Speeches by Doughty.

“I have spoken regularly in this place in the past, including when I was a member of the Home Affairs Committee, on these issues, and exposed all sorts of different issues that I had serious concerns around. Again, I would get away from focusing on individual platforms because the reality, particularly in terms of what …”

“We have made it very clear, and I have made clear again to the Committee today, that we are fully committed to upholding the right to free speech. I think it is one of the things that makes this country great. We support laws and institutions that are working to keep the internet free from very harmful content, and we …”

“No. We just do not comment on individual cases in that way and it would not be appropriate. We are obviously aware of this case and engage in the appropriate way, but US visa policy is for the United States.”

“You will appreciate, Mr Brickell, that there are ongoing processes around those individuals, so I am extremely limited in what I can say, but we are obviously aware that the United States has announced visa restrictions on two British citizens. We do not comment on individual cases; we continue to engage with the US on…”

“I will go back to what I said, which is that we are not talking here about individual comments, viewpoints or expressions on different matters. I strongly believe in freedom of speech; this country does and we have proud record on it. We are not talking about legitimate political discourse here, or expression of differ…”

“Absolutely, and I have been visiting and engaging in many of the same locations that you and the Committee members have visited. The first thing to say is that disinformation is nothing new. The Russians coined the phrase over a century ago, and we can look at many different examples in history, including extraordinary…”

“I would be very clear that President Trump is engaged in extremely important efforts at the moment, alongside ourselves, European partners and President Zelensky, to try and find a peaceful, just and sustainable end to the war in Ukraine. We are working very closely with him and his team on that issue and that is what …”

“The first thing I would say is that the US remains our primary partner in defence and security. It is a unique and special relationship that goes back decades, not least as NATO partners, but also in terms of our own extraordinary bilateral defence, security and intelligence co-operation. Ultimately, decisions for the …”

“We have excellent teams in our Iran unit. Along with Minister Falconer, I have worked with them very closely on issues relating to, for example, Iranian sanctions—we sanctioned 36 individuals in relation to malign Iranian activity—I am very confident in the advice and the expertise that we receive on these issues.”

“We are very clear about the risk from Iran. You will have seen that in the National Security Strategy last year we called out, “years of aggressive and destabilising activity by the Iranian regime which has included activities specifically targeted against UK interests at home and overseas.” I would include the matters…”

“We do not take either/or decisions like that. We take strategic decisions based in the UK’s national interest, and our national interests cover a range of issues. The Security Minister was very clear about the range of national security threats, and that we absolutely respond appropriately to those. There is a track re…”

“I am as deeply concerned by any reports of disinformation emanating from China as I am from anywhere else. We will continue to develop our capability to respond. We take a long-term and strategic approach to China, rooted in our national interest. There are huge opportunities with China as a trading partner and a co-op…”

“We have not publicly attributed any information operations from China in the UK, but you will be aware, and I am sure the Committee is aware, of allegations elsewhere in the world such as in Canada, the Philippines and Taiwan, that their authorities have referred to. Of course, we take information threats and informati…”

“I think you would agree with me that it is very important that we take any form of attribution or response to any allegations very carefully and seriously. We do attribution on a case-by-case basis. It is not helpful to speculate about potential actors. We take the security of our systems and data very seriously and wh…”

“What I would say, as we and other colleagues have said before on this issue, is that countries are considered separately, and decisions are made on the evidence. Of course, the political influence tier of FIRS, which came into force at the same time as the enhanced tier, includes all states. You referenced different al…”

“I do not really want to add anything further on that at this stage, for obvious reasons.”

“I am not going to get into that particular question. You will be aware of the reporting, but obviously we investigate any potential threat against the FCDO, or any other part of Government, very seriously and take appropriate measures to respond and build resilience against future attempts.”

“The sanctions do work; we know that. They work in terms of the sheer exposure of the organisations, their tactics and techniques, the fact that they are involved in things that might cause them to be sanctioned in the first place. We are very clear about that; that is why we continue to use that as one of the key tools…”

“Allocations across the board in ODA, as you will know, are under discussion by Minister Chapman. I am happy to write to you with further detail on that. I think there might be a misinterpretation of overall cuts versus cuts in particular programming here. I want to get you the exact detail on that and not give the wron…”

“On the second question, I go back to my earlier points about the wider commitment that we have across Government to spend 5% on national security by 2035. Of course, that includes tackling information threats, but I am very happy to write to follow up on that. Again, I do not want to appear reluctant, but rather than g…”