Speeches by Thompson.

“The point that you made about start-ups is really important. We are good at that. Focusing on scale-ups, though, I have had a lot of local small businesses saying, “We struggle with scale-up and often have to turn abroad for funding”. How are we going to work on that scale-up aspect?”

“I ask this next question as the MP for Erewash, a constituency in the east midlands, which is consistently the worst-funded region in this space. We have a lot of start-ups and scale-up businesses in my constituency. How are we going to improve the environment and landscape for start-ups and scale-ups?”

“Yes, that would be absolutely fine.”

“Brilliant. Thank you, colleagues. Have a lovely day.  ”

“Thank you very much, Chair. I come as the chair of the all-party parliamentary university group. Colleagues may be aware that the university sector has gone through a difficult time over the past couple of years, frankly. During that time, we have heard reports of a lot of significant financial discrepancies and diffic…”

“Let me just double-check my diary, Chair, but off the top of my head I do not think I have any problems with that. Thursday 5 December—what time slot was that again?”

“I will come to some of those points further on in my speech, if the hon. Gentleman is willing to hang on for a few minutes. I trained as a teacher when the former Member of Parliament for Surrey Heath was Education Secretary. He made significant changes to the education system during his tenure, as the hon. Member for …”

“I remind the right hon. Gentleman that if Opposition Members did not want us to have to take drastic measures to re-establish our country’s economy, they should not have left a £22 billion black hole in it. I want to flag a particular failure in the education system that was brought to crisis by the previous Government…”

“I will focus on the removal of private schools’ eligibility for charitable business rates relief. Before I was elected to the House I was a scientist, but before I was a scientist I trained as a secondary school teacher. In school, I saw at first hand the dedication and resilience of my colleagues, but I also bore witn…”

“Thanks, Chair. Good morning, all, and thank you for coming. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology has allocated £6.1 billion for core research. In your three opinions, what should be contained within core research as a concept?”

“T7. The Joint European Torus fusion experiment in Oxfordshire has been delivering fantastic scientific results, standing at the forefront of UK science and the fusion experiment internationally. As JET begins to be decommissioned as we move forward to our next large experiment in Bassetlaw, can the Minister comment on …”

“As a former manufacturing researcher, I agree strongly with the comments that Stephen made a few minutes ago about the UK being at the very forefront of manufacturing innovation. My constituency is in the east midlands, which is very much in our manufacturing heartland, from SMEs right up to big multinationals. There h…”

“That was a great point, Professor Jones. I agree. I assume that the international institutes referred to are the Fraunhofer institutes and suchlike. How do you see that mandate changing for the Catapults, to bring them more in line with some of those, maybe more successful international examples?”

“Brilliant; thank you very much. Related to those points that you have made and with reference to the UKRI impact frameworks and the necessity for demonstrating impact, how do we ensure we have that low technology readiness level stuff, that blue-sky stuff, still happening within the core research framework?”

“I thank the Secretary of State for her hard work to support our steel industry and our general steel communities, including in Port Talbot, since she has been in post. I was pleased to see the Chancellor confirm in the Budget £80 million of funding for the transition board, which the Secretary of State chairs. Will she…”

“11. What steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to support the steel industry in Wales.”

“Through a 10-year career in the higher education sector and now as chair of the all-party parliamentary university group, two things have become abundantly clear to me: first, the Conservative party left the sector in utterly dire straits when it left office, and secondly, today’s measures are absolutely necessary for …”

“Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for your kind invitation to present my first speech. May I first congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Bolsover (Natalie Fleet) on her deeply moving and powerful speech this afternoon, alongside the many Members who have spoken for the first time in this House in recent days and we…”

“A whole 10% of my constituency casework relates to SEND provision, so I recently issued a public letter to Conservative-led Derbyshire county council expressing my deep concern over the state of its provision as many affected families feel voiceless. What steps will the Government take to ensure that councils, includin…”

“13. What recent progress he has made on establishing the infected blood compensation scheme.”