Speeches by Smith.

“The whole point of the debate is to ensure that we know where the money comes from, that we know how it has been gained, and that the individuals must pay a penalty if they are involved in what is illegal or inhuman. The key point is that all those matters can be picked out by the Magnitsky sanctions. I mentioned Myanm…”

“The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right and that is the whole point of today’s debate. My feeling is that this Government and even the previous Government have to a degree dragged their feet. I often say to the Minister, who I know very well—we have debated with each other endlessly—that it seems not to matter who is in…”

“I will indeed be very quick, Madam Deputy Speaker. I thank the hon. Members for South Dorset (Lloyd Hatton), for Dewsbury and Batley (Iqbal Mohamed), for Kensington and Bayswater (Joe Powell), for Macclesfield (Tim Roca) and for Bolton West (Phil Brickell), who all made speeches, for their support in this debate. In wi…”

“It has two effects. First, anything to do with any finance or movement or visitations to the United Kingdom are immediately ruled out and the seizure of financial entities can take place. Secondly, it influences other countries to do the same. America may work with us on that, too. Two of the greatest financial markets…”

“I absolutely agree with my right hon. Friend. We have a tool here that can be used to drive back those who act badly—in this particular case, against a country illegally invading a neighbouring democratic state—so we should use this ability to sanction those involved and to increase such sanctions dramatically. I know …”

“I beg to move, That this House is concerned that serious human rights abuses, including crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture, together with widespread grand corruption, continue to escalate in an increasingly unstable global environment; notes that global human rights and anti-corruption sanctions, commonly …”

“I really do not know the answer to that question. All I can say to my hon. Friend is that we act individually and are supposed to co-operate, but that does not always work. We have seen with the Chinese and others that America leads the way and we half follow, or do not follow at all. My concern is that we do not champ…”

“I apologise that I will not be able to stay for this debate because I have to follow up with the family of Ryan Cornelius—they were in the Gallery earlier —whom I referenced during the previous debate. As the hon. Member knows, we on the all-party parliamentary group on gambling reform have taken very seriously the les…”

“The Secretary of State knows of my support for the Government’s persistence over Ukraine, and I welcome his statement. We have spoken endlessly throughout this process. I am, however, deeply worried about deploying British troops into what is basically a first-world-war war, as it were. The fact that more than 2 millio…”

“I simply say to the Secretary of State that it does seem like ridiculous haste when the Bill is going through the House right now. Surely to do this when he knows for a fact that there is already an appeal going on does, as has already been said, become abusive of the real purpose of a remedial order. I suggest to him …”

“I think there is something peculiar about our whole system. I mean, I was in Government for a while; if you are not careful, Governments try to make no fast decisions. But the truth is that there are times when you need to make speedy decisions. We are under threat in this country from this alliance of totalitarian sta…”

“We are basically creating an explanatory note with respect to the statement here on the front page. I would probably want to stretch the wording a wee bit more than that, but it does not have to be much more; it needs to have a focus. Everybody will know what this debate is all about. But we need to vote on this if we …”

“This debate has the support of 18 Members; we probably would have had more, but we came forward with it as a result of other actions that have taken place in the Chamber that were unsatisfactory. Those actions have been unsatisfactory for a while, as you will know, on many occasions. The idea is that this House is conc…”

“Well, I hope the comments I have made already tell you the urgency of this. The problem we have is that things may move—things may happen soon—and we may lose the chance to go after individuals to sanction them if we do not do it early. If we wait until after Easter to point out the failings of Government agencies in t…”

“That is very good of you, Mr Blackman.”

“No. How can you be? They are not in place. They are not going ahead. There is this whole issue about the money that exists that is sitting in Euroclear in Belgium, which is now being decided by the EU and I hope they make their minds up on this one, but we have similar money sitting in London. Whatever happens with Rus…”

“I congratulate the hon. Member for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East (Seamus Logan) on securing this urgent question. Although there have been two recent sanctions—[Interruption.] All right, four, if we add in the other two. In reality there are 21 other Sudanese, many of them RSF, operating here in the United Kingdom…”

“I agree with the right hon. Lady in her comments about the terrible attacks in Bondi, and I congratulate her on raising that now, but I rise to express the view again that this case is not only about Hong Kong, but about this Chamber. I have been named nine times in the prosecution case against Jimmy Lai. Others have b…”

“The right hon. Gentleman is making a very good case. I am utterly opposed to digital ID, as are many of my constituents. One of them has made the point that in fact our great liberty, our great freedom, which is that the state has to prove that a person is guilty of a charge—innocence before guilt—is reversed by this, …”

“I apologise—I have only just seen this report. I was not aware that it was coming out in this statement, so forgive me if the hon. Lady has already covered this. Two questions have emerged. The first is that one of the biggest criticisms as the Bill went through the House of Commons and that still remains—I say this as…”