Contributions
1,746 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARD Corporate Businesses and Franchisees: Regulatory EnvironmentI am again grateful to the hon. Gentleman. It seems to me that there is a mood across the House tonight that more must be done. This Minister, as an experienced Member of the…02 Jul 2025HANSARD Corporate Businesses and Franchisees: Regulatory EnvironmentBecause I am a long-standing friend of the hon. Gentleman, I will certainly give way to him, but then I must make progress.02 Jul 2025HANSARD Corporate Businesses and Franchisees: Regulatory EnvironmentI am grateful to my right hon. Friend, who takes a great interest in these matters, and that is precisely why I posed the earlier question to the Minister about how closely he and…02 Jul 2025HANSARD Corporate Businesses and Franchisees: Regulatory EnvironmentHowever, I will say no more about that, as it would be digressing from my main theme, and I can see an eagerness to intervene—I give way to my neighbour.02 Jul 2025HANSARD Corporate Businesses and Franchisees: Regulatory EnvironmentI will happily give way. Is it about the £500?02 Jul 2025HANSARD Corporate Businesses and Franchisees: Regulatory EnvironmentAs ever, the hon. Gentleman makes an apposite and worthy contribution to our considerations. I simply say this to the Minister. The Government have a lot of power in all kinds of…02 Jul 2025HANSARD Corporate Businesses and Franchisees: Regulatory EnvironmentThat is certainly the risk. I think mergers more generally need to be looked at closely. It is why we have the Competition and Markets Authority, and why these things are indeed…02 Jul 2025HANSARD Corporate Businesses and Franchisees: Regulatory EnvironmentMy right hon. Friend, as ever, makes an apposite comment. The trading of data by big businesses has become a business in itself, in the way that he sets out. By contrast, we need…02 Jul 2025HANSARDSpending Review 2025: ScotlandOrder. I hope the hon. Gentleman will tailor his critique of the SNP Government to the spending review. I appreciate the thrust of his remarks, but he will understand my advice.02 Jul 2025HANSARD Corporate Businesses and Franchisees: Regulatory EnvironmentThe Minister is absolutely right, of course. Contract law is well established and business contracts are enforceable in the way that he sets out, but the problem with franchising…02 Jul 2025HANSARD Corporate Businesses and Franchisees: Regulatory EnvironmentI thank the hon. Gentleman for the way in which he is responding. There is a close parallel between the way the Post Office is constructed—its business arrangement, and the…02 Jul 2025HANSARD Corporate Businesses and Franchisees: Regulatory EnvironmentI give way to my right hon. Friend the Member for Chingford and Woodford Green.02 Jul 2025HANSARD Corporate Businesses and Franchisees: Regulatory EnvironmentI will give way to the hon. Member for North Durham (Luke Akehurst) and then to my right hon. Friend the Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith).02 Jul 2025HANSARD Corporate Businesses and Franchisees: Regulatory EnvironmentI have worked closely with the hon. Gentleman—as ever, he and I are on the same page here. He is absolutely right that franchising can be used as a method to exaggerate the power…02 Jul 2025HANSARD Corporate Businesses and Franchisees: Regulatory EnvironmentSpeaking long before I was born, G. K. Chesterton said that “big business…is now organized like an army. It is, as some would say…militarism…without the military virtues.” Heaven…02 Jul 2025HANSARDUniversal Credit and Personal Independence Payment BillThe Secretary of State was right: welfare reform is tough, and Governments tend to duck the issue, with notable exceptions such as my right hon. Friend the Member for Chingford…01 Jul 2025HANSARD Points of OrderOn a point of order, Mr Speaker. On Monday, the High Court ordered a £60,000 cap on contribution to the Government’s legal fees by campaigners seeking justice for the change in…25 Jun 2025HANSARD Access to Banking Hubs: HertfordshireMy hon. Friend is right that this is a problem felt across Britain, as banks abandon their customers and close branches in my constituency in Crowland, the Deepings, Holbeach,…25 Jun 2025HANSARD Access to Banking Hubs: HertfordshireThe hon. Lady is making a powerful point and she is right about the number. The Payment Choice Alliance, to which I have already referred, estimates that if every community with a…25 Jun 2025HANSARDFlags: Public BuildingsIt was in that guise that my hon. Friend came to see me on the subject when I was a Cabinet Office Minister. We had some success in that venture, as he will recall, and…25 Jun 2025