Speeches by Jopp.

“This is a nuclear weapon constantly loitering—deployed in space for deployment downwards. Is that correct?”

“Have any other market entrants replicated SpaceX Starlink’s capability since that monopoly of one became apparent?”

“Have any nations done it as a sovereign capability?”

“Is there any particular reason?”

“Rest in pieces!”

“Very quickly, if you wanted a British launch capability, would you put it in Britain, necessarily? We have a large number of overseas territories. Have they not got greater natural advantages as a launch centre compared with putting it somewhere in the UK?”

“The Chagos islands, or somewhere like that.”

“Are those commercial companies all US-based, or are other options around in the marketplace up there?”

“That brings us into the realm of sovereign nations having huge reliance on commercial capability for the prosecution of self-defence. You might say that ’twas ever thus, but it is obviously not a national capability of Ukraine; they are reliant on the commercial sector. Can you give us a sense of the concentration risk…”

“I just want to run the tape on my understanding of the role that Starlink played in Ukraine. As a couple of experts, you might confirm that this version is the right one: the Russians took out the Ukrainian satellite-based internet capability and Starlink, a SpaceX company, provided it, including to the tune of about 4…”

“Did UKspace make a submission to the defence review?”

“Does anyone deploy EMP-hardened capability in low Earth orbit?”

“So it is foundational and contested.”

“Yes, moving on, I think it was in 2021 that we saw the Russian testing of a direct-ascent anti-satellite capability, to international opprobrium at the time. How has the threat environment developed since then? What have we seen? Can you bring us up to date on what is happening up there?”

“Thank you. If it is any consolation, when I worked in the Ministry of Defence, we had two teams working on the single version of the truth, so don’t worry about incoherence in UK space policy.”

“Juliana, is there anything you want to add?”

“I am not an expert in the field, so you will have to forgive me. I want to look at bringing the UK’s response up to date with more recent developments, on the back of Fred’s question. I understand that there is a thing called the Space Leadership Council, but it has not met for 900 days—and quite a lot has happened in …”

“I thank the Minister for coming to the House with his statement today. I do not want to probe the “out of bounds” box that he has rightly placed around a live investigation, so I have chosen the words of this question carefully: does he know the immigration status of the Iranian nationals who were arrested?”

“I am back by popular demand. May I draw the House’s attention to the fact that we have just been joined in the Public Gallery by members of the Victoria Cross and George Cross Association? Will the Leader of the House join me in passing on our admiration, respect and thanks to this extraordinary group of public servant…”

“Earlier in the week, Mr Speaker, you granted an urgent question on the very serious issue of a music band who had allegedly told their supporters, “The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.” That is now quite rightly under police investigation. However, as of today, they remain on the bill for Glastonbury …”