Bus Services: England

It is an honour, Ms Vaz, to serve with you in the Chair. I pay tribute to the hon. Member for Sto...

It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Ms Vaz. I congratulate my city colleague, my hon...

I hesitate to interrupt my hon. Friend, because I am aware that he is making a number of points, ...

I thank my hon. Friend—actually, I think he is right honourable.

I am not.

Well, he should be. I thank him for the work that he has been doing in the Department to push on ...

It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Ms Vaz. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-...

South.

I endorse what my hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent South (Jack Brereton) said about the ...

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Vaz. Before I thank the Minister, I will sa...

My hon. Friend is talking eloquently about the £2 bus fare, which I utterly endorse. It is the si...

I thank the Minister for his intervention. The last time I had a school visit in Parliament, some...

The Front-Bench spokespeople have 10 minutes each. I call the Opposition spokesperson, Bill Ester...

It is a pleasure to speak with you in the Chair, Ms Vaz. I thank the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Tre...

If the hon. Gentleman is so critical, what would the Labour party do about it?

The hon. Gentleman anticipates the second half of my speech, because I will come on to that. Befo...

Will the hon. Member give more information about precisely how he will achieve those objectives?<...

I am enjoying these interventions because they are prompting the next stage of my speech, which e...

I am interested to see how that plays out in terms of consistency. We have a new North East Mayor...

The short answer is that there is, because we recognise the need for flexibility and different op...

Will the hon. Member give way?

I will finish the point rather than taking further interventions. At the moment, those powers are...

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

I am going to finish answering the previous two questions by going through our plans, if the hon....

Will the hon. Gentleman now give way?

I am coming to the end of my speech. The Conservatives have presided—[Interruption.] Okay, I will...

I remind the hon. Gentleman that he has almost come to the end of his 10 minutes, but it is his c...

Thank you, Ms Vaz.

But you gave way!

The Chair has told me not—[Interruption.] May I seek your guidance, Ms Vaz?

Carry on. Jack Brereton is intervening.

I thank the hon. Member for giving way, but I am slightly perplexed, as to what it is we are hear...

Order. We are shortly coming up to a vote and we have not heard from the Minister.

I would like to know what Labour would do differently.

I think I have understood the question. We are going to speed up franchising and we are going to ...

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Vaz. You wait ages for a debate on bus serv...

What about all those cuts in 2010?

The hon. Gentleman talks about cuts in 2010. He does not seem to remember Gordon Brown selling th...

What is the state of the economy now?

The hon. Gentleman has a brass neck to come to this House and start saying that 2010 was about an...

I thank all hon. Members for taking part in today’s debate, and both the Minister and the shadow ...