Speeches by Kumaran.

“China has used its national security law to criminalise political dissent and target Hongkongers in the UK. My constituency of Stratford and Bow is home to one of the largest Hongkonger populations in our country, and they tell me how scared they are of the proposed Chinese mega-embassy in our neighbouring east London …”

“What you are saying is right; the Committee is pretty terrified listening to what we heard. Given the fact that this is warfare—it is hybrid and cognitive warfare—have we considered establishing a national counter-disinformation centre where all this work can be dealt with by one unit, rather than different Departments…”

“How confident, or comfortable, are we that we can explain to the British public that this is happening? Are the Government willing to declassify or make public any of this information? If you go on Reddit, if you Google or if you look on Twitter, this stuff is out there. Are the Government considering a public informat…”

“Following the annulled Romanian election, the European Commission opened formal proceedings against TikTok for the scale of the disinformation that was out there, using the Digital Services Act. Given that we have different sets of tools for regulating risks around elections here, are we working with European partners …”

“We heard extensively that cognitive and hybrid warfare is quite terrifying when the Committee visited Romania late last year. They held their presidential elections in 2024 and those were suspended due to the sheer scale of disinformation from Russian intervention. One of the things that we discussed was the informatio…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for sharing Sarah and Hari’s story, which is a powerful reminder of why play is important. My constituent Eleanor wrote to me last week following the unexpected withdrawal of funding for her level 7 play therapy apprenticeship. She is an experienced teacher who had taken it on as additional train…”

“We have a National Cyber Security Centre, and I guess this is comparable. Would the FCDO make representations to say that you think it could be a centralised unit?”

“Not a taskforce, sorry, but something like the countering disinformation centre I mentioned earlier. Why can we not have just one central agency?”

“Minister, what is the reluctance to have a central taskforce here?”

“I thank the Minister for his announcement on Erasmus+, which is hugely welcome news for students and for my youngest constituents in Stratford and Bow. Before I came to this place I worked with the Mayor of London in calling for an Erasmus scheme, and the UK-EU Parliamentary Partnership Assembly, of which I am a member…”

“I welcome that. If you are looking at a package of further sanctions, please do consider some of the other individuals who have been put forward.”

“When your predecessor appeared before the Committee in November ’24, and again in July ’25, I asked him about justice for the Tamil community in Sri Lanka. An investigation by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights found that there were reasonable grounds to believe that Sri Lankan forces c…”

“T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.”

“Foreign Secretary, you will be aware of the devastating flooding in Sri Lanka as a result of the cyclone; it is one of the worst humanitarian and natural disasters there. I thank the Government for the support that we have given, working with humanitarian partners. Can I get your commitment that you will look again at …”

“I thank my right hon. Friend for that clarification. By the time my constituent gets her day in court, she will have waited nearly a decade for justice. That is the cost of the Tories’ broken court system—unacceptable waits, contributing to a tragically high number of victims not proceeding to trial. The result is near…”

“Last night, we heard really moving testimony from Reverand Jack Sara from the Bethlehem Bible College, about the desperate plight of those in Gaza and the flooding we are seeing. I hope the UK will be looking to push on further humanitarian assistance. In the last few weeks, there has been a lot of coverage of the deat…”

“The FCDO jointly delivers climate finance with DESNZ, DSIT and DEFRA. Under the previous Government, there was a commitment to spend £1.6 billion on international climate finance between 2021 and 2026, but the Independent Commission on Aid Impact raised concerns about the double counting of ODA. Humanitarian aid was wr…”

“Sorry.”

“It is not a brief that I have; it is the response to a freedom of information request by Carbon Brief. Prior to being elected, I worked in climate diplomacy. It is great to hear what we are doing on flooding and helping climate resilience globally, but some of the projects include work on providing food and basic neces…”

“Finally, does the FCDO still have climate as one of its priority areas? I know the previous Foreign Secretary stated that it did, but has the direction of travel been the same under the new Foreign Secretary?”