Speeches by Thomas.

“There is a move to spend 2.5% of GDP on defence in over two years’ time. People such as Neil Kinnock, a former leader of the Labour Party, and several former Defence Secretaries say that that is nowhere near enough to credibly deter a peer adversary such as Russia. That is the game that we are in now. Is 2.5% in over t…”

“Minister, you described the UK needing to show credibility and needing a stronger response to show that. You also spoke about how grey zone or hybrid warfare is all sub-threshold—that is, the threshold of war. People also talk about “pre-war”. It is all about deterrence. It is all about a push and pull of deterring war…”

“I will mention one that is in the public domain. The i Paper published a story online earlier this year about having been able to geolocate, they say, individuals who, they say, were Russian proxies and who, they say, they were able to track from some farming activity in Europe, and who travelled to the UK and, apparen…”

“That is brilliant. If I could bring you on to talk about how hybrid threat is changing, we are quite aware of the threat to undersea cables. What are some of the things that are known but have not made the front page yet? Can you elaborate on the Government assessment of how hybrid threats are changing?”

“Minister, you described a couple of hybrid threats, and you talked about a slight change over the last year, since Labour came into Government, in terms of how the Government communicate those threats to the public, and increased public awareness. We remember the Government telling the public earlier this year about th…”

“Will my hon. Friend give way?”

“The hon. Member talks about political leadership, and I understand that. While we can all agree that Brexit has been an almost unmitigated disaster, the Labour party manifesto said that we will not go back into the EU, the customs union or the single market. That is the manifesto that I and all of us on this side of th…”

“Particularly on submarines.”

“Respectfully, I do not mean to interrupt too much, but just because of time, rather than the changes you have made, what are the challenges of that unique environment? Why is it that there is a public perception that submarines breed—this is not my perception, but you understand that it is out there—a very distinct typ…”

“Thank you very much to all of you for laying out in some detail and on the record the action that you are taking within your respective services or within the Department to try to get a grip of what we can all acknowledge is a serious problem. You have put that on the record, so we have heard those things. I am gratefu…”

“That is certainly a positive outlook. You mentioned the submarine service there. In your command, there very different structures. The Royal Marines, on one hand, are very heavily male-dominated infantry soldiers. Then there is the submarine service, which you alluded to there. Can you talk a bit about some of the chal…”

“Minister, sexual misconduct against women, as we have heard this morning, is a problem across our military. Which of the three services is it worst in?”

“It was a big weekend for the Foreign Secretary in Canada representing our country, and a big weekend for the Royal Navy in Plymouth. The Foreign Secretary alluded to increased co-operation with our EU NATO allies in defence activity. In Plymouth this weekend the deputy French ambassador was down to unveil Ariadne—a new…”

“The Committee has come back recently from a trip to Finland and Estonia, where there is a whole-of-society defence culture that permeates from the public sector and the Government well into the private sector, which does not happen in this country. Minister, you have made comments previously that we might need to adopt…”

“Minister, can we talk about the private sector? We have covered some of the areas of Government that the Armed Forces Bill may extend the covenant to. All of you have also mentioned the changing character of warfare and the changing requirement for skills. You spoke, Admiral, about a kind of porosity and this idea that…”

“T5. The security of Europe is absolutely paramount. What new steps is the Secretary of State taking to deter Russia from further invading European borders given that we are now in a new situation of ongoing negotiations?”

“Ceasefire talks between Russia and Ukraine are under way, whatever our opinion of them, but the eager eye of Putin may now look to other former Soviet countries, such as the Baltic states. I was in Estonia a couple of weeks ago, and the distance between the Russian border and the Russian-held Kaliningrad territory is j…”

“The tragic events in Southport were horrific, and I welcome the Government’s review of the Prevent policy. The murderer should have been monitored better. We must implement steps to ensure that this never happens again. The tragic incident set off civil unrest across the country, and it found its way to Plymouth. In th…”

“Let the record state that the MOD should be included. I am really trying to find some specific lines. Everything we have said so far, I am sure the Bill will do, in some way or another, but it is down to the specific language—what actually do we want to happen? This is an opportunity to shape that. The MOD will be look…”

“Thank you both for joining us today. You have both said that it is important to make sure that, when people leave service, the skills they have acquired in service are recognised. Sir Nick, you just said that transition should start on day one of service. The Government are committed to putting the Covenant into legisl…”