Speeches by Kane.

“I concur, Minister. I have a general question and a specific question, if that is okay. One is around whether the PSNI has the resources. All police forces are struggling in some sense or other with resources. Does the PSNI have the resource it needs? Your correspondence to us in September did not commit to ringfencing…”

“From your perspective, how do you think they are doing?”

“We have spent some time with the Police Service of Northern Ireland in recent months and I have been impressed with the chief constable’s language on this.”

“Thanks, Minister. It is great to have you. Thanks for being here today. I do not look at Twitter very often, but one of the accounts I do look at is Counting Dead Women. Anam Rafay, one of my constituents, was added to that list just the other month. In all my time in public life, either as a councillor or an MP, I hav…”

“Thomas More, a former occupant of your chair, Madam Deputy Speaker, once famously said that when we cut down laws to defeat the devil, we are defenceless when the winds turn against us. In conflict the enemy always has a vote, and Iran has chosen to restrict the strait of Hormuz. Does the Secretary of State agree that …”

“The Joint Maritime Security Centre has designated the Persian gulf situation as critical, and Nautilus International, the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers and the UK Chamber of Shipping have designated the strait of Hormuz, the Persian gulf and the gulf of Oman as a warlike area way into next mont…”

“As an alumnus of Manchester Metropolitan University, I noticed that it has stripped Peter Mandelson of all the honours that it gave to him while he was chancellor of that institution between 2016 and 2024. Can the Chief Secretary confirm that any contacts with Government and the Department for Education during that per…”

“What would you like to see?”

“The UK Government gave £8 million a year in 2025 for a programme that went to 2030, but Northern Ireland’s Executive programme ends this time next year. For you, what does that interregnum look like?”

“Thank you, gentlemen. Rob, can you describe the nature of your relationship with the PSNI when it comes to the Paramilitary Crime Task Force?”

“Do you have any initial response to Fleur Ravensbergen’s scoping report that was commissioned by the British and Irish Governments about the disbandment of paramilitaries?”

“Do you have any initial response to Fleur Ravensbergen’s scoping report that was commissioned by the British and Irish Governments about the disbandment of paramilitaries?”

“What would you like to see?”

“The UK Government gave £8 million a year in 2025 for a programme that went to 2030, but Northern Ireland’s Executive programme ends this time next year. For you, what does that interregnum look like?”

“Thank you, gentlemen. Rob, can you describe the nature of your relationship with the PSNI when it comes to the Paramilitary Crime Task Force?”

“So there will be co-operation rather than a chain of command. Could budgets go up and down depending on who takes responsibility?”

“Secretary of State, you mentioned the pressures that all police forces face in the United Kingdom. The UK Government is setting up a new national police service, and I want to get your view on how that would impact the chain of command with the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the National Crime Agency there? How…”

“So you see a way forward in terms of the timescale, with the Ravensbergen report in August?”

“May I associate myself with the remarks of the Secretary of State in paying tribute to the Police Service of Northern Ireland, who police in extraordinarily complex circumstances? They are targeted by terrorists, but our police forces here are also targeted by terrorists. As a Mancunian, I remember PC Stephen Oake, who…”

“Forgive me, but we have to point out that the Liberal Democrats were part of the coalition that started austerity in 2010.”