Contributions
1,066 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Fifth sitting)I have finished my remarks.16 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Sixth sitting)We have tabled amendment 291 to schedule 7. I know that this is an issue of great contention; the major concern is, as we have seen to a degree in London, mayors choosing to use…16 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Fifth sitting)I spent many years chairing employers’ organisations, negotiating with trade unions about all kinds of matters. I have a very high degree of respect for them in the space in which…16 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Fifth sitting)It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Stuart, and to resume consideration of the Bill. The Opposition are proud that the general power of competence was introduced…16 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Sixth sitting)I am very sympathetic to what the hon. Lady has said. In my constituency, people come from as far afield as Sheffield for a day out at the Ruislip lido, the only beach in Greater…16 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Sixth sitting)I shall speak to amendment 304, which stands in my name. I would like to think that it is one of those amendments that the Government will adopt, if they are wise, because it…16 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Sixth sitting)We have some concerns about the real-world impact of the measures outlined in these amendments. We all recognise that there is a logic in bringing consistency to concessionary…16 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Sixth sitting)I will speak to amendment 287. We understand the point that the Minister is making about a need to ensure that there is strategic oversight of what is going on. Our concern is…16 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Fifth sitting)The purpose of amendments 297 and 298 is to forestall the possibility—with reference to the Minister’s earlier comments—that, when in response to a request to collaborate or…16 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Sixth sitting)The current Mayor of London clearly has a mountain to climb, given the distance by which he has fallen behind his housing targets. We remain concerned that some issues are…16 Oct 2025HANSARD Pride in PlaceThis statement speaks of pride. Conservative Members have pride in our local pubs, 200 of which have closed in the past six months, hammered by the Labour party’s business rates…15 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Third sitting)We know there will be quite a degree of debate on this in due course. We sympathise with the objectives of the amendment, and we all share the concern that local people should be…14 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Fourth sitting)Turning to the question of how a mayoral precept will be used under this group of amendments that the Government have tabled, if we think of the reorganisation in Thurrock or…14 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Fourth sitting)The Opposition have a high degree of sympathy with the points made by the hon. Member for Brighton Pavilion. It is very striking when we compare our local and regional democracy…14 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Fourth sitting)I ask the Minister to reflect that it used to be the practice of this House that any MP appointed as a Minister had to resign and fight a by-election, because they were…14 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Fourth sitting)The Opposition have sympathy with the points the hon. Member made. We can rarely have too much transparency, but we are conscious that these new bodies and devolution arrangements…14 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Third sitting)There is, perhaps, a risk of the Committee being inadvertently misled, in that all these points are being described as locally led. The Committee needs to be clear: local…14 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Third sitting)I shall speak to the amendments standing in my name. There is a degree of overlap between the points made so far and the subject matter of my amendments: all of them revolve…14 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Third sitting)The short answer to the hon. Gentleman’s question is yes. I have spent a good deal of my time in local government. One of the key issues that we learned from the process, and one…14 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Fourth sitting)Again, I seek a point of clarification from the Minister. I understand the purpose of the clause, but clearly there is a distinction between a levy, where it is the constituent…14 Oct 2025