UK-Türkiye Typhoon Export Deal

Samantha Niblett Excerpts

Wednesday 29th October 2025 Commons Chamber

[Luke Pollard]

I am happy to write to the right hon. Gentleman about the precise details of that deal. I politely say to him that the future is crewed, uncrewed and autonomous. That is what the strategic defence review set out, and that is why the platforms that we are looking at, such as GCAP, will start as a crewed platform but have the ability to spiral develop into an uncrewed and autonomous platform. That is a key part of staying ahead of our adversaries by making sure that we can increase the lethality of our crewed platforms by having uncrewed and autonomous platforms alongside them. That is the spirit not just in the combat air domain, but on land and at sea as well.

[Samantha Niblett (South Derbyshire) (Lab)]

The Minister knows that I took part in the armed forces parliamentary scheme this year and last year, and I had the great privilege of visiting the NATO airbase in Poland where I saw Typhoons scramble to the skies to protect us from Russian aircraft. He rightly points out that Türkiye is an important NATO ally, and I am proud that Labour played an important part in founding NATO. Does he agree that it is shameful and wrong to suggest that NATO’s presence in eastern Europe was provocative to Putin, as the leader of Reform, the hon. Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage), has previously asserted?

[Luke Pollard]

The armed forces parliamentary scheme is a brilliant opportunity for parliamentarians with or without defence knowledge to learn more about our platforms and, perhaps most importantly, about our people. The RAF crews that we forward-deployed to Poland to help to support our eastern flank allies did a superb job, as are the Typhoon crews leaving RAF airbases in the UK to support our eastern flank allies as part of our commitment to Eastern Sentry.

Let me be clear: our national security would not be helped by Putin-friendly policies or Putin-friendly politicians. That is why we all make a strong case about our support for NATO and our pride in being a party and a Government with a NATO-first defence policy. I encourage all those toying with the idea of siding with a Putin-friendly Government to look at what is happening in Ukraine, with the theft of Ukrainian children by Russia, the unprovoked illegal attack on civilian infrastructure, and the threats that Putin and his illegal war machine make not just to our friends in Ukraine but to our NATO allies, and come to the firm conclusion that being Putin-friendly is certainly un-British.