Speeches by Kumaran.

“Minister, you spoke about the trauma and the grief. Having walked through Hostage Square myself, we cannot overstate the level of trauma and grief that the Israeli people are feeling. It is palpable. It is in the air. We were there on the day of the Bibas family funerals, and it was devastating. There is a replica of a…”

“We have been talking about the recognition of the state of Palestine. There is a real risk here that there will be nothing left to recognise very soon. We are seeing the annexation of the West Bank in front of our eyes. We have seen huge swathes of Gaza reduced to rubble. They have cut electricity. They have cut suppli…”

“I appreciate that it is a fast-moving situation and there is limited clarity. We have seen some really shocking videos this weekend of some of the violence. What assurances can the Foreign Office give us that you are working to ensure the safety of religious and ethnic minorities there? Are we emphasising this with dis…”

“These measures will ensure protections for all the 2.4 million people in the UK with irregular work patterns, be it zero-hours contracts or agency contracts. Can the shadow Minister tell the House why he thinks agency workers do not deserve the same protections as everyone else?”

“Will the shadow Minister give way?”

“I would like to thank the Clerks of the Foreign Affairs Committee, of which I am a member, and the International Development Committee for their support, and my hon. Friend the Member for Rotherham (Sarah Champion) for securing this supplementary estimates debate. Late last year, the Foreign Affairs Committee heard evi…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir John. I thank the right hon. Member for Gainsborough (Sir Edward Leigh) for moving the motion. The remarks we have heard today have been powerful. Last week, as a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, I travelled to the west bank—to the Occupied Palestinian Terr…”

“T8. At nearly every single one of my advice surgeries, leaseholders in Stratford and Bow have told me appalling stories of disrepair, high service charges and no accountability from management agents, after years of broken promises of reform by the Conservative Government. I am pleased about today’s announcement on lea…”

“Professor Tolz, I was reading some of your work and multiple things stood out to me, but two of the starkest were when you wrote that Russia continues “to perceive the media environment as a ‘strategic tool’” and that we have witnessed factually falsified content on a scale unprecedented even by the standards of the pa…”

“Thank you; that is fascinating. I have a follow-up question for Professor Innes. How common are disinformation campaigns like this, whether it is through bots, social media or more mainstream broadcast channels? We are looking just at Russia, but globally, is it a common occurrence now?”

“We would definitely welcome you back with the findings of that work.”

“I was. Thank you for bearing with us. You were explaining, Dr Roozenbeek, the two pillars of fighting disinformation. You said that one was better detection of disinformation spread through the bots, and the other was detecting the people who sell those fake accounts. Could you pick up on the fake accounts?”

“You mentioned the desire not to stifle free speech and the fact that Governments are wary of that, but in the light of this, and especially in the light of what you are saying about AI, do you think Governments can go some way towards stemming the flow of this?”

“Have they survived the cuts? With what is going on in the US, and with them getting rid of the fact-checkers, have these units survived?”

“Is it mostly in the English language? We are obviously focusing on RT putting out things to perhaps a western audience, but is it in other languages as well?”

“Sorry to make you speak even more, Dr Roozenbeek. You have said that prevention is better than cure, and, following on from Blair’s question, you said earlier that it is not bad, but it is not a cure-all, so those things are quite interesting juxtapositions. You worked on a game—Bad News—during covid to fight the disin…”

“Conservative Members are speaking up now, but I was present at the United Nations General Assembly when they risked investor confidence in the UK. The then Prime Minister rowed back on net zero commitments, risking investor confidence in the UK and risking our global reputation on climate leadership. This Government ar…”

“Maya, your point about the Government not being entirely clear on what they want to achieve by the sanctions is quite an interesting one. What is the point of having sanctions in place if the end outcome is not made clear? What does it achieve? Tom, you asked earlier what we want to see changed or reversed. If that is …”

“In the light of what you have said, and taking on board the FCDO point, do you think the Government could be bolder in their use of sanctions, including Magnitsky-style sanctions?”

“I appreciate that you have mentioned Russia, but in a previous session I pushed the Foreign Secretary on why we have not sanctioned individuals from the former regime in Sri Lanka, for example. The USA and Canada have imposed Magnitsky sanctions on certain individuals, but we are lagging behind. That is a clear example…”