Luke Pollard

Luke Pollard

Labour (Co-op) — Plymouth Sutton and Devonport

Speaking in the House of Commons on 28 January 2026

Debate

British Indian Ocean Territory

Contribution

To help the Front-Bench team get to their shadow Cabinet meeting, I will not read out the same points again. [Interruption.] The shadow Minister invites me to do that, so I will. We are talking about the unrestricted ability to “control the storage of all goods, including but not limited to fuels, weapons and other hazardous materials”; I am very clear on this, but there are a few other questions that I want to get to. The hon. Member for Spelthorne (Lincoln Jopp) spoke about value in his good, characteristic style. I liked his approach. When he spoke about comparison of value, it is worth noting that securing the continued operation of the base is roughly about £100 million a year. That compares favourably with the base that the French rent in Djibouti, which is next to a Chinese naval base. Our base secures a 24-hour nautical exclusion zone around it. Full control of the electromagnetic spectrum is something the shadow Defence Secretary does not seem to understand, but it is actually quite important.

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