Speeches by Morello.

“I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for North Norfolk (Steff Aquarone) on securing the debate. Around 15% of households in West Dorset rely on heating oil as their sole source of heating, and in some villages, including Yetminster, Bradford Abbas and Longburton, the proportion is almost half of all households. In …”

“The hon. Member says that policing is often a thankless task. On behalf of the House, I pay tribute to and thank him and the many other fantastic police officers, including in Dorset police, for their work. The hon. Member talks about the fairness of representation. I had a constituent whose daughter, a police officer,…”

“To revisit the Chair’s earlier point about the complexity of the Government ecosystem here, you have talked about the National Security Online Information Team with particular reference to the Defending Democracy Taskforce. Minister, can you just talk us through exactly what DSIT’s responsibilities are perhaps for any …”

“It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Mr Stringer. I congratulate the hon. and gallant Member for Spelthorne (Lincoln Jopp) on securing this important debate. I confess that I had prepared to do far more debunking of climate-denying nonsense, given some of the statements by the hon. and gallant Member’s party …”

“I ask this question because when we had the Electoral Commission in front of both this Committee and the Joint Committee on National Security Strategy, and we asked how many prosecutions there had been—I would have to check the transcript—but relating to foreign interference in terms of funding issues I think it said t…”

“You just mentioned JESP, which for anyone online is the Joint Election Security and Preparedness Unit. Does DSIT own that, or is that cross-departmental as well?”

“In your experience of using social media platforms such as X, do you see any evidence that the social media companies are effectively preventing the spread of misinformation and foreign interference?”

“I was just wondering whether you are aware of how many times Ofcom has referred an incident for prosecution? How many times has Ofcom either demanded something be taken down directly, or referred it internally within Government as an example of malign influence, or referred something for prosecution, if that is within …”

“Are you able to find out if there has been?”

“Do you want to talk us through what that process is?”

“The hon. Member for Sleaford and North Hykeham (Dr Johnson) suggests that we should utilise the least useful land going. My understanding, according to the numbers I have looked at, is that at least 2% of the UK is covered in golf courses, which are ecological wastelands. At the risk of alienating all the golfing voter…”

“Can you give us any examples of what a response from JESP might be? What does that look like? What are the levers that you have to pull?”

“I can certainly agree with the argument that putting solar on grade 1 land should be avoided wherever possible. The right hon. Gentleman may be interested in the recent report of the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy on our adversaries’ attempts to cut subsea cables, and on the implicit danger of having…”

“My hon. Friend is 100% right. Wherever possible, we should generate and use on site. The problem so often—I will come to this point in my speech—is that the value of anything that is exported to the grid fundamentally underlines any kind of investment model when we are looking at on-site generation.”

“I certainly understand that. One thing that I am struggling with—surely anyone externally would struggle with—is the nature of the fragmentation: the number of Government Departments involved and independent regulators such as Ofcom and the Electoral Commission. There is also the time period over which stuff is looked …”

“Absolutely. One of the major criticisms from Rycroft’s independent review was that there was no one official who could confidently explain to me how the different parts of this jigsaw puzzle come together. I am just wondering, Minister, whether the system that has been built up is fit for purpose, given the range of th…”

“Minister, given what you have just said, do you use any social media platforms?”

“Some of the most effective examples of countering misinformation and disinformation and foreign influence online that this Committee has seen have been in France, Ukraine, and Sweden: countries that are extremely attuned to the threat, especially from Russia. All three of those have some version of a national counter-d…”

“In his statement, the Prime Minister said that he wanted to double down on NATO. President Trump has attempted to use the threat to withdraw from the NATO alliance to blackmail other NATO countries into joining his illegal endeavour in Iran, and he has threatened to annex the sovereign territory of another NATO member …”

“I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Melksham and Devizes (Brian Mathew) on securing this important debate, and I thank him and the Minister for giving me permission to speak. I am in danger of repeating many of the points that my hon. Friend made, but they are important points, and this is an important issue. …”