Speeches by Reed.

“14. How much and what proportion of the funding due to be allocated to Mauritius as part of the agreement concerning the Chagos archipelago will come from his Department.”

“If Iran chooses to close the straits of Hormuz, which the Iranian Parliament has now voted to do, what contingency options has the Foreign Secretary worked up to protect UK national interests?”

“I was glad to hear defence running through the Business Secretary’s statement. Will he tell us how much equity the authors of the strategic defence review had in the compilation of the UK modern industrial strategy?”

“Does our closest ally, the United States, agree with this position on the situation? If not, what do we differ on?”

“The Prime Minister states that a new security and defence partnership will pave the way for British defence firms to access the new European defence fund, which I am sure we can collectively agree will allow our continent to defend ourselves against Putin’s autocratic regime. How long does the Prime Minister think acce…”

“Can the Home Secretary explain why the British envoy in Tehran was summoned by the Iranian authorities at the weekend? More importantly, does this not signal a complete disconnect from reality on the part of the Iranian state?”

“In recent months, the UK has experienced a number of very high-profile cyber-attacks right across the public and private sectors. Does the Minister agree that now is the time to update the Computer Misuse Act 1990 to enhance cyber-resilience through strengthened legal protections for cyber-security researchers? If her …”

“I would like to go into the mechanics of how the money flows out from the FCDO and into defence. The way in which it was pitched by the Prime Minister in late February was that it would go down from 0.5% GNI to 0.3% by 2027 for ODA, and then that would go from 2.3% to 2.5% for defence. It was pitched that it would be g…”

“From your perspective, was it incorrect for the Prime Minister to say that the money would be going from aid into defence by 2027?”

“Thank you.”

“Is BII aware of the points that you have just raised or has it been waiting for a decision to come out from the FCDO?”

“On that final point, about leveraging money from the markets, is that an ambition for BII?”

“Moving on to BII and going back to a few of your opening comments around leveraging more money from the market, first, will the Government continue to provide capital injections into BII, despite the cuts in ODA? The follow-on from that is, would you be allowing BII or considering allowing BII to borrow from financial …”

“Our United Kingdom and the United States are aligned in the view that a nuclear-armed Iran would pose a serious threat to global stability. With nuclear negotiations currently under way between the US and Iran, can the Secretary of State inform the House what outcome his Department would consider to be a success from a…”

“10. What discussions he has had with his US counterpart on the policy of the US Administration on Iran.”

“At the outbreak of the second world war, the National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939 introduced conscription for all men aged between 18 and 41. Like so many of his generation, my grandfather Harry Fry Davis Reed, born in Plymouth in 1913, received his call-up papers. On 20 June 1940, he reported for duty in Exeter. H…”

“It is clear that the issues we see from Iran and its proxies are shared across many European countries. The Minister raised the recent Government sanctions on the Foxtrot network. However, the EU has just rejected the PM’s bid to access the bloc’s crime and migration database. Does the Minister see that as an issue tha…”

“Recent events in Spain and Portugal highlight the wide range of challenges facing power grids, and we have heard many in previous questions. Those incidents show the complexity of effective reporting and the ability to respond rapidly, and the skills required span multiple Departments, including the Department for Ener…”

“Could the Minister—or the Pied Piper, as he is quickly becoming known—clear up the record, please? In his opening statement, he said that the military offered its support to clear up this mess. Did it offer, or was it ordered by his Department to provide support, because his Government cannot stand up to the unions?”

“There is consensus across this House that producing steel in the UK is completely necessary—that is undeniable. However, to produce steel we need coking coal. The US has given us a supply line for the next couple of weeks to keep our blast furnaces alive, and I know that the Minister is speaking to Australia and Sweden…”