Speeches by Thomas.

“The hon. Member celebrates the Labour Government’s decision to create Team Plymouth. She celebrates the Labour Government’s decision to designate Plymouth the National Centre for Marine Autonomy, and she celebrates the countless defence technology companies crowding into our wonderful, vibrant city. Can she acknowledge…”

“We have had some of the documents from Defence that we were expecting; we have had the Defence Industrial Strategy, which came out in September—six months ago now. I wanted to give you an opportunity to say whether that has been helpful. Have you seen any progress on that being implemented, notwithstanding the context …”

“Abusive ex-partners often continue their abuse by withholding funds from children and former partners, deliberately causing financial hardship. That has a huge impact on survivors, forcing them into contact with the perpetrator and enabling their abuser to continue to influence their lives. In Plymouth, I have a consti…”

“10. What steps she is taking to help tackle financial abuse.”

“It might sound like I am being pedantic, which you find amusing, which I understand. As you will be aware, the criticism from around Europe and the world is that the UK does this phenomenally badly. It is quite a serious point, actually. When we field a force at some point in the next few years, and they do not have th…”

“When you say, “Peering over our shoulder and making sure that we spend the money wisely,” how does that work?”

“It is. So it is not part of MSHQ’s responsibilities?”

“So adoption and integration of these technologies into the force is not part of the NAD’s responsibility?”

“In that process—identifying the need, finding the solution—whose job is it to make sure that they are adopted and used by the UK military? Which one of you does that?”

“This is a question for Rupert. You will be aware that last week the Chancellor appeared in front of the Treasury Committee and told the Committee: “There have clearly been failures to get value for money with defence spending over a number of years”. That is the Chancellor of this country saying that, in their opinion …”

“Very quickly, Rupert.”

“In layman’s terms, who decides what we need?”

“What is the relationship, then, with No. 10 and with briefing the Prime Minister? Any large strategic document or investment plan has to have prime ministerial sign-off as well.”

“The DIAG is the Defence Investors Advisory Group. We have not seen a lot of media on the defence finance and investment strategy, because obviously people are talking about the defence investment plan, which has been delayed by many, many months. The Strategic Defence Review made a number of recommendations. We underst…”

“One of the things that people want to understand about Defence spending money wisely is deciding how to spend money. I have a question for you, Air Marshal Tim. In the new Defence Reform structure, with understanding what we need to acquire, we have been picking up signals that there is some confusion within the Depart…”

“You are?”

“I have a very brief yes/no question for you, Rupert. When you are going about doing procurement and you are looking at companies to potentially acquire from, are you under any policy or direction to bias towards British companies?”

“Rupert, you said that you are working very hard through the DIAG to produce a defence finance and investment strategy.”

“I strongly welcome my right hon. Friend’s leadership at this time. One of the defining characteristics of the UK’s response to the crisis when Russia started its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 was the political unity that this party, the Labour party, offered our country. Does he find it extremely disappointing…”

“The hon. Gentleman mentions that, given what has happened in the past few days in the middle east, the country needs to spend more on defence, but does he agree with me that the country needs to spend differently on defence? When drones cost barely tens of thousands of pounds, we need to start buying or making capabili…”