CONSERVATIVE
New Forest East

DEFENCE – BRITISH INDIAN OCEAN TERRITORY & NUCLEAR WEAPONS - 28 January 2026

DEFENCE – BRITISH INDIAN OCEAN TERRITORY & NUCLEAR WEAPONS - 28 January 2026

Sir Julian Lewis: Very specifically, the Minister has read out something about what can be stored on the island. Can that include, and does it include, nuclear weapons? And on the earlier point about a deal, may I remind him of a saying from an earlier context – a different context – which is that no deal is better than a bad deal?

[The Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry (Luke Pollard): To help the Front-Bench team get to their shadow Cabinet meeting, I will not read out the same points again. [Interruption.] The shadow Minister invites me to do that, so I will. We are talking about the unrestricted ability to

“control the storage of all goods, including but not limited to fuels, weapons and other hazardous materials”;

I am very clear on this, but there are a few other questions that I want to get to. …]