Speeches by Phillips.

“We have an inter-ministerial group on violence against women and girls. I do sometimes feel like such groups are coming out of my ears though.”

“I hope that the hon. Member appreciates that that is exactly what this is. I only make the point because there is so often a risk in this place, and in the Government, of one person who cares a huge amount about something becoming the responsible party for it, always. I will move on to the hon. Gentleman’s broader poin…”

“Or in the tearoom.”

“I would not say that there was anything I disagreed with. I would really give credit to the Northern Ireland Executive and those who built the strategy for making it incredibly victim-centric and working with the voice of victims to build the strategy. Where I think that they differ is just in the policies proposed to …”

“No, we do not. To be clear, as somebody who the Revenge Porn Helpline has taken down images of, I assure you that nobody is going to say, “No, we are going to leave your images on the internet because you are from Northern Ireland.” That is not how these institutions were formed. There will need to be broader conversat…”

“Yes. First and foremost, we went over to Northern Ireland specifically to talk to them about the building of their strategy, how they had done it and what outcomes they were seeking to pursue. Broadly, the outcomes map across. Prevention is the single biggest focus of both that aligns. We dream the same dreams and want…”

“It is not hard to find.”

“We have promised to do regular updates annually, and no doubt some of that will include issues that cover Northern Ireland, anything to do with online and how we know whether that is affecting the women of Northern Ireland. I have no doubt that that will form part of the data. Also, Northern Ireland women are included …”

“It is the same service.”

“I am going to turn to Gisela.”

“Of course. I did not mean to exclude Somerset or anywhere else, rural or otherwise. I would gladly meet the hon. Gentleman—I would gladly meet anybody. I do not wish to cause him offence, but I would dance with the devil to make women and children safer, so I would happily meet him to talk about Somerset. I will conclu…”

“I am happy to take advice. I am not sure I have ever not been overbearing in my entire life, but I will give it a whirl. It is funny, isn’t it? I have definitely been overbearing on other Government Departments, to Mike’s question earlier. I have definitely been overbearing and intolerable at certain points. On the dev…”

“You can amend my law and put in eBay. The responsibility sits with the tech companies and the state. How successful have we been? It is an interesting question because I would always want more. However, when I travel to other parts of the world or speak to our counterparts in other parts of the world, you get a ticker …”

“In 2019 we lived in a slightly different time. Thanks to many good people campaigning, the laws have changed in Northern Ireland with regard to abortion and the freedom of women regarding their own reproductive rights. That 2019 report by the UN was almost certainly talking about the fracture between the UK and Norther…”

“Genuinely, if it were me, I am a maximalist. Don’t get me started. I would switch the internet off, apart from Vinted. That is not a policy of the Government. I could not live without Vinted, though.”

“It needs updating all the time and it is updated. We have the power to update it. You can change the priority offences within the Online Safety Act already, and the Government have sought to do that on various different issues around naked images—what used to be called revenge porn; unsolicited, unwanted, non-consensua…”

“The vast majority of the violence against women and girls strategy is England and Wales, and even much of it is just England as well, because of the devolved nations. There are bits that are not reserved, so issues around immigration. One huge part of the strategy is around the online space and the safety of women onli…”

“You are welcome.”

“Yes, a lot of this is devolved.”

“I could not say whether I see a higher level of it in Northern Ireland, but I have not noted a place in the world where it does not exist. That is why you have to do two things and that is why the strategy sets out to do two things, one that will have a very direct impact on Northern Ireland and one on which Northern I…”