Speeches by Brickell.

“Given that disaggregation risk, is there not an argument to say, given the Government have yet to ban cryptocurrency, given the commission is going to bring forward guidance, and given three parties have already said that they are accepting, or open to accepting, donations, that the commission might look again at the e…”

“So at the moment, parties are receiving crypto donations, or are able to do so. Have you received any suspicious activity reports from agencies around crypto being received by political candidates, individuals, or parties?”

“Mr Rangarajan, the Elections Act 2022 introduced the requirement for a strategy and policy statement. I believe the commission is firmly against that requirement. Can you explain to the Committee why that is the case?”

“Presumably from the FCA.”

“On this point, you mentioned earlier in your testimony that you receive suspicious activity reports.”

“Given that disaggregation risk, is there not an argument to say, given the Government have yet to ban cryptocurrency, given the commission is going to bring forward guidance, and given three parties have already said that they are accepting, or open to accepting, donations, that the commission might look again at the e…”

“Thank you.”

“The hon. Member makes a valid point. We see that on high streets in my constituency time and time again, all too often, in the context of vape shops. As an aside, we all know that gambling today is no longer confined to a once-a-week trip to the bookies; it is on people’s phones, in their pockets and available 24 hours…”

“I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Brent East (Dawn Butler) on securing this debate and on her campaigning on this issue over the years. That includes this week’s letter to the Prime Minister, which had nearly 300 signatories and which she co-ordinated. She was quite right to say that our high streets are bei…”

“My hon. Friend is quite right about the spheres of influence that Russia seeks to exert across central and eastern Europe. Ivanishvili could be sanctioned under any number of our regimes—Magnitsky, global anti-corruption or even the Russian sanctions regime given his reported links to the Kremlin and his blatant kowtow…”

“I thank the right hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith) for securing this important debate and I am pleased to see the Minister in his place. He has already heard plenty from colleagues in the Chamber on sanctions, and I hope that today’s debate will provide further food for thought. Effe…”

“Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. Transparency is the name of the game here, so will the Minister confirm whether his Department has looked at publishing comprehensive data on assets frozen within UK jurisdictions, broken down by asset class, including assets held by individuals, state- owned enterprises and states them…”

“For years, solicitor Andrew Milne has been bullying, threatening and harassing leaseholders, including my Horwich constituents, into buying freeholds off him at massively inflated prices—sometimes as much as £25,000—yet the Solicitors Regulation Authority has done nothing to stop his outrageous behaviour, which has cau…”

“I want to pay tribute to my constituent, Alex Davies, who sadly passed away last November, the day after his 50th birthday, two years after his glioblastoma diagnosis. He is survived by his wife Emma and their two daughters. Alex volunteered to have his brain tissue frozen after two surgeries, for ongoing research at t…”

“The Minister knows I like to talk a lot about sanctions, so I welcome the measures that His Majesty’s Government have pursued over the last 12 to 18 months on disinformation designations in particular—for instance, Rybar. I want to talk a little more about the United States, however. Just before Christmas, US Secretary…”

“What do you make of what appears to be two former British diplomats lobbying on behalf of Milorad Dodik’s regime?”

“I want to come back to the topic of sanctions, but also Bosnia and Herzegovina. The “Democracy for Sale” Substack reported at the end of last year that Charles Crawford, the UK’s ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina in the mid-90s, and Sir Dominick Chilcott, former UK ambassador to Ireland, are both registered as lobby…”

“Five.”

“In your testimony earlier, Minister, you touched on individuals, in this place and elsewhere in UK politics, who propagate disinformation from other hostile actors, including hostile states. One of my areas of concern is the very small financial incentive that can often be used to propagate that. We saw that with the h…”

“Has any official within the UK Government been denied a US visa due to their work on countering disinformation or online safety following the introduction of new visa restrictions? Are you able to say?”