Johanna Baxter MP: speeches

Speeches

• 30 Jun 2025 · Glastonbury Festival: BBC Coverage · Hansard source

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  I thank my right hon. Friend for her statement. I share her concern that although freedom of expression must be protected, this incident raises serious concerns about the editorial standards and judgments exercised. As a long-standing supporter of the BBC, I am deeply disappointed in it. What conversations the Secretary of State having with the editorial team to ensure that a serious incident like this can never happen again?

• 21 May 2025 · Ukraine: Forcibly Deported Children · Hansard source

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  I beg to move, That this House has considered the matter of returning forcibly deported children to Ukraine. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stuart. I start by welcoming a distinguished guest to the Chamber: Olena Kondratiuk, the Deputy Chair of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, who is here with her colleagues from the Ukrainian embassy to the UK. Her welcome presence shows that our two nations’ great democratic institutions stand united alongside the families of the thousands of stolen children of Ukraine. Today, we commit ourselves to ensuring that our work will continue until every single Ukrainian child is returned home. Earlier this year, I joined the all-party parliamentary group on Ukraine and UK Friends of Ukraine on a delegation of British parliamentarians to mark the third anniversary of Putin’s illegal and bloody war. It was unquestionably one of the most humbling experiences of my life to meet the brave men and women, unbroken in spirit, who are fighting courageously for their freedom and their homeland. It is an experience that will stay with me forever. On that visit, I met the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets. What we discussed was devastating: the systematic abduction of Ukrainian children by Russian forces—a grave crime that continues unabated to this day. When Dmytro told me that at least 19,546 Ukrainian children had been stolen, I had to ask him to repeat the number, because I simply could not believe that a crime of this magnitude was taking place before our very eyes and no one was talking about it. The official estimates are horrendous enough, but some other organisations estimate that the total number of children stolen could be much higher. The Russian Federation’s children’s ombudsman has stated that it has “accepted” 700,000 Ukrainian children since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. When I returned from Ukraine, I made it my purpose to ensure that the scale of this crime receives the attention that it demands in this place. That is why in April, alongside UK Friends of Ukraine, I co-authored a report titled “Returning the Stolen Children of Ukraine”. The report lays out, in no uncertain terms, a detailed timeline of the systematic abduction and forcible deportation of Ukrainian children from Russian-occupied territories. It highlights that President Putin has personally directed Russia’s children’s commissioner to identify and streamline bureaucratic barriers, not to protect children, but to fast-track their placement into Russian families. The report highlights that Putin’s presidential aircraft is complicit in flying Ukrainian children from occupied Donetsk to Moscow. It highlights the role of federal and regional officials across Russia, occupied Ukraine and Belarus in the deportation of those children and the deliberate erasure of their Ukrainian identity. It highlights that military-style camps have been set up to indoctrinate the children, teaching them basic combat skills and loyalty to the Russian state. It highlights that parents in occupied territories are being coerced into sending their children to so-called summer camps across Russia—camps designed to distance them permanently from their homeland.

• 25 Apr 2025 · Devolution (Immigration) (Scotland) Bill · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Gentleman for indulging me a second time. He references Brexit. Can he clarify for the House why his party spent less on campaigning against Brexit than on a local by-election campaign in Scotland? The newfound conversion to opposing Brexit might be welcome, but that clarification would be helpful.

• 27 Feb 2025 · War in Ukraine: Third Anniversary · Hansard source

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  I thank the right hon. Lady for her intervention. While those Ukrainian women are fighting and sustaining their country, they are also the mothers to the 19,546 children who have been kidnapped by Russia. I want to tell the House why the fourth point of President Zelensky’s peace formula is so vital to ensuring a just end to this war. When Russian forces invaded the eastern oblasts in Ukraine, they deported and forcibly removed children from Ukraine to Russia. This is genocide in international law as we know it. In one case, a child only eight months old was taken by Russian forces. His new name and date of birth are unknown. Russia has consistently denied the existence of this child and thousands of others. Some of these children end up in Russia’s youth military, conscripted to fight a war against the country they were born in. This is a war crime. Before any ceasefire, the 19,546 stolen children of Ukraine must be returned home. Talk of tanks, bullets, drones and machine guns is unlikely to move the minds of people who live so far from Ukraine. It is the stories of the women who are playing an essential role in this war that will move those minds—it is their story, their fight for survival and their fight for the values of democracy that we in this House hold so dear, and must support with all our might. Slava Ukraini.

• 13 Jan 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Recently, the owner of social media site X has used his sizeable platform to undermine the democratic result of last July’s general election; has stirred up hatred towards my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham Yardley (Jess Phillips), putting her safety at risk; and has sought mechanisms to depose the Prime Minister. Can the Minister say what actions the Defending Democracy Taskforce is taking to prevent this kind of foreign interference in British politics?

• 9 Jan 2025 · Public Finances: Borrowing Costs · Hansard source

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  My constituents suffered real hardship as a result of the disastrous mini-Budget pursued by the Conservative party. Does the Chief Secretary to the Treasury agree that in order to improve living standards for my constituents, we must stick to our fiscal rules, maintain fiscal discipline and invest in our public services?

• 12 Nov 2024 · House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill · Hansard source

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  Is the reason the hon. Gentleman’s amendment refers only to the first three UK establishment parties so that it does not affect his own party, now that it has fallen to being the fourth largest party in this place?