Speeches by Ali.

“Does anyone want to add anything to that? Great—thank you very much.”

“Going back to the Government’s options, given that April is not far away for 66 and 67-year-olds, do you have suggestions on what the Government could do quickly to mitigate? Given that a number of people will be pushed into poverty, is there anything specific that you think the Government should be doing or could be d…”

“I welcome the Rycroft review and, in particular, the Secretary of State’s commitment to take action on crypto donations and to cap foreign donations from overseas donors. I want to draw his attention to the comment in the report that the debate on social media “seeks to exacerbate division and increase polarisation wit…”

“The increase in state pension age from 66 to 67 was legislated in 2014, as you know. It starts in April and there is no mitigations in terms of additional social security support for that cohort. Do you think that there is a case for doing something now? How would you make that case?”

“Wendy, did you want to add anything on this question?”

“The IFS has done some of the modelling, and it is between £200 million and £600 million if you focused just on those with disabilities versus a wider group. That is a small percentage of what the savings would be. Do you think they should pursue that?”

“Is it irresponsible not to have had mitigations in place, given that it has been 12 years since the legislation came into effect? What can be learned from that?”

“Do you have any estimates of how many more people are going to be pushed into poverty because of the lack of mitigation? Beyond the specific policy changes, is there anything else that the Government should plan for, given the short timeframe before it comes into effect?”

“I want to carry on with the subject of mitigation of the state pension age increase. You mentioned that you are already taking action. To pick up on the numbers that are expected to face poverty, can you tell us how many people would be lifted out of poverty because of the interventions that you mentioned you are alrea…”

“Are you confident that those changes will be sufficient in not having a sizeable number who continue to face poverty because of this change?”

“These are really important steps and inputs, but we are interested in understanding how you are signalling the departure from what has gone on before, and what we want to see happen. You have rightly talked about the issues we are concerned about, including geographical differences in terms of employment for those in o…”

“With the greatest of respect, as you know, the IFS has produced some very good work, and I do not think we should dismiss it. We want to see as much action as possible, and it is good to see that there is that focus on mitigating and smoothing out the inequalities, because it is a big problem. We talked about working-c…”

“Yesterday, the Secretary of State made a very welcome announcement about tackling youth unemployment—those who are in the NEET category—and at the other end obviously we are trying to get older people into work. We have a massive structural change in the labour market, particularly in relation to AI’s impact on differe…”

“Are there others that you think should be announced?”

“To come back to the point about how many people may still face poverty, over and above the interventions you are making, do you think there is a case for short-term changes around means-tested support for those who remain at risk because of this change? I appreciate that these are not changes that this Government have …”

“I welcome this excellent initiative, with the backing of £2.5 billion of investment, and I commend the Secretary of State on trying to get a grip on the scourge of youth unemployment. We saw a generation lost during the previous Government because of the failure to support young people. What will the Secretary of State…”

“My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and I have heard many say exactly that. In fact, a number of us have ourselves wondered whether, if we had known what we know now about the state of harassment and intimidation in our politics, we would have stood for Parliament. Of course, we have to fight against these threats, bec…”

“My hon. Friend makes the case for why it is crucial to legislate to close those loopholes, so that we can clean up our politics and ensure that the public have confidence in our political system. Turning to the subject of cryptocurrency, we know that it offers a number of ways of circumventing donation laws, including …”

“Absolutely. We all have such a responsibility, and I know of plenty of journalists in the media, particularly female journalists, who are being threatened and intimidated as well. This is a wider societal issue about making sure we can express ourselves freely and protect freedom of speech, but also protect those opera…”

“I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State and the Minister responsible for introducing this Bill. I am proud to have worked on these important proposals in government and remain determined to ensure that we protect, renew and enhance our democracy. Our democracy has inspired people and movements around…”