Cyber-security and UK Democracy

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 3:50 pm on 25 March 2024.

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Photo of Tim Loughton Tim Loughton Conservative, East Worthing and Shoreham 3:50, 25 March 2024

Like my right hon. Friend Sir Iain Duncan Smith, I am rather underwhelmed by this statement. In the three years since seven parliamentarians were sanctioned, we have been subject to intimidation, impersonation and hacking, as have the families of exiles from China with whom we have associated. Today, the Deputy Prime Minister has described hostile actors’ malign acts towards the integrity of our electoral system and parliamentary democracy—foreign interference—and sanctioned two individuals and one company employing 50 people with a turnover of £208,000. Does he think that that is proportionate, and can he confirm that the Government will put the whole of the Chinese Communist Government in the enhanced tier of the foreign influence registration scheme?