Speeches by Onwurah.

“I thank the Minister greatly for her generosity. As the Minister for the Indo-Pacific, she did a fantastic job of setting out the complex issues in response to Members’ contributions. I will take her up on her offer to write to me on these issues, and I will make sure that the Minister for the Middle East has both the …”

“I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention. I am pleased, though not surprised, to hear that the people of Wolverhampton West and the people of Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West, as well as people across our country, have a similar response to the horrific acts and suffering they are seeing. As I will set out in my…”

“I thank the Minister for her comments and the context she is giving. I just want to be clear about something: is the humanitarian aid we are providing to Gaza getting through into Gaza right now?”

“It is a great privilege to have secured this Adjournment debate on Government support for the people in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, but I regret immensely the need to do so. I, like most of the world, was horrified by Hamas’s attack on Israel and Hamas’s killing and kidnapping of Israeli citizens. I supported…”

“I am sure the Minister will join me in expressing our pleasure at seeing the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) in his place. I would not have felt that I had really had an Adjournment debate had I not heard his voice, for which I am very grateful. I thank the Minister for her comments. She mentioned that the set…”

“I am quite frankly astounded that the Leader of the Opposition seeks to portray herself as a champion of women’s rights when she has refused to recognise the reality of discrimination and harassment of women, and has stripped the funding from so many of the services that protect women. I pay tribute to the many Members…”

“Prime Minister, you have embraced science and technology as drivers of growth. Platform technology and AI are dominated by a small number of US companies. Your Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, Peter Kyle, said that these companies are so powerful that the UK needs to treat them as sovereign st…”

“Thank you. Finally—I just need a one-word answer—in a changing world, sovereign capability is reassuring and ensures we develop the requisite home-grown skills, but we do not have a sovereign, foundational AI capability. Can we defend ourselves without one: yes or no?”

“The deliberate spreading of false information—disinformation—threatens our security and our democracy. China spends between £8 billion and £10 billion a year on information operations; Russia spends about half that. What are we spending to counter state-backed online disinformation? Do we have the powers to effectively…”

“Yes, I agree.”

“I think it is clear that we have huge strengths when it comes to AI, Prime Minister. My question was more about the investment and our sovereignty over the impacts of the investment, given that we do not have control of the funding for that investment and given that those investment decisions are not being made in the …”

“At a time when we are desperately seeking investment, part of the power of these sovereign companies is in their pocketbooks. Google’s R&D budget is over twice your Government’s; Microsoft’s market cap is three quarters of our entire GDP; and of the £63 billion announced at the October investment summit, which you ment…”

“You have set out some of the significant risks, which you mentioned in assessing energy removals, but how quickly do we need to see those incentives set out to support the business models?”

“Thank you for emphasising how important it is to follow the science, Professor Forster. As an engineer and the Chair of the Select Committee, I take it that that means following and understanding the engineering, particularly when it comes to the role of engineered removals, which are particularly essential to the bala…”

“I read that, but I am interested in the business models. You also mentioned the polluter pays principle.”

“One of the things I notice is that those with a great desire or need to take action to reduce their carbon footprints—particularly young people, but not only them—are confused about what action might be best. What are the top three actions that people can take to make the biggest impact in reducing their carbon footpri…”

“Following on from Sammy’s points about communication, and particularly communication to the public, one of the things that is pretty hard to explain in two sentences on a doorstep is the seventh carbon budget—I haven’t tried yet. Particularly my constituents in less affluent areas have a negative impression of the poli…”

“Government policy on energy removals has focused mainly on BECCS—on bioenergy. Should Government be doing more to investigate other novel removal technologies? You mentioned a couple of them, but should the Government be doing more, particularly looking at the research and innovation budget?”

“That’s clear.”

“My hon. Friends the Members for Earley and Woodley (Yuan Yang) and for Sheffield Central (Abtisam Mohamed) have borne their detention and repatriation with great fortitude, courage, dignity and, indeed, grace, which makes the attack on them from the Opposition Front Bench all the more disgraceful. It is an attack on al…”