Speeches by Thomas.

“Thank you for a very full response. We will come on to ask about American strategy; I am sure colleagues will be asking you about that. It is really interesting that you highlight the fact that the UK’s defence space strategy document does not mention the word “war” at all. Ms Suess, at battlefield level, what lessons …”

“As a follow-up question, what is the difference between how the UK is approaching space versus Germany, for example? This is in the context of the UK having left the European Union, and therefore having left various space programmes, such as Copernicus and Galileo, although we are still a member of the European Space A…”

“I thank the Secretary of State for his leadership on this topic, and not just in the UK but in Europe. My question relates to tactics. Over the weekend, I spoke on LinkedIn with a British sniper who was formerly in the Army but is now fighting for the Ukrainians on the frontline. He told me about the tactical changes t…”

“Good morning to both of you. Dr de Hoop Scheffer, we have talked a lot about the shifting landscape. You have described it as a need to move away from our habit, when thinking about NATO security in Europe, of immediately thinking about what the American strategy is to thinking more now about what our European strategy…”

“Professor Freedman, that answer, quite appropriately, was very much based on nuclear deterrence at strategic level. To talk, as we have to, about tactical nuclear weapons, we have seen the Polish making noises in that direction. They would like to have that capability. We have seen, fairly recently, Prime Minister Tusk…”

“I have a couple of quick-fire questions, if I may. We have had a really fruitful discussion. We have not talked much about Brexit. The United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union in 2016 and left a couple of years after. In the round, has leaving the European Union made this country less secure?”

“He is a footballer.”

“I have one last quick-fire question. We have all been very proud to see the British Prime Minister managing to walk a tightrope between our closest allies in the US and Europe. He is managing to do that with remarkable aplomb. We saw some of those very intense White House visits. We felt our Prime Minister came out of …”

“Professor, let me bring you on to the European side. Who can we trust? Who can we share intelligence with?”

“Looking back, we could probably all agree that the security implications of leaving the Union were not much discussed during the Brexit discussions, whichever side of it you were on. That leads me on to my next quick-fire question, which is about intelligence sharing. We have spoken a lot about spending money together …”

“Can I ask you now about EU spending? We have seen a lot of news recently about the SAFE initiative, a €150 billion defence financing piece. We know that Britain wants to be involved, but to do so we will be required to sign a security and defence partnership with the EU. We have also seen that there have been some chal…”

“The Sarajevo security conference is in a couple of months, and there will be a session on defence technology. I have been asked along to speak about it. NATO countries in Europe are rearming and spending increased defence budgets on investing in and developing defence technology. What steps is the Minister taking to en…”

“I thank my hon. Friend not just for his passion in bringing forward this Bill, but for his service as a lawyer before entering this place. He brings that expertise from his previous profession here. Will he join me in acknowledging that in places such as Plymouth this problem can be even more acute? Plymouth is not par…”

“How much of the job of you and your 50 people would not be able to happen without our current relationship with the US on intelligence sharing?”

“So you do not know.”

“Are you not able to give us a rough idea of how much of your work relies on intelligence sharing with the US?”

“Give us a rough percentage, if you could.”

“How much of your work is contingent on the very long‑standing and close joint intelligence sharing that we have with the USA?”

“How many people work for you directly?”

“I have some quickfire questions, since we are about to end, with the assumed kind permission of the Minister, for the air commodore. You are the head of military strategic effects. If you could distil it into one sentence, what are military strategic effects?”