Speeches by Slinger.

“My hon. Friend is making a very powerful speech. He quite rightly mentioned that the Reform UK Members are not in their place, and does he agree with me that this really is a travesty? When we think about the social media posts that they put out and the grand speeches they give up and down this land, does he agree with…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Stringer. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy (Melanie Ward) for securing this important debate. We must continue to strive to use every possible avenue for delivering supplies, so I welcome the Government’s co-operation with Jordan…”

“The UK and Poland have a very close defence and security relationship; Poland is, of course, one of our most important European allies. What plans does the Minister have to strengthen this relationship and those with our other allies? Does he agree that we need to do all we can to calmly make clear to our population th…”

“Given that, under article 51 of the UN charter, any pre-emptive strike is normally regarded as justified only when a threat is imminent; that article 2(4) states that “all Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence o…”

“Thanks, Chair. And congratulations, Minister, on your appointment. The Science, Innovation and Technology Committee of the Commons and the Lords’ Communications and Digital Committee have both expressed concern about how your Department is scrutinising the Act. Do you have any thoughts about how parliamentary scrutiny …”

“Absolutely.”

“When we had the Ofcom officials giving evidence before the Committee recently, one aspect of their work was looking at the tools that social media companies are developing and could potentially deploy. Those included allowing users to stipulate whether or not they would allow anonymous accounts, for example, to comment…”

“Will the hon. Gentleman give way?”

“I thank the hon. Gentleman for giving way. The former Prime Minister, the right hon. Member for Richmond and Northallerton (Rishi Sunak), called the Mauritian Prime Minister on 22 February 2024 and reassured him that “the UK remains committed to a mutually beneficial outcome…and their teams look forward to continuing t…”

“On the point that the right hon. Lady makes about the alleged surrender of sovereignty, which has been made consistently by Conservative Members, does she accept that on 29 April 2024, just weeks before the election, the former Prime Minister—the right hon. Member for Richmond and Northallerton (Rishi Sunak), under who…”

“Will the hon. Gentleman give way?”

“Does my hon. Friend agree that this is not a case of people’s democratic rights to protest being curtailed? The democratically elected Government and Parliament have legislated, Members have proscribed Palestine Action lawfully, and now police enforce the law free from political interference. The law is clear: people a…”

“I attended the inaugural meeting of the all-party parliamentary group on play this week, chaired ably by my hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth East (Tom Hayes), and heard more about the importance of play. I am glad that is referenced several times in the Government’s excellent strategy. Have the Government looked …”

“As my hon. Friend was giving his eloquent and excellent speech, I was reminded of a comedy series called “Blackadder”, in which such bizarre electoral practices happened on our television screens. It is a shame that they seem to be happening even today.”

“Does my right hon. Friend agree that whereas the leader of Reform, the hon. Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage), was yet again in the United States—speaking perhaps a little too freely about freedom of speech in this country, and doing Britain down—this Government, led by the Prime Minister, were building Britain up, inc…”

“Building on what Mr Speaker said, you have been criticised by people in the United States. You and us collectively as a country, and probably a Government and a Parliament maybe, are likely to come under more attacks around freedom of speech and overly zealous regulation, as they would see it. I noticed that Lord Grade…”

“Thank you for that. That is very helpful because the way that those algorithms operate when it comes to this particularly difficult issue of what is free speech, what constitutes appalling racist abuse, such as what Ben has to endure, the kind of attacks and intimidation that we receive often as Members of Parliament w…”

“We took evidence from Patricia Rossini, who is a lecturer in political communication, media and democracy at the University of Glasgow, who you may be aware of. She made clear that the platforms are not transparent and it is interesting because you were talking a lot about transparency but they are not transparent in t…”

“Will the shadow Minister give way?”

“I agree entirely. Obviously, there is not an unlimited amount of money, but we—whether Government, hon. Members, charities or businesses—must do everything we can to ensure more devices in our communities. I will conclude by saying that Naomi is calling for Jamie’s law. This would make it mandatory for all police vehic…”