Chi Onwurah
Main Page: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)Department Debates - View all Chi Onwurah's debates with the Cabinet Office
(1 day, 12 hours ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Watch Debate Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Mr Speaker
I call the Chair of the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee.
Dame Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West) (Lab)
Starlink is a US telecoms company owned by a South African American who advocates civil war in the United Kingdom. OneWeb is a European satellite telecoms company, which is part-owned by the UK. Yesterday the Science Minister told my Committee that OneWeb could be used to ensure domestic communications resilience in remote areas. Can the Minister tell me whether our critical rural broadband infrastructure is more dependent on Starlink or on OneWeb?
Ian Murray
We are a shareholder in Eutelsat, of which OneWeb is a part, and we will be examining all these issues. We have asked for Eutelsat to come forward with proposals to ensure that we have that resilience here in the UK, and we want to make more use of that shareholding.