Debate on the Address
Before I call the mover and seconder, I want to announce the proposed pattern of debate during th...
I beg to move,
That an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty, as follows:
Most G...
Show all contributions (208)
It is an honour to second the motion on the Humble Address and a particular pleasure to follow my...
I am sure that the whole House will want to join me in paying tribute to those who have died in A...
I will make a bit more progress.
The country has big problems, but this Queen’s Speech has ...
Will the right hon. Gentleman take this opportunity to apologise to the House and the nation for ...
It is all very well having a Whips’ question, but the Government are borrowing £245 billion more....
I am extremely grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for giving way. He said we have borrowed more...
This Government are borrowing more. Of course a temporary cut in VAT has a cost and would lead to...
I will make a bit more progress.
Let us consider small businesses in this country. We all h...
I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for giving way. He talks about living standards, yet th...
I respect the hon. Gentleman because he is serious about those issues, but I am afraid that his i...
Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?
I will not give way for the moment.
Housing completions are at their lowest level since the...
I will not give way for the moment.
Clearly, many people raised the issue of immigration du...
I will give way in a moment.
There are no measures in the immigration Bill on those problem...
The right hon. Gentleman mentions immigration. Would he accept that the net migration of 2.2 mill...
Yes, I would accept that, as I have said on many occasions.
Let me move on. The reality is ...
I will give way, but let me carry on for a minute.
None of the measures in the Gracious Spe...
The right hon. Gentleman’s alternative Queen’s Speech would cost more than £28 billion. How would...
I dealt with that question earlier, which the hon. Lady would know if she had been listening. The...
I thank the right hon. Gentleman for giving way. Perhaps this will be third time lucky. As usual,...
I do not think the hon. Gentleman understands. This Government are borrowing more— £245 billion m...
The right hon. Gentleman is right that the Government have been an absolute disaster for the coun...
I do not think the SNP should be boasting about the opinion polls at the moment.
Who does t...
Let me start—as the right hon. Member for Doncaster North (Edward Miliband) did—by paying tribute...
My right hon. Friend has rightly emphasised the importance of the United Kingdom’s relationship w...
I am grateful to my right hon. and learned Friend for what he says. Let us be absolutely clear: t...
I would like to thank the Prime Minister very much for coming to Derbyshire twice during the rece...
The choice for people in Derbyshire at the next election will be whether they want to keep on the...
I was listening out in the Gracious Speech for the words “climate change,” and I almost thought I...
I thought the hon. Lady was slightly uncharitable: she was looking for the words “climate change”...
Perhaps the Prime Minister could explain how the proposals in the Queen’s Speech will help my con...
First of all, there are 1.25 million extra private sector jobs in our economy, and many of those ...
If it is all going so well, why are more people on the dole in Ashfield than when the Prime Minis...
Across the country, more people—1.25 million more—are in work, and 270,000 fewer are on out-of-wo...
The Prime Minister knows, and I know, that this parliamentary Session is all about the rise of UK...
The simple truth, at the next election, is if you want an in/out referendum on Europe, the only w...
The Prime Minister has given an extensive shopping list of the things he will introduce this Sess...
On the issue of plain packaging for cigarettes, the consultation is still under way, and we are l...
The Prime Minister spoke about how all of us in the House cherish and love our children and famil...
The hon. Lady’s party had 13 years in office to take such measures and did precisely nothing.
...I served on the Joint Committee on the draft Care and Support Bill and although it has some good ...
First of all, as the hon. Lady says that the draft Care and Support Bill has some good points, pe...
Given that Labour has now apologised for its immigration policies in government, does the Prime M...
I hope the test will come when we vote on those measures. In the past, of course, we have heard t...
I will give way to both right hon. Gentlemen in a minute. Let me just make one point. The Bill go...
Perhaps it would be easier for Labour to vote for the Bill if there was a verifiable way of ensur...
At last we have had a concrete policy from the Labour party, but I am afraid to say that it is on...
I welcome the abolition of the UK Border Agency. The Prime Minister mentioned foreign national ex...
The right hon. Gentleman is entirely right, and that is something that we discussed at the Nation...
According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, after the tax and benefit changes introduced in 20...
The IFS also shows that it was this Government who increased child tax credits to help the poores...
As my right hon. Friend the Leader of the Opposition said, we should judge the Gracious Speech by...
On that subject, will the right hon. Lady at least acknowledge that in only two years this Govern...
On behalf of the whole House, I wish the hon. Gentleman a very happy birthday, and I thank him fo...
I will not give way again as many other hon. Members want to speak.
There is much in the Qu...
Does the right hon. Lady agree that a fundamental principle of the welfare system should also be ...
Yes. I sat around the Cabinet table when we discussed precisely putting in place the policies tha...
I welcome the Prime Minister’s speech and the contents of the Gracious Speech.
I urge my ri...
Does the right hon. Gentleman agree that the pursuit of misconceived green energy policies has co...
I think that the Government need to re-examine the whole carbon tax regime, which is not imposed ...
Does the right hon. Gentleman agree that it would help if the minimum wage in this country was en...
I do not think that the minimum wage is high enough for a family. Our ambitions should be rather ...
I am glad to be given the opportunity to speak in this debate.
There have been a few commen...
May I record my appreciation of the work done by the Work and Pensions Committee in scrutinising ...
I am delighted to hear that and perhaps we will come back to the Bill if it is not amended enough...
I am grateful to the hon. Lady for giving way and for the reasonable way in which she makes her p...
The Committee did not say that we were against the abolition of derived rights in principle for f...
My hon. Friend has always been a great champion of ordinary working people. Will she join me in u...
I am sure the Minister heard my hon. Friend’s plea with regard to Tesco. There is still a concern...
Thank you very much indeed, Mr Speaker, for this early opportunity to make what will be a brief c...
As, indeed, does the voice of the hon. Member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington in regard to ...
Does the right hon. Gentleman agree that, while we clearly want an efficient, fair immigration sy...
Indeed. The hon. Lady has echoed my “Dutch auction” point. I think that many of us in all parties...
The right hon. Gentleman has accused us of having an obsession. Does he not agree that it is far ...
With all due respect to the hon. Gentleman, I think that is a judgment he must make. I do not wan...
I hoped the right hon. Gentleman would rejoice a little at the divisions within the Conservative ...
I feel the spectre of Roy Jenkins with his hand on my shoulder as we speak. I say to the hon. Gen...
The right hon. Gentleman is a very experienced Member and has been involved in the European issue...
I have said before that I was wrong about that, although I would have put the issue of the single...
I would like to move on from Europe, but not, of course, before the auld alliance has had its opp...
I am enjoying the right hon. Gentleman’s speech greatly, but the problem, of course, is that the ...
Well, on the immigration matters, let us see the detail first. We have got some initial inklings ...
Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?
I give way to another occasional renegade.
Very occasional.
Does the right hon. Gentleman not think that the appeal of the Liberal par...
I am not party to the internal machinations of coalition relationships, but the little that my an...
I am pleased to follow the right hon. and hon. Members who have taken part in the debate. Members...
It is a great pleasure to follow the hon. Member for South Antrim (Dr McCrea), who has been in an...
I may have got this wrong, but it is my understanding that the Government are introducing two Bil...
The devil will be in the detail. The truth of the matter is that until recently there was no talk...
My right hon. Friend will know that phase 1 ends in my constituency and phase 2 begins there. The...
My hon. Friend makes a long but valuable intervention, and I know how badly his constituency will...
Is my right hon. Friend aware of evidence from the continent showing that high-speed rail systems...
Yes, I am. Perhaps we will be able to explore that when we discuss the preparation Bill in more d...
As a brief intervention, I remind my right hon. Friend that the Prime Minister said specifically ...
I agree entirely that we should hold him to that, and I hope that he will look even more closely ...
It is a huge pleasure to follow the right hon. Member for Chesham and Amersham (Mrs Gillan), who ...
I would say to the right hon. Gentleman, “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”
Having seen the right hon. Lady with her little dog, I know that I would not want to take them on...
You can’t get enough Abba!
I can see that my hon. Friend and I will be on our way to Stockholm.
I was there yesterday.
We could have our picture taken with the band.
Let us move on to the serious issues of the ...
My right hon. Friend is giving his usual professional view of this matter and I am glad that he t...
I agree with my hon. Friend. That comment was made to me and the shadow Minister for Immigration ...
Does the right hon. Gentleman agree that the focus of police reform should be not simply on effic...
The right hon. Gentleman is absolutely right, and as a former shadow Home Secretary and someone w...
Is the right hon. Gentleman aware of the press coverage today, which seems to indicate that the P...
I thank the hon. Gentleman for that intervention, and I noted his intervention on the Prime Minis...
It is a pleasure to follow the right hon. Member for Leicester East (Keith Vaz). He joined the Ho...
Is debt rising or falling?
The Government are successfully tackling the deficit, which, as the hon. Gentleman will know, is ...
The right hon. Gentleman was of course an outstanding Secretary of State for International Develo...
The right hon. Gentleman makes an important point, which is relevant to those who try to fill the...
On my right hon. Friend’s point about evidence against potential war criminals, I have been invol...
I agree strongly with my hon. Friend. He has direct experience of this issue, and we need to tack...
Does he also agree, however, that it is worrying that journalists and photographers are being del...
The hon. Lady is right to flag up the importance of that work, supported as she says by many of t...
It is a great delight to follow the right hon. Member for Sutton Coldfield (Mr Mitchell), not lea...
I think my hon. Friend, to whom I will give way in a moment, is about to mention Clwyd West in 20...
My hon. Friend is entirely right. What sort of message does it give to the voters of Clwyd West w...
It is absolutely preposterous, and I hope that we manage to defeat the Government on this. My hon...
Before I give way to the hon. Gentleman, I hope he will commit to not voting for such preposterou...
I stood as a candidate in European elections that used the list system, and I dislike the whole p...
The hon. Gentleman is completely and utterly wrong, and I look forward to the letter of apology t...
No, I will not give way to the hon. Gentleman, because he is the Minister. I am sure that he is p...
Until the last line, I was rather enjoying that speech. It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Membe...
What about those people who come to see us in our surgeries who have been told they are fit to wo...
There is an element of that, and that is what I was alluding to just now. There is no doubt that ...
I agree with what my right hon. Friend is saying about our banking system. I am finding that many...
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. A large part of the reason for that is the state of the UK ba...
Does my right hon. Friend agree that banking reform is necessary not just because of its economic...
My hon. Friend is entirely right. He is a better historian than I am, and he could probably refer...
I will give way to the hon. Lady first.
I understand what the right hon. Gentleman says about people falling over in the street, but peop...
I shall come back to the hon. Lady’s point, after giving way to the hon. Gentleman.
I always presumed that life-threatening conditions were not to be included in this—otherwise, as ...
Let me deal with those very good points in order. First, health tourism is not new; people may no...
I just want to correct the right hon. Gentleman on one other thing about the reciprocal rights be...
The hon. Gentleman is almost exactly right, but there are sets of different regimes, with some ap...
For two months.
For two months. Health tourists coming to this country to get a single operation or a single cour...
I am trying to sum up, but I will give way.
I understand that the statistics show that those coming from Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and other...
I am afraid that that is not true. I do not want to end up giving a lecture on this, but let me s...
By their very nature, these people, be they from Poland or wherever, tend to be young and healthy...
Order. There are 11 speakers to come, and there are no time limits, but to ensure that everybody ...
That was the last intervention I was going to take, Mr Deputy Speaker.
The simple truth is ...
It is an honour to follow the right hon. Member for Haltemprice and Howden (Mr Davis) who, as eve...
Many of the people to whom my hon. Friend refers worked for sub-contractors, who have gone bust o...
I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend. The devil will be in the detail, but I hope that we can m...
I agree with my hon. Friend that the issue is of great importance, and it is good to see the Gove...
I agree with my hon. Friend that, over the past few years, the stance of the insurance industry i...
I am grateful to be able to contribute to the debate on the Queen’s Speech, and I am happy to fol...
If we accept what the right hon. Gentleman says about the growth in jobs, why does he think that ...
There are all sorts of reasons. The hon. Gentleman must know that the last quarter has just been ...
Given what the right hon. Gentleman has said about those “significant achievements”, do people in...
No; many people’s living standards are not better than they were three years ago, but we have bee...
The right hon. Gentleman talks about his passion for redistribution. It is one that I share, but ...
I voted for the income tax changes as a package that took many people on low and medium incomes o...
I will take one more intervention.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies is clear that the lowest 20% of income groups are being hammered...
Order. We are now on 17 minutes. I was working on speeches lasting no longer than 16 minutes per ...
I was conscious that I was giving way too much so I will answer that intervention very quickly an...
It is always a pleasure to follow the right hon. Member for Bermondsey and Old Southwark (Simon H...
Every Queen’s Speech reflects work in progress, and we continue to make progress in seeking to br...
I concur with the spirit of the remarks made by the hon. Member for Banbury (Sir Tony Baldry) abo...
I congratulate the proposer and seconder of the Humble Address. One does not often have the oppor...
Given that it is nearly 40 years since the British people were asked their view about what was th...
I flinched last week when someone described me as a veteran Member of the House. My hon. Friend n...
I very much enjoyed the speech of the hon. Member for Southend West (Mr Amess), but he will proba...
It is a great pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Glasgow North (Ann McKechin). I understand h...
Will my hon. Friend give way?
I am very happy to give way to my hon. Friend, my next-door neighbour from Tamworth.
I am obliged to my hon. Friend, who is my next-door neighbour in Lichfield. He is right to say th...
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Their homes are not just blighted now—they have been blighted...
It is always interesting to listen to the hon. Member for Lichfield (Michael Fabricant). I can on...
I forgot to mention that the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce Group has said that one good thing th...
I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for mentioning the importance of using British manufacturing ...
indicated assent.
I am glad that that the hon. Gentleman is nodding. German contracts are let to German companies—t...
indicated assent.
I am glad to see the Minister nod in agreement to that point. This is about supporting the local ...
It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Sefton Central (Bill Esterson) and my hon. Friend ...
Which is most days.
Yes, indeed. They say in the south-west that if one can see across the valley, it is about to rai...
I welcome what the hon. Lady says about plain packaging. In the Committee stage of the Children a...
I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. Indeed, this is about protecting children, and t...
The Gracious Speech was hardly an earth-shattering event. It was a short speech that, compared wi...