Speeches by Ballinger.

“I join my hon. Friend in celebrating Max Stokes and his wonderful achievements in Redditch. My hon. Friend knows Halesowen well, because he has campaigned there for many years, so I hope that he will be an advocate for my town throughout the competition. When I ask the Minister to recognise Halesowen’s cultural claim, …”

“I will just say that it has been an absolute pleasure to hear all the pitches from various Members about the many beautiful, interesting and historical towns in their areas; indeed, it feels like I now have my bank holiday weekend plans for the next 20 years all sorted out. I look forward to visiting many of those plac…”

“I beg to move, That this House has considered the UK Town of Culture competition. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Furniss. I want to begin by saying why the UK town of culture competition matters to towns like Halesowen. At its best, culture is not a luxury for places that are already well off; it is…”

“Unlike the hon. Member for Boston and Skegness (Richard Tice), I am very concerned that the leader of Reform UK has gone on television today to reject sending British troops to Ukraine to help secure a sustainable peace—”

“That is exactly what he said. Does the Secretary of State agree that the hon. Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage) should be ashamed, because we owe so much to the Ukrainian people who have fought so hard to secure democracy in Europe, and that this shows for real how much closer the leader of Reform is to Putin’s priorit…”

“I think we have covered most of the issues on defending democracy that I was going to ask.”

“Thank you.”

“I am pleased to hear about the sanctions that the FCDO has placed on a number of these organisations, including the Social Design Agency and others. As such organisations continue to pop up and as different techniques are being used by the Russians, do you think that economic sanctions—the sanctions that you are placin…”

“Sure. You have talked a bit about your work with DSIT in the Defending Democracy Taskforce and otherwise. We saw lots of evidence of inauthentic content in the European neighbourhood. How—inside that mechanism or otherwise—are you putting that information and sharing those lessons learned with DSIT so that they can see…”

“The Committee had the opportunity to visit a number of countries in the eastern European neighbourhood over the past few months—places like Romania, Moldova and Bosnia. You will be aware that there are massive Russian disinformation campaigns in those areas. I appreciate the sensitivities about sharing too much detail,…”

“The Minister has been too modest; he mentioned the September figures for the increase in recruitment, but the December figures were released just a couple of days ago, and they show a 20% increase in recruitment to the armed forces over the last year. Some 2,170 additional personnel were recruited in the year before. D…”

“Absolutely. You mentioned the ISF, and I think the UK has sent some personnel to work alongside the Israelis and the Americans at the Civil-Military Co-ordination Centre. We have also had lots of proposals from countries like Turkey, Pakistan and Indonesia to provide troops. Why is it taking so long for the ISF framewo…”

“I want to come back to the Board of Peace. Several Committee members were at the Doha forum a few days ago. When we talked to Qatari Ministers, they said that the Arab position is that the current set-up of the Board of Peace is unacceptable for them. We have seen lots of information in the press recently about Tony Bl…”

“We are embedded in the CMCC, and you have said that the humanitarian situation leaves a lot to be desired, what with the number of people who have died due to flooding, the huge restriction in tents, the small numbers of additional trucks that the UN is being allowed to deliver through, and Rafah crossing still being c…”

“Brilliant. Thank you, Foreign Secretary. I am glad that you mentioned working with the Syrian Government on normalising the situation there and building a more inclusive and representative country. I have one final question on this issue. Could you say a bit more about our work on the issues around governance and suppo…”

“There have been a number of appalling ISIS-linked attacks in recent days, including the devastating antisemitic attack in Australia. We are also seeing an uptick in ISIS-linked violence in Syria, where a number of American servicemen were killed over the weekend. What can you tell us about our response to ISIS in Syria…”

“You said earlier that humanitarian aid could be delivered now and should be delivered urgently, and now you are saying that it should be part of the next phase.”

“On the increase in funding for the Americas, is that for disaster response? What is the rationale for that?”

“So climate spending is increasing, while other areas are reducing. Is that the summary?”

“I have questions on migration, but does anyone want to ask about ODA?”