Contributions
648 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDGeneral Election (Leaders’ Debate) BillI am always grateful for your wise guidance, Madam Deputy Speaker. I first presented this Bill on 5 September 2017. Since then, we have had an in-depth three-hour debate in…15 Mar 2019HANSARDGeneral Election (Leaders’ Debate) BillI agree entirely with the hon. Lady’s speech, but she has not made it entirely clear to me—unless I missed it—whether the Labour party supports an independent commission.15 Mar 2019HANSARDGeneral Election (Leaders’ Debate) BillI thought it was my speech, but go on.15 Mar 2019HANSARDGeneral Election (Leaders’ Debate) BillI am grateful to my hon. Friend for his intervention, and I will consider carefully whether I agree—no, that is a complete load of rubbish. I respect his view, but it is very much…15 Mar 2019HANSARDGeneral Election (Leaders’ Debate) BillI would not suggest for one minute that it was not also my hon. Friend’s view, but I would suggest that he and the establishment are closely linked. As the Bill will affect future…15 Mar 2019HANSARDGeneral Election (Leaders’ Debate) BillI do agree. I thought of including that in my speech, but I chose not to do so because of length. Prime Minister’s questions are very important, not least because I came up on the…15 Mar 2019HANSARDGeneral Election (Leaders’ Debate) BillI have said that that would be for the independent commission to decide.15 Mar 2019HANSARDGeneral Election (Leaders’ Debate) BillIf I ever get to the end of my speech, my hon. Friend will hear why that is not the case. For the debates to take place, my Bill proposes the creation a wholly independent…15 Mar 2019HANSARDGeneral Election (Leaders’ Debate) BillThe hon. Lady gets to the crux of the issue. These have to be proper television debates that engage people and are worth listening to. I remember the Gordon Brown, David Cameron…15 Mar 2019HANSARDGeneral Election (Leaders’ Debate) BillI thank my hon. Friend for that point, but if I remember correctly the campaign for the last general election, the snap election, lasted seven weeks, in which time there were no…15 Mar 2019HANSARDGeneral Election (Leaders’ Debate) BillI was expecting that question. Of course, the right and proper answer is that it would be a matter for the independent commission to decide. I am not really suggesting that…15 Mar 2019HANSARDGeneral Election (Leaders’ Debate) BillYes, as my hon. Friend has just said, it was President Nixon who got America out of Vietnam after the Democrats had taken it in, but that is a side issue. The hon. Gentleman is…15 Mar 2019HANSARDGeneral Election (Leaders’ Debate) BillThat is a very good intervention, but time does not allow me to respond to it. [ Laughter. ] On 1 January 2018, there were 27.02 million TV households in the United Kingdom. That…15 Mar 2019HANSARDGeneral Election (Leaders’ Debate) BillI omitted to point that out in my speech. The reason is that there are effectively two polling days—the day when the postal votes go out, and the day of the general election—so…15 Mar 2019HANSARDGeneral Election (Leaders’ Debate) BillI am grateful to the Minister for giving way again. The point was that we do not really need to have a sanction, because if the leader of a political party wants to break the law,…15 Mar 2019HANSARDGeneral Election (Leaders’ Debate) BillI clearly have more work to do to persuade the Government, so I beg to ask leave to withdraw the Bill. Motio n and Bill, by leave, withdrawn.15 Mar 2019HANSARDGeneral Election (Leaders’ Debate) BillI beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time. If I had said “yesterday”, I wonder whether the Bill would have passed. I am not quite sure whether that is how it works.15 Mar 2019HANSARDUK’s Withdrawal from the European UnionOn a point of order, Mr Speaker. Following on from what you have just said, is it not a fact that if the moaning Minnies attacking the Government really had any guts they would…13 Mar 2019HANSARDEngagementsQ10. I think that the whole House could unite in agreeing that the Prime Minister has put an enormous amount of hard work and energy into trying to resolve the European Union…13 Mar 2019HANSARDClosure of the Wellingborough Driving Test CentreI rise to present a petition signed by hundreds of my constituents, called “Stop Wexit”, which I entirely support. Wexit stands for “Stop Wellingborough driving test centre…12 Mar 2019