Minister of State (Minister for Armed Forces)
Responsibilities
Responsible for all aspects of Armed Forces activity, including:
- Operations and Operational Policy
- Africa
- US
- Ukraine & Russia
- South and Central America & Caribbean
- Europe
- Middle East & Levant
- NATO Operations & Planning
- Force Generation
- Single Services
- Permanent Joint Overseas Bases
- National Resilience
Current role holder
Leo Docherty MP
Leo Docherty was appointed a Minister of State (Minister for the Armed Forces) in the Ministry of Defence on 26 March 2024.
He was a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) from 27 October 2022 to 26 March 2024.
He was previously Minister of State for Europe at the FCDO from 7 September 2022 to 27 October 2022. Leo was Minister for Defence People from July to September 2022. He was Parliamentary Secretary (Minister for Defence People and Veterans) for the Cabinet Office and the Ministry of Defence from April 2021 to July 2022. He has served as the Member of Parliament for Aldershot since 2017.
Born in Scotland in 1976, he was brought up in Gloucestershire. After graduating from the School of Oriental and African Studies he attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and was commissioned into the Scots Guards in 2001. He served in Iraq and Afghanistan with the 1st Battalion Scots Guards and 16 Air Assault Brigade and recounted his experiences in ‘Desert of Death; a Soldier’s Journey from Iraq to Afghanistan’ (Faber 2007).
He has travelled very extensively across the Middle East and Central and South Asia and in 2007 travelled from Istanbul to Afghanistan on horseback, foot, bicycle and public transport, a journey of 6 months which culminated in playing the traditional Afghan game of Buzkashi. He is married to Lucy and they have a young family.
Follow Leo on Twitter: @LeoDochertyUK
Previous holders of this role
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The Rt Hon James Heappey MP
2022 to 2024