Oral Answers to Questions

George Freeman Excerpts

Tuesday 27th October 2026 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Doughty]

With the greatest respect, the Foreign Secretary raised very serious concerns at the highest levels about Iran’s nuclear programme and a series of other issues, just as previous Foreign Secretaries—including many Conservative ones—have raised serious concerns directly with Iran. We are absolutely clear: Iran must never have a nuclear weapon. We are committed to working with others to ensure that it does not.

[George Freeman (Mid Norfolk) (Con)]

3. What assessment his Department has made of the level of strategic importance of the polar regions.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs (Uma Kumaran)]

The polar regions are areas of growing strategic importance where geopolitics, climate and national security collide. Our national security strategy identified the Arctic and Antarctic as emerging areas of strategic competition. I discussed this with my international counterparts—as well as the hon. Member and the all-party parliamentary group for the polar regions—at the Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavík earlier this month. To protect the UK’s interests, we know we must adapt. That is why I recently launched our updated UK Arctic policy framework.

[George Freeman]

It is good to be back. Given the accelerating rate of Arctic sea ice melt, we are not many years away from an ice-free summer in the Arctic, with huge implications for sea levels, ocean currents and weather systems, and growing commercial pressures for exploitation in the Arctic. Having been the Minister with responsibility for the British Antarctic Survey, I am delighted again to be chairing the APPG for the polar regions and to have joined the Minister at the Arctic Circle Assembly. Does she agree that in both the Arctic and the Antarctic, we are on the frontline of not only some very important science for global planetary sustainability, but geo-diplomacy and technology, with an increasing wild west, which this country has a major role to play in helping to regulate and convene good players in?

[Uma Kumaran]

I thank the hon. Member for his important question. I know that he has a long history of speaking up about these issues. He is absolutely correct: shifting geopolitical and climate dynamics in the Arctic and Antarctic are intensifying strategic interests in new economic opportunities in the polar regions. Those bring with them challenges and pose risks to regional governance and to UK interests overseas and at home, including challenges to our security and stability, domestic resilience and supply chains. That is why we have updated our Arctic policy framework, and it is why I urge Members across the House to join the hon. Member’s APPG for the polar regions, so that we have cross-party consensus on this work.