Speeches by Pollard.

“I thank my hon. Friend not only for the promotion that he has offered me twice in his question, but for the support he has shown for his workforce. In these times of increased threats, as we are living in a new era of threat, it is important and incumbent on all parliamentarians of all parties to not only become more f…”

“I was nearly going to say that I warmly welcome all the hon. Gentleman’s remarks, but I am afraid that the good news had to be tempered with a little bit of partisan attack. First, let me welcome his welcome for this deal. It shows that when there is good cross-party work, we can achieve things well. I am very proud th…”

“There are a number of nations across Europe and Asia with complex energy dependencies on Russia. This Government and our partner nations have been very clear that there needs to be a fast and smooth transition away from using Russian oil and gas, and it is something we continue to work on with our allies. We encourage …”

“I am grateful for the hon. Gentleman’s welcome of the good-value platforms that we are exporting to Türkiye; it is really important that we have a strong relationship with Türkiye. He will know that the arms exports regime is run by the Department for Business and Trade. I have to say that the risk of diversion from so…”

“I beg to move, That the Bill be now read the Third time. In a world that is growing more dangerous, this Labour Government will always put Britain’s security first, and if there is one thing that Members should take away from today’s debate, it is the absolute necessity of this Bill to secure the military base on Diego…”

“It is a joint base.”

“The F-35 system is a global system. It does not operate different systems for different nations—it is a single global system, in which circumstances, any changes to how the F-35 procurement system on a global basis works requires consensus, and we do not believe that we can achieve consensus.”

“It would not be appropriate for me to reveal confidential conversations between the partner nations. The gisting of the element that was redacted was correct. It remains our assessment that we would be unable to achieve consensus on alterations to the way that the global F-35 programme works.”

“I am happy to come back to the Committee, but it would be the same as the evidence presented in the Secretary of State’s letter—”

“That goes for every F-35 on the planet, which also then has a subsequent risk for peace and security. For instance, it was an F-35 from the Netherlands that shot down one of the Russian drones over Poland, so that is an immediate use of F-35s around the world in supporting our national security requirements and those o…”

“The RAF surveillance flights from RAF Akrotiri are solely for hostage rescue. They are designed to seek to identify the hostages that are being held, and then for a test to be applied to the information, if they are able to locate any, that says we will transfer that information only when we believe that the informatio…”

“What I would say in response to that is that we continue to have conversations with the partner nations—the original eight—in relation to this. Our assessment remains that there is not the possibility of consensus there. So I understand where you are coming from, but it is not our assessment that that is possible. It i…”

“It is worth understanding how the Joint Strike Fighter—originally the F-35—programme works on a global basis. Of the eight original partner nations, of which the UK is one and the US another, agreements on how the F-35 global support system operates have to be taken by consensus, which means that all nations in that or…”

“I am happy coming back to you on that, but just to reinforce the point, the ability of the RAF aircraft or contracted aircraft to operate is entirely reliant on the permissions given by nations in the area. If the tasking of those aircraft were to go beyond hostage rescue, that would potentially change the calculations…”

“Use of that would be a matter for the FCDO to assess. Routinely, the Ministry of Defence would not assess the operational use of military assets by partner nations, but the particular use and test of that would be an FCDO-led question.”

“They are seeking to do that, yes.”

“I would need to check the total number, and I can come back to the Committee, if appropriate, to release that information. As standard practice, we do not often reveal the flights or the frequency of flights. As these are unarmed aircraft, many of them will squawk and can be picked up on open source. Even though the MO…”

“We do not give out details of operational flights, as standard practice.”

“I entirely understand the argument that you are making, and it is one that I am struck with as well. You will appreciate that I will not be able to go into the confidential conversations that we have as part of that international organisation. We maintain a regular dialogue with all the eight partner nations—seven plus…”

“I will take that away.”