Contributions
487 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDHolocaust Memorial DayI beg to move, That this House has considered Holocaust Memorial Day. I thank the right hon. Member for Stratford-on-Avon (Nadhim Zahawi)—who is not in the Chamber—the hon. Member…25 Jan 2024HANSARDHolocaust Memorial DayI will not detain the House, but I echo the words of the Minister and the right hon. Member for Chipping Barnet (Theresa Villiers) in saying that the House is at its best when we…25 Jan 2024HANSARD Beneficial Ownership Registers: Overseas Territories and Crown DependenciesMy hon. Friend is right. I have often said that it is not just this Government who have done that; the Labour Government, in their time, also deregulated to such an extent that…07 Dec 2023HANSARD Beneficial Ownership Registers: Overseas Territories and Crown DependenciesI am left wondering whether The Sunday Times would ever publish that—we shall see. Let me address the point made by the hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Sir Robert Neill).…07 Dec 2023HANSARD Beneficial Ownership Registers: Overseas Territories and Crown DependenciesI thank the hon. Member for his support. I agree that it is partly about reputation and partly about avoiding tax, but it is also about indulging in economic crime, from money…07 Dec 2023HANSARD Beneficial Ownership Registers: Overseas Territories and Crown DependenciesWhat has been great about this debate is that we mostly agree across the House. That has been the basis on which we have taken action down the years, and I am grateful for that. I…07 Dec 2023HANSARD Beneficial Ownership Registers: Overseas Territories and Crown DependenciesI will. The hon. Member will know as well as I do that we are no longer a member of the European Union, so we are not bound by that finding. Why does all this matter? The epidemic…07 Dec 2023HANSARD Beneficial Ownership Registers: Overseas Territories and Crown DependenciesYes. Sadly, London has become the jurisdiction of choice for too much of our dirty money. The all-party parliamentary group on anti-corruption and responsible tax has been…07 Dec 2023HANSARD Beneficial Ownership Registers: Overseas Territories and Crown DependenciesI am not sure I can answer that, because I do not know whether they know, but there have been one or two instances where whistleblowers have come to see me—about Jersey, for…07 Dec 2023HANSARD Beneficial Ownership Registers: Overseas Territories and Crown DependenciesI am grateful to my hon. Friend for bringing that to our attention. Sadly, it is an issue not just of enforcement but of definition. I bet that the landlord in her constituency…07 Dec 2023HANSARD Beneficial Ownership Registers: Overseas Territories and Crown DependenciesI beg to move, That this House notes the implementation of public registers of beneficial ownership in the UK’s Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies; believes that the…07 Dec 2023HANSARD Beneficial Ownership Registers: Overseas Territories and Crown DependenciesThe right hon. Member makes a really important point, which I will come to later. He is right: this is a national security threat as well as a threat to our economy. The…07 Dec 2023HANSARD Beneficial Ownership Registers: Overseas Territories and Crown DependenciesI thank my hon. Friend for his support—he is probably my oldest friend in the House; we go back many years—and I hope that the Government heard his urging.07 Dec 2023HANSARD Beneficial Ownership Registers: Overseas Territories and Crown DependenciesIndeed. I would love for us to be able to do this in a consensual way; that would obviously be the best way to proceed. Sadly, we have been waiting for 10 years, and my patience…07 Dec 2023HANSARD Beneficial Ownership Registers: Overseas Territories and Crown DependenciesMy hon. Friend makes an important point: those who suffer the most are the poorest in our community. One must remember that no tax is levied on all this illicit finance, so it…07 Dec 2023HANSARD Beneficial Ownership Registers: Overseas Territories and Crown DependenciesI have enormous respect and time for the hon. Member, but I have an opinion from a renowned KC that we sought at that time—I will come to it later—which contradicts entirely his…07 Dec 2023HANSARDIsrael and Hamas: Humanitarian PauseLike others, I felt a real sense of relief watching some of the hostages who emerged and were reunited with their families yesterday. The Minister said that this pause could turn…27 Nov 2023HANSARDAutumn Statement ResolutionsI congratulate my new hon. Friend the Member for Tamworth (Sarah Edwards) and I wish her well, but she arrives in difficult times, because in 30 years as an MP, I have never seen…27 Nov 2023HANSARDAutumn Statement ResolutionsI agree entirely with what the hon. Member says. I simply point out that if we got the money in that was owed to us, spent it wisely and taxed fairly, we would be able not only to…27 Nov 2023HANSARDIsrael and the Occupied Palestinian TerritoriesI share what the Minister has said about the humanitarian tragedy that we are witnessing all the time on our televisions. We must try to unlock a process towards peace, and the…14 Nov 2023