Speeches by Thomas.

“Holly, I want to go back to something you alluded to earlier in the session. It comes from the discussion about the unknown numbers, from the MoD point of view, of Afghans being resettled. You said it is becoming much harder to resettle people from Afghanistan here. You recommended that we look into that and ask why. W…”

“That sounds like an epic task. On the things you have not been able to share—for example, the conversations and discussions around disclosing things to Parliament and the direct quotes that you have not been able to share—do you think the public would find them shocking?”

“Larisa, are you able to suggest any reasons we might look into as to why it is becoming, seemingly from the reporting, harder and there is less of a willingness on the part of the UK Government to resettle certain Afghans in the UK?”

“I understand, so it is slightly less applicable to pillar 2.”

“Matthew, from a techUK point of view, you mentioned that DSIT and the MoD could be working a lot more closely. Quickly, can you give us three things that they could be doing together that they are not currently?”

“I reiterate the Chair’s thanks to the three trade associations for all the support you provide to Committee members in our work. I have a question about skills, and I am going to ask for short answers from all three of you. Like everyone else, I am very concerned about our ability as a country to provide the skilled wo…”

“We have had Team Barrow as a concept for a couple of years. We have now had Team Plymouth announced. It is fantastic news—around £4.4 billion going to Plymouth. However, we just heard the concerns of my colleague, Michelle Scrogham, about the effect that Team Barrow has, or has not, had on the local community. Harry, f…”

“The Government’s ability or the company’s ability?”

“What do you mean by the ability to have more command and control in the Chinese autocracy?”

“It is great to hear from industry about some of the challenges and some of the solutions regarding the building of these submarines, but we are not building them for fun. We are building them because we have enemies and threats, and those enemies and threats are building submarines as well. Unfortunately, they are buil…”

“Personally, I am very clear that China remains an active, persistent and everyday threat to our country and has done so for many years. In the light of this, what steps is the Minister taking on behalf of the Government to ensure that parliamentarians across this House are much better protected in the years to come fro…”

“Much has been made of the ability of treaties and organisations such as these to knock down export-import barriers and make doing business easier and more efficient. I want to ask about ITAR restrictions in particular, which is the dominant question in defence import-export. There have been efforts to make ITAR restric…”

“Sophia, I want to hear your views on ITAR, but we were also discussing AUKUS visas and security clearances with Sir Stephen last week, and we reached widespread consensus that that is one of the major logistical barriers to the delivery of even pillar 1. Could you also touch on those items please?”

“Good morning to you both, and thank you for joining us. I want to start by asking about geopolitical considerations, noting that AUKUS has been around as a concept for a long time and as an agreement for a number of years now. In that time, there have been changes of Government within the three countries in the agreeme…”

“That is interesting, and it brings us back to the domestic politics in the US. This Committee visited DC not so long ago, and in the Pentagon one of the questions that we asked is, “What do you guys want to see the British do? Do you want us in the Indo-Pacific or not?” Note that our aircraft carrier was about to go th…”

“They say all politics is local. Thank you for that; we will come back to you. Specifically, I am personally interested in hearing more about your views on the Colby review and what the mood is in America. Sid, I will come to you for the geopolitics.”

“A UK deployment?”

“What do you think is going to come out of the review, if we had to push you to make a prediction?”

“I think other Members will come on to that shortly. Thank you very much.”

“Thank you for your answer. I have taken up a lot of time with my questions. Could you talk specifically about the domestic situation politically in America and the Colby review—your views on that, and your expectations?”