Electoral Resilience Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Clive Betts
Main Page: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)Department Debates - View all Clive Betts's debates with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
(1 day, 10 hours ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Watch Debate Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Steve Reed
The hon. Member is absolutely right to raise concerns about cryptocurrency. There is no way of knowing for certain what the origins of that financing might be. It appears to be potentially a back door for malign foreign actors or states to seek to influence British democracy, and we cannot allow that. It will be up to the independent reviewer to choose where he wishes to go with the investigation, but I am sure that the hon. Member and other members of his party will make clear the points he has just made and that they will be fully considered.
Mr Clive Betts (Sheffield South East) (Lab)
I would like to follow up on the question raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Ellesmere Port and Bromborough (Justin Madders) about social media. This is really important. If a foreign Government are funding third parties to post false comments on social media in order to mislead people exercising their democratic rights, surely that must come within the terms of the Rycroft review. Could the Secretary of State confirm that that is up to Philip Rycroft and that he has the capacity to bring it within the terms of the review, given that particular issue?
Steve Reed
Yes, that is correct. What my hon. Friend has just described are foreign financial attempts to influence our democracy, and that will be in scope for the review.