Speeches by Jopp.

“The Prime Minister said, I think about three weeks ago, that the Royal Navy would go after sanctioned Russian tankers. Yet, if the press reports are to be believed, those very same sanctioned Russian tankers have sailed with impunity through the English channel. My question is this: why have we not done anything? Is th…”

“Will the defence investment plan be signed before the local elections on 7 May?”

“I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Farnham and Bordon (Gregory Stafford) on securing this debate. We have heard varying views on the question of demand, with some people saying that it has not gone up at all and that others saying it has. I have relied on the House of Commons Library to tell me that since 201…”

“The Government have designated April the Month of the Military Child to recognise the unique demands and pressures on the children of service personnel, particularly in times of heightened international tension and when we have military personnel deployed on operations overseas. Will the Leader of the House join me in …”

“The scourge of potholes is pretty universal, but will the Minister join me in encouraging all my Spelthorne residents who have a complaint about a pothole to report it via the Surrey county council website? Reporting potholes is the only way to get them sorted.”

“In answer to my hon. Friend the Member for North West Norfolk (James Wild), the Minister referred to the importance of local identities. As she knows, in the local government reorganisation, my Spelthorne constituency will be subsumed into something called “West Surrey”. I am very much looking forward to meeting her on…”

“I was going to call you commissioner-designate, but I will just call you commissioner; otherwise, it all gets very complicated. You are very welcome to the Defence Committee. I would love you to tell the Committee what your route to here has been.”

“Going back to your example of Cyprus—or indeed, widening it out—have you got any experience of the armed forces complaints system, either as someone who has formally raised a complaint, someone who has had a complaint raised against them, or someone who has had to adjudicate in the complaints process?”

“Your remit is very broad—welfare, which can be interpreted in many ways. Rommel’s interpretation was that the best form of welfare is training, because more training means less widows—fewer widows; his German wasn’t very good. There will be a temptation for you to interpret it broadly or more narrowly, because troops’ …”

“There is no pension?”

“You will have to stop referring to them as “them”.”

“What is your experience of managing UK civil servants?”

“I have one technical question. As of 1 April, are you going to be an employee of the Ministry of Defence, or are you being employed on a consultant’s contract for your interim period?”

“It would put them in a pretty invidious situation.”

“To go back to professional competence and independence, would you have any serving members of the armed forces in your office?”

“Thank you for your former service, and for your future service.”

“Enhancing our ability to fight and win—is that an implied task?”

“If this is going to succeed, one of the outcomes would be the chain of command being better at the end of it, I would assume. We are not doing this for fun.”

“Let’s turn it the other way around. In the first Gulf war, my then girlfriend was dispatched to Silvermans in the east end to buy most of 7 platoon’s desert boots, which she then sent over. We are celebrating our 32nd wedding anniversary on 7 May, so the story has a happy ending—the boots clearly fit. I personally woul…”

“With all the legal responsibilities that that entails.”