Social Media: Non-consensual Sexual Deepfakes

Debate between Liz Kendall and Iqbal Mohamed

Monday 12th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Liz Kendall]

This is all about upholding British values and British law, not restricting freedom of speech. It is about enabling women not to feel bullied and threatened, so that they can participate. Reform wants the Online Safety Act 2023 to be scrapped. Its leader has said that the way forward is just to talk to the platforms and tell them that this is not the way forward. So much for strong leadership. I wonder why that is its position.

[Iqbal Mohamed (Dewsbury and Batley) (Ind)]

I welcome and wholeheartedly support the Secretary of State’s statement, and I am ashamed and disgusted by the statement from the shadow Minister. Elon Musk is a so-called free speech absolutist who has decried Ministers as “fascists” and says that the UK must stop censorship. We now have American politicians threatening future trade deals if we tackle non-consensual content and deepfake child pornography being shared online. Does the Secretary of State agree that free speech should never extend to creating and sharing sexual abuse material of children or women? Does she agree that it is the responsibility of platforms that provide the tools, alongside Apple and Google, which permit those tools, and their app stores—

Digital ID

Debate between Liz Kendall and Iqbal Mohamed

Monday 13th October 2025 Commons Chamber

[Iqbal Mohamed (Dewsbury and Batley) (Ind)]

As has been mentioned, the petition opposing the Government’s proposals is the fourth largest that the people of this country have signed. I have had nearly 100 emails from my constituents opposing the scheme. Will the Secretary of State please commit to documenting every single use case for the scheme, and will she say how the separate islands of automation across Government and public services will be prepared to take advantage of a single digital ID?

[Liz Kendall]

All those details will be set out in the consultation. I am sure that the hon. Gentleman and his constituents will respond to that. I will say once again that many other countries do this. They have learned from experience about security, and they have learned how to keep people’s data secure. We will learn the lessons from what they have done, and I look forward to his response to the consultation.