Contributions
808 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARD Social SecurityI was aware of that. The statistics are shocking, as I will come on to shortly. In this, its final and most punishing year, the benefits freeze will claw back nearly £4.5 billion.…04 Mar 2019HANSARD Social SecurityAbsolutely. I could not have put it better myself. What the Government have created is a social security system that believes people can be punished out of poverty. They have…04 Mar 2019HANSARD Social Securityrose —04 Mar 2019HANSARD Social SecurityI absolutely do. My hon. Friend and many other Opposition Members have been fantastic champions of the WASPI women. I pay tribute to the WASPI women—in my time as a Member of…04 Mar 2019HANSARD Social SecurityThat is the sort of patent nonsense I have come to expect from Conservative Members. The Scottish Government have spent hundreds of millions of pounds in mitigating the worst…04 Mar 2019HANSARDElectoral Funding: Unincorporated AssociationsWhile my hon. Friend wets his whistle, before he moves on from the role that journalists played in exposing the Constitutional Research Council and Mr Cook’s activities, will he…27 Feb 2019HANSARDEmployment and Support Allowance: UnderpaymentsWe are extremely disappointed that the Minister had to be forced to come to the House by an urgent question, rather than doing what she should have done and made this announcement…25 Feb 2019HANSARDNorthern Ireland Parties: DonationsThe Select Committee on Digital, Culture, Media and Sport’s interim report into “Disinformation and ‘fake news’” rightly criticised the shadowy and secretive Constitutional…21 Feb 2019HANSARDLeaving the EU: FisheriesOver the past 40 years, shellfish producers in my constituency have perfected the art of getting fish out of the sea and on to tables in Europe within a matter of hours, so they…21 Feb 2019HANSARDNorthern Ireland Parties: Donations4. If the Electoral Commission will publish its correspondence with the Cabinet Office on the publication of donations received by political parties in Northern Ireland from 2014…21 Feb 2019HANSARD Exiting the European Union (Structural and Investment Funds)The hon. Gentleman makes the important point that we are discussing the SI before Report stage of the Agriculture Bill. I will come back to that. I do not necessarily defend the…19 Feb 2019HANSARD Exiting the European Union (Structural and Investment Funds)Like the hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne Central (Chi Onwurah), we will not oppose this SI this afternoon, but we do share many of the deep concerns, particularly in relation…19 Feb 2019HANSARD Exiting the European Union (Structural and Investment Funds)My hon. Friend may well have been looking over my shoulder, because I was about to come on to that very point. My constituency of Argyll and Bute is suffering from massive…19 Feb 2019HANSARD Exiting the European Union (Structural and Investment Funds)My hon. Friend is right that it is vital that our farmers have the ability to plan into the future. At the moment, we enjoy that ability to plan long term, and the fear is that…19 Feb 2019HANSARD Exiting the European Union (Structural and Investment Funds)It is absolutely remarkable that all 32 Scottish local authority areas—urban and rural, with the vast differences that exist between them—said with one voice that we as a nation…19 Feb 2019HANSARDDraft Air Traffic Management (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019I will detain the Committee for even less time than the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull East, who was absolutely right when he said that we live in hope—indeed, we expect—that…18 Feb 2019HANSARDSantander Closures and Local CommunitiesThe closure of the branch in Helensburgh in my constituency means that the nearest Santander branch will be 25 miles away in the west end of Glasgow. I have serious concerns about…14 Feb 2019HANSARDSantander Closures and Local CommunitiesI thank the hon. Gentleman for giving way, and no one can doubt how hard he fights for his Strangford constituents. To justify the closure of its branch in Helensburgh,…14 Feb 2019HANSARDSantander Closures and Local CommunitiesMy hon. Friend is making a powerful case, and he is right to point out the lazy assumption that the post office will always be there to pick up the slack. I know for a fact that…14 Feb 2019HANSARDSantander Closures and Local CommunitiesMy hon. Friend is being incredibly generous in giving way. Before we move on from the role of the Post Office, I would like to share some information I received this morning. In a…14 Feb 2019