Speeches by Martin.

“Why did they make the decision that those chairing those debates would need to be read in? Parliamentarians have a right of privilege of free speech, so if I or another parliamentarian were to find out about this and talk about it in the House of Commons, would the Chair have shut me down, or to take it away from me, w…”

“I understand UK Government policy on not commenting on special forces operations or the special forces more generally, but there is a problem with using that as a defence if it is shown that UK special forces committed war crimes in Afghanistan. This particular individual, who is a UKSF officer who served in Afghanista…”

“Upon taking office, did you read in any Members of the new official Opposition?”

“So no new people?”

“Is not the biggest problem with first past the post that often people are voting against rather than for someone? That poisons our democracy, because everyone ends up with someone who they do not want.”

“I’m just asking about your thought process on informing other parliamentarians and this Committee, because you decided not to. Why did you decide not to?”

“On that point, because you gave a very full answer earlier, if this officer who rejected all those Triples applications is shown to have acted deliberately, as a mechanism of covering up war crimes through the Afghan special forces inquiry, what should happen to him?”

“To sub-delegate?”

“General Ben, it is good to see you again. Thank you for coming. How long have you been in post?”

“Was there a single person who knew the identities of all the people who were in that compartment?”

“What is your thinking on it though?”

“We have had the McIvor review, and DARR has done its own internal lessons-learned process around data protection. Can you talk me through in detail, so we have it on the record, what changes you have made to the data protection process over the last 12 months?”

“Minister, did you consider briefing a wider group of parliamentarians—perhaps members of this Committee or members of the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy?”

“In the light of the Minister’s comments, I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. Clause 31 ordered to stand part of the Bill. Clause 32 Call out for permanent service Question proposed, That the clause stand part of the Bill.”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Efford, and I thank you for the invitation to remove our jackets. Amendment 7 was tabled in my name and that of my hon. Friend the Member for North Devon. I will just briefly introduce it to the Committee. The idea of a zig-zag career is incredibly important. Unlike pr…”

“I beg to move amendment 7, in clause 31, page 51, line 2, at end insert— “(5) The Secretary of State must, in respect of each financial year, publish a report assessing the impact of the provisions under subsections (3) and (4) on the retention of personnel within His Majesty’s forces. (6) The report under subsection (…”

“Following the comments by the right hon. Member for Tonbridge (Tom Tugendhat), may I make a plea that we put this political blame game to one side? The fleet halved under the previous Labour Government. We all have our fingerprints on the current state of the UK military. It is unedifying for us, for this House and for…”

“I can help out a little with the right hon. Gentleman’s question. The post was not filled. The Government were having some difficulty in filling the post, and—”

“This crisis has laid bare the parlous state of the British military. The three main parties of government should put aside the blame game and accept that we have all played our part in getting the British military into the state that it is in now. For over a year, the Liberal Democrats have been asking for cross-party …”

“I hope to give the Minister a focused question. He has rightly laid out the importance of the data cables to the UK as an island, and also highlighted Russia’s continued activity over many decades. The frigates that we have in the Royal Navy are really the centrepiece of the anti-submarine war, so my short, focused que…”