I am grateful for the time that my hon. Friend spent talking to me about SME potential in Dudley and across the west midlands last week. There is a huge opportunity to direct more of the increasing defence budget at British firms, and in particular SMEs. There is huge potential with the skills base in the west midlands. I would be happy to take my hon. Friend up on her offer of visiting Dudley and getting those businesses more involved in the defence supply chain.

I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for raising the important role that universities play. In the defence industrial strategy, published a few months ago, we set out our ambition to create a defence universities alliance, bringing together the very best cutting-edge research that is being done in our universities. We are working with Universities UK to put that together, and there will be further announcements in short order, but I hope that the universities on the right hon. Gentleman’s patch will participate so that we can grow our economy and keep our nation safe.