Speeches by Thomas.

“No, that is great.”

“I am so sorry. If I said not including the MOD, what I meant to say was “not limited to”. Clearly, we need to include the MOD.”

“Thank you for that answer. Those are similar concepts to the ones we have spoken about already this morning. The legislation will, I hope, include reference to private organisations and other Government Departments outside the MOD—the Treasury, DWP, Health and Social Care. If it does not, it is not a good piece of legi…”

“I came out of service quite recently, and my understanding of the Armed Forces Covenant while in service was informed by colleagues. It was an idea—a concept. It was very hard to find it written down, and very hard to find out how it would be enforced or applied to anything that affected mine or my colleagues’ lives. T…”

“Sir Nick, do you think that the accreditation exists already in the civilian world and that we should be able to use that accreditation and say that people have gained it in service? Or do you think that we need to create new types of accreditation and recognition and then explain them to civilian employers and say, “T…”

“Mark, do you have anything to add to that?”

“It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Mr Stringer. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Newton Aycliffe and Spennymoor (Alan Strickland) for securing this important debate. He is a huge champion for SMEs in his constituency and for national security in general. I will begin by pointing out that defence primes…”

“This is quite a direct question, Ms van Rij. Brexit has made Europe less secure. Has it made Britain less secure? Armida van Rij: That is loaded. Brexit has obviously complicated UK engagement in EU defence mechanisms. As the EU, especially the European Commission, is moving increasingly into that space, particularly i…”

“The hon. Member is absolutely correct. It is not quite in my constituency—it is in the neighbouring constituency, Plymouth Sutton and Devonport—but I agree. In terms of SMEs, primes can also offer a service to the Government and the Ministry of Defence. If we had a massive change in system, which would be extremely har…”

“Good morning. Thank you both for joining us. My question is about threats to Europe and how they are perceived in other countries, as opposed to the UK. In the UK, we talk a lot about Ukraine, and rightly so. We try to emphasise the point for the British public to be aware that Ukraine has been invaded by Russia, and R…”

“Before you start, can I ask another question? That was a fantastic scene setter. Thank you very much. We understand those three areas you have set out. I want to get straight into this concept that has been talked about recently of public perception and the need to bring the public on the journey as we think about our …”

“On our journey to increasing defence spending, it is crucial that we keep the public on side, especially given our dire financial inheritance from the Conservative party and the hollowed-out state of our armed forces, as Conservative Members have acknowledged. That is why I welcome the Government’s break from tradition…”

“Over the past few days we have seen three notable things happen: Storm Éowyn has had tragic consequences; the CIA has announced that it thinks it is more likely that covid came from a Chinese laboratory than from animals—that is, it thinks it more likely that it was made on purpose; and the Russians, quite blatantly, p…”

“I would like to pick up on the comments you just made, General, about warfighting mindset and the shift to that approach, because the Secretary-General of NATO, within the last week, made similar remarks, talking about the need for NATO countries to shift to a warfighting mindset. It would seem to me that a warfighting…”

“Thank you, General. Risk to the UK is across many domains and factors. You can be so risk averse that you then do not invest in the capabilities that, in the long term, in 10 or 20 years’ time, it turns out you needed to invest in, to not expose yourself. Mr Smart, do you think risk aversion in defence procurement slow…”

“The risk that we are talking about is—”

“Sure—anyone would be. How you assess threat leads to your understanding of risk, impact and likeliness. Recently, at RUSI, the Chief of Defence Staff said, “We are still too slow. We are still too cautious. Too risk averse. There is still too much hierarchy and process.”. If I can come to Ms Blackmore, you are the dire…”

“Permanent Secretary, the idea that we might have more money to spend on defence than 2.5% in the future is not debated much because, currently, people are asking about the 2.5% figure. Do you get the sense that the level of threat that you understand to this country requires more than 2.5% to be spent in order to be in…”

“Sorry, I am just going to challenge that. The MOD is not clear and open about the fact that there is a rising threat. There are challenges with classification on that. General Magowan, do you think that the Cabinet, outside of the Defence Secretary, understands the threat to the UK at the moment?”

“I am a military person and I would love that. To be clear, Mr Stringer, are you suggesting a joint venture between the UK Government and a Ukrainian company, probably state-owned, where we make and manufacture products to go to the front here in the UK, using a feedback loop from the front? You alluded to a six-week ti…”