Sarah Newton (Truro and Falmouth) (Con)
I welcome my right hon. Friend’s prescient remarks in recent weeks about the need to expand our naval presence. To help with that, will he ask the Defence Secretary to change the classification of our much-valued Royal Fleet Auxiliary ships to warships, as our allies classify them, so that we can bring forward the building of planned new ships in the UK?
Mr Hunt
I have just asked the Defence Secretary that very question, to which the answer is yes.
[Official Report, 22 July 2019, Vol. 663, c. 1131.]
Letter of correction from the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.
An error has been identified in the response I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Truro and Falmouth (Sarah Newton) during the statement on the situation in the Gulf.
The correct response should have been: