I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his question and I share his passion for keeping our country safe. However, I refer him to the work of Operation Isotrope, a military operation undertaken by the last Conservative Government that put the Navy in charge of securing the English channel. That operation concluded that naval assets were not suitable for stopping small boats; it is already a dangerous crossing and using military assets only made it more dangerous. The armed forces are now assisting the Home Office and Border Security Command, looking at how we can provide accommodation to close asylum hotels and speed up the processing of asylum applications.

I thank the Chair of the Select Committee for his question. The Ministry of Defence is part of the cross-Government response to small boats. We are stepping up our support to assist our colleagues in the Home Office. The Home Office remains the lead Department, but every Department can contribute something to this effort and it is right that the Ministry of Defence does so. We continue to protect the nation and deliver the changes as laid out in the strategic defence review.