Speeches by Darlington.

“What the right hon. Gentleman has said is not a fact. The reality in my region is that Milton Keynes, the Labour-run local authority, has lower taxes than all the surrounding Tory authorities, including in Northamptonshire, which has failed over and over again. Two Conservative and now Reform councils have failed, as h…”

“I appreciate the opportunity to speak in this debate. I want to take on the challenge set by the shadow Chancellor, the right hon. Member for Central Devon (Sir Mel Stride), so let us talk about how we got to this point, and the devastating consequences. Under the last Government, despite 27 tax rises, Government debt …”

“Given the devastation of the United States Agency for International Development, the temporary cuts in official development assistance and the growing desperate situation in areas of Africa, is the Foreign Secretary willing to meet me and colleagues who have worked in and care about the region, to understand our long-t…”

“Happy birthday, Madam Deputy Speaker. I welcome the Foreign Secretary’s comments about recognition of Palestine, which, of course, is absolutely what all Labour Members stood on in our manifesto. I would like to raise specifically the devastation and starvation of people in Gaza and the numerous reports that the IDF ar…”

“I want to share with the House the deepest solidarity from the Ukraine Appeal and the Sunflower Ukrainian supplementary school in my constituency of Milton Keynes about the recent attacks in Kyiv and on the British Council. The British Council’s vital cultural initiatives have supported peace and created community cohe…”

“One of our previous strengths in science, science diplomacy and science soft power was our strength in regulation and standards, being able to influence ISO standards. It goes right back to when we drew up the oceans and decided who was responsible and what was territorial to whom, which has obviously had a huge impact…”

“It flows really well from the question Chi just asked you. I want to bring you back to space. Space command is probably the least developed chapter in the SDR. I have had the pleasure of seeing much of our capacity in that area. There seem to be two schools of thought. One is that we are behind, so we will just rely on…”

“During our inquiry on the SIT Committee about online misinformation, we heard from both Ofcom and the Minister for online safety, who sits in DSIT, but very clearly the BBFC sits in DCMS. Do you think that a cross-Government role is needed, and potentially somebody at a more senior level rather than a quite junior mini…”

“Thank you so much for having me, Chair. It is really interesting how similar these conversations are across Committees. I also had the opportunity to guest on the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee. We are all talking about the same thing, and so are parents, which is not surprising. You have already mentioned that we …”

“That is a really interesting point.”

“Absolutely. My second question is about deepfake porn. We talk about the gaps in the law, and potentially BBFC regulation, but deepfake porn is not actually within that categorisation. We heard last time that 95% of deepfake porn is not of celebrities, but of classmates, the woman down the road and others. Is that pote…”

“Do you think that there is a risk of Government dependency on your company, given that it permeates lots of other services, or is that an advantage because they are using a similar platform across different services?”

“You have contracts in the NHS, defence and now in education.”

“I have two questions. The first builds on Kit’s point. One of the biggest barriers to adoption of technologies is the GP network, which from the public’s perspective is our first point of contact with the NHS. What are you doing to get the digital strategy adopted at GP level and integrating GP practices into the infor…”

“How would you respond to this? Palantir is a US firm and there are some very big differences in approach to public services in the US and the UK. Some unflattering comments have been made by the chief exec about our citizens and their relationship to the NHS—calling it Stockholm syndrome. Given that you grew up in the …”

“I have a second question in a different vein. The Palantir service, we heard, is very good at sorting data to ensure that you could get patient cohorts and other sorts of identifiers. What is the regulation around academic researchers using those platforms and data to do their work? On what basis do we make that kind o…”

“I think you get my point: the criticisms that have been laid, and the potential risk to our ambitions and how we further develop those public services for our citizens.”

“Given the Trump Administration’s closeness to the digital and AI sector in the US, Trump’s personal intervention in banning states from having regulation in this area and his very different approach from us in terms of data management, online safety and all those sorts of things, how does a company like Palantir manage…”

“Gavin has very well explored the harmful nature of some of these chatting platforms, particularly the encrypted ones attached to platforms whose content might be applicable to children. The activity that happens in those chatrooms may not be safe for children. I have a wider concern. We talk about age verification, yet…”

“Sorcha and I have both experienced pile-ons from exactly the same source, shall we say, and it is not a pleasant experience. One of the things that I am quite keen on understanding in terms of Ofcom’s role and what Ofcom can do is that these pile-ons are not just one man with a particular fixation. It is their ability …”