Speeches by Cooper.

“The biggest single issue holding back economic growth in my constituency is the poor transport connections. In a non-mayoral area, we have found it difficult to access development funding to solve that problem. Does my hon. Friend agree that the Government need to find a way of getting money into non-mayoral areas so t…”

“Would the hon. Gentleman like to reflect on the fact that what makes road transport more difficult is the massive pothole backlog that built up under his Government through the systematic underfunding of local government? Does he accept that this Government have put significant resources into fixing that?”

“Madam Deputy Speaker, you will of course be aware that the best summer attraction is the Northwich piña colada festival, which is enjoyed by boys and girls of all ages. I thank the Chancellor for her statement. The relief she is providing to the chemicals industry will be welcomed by sector businesses in Mid Cheshire. …”

“Interesting. Thank you. Is there anybody else?”

“That is so interesting. It is a bit like what I have heard: in the Ukraine war there are no-fly zone areas where tools are monitoring when something enters their airspace and they are automatically launching drones. This is the social media equivalent of that, isn’t it?”

“If I may though, with respect, have we not already seen an impact on election results? You say we might have a big event and there might be a moral panic and we have to legislate quickly, but we are getting it now, surely. This is not a nuclear weapon that is being deployed. This is the salami tactics. This is the drip…”

“Okay, thank you. Clearly this abuse can have a chilling effect on candidates willing to stand for election. What are the key reforms that you think that we could make to help protect these groups?”

“I have seen in my own constituency misinformation and disinformation around elections that can lead to abuse and harassment, in my case for council candidates. What starts online does not necessarily stay online and can lead to assaults of candidates in the real world. Hanno, could you give us a sense of the scale of t…”

“I thank the hon. Lady for giving way; she is being very generous with her time. She talks about green spaces. My constituency is in a section of the route that has now been cancelled, and is in the process of being removed from the Bill. We still have planning safeguards in place, and uncapped boreholes from ground inv…”

“You said that your role is not to come up with solutions, but notwithstanding that, as society becomes more dependent on social media for news, how do you think that our elections or indeed our discourse more generally can be protected from mis- and disinformation in these spaces?”

“So it created a distrust effect against the whole political class rather than saying left-wing politicians are responsible for this?”

“Are social media companies incentivised to amplify false or misleading content and how can we break this link?”

“The Government said that their objective is to preserve democracy for the next generation. From your experience, what do you think election mis- and disinformation will look like in a generation?”

“We are very focused on what happens during the regulated period, what happens during a short campaign, but from what you are saying it sounds like—certainly what Marianna was talking about, with the rise in decline porn and the sum total of disinformation that is being put out online all the time—this is a build-up of …”

“Interesting.”

“Do you think there is a risk that if Parliament ends up legislating for a social media ban at 16 we effectively end up letting social media companies off the hook, that we put a big check mark next to, “We have regulated social media now and we have protected our children from it”, but we ignore the fact that children …”

“Andrew Cooper, Member of Parliament for Mid Cheshire.”

“I thank my hon. Friend for her statement and for her leadership of the Select Committee during this inquiry. I would like to start by commending Cheshire West and Chester council for its efforts to substantially reduce B&B use for temporary accommodation. However, not every local authority is in the same position a…”

“Yes, indeed. You have expressed concern about the use of bank cards, as proposed by this Government, as a form of ID. What should the Government prioritise instead, if not bank cards?”

“Such a small number of people have been convicted of it. We heard earlier that 4% of people did not vote because of the requirement to have photographic ID. That is probably around 750,000 people, if that was replicated at the last general election. Is it proportionate to have introduced a measure such as this, based o…”