Speeches by Ballinger.

“Absolutely. I think that those of us who have served would recognise that development and defence are completely complementary. When we reduce our development spending, our defence spending needs to go up. After leaving the Royal Marines, colleagues and I worked with civil society in Syria, helping to keep hopes of a d…”

“Twenty years ago, I joined the Royal Marines. Roughly a year later, I was deployed to Afghanistan. I remember the challenges we faced: daily attacks from rockets and mortars and daily threats of improvised explosive devices, and the massive underfunding and disappointments with the Ministry of Defence’s procurement sys…”

“Last week, I was in the west bank, alongside other members of the Foreign Affairs Committee, on our wider trip to the middle east. While the world’s attention is rightly on the devastating humanitarian situation in Gaza, we met Palestinians in the Jordan valley whose schools were being attacked, whose mosques were bein…”

“Can the Minister confirm that her Department’s work is entirely consistent with the Government’s approach to China: co-operate where we can, compete where we need to and challenge where we must?”

“Thank you. I am glad that you mentioned young people because we were talking earlier about elections, and we were speaking to people from Romania about the cancelled elections a few months ago. They certainly believe that there was large-scale Russian interference through TikTok. Professor Tolz, could you say something…”

“Finally, when we were in France, we heard about their work with Telegram. Obviously, the CEO was arrested after Telegram did not co-operate with the French authorities. We met the Brazilian ambassador and spoke a little bit about how they suspended Twitter, when it was not complying with disinformation requests from th…”

“Gosh—okay.”

“Professor Innes, we talked earlier about the UK’s response. Can you share some reflections on how effective our sanctions have been against RT and other agencies? How well do you think the Online Safety Act might prepare us for this information space?”

“I welcome the increased number of British officers now working with Europol. Will the Minister tell me more about how we will work with our European partners to tackle transactional crimes such as people smuggling and drug trafficking?”

“I thank my hon. Friend for her intervention, and I wholeheartedly agree. Many European countries, as well as Australia, have put forward much stronger restrictions on gambling advertising, and it is very important for the protection of our children that we follow suit. It is also the same on social media: on X—formerly…”

“I agree with my hon. Friend that gambling companies are often preying on the most vulnerable in our society; those with the least and the most to lose. I wholeheartedly agree that stronger regulation is needed, and I will talk about that somewhat as I go. Children and young people are particularly at risk. Just last we…”

“I start this winding-up speech by paying tribute to Liz and Charles from Gambling with Lives, who have done so much to support measures to protect people who are suffering from gambling harms, and have worked with so many Members across the House on this campaign for so many years. I thank them. Turning to the points r…”

“I agree with my hon. Friend and will come on to the statutory levy in a moment. It is particularly important that that fund is used not just for treatment, but for prevention; I will talk a little bit about that as I get through my speech. Last year, the Gordon Moody charity received 12,000 applications for its six-wee…”

“I wholeheartedly agree with my hon. Friend that a population approach is appropriate in this case, particularly considering the number of people that are harmed and the NHS’s expertise in this area. As a country we are experiencing record levels of harm caused by gambling. The most recent statistics from the Gambling C…”

“I beg to move, That this House has considered gambling harms. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Turner—your premier chairmanship, I might add. I want to begin this debate by sharing a heartbreaking story about a young man, who I will call Ben. Tragically, last year, Ben took his own life at the age …”

“I agree that the time to act is now—we need stronger regulations and stronger presence of the health system in our response.”

“Yes, I agree that it is important that prevention should work across the piece, but I think it is more important to reduce the ubiquity of advertising that our young people are exposed to. They do not need to learn too young about gambling, and prevention should take that into account. As I said, the changes to the lev…”

“I am delighted that the right hon. Member raises this important point, and I agree with him wholeheartedly; I will come on to the levy in a moment. The public, too, are concerned about gambling advertising, with opinion polls consistently showing most people in the UK want a clampdown. As we have heard, we fall well be…”

“I agree that balance is important, but the situations that hon. Members have described in this debate show that balance is not there at the moment. No one is suggesting banning traditional forms of gambling such as bookmakers, horseracing, lotteries and so on. However, pernicious advertising and harmful online gambling…”

“That is a concern. We might need another debate to talk about the effect of online games on children. I welcome the Minister’s comments and thank her for the work she has been doing on this issue, alongside the Minister for Gambling. More needs to be done. We need a stronger push on gambling marketing, sponsorship— Mot…”