Sir Julian Lewis: May I wish the new Secretary of State the best of luck in his new post and express the hope that the appearance of the Chancellor of the Exchequer alongside him on his first outing is not too symbolic of what has perhaps been going on in backrooms behind the Treasury?

On the question of the seizure of the ships, does the Secretary of State agree that there is a possibility that Russia may in response start to think about escorting such ships by means of warships? This would, of course, expose Russia’s hand very much more clearly, but it does bring a whole element of possible escalation into play, including the possibility of Ukrainian strikes against those ships. We all know how successful Ukraine has been in the Black sea, and it might end up doing something similar in the Baltic sea and beyond.

[The Secretary of State for Defence (Dan Jarvis): I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman, as I always am, for his sage counsel on these matters; he has been talking about them for very many years. He referenced the presence of the Chancellor on the Front Bench. The Chancellor is someone who cares very deeply about our national security; that is why she is here—to lend that support.

The right hon. Gentleman understandably raised a very important point about the risk and threat of retaliatory action from Russia. He will know, because he and I have discussed it on many occasions, that I have spent the last two years thinking very carefully about that particular point. Of course, we take every measure and use all the tools at our disposal to guard against that, but I think he will agree that, ultimately, the activity we saw in the English channel yesterday was the right one. We have to stand together against Russia in support of Ukraine, and that is what this Government will do.]