Last week the new Security Minister, Tom Tugendhat, gave a statement on national security and safeguarding our democracy.
A range of actors, including foreign states, are trying to weaken us, to challenge us and to exploit us. Most Western democracies are being targeted in the same way.
Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine is a terrible example of the growing threat from hostile states to our security. Russia is attacking not just a free people but a free world.
The National Security Bill is currently going through the Commons and I have been scrutinising the Bill at Committee stage, with Tom as the Minister responsible for the Bill. This Bill will give us the powers we need today for the threats that we face now.
On top of this Bill, Tom announced that he will be leading a new taskforce to drive forward work to defend the democratic integrity of our country. It will work to better protect the freedoms and institutions we hold dear. The taskforce will look at the full range of threats facing our democratic institutions, including the physical threat to Members of Parliament, so tragically exemplified by the recent murders of Sir David Amess and Jo Cox.