Tahir Ali MP: speeches

Speeches

• 8 Sept 2026 · Online Safety · Hansard source

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  Children are being exposed daily to horrific, violent content online. Ofcom’s own research shows that nearly a quarter of 11 to 17-year-olds have seen violent content in just four weeks, and nearly three quarters have seen harmful content of some kind. The number has barely moved since the Act’s child safety duties came into force. Much of this content is not even sought out, but is served up by algorithms as children scroll. We know the pattern: cruelty to animals first, then violence against people, desensitising a generation and, for some, opening a path to real violence and criminality. Primary legislation to enforce all this at the app and device level is welcome, but we need to give Ofcom the tools that will enable it to deal with this immediately, as it becomes an issue.

• 7 Jul 2026 · Human Rights in Kashmir · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Harris, and I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Bradford East (Imran Hussain) for securing this important debate. I speak today not only as a British Kashmiri but as someone who was born in Kashmir. Having left that part of the world when I was just a few months old, it is now not unusual for me to hear about what is going on, in the main, across Kashmir. Let us be in no doubt: the disruption and disputes in Azad Jammu and Kashmir have no equivalence or bear any comparison with what is happening in Indian-occupied Kashmir. The principal enemy of the Kashmiri people’s basic rights and dignity remains the extremist BJP Government in New Delhi. Last November, 10 United Nations-appointed human rights experts condemned India’s arbitrary arrests, torture and lynchings of Kashmiris over the past couple of years. Those experts highlighted reports of house demolitions and other tactics of collective punishment being used against Kashmiri Muslims. Even the Indian Supreme Court, which has been complicit in the oppression of the Kashmiri people many times, ruled against such actions in 2024. However, Modi’s thugs do not care about their own law, let alone international law and morality. Day after day, families find that their sons are missing, and then they find them dead in canals or ditches. These unexplained disappearances are later ruled by the authorities to be suspected suicides. Day after day, there is new torture, of old and young alike, including children. No one is spared. It is all too obvious what is happening. The Indian state tries to hide away all its crimes by suspending over 8,000 social media accounts, including the accounts of independent journalists, and imposing media blackouts. However, the truth still comes out. For as long as the Kashmiri people are oppressed by the extremist BJP regime, we will continue to call them out. However, every time that we raise this issue, the Government read out the usual script that this is a bilateral matter between Pakistan and India. Kashmir has never been a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan; it never has been and never will be. It is a mess that was left by a British Labour Government in 1948, but we now have another Labour Government that can right that wrong. Now is the time to step up. What is happening in Azad Jammu and Kashmir? A 38-point plan or list of demands was put to the Government; 36 have been met. There is a dispute over two points, one of them being the 12 appointed seats that purportedly represent Kashmiri migrants. The only way to resolve this issue is through peaceful negotiations and talks, which can happen only if we have flexibility on both sides. Actually, there are three sides involved: the Pakistani Government; the Government of Azad Jammu and Kashmir; and the Awami Action Committee. Someone needs to co-ordinate and facilitate talks between them, and the British Government can play their part. We object to the direct shooting of innocent civilians, at least 18 of whom have lost their lives. The internet blackout needs to end and the internet needs to be restored, so that families can stay connected. Most important, however, the people who voice their concerns in this country often find that they are targeted, in the form of their families being harassed in Azad Jammu and Kashmir. That has to stop. Those families are tortured, harassed and then made to read out public statements. That is a violation of all international law and it cannot be allowed to continue.