Fred Thomas MP: speeches 2026

Speeches

• 8 Jul 2026 · Maritime and Coastguard Agency · Hansard source

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  I am very grateful to hear that the Minister has engaged with coastguard rescue officers in Southampton, which is typical of his diligent manner and his approach to difficult issues like this. I invite him to interact with my constituents who are part of the Plymouth coastguard rescue team, who tell me harrowing stories of supporting the ambulance service and the police—sadly, too often with suicide-related issues. It is an unbelievable service and, yes, CROs deserve remuneration, but they also deserve a lot more recognition. Will the Minister agree to speak to those constituents of mine?

• 8 Jul 2026 · Rearmament and Warfighting Readiness · Hansard source

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  On that point, will the hon. Member give way?

• 8 Jul 2026 · Rearmament and Warfighting Readiness · Hansard source

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  On that point, will the hon. Member give way?

• 30 Jun 2026 · Defence Investment Plan · Hansard source

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  The investment plan lays out that this country will spend £63 billion on our nuclear deterrent over the next few years, but that is not just to keep the UK safe; we offer that as an umbrella protection across our European NATO allies. That is a massive point. It is extremely expensive; it is more than some entire Departments will get. It is huge, and we should celebrate it. I ask the Secretary of State to assure me that when he travels to Turkey with the Prime Minister for the NATO Assembly soon, and we come under pressure for not having laid out how we will hit 3% soon enough, the point will be made gently to our friends and allies that we are spending a huge amount of money keeping them safe.

• 22 Jun 2026 · Armed Forces Bill · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member mentions bomb disposal. He may not know that we have seen two significant bomb disposal events in Plymouth in the last couple of years. Does he agree that Armed Forces Day this Saturday is a great opportunity to thank our military community for keeping safe everyone who lives in residential areas, especially in Plymouth, where there is unexploded ordnance from world war two?

• 22 Jun 2026 · Armed Forces Bill · Hansard source

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  Which would you do?

• 3 Jun 2026 · Youth Mental Health Support · Hansard source

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  Does my hon. Friend share the concern I have from conversations in Plymouth about the deep harm caused to mental health by some social media? Is she aware that the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges has warned of an epidemic of harm to children “continuously exposed to hateful, addictive and grossly distressing content”?

• 2 Jun 2026 · Armed Forces Bill · Hansard source

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  Like my hon. Friend and constituency neighbour, I have many serving folks in my patch. We have a particular issue in Plymouth related to South West Water, which I know she also deals with. Unlike their neighbours, when there are outages, people in service accommodation cannot immediately access compensation pay. While their neighbours who are not in service accommodation pay South West Water directly, those in service accommodation go through a kind of third-party service and therefore do not get that compensation immediately. The Minister is well aware of the matter, because he helped me out with some related casework last year. Does my hon. Friend agree that we must look at that in the Bill, to ensure that people in service accommodation get compensation just as quickly as their neighbours and are not disadvantaged by being in the forces?

• 1 Jun 2026 · Armed Forces Recruitment and Retention · Hansard source

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  In all the years that I served as a regular in the military, the continuous attitude survey showed that morale was dropping year on year. Since Labour has come into government, that has reversed; the continuous attitude survey is at last going in the right direction under this leadership. Can the Secretary of State explain why that is?

• 20 May 2026 · Defence Readiness · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend speaks passionately about Estonia. Britain has troops deployed in Estonia providing a tripwire, as he well knows, having no doubt spent some time with them recently. Will he join me in encouraging the Government to make every effort to arm and equip those troops with the capabilities necessary simply to survive? Does he agree that at the moment, those troops do not provide much deterrent force at all, and will not do so until we give them the technologies that have been standard in modern warfare for multiple years now?

• 20 May 2026 · Growing up in the Online World: Consultation · Hansard source

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  I speak to parents in Plymouth on this topic regularly. Ninety-two per cent of parents are concerned about the impact of social media, but many just do not have time to take part in a lengthy consultation. I also note concerns raised about the framing of some of the questions in the consultation, including prompts to consider the benefits of social media. There is also an absence of any clear mechanism for considering evidence from medical experts and frontline professionals separately from submissions from tech companies, which obviously have a commercial interest in opposing any restrictions. There are also concerns about the use of AI to analyse responses. Will the Secretary of State confirm that those concerns will be taken into account when assessing the consultation results, and will she reiterate her commitment to taking bold and decisive action this summer?

• 20 May 2026 · Growing up in the Online World: Consultation · Hansard source

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  4. What steps her Department has taken to help ensure that parents and children are able to engage with the consultation entitled “Growing up in the online world: a national consultation.”

• 14 May 2026 · Supreme Court Dillon Judgment · Hansard source

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  In Plymouth I represent very many veterans, lots of whom served in Northern Ireland, and I reflect on the fact that the state asked our people to do incredibly difficult things, at enormous personal risk and sacrifice, in a very particular context and with a particular political direction that they were deciphering at the time. Many of those difficult things were necessarily secret, and today we still ask our people to do incredibly difficult things—in secret, necessarily—at enormous personal risk and sacrifice. Many of those people are personal friends of mine. The 2023 legacy Act was unworkable, and we were elected on a manifesto to repeal and replace it. We should do that, but my constituents and my close friends are deeply concerned, as am I. Can the Secretary of State lay out how the troubles Bill will protect them in years to come from being forced into the courts by those who wish them ill?

• 14 May 2026 · National Security · Hansard source

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  I join colleagues across the House in strongly condemning the ongoing campaign of attacks and intimidation against our British communities, and I thank the Minister for his leadership on those and other security matters. He said that he has initiated a review of the national threat level system, which currently captures only the threat from terrorism. Can he expand on that? Does he mean that, following review, it will now capture the threat from state-based actors and other countries? Can he do that in the light of the fact that one key theme of last year’s strategic defence review was that we need an open, national conversation that is not behind closed doors, in the light of both ongoing delays to the defence investment plan and many colleagues across the House needing to understand better the threat that this country is under, and some of the funding decisions that we need to make to keep our citizens safe?

• 27 Apr 2026 · Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill · Hansard source

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  I politely disagree about dithering and delay. The Government are getting on as quickly as possible. The consultation was launched rapidly and is taking place right now, and the Government have committed to implementing the findings of the consultation as quickly as possible. I can assure the hon. Lady and the whole House that Back Benchers such as myself and my colleagues on the Government Benches will be holding the Government to account to ensure that they do that as quickly as possible. I have been assured that they are going to do so, and I take them at their word. It is really important that the House gets behind these measures, and I am extremely grateful to Ministers for making this happen.

• 27 Apr 2026 · Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill · Hansard source

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  I congratulate and thank the Minister for her brilliant leadership throughout the passage of the Bill. It is fantastic to see this Labour Government delivering for children. In Plymouth, the free breakfast clubs have made an enormous difference. The measures in the Bill, including those with amendments, will be fantastic for children going forward. On the amendment relating to social media age restrictions, I first note that the Opposition are doing a good job of making it sound like they have campaigned for this for years and years. They were in government for 14 years. Can I reveal to you, Madam Deputy Speaker, when it became their policy? It was three months ago, in January. I congratulate them on a very hard-fought three months, when the strong zeitgeist of the entire western world has been to age-restrict social media. I thank Science, Innovation and Technology Ministers on the Front Bench for doing the hard work. They are not in opposition, quickly jumping on a bandwagon and trying to claim easy wins; they are consulting thoroughly with residents across the country, including in the south-west. I am really grateful for that, because we have to get this right—we have to do it. There is immense support across the House and among many colleagues for increasing age restrictions. We want this to happen and the Government are listening to us, but they want to do it in a careful way and I support doing it in a way that sticks. I note that our Labour party colleagues in Australia have done it and found immense success in their public approval ratings. Why is that? It is because the public know and families know—in fact, I think I can say that children know—that further protection through increasing age restrictions is needed. That is why it is so crucial to get this right. I welcome the Government’s amendment.

• 24 Mar 2026 · Defence · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member celebrates the Labour Government’s decision to create Team Plymouth. She celebrates the Labour Government’s decision to designate Plymouth the National Centre for Marine Autonomy, and she celebrates the countless defence technology companies crowding into our wonderful, vibrant city. Can she acknowledge, in the spirit of balance, that this Labour Government have delivered some good things for defence?

• 24 Mar 2026 · Defence · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member mentions quite rightly the brave men who served in Operation Banner. Does he agree that women also served in that operation?

• 23 Mar 2026 · Financial Abuse · Hansard source

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  Abusive ex-partners often continue their abuse by withholding funds from children and former partners, deliberately causing financial hardship. That has a huge impact on survivors, forcing them into contact with the perpetrator and enabling their abuser to continue to influence their lives. In Plymouth, I have a constituent who left an abusive relationship, but is now owed £48,000 in child maintenance payments. Despite court orders and liability orders being in place, the money continues not to be paid. Sadly, this is not a rare case limited to Plymouth; I know from speaking to my hon. Friend the Member for Monmouthshire (Catherine Fookes) earlier that this is a national problem. How is the Home Office working with the DWP and other agencies to close enforcement gaps and tackle financial abuse effectively?

• 23 Mar 2026 · Financial Abuse · Hansard source

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  10. What steps she is taking to help tackle financial abuse.

• 9 Mar 2026 · Middle East: Defence · Hansard source

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  I strongly welcome my right hon. Friend’s leadership at this time. One of the defining characteristics of the UK’s response to the crisis when Russia started its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 was the political unity that this party, the Labour party, offered our country. Does he find it extremely disappointing to hear the Leader of the Opposition saying that our military are “hanging around”, when they are putting themselves in harm’s way to defend our interests abroad? Does he expect, as I do, the shadow Secretary of State to apologise for that really disappointing, cheap political point scoring?

• 4 Mar 2026 · Ministry of Defence · Hansard source

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  The hon. Gentleman mentions that, given what has happened in the past few days in the middle east, the country needs to spend more on defence, but does he agree with me that the country needs to spend differently on defence? When drones cost barely tens of thousands of pounds, we need to start buying or making capabilities to take down drones that do not cost the British taxpayer millions and millions of pounds.

• 4 Feb 2026 · Social Media Ban · Hansard source

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  3. Whether her Department's consultation on children’s use of social media will include the implementation of a potential social media ban.

• 4 Feb 2026 · Social Media Ban · Hansard source

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  Every day that children are exposed to harmful and addictive content is another day of preventable harm. Yesterday, the Spanish PM, Pedro Sánchez, announced that Spain will ban social media for under-16s, pledging to protect children there from the digital wild west. Expectations are that the Government in Spain will begin passing legislation next week. Meanwhile, we know about France and Australia. There is accelerating momentum from our allies to move quickly and decisively on this issue. Can the Secretary of State confirm, as was indicated by a Minister in the other place a couple of weeks ago, that the Government are taking steps so that a ban could be introduced here at pace through secondary legislation, subject to the results of the consultation?

• 2 Feb 2026 · Tolled Crossings and Regional Connectivity · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend makes the important point that regional connectivity, including tolled crossings—especially between her constituency of South East Cornwall and mine in Plymouth —is integral to our nation’s defence and our ability to carry out its taskings. Does she agree that this type of regional connectivity needs to be looked at across Departments, especially by the Ministry of Defence?