I thank the Leader of the House for announcing the business for the week after the recess.
After all sorts of attempts by the Government to keep the figures for their Brexit concealed from the British public, we now know the true costs of their disastrous plans for the nations and regions of the UK, and my nation’s economic growth is to take a hit of up to 9% to pay for their chaotic cluelessness. Scotland does not want their Tory hard Brexit—Scotland did not vote for their Tory hard Brexit—but here we are, tethered to a dysfunctional Titanic as it careers haphazardly towards the abyss. May we have a debate on these national and regional breakdowns, and design a solution that will at least protect Scotland from the worst of this madness?
May we also have a debate about coups and how to achieve them? Over the weekend, we were presented with the prospect of the “dream team” of Boris, Rees-Mogg and Gove, which sounds like a bad remake of a film: “Three Men and a Brexit”. For most of us, it was possibly our worst nightmare, or something designed to keep the kids awake at night. How much longer must we endure this Tory civil war, and will the Leader of the House accept my offer to supply peacekeepers to ensure that it is conducted properly?
When we return, we will have our new estimates debates. For the first time in recent political history, we will actually debate estimates on estimates day. What a novelty that will be! The one piece of departmental spending that we urgently need to address is the billion-pound bung to the Democratic Unionist party, as the
House has never debated it and never had a chance to give its verdict. Does the Leader of the House agree that the new estimates debates will provide the ideal opportunity for a debate and vote on that subject?