Speeches by Norman.

“Will the Leader of the House give us the forthcoming business?”

“You are kidding. Late 2025 is the commitment. It is 2 December. When can we see it? Are you going to run it so late that we cannot have any parliamentary scrutiny before Christmas?”

“I have a couple of preliminary questions, if I may, Minister. When can we expect the defence investment plan?”

“Ministers have made it very clear that AUKUS is a national endeavour. It is national not just in the sense of being MoD and across Government, but also being across the whole of the UK in terms of the kinds of skills and talent that it requires. What is your strategy for pulling in people from other parts of the UK alo…”

“It sounds like the Germans have a policy, which is to take three businesses, choose two of them and then make them into the Mercedes-Benz and the BMW of drones over time. We do not have a policy for creating internal, resilient and serious-scale capacity in drones through UK companies. Is that right?”

“That is helpful. Thank you very much.”

“I am glad to hear that. I have another question. There was a piece in the FT about how the Army is now about to invest significantly in German and American drones. What about supporting British drone businesses? We have several very high-quality ones that are ready for scaling.”

“Therefore, there is not the “not made here” issue that you sometimes find with the Pentagon.”

“Is it a concern to you that the product could be developed but the DoD will never buy a non-American product?”

“You are going to get it, but I just want to be sure it is going to be before Christmas. That is all.”

“That is helpful. My final question is for Air Marshal Jones. I thought you said earlier that the programme was making real progress on submersibles and underwater technology in relation to pillar 2. Have any projects been acquired? Have any platforms been built? Have any products been created that one could recognise a…”

“Five is not going to crack many subs. What about security clearances for the ones that they have in place or they are going to have in place? These are very high-security activities. You cannot put an engineer on a sub who has not been appropriately vetted and assessed. You are not concerned about that.”

“You do not think that is true.”

“It has been suggested to us that there are not enough engineers in Australia to service a single Virginia-class sub. What assurances have you had that there will be adequate skills and workforce capability in Australia as part of AUKUS?”

“Would it be a failure of UK policy if we did not have one or two major global drone manufacturers in this space that were UK‑owned and run?”

“We can expect a lot of investment in UK drones businesses from the UK Government and from primes supported by the Government.”

“Minister, it is always a rule in Parliament that, when people talk about being very clear, they are slightly fibbing. Here, Vice Admiral Gardner has said that in the USA there is “absolute clarity” as to who is doing AUKUS. There is not absolute clarity, is there? We know that Bridge Colby had severe concerns, irrespec…”

“I am sure colleagues across the House will want to join me in wishing a very happy Lancashire Day to Lancastrians everywhere, and perhaps most especially to the only Lancastrian Speaker of the 158 people to have held that office—there will have to be three more before it reaches the number of Herefordians who have held…”

“Will the Leader of the House give us the forthcoming business?”

“It is important to say that—thank you.”