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1. 15 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Matthew Pennycook

   Tenant and Resident Management Organisations: Regulation

   The Government remain committed to the principle of tenants and leaseholders taking over certain management functions from their landlords, and following a review of arrangements for the oversight of tenant management organisations, we intend to take steps to make it easier to do so. Statutory guidance sets out a process for intervening in cases of mismanagement, but as part of our reform agenda, we will strengthen governance and oversight, including by providing stronger safeguards in cases in which tenant safety is at risk.

   Hansard source
2. 15 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Matthew Pennycook

   Tenant and Resident Management Organisations: Regulation

   I thank my hon. Friend for bringing this alarming case to my attention. We are clear that as we look to make it easier to establish TMOs—we want to do so; there are some very good ones out there—we must strengthen governance and accountability. I assure her that as part of that effort, the Secretary of State and I will be giving specific consideration to how extreme cases of mismanagement might be brought to an end, as a mechanism of last resort.

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3. 15 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Matthew Pennycook

   Tenant and Resident Management Organisations: Regulation

   I thank the shadow Minister for that reasonable and apt question. We do need confidence in the system. Many tenant management organisations provide excellent resident-led housing services, but it is right that councils can intervene if things go wrong. Powers to intervene in cases of serious failings are included in the management agreement between councils and TMOs, but as I said in response to my hon. Friend the Member for Dulwich and West Norwood (Helen Hayes), we are reviewing where we can go further on governance and accountability to ensure that the right safeguards are in place.

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4. 15 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Matthew Pennycook

   Topical Questions

   I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his constructive engagement on the new towns programme, and on Tempsford in particular. It helped to inform our approach, including to the decision that new town proposals will contribute to meeting the identified housing need of relevant authorities in all instances. We are assessing options for delivery vehicles across the proposed sites, with a view to ensuring that each is best placed to drive delivery and secure essential infrastructure in a timely manner.

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5. 15 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Matthew Pennycook

   Topical Questions

   As the hon. Gentleman knows, we are in the process of establishing the greater Cambridge development corporation. We will set out further details, as we did just a few days ago, about its development management powers, its planning powers and the specific sites that it will look at.

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6. 15 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Matthew Pennycook

   Topical Questions

   I thank my hon. Friend for raising this matter. I appreciate fully his concern about the potential mass eviction of his constituents. It is precisely so that private tenants can enjoy greater security, including the growing number of older people who now rent their homes, that we abolished section 21 no-fault evictions. I am happy to meet him to discuss the case further and what more support we might provide.

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7. 15 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Matthew Pennycook

   Topical Questions

   We meet a range of stakeholders through the water delivery taskforce. I understand that, in response to Canterbury’s local plan consultation, the Environment Agency has recommended close liaison between the local authority and South East Water to ensure that planned housing growth is located where additional water is available to supply new development.

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8. 15 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Matthew Pennycook

   Topical Questions

   Funding is already available for councils to acquire new market homes for social and affordable housing through our social and affordable homes programme. They can obviously also rely on section 106 contributions and the local authority housing fund, the fourth round of which makes £950 million available for councils to acquire homes for better-quality temporary accommodation.

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9. 15 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Matthew Pennycook

   Topical Questions

   We continue to target a win-win for both development and nature. I am more than happy to sit down with my hon. Friend to discuss how the NPPF contributes to that objective.

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10. 15 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Matthew Pennycook

    Topical Questions

    I do not intend to reverse the decision; I made the decision. The hon. Member’s local authority is one of nine that have been designated for poor performance, just as the previous Government designated local authorities when they fell below the required standards in their planning processes.

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11. 15 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Matthew Pennycook

    Topical Questions

    We think it is right that developers can use site-by-site viability assessments, as the alternative where viability challenges are acute is that we get no homes coming forward at all. We have consulted, in the recent consultation on the NPPF, on standardised inputs to viability, and we will set out further steps in due course.

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12. 15 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Matthew Pennycook

    Topical Questions

    I am more than happy to meet my hon. Friend to discuss the housing challenges in his part of the country.

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13. 15 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Matthew Pennycook

    Topical Questions

    I am aware of my hon. Friend’s robust views on this matter. There are a range of views about the right geographies for spatial development strategies. The Under-Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, my hon. Friend the hon. Member for Barking (Nesil Caliskan), and I are looking at all the consultation responses we have received, and we will make decisions on the full basis of having those fed in.

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14. 15 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Matthew Pennycook

    Topical Questions

    We will not rule out retrospective planning applications of any kind—I think residents across the country who build a conservatory and then make an application, having forgotten to submit the paperwork, would take issue with that. There is a specific issue of intentional unauthorised development, and we are looking at that through the NPPF. I recently had a meeting with a large group of Members from across the House, including Front-Bench Members, and we discussed possible options that we could use to bear down on the practice we are seeing, which is a new business model that exploits a particular set of challenges.

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15. 15 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Matthew Pennycook

    Topical Questions

    If the hon. Gentleman would like to write to me with further details about the matter, I will of course consider it.

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16. 15 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Mary Kelly Foy

    NHS Dentistry

    I am grateful to the Backbench Business Committee for granting this debate, and I declare an interest as co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group for dentistry and oral health. I pay tribute to the British Dental Association, our secretariat, for the work it continues to undertake to keep NHS dentistry in the spotlight. Due to my APPG role, I hear regularly from patients and dental professionals across the country, and the message I hear nationally is echoed by my constituents in Durham: NHS dentistry is becoming harder to access and the current system is not delivering the practical care that patients need. We need to measure access properly. Ministers should publish local data showing which practices are accepting new NHS patients, how many NHS clinical hours are being delivered, whether urgent care is being completed, how many children are being seen, and whether disease is being stabilised rather than left to worsen. One issue raised with me is the NHS Business Services Authority reporting and payments. Recent system changes have led to incorrect payments, and have made it harder for practices to calculate associate dentists’ pay. For practices already operating under serious financial pressure, that creates yet more uncertainty. Another issue is unit of dental activity caps. One local dentist described a practice with the chair, the associate dentist and the patient ready to go, but no additional UDAs were available. The associate dentist was left, in their words, twiddling their thumbs, while patients were turned away or offered private care. I also heard from award-winning Claypath dental surgery, one of the last remaining NHS dentists in Durham city. The practice manager said the practice had “witnessed firsthand the steady destruction of NHS Dental Services over the last 20 years by successive Governments, that have used the demolition of NHS Dentistry as a way of saving money in the NHS”. As part of the cost cutting, the practice’s contract was reduced by 2,000 exams in April. During an attempted appeal, the practice was told to accept the change or lose the whole contract. I ask the Minister: how does cutting contracts like that improve access for patients? I welcome the Government’s recent steps, including the urgent care changes and the beginning of wider reform discussions, but tweaks to the existing system cannot become a substitute for fundamental reform. We need a clear timetable for formal negotiations on a new dental contract, a deadline for replacing UDAs in this Parliament, and proper funding, so that practices do not lose money for providing NHS treatment. The challenge before us is to build a system that allows dentists who want to provide NHS care to do so, and a system that ensures that patients can access that care. The measure of a healthcare system is not how well it serves those who can afford an alternative, but how it protects those who cannot. We must stop treating the collapse of NHS dentistry as inevitable. A generation is growing up with pain, fear and preventable disease. We know the problems. We know the solutions. What we need now is action.

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17. 15 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Marsha De Cordova

    Social Media Ban for Under-16s

    I thank the Secretary of State and the Government for the decisive action they are taking in introducing a ban on social media for under-16s; I know that many teachers, parents and carers in Battersea welcome it. I chaired a recent roundtable with young people, and one young person shared that he was on his phone for 14 hours in one single day. That highlights how serious the problem is. Will the Secretary of State commit to working across Government to look at some of the eye health impacts of excessive screen time on our young people and, where necessary, commit to carrying out research on this important issue?

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18. 15 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Mark Sewards

    Social Media Ban for Under-16s

    The Education Committee heard evidence from Snapchat, which pushed back on the hard evidence and the facts—and on any idea that the platform caused harm to young people at all. It was perhaps no surprise that the e-safety commissioner in Australia opened an investigation into Snapchat for non-compliance with the Australian ban. Against that backdrop, can the Secretary of State confirm that, should the social media companies try to subvert the new rules that we introduce, they will be held accountable, and that parents will not be held accountable for enforcing them?

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19. 15 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Mark Sewards

    Russian Shadow Fleet

    I genuinely welcome the Secretary of State to his place, and I commend the Royal Marines, the National Crime Agency, the personnel from the RAF and all the others for conducting their work this weekend. Clearly, this is not the last we will see of the Russian shadow fleet. There are reports that two more ships are sailing our way; they are sanctioned by the US, the EU and Canada, but not by the UK. I am aware that the Secretary of State cannot comment on future sanctions, but will he tell us that he will work extremely closely with our allies on sanctions alignment to close any loopholes that Putin might seek to take advantage of?

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20. 15 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Mark Sewards

    NHS Dentistry

    Let me start by saying that I love dentists, and I will tell the House why. Twenty years ago, almost to the day, I completed my last GCSE history exam and decided to go and celebrate with my friends in Drighlington, in my constituency. We chose to cycle down New Lane, which is between Gildersome and Drighlington. New Lane is on a steep hill and, as I discovered, it has speed bumps. My friends and I decided to race down the hill and, in my desperation to win, I went faster than any of them. I do not remember my face meeting the concrete, but I do remember the sensation that one feels when going down on a rollercoaster. That is the good news. The bad news is that my face was badly damaged and my teeth were completely destroyed. I am eternally grateful to the NHS doctors and nurses who put my face back together, but unfortunately it required years of treatment from dentists to fix my teeth, and the treatment is still ongoing today. I am very grateful to have been served by NHS dentists over the past 20 years, and they have done extremely well in dealing with composite bonding. If any Member of this House has experienced composite bonding, they will know that it can have a transformative effect, but they will also know that it can break really easily. I grind my teeth at night, which means that in some cases I have had weekly appointments at NHS dentists, just to maintain their appearance. Unfortunately, some of my teeth could not be saved and I had to settle for some veneers, but I still go back for my composite bonding appointments. Despite that story, I still count myself as one of the lucky ones, because if that accident were to happen to me today, I imagine that my experience would be very different. My constituents contact me all the time to tell me about the lack of access to NHS dentistry. In some cases, I have constituents who are told by NHS dentists that they will be seen within six to 12 months, but if they call back and ask for a private appointment, they can be seen that day. The only difference, of course, is that it will cost six times the amount to be seen.

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21. 15 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Mark Sewards

    NHS Dentistry

    I absolutely agree we should consider that. It must be done within the fiscal rules and we must find the money in a responsible way, but given we have heard some sources cite £1.5 billion to fix dentistry, I think that is a very reasonable figure to consider finding. I do think there is a solution, which is fundamental reform of the NHS dental contract. It must start considering prevention much more seriously, incentivise dentists to treat complex problems, not just simple ones, and focus on the workforce demands. Those three things are difficult, but we are here to grasp the nettle. This Labour Government and most Labour MPs, just like me, were elected to do the difficult things in office. I know that this is difficult, we need to find extra resources and there are no easy choices when it comes to fixing any of our public services, including dentistry, but we have this time in office, and we should use it.

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22. 15 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Luke Pollard

    Defence Investment Plan

    Before I turn to the matter before us, the whole House will want to join me in recognising the remarkable work of our armed forces this weekend. In the channel, UK forces bordered a sanctioned vessel from Russia’s shadow fleet to disrupt the flow of funds to Putin’s illegal war in the Ukraine. The Defence Secretary will be making a statement on that shortly. These are extraordinary times for defence. The threats are real and they are increasing. It is no secret that I worked in lockstep with the former Defence Secretary, my right hon. Friend the Member for Rawmarsh and Conisbrough (John Healey). He is a friend and mentor. I was his deputy and I am still standing at the Dispatch Box because he asked me to stay and because we need continuity in this complex and difficult operational environment. The DIP will be published before the NATO summit. Do we need to spend more on defence? Yes. Do the Prime Minister and the Chancellor agree with that? Yes. Are we spending more? Yes. This year the defence budget is £11 billion more than it was in the final year under the Conservatives. Are we learning the lessons from Ukraine? Yes. Are we retiring old kit to invest in new capabilities? Yes. Are we backing our people? Yes, with the biggest pay rise in 20 years and a £9 billion plan to fix the defence housing crisis that we inherited. It is working: intake is up 11.6%, outflow is down 8.9%, and morale is up. To answer the Leader of the Opposition’s question directly: if asked to fight tonight, could our forces defend the UK? Yes, and they already do every single day. Are we planning to increase their capabilities to deter and defend the UK and our allies? Yes, we are. Would I like to go further? Of course. The new Defence Secretary has stepped up to serve, as he has done before, sleeves rolled up and determined to meet the moment to get defence the best deal. Let me say plainly that I know the Prime Minister is committed to do so as well. He said in Munich: “To meet the wider threat, it is clear that we are going to have to spend more faster.” And at the weekend, he said “3% in the next Parliament…defence will be the number one priority at every spending review, including the next spending review.” The disagreement in recent weeks was never about whether we should fund our forces; it was about how fast we increase the spending for defence and on what capabilities. That is a serious argument to have—I make no apology for pushing hard within the Government to win it, because that is the job. But the job is also a team sport, and that is why the Ministry of Defence, with the new Defence Secretary, is working with the Treasury, other Government Departments and No. 10 to get this right.

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23. 15 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Luke Pollard

    Defence Investment Plan

    I thank the right hon. Lady for her question and for the tone in which she asked it. We often have a lot of shouting from Members on her Front Bench, but I appreciate the professionalism and calm with which she asked those questions—[Interruption.]

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24. 15 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Luke Pollard

    Defence Investment Plan

    Let me be very clear. The Defence Secretary is currently with His Majesty the King, and he will be in the House this afternoon to make a statement on the operations over the weekend.[Official Report, 22 June 2026; Vol. 788, c. 71.] (Correction) I recognise that the right hon. Lady got her revenge in early by saying that I will seek to blame the situation on the Conservatives. Let me be very clear. She will know that we inherited forces that had been hollowed out and underfunded by the Conservatives. We inherited defence housing in which families were being asked to sleep in bedrooms with black mould, leaky roofs and broken boilers. Of the major defence programmes we inherited at the general election, 47 of 49 were overbudget and unfunded. However, we have been very clear that we are increasing defence spending. I appreciate that the right hon. Lady had her pre-scripted questions, but, if she had listened to what I said at the start, she would know that we are increasing defence spending. We have an extra £11 billion—[Interruption.]

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25. 15 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Luke Pollard

    Defence Investment Plan

    We are increasing defence spending. The budget this year is £11 billion more than the budget in the last year of the Conservative Government. We are ending the hollowing-out, but of course I want more money in the defence budget. We continue to make that case as the profile of defence spending increases. I would welcome a debate that says, “What capabilities will we spend that increasing defence funding on?” The right hon. Lady is right; we need to fight the wars of tomorrow. That is why we are investing in more autonomy, more drones, a hybrid Navy and the increased stockpiles that we need to deter Russian aggression. There is more work to do, and the new Defence Secretary is working with his sleeves rolled up to deliver the best deal that we can. We will publish the defence investment plan ahead of the NATO summit.

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26. 15 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Luke Pollard

    Defence Investment Plan

    I thank my hon. Friend for her work, and not just on lobbying for the DSRB—as an MP for a military town, she champions not just the Army but local businesses in her patch. We are looking at what multinational mechanisms would best deliver for defence and, importantly, for the defence supply chain, enabling us to finance the growth we expect in that supply chain. That work is continuing, and I encourage my hon. Friend to continue having conversations with the Treasury, which leads on that aspect.

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27. 15 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Luke Pollard

    Defence Investment Plan

    I thank the hon. Gentleman for his questions. He will know that since the general election, we have signed 1,400 major defence contracts, which have supported thousands of SMEs. He will also know that we have stood up the Defence Office for Small Business Growth, a single doorway to increase the Ministry of Defence’s direct spend with SMEs by 50% by 2028. We will continue to work on that, and as someone who was a defence-focused MP before I was a shadow Defence Minister, let alone a Defence Minister, I am proud of my advocacy for Devonport, for Plymouth and for our armed forces. I will continue to make that case from within Government, to give our forces the funding they need and the increase in defence spending that we need. The Government have already set out an ambition to deliver that.

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28. 15 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Luke Pollard

    Defence Investment Plan

    I thank my hon. Friend for his question —we have discussed Aeralis in the past. We are committed to the Red Arrows, and there will be a competition to replace them, as well as the Hawk T1 and T2 training system, which provides the pilots of the future. That will be a competitive process, and it will be up to companies to provide a design, an option, and a training system to support it. That competition will launch in due course.

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29. 15 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Luke Pollard

    Defence Investment Plan

    First, let me be very clear with the right hon. Gentleman—who I have a lot of time for—that the new Defence Secretary is someone who served our country in uniform. He served in the Parachute Regiment and was awarded an MBE for his work in uniform. He is someone who I am very proud to serve alongside, and I am working alongside him now to ensure we can deliver a defence investment plan with the funding that is required to renew our forces. The right hon. Gentleman is right to say that times have changed. That is precisely why the capabilities in the defence investment plan aim to retire old kit and bring on investment in new kit, particularly drones—one-way effectors, the hybrid navy and autonomy. We are learning the lessons from Ukraine; because we are there, standing alongside our friends, we can see how Russia fights and what works. Not only are we using that knowledge to support our friends in Ukraine, we are bringing it back to create capabilities for the UK armed forces. When the DIP is published, which it will be shortly, the right hon. Gentleman will be able to see that.

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30. 15 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Luke Pollard

    Defence Investment Plan

    I remember sitting where the Leader of the Opposition is now when the then Defence Secretary, Ben Wallace, described the hollowing out and underfunding by the Conservative Government. Let me also be clear, in answering my hon. Friend’s question directly that, I want more of a rising defence budget spent with British companies. An increasing defence budget spent with British companies is more jobs and more opportunities for our young people. Defence spending is reindustrialisation of our communities. It is an engine for growth and that is why we are investing in skills, in our small and medium-sized enterprises and in innovation. If we do all of that right, we will give our fighting forces the equipment they need to deter and, if necessary, defeat aggression. I welcome the debate on how much we spend and how quickly. I will continue making the case for more defence spending. The Prime Minister and the Chancellor are aware of that and are increasing it.

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31. 15 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Luke Pollard

    Defence Investment Plan

    I have a lot of time for the hon. Gentleman, and he will know that much of the DWP budget that he describes pays pensions and benefits to those who cannot work. Where people can work, we are giving them support to get back into the economy and back into work. That is an important part of a Labour Government’s mission to help everyone to work if they can. The case that he makes for increasing defence spending is part of this debate. As well as the total figure, I am equally interested in the capabilities we are spending it on. It is not just about a calendar day when a document gets published, but about what capabilities, what drones and what ability we need in our hybrid Navy; what do we need to invest in to create the deterrence to increase our warfighting readiness? That is a good debate to have.

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32. 15 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Luke Pollard

    Defence Investment Plan

    I thank my hon. Friend for her work. She is not only a good voice in support of the armed forces in her constituency, but one of the loudest voices in support of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary. It is a key part of our military apparatus, and we are continuing to invest in it. She is right that we will publish a fully funded defence investment plan ahead of the NATO summit in only a few weeks’ time. It is the first time in 20 years that we have had a line-by-line review of defence spending. It looks at the capabilities that we need and at investment not just in kit and equipment but in our people and our estates.

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33. 15 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Luke Pollard

    Defence Investment Plan

    HMS Broadsword was quite a ship. I remember going on her when I was growing up in Plymouth many moons ago—and that is a good example of what we are doing. We are having to retire old capabilities. The frigate force in particular—the Type 23s—were run on far too long, and should have been replaced long before the orders were placed by the last Government. That is creating difficulties in the frigates that we have. But let me tell Glen and the House what we are doing about it. We are investing in a new hybrid Navy with more autonomous, uncrewed capabilities. We are installing DragonFire, our directed energy weapon system, on Type 45 destroyers. We are addressing the retention and recruitment crisis that saw so much of our Navy personnel hollowed out, in particular addressing the shortage subjects such as marine engineering, and ensuring that we are giving our Royal Marines the latest kit and equipment. The new Kraken K3 Scouts for 47 Commando are a good example of the way in which we are equipping our Royal Marines with the equipment that they need.

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34. 15 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Luke Pollard

    Defence Investment Plan

    My hon. Friend is right: I have had many good times in Filton and Bradley Stoke, not only with the amazing people who work at the National Armaments Director Group at Abbey Wood—those who work tirelessly to give our people the kit and equipment that they need—but when seeing some of the superb work that Rolls-Royce is doing, for instance, in supporting not just the global combat air programme but the operational effectiveness of our air platforms today. Other businesses, large and small, in my hon. Friend’s patch will benefit from the 10 years of certainty that will come from the defence investment plan, and it will be published before the NATO summit.

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35. 15 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Luke Pollard

    Defence Investment Plan

    All of them.

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36. 15 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Luke Pollard

    Defence Investment Plan

    Yes, we will be publishing the DIP ahead of the NATO summit, as the Prime Minister has been saying for a number of weeks, and it will not just set out the kit and capabilities. Unlike the defence equipment plans that we inherited from the Conservative party—which were unfunded; there was, for instance, an £18 billion black hole in their equipment plan—the DIP will also deal with the estates, the housing situation, and our people, vital enablers of a whole defence project. A line-by-line review has highlighted the mistakes, such as the lack of support contracts that we saw under the Conservatives. As I have said, this will be a funded plan, and it will be published ahead of the NATO summit.

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37. 15 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Luke Pollard

    Defence Investment Plan

    That sounds like a very good description of the procurement record of the Government of which the hon. Gentleman was a member when he was a Conservative, but let me say this very simply to Reform: where is your defence spokesperson? Reform Members are often missing from defence events. Where are they? Let us make sure that we have the investment, because I want to see armed forces that stand up to Russia, not Reform politicians who accept bribes from Russia.

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38. 15 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Luke Pollard

    Defence Investment Plan

    It was a scandal that so many of our armed forces personnel were being asked and required to live in accommodation with black mould, broken boilers and leaky roofs. It directly affected the fall in morale that we saw in every single service for nearly the duration of the Conservative Government, and it led to the retention and recruitment crisis. It is the reason why, when in opposition, we said that we would make improving defence housing a priority, and why in government we have announced a £9 billion programme to improve defence homes. Not only did we have a target of delivering improvements to the 1,000 worst defence homes by Christmas—a target that we achieved ahead of time—but we have completed the next 200 most appalling homes. By the next decade, nine in 10 defence homes will have been either rebuilt or refurbished, giving our people the homes that they should have had for many years, but which they are getting only because a Labour Government are providing the funding.

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39. 15 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Luke Pollard

    Defence Investment Plan

    I am here to talk about defence policy rather than the Labour party leadership, I am afraid, but let me be very clear: the Prime Minister has set out his desire to spend more on defence and to spend it faster. I welcome that because I want to see more defence spending. We have a profile that already increases defence spending to 2.5% of GDP in April 2027—something never achieved in 14 years of Conservative Government. I welcome the important debate about how we can go faster on defence spending; I also want to see a debate about what capabilities we are spending on and how much more of the money is directed at UK businesses. That is what I hope will happen in the next couple of weeks.

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40. 15 Jun 2026·Parliament·Labour·Luke Pollard

    Defence Investment Plan

    Working with NATO partners is a key plank of how we increase the deterrence and security of the United Kingdom. In the past few days, I have had conversations with our friends in Norway about how we can build a combined frigate force. I have had conversations with our French, German, Polish and Italian allies about how we can bring forward more defence investment by working together on a number of capabilities. We will continue to do that, but as my hon. Friend has set out, we are committed to spending 3.5% of GDP on defence as part of 5% being spent on national security by 2035, including 3% in the next Parliament. I will continue to make the case for increased defence spending, and for more capabilities for our armed forces.

    Hansard source