Belfast: Violent Disorder

Karen Bradley Excerpts

Wednesday 10th June 2026 Commons Chamber

[Dame Karen Bradley (Staffordshire Moorlands) (Con)]

I join others in paying tribute to the Police Service of Northern Ireland, which has once again acted without fear or favour and walked bravely into some of the most dangerous situations.

To follow on from the previous question, I was struck by just how many young people were involved in the disorder yesterday, incited not only by what they have seen on social media but by gangmasters who have groomed them into committing violence day in, day out across Northern Ireland. Will the Home Office look into a review of the treatment of young people in Northern Ireland and how so many of them have been groomed? In effect, it is modern slavery.

[Dan Jarvis]

The right hon. Lady makes a really important point. I absolutely give her a commitment that, working with colleagues in the Northern Ireland Office, we will do that. Like her, I was struck by the presence of young people taking part in the criminality in Northern Ireland. We have seen it before, in the bad old days of the troubles, and we must never go back to that. We are looking at specific points around the extent to which any of the criminality and disorder has been directed by paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland, but I am not yet in a position to say more about that.

The right hon. Lady may be aware that the UK Government provide 50% of the funding for a programme specifically designed to tackle paramilitary activity and organised crime, and £8 million of investment currently goes into that. I absolutely accept and agree with her key point: we have to make sure that young people in Northern Ireland are diverted from paths of criminality. I will take up that matter with colleagues in the Home Office and with the Secretary of State.

Lord Mandelson Humble Address: Government Response Update

Karen Bradley Excerpts

Monday 27th April 2026 Commons Chamber

[Darren Jones]

The Humble Address is an example of Parliament holding the Government to account, and of the Government being accountable to Parliament.

[Dame Karen Bradley (Staffordshire Moorlands) (Con)]

Could the Chief Secretary confirm that responses to submissions are written on the paper of the submissions, and not on Post-it notes?

[Darren Jones]

I assume that to be the case.

Antisemitic Attacks

Karen Bradley Excerpts

Monday 20th April 2026 Commons Chamber

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Judith Cummins)]

I call the Chair of the Home Affairs Committee.

[Dame Karen Bradley (Staffordshire Moorlands) (Con)]

I am sure that everyone in this House will have heard stories from friends and constituents who are unable to enjoy a full Jewish life in the way that they should. The Minister is right that this is not just about putting in place more police and security, but about driving out the root cause of antisemitism. In this case, it does seem that the attacks are driven by foreign state actors, so I must agree with the calls for the proscription of the IRGC. This is something that the Government must now look at urgently.

[Dan Jarvis]

I am grateful to the right hon. Lady for the work she does with her Select Committee, and she is right in the point she makes about the root causes. The Government have to ensure that not only are we tackling the root causes, but we have appropriate security and defence mechanisms in place. She will understand the rigour with which Jonathan Hall conducts his work on behalf of the Government. He is somebody with great credibility and experience in this field. It was his view that we do not currently have the appropriate legislative mechanism in order to properly proscribe a state entity, but, as I said to my hon. Friend the Member for Hampstead and Highgate (Tulip Siddiq) a moment ago, that will not stop this Government ensuring that we have all the measures in place. We have made a commitment to bring forward that legislative tool, and that is what we will do.

Security Vetting

Karen Bradley Excerpts

Monday 20th April 2026 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

That is precisely why I have asked for a review of the security vetting to be carried out. I have no reason to believe that to be the case, but I want to be assured about the security vetting process, and that is why I have asked Sir Adrian Fulford to look at it, so that he can give me that further reassurance. I will then, of course, pass that on to the House.

[Dame Karen Bradley (Staffordshire Moorlands) (Con)]

The Prime Minister has just told us that after he sacked Peter Mandelson, he changed the process so that now an appointment cannot be announced until after security vetting is passed. Why did he do that if he did not think there was a problem with the security vetting?

[The Prime Minister]

In September it became clear to me that in relation to the due diligence that had been carried out by the Cabinet Office, Peter Mandelson had been asked questions by my staff and given answers which were not truthful. That was exposed by the Bloomberg emails. At that point, I became concerned about the entire process. I asked for the review of the process by Sir Chris Wormald, which he carried out, but I also made it immediately clear that I would change the due process so that, whether in the case of direct ministerial appointments or that of any other appointments, the same process was gone through. I also wanted to make it clear that I did not think it right that appointments should be announced before security vetting was gone through in any circumstances, and therefore I changed it straight away.

China: Foreign Interference Arrests

Karen Bradley Excerpts

Wednesday 4th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I am not quite sure that is relevant. I call the Karen Bradley.

[Dame Karen Bradley (Staffordshire Moorlands) (Con)]

Given the vulnerabilities of Members of Parliament, can I urge the Security Minister to work with the parliamentary authorities not just to pass information to Members but to work proactively with us to ensure that we are all aware of the risks that are posed to us and the steps we need to take to ensure that we are not exposed to interference from foreign states?

[Dan Jarvis]

The Chair of the Home Affairs Committee is absolutely right. I hope she understands the seriousness with which we take these matters. I spend a lot of time working with the defending democracy taskforce to ensure that we have in place the protections we need. That is not just about elections; it is about our democracy on an enduring basis. The relationship with this House and with Mr Speaker—hon. Members know how seriously Mr Speaker takes these matters—is a close working relationship. I will always make myself available to talk to colleagues about any matter of concern. A significant amount of guidance has been issued over the last few months. I encourage Members of this and the other House to engage with the materials that have been published, and, where they have further concerns, to raise them through the Parliamentary Security Department and with myself.

Lord Mandelson

Karen Bradley Excerpts

Wednesday 4th February 2026 Commons Chamber

[Sir John Whittingdale]

That was made absolutely clear right from the start. Indeed, the permanent under-secretary described this as a political appointment, which was made on the direct instruction of the Prime Minister.

I want to go through the three stages. The first stage was the conflicts of interest form. As the Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee said, this essentially consisted of Peter Mandelson being asked to fill in a form and to choose what to put on it, and there was no subsequent questioning about anything that did not appear on his form. Of course, we have not seen the form. I believe that as part of the motion, which we are likely to pass today, that form should now be made public.

Given the potential conflict of interest, I raised with the permanent under-secretary the question of Lord Mandelson’s continuing shareholding in Global Counsel. The permanent under-secretary replied:

“This was honestly the hardest bit of this bit of the process for both of us. Lord Mandelson was a founder of the company…While he was confident that he could conduct his role as ambassador without giving rise to a conflict, we wanted to make sure we managed and mitigated that possibility in some particular ways.”

The conclusion was not that Lord Mandelson should dispose of his shareholding. Instead, some Chinese walls were put in place to ensure that he was not aware of who the clients of Global Counsel were, or of the work being undertaken. I listened with concern to what my hon. Friend the Member for Brentwood and Ongar (Alex Burghart) said about the meeting that took place with Palantir. That raises real questions about the effectiveness of the so-called undertakings that were put in place by the Foreign Office, and we need to understand that.

[Dame Karen Bradley (Staffordshire Moorlands) (Con)]

I rise with incredulity, having learned that there was not a requirement to dispose of the interest. I recall going through ethics and propriety when being made a Minister, and I was told that it would be entirely inappropriate to hold things. I know of colleagues who had to dispose of their interests. Does my right hon. Friend agree that if the noble Baroness Gray had still been running propriety and ethics, something like this would not have happened?

[Sir John Whittingdale]

I completely share the view of my right hon. Friend. Like her, I went through a process in which I was required to get rid of shareholding interests, which were rather smaller than those held by Lord Mandelson. This is just one of a huge range of questions to which we need to know the answers.

China Espionage: Government Security Response

Karen Bradley Excerpts

Tuesday 18th November 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Chair of the Home Affairs Committee.

[Dame Karen Bradley (Staffordshire Moorlands) (Con)]

Does the Minister consider that China represents a current threat to this country? Will he also expand on the work his officials are doing with the Members and Members’ Staff Services Team to remove potential security weaknesses, not just from this building but from MPs’ constituency offices and our homes?

[Dan Jarvis]

I am grateful to the Chair of the Select Committee, as I always am. On her second point, let me come back to her. She raises a valid concern and, rather than give her a response now, let me consider the facts of the case and I will come back to her with a more considered response.

On her first point, I fear that I will disappoint her and maybe some other Conservative Members by not diverting from the policy that the Government have previously confirmed in this place. The Government fully recognise that China poses a series of threats to UK national security in the form of cyber-attacks, foreign interference and espionage targeting our democratic institutions, including the transnational oppression of Hongkongers in this country. That is why we have made the announcements that we have and why we will continue to do everything that we can to guard against that threat.

Security Update: Official Secrets Act Case

Karen Bradley Excerpts

Monday 13th October 2025 Commons Chamber

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

I call the Chair of the Home Affairs Committee.

[Dame Karen Bradley (Staffordshire Moorlands) (Con)]

There is a real threat at the moment to public trust in the criminal justice system following the collapse of this trial. Will the Minister make a commitment that he, ministerial colleagues and other advisers will co-operate fully with any scrutiny work done by my Committee or other Committees of the House?

Official Secrets Act

Karen Bradley Excerpts

Monday 15th September 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Chair of the Home Affairs Committee.

[Dame Karen Bradley (Staffordshire Moorlands) (Con)]

The Minister made the point that the charges brought were under the old legislation, the Official Secrets Act, which has now been superseded. Has he made an assessment of whether the charges would have proceeded had the new offences been in place at the time the charges were brought? Will he be working with ministerial colleagues, law enforcement and others to look at whether new offences are needed in this case and in others?

[Dan Jarvis]

If I may say so, that is a very clever question from the Chair of the Home Affairs Committee. I hope that the right hon. Lady will understand that, given that the decision was communicated this morning, the Department and the Government will be looking at it very closely. I am confident that the new National Security Act gives the Government—I genuinely pay tribute to the previous Government for their work in introducing that groundbreaking legislation—the tools we need, but I know she will understand that we will look very closely at the decision communicated this morning and satisfy ourselves that we have all the necessary powers and tools to guard against the nature of the threat we face.

Ministerial Code: Policy Announcements

Karen Bradley Excerpts

Tuesday 29th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Nick Thomas-Symonds]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. In the contribution of the shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, one word was noticeably missing: sorry.

[Dame Karen Bradley (Staffordshire Moorlands) (Con)]

As Chair of the Procedure Committee in the previous Parliament, I made a point of making sure that when Ministers had breached the rules, it was clear to them that both the Committee and others were very unhappy. Will the Minister confirm that he will make sure that the revised ministerial code makes it clear that announcements need to be made to this place first, as has always been the case?

[Nick Thomas-Symonds]

With the greatest respect to the right hon. Lady, she will not have long to wait for the ministerial code. In my opening remarks to Mr Speaker, I indicated my respect for this House in regard to the matter that she is talking about.