Speeches by Thomas.

“Professor Clarke, if there is a de facto ceasefire but Russia wants to do something else, how can we mitigate that risk?”

“I obviously hope, and I am sure that many others do too, that Ukraine expels every last invading Russian troop off its land, including Crimea, the Donbas and so on. If that does not happen and we have some kind of de facto rather than de jure ceasefire, what are the likely next steps for Russia? Professor Harkness, you…”

“But right now?”

“Does my hon. Friend share the concern I have from conversations in Plymouth about the deep harm caused to mental health by some social media? Is she aware that the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges has warned of an epidemic of harm to children “continuously exposed to hateful, addictive and grossly distressing content”…”

“Like my hon. Friend and constituency neighbour, I have many serving folks in my patch. We have a particular issue in Plymouth related to South West Water, which I know she also deals with. Unlike their neighbours, when there are outages, people in service accommodation cannot immediately access compensation pay. While …”

“In all the years that I served as a regular in the military, the continuous attitude survey showed that morale was dropping year on year. Since Labour has come into government, that has reversed; the continuous attitude survey is at last going in the right direction under this leadership. Can the Secretary of State exp…”

“My hon. Friend speaks passionately about Estonia. Britain has troops deployed in Estonia providing a tripwire, as he well knows, having no doubt spent some time with them recently. Will he join me in encouraging the Government to make every effort to arm and equip those troops with the capabilities necessary simply to …”

“I speak to parents in Plymouth on this topic regularly. Ninety-two per cent of parents are concerned about the impact of social media, but many just do not have time to take part in a lengthy consultation. I also note concerns raised about the framing of some of the questions in the consultation, including prompts to c…”

“4. What steps her Department has taken to help ensure that parents and children are able to engage with the consultation entitled “Growing up in the online world: a national consultation.””

“Minister, since you assumed office in July 2024, the Government line has changed several times on the situation regarding the Triples. We have had a correction to a PQ that the MOD acknowledged was wrong, and the High Court has acknowledged that UKSF did have veto rights over applications. The current Government line, …”

“But do you accept that, for whatever reason, there are some people for whom the physical risk might be too great for them to move around the country to get to Pakistan or whatever it is? Do you accept that some people will be slightly stranded by that, or do you think that everyone will be able to get out?”

“I thought the MOD had now accepted on record that UKSF did have veto rights over applications, but you are saying that maybe they didn’t.”

“Minister, you spoke about people having some success with self-moves. There are some people in-country who have been deemed to have the right to come to the UK, but it would appear from a distance that they are not able to do a self-move, for whatever reason. What is the advice to those people? What do you think they s…”

“As you said, it has only been quite recent—the last few weeks. Who made the decision to stop providing the assistance that we were providing and to rely on this self-move model?”

“I am sorry, but on the record keeping, it is clear from the court documents revealed a year ago that, very quickly upon investigation of those applications that were turned down, many of them—I have asked you how many, but we know it is many of them—were found to be valid applications, so I challenge the idea that this…”

“Minister, we know, because the MOD had to reveal documents in a judicial review in May 2025, that the MOD conducted at least two internal investigations into the process by which UK special forces officers or liaison officers were involved in approving or turning down applications from people who said that they were Tr…”

“Do you agree with that?”

“So that individual did not do anything wrong; it is the system’s fault.”

“When you say “the system”, do you specifically mean the fact that UK special forces had a veto right over applications?”

“I join colleagues across the House in strongly condemning the ongoing campaign of attacks and intimidation against our British communities, and I thank the Minister for his leadership on those and other security matters. He said that he has initiated a review of the national threat level system, which currently capture…”