Speeches by Ballinger.

“I am afraid that is not correct. The Gambling Commission has not written to me challenging my figures. Members of the gambling industry have written to the all-party group challenging some of the figures in other reports, but our figures are from the Gambling Commission’s own survey on children and young people. The st…”

“I will not accept that. Having met lots of people with lived experience of gambling and having seen the evidence in our report, I know there is a clear link between gambling advertising and halting the recovery of people with gambling addictions. An argument often used by the industry is that more evidence is needed, b…”

“The hon. Member raises the scale of public interest in this issue in Northern Ireland, and the number of people who are fed up and have had too much of gambling adverts, particularly those that are bombarding our children. I am glad he raises the situation in Northern Ireland, and we should be working together more to …”

“I beg to move, That this House has considered gambling advertising. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Harris, particularly as you have taken such an interest in gambling harm over many years. I am grateful to be able to open this debate on gambling advertising and its impact across the United Kingdom,…”

“Finally, Sir Olly Robbins said to the Committee this week that he felt there should be “prosecutions” for the leaking of this information. Do you share that view?”

“The hon. Member is making his point very well. He is talking about the unregulated market, which we also have real concerns about. Does he share my concern that some unregulated market advertising is being mixed with the regulated market advertising? Right now, we have premier league football clubs with unregulated fro…”

“The hon. Member talks about Formula 1, as well as other sports, but does he remember the rules that changed the tobacco sponsorship of Formula 1 and the strong resistance of that industry to those changes because of the arguments he is making right now? Does he also recognise that Formula 1 has become more successful a…”

“You have rightly talked about the importance of keeping this highly classified information in the vetting system away from the Committee and away from the public generally, but there appear to be at least two occasions where this information was leaked to the press. Two days after you informed the Prime Minister, there…”

“Sitting adjourned.”

“They have not written to me. We need to properly safeguard the next generation from gambling advertising that aims to normalise an activity that has been proven to be extremely harmful, and something that the Government have the power to act on today.”

“He obviously had access to all that information for many months. What steps is the Department, or Government generally, taking to ensure none of that is in future passed on?”

“I have one final question. You were PUS when the press first became aware that Peter Mandelson, in their words, “had failed his security vetting.” How do you think that was leaked and what do you think that says about the integrity of the UKSV process?”

“How common is it for you to have these borderline cases with UKSV, where you have to make a judgment call after not-clear recommendations?”

“So you believe that it was after the Cabinet Office and No. 10 had access to those documents that the press was made aware of these detailed national security vetting procedures.”

“Let me finish. The other important point is that it was not just the UK Security Vetting system that put a borderline process through, which the FCDO then approved; it was also the intelligence agencies. It is equally concerning that Peter Mandelson was given STRAP clearance. I asked Sir Olly directly whether any conce…”

“Now that the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister has suspended the ability for the FCDO to do that, what impact do you think that that will have on Department postings and the ability to get people into the right place?”

“I had a different interpretation. Sir Olly also said—we can look back at the transcript—that, yes, there was pressure from No. 10 to get the appointment done quickly. It could be interpreted that the Government wanted to get the appointment done before President Trump’s inauguration—there was an important timeline by w…”

“I can speak only to what the witness told us in the inquiry this morning. Many Members made the same case that the right hon. Gentleman is making now: that it was a red box case, as we have seen in the evidence submitted. However, Sir Olly was clear that this was a borderline case, and it is usual for the Foreign Offic…”

“I have come from the Foreign Affairs Committee sitting this morning, where we had the opportunity to speak to Sir Olly Robbins as our witness. I want to use my speech to pull out some of the pertinent points that we heard that I think are relevant. Before I start, I absolutely agree with Members across the House who sa…”

“Was Peter Mandelson granted STRAP access to the highest levels of classified information?”