Speeches by Western.

“I now call Josh Babarinde.”

“I thank the Minister for his immediate update to the House, given the recency of this breaking news. He will know that the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy did its report on the case of Cash and Berry, in which it made certain recommendations. The National Security Act 2023 is now fully in place. That …”

“The Bill introduces timely reforms, such as extending the right to vote to young people, and it addresses the rising and ever more concerning issues of harassment and intimidation. With foreign interference expected to intensify the deterioration of the international security environment, and given the threats posed by…”

“They are linked. There is a lot of commonality, but there are some distinct differences. I would not necessarily suggest that the Committee choose either/or. If time allows on the day, I would hope that we would all be able to be accommodated.”

“Thank you. Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi made representations.”

“We live in incredibly unusual times, and I think we are at a juncture where we have to give focus and attach importance to this area of security. Jaguar Land Rover is not just impacting my constituency; it impacted UK plc’s growth last year, as did Marks & Spencer. It is not simply their concern. The concern has to be …”

“Well, they obviously both have their real merits, but what I would say is that I think—”

“That is very kind of you, Emily. Chair and Committee, I thank you very much for your time. It is a rarity for me to come before you, and certainly to do so on behalf of the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy. It is a Committee that very few people in this place know much about. It has on its books my rig…”

“The four to five minutes was not kept to as tightly as I would have hoped, so we will have to go to a formal four minutes for speeches because of the number of Members who have indicated that they wish to speak.”

“Order. I remind Members that they should bob if they wish to speak in the debate. Clearly, there are quite a few Members so, on the basis of what I have seen, I ask Members to speak for four to five minutes—an informal application of a time limit—and we will see how we get on.”

“I thank the hon. Gentleman, and I will keep my comments brief. I absolutely agree that the legal side of this urgently needs to be addressed, and I understand from the Government that they will look very closely at it in their defence resilience Bill.”

“I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his question. I do not know about the timings—I am not close enough to the Government for that—but the United States did something interesting, which was to have a scheme to lease two ships, costing them $10 million a year. There are ways around this, but having a sovereign capabili…”

“Various organisations that have been established have interests in this area. Of course, much of this is in the private sector. The Committee is concerned about how much of it is in the private domain and how much influence the Government can have. Collectively, there is a need for Governments to work much more closely…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for serving on the Committee and for the work he is doing in chairing the Defence Committee, and he is absolutely right. There are several elements to this. One is, as we have seen in the Baltic and around our shores, the nature of the threats. The attacks on cables are proving provocative, and w…”

“I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his service on the Committee over so many years, which was hugely valued, and his point is absolutely fair. I have not seen the specific report that was published today, but it echoes the points that we have made in this report. We do not want to be alarmist, but we cannot accept an…”

“It is a pleasure to present the first report of this Parliament of the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy. I thank the Backbench Business Committee for granting time for this statement on the United Kingdom’s resilience and crisis preparedness in relation to subsea telecommunication cables. Subsea cables…”

“The hon. Gentleman makes a very good point, and it is absolutely true. We did not specifically look at the situation in Ireland. We will be doing further work on this in the coming months, because I think that is required and will be welcomed by Departments, but, yes, we need to meet the EU and Ireland to talk about th…”

“Thank you. Your point of order is noted.”

“I remind Members that if they wish to be called in the debate, they should bob.”

“Given the right hon. Gentleman’s extensive experience, it is very interesting to hear what he says. If he had his time again—this is not to criticise the previous Government, but to ask about the here and now—would he think that this area needs an absolute focus from across Government and across society, because it is …”