Speeches by Carden.

“I regularly hear from constituents who are being pushed out of their homes by rip-off hikes from unscrupulous landlords. The average rents in Liverpool have risen by 8%, well above the average for England. I welcome the Government’s action through the Renters’ Rights Act to tackle unfair rent increases, but it concerns…”

“I welcome the Foreign Secretary’s statement on an incredibly complex international situation. Maduro stole elections and murdered opponents, and 9 million Venezuelans were forced to flee their country. Venezuelans will be both fearful and hopeful for the future. This episode shows the US shifting to the western hemisph…”

“How will you evaluate the impact of those sanctions?”

“Are you satisfied with the current response across Europe and by NATO? It strikes me that, beyond fact-checking services, there is very little hard power, or strong soft power, to rebut some of this stuff.”

“Returning to the issue of the EU and looking towards Europe for European security, and Britain’s leading role in that, as well as the fact that talks on SAFE broke down, should you not be clearer in your condemnation of the Commission for its role in subverting what democratic leaders in Europe have stated as their aim…”

“Good afternoon, Foreign Secretary. You recently warned about an escalation in hybrid threats from malign foreign states that are seeking to undermine democracies across Europe. We have a missed a statement in the House of Commons today on electoral resilience because we are sitting in this Committee, but can you tell u…”

“Maybe we could hear from them sometime, Chair.”

“Can I just clarify something? Are these not ministerial decisions that need to be made?”

“I have one quick question. Are you able to say that UK diplomatic traffic and diptels that are “official” and “official-sensitive” level are secure?”

“I appreciate that. I know that there is upheaval in some embassies, with staff reductions. I would love to get a picture of whether they are FCDO staff, development staff or Business and Trade staff. Sir Olly, are you across the number of staff overseas from other Government Departments that are being reduced?”

“Practically speaking, you will know that British diplomats tend to head over to a country and spend four to five years there, and they rely heavily on in-country staff for institutional memory, expertise and support. How are you checking and making sure that we are not losing the real expertise of in-country staff? The…”

“Good morning. I should mention my role as a Government trade envoy, which crosses over into a little bit of this territory. Sir Olly, I wasn’t quite sure from your answer at the start whether you are already reducing numbers of staff overseas at this point. You mentioned that an overseas network review was taking place…”

“To be very specific, you are doing that for the FCDO, but right now the DBT is having to cut because of funding restrictions. FCDO and DBT staff work collaboratively in embassies. Where in-country staff are being cut because of DBT cuts, what can you do as the FCDO to keep that expertise in your embassies?”

“How can FCDO in-country staff feed into your overseas network review?”

“T2. Archbishop Beck Catholic college in my constituency has lost £700 per pupil since 2011, while the number of disadvantaged pupils has risen from 38% to 52%. It is an excellent school with strong leadership, creating great outcomes for pupils. Will the Minister look specifically at the funding calculation for Archbis…”

“Is there anything more we could do to incentivise other foreign nationals to come on to the Ukrainian side?”

“May I start by welcoming our colleagues from the Committee on Foreign Policy and Inter-Parliamentary Co-operation of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine? It is great to have them with us today, Chair. I will put the peace discussions to one side and focus on the battlefield situation. I will come to you, Heikki, and to the c…”

“Thank you. Oleksandr, may I come to you on the battlefield situation as you know it?”

“Oleksandr, I wanted to come on to personnel. What foreign national troops do we know are fighting on the Russian side?”

“I am grateful to the Minister and to the right hon. Member for New Forest East (Sir Julian Lewis) for their guidance. My constituent is frustrated; he has done extensive research, spoken to many people and been able to amass evidence, and I think what he would really appreciate is the Minister committing departmental t…”