Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi

Labour — Slough

Speaking in the House of Commons on 12 November 2026

Debate

Defence in the High North

Contribution

I thank the shadow Minister for his kind words about the work of the Committee. Capability gaps, particularly with regard to submarines, were mentioned by the Committee at length, and my hon. Friend the Member for Barrow and Furness (Michelle Scrogham) was also forthright in making that point. The capability gaps in the delivery of future subs must be addressed urgently. For example, we received evidence suggesting that the production of certain assets was advancing at a “leisurely” pace. That needs to be addressed. Ultimately, as the Committee’s report on AUKUS highlighted, the next-generation SSN-AUKUS is incredibly important and we must ensure that we are investing at pace so that our Australian friends also have that capability at pace. For much of the time at present, we are left in a situation where many of our assets, including submarines, are in either maintenance or deep maintenance.

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