Speeches by Brandreth.

“When would you need to have an agreement on this by?”

“The treaty that the Bill will implement is shocking for so many reasons: the security implications, the staggering costs, and the voices that it has ignored—the voices of British Chagossians. Their views and concerns are many and varied. I had the privilege of meeting members of the community when they came to Parliame…”

“Following the tragic murder of her daughter Brianna, Esther Ghey has dedicated herself to making our schools safer. I have just come from an event that she is hosting in Parliament, at which she is calling for a statutory ban on smartphones in classrooms. Will the Minister for Children and Families, the hon. Member for…”

“My hon. Friend makes an important point. It has no navy and only nine coastguard vessels; it is not able to protect those waters. Even if illegal fishing were controlled, the Mauritian Fisheries Minister has already spoken of wanting to issue fishing licences around the Chagos Islands. The agreement provides no guarant…”

“Are there things that you think the cell could do to be more effective or to work more collaboratively with legitimate local security partners, and things like that, to improve its effectiveness?”

“Thank you. To you, Grace, and picking up on what James Kynge was saying, how do you see China’s use of state-backed media and social media to influence and shape global narratives?”

“I want to ask about the counter-Daesh communications cell, which the UK leads on, to undermine propaganda in parts of Africa, and also I believe in the middle east and Afghanistan. How effective do you think it has been in building that resilience against terror and extremist narratives?”

“Are there things that you think the cell could do to be more effective or to work more collaboratively with legitimate local security partners, and things like that, to improve its effectiveness?”

“I want to ask about the counter-Daesh communications cell, which the UK leads on, to undermine propaganda in parts of Africa, and also I believe in the middle east and Afghanistan. How effective do you think it has been in building that resilience against terror and extremist narratives?”

“Thank you. To you, Grace, and picking up on what James Kynge was saying, how do you see China’s use of state-backed media and social media to influence and shape global narratives?”

“At the start of this Parliament, I could not have imagined that we would be asked to consider a Bill that is so uniquely detrimental to our national security, the British taxpayer, the British Chagossian people and the environment. Not only are we ceding sovereignty of a critical overseas territory, but we are paying a…”

“I want to take a moment to ask the Ministers about the deal for UK fisheries as part of the UK-EU reset. I wanted to share from fishing industry leaders. The first is from the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation CEO, Elspeth Macdonald, who said that, on fishing, the deal struck by this Government was a “really unfair and u…”

“Will there be a sovereignty clause?”

“You mentioned Gibraltar’s sovereignty. Back in June, the previous Foreign Secretary, when giving an update on the agreement, said in his statement to the House that a clause explicitly protecting sovereignty would be inserted. Can you give us a bit more detail about that clause?”

“On Gibraltar, which was mentioned, the FCDO announced a political agreement for a new treaty with the EU, but we haven’t seen any of the detail of that yet, so I just wanted to find out when we are likely to see the final treaty and whether there are any significant issues of contention remaining.”

“Thank you.”

“So no payments have been promised or made yet? Nick Thomas-Symonds indicated dissent. Stephen Doughty indicated dissent.”

“I have a quick follow-up. I appreciate that you cannot make a commitment at this stage about the level of future funding, but can you clarify whether the UK has already made any payments in relation to the EU SAFE fund, and if so, how much and what access has been promised—”

“It’s not just me; it’s the UK fishing industry that is asking.”

“I don’t think we are disputing that.”