Politics

How Has Boris Johnson Voted On Defence?

The Conservative Party has won the 2019 General Election with a majority in the House of Commons.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has pledged to "increase funding" for defence, stating the Tories would not be cutting the military "in any form" during their manifesto launch last month.

But how has the former foreign secretary voted on defence?

Iraq War

While Mr Johnson was one of the 585 MPs absent for the 24 September 2002 vote on Iraq and weapons of mass destruction, since November of the same year he has consistently voted in favour of UK intervention in Iraq.

On 25 November 2002, he voted against requiring the support of the UN Security Council and a vote in the Commons before committing the UK to military action in Iraq.

Three months later, on 26 February 2003, he voted to endorse the UN Security Council Resolution 1441. Said resolution provided Iraq with a final opportunity to comply with disarmament obligations.

After Iraq failed to comply with the UN Security Council Resolution, a discussion was held in the Commons to discuss what steps the UK should take.

Mr Johnson voted in favour of using all necessary means to ensure Iraq’s disarmament of weapons of mass destruction. This was followed, two days later, by the UK invasion of Iraq.

In line with his voting record concerning the intervention in Iraq, Mr Johnson voted against saying that the case for the war in Iraq had not been established.

Iraq War Investigations

Mr Johnson has almost always supported the investigation into the Iraq War.

Since 2003, he has voted in Parliament in favour of an independent inquiry into the handling of intelligence on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

Over the years, he also voted for comprehensive independent judicial inquiries into the Iraq War and the decision to go to war in Iraq. He supported these ideas in a series of votes that took place from July 2003 until March 2008.

On 30 November 2016, however, he was absent for a vote on the investigation into the contrast between public statements and private policy in the Iraq War.

Trident

Between 2007 and 2016, Mr Johnson almost always voted for replacing the UK’s Trident Nuclear Programme with a different, new nuclear weapons system.

In June 2015, Mr Johnson supported with his vote a series of proposed spending cuts and changes to the welfare system in favour of spending on new nuclear weapons.

In November of the same year, he was in favour of renewing the Trident programme, but less than a year later, in July 2016, he voted to support replacing the four Trident nuclear missile submarines to maintain the UK’s continuous at-sea nuclear deterrent.