Defending Public Services

There are always pressures in the giant national health service as demand grows and expectations ...

Having had these exchanges over the Dispatch Box for the past nine months, it strikes me that the...

My hon. Friend’s point about the workforce is important. Does she share my concern about those at...

My hon. Friend makes a good point, and motivated staff are essential to providing high-quality ca...

Under the last Labour Government, new medical schools were set up—including Hull York medical sch...

My hon. Friend is, as always, entirely right.

The Government have run out of answers and th...

I welcome the legislative programme that the Government have set out in the Queen’s Speech, parti...

Coventry has also experienced problems with BT’s delivery of broadband. That is one of the big pr...

The hon. Gentleman makes a point that many Members have made, but I am making a very different po...

Order. I warn Back Benchers that after the SNP spokesman, I will impose a 10-minute limit on spee...

It is a pleasure to follow the right hon. Member for Basingstoke (Mrs Miller).

I hope the H...

One could perhaps compare the Conservative party’s disagreement over Europe to two men fighting o...

I am saddened at the depths to which the hon. Gentleman stoops. I am delighted to have friends an...

Why do the SNP Government not put up taxes in Scotland if they feel that they need to spend more ...

One of the things we want to do in Scotland is to deliver economic prosperity and a fairer societ...

Does my hon. Friend agree that all the rhetoric about the life chances strategy is incompatible w...

My hon. Friend is correct: we need to invest in our children and in our productive potential, giv...

The hon. Gentleman is making a powerful case against austerity, with which I agree, but the SNP H...

One of the things we have done since being in government in Edinburgh since 2007 is to protect lo...

Does the hon. Gentleman not understand that the Government are not proposing to charge for emerge...

In many cases, we are talking about the Government wanting to charge people who have come here to...

Will the hon. Gentleman confirm that the SNP secured free higher education by butchering the furt...

No, I will not, because that is not true. Full-time places at Scottish colleges have increased, a...

The hon. Gentleman is making an important point, but does he not accept that one benefit of peopl...

This is a vastly important issue, and I genuinely want to work with the Government on it. All of ...

The Queen’s Speech contains an important measure, the Bill of Rights, but we are told that we nee...

It is always a pleasure to follow the right hon. Member for Wokingham (John Redwood). He speaks w...

Does the right hon. Gentleman agree that our prisons are a breeding ground for extremism and radi...

The right hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. It is not just about preventing people without a dr...

The right hon. Gentleman should recognise that since 2010 sales of diet drinks have increased by ...

That is a good statistic, for which I thank the hon. Gentleman. The change has come about only be...

It is a great pleasure to follow the right hon. Member for Leicester East (Keith Vaz), who, as al...

Is the TTIP draft treaty not just another example of what I was trying to say, which is that more...

My right hon. Friend is absolutely right. If we let TTIP through, it will be a further transfer o...

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for allowing me to deliver my maiden speech today.

In keep...

I congratulate the hon. Member for Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough (Gill Furniss) on her m...

First, may I clarify to my right hon. Friend that I have long campaigned against TTIP? Secondly, ...

My point is that the EU has trade deals with more than 50 other countries, whereas the US has onl...

Does my right hon. Friend think that the licence to operate this service should be taken away and...

My hon. Friend raises a fair point. The ultimate sanction available to the Government for the fai...

It is a great privilege to be called to speak in this debate at this particular juncture. You wil...

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Huddersfield (Mr Sheerman). Having listened carefu...

We can all recognise that this Queen’s Speech contains a thin raft of legislation and that it is ...

Like me, Mr Deputy Speaker, you will know that Lancashire has some of the finest public services ...

I was hoping for a lot more from this Queen’s Speech. I hoped that there would be something to ad...

Does the hon. Lady agree that the BBC is uniquely able to tackle difficult issues such as control...

I am so pleased that I allowed that intervention, because it was excellent. I thank the hon. Gent...

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Washington and Sunderland West (Mrs Hodgson). I al...

Order. Unfortunately, that short time ran out.

7.3 pm

A theme has been emerging during the debate; it is the apparent “lack” or “poverty” of ambition i...

There are 21 Bills in the Queen’s Speech, and I could talk quite a lot about most of them, but I ...

Each year, the Government put before Parliament their expenditure programme, the Budget, and thei...

It is a pleasure to be called to speak in this debate on the Gracious Speech. There is always a t...

Does the hon. Gentleman share my concern about the radicalisation, both Islamist and neo-Nazi, th...

I thank the hon. Gentleman for making that point. He tempts me to indulge in a nine-minute disqui...

In that vein, I will try to be constructive, but I need to point out the current situation. I wan...

It is always a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Oldham East and Saddleworth (Debbie Abraham...

Order. Before I call the next speaker, I am afraid that I will have to lower the speech limit to ...

I will endeavour to meet that demand, Madam Deputy Speaker. It is a pleasure to follow the hon. M...

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Sheffield Central (Paul Blomfield) in this debate ...

I share my hon. Friend’s confusion, but in fairness, it is only right to point out that weekend w...

I thank my hon. Friend for that clarification—it turns out that I will be satisfied, then. Howeve...

The “Educational Excellence Everywhere” White Paper, published in March, states that every school...

The choice to become an academy will be there for every school that wants to take it. As has been...

It is a real pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Bexhill and Battle (Huw Merriman), who came t...

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Scunthorpe (Nic Dakin), who as always represents h...

Can you elaborate on that or give an example?

Later on, perhaps, but I will spare my blushes now.

Digital is a UK success story. At 12.4%...

The title of the debate before the House is “Defending Public Services”. Last week, I listened ca...

It is a great pleasure to follow the hon. Member for North Ayrshire and Arran (Patricia Gibson).<...

It is a great pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Wealden (Nusrat Ghani), who gave a powerful ...

On the Monday of last year’s Queen’s Speech debates, at almost exactly this time, I made my maide...

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Dudley South (Mike Wood), who spoke with passion a...

It is a great pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Dulwich and West Norwood (Helen Ha...

It is a pleasure to be called to contribute to this debate on the Gracious Speech. It is also a p...

I am one of many speakers in this debate who feel that in significant ways this Queen’s Speech fa...

It is a pleasure to follow the right hon. Member for North Norfolk (Norman Lamb). I refer to my e...

I welcome the Minister for Culture and the Digital Economy to his place and look forward to heari...

Could the hon. Lady give us an up-to-date view on how the Labour party is getting on with the arg...

Certainly not in 10 minutes.

The Government’s extraordinary decision to announce that they ...

I am pleased to respond to this debate, and I apologise that I slipped out for a while to attend ...

The SNP won the election and increased its share of the vote—it got nigh on 47% of the vote. The ...

The hon. Gentleman doth protest too much, and he certainly spoke extensively. As well as Leiceste...