Speeches by Norman.

“I think the special representative on AUKUS is being appointed on a year-to-year basis at the moment. I take it that from your point of view, it would be a major sign of lack of seriousness if that continued, rather than giving it a longer term focus, a much greater level of public backing and a distinguished place wit…”

“Ms Gaston, you have been very eloquent, and I am sure that the need for prime ministerial leadership, noise and communications, a genuinely national strategy, and a more inclusive approach to bringing public opinion and specific communities with the AUKUS programme will strike a chord with others. Can you talk a little…”

“Finally, the SDR has talked about up to 12 SSN-AUKUS subs. Is that strategic ambiguity designed to keep the other side on the hop, a reflection of the lack of leadership and budget allocation in the Government or just flagging that the Government are not really serious, because they are just putting an aspiration out t…”

“Is that how you read it, Ms Gaston?”

“Right, but I thought you were saying that it is a UK thing. It is not just, as it were, an Australia outpost; it is an all-UK defence initiative.”

“We are only talking about pillar 1 at the moment. We can come to pillar 2.”

“Okay. Obviously, building up defence capability in Australia and at Osborne, with the capacity to scale up, is going to be enormously testing. It has been said, to me at least, that Australia does not have enough specialist engineers to maintain a Virginia-class sub at the moment, let alone to create the capability req…”

“Dr Kaushal, if the UK starts to fall behind on the delivery of SSN AUKUS subs, what are the implications? We have heard the worry about drift, lack of leadership and all that stuff. What are the implications for the wider alliance if pillar 1 starts to run slow in the UK?”

“But we know—I think we know—that one of the worries sitting behind the Colby review is about the flow of subs coming out of the US. If we are running slow on SSN AUKUS, will it have collateral effects on that process? Will it place additional stresses on American defence infrastructure and procurement?”

“Right.”

“No, quite. You pointed out the defence implications, with the Yasen subs coming through and so on. I was trying to get to the industrial implications within the alliance of running slow on SSN AUKUS subs, which I think you have just touched on. Sophia, did you want to say anything on that?”

“Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I hope you and everyone in this Chamber had a very good summer break, with just the right proportions of sun, sleep and family. If I may, let me start with a double round of congratulations: first, to the Prime Minister on his 63rd birthday this week, putting him squarely in the prime o…”

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

“I do not think it is as clear as it could be. Let’s come on to that question first, and then we will pick up on other things. I think it would be helpful for the Committee to enunciate a suggestion for what “most important” might be. If I may, let me make some suggestions for a direction in which that might go. For exa…”

“Thank you Chair, and thank you colleagues for inviting me to this Committee. Having been a member of the Treasury Committee for five years and now the Defence Committee for a couple of years, and having chaired the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, as well as appearing in front of Committees as a Minister, I am extre…”

“Broadly, yes. It could be improved. This Committee could make recommendations that would improve it, but with those recommendations, it is a functional and important part of our constitutional machinery. I do not accept the point made by the Leader that, for example, the Government are under any obligation of balance, …”

“I think it is absolutely the right place for it to be laid out. I do not accept the idea—again, this is another equivocation in what the Leader said—that the fact that the ministerial code is “the Prime Minister’s document” means that others cannot comment on it or seek to improve it. Likewise, I do not think it should…”

“I can imagine no greater topic of debate in the Dog and Duck on a Thursday or Friday evening. No, of course it is not front and centre, but then the mysteries of the constitution of this country have long been celebrated. Indeed, Bagehot gives them a formal dressing in the distinction between the dignified and the effi…”

“I think the Prime Minister properly is under an obligation to account for his or her own Ministers, but I do not think that means that Parliament does not and should not have its own sanctions. Historically, Parliament has always exercised its own sanctions. The fact that we have, in some respects, given in to the Exec…”

“That is a very fair challenge, and my view is in no sense one that would not be subject to revision if we had a proper conversation about it, but I do think there is a problem with the way that you have described it. Obviously, if the House felt sufficiently strongly about something, it could instruct the Speaker to im…”