Speeches by Fox.

“Will the Minister give way?”

“Lord Robertson, the former Labour Defence Secretary, said that we cannot defend Britain with an ever-expanding welfare budget, so will the Minister explain to my constituents why this Government can set out their welfare spending plans until 2031, but cannot publish their defence investment plan for 2026?”

“The Minister has said that she wishes to take swift action. Surely the swiftest action she could take is to use this Bill to ban smartphones from schools, and to ban children under 16 from using social media. What extra information does she need to take those steps?”

“You have described this as a complex situation, and I find it quite baffling. We have the SRA to regulate solicitors, you regulate the regulators, and presumably the Ministry and Parliament scrutinise you. Do you actually add anything to this? If we got rid of the LSB, and Parliament directly supervised the SRA, would …”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir John. These three sets of draft regulations transfer responsibility for adult education and skills funding from the Secretary of State to three local councils. The aim is to bring decisions on education closer to the communities they serve. The decisions we make on…”

“I am Ashley Fox, the Member for Bridgwater, and my interests are as declared on the register.”

“But would it not be more efficient if the Ministry of Justice kept an eye on the SRA? What do you add?”

“That is nothing that the Ministry could not do, is it?”

“It is good evidence that you are not adding value, isn’t it?”

“It is good evidence that you are not adding value, isn’t it?”

“You have described this as a complex situation, and I find it quite baffling. We have the SRA to regulate solicitors, you regulate the regulators, and presumably the Ministry and Parliament scrutinise you. Do you actually add anything to this? If we got rid of the LSB, and Parliament directly supervised the SRA, would …”

“That is nothing that the Ministry could not do, is it?”

“I am Ashley Fox, the Member for Bridgwater, and my interests are as declared on the register.”

“But would it not be more efficient if the Ministry of Justice kept an eye on the SRA? What do you add?”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Mundell. I thank the hon. Member for Sunderland Central (Lewis Atkinson) for introducing this debate, and other Members for their contributions. In particular, I thank the hon. Member for Blaydon and Consett (Liz Twist), who described so movingly the circumstances l…”

“If there was no intention to delete the data, why did the Chair of the Justice Committee write to the Lord Chancellor asking him to stop the deletion of that data?”

“The Minister will forgive me if I describe what she has announced as a whole load of waffle. The problem is that the 28-day period is too short, and she should consider some mechanism to allow it to be extended. Providing for training, notices and stuff on websites will not help many victims, who just need more time to…”

“I was slightly concerned when I heard the Minister say that she was “working at pace”—that is the phrase that Ministers in the Ministry of Defence have used about the defence investment plan, which has been repeatedly postponed and still is not with us—so can she give a more precise timescale? Does that mean sometime i…”

“Governments of all colours reduced defence spending after the cold war to spend more on health, education and welfare, but the world of today is not the world of 1991. This Government must deal with President Putin rather than President Yeltsin. Since Russia attacked Ukraine in 2022, it has become increasingly clear th…”

“I do agree, and I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for the additional time. The legacy legislation introduced by the previous Conservative Government intended to halt that injustice is now being repealed by Labour. That is disgraceful. Not only is Labour’s campaign against our veterans deeply unfair; it endangers us i…”