Speeches by Ballinger.

“It is always a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Lewell. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Sittingbourne and Sheppey (Kevin McKenna) for delivering an excellent speech that covered many of the issues on which many of us in the all-party parliamentary group on gambling reform have been campaigning. I also t…”

“I agree with my hon. Friend—I am also concerned about the black market in online gambling—and I welcome the extra money that the Chancellor has introduced for the Gambling Commission, which has powers including blocking ISPs and blocking payments, among other things, to crack down on unregulated gambling. Does my hon. …”

“The point that I was trying to make was not at all that people who work in the gambling industry are not involved in meaningful employment. The online sector represents less than 10% of jobs yet makes enormous profits, so in fact, if online companies are taxed more, gambling companies are incentivised to put more peopl…”

“I want to speak in support of clauses 83 and 84 on gambling taxation. I of course strongly welcome these steps on remote gaming duty, which cover online slots, online casino games and other high-risk remote gambling products. Ahead of the Budget last year, I was one of more than 100 Labour MPs, alongside Gordon Brown, …”

“Does the hon. Gentleman accept that the proposal to harmonise gambling taxes, which the horseracing industry was most opposed to, was first proposed by his Government? It is something that they were proposing; we have just inherited it.”

“I thank my hon. Friend for giving way; she is delivering an excellent speech, and I support her campaign to end the aim to permit. Another issue I have heard lots of people concerned about is the 80:20 rule, which requires gambling shops to have only 20% of their machines to be the higher stake, more dangerous and addi…”

“I want to pay tribute to Colin Brookes, the president of Halesowen Town FC, who passed away at the end of last year doing what he loved most: watching his beloved Yeltz. After playing as a professional footballer and serving as a police officer, Colin dedicated 25 years of his life to Halesowen Town FC. He led the club…”

“I beg to move, That this House has considered the UK Town of Culture competition. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Furniss. I want to begin by saying why the UK town of culture competition matters to towns like Halesowen. At its best, culture is not a luxury for places that are already well off; it is…”

“I join my hon. Friend in celebrating Max Stokes and his wonderful achievements in Redditch. My hon. Friend knows Halesowen well, because he has campaigned there for many years, so I hope that he will be an advocate for my town throughout the competition. When I ask the Minister to recognise Halesowen’s cultural claim, …”

“I will just say that it has been an absolute pleasure to hear all the pitches from various Members about the many beautiful, interesting and historical towns in their areas; indeed, it feels like I now have my bank holiday weekend plans for the next 20 years all sorted out. I look forward to visiting many of those plac…”

“That is exactly what he said. Does the Secretary of State agree that the hon. Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage) should be ashamed, because we owe so much to the Ukrainian people who have fought so hard to secure democracy in Europe, and that this shows for real how much closer the leader of Reform is to Putin’s priorit…”

“Unlike the hon. Member for Boston and Skegness (Richard Tice), I am very concerned that the leader of Reform UK has gone on television today to reject sending British troops to Ukraine to help secure a sustainable peace—”

“Sure. You have talked a bit about your work with DSIT in the Defending Democracy Taskforce and otherwise. We saw lots of evidence of inauthentic content in the European neighbourhood. How—inside that mechanism or otherwise—are you putting that information and sharing those lessons learned with DSIT so that they can see…”

“I think we have covered most of the issues on defending democracy that I was going to ask.”

“Thank you.”

“I am pleased to hear about the sanctions that the FCDO has placed on a number of these organisations, including the Social Design Agency and others. As such organisations continue to pop up and as different techniques are being used by the Russians, do you think that economic sanctions—the sanctions that you are placin…”

“The Committee had the opportunity to visit a number of countries in the eastern European neighbourhood over the past few months—places like Romania, Moldova and Bosnia. You will be aware that there are massive Russian disinformation campaigns in those areas. I appreciate the sensitivities about sharing too much detail,…”

“The Minister has been too modest; he mentioned the September figures for the increase in recruitment, but the December figures were released just a couple of days ago, and they show a 20% increase in recruitment to the armed forces over the last year. Some 2,170 additional personnel were recruited in the year before. D…”

“Absolutely. You mentioned the ISF, and I think the UK has sent some personnel to work alongside the Israelis and the Americans at the Civil-Military Co-ordination Centre. We have also had lots of proposals from countries like Turkey, Pakistan and Indonesia to provide troops. Why is it taking so long for the ISF framewo…”

“I want to come back to the Board of Peace. Several Committee members were at the Doha forum a few days ago. When we talked to Qatari Ministers, they said that the Arab position is that the current set-up of the Board of Peace is unacceptable for them. We have seen lots of information in the press recently about Tony Bl…”