Dover and Portsmouth: Protests
Richard Quigley Excerpts(4 days, 18 hours ago)
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Sarah Jones
They are still coming, but they are coming at a 43% lower rate than they were, and the action we are taking is ensuring that we will keep going and keep building on the success we have had. We have the increased police resource in France, the changes to the asylum system and the way we are getting through the case backlog so that we can remove people from this country who have no right to be here or are foreign national offenders. All those things add up so that when the criminal gangs are looking at where they can make the most money, they think, “No, the UK is not somewhere where we can easily make money. We will not do this crime, and we will move on to something else, somewhere else.” We are pulling every single lever that we can. With the greatest respect, we are having a lot more success than the right hon. Gentleman’s Government.
Richard Quigley (Isle of Wight West) (Lab)
I am sure that the Prime Minister will be glad to hear that the good weather is now attributable to a Labour Government. I pay tribute to the brave men and women of the RNLI who put themselves out to sea to save lives without fear or favour. The Isle of Wight salutes them all, unlike the masked bullies in Portsmouth. Lots of misinformation has happened over this weekend regarding the Isle of Wight. As we do not have the infrastructure, and cross-Solent transport is an issue for us, can the Minister confirm that there are no plans for an asylum centre on the Isle of Wight?
Sarah Jones
The RNLI does an incredibly difficult job in dangerous circumstances, and we are grateful for the work that its people do. I am also grateful to my hon. Friend for making that point in this House. As for any of the plans going forward, we are reducing the numbers and we are reducing the hotels, which are massively down. We are reducing the incentives for people to come here, and we are making sure that we are removing people as quickly as possible. I am sure that the Minister responsible would be happy to have a conversation with him, but our direction of travel is to reduce the numbers to a much more manageable level, so that we have control of our borders.
Digital Exploitation of Women and Girls
Richard Quigley Excerpts(7 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Mr Richard Quigley (Isle of Wight West) (Lab)
It is a beyond fantastic pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Jardine. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Preston (Sir Mark Hendrick) for securing such an important and extremely timely debate. As we have seen over the past weeks, months and years, the exploitation of women and girls comes in many forms; the digital landscape does not automatically protect them from physical harm. We have seen recently how easily predators can sexually exploit women and girls through deepfakes on social media, and how these actions are actively promoted by platforms. That exploitation can also translate into the exploitation of physical insecurities, which can lead women and girls down a dangerous and unattainable path.
Unrealistic body standards in advertising are not a new phenomenon, but AI has deepened the problem. It is beyond the pale: it now enables girls to be exposed to imagery promoting body types that quite literally defy the laws of physics. Such content is not something that they stumble on; it is actively pushed at them through targeted advertising. Once a social media platform identifies a user as a girl or a young woman, the algorithm begins promoting harmful material directly into their feed.
A recent Government report found that 19% of girls aged between 14 and 16 had been exposed to harmful content promoting extreme thinness—nearly three times the figure reported by their male classmates. A leaked internal report from Meta went further, indicating that its eating disorder-related algorithm is more likely to target users who have previously engaged with content about body dissatisfaction. That is a malicious example of how these companies, which by the way are fully aware of these risks, continue to exploit the insecurities of women and girls.
Some of the most distressing cases of deepfakes and technology-facilitated sexual abuse have resulted in women losing their job, their reputation and even access to their children. These incidents send an appalling message that perpetrators can wield overwhelming power over their victims. They confirm the very fears that many survivors live with every day.
If social media and AI companies are willing to stand by while their algorithms amplify content about dangerous eating disorders and give abusers free rein to harm women and their children, we must act. This is a significant fight, but one that I and many of my colleagues are absolutely committed to continuing. If we are not vigilant, we risk allowing our digital world to be shaped by the misogynistic impulses of figures like Elon Musk and the wider manosphere, rather than building an online world that safeguards and protects women and girls.