are putting the men and women in our armed forces at the heart of defence plans."
In other words, the main point is overall the focus on the military, given what the government, not to mention the other cartel parties, are calling a more dangerous global situation. They have to give support to the armed forces personnel, but, like the "outrage" over Trump's remarks about the role of British forces in Afghanistan staying "a little back", they gloss over who is the aggressor, who is causing the danger, and the direction they are taking the country away from peace and towards war. As Declassified, pointed out a number of years ago: "Britain has deployed its armed forces for combat over 80 times in 47 countries since the end of the Second World War, in episodes ranging from brutal colonial wars and covert operations to efforts to prop up favoured governments or to deter civil unrest." Other estimates have put the number of military interventions by Britain at over one hundred in this time.
What is noticeable today is that the use of violence and dictate is being used by the likes of the US and Britain on an increasing scale, and the Armed Forces Bill fits into this context. This is the meaning of the government's talks of a "new era for defence", in which, for example, it is the Secretary of State who wields the power to recall of reservists, and oversees the "largest sustained increase in defence spending since the end of the Cold War". For the working class and people, this emphasises that they have to work to consolidate themselves as the power to combat this warmongering, violence, dictate and militarism, with their sights set on constituting themselves as an Anti-War Government, and all that entails about authority and power resting with the people who desire peace. The youth must not be made cannon-fodder in the wars of the ruling elite and the armaments industry, and nor should the more elderly reservists! This is what the working class and people demand, tearing away the cloak of being "privileged" which emerged as a theme from the Armed Forces Bill second reading.
Readiness reforms, including:
Service Justice System reforms, including improved victim support and clearer complaint mechanisms. The Government frames the Bill as part of a broader shift to a "new era for defence", backed by £5 billion in additional defence spending this year and the "largest sustained increase in defence spending since the end of the Cold War".
The Second Reading debate showed cross-party support for what are being referred to as "welfare-focused measures", in that MPs repeatedly emphasised the importance of improving service life, housing, and family support. Government voices in the debate claimed it was the largest pay rise in two decades and with expanded wraparound childcare. However, there were also areas of scrutiny and concern, particularly around housing delivery, justice reforms, and whether the Bill goes far enough on readiness and personnel welfare, and questioning as to whether there were commitments to safe, decent housing for all forces families. These were characterised as overdue steps to "renew the nation's contract with those who serve".
The Bill now goes to a Select Committee, which is to report to the Commons on or before April 30, 2026. Then follows consideration by a Committee of the whole House and a third reading, before the Bill goes before the House of Lords.
Notes
1. Armed Forces Bill
https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/4065
The Second Reading debate can be found at:
https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2026-01-26/debates/4F0A248D-4B14-40D2-9D0E-B6008AC997C0/ArmedForcesBill
2. Strategic Defence Review: Starmer's Attempt to Put Britain on
"War-Fighting Readiness" Cannot Be Accepted, Workers' Weekly,
June 7 2025
https://www.rcpbml.org.uk/wwie-25/ww25-13/ww25-13-01.htm
3. 1688 Bill of Rights
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/aep/WillandMarSess2/1/2/introduction
4. The "Armed Forces Covenant" was first published in 2011 and is
said to ensure that "the Armed Forces Community are not disadvantaged in
comparison to other British citizens, such as accessing public or commercial
services, while also being treated with fairness and respect."
https://blesma.org/armed-forces-covenant