Ben Wallace

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  • Jun.09.2018: Ben Wallace: we don’t set out to kill terrorists. This week the government published its new counterterrorism strategy. Although civil liberties campaigners criticised the plans to hand details about suspected extremists to local officials, Mr Wallace insists the measures are a proportionate response to a real and present danger. “This is not Big Brother asking everyone to report everything,” he says. “You could guarantee security by locking everyone who is a potential threat up. Or you could guarantee total human rights and anyone being able to inspire hate whenever they want. It’s about getting the balance right.” The internet has, he says, made it much harder for the authorities to keep up with the extremists who are radicalising people. “It’s a seduction, the same techniques paedophiles use to groom young children. They try to make people feel they belong.” In the old days, a terrorist would have had to share information on how to make a bomb on a piece of paper, now they can look up instructions online. The govt must do more, but so should technology companies, he insists. Although online child abuse is regularly reported to the authorities, the big internet companies are less proactive in handing over extremist material to the police. “They have a mindset of resist. When I say, ‘How much do you report to the authorities?’ they don’t see it as their place.” There is, in his view, a choice to be made about the online world. “You can have the wild west or a civilised society. When I see what paedophiles do to target children, when I see the amount of online fraud and the hate on social media, you think, how much we are going to accept all this?” Mr Wallace wants a digital verification system, to end the online anonymity. Companies such as WhatsApp should also repay society for the negative impact of their technology. So was it irresponsible for Gavin Williamson defence secretary to suggest that “a dead terrorist can’t cause any harm to Britain?” The govt intends to do more to clamp down on “dirty money”, including the wealth of oligarchs, he says. The next step is to go after the “facilitators” — accountants, lawyers and estate agents who enable those who live in luxury on the proceeds of crime. small bio in here. Alice Thomson, Rachel Sylvester, The Times. See also Digital IDs to end online mob rule and anonymity
  • Apr.05.2018: Spy poisoning: minister defends not sharing full intelligence with Corbyn. Ben Wallace, the security minister, said the number of people entrusted with the most sensitive details of the case should be deliberately kept small so intelligence agents’ lives were not put at risk. The Labour party leader has received an intelligence briefing on privy council terms, but was not given the same access to highly classified information as David Cameron provided to Ed Miliband over Syria in 2013. Labour reacted angrily to the implication that Corbyn might leak intelligence, accusing Wallace of “playing party politics” Pippa Crerar, Steven Morris, Andrew Roth, The Guardian.
  • undated: Ben Wallace, expenses 2014/15 of £192,428.88. He voted to cut ESA by £30 per week for the sick and disabled. VoxPolitical, '
  • Jul.17.2016: New ministerial and government appointments announced. More ministerial and government appointments including Parliamentary Under Secretaries of State and Whips have been announced. Ben Wallace MP as Minister of State for Security at the Home Office. Number 10 Downing Street, '
  • Jan.12.2016: Tories vote down law requiring landlords make their homes fit for human habitation. Labour MP Teresa Pearce's amendment to the Housing and Planning Bill 2016, which would place a duty on landlords to ensure that their properties are fit for habitation when let and remain fit during the course of the tenancy, was defeated by 312 votes to 219. Marcus Jones said the govt believed that homes should be fit for human habitation, but did not want to pass a new law that would explicitly require it. Other ministers claimed the proposal would impose "unnecessary regulation" on landlords, and that it would push up rents. Ben Wallace, himself a landlord, was one of those who voted "No". The Independent, Jon Stone