Mr Mark Francois

Mr Mark Francois

Conservative — Rayleigh and Wickford

Speaking in the House of Commons on 12 November 2026

Debate

Defence in the High North

Contribution

Unlike the Secretary of State for Defence, Conservative Members listen to the Chair of the Defence Committee, and indeed to his colleagues who have produced an excellent report, “Defence in the High North”. As I must be brief, I wish to ask about the report’s warnings about the lack of operationally available assets in the Royal Navy, both surface escorts and attack submarines. As the report states on page 29: “According to several media sources, all five Astute Class nuclear attack submarines have recently all been tied up in dockyards at the same time, with none deployed.” That point has been mentioned by several Members this afternoon. The Astute class was once described to me by a naval officer as being like a Formula 1 racing car—great on the track, but a bitch when it gets into the pits. The hon. Gentleman mentioned serious capability gaps, so when does he think Ministers will finally come clean about why all five of our nuclear attack submarines have been tied up for months?

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