Oral Answers to Questions

Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi Excerpts

Wednesday 10th June 2026 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I thank the hon. Member for raising this case—it is obviously awful. If he shares further details with my office, I will ensure that the Water Minister picks it up and acts as quickly as possible.

[Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Slough) (Lab)]

Last week, the Prime Minister warned that NATO needs to be ready for an attack from Russia by 2030. Indeed, we have an increasingly belligerent, expansionist and imperialist Russian leadership to our east and a Donald Trump US leadership to our west, for whom Ukraine and European security are not a priority, so we need to meet the moment. To his credit, the Prime Minister has increased defence spending since taking power, but the House of Commons Defence Committee is adamant that we need to spend 3% of GDP on defence. When the Prime Minister signs off on decisions in the defence investment plan, which I hope—touch wood—will be published imminently, will he agree to that 3% GDP spend on defence?

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is right to raise the concerns that we have. We have increased defence spending, and the defence investment plan is going to be set out very soon and before the NATO summit, which is in just a few weeks’ time.

Middle East

Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi Excerpts

Monday 13th April 2026 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Chair of the Defence Committee.

[Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Slough) (Lab)]

I thank the Prime Minister for confirming that, despite the significant unwelcome trolling and pressure from President Trump and Israeli PM Netanyahu, the UK is not being dragged into this war and that it is not in our national interest. Given that the US has now initiated a blockade of Iranian ports, can the Prime Minister confirm what steps are being taken to help de-escalate the situation and reopen the strait of Hormuz so that goods can transit freely and we can ease the cost of living pressures for our constituents? Also, what is being done to help de-escalate the situation in Lebanon? Can he confirm that any future UK involvement in the region will be strictly limited to defensive purposes?

[The Prime Minister]

I thank my hon. Friend and reiterate that we will not be dragged into the war. We are taking steps across a number of levels. What we can do together to de-escalate was central to the discussions I had in the Gulf states last week; they are shocked and angry, frankly, that they have been attacked in the way that they have been attacked. They were not involved in the conflict, and it is clear to them that they were targeted within hours of the beginning of the conflict starting, and that civilian infrastructure and civilians were targeted as well. They are absolutely clear that that targeting was put in place before the conflict started. We are working with them and across the coalition of dozens of countries to de-escalate and to get the strait of Hormuz open just as soon as it is viable and credible to do so.

Middle East

Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi Excerpts

Monday 2nd March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Chair of the Defence Committee.

[Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Slough) (Lab)]

The Iranian regime, including its late leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, are of course no friends of our country, but I thank the Prime Minister for clarifying that the UK had no involvement in the Israeli and US strikes on Iran. Indeed, I send my heartfelt condolences to all those who have sadly lost loved ones in the region. I am extremely concerned about the safety of the millions of people in the region, including the thousands of Brits who live there or are currently stranded there. Will the Prime Minister please confirm what steps are being taken to ensure their safety, especially from the one-way attack drones; what steps are being taken to evacuate Brits who are stranded and want to come back to the UK; and what steps are being taken with our allies to de-escalate the situation?

[The Prime Minister]

In relation to the protection of our citizens, we will obviously continue operating defensively in the air in the region, taking out the missiles, drones and strikes. We have permitted the US basing specifically for the purpose of taking out Iran’s ability to launch the strikes in the first place. The US has the capability to do that, in particular.

On the question of citizens and their understandable desire to return home as swiftly and safely as possible, we are doing all that we can. We are working very closely with our partners in the region. I ask all UK citizens in the region to register their presence so that we can give them the best advice, keep them safe and bring them home as soon as possible.

China and Japan

Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi Excerpts

Monday 2nd February 2026 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Chair of the Defence Committee.

[Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Slough) (Lab)]

We must engage pragmatically with our allies and with others around the world when it serves the national interest. That is why I welcome the Prime Minister’s engagement with our close ally, Japan, as well as with our major trading partner, China. I also welcome his commitment to the global combat air programme, which, as the Defence Committee illustrated, is of vital strategic importance as we develop the next generation of fighter jets. But our Japanese and Italian friends are understandably nervous, because we have as yet not put pen to paper on the full contract for Tempest, as was planned last year. Can the Prime Minister clarify when that fully formalised contract on GCAP will be penned, and can he also confirm that the timeline and programme will slide sideways?

[The Prime Minister]

I thank my hon. Friend for raising this very important programme. He will be pleased to know I did discuss it with the Prime Minister in Japan, and we will be publishing our defence investment plan shortly.

Foreign Interference

Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi Excerpts

Thursday 11th December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Chris Law (Dundee Central) (SNP)]

I thank the hon. Member for Lewes (James MacCleary) for raising the existential threats from Russia and China, as well as more recently from the US with its national security strategy, which we heard of last week. I said earlier today on the Floor of the House that the special relationship is now well and truly over.

Foreign interference is not a new phenomenon, but it has undoubtedly become an increasing and urgent concern in recent years. Heightened aggression from hostile states and increased economic competition is creating a more polarised world in which those who seek to increase their power and influence are looking to maximise every possible avenue. Our increased reliance on digital infrastructure and the rise of social media and artificial intelligence, combined with an erosion of trust in established political systems and traditional media has opened up a significant space to be exploited.

Whether it be through espionage, cyber-attack, intellectual property theft, transnational repression, disinformation, electoral interference, foreign political donations or bribery, we are under attack on a daily basis. Regrettably, we have not responded quickly and coherently to that, and in some cases many remain naive to the threats posed.

Let us look at the behaviours of those who seek to undermine our society and our values, create global instability and remould the world on their own terms, and at how the Government have reacted in response. Russia’s war against Ukraine did not begin in 2022; it began in 2014 when Russian-backed militants seized towns and cities in the Donbas and Russian forces illegally annexed Crimea. The strategic defence review called Russia

“an immediate and pressing threat”

but that has been the case for decades.

When I visited Ukraine in 2018 for the first time as a Member of Parliament, I found a real and live war, and was shocked that there was so little discussion of it in our own media, and certainly within this Parliament. In fact, shockingly, the language used was of a “frozen conflict”, all because we wanted to continue to have supplies of oil and gas—business as usual. Despite the murder of Alexander Litvinenko in 2006, it took until the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal and the death of Dawn Sturgess in Salisbury in March 2018 for the Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019 to be introduced to detain people at ports and borders to determine whether they are engaged in hostile state activity.

The Intelligence and Security Committee’s Russia report warned us as far back as 2020 of disinformation, political influence and aggressive cyber-operations. It criticised the UK Government’s response as playing catch-up, with unclear responsibility for defending democracy. Despite Russia’s malign intentions and behaviours, for years Russian state-funded broadcasters such as Sputnik and RT—Russia Today, as it was known—were given licence to disseminate disinformation during crucial elections and referendums. Yet, despite that, the UK Government continue to underfund the BBC World Service. It is time to step up and fully fund it again, because Russia is stepping into its place.

Russia has reportedly invested over $1 billion into ongoing disinformation campaigns aimed at diminishing western support for Ukraine, while recent events such as the 2024 Southport attacks and the summer race riots were both amplified by foreign interference. Of course, we now know that one of those recent investments was over £40,000 in bribes to the former leader of Reform in Wales, Nathan Gill, who is now spending more than 10 years in jail. We know through recent reports that at least eight other members of that party have made pro-Russia statements.

That is able to happen because of a fragmented institutional response from the Government. Their time- frames for handling disinformation are painfully slow. Each recent regulatory advance, such as the Online Safety Act, which the SNP does welcome, relies on reactive content takedowns that cannot match the speed at which hostile actors manipulate and spread disinformation. As was mentioned, the strategic defence review identified disinformation as a new top-tier threat across the UK, but there is still no single entity fully accountable for national cognitive security.

My first question is simply this: now that the threat has been identified—in fact, the evidence is overwhelming —what tangible steps are the Government taking to implement the shift from reactive responses to sustained strategic resilience? Will the establishment of a national disinformation agency be considered to enable a whole-of-society institutional response?

Furthermore, Russia has rightly been placed on the enhanced tier of the foreign influence registration scheme, yet China, despite clearly meeting the criteria, has not and remains on the lower “political influence tier”, along with most other countries. I am pleased to hear that more voices from across the House are starting to raise this issue, because the UK Government are clearly not currently budging. Shockingly, Members of this House have been sanctioned and spied on—I consider myself, among others, to have been spied on in that process. When that was exposed, we were not defended by the Government of the day or, indeed, by the Government currently in place. It was the Speakers of this House and the other House who banned Chinese diplomats and the ambassador from coming into Parliament.

[Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Slough) (Lab)]

The hon. Gentleman is making an excellent speech. Like some of our allies, we have had major issues with transnational repression, misinformation and disinformation, hostile cyber-attacks by our adversaries, spy ships surveilling our critical infrastructure and much more besides, which has cost British businesses and had a hugely detrimental impact on our national defence and security. In these increasingly tense times, when adversaries are testing our resolve, does the hon. Gentleman agree with the Defence Committee’s recommendation that we need a dedicated Minister for homeland security?

[Chris Law]

I have not had a chance to read that report, but I am glad that the hon. Gentleman has raised it, because it is now clearer than ever that we need a separate Minister and Department. That is a key point.

A cross-party Joint Committee on Human Rights report describes China as a “flagrant” perpetrator of transnational repression. The strategic defence review states that China is

“likely to continue seeking advantage through espionage and cyber-attacks, and through securing cutting-edge Intellectual Property through legitimate and illegitimate means.”

Why, then, have successive Governments continued to let China get away with this behaviour? Put simply, failing to put China on the enhanced tier of the foreign influence registration scheme leaves a systemic gap in the UK’s national security and defence, and ignores the fact that the criteria have already been fulfilled. Can the Minister explain why the Government continue to refuse to close the gap, and why they will not make this urgently needed change?

Instead, this Government seem intent on appeasing China. Not for the first or second time, but for the third time, they have reportedly delayed their decision on whether to approve a controversial new Chinese embassy in central London, after they were expected to approve the plans for a vast mega-embassy. It cannot go ahead. Uyghurs, Tibetans, Hongkongers, local residents, US security and US financial services all demand to have the decision revisited. Surely China’s continued harassment and bullying over services to the UK embassy in Beijing, for example, is not a reason to kowtow.

In conclusion, foreign interference is a daily reality that touches our security, our economy and the integrity of our democracy, but warnings from parliamentary Committees and the intelligence community have simply not been translated into policy. They cannot continue to be ignored, and the Government cannot continue to hide from the uncomfortable truths about hostile states and their escalating interference against us all.

G20 and Ukraine

Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi Excerpts

Tuesday 25th November 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the chair of the Defence Committee.

[Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Slough) (Lab)]

I welcome the Prime Minister’s statement updating the House, but let us be under no illusions: President Trump’s originally proposed peace plan is humiliating and unpalatable to the Ukrainians, would be detrimental to our own European security and would reward the invading, annexing aggressor. That is why yesterday the cross-party House of Commons Defence Committee issued a very robust statement calling on the Government urgently to give full moral and practical support in whatever way they could, especially diplomatically, to our Ukrainian friends. Does the Prime Minister agree that at this critical juncture it is imperative that the UK, along with its European allies, shows clear and determined leadership and is actually around the table to negotiate, so that we can be a voice for our Ukrainian friends, because if we are not at the table, we will be on the menu?

[The Prime Minister]

I thank my hon. Friend for his questions. In relation to the original plan, clearly there were elements that were unacceptable, and that is why I am pleased that progress has now been made in relation to it. I can assure him that we are giving support to President Zelensky and Ukraine at every level, and extensively, as my hon. Friend would expect. He is quite right that part of the reason we can have influence with our allies is that we are present at the international table in a way that we have not been over recent years.

Trade Negotiations

Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi Excerpts

Thursday 8th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Alexander]

As so often in the past, the Government will always act in the national interest in protecting Britain’s farmers and our food security. I would rehearse the numbers that I shared. If the right hon. Member is concerned about the volume of access to the UK market, I respectfully suggest that that might be a question for him to direct to his Conservative Front Benchers. Under the UK-Australia free trade agreement, a beef tariff quota of 35,000 tonnes a year was agreed, which increased to 110,000 tonnes after 10 years. In contrast, what has been agreed with the United States today will provide it with an initial tariff quota on beef of 10,000 tonnes, rising by 1,000 tonnes a year to a cap of 13,000 tonnes.

In relation to the right hon. Member’s observations on “The Art of the Deal”—there is a great deal of commentary on that in pretty much every newspaper at the moment—my compass tends to be “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu, rather than “The Art of the Deal.” Sun Tzu, as the right hon. Member, as a learned and wise individual, will be aware, said:

“Tactics without strategy are the noise before defeat.”

I observe that in the eight years since Brexit, the previous Government did not publish a trade strategy.

[Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Slough) (Lab)]

Like buses, we wait ages—years—for a trade deal with a major global partner, and then two come along at once, within a week. It is a major vote of confidence for the position of Great Britain on the global stage. With a bit of déjà vu, I commend again the Minister, the Labour Government and in particular the Prime Minister for the calm and collected manner in which they have consolidated this agreement when, by the way, others failed for years. While markets are up and tariffs are significantly down because of the announcement of this agreement, will the Minister confirm how this UK-US trade deal will benefit my Slough constituents and lead to economic growth and jobs?

Oral Answers to Questions

Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi Excerpts

Wednesday 7th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Slough) (Lab)]

T3. The Tories shamefully left the gender pay gap persistently high. Does the Secretary of State agree that Labour’s childcare expansion, free breakfast clubs and new nurseries will drive up women’s incomes and work choices, who are disproportionately more affected by caring responsibilities?

[Bridget Phillipson]

I agree with my hon. Friend. This Labour Government are determined to ensure that all women have choices when it comes to balancing work and family life. That is why we are expanding access to childcare through new free breakfast clubs and new primary-based nurseries, and I am delighted that my hon. Friend’s constituents will benefit from one of those new free breakfast clubs.

Trade Negotiations

Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi Excerpts

Tuesday 6th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Alexander]

I pay tribute to the right hon. Gentleman’s long-standing interest in matters relating to culture, media and sport and to the creative industries more generally. We are grateful for the expertise and experience that he brings to the House on these issues.

It would be one of the first occasions on which I told Lord Mandelson to do anything in many decades of our working together, but I will ensure that that is duly registered, not only in the record of this House but directly to our distinguished ambassador in Washington. It should also be placed on record that the film sector is a key part of the UK’s world-class creative industries—and we are absolutely committed to ensuring that those sectors continue to thrive and create good jobs—and that the UK has a strong and balanced trading relationship with the United States, worth £315 billion.

I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for his challenge to me to reach out directly to Lord Mandelson in respect of what we have read in the newspapers in the last couple of days, and I give him my word that I will ensure that Lord Mandelson is fully aware of the issue.

[Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Slough) (Lab)]

Amid much fanfare as usual, the former Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, announced that he would have a UK-India trade deal signed “by Diwali”—but very cunningly, he never mentioned which Diwali, so we were left waiting for years. Other Conservative Prime Ministers made similarly empty promises, which is why I particularly commend the Minister, the Business and Trade Secretary, their officials and the Labour Government for having finally concluded this free trade agreement. I look forward to this mutually beneficial agreement being formally signed. Can the Minister confirm that this landmark UK-India FTA will increase bilateral trade by £26 billion, increase UK GDP by £4.8 billion, boost wages by £2 billion year in, year out, and lead to many jobs in my Slough constituency and for people across both nations?

[Mr Alexander]

My hon. Friend seems to know my brief better than I do. In all seriousness, it is right to place on record our gratitude to the Prime Minister for his sterling work in getting this deal over the line. I also pay generous tribute to the Business and Trade Secretary, who has done an immense amount of work and whose visit to India in February with Minister Goyal unlocked a number of key issues that had proved to be sticking points for the previous Administration, and to officials at the Department for Business and Trade—both in London and, indeed, in India—who have worked tirelessly to secure this deal.

On its economic significance, I concur with the point that India is a huge and dynamic economy, but it is also right to recognise that we signed the right deal for the United Kingdom. This is the best deal that India has ever agreed to. It is expected to increase bilateral trade by about £25.5 billion and raise UK GDP, but we have managed to secure a deal more timeously than was anticipated and, frankly, we got a better deal than many expected.

Ukraine

Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi Excerpts

Monday 3rd March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Slough) (Lab)]

I welcome the Prime Minister’s statement, the warmth of his welcome and hugs for President Zelensky, and his show of leadership on defence and security matters in our continent as he hosted his Sunday summit of leaders in London. Can my right hon. and learned Friend assure the House that in our pursuit of a just, lasting peace, he will do his level best to convince President Trump to provide security guarantees for Ukraine, and to convince those NATO allies that are not spending 2% of GDP on defence to step up to the plate and do much more?

[The Prime Minister]

First, I am of course talking to President Trump about security guarantees—that formed a large part of our discussion on Thursday and our subsequent discussions. I think it is right that Europe does the forward leaning on this. We have to do more on security guarantees, but those guarantees need a US backing, and that is the very discussion that I am having.

On the question of spending, across Europe in this era, we now have to step up on capability, co-ordination and spending. That did form part of our discussions yesterday.