Oral Answers to Questions

Lincoln Jopp Excerpts

Monday 19th October 2026 Commons Chamber

[Wes Streeting]

The Prime Minister has announced threat briefings for CEOs from sensitive sectors, including defence and critical national infrastructure operators, to strengthen their understanding of the threats we face and improve our collective resilience. The Government have announced a national resilience public awareness campaign and a wider national conversation on defence and resilience to improve public preparedness. Individuals can play their part by following the preparedness advice on gov.uk, and we will all have a role to play in getting those messages across. Finally, we should be clear that those threats do not come just from overseas and that the aggressive targeting of defence industry leaders by protesters here at home is not acceptable. We will not tolerate the intimidation of people who are doing a job for our country.

[Lincoln Jopp (Spelthorne) (Con)]

When this issue came up in the Defence Committee last week, the Secretary of State said that the national conversation should leave the public “alert but not alarmed.” I personally think the public need to be a bit more alarmed, so I was reassured when the excellent General Sir Roly Walker said last week that

“very soon, the political leaders of this country will start to have a frank conversation with the citizens of this country about just what is going on, and where the risk lies,”.

When the Secretary of State starts that conversation, will he make it as cross-party as possible? It is important that this House sends a strong message to the country about the threats we face.

[Wes Streeting]

I wholeheartedly endorse the comments made by the Chief of the General Staff, which were widely reported over the weekend. Our armed forces chiefs are some of the most credible message carriers, and the ones the public will trust most. That is not to cast aspersions on Members across the House, but given that our popularity as politicians sits somewhere beneath traffic wardens and estate agents, we should lean in to—[Interruption.] I am not sure the Liberal Democrats want to go there this week.

Let me take seriously the hon. Gentleman’s point about the need to work together on a cross-party basis. I am proud that on issues like Ukraine we speak with one voice and there is total unity, and there is enormous consensus across the House about the nature of the threat we face, the need to invest more, and the type of capabilities we need. That will be reassuring to both the public and our allies, and I would be delighted to work together in that spirit.