Speeches by Ballinger.

“I am grateful for the excellent contributions from my hon. Friend the Member for Portsmouth North (Amanda Martin), the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon), the right hon. Member for Dwyfor Meirionnydd (Liz Saville Roberts), my hon. Friend the Member for Dunfermline and Dollar (Graeme Downie), the hon. Member for S…”

“I am sure the Minister will respond, but the hon. Gentleman will know that there are allies of ours in the Mediterranean as well, including a large American flotilla. It is appropriate for us to work closely with other air defence assets. The single ship that we have sent would not have changed the situation entirely; …”

“The hon. Member makes a good point. Our naval capability has sadly diminished; we have fewer destroyers and frigates than we used to, and we are rightly deploying some of those to the Mediterranean and the middle east at the moment. There will have to be hard choices as we approach that timescale. I think those will de…”

“I beg to move, That this House has considered Government policy on NATO and the High Arctic. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Huq. There are slightly fewer people here than I was expecting—I think we have a clash with the Ministry of Defence estimates debate—which is a bit of a shame, but I am delight…”

“The Foreign Affairs Committee is going to Greenland in a couple of weeks. We hope to meet the Foreign Minister of Denmark, among other leaders of the Greenlanders, and that sounds like the kind of sensible suggestion that we should be talking about. Certainly, there are lots of opportunities for NATO to base troops in …”

“I absolutely agree that the JEF is a vital alliance for our operations in the High North. I met the Estonian ambassador only a couple of weeks ago, and we were pleased to discuss opportunities for co-operation, in addition to the UK forces that are based in Estonia, as part of deterring the Russian threat to that part …”

“What more needs to be done, if it is just a start?”

“Maybe this is a question for Nick, because Mark has answered all the others straightaway. You said that the transfer of service was a positive. Could you explain what that means in the Bill? Will it make the zig-zag between Regular and Reserve more likely for career paths? Will that have an impact on the size of the Re…”

“I thank the Prime Minister for his restraint so far in this operation, and for not heeding the calls of the Leader of the Opposition to get us embroiled in the reckless US and Israeli strikes on Iran. I still remember interventions in the region: colleagues not returning from Afghanistan, friends who were shot down ove…”

“I know that the hon. Member for Clacton has a number of additional jobs in combination with his responsibilities as an MP, but I had not realised, until his recent adventure, that small boat captain was among them. Maybe, as a former Royal Marine, I could help him with his navigation. Could my hon. Friend the Minister …”

“There was a recent change whereby families leaving the service would not be disadvantaged when moving into council houses and would not be subject to the same residency tests as anyone else. Is that the sort of thing that should be rolled out for all services across the board? Is that something that would be helpful, o…”

“Some of the evidence we have received has highlighted the difficulties families have when they are posted between nations—from England to Scotland or Northern Ireland—and people are put to the back of the queue in SEND waiting lists. You gave an example in your evidence of childcare costs going up by £12,000 for a fami…”

“I have a question, following on from Juliet’s, about employers. We have talked a lot about Government Departments and local authorities, but service leavers, spouses and others have a lot of interactions with employers, so I am pleased to see that employment is a new area included in the Armed Forces Bill this time aro…”

“T3. I welcome the changes set out in the gambling White Paper about the responsibilities of the Department in relation to the treatment and prevention of gambling harms. As part of the new responsibilities, will the Secretary of State commit to undertake a review of the impact of gambling advertising, marketing and spo…”

“It is always a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Madam Chair. I welcome the Bill and, more broadly, the Labour Government’s focus on our modern industrial strategy. In the Black Country, where manufacturing is our tradition, businesses are following this agenda very closely. I am pleased to see that the Bill will…”

“Thank you.”

“Mayor Klitschko, you have described some of the destruction that had been happening in Kyiv and the rest of the country as a result of the Russian invasion. We now know that many people require humanitarian assistance to get through the day. Could you tell us a little more about the type of humanitarian assistance you …”

“If you could ask the international community for one thing in terms of humanitarian aid, what would you ask for?”

“How have regional countries such as Brazil, Colombia and Cuba responded to the intervention?”

“How have the Governments responded to the intervention?”