Government Communications: X

Baroness Wheatcroft Excerpts

Monday 5th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)]

My Lords, we do not spend a penny of government money on advertising on the platform. However, what is always useful when these questions come forward is that it makes you look in more detail at the subject matter. Not only are 19.2 million British citizens registered with X, but 10.8 million families use X as their main news source; that is more than any other social platform, which I find genuinely extraordinary. We would be doing a disservice by removing government communications from X when that is where people are actually accessing them; we are making sure that facts are available.

However, the noble Lord is absolutely right that we need to look at these issues in the round. One thing that is incredibly important on some of these issues is prebuttal, as opposed to rebuttal—a word I had not heard before today. It is about making sure that people have the skills to challenge the data in front of them, which is why it is so important that DSIT is about to launch a campaign to make sure that families have access to the right skills to challenge and interrogate the data. Better and enhanced skills are part of the new media literacy and will be part of the new national curriculum.

[Baroness Wheatcroft (CB)]

My Lords, if the Government are not going to review their links with X, I ask that they tread carefully in their links with other companies connected to Elon Musk, particularly Anduril and Palantir, the two defence companies. It will be very interesting if the Government let us know how closely they are involved with those two businesses.

[Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)]

The noble Baroness raises a very important point about our defence supply chain. As an honorary captain in the Royal Navy, this is of key importance to me. I will have to write to her with the details of any contract.