Matt Western

Matt Western

Labour — Warwick and Leamington

Speaking in the House of Commons on 8 January 2026

Debate

Subsea Telecommunications Cables: Resilience and Crisis Preparedness

Contribution

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his question. I do not know about the timings—I am not close enough to the Government for that—but the United States did something interesting, which was to have a scheme to lease two ships, costing them $10 million a year. There are ways around this, but having a sovereign capability is going to be important or, to go back to the question asked by the hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington (Bobby Dean), we could combine with other nations to develop such a capacity.

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