Public Services

Broadband is an enormous issue in my constituency. In 2016, the SNP promised 100% broadband cover...

It is right that we ensure, through the investment we are making in speeding up broadband and wid...

The Home Secretary will know that the Home Affairs Committee conducted an inquiry into serious an...

I thank the right hon. Lady for her comments, and I agree with her in terms of serious and violen...

I welcome the Home Secretary’s comments and approach to her new job, and I wish her all the best ...

I thank my right hon. Friend for his comments and I am appalled by the tragedy that took place in...

Will the Home Secretary commit to ensuring that the social security system does not penalise vict...

The hon. Lady raises a very important point, and we are in the process of working with the Depart...

Does the Home Secretary welcome the publication of the Bills that will apply to Northern Ireland,...

I agree with the hon. Gentleman’s point about getting the right kind of justice and welcome the s...

Many victims of violence and domestic violence experience terror when their assailants are releas...

I thank my right hon. Friend for his reflection and his comments, which show why domestic abuse p...

Let me continue, specifically on victims. My time as co-chair, with the hon. Member for Rotherham...

I thank the Home Secretary for attending, with me, the funeral on Monday of PC Andrew Harper, and...

I thank the hon. Lady for her comments, and it was a real honour to be with her at the cathedral ...

The Home Secretary has outlined the Government’s strategy to deal with criminal gangs here in the...

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. As an outward-looking country that prides itself on its s...

I welcome what the Home Secretary says about putting victims at the heart of the criminal justice...

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Offenders who have committed the most heinous crimes should b...

May I remind the Home Secretary of the excellent private Member’s Bill presented by the hon. Memb...

My hon. Friend raises an incredibly important point. He is right in terms of the legislation. He ...

Let me welcome the Home Secretary and the whole House back after the conference season. I echo he...

I thank the hon. Lady for giving way, though I am surprised by the tone of her speech. Would it n...

The reason for the tone of my speech and for my upset is the Prime Minister describing my constit...

If the hon. Lady is so passionate about increasing police numbers, why did Labour vote against ma...

The Conservative party is very good at trying to do spin, but everybody knows that a Labour Gover...

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. May I ask for a retraction of a statement that has been made? Th...

It is incumbent on each Member to take responsibility for the veracity of what he or she says in ...

Everyone has heard what the Home Secretary has just said, but the truth is—my understanding is—th...

Given what the hon. Lady saying, does she welcome the additional funds that the Government are pu...

I shall say more about this later in my speech, but the hon. Gentleman and other Conservative Mem...

Does my hon. Friend agree that the problem with the Conservatives is that, having cut and cut and...

I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend, but I also urge the Government to look at what is happeni...

Pretty much every school in Chester will suffer a budget cut next year, despite what the Conserva...

My hon. Friend has made an important point. Although increased funding is welcomed by many school...

Schools in Erdington have seen teachers cut, teaching assistants cut, curriculums cut, outside tr...

I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend, who makes another important point: the curriculum, and wh...

We have excellent schools, both state and private, in Hertfordshire and St Albans. The state scho...

Conservative Members need not scaremonger, because the only thing that schools across England fea...

Is not the truth that the proof of this policy pudding is in the eating, and that comes down to t...

My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and nobody can move away from the fact that our schools face ...

My hon. Friend is making such an incredible speech—[Laugher.] School uniform grants are available...

My hon. Friend makes an important point. Conservative Members might laugh, but the spiralling cos...

I am most grateful to the hon. Lady for giving way, and I apologise for interrupting her leadersh...

All I can say to the hon. Gentleman is that he needs to get out more.

The Secretary of Stat...

My hon. Friend is making a really important point. Will she emphasise the importance of saying to...

Absolutely. There is a majority across the House to ensure that we push forward with this importa...

The hon. Lady is giving a powerful speech that shows how this Government are giving with one hand...

I absolutely agree with the hon. Lady, who has a wealth of knowledge from being an educator. She ...

I am pleased to have my first opportunity to welcome my right hon. Friend, the Home Secretary, to...

Will the right hon. Lady give way?

It is a bit early in my speech, but I will happily give way.

I am grateful to the right hon. Lady for giving way so early in her speech. Can she explain how t...

The biggest deficit in our peacetime history—that is what the Labour Government left us and that ...

Does the right hon. Lady remember that the last Labour Administration picked up the biggest ever ...

The hon. Lady might like to recall the words of the last Labour Chief Secretary to the Treasury. ...

Does my right hon. Friend agree that it appears the Labour party has not learned any lessons at a...

My hon. Friend is absolutely right that the Labour party’s plans for spending and for crashing ou...

Is there therefore an argument for the legalisation of some drugs—not out of approval for them, b...

I am afraid my hon. Friend and I will absolutely disagree on this issue. I do not believe in the ...

I thank the right hon. Lady for graciously giving way. Of course, policing in Scotland is devolve...

The hon. Gentleman is right that we should have co-operation on these issues. We also need to hav...

The right hon. Lady will know that before policing was devolved in Northern Ireland, we had 13,50...

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for pointing out the actions of the previous Labour Governmen...

That is why my constituents, who are very worried about online gambling, online self-harm and som...

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Parents worry, but young people worry as well, about the impa...

I am extremely grateful to my right hon. Friend for giving way. As she has said, crime is changin...

I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for his comments. He is absolutely right. It was right that...

Does the right hon. Lady accept that some of this is cultural? It is still quite often the case t...

As cyber-crime has developed, it has been necessary for the police to develop their approach, and...

My right hon. Friend is talking about the training of police officers. Does she welcome the appro...

I am very happy to commend the Hampshire force for the work that it does in introducing specialis...

My right hon. Friend is being very generous in taking interventions. I pay tribute to the work th...

My hon. Friend makes a very important and valid point. Obviously, in his time as children’s Minis...

Will the right hon. Lady give way?

I will give way one final time. Lots of people do want to speak.

I thank the right hon. Lady very much for giving way. I, too, welcome a number of recommendations...

The Government are reinvesting in staff in mental health services and increasing the number of me...

Will the right hon. Lady give way?

I said that I was going to make some progress, and I will, because I want to raise a final point....

It is interesting to follow the right hon. Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May). I extend my sympathie...

Will the hon. Lady give way?

I have a long speech to get through; I will see if I can get the hon. Lady in later.

I rece...

My hon. Friend is making an important speech. The former Justice Minister, the right hon. Member ...

I agree with my hon. Friend that there is a lot to be learned from that. We should be in the busi...

Thinking of social care and care of the elderly, I give the Scottish Government credit for their ...

I very much agree with the hon. Gentleman on that notion. It is interesting to look at how other ...

My hon. Friend will be aware of the report by the all-party parliamentary group for Africa on how...

My hon. Friend is absolutely correct. I hear Ministers chuntering—perhaps they do not have the sa...

Like me, my hon. Friend will see people at her surgery regularly who are looking for a family mem...

I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend.

There is also great unfairness with spousal and fam...

Which Bills, if any, in the Queen’s Speech will the SNP support?

We doubt whether many of the Bills in the Queen’s Speech will make it. There was an article in Th...

I agree entirely with the points the hon. Lady is making. Something that was absent from the Quee...

I very much agree with that. A lot more needs to be done to ensure that people who have been vict...

Obviously, I am in Scottish form today. Is not another strength of the Scottish degree that it ha...

I agree with the hon. Gentleman on that.

The way in which entrepreneurs and highly skilled ...

I very much thank the hon. Lady for eventually giving way. [Interruption.] Well, it seems to be a...

The hon. Lady, as so often, misses the point. We want control over all the levers of our economy,...

Order. A seven-minute limit on each Back-Bench speech will now apply.

1.28 pm

This week, we meet to debate a Queen’s Speech put forward by Government who do not have a majorit...

The right hon. Gentleman will of course be aware that vast areas of the Domestic Abuse Bill are a...

What I am about to say is still very relevant, which is that I think the public of the United Kin...

I thank my good friend for giving way. In the past 15 years or so, those in the armed forces have...

Judging by the hon. Gentleman’s appearance, I do not know whether he is anticipating an early din...

I agree with my hon. Friend, who has lots of expertise from his distinguished military career. Th...

My right hon. Friend was saying earlier how important the additional resources going into educati...

I agree, and we need to build on that, because we do not yet have all the answers.

In concl...

I want to deal first with the myth that is perpetuated about the so-called economic mismanagement...

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

I will because I know that the hon. Gentleman is very interested in devolution.

As the hon. Gentleman will know, I am quite sympathetic to what he has just said. Does he agree t...

I am very sympathetic to the point the hon. Gentleman makes about the situation in Cumbria. Havin...

I thank the Chair of the Select Committee for giving way. On safety in high-rise buildings, does ...

Absolutely. The Select Committee has welcomed the Government’s indications that that is their int...

Order. I trust that, as usual, the right hon. Member for South Holland and The Deepings (Sir John...

I certainly would not want to disappoint you, Mr Speaker, so I must rise to the occasion and fulf...

Does my right hon. Friend agree that the best way to combat this level of fear is the sight of a ...

Absolutely. The Queen’s Speech and the spending provisions that the Government have made allow fo...

rose—

The hon. Gentleman might be about to reassure me that he takes as hard a line on crime and disord...

I can certainly reassure the right hon. Gentleman that I have never been called a snowflake. He m...

Crime is caused by many things, but the idea that crime is an illness to be treated rather than a...

Does the right hon. Gentleman agree that many valued members of the NHS, doing valuable jobs, hav...

I will conclude my remarks by simply saying this, Mr Speaker. Chesterton also said that at the he...

Sadly, we have no further time either for Chesterton or, indeed, for the right hon. Gentleman.