European Council

Hilary Benn Excerpts

Monday 26th March 2018 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

This is obviously an issue on which my right hon. Friend has campaigned, and continues to campaign, with great passion and dedication. As he will know, coming out of the national security capability review, we have set out the modernising defence programme. We are looking carefully at the question of our future defence against the background of the threats that we face. Of course, defence and national security covers more than simply what would traditionally be regarded as defence, but we are looking carefully at the capabilities required by the Ministry of Defence.

[Hilary Benn (Leeds Central) (Lab)]

rose—

[Mr Speaker]

My apologies to the right hon. Member for Leeds Central (Hilary Benn), who has migrated backwards from his usual seat.

[Hilary Benn]

Only temporarily.

[Mr Speaker]

It is only a temporary move.

[Hilary Benn]

The United Kingdom is a world leader in aerospace defence and satellite systems. Can the Prime Minister clarify whether the attempts that the European Commission is apparently making to freeze British companies out of Galileo contracts that are due to be issued in June are consistent with the transitional arrangements? If not, what does she propose to do about it?

[The Prime Minister]

We have been very clear that as long as we are a member of the European Union, we will meet our obligations, but we should continue to be treated as a full member of the European Union. As the Business Secretary has said, the UK has a world-leading space sector that has contributed a significant amount of specialist expertise to the Galileo programme. We believe it is not just in the UK’s interests for us to continue to participate in that programme as we have done, but also in the interests of the European Union, because of the expertise the United Kingdom can provide.