Contributions
1,177 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Fourth sitting)I am not sure that I can beat the excellent oratory of my hon. Friend the shadow Minister, but I want to add some context in my own style on why this clause is a bit of a…14 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Fourth sitting)My intervention will be very brief. I am slightly burnt by my experience on the Planning and Infrastructure Bill Committee, where the Minister constantly said that they would…14 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Fourth sitting)On a point of order, Sir John. Forgive me, I may be ignorant on this, but on the selection list I do not see amendment 361 in the running order. If you could give me some…14 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Fourth sitting)I stand corrected, thank you.14 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Fourth sitting)I thank the hon. Lady for giving way at what I think was the end of her speech. I just wondered whether she or her party had done any analysis of the extra cost that her amendment…14 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Third sitting)There is a risk here that we are conflating what is actually happening on the ground. The Minister is absolutely right, and no one can argue that this Government have not been…14 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Third sitting)The Minister should be very careful about attributing motives to myself that are not there. I am very supportive of the fact that Hampshire and the Solent and will have a mayor.…14 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Third sitting)I have great sympathy with the point that the hon. Lady is making. Would she agree that town and parish councils are already being asked to take on more services? We are seeing…14 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Third sitting)I will briefly elaborate on what my hon. Friend the shadow Minister has said about amendments 43 and 44. I do so on behalf of my hon. Friend the Member for Isle of Wight East, who…14 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Third sitting)As the hon. Lady knows from when we were on the BBC’s “Politics South” programme some weeks ago, I rarely agree with Liberal Democrats, but I suspect that she and I agree on this…14 Oct 2025HANSARDHomelessnessI welcome the Minister to her place. Youth and overall homelessness have increased since the Government took office, and charities have been harmed by policies such as the…13 Oct 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (First sitting)Q I am pleased that you have mentioned the GLA, Ms Riddell, because it relates to a question that I want to ask you both. Mr Fletcher, you are absolutely right to say that this,…16 Sept 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (First sitting)Q Good morning, everybody. I want to go back to something that was touched on by the previous panel. We are going through simultaneous restructuring of local government and…16 Sept 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Second sitting)Q You are about to see that even though there was a south coast derby between Southampton and Portsmouth, we still can talk very politely, Ms Vaz—it was very boring, ending 0-0.…16 Sept 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Second sitting)I thought you might say that—thank you. Donna Jones: I have represented my two counties, with 2.2 million people, for four and a bit years now. It is tough, because I have two…16 Sept 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Second sitting)Hear, hear! Professor Denham: So I am familiar with town and parish councils, and there are some very good ones, including in Mr Holmes’s constituency. But they are not uniform…16 Sept 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Second sitting)Q Minister, welcome to your role. I know that you have not been in it for very long, so well done for getting through today; it has been a joint effort, I think. Do you think that…16 Sept 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Second sitting)Q Thank you, Minister. On the point about 14 years of the last Government, the situation that was left by them was that planning committees, elected by local people, were still…16 Sept 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Second sitting)Q Thank you, Minister. The Government’s stated aim is to unitarise every local authority in England, so I would have thought there would be some indication of the savings for the…16 Sept 2025HANSARDEnglish Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (Second sitting)I have one more question, if I may. We will move on, because it is clear that there was no assessment of the spending. On 16 December 2024, the hon. Member for Oldham West,…16 Sept 2025