Speeches by Ballinger.

“The question is about the current blockade.”

“Are there blockades in place at the moment?”

“So your position is that, despite the UN reporting that over 90% of people in Gaza faced food insecurity last week, it is acceptable to conduct the blockade because there was lots of aid delivered in the past?”

“Let me just say that I am sure everybody here shares your ambition to have the hostages released as soon as possible.”

“There was a process during the ceasefire whereby many Israeli hostages were released. I wanted to ask about the end of that ceasefire on 18 March, when Israel conducted some airstrikes that ended that process. I think that there are many people in Israel who disagreed with that decision. There are many military people—…”

“The question is about the current blockade.”

“First, I take your claim that the IDF has the highest standards of IHL for any army in history as outrageous. Having served in the British military myself, I think that is a particularly staggering claim. I would like to ask about international humanitarian law again, and aid deliveries: 91% of people in Gaza are facin…”

“Are there blockades in place at the moment?”

“So your position is that, despite the UN reporting that over 90% of people in Gaza faced food insecurity last week, it is acceptable to conduct the blockade because there was lots of aid delivered in the past?”

“With other members of the Foreign Affairs Committee, I was in Ukraine before Easter, and there were three separate air attacks while we were in Kyiv. Fortunately, the air defence in Kyiv is particularly good, but that is not the case elsewhere in the country. Could the Secretary of State say more about how we are suppo…”

“Does my hon. Friend agree that many of the people who operate in the background do so on the behalf of our foreign adversaries—countries like Russia and Iran—who outsource this sort of work to sow division inside our society? We should work with the Government as hard as we can to tackle that.”

“Can the Minister confirm that the confirmation of the legal status of the base on Diego Garcia will strengthen our influence in the Asia-Pacific and put us in a strong position to counter the influence of China?”

“I was devastated to hear of the expansion of military operations in Gaza this week, alongside the aid blockade in the region. That is a clear breach of international humanitarian law. The Minister has said that he urges Israel to respect IHL. If Israel continues to ignore the international community on that, what concr…”

“In your view, why was there such a pivot from being a very pro-European party to being suddenly a pro-Russian party?”

“Thank you, Madam President. You talked about the foreign influence law and the US-inspired law on foreign agents. Could you say a little more about the impact this will have on civil society and the media in Georgia?”

“Thank you, President Zourabichvili. Carrying on from Blair’s questions, I wanted to ask first about the Georgian Dream party. You were supported by Georgian Dream back in 2012. Could you say a little bit about how that party has developed over the last 13 years?”

“As others have said, today is the anniversary of the deaths of James Kirby, John Chapman and James Henderson—three former servicemen. We further heard about the 15 aid workers who were killed last week. UN Under-Secretary-General Tom Fletcher has described them as having been killed one by one and buried in shallow gra…”

“We are talking about procurement. Just this week I met Members of the European Parliament in Brussels to talk about our collective response to Ukraine. One of the challenges that Somers Forge in my Halesowen constituency faces is the struggle with European supply chains and the trade barriers between the UK and Europe.…”

“I recently visited Somers Forge in my constituency—it is the 10th oldest SME in the United Kingdom, and has been supplying defence equipment since the Battle of Blenheim in 1704. It was great to meet with its team, and see the important work that it does. Does my hon. Friend agree that our defence industrial strategy w…”

“Thank you, Minister, for your statement in the House yesterday. We are obviously hearing about the terrible attacks that happened last week, in which many Alawites have been massacred, but at the same time we are hearing positive news about the Government in Syria, with the SDF co-operating with HTS and the PKK potenti…”