03/10/2025 | 11:58:59 Thank you, Mister Chairman. Dear colleagues, I'm going to talk today about access to food and food security. As the chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Food and Drink, this is a topic that's very close to my heart. The Council of Europe exists to uphold shared values: the protection of rights, the defence of democracy and the setting of standards that safeguard people’s dignity. Those standards should extend to the right to access for safe food, fairness of working conditions and... 03/10/2025 | 10:20:05 Thank you, Mister President. Can I just say this report is fantastic. Really well-timed. It's a principled framework for how we deal with what is a real challenge that many governments have now. How do we deploy AI safely in the delivery of public services? And I really like the core message. AI must support. It must be a tool that we use to help decision-making, not replace the human in the loop. We know criminals that profit from illegal migration, profit from human suffering, are using AI... 02/10/2025 | 20:52:38 (Undelivered speech, Rules of Procedure Art. 31.2) Thank you to our rapporteur for this powerful report on the right to housing. The report reinforces that housing is a human right, and that the right to housing shouldn’t be used as a political football by those who seek to cause division and disruption in our society. The report’s recommendations align very well with the work of the Labour Party in Government in the UK, and with my own personal values. I commend Labour YIMBY, Labour Housing... 02/10/2025 | 20:27:46 (Undelivered speech, Rules of Procedure Art. 31.2) I thank the rapporteur for this excellent report. Over the centuries, stretching back to the Magna Carta, men and women have struggled long and hard for the right to vote. The report reminds me of the efforts of the Chartists, the Suffragettes and others in their fight to advance and widen participation in our democracy. We must now take the next steps to protect our democracy from bad actors and the continued erosion of trust and... 25/06/2025 | 10:59:13 Thank you, colleagues. I speak today to echo the calls made by both rapporteurs in the reports in front of us today on human rights in sport. I support the recommendations on ensuring binding human rights across all levels of sports, from grassroots to elite competitions. What is particularly important right now is that we stand up against the weaponisation of trans rights and ensure that trans athletes are protected in sport from grassroots to elite level. I also in particular join in the... 24/06/2025 | 17:11:42 Nineteen thousand five hundred children. That's the number of children that have been forcibly removed from their families during this war – forced to live in Russian institutions or adopted by Russian families. That's more than all of the primary school children in my constituency, Northampton South. We know that reports say it could be close to 35 000 children who have been abducted. As we debate today's reports on Russian aggression and prisoners of war, we must confront one of the most... 23/06/2025 | 17:04:12 Thank you, Madam Speaker and colleagues. I want to start by just saying thank you to the rapporteur and the observation team for their work on the election in Albania. I found the analysis extremely valuable, and the report reflects a mixed picture. The calm and peaceful conduct of the vote, the work the authorities have done to improve technical processes, and the greater ability for voters to engage are all a sign of real progress and a sign that we should be recognising here. The... 08/04/2025 | 11:57:35 Thank you, Madam Chair. Distinguished colleagues, The report before us should alarm everyone who values democracy. We face a calculated campaign by PUTIN's Russia to undermine Europe through disinformation, financial manipulation and by forcing influence over our democratic processes. Russia is running deliberate campaigns to corrode our democracies from within. In Eastern Europe, operatives pumped over $15 million into Moldova to buy votes, and they disrupted Romania's presidential election...