Speeches by Martin.

“Will the shadow Secretary of State give way?”

“Does the Minister find it strange that in a debate on a Bill so important to Reform UK—indeed, it is the party’s raison d’être—80% of Reform UK MPs have left the Chamber and are, presumably, in the pub?”

“The hon. Member is speaking eloquently about the need for joined-up financing and fundraising for defence, but the other side of that issue is clarity about what the Government want. A key example is space: the UK has significantly underperformed and punches well below its weight in defence space, which is spread acros…”

“Ms Suess, I am interested in the conversation about Russia and China and would like to broaden it to the members of the UN Security Council. How would you rate or rank the P5 in terms of their space capabilities?”

“Do all the other P5 countries have a unified space strategy, organisation and so forth? I noticed that you said earlier that we had two strategies.”

“Gabriel, would you agree with that?”

“That is helpful; thank you. Ms Suess, as Fred alluded to earlier, in the integrated review in 2021 we put aside just under £1.5 billion for space defence. Is that being spent on the right priorities and is that capability development on track? How are we doing with that wish list?”

“Thank you. Gabriel, do you have any final points to add on that?”

“So you would put Russia above the UK and France.”

“This is perhaps a question for the Minister for the Armed Forces, who I notice is also on the Front Bench. On the buffer zone, can the Minister state categorically that it will be sufficiently wide to protect all the capabilities on the base?”

“Dr Alexandra, I will pick up on something you said there about American credibility. You do not think that there will be a total drawdown of American support to Ukraine because of that American credibility. That is exactly what we saw when Trump negotiated a deal in Afghanistan. That was not a deal; it was a capitulati…”

“That is really interesting and quite heartening, although “escalate to de-escalate” is a reflection of Russian doctrine, is it not? Taking that all into account, there are various pathways here, Dr Alexandra. Is there a chance of a ceasefire then a peace deal, or a peace deal then a ceasefire? Do you think that, with t…”

“Professor Freedman, it seems that the demands of Russia and the demands of Ukraine and Europe are mutually exclusive and have not really changed much. Just quickly, what would you say is the likelihood of a ceasefire then peace, or peace then ceasefire?”

“Have the interventions of Donald Trump over the last few months shifted the dial at all on the prospects for peace in Ukraine?”

“16. What steps his Department is taking to support Ukraine.”

“As the Foreign Secretary knows, we have substantial engagement with, and deployment to, Estonia. Talk of peace in Ukraine is of course welcome and Britain should play its role in supporting that peace, but does he accept that any deployment of British troops to Ukraine increases the risk to the UK and its forces in Est…”

“I noted when I spent time with the RBL in Tunbridge Wells that there has been an age shift, and that it is the old and the bold who are manning the barricades, as I am sure that many of us have seen that in our local branches. Will my hon. Friend join me in urging the Minister and the Government to connect service leav…”

“One detects the hand of Russia here, much as one does across the entire periphery of Europe, from the High North, Ukraine, the Balkans and the Caucasus, which the Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee mentioned, to the Sahel, the Maghreb and Libya, right over to the Greenland-Iceland-UK gap. Will the Minister describe…”

“There are well-documented links between Russia and China. It is publicised and well-known that China buys Russia’s oil and all the rest of it. We are fighting Russia at the moment in Europe; it is our primary adversary. Why on earth would we want to have a close and stable relationship with China?”

“As the Minister knows, last month the Ukrainian permission extension scheme came into force, offering a further 18 months in the UK to our Ukrainian friends. Will she shed some light on the situation facing those Ukrainian guests who seek to enter further education, perhaps for three years, but who are unable to do so …”