Speeches by Jopp.

“Listening to you talk there, Minister, it strikes me that we have a bit of a problem in as much as our messaging is not quite as clear as it could be. You said that it would not be helpful to come in and tell the people that they are under threat, because that would be counterproductive. Equally, you want to take the p…”

“I am sure that that phrase meant a lot to you when it came out of your mouth, Minister, but I am a simple soldier.”

“Are the Government considering sending failed asylum seekers to overseas return hubs?”

“I am glad that you said that last bit, because the way in which we have been talking up until now suggests that the hybrid activity stops when the war goes hot. It seems from the outside that, in a period of relatively low military activity for the last 10 years, defence has side-slipped into this. It is unerringly can…”

“I am tempted to say, “Thank you, Mr Hacker”, but I will not. We visited the National Cyber Force and Strategic Command. At one stage, there was the phrase “Whitehall customer group”. This question is about our own grey zone within Whitehall. If bad guys attack NHS IT systems, that is the defensive play part of the nati…”

“We are shortly to appoint a national armaments director with a salary of more than £600,000 a year. I hope that that colossal salary comes with the mandate to be able to tear up the book on defence procurement as we rearm the nation. Will the Minister reassure me that when we get the national armaments director back to…”

“7. What assessment she has made of the adequacy of incentives to seek employment.”

“The Minister says that the situation is completely clear, so I feel like a bit of an idiot for asking for more clarification, but I will anyway. Pre-sentencing reports are allowed to take in further background on the lives of offenders from an “ethnic minority, cultural minority, and/or faith minority community”. What …”

“The people of Spelthorne are very hard-working and do not mind their taxes being paid for a safety net for the most vulnerable in our society, but they really do get annoyed when they see their taxes going to people who are scamming the benefits system. What assessment have any of the Ministers on the Front Bench made …”

“I think the hon. Lady has slightly missed the point of what I was saying. Reading the body language of Members on the Government Benches, I think they all wanted to hear how this story ended up. It did help that the then Secretary of State for Defence was a friend of mine, with whom I served in the Scots Guards. We did…”

“There are 24 Members sitting on the Government Benches. Would my hon. Friend like to issue an open invitation to them to name a single small business that has been in touch to say that it supports this legislation?”

“It is a great pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Tipton and Wednesbury (Antonia Bance). She is such a compelling advocate that I am tempted to go on strike myself. I do sense a certain amount of antipathy between the two sides of the House, so, before I come on to make a fair point in support of amendment 292, I wa…”

“When this legislation comes to the House, people are going to want to know that it is not just performance art, but is going to have an effect. Those measures of effectiveness are clearly crucial.”

“Among the 5,000 small businesses in my hon. Friend’s constituency, has my hon. Friend come across one that is in favour of the Bill or lobbied him to vote for it?”

“Sitting in those seats last week were defence industry representatives, who reminded us that if you sign a contract with SpaceX it is six pages long, and if you sign it with the Ministry of Defence it is 70.”

“The admiral used the case of medical treatment, but also said, I think, that because things are different we cannot level up in the way that Mike is asking. When we visited RAF Lossiemouth, one of the issues, meeting the people there, was access to free childcare and the different thresholds in age. Under anyone else’s…”

“Do you think the extension of the armed forces covenant is the vehicle by which you will eventually protect them, or is it going to be something else?”

“Minister, thank you. I would like to pick up on a couple of words in your opening remarks—“societal drift” and the principle that no one is disadvantaged—by quoting from a letter produced recently by the SAS Regimental Association: “Hundreds are ensnared in legacy processes; in many cases facing years more of uncertain…”

“That is days, yes.”

“Minister, you mentioned the 10/30 rule. When that was announced, I thought, “Wow, good luck with that”. It is incredibly demanding. I genuinely did mean “good luck with that” because it would be fantastic. It may not be your bag, but could you give us an update on where we are with the implementation of that new rule?”