Speeches by Jopp.

“When this legislation comes to the House, people are going to want to know that it is not just performance art, but is going to have an effect. Those measures of effectiveness are clearly crucial.”

“Minister, you mentioned the 10/30 rule. When that was announced, I thought, “Wow, good luck with that”. It is incredibly demanding. I genuinely did mean “good luck with that” because it would be fantastic. It may not be your bag, but could you give us an update on where we are with the implementation of that new rule?”

“That is days, yes.”

“Minister, thank you. I would like to pick up on a couple of words in your opening remarks—“societal drift” and the principle that no one is disadvantaged—by quoting from a letter produced recently by the SAS Regimental Association: “Hundreds are ensnared in legacy processes; in many cases facing years more of uncertain…”

“Do you think the extension of the armed forces covenant is the vehicle by which you will eventually protect them, or is it going to be something else?”

“The admiral used the case of medical treatment, but also said, I think, that because things are different we cannot level up in the way that Mike is asking. When we visited RAF Lossiemouth, one of the issues, meeting the people there, was access to free childcare and the different thresholds in age. Under anyone else’s…”

“Sitting in those seats last week were defence industry representatives, who reminded us that if you sign a contract with SpaceX it is six pages long, and if you sign it with the Ministry of Defence it is 70.”

“I signed up when Centurion was a rank, not a tank.”

““Go big or go home” is fantastic. It is a lovely intent. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if you just left it at that? Unfortunately, as you and I know, what gets measured gets resourced. There is a really knotty problem, as you roll this out to other Government Departments, as to how you agree those measures of effectiveness.…”

“It is a huge piece of work to accompany the Bill. If any Government Departments or local authorities do not get the point, limited conscription would be perfect.”

“Among the 5,000 small businesses in my hon. Friend’s constituency, has my hon. Friend come across one that is in favour of the Bill or lobbied him to vote for it?”

“Yesterday afternoon, a group of five and six-year-old special educational needs children had great fun running circles around their Member of Parliament on the football pitch at Matthew Arnold school in my constituency. Can Labour Front Benchers please use their good offices to encourage Surrey county council to contin…”

“T7. In a speech in December, the Minister said that he wanted to put bureaucracy on more of a “start-up” footing with a Silicon Valley vibe, and that in order to achieve that he was going to send teams—indeed, not just teams, but crack teams—to Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield and Essex in order to test, learn, and fix…”

“BP’s global headquarters are in my constituency. As the Minister meets industry “all the time”, to use her words, she will be fully aware that it announced a major reset last month, whereby it is increasing its investment in upstream oil and gas to the tune of $10 billion a year from next year. That is investors’ money…”

“I think that International Women’s Day is fantastic because it gives me the opportunity to pay tribute to someone whose birthday would have been on International Women’s Day had she not been born in 1909. I hope that she passes the “gladiator” bar to which the hon. Member for Luton North (Sarah Owen) referred. Beatrice…”

“That is probably where this Committee can play a role.”

“Mr Kinniburgh, you used the phrase, “We are not yet on a war footing”, and we have approached some of the things that might change, were we to be on a war footing. I am just keen to explore the extent to which you have told Ministers that you want to be put on a war footing and whether they understand the implications …”

“I am going to ask a contact battle question, if I may. America has said that it is no longer going to be supporting Ukraine with military support. In terms of UK sovereign capabilities, where are we not able to fulfil any of the roles currently being fulfilled by the Americans? The obvious ones are Patriot, ATACMS and …”

“Have a go at them as much as you want.”

“That is enlightening and somewhat worrying.”