Contributions
450 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARD Business RatesIndeed it was a slip of a lip. The figure of 5.7 million small and medium-sized businesses is terrific, and shows the entrepreneurialism in this country, which is why our economy…02 Apr 2019HANSARD Business RatesYes, because my hon. Friend has been very patient.02 Apr 2019HANSARD Business RatesMy hon. Friend, along with most of my hon. Friends, if not every single Member who is in the Chamber, is passionate about defending small businesses. I can see that she is shortly…02 Apr 2019HANSARD Business RatesI am all for anything that encourages our young talent to come through the chain, as my hon. Friend puts it. One of the great strengths of this country, as I meant to say when I…02 Apr 2019HANSARD Business RatesMy hon. Friend has made yet another good case for a completely different class of business to have this relief. We can see the complexity of the rates system, and it is probably a…02 Apr 2019HANSARD Business RatesI understand that there are two reasons. The first is that the Valuation Office Agency can get away with saying that an ATM on the outside of the building is, in the jargon, a…02 Apr 2019HANSARD Business RatesI entirely agree with my hon. Friend, and I am sure that my right hon. Friend the Minister will have heard the plea from those of us who represent rural areas, where the one or…02 Apr 2019HANSARD Business RatesThe hon. Gentleman has been a friend of mine for many years, and my family and his have been friends for even longer, so I do know his area very well indeed, especially his family…02 Apr 2019HANSARD Business RatesI totally agree with my neighbour’s intervention. His towns are much the same as mine; they are small market towns with a lot of independent retailers. He is right that anything…02 Apr 2019HANSARD Business RatesMy hon. Friend has touched on another subject with which I shall be dealing later. He will know that the British Beer and Pub Association has made specific recommendations on…02 Apr 2019HANSARD Business RatesI do apologise, Madam Deputy Speaker, for not facing you. Of course I should like to face you all the time, but my hon. Friends have been tempting me in the other direction. I…02 Apr 2019HANSARD Business RatesMy goodness! My golly! Actually, I think that my hon. Friend the Member for Faversham and Mid Kent (Helen Whately) was first.02 Apr 2019HANSARD Business RatesI do have a view, as it happens. Later in my speech I shall be dealing with discretionary hardship relief from local authorities. Some of that could go towards my hon. Friend’s…02 Apr 2019HANSARD Business RatesI give way to my neighbour from Cheltenham.02 Apr 2019HANSARD Business RatesI will get a little further in my speech and then accept a few more interventions. If I can make some progress, hon. Members might see where I am coming from. The Red Book says…02 Apr 2019HANSARD Business RatesI am grateful to my hon. Friend for that thoughtful intervention, and I want to reassure him and the Minister that I have not called this debate to criticise the Government. I…02 Apr 2019HANSARD Business RatesI agree with the hon. Gentleman. He is quite right: we have known each other and been friends for a long time, and he has had a long interest in this subject. I will certainly…02 Apr 2019HANSARD Business RatesOh my God, I have got competition. I will give way to the hon. Lady first.02 Apr 2019HANSARD Business RatesI am sure that the tourists in my constituency will be greatly relieved to hear what my hon. Friend has to say. In my constituency, which is very dependent on tourism, I have been…02 Apr 2019HANSARD Business RatesI well remember meeting my hon. Friend for the first time in the Eight Bells pub in 1997, when we were both a little younger— [ Interruption. ] She says, in parentheses from a…02 Apr 2019