Speeches by Obese-Jecty.

“I have spoken to a lot of MPs in the past week to ask them to support the new clause. Regardless of whether they said that they would or would not do so, I have yet to find an MP who fundamentally disagrees with its aim—I include within that group Ministers. It is only Reform that believes that the immediate families o…”

“Here we are again, but what has changed since last time? Two weeks ago, at Home Office questions, I asked the Minister responsible for migration and citizenship, the hon. Member for Dover and Deal (Mike Tapp) what progress he had made in progressing the waiving of visa fees for indefinite leave to remain for the depend…”

““(c) in a case where the application is made by a person who is a spouse or child of a member or previously serving member of the armed forces who have served for four or more years.””

“That is it—that is all I am asking the Government to do. Page 119 of the 2024 Labour party manifesto says:”

“What part of new clause 4 do the Government now disagree with?”

“By the way, let us not pretend that the Government do not know how they would pay for it, because that is on page 127 of their manifesto, listed under “additional public services spending”, using the last year of the 2028-29 Office for Budget Responsibility forecast. The manifesto clearly states:”

“I have asked the Government on no fewer than eight occasions when the manifesto pledge would be delivered and what progress towards delivering it has been achieved, and answer came there none. Last week, I asked the Minister responsible for migration and citizenship whether he could estimate the number of spouses and c…”

““the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.””

“Sure. We should bear in mind that both the Home Office and the Ministry of Defence claim to be working on delivering this, but as they have no idea about the current impact, it is safe to assume that no impact assessment has been conducted.”

“I asked the Minister responsible for migration and citizenship what the planned timetable is for delivering the manifesto pledge that the Government are so committed to delivering. He told me:”

“”

“How long does it take? He has been in post for nearly a year—it took half a day to tweak this new clause, working with the Public Bill Office—so what is the hold up? If he has time to make AI slop videos recounting the history of constituencies, “Tapp into History,” he has time to improve the lives of the people he ser…”

“I appreciate the hon. Member’s position and have previously spoken to her about new clause 4, which I tabled. The Government have been in power for two years, and nothing has yet been done on delivering their pledge. Why should Labour Members not vote for new clause 4, given that it will deliver their manifesto pledge?”

“I wish to speak to new clause 4, tabled in my name. I thank all those across the House who signed my amendment. Some 10% of MPs in the House supported the amendment. Although that is not exceptional, it is certainly unusual, and I wish to put on record my thanks to all those who put their name to it—particularly those …”

“I appreciate what the hon. Member is saying. I am not putting the Minister under scrutiny here; I am merely highlighting the invidious position that he finds himself in and the situation as we find it. I spoke to the hon. and gallant Member, the Minister, earlier today, so he knows full well that I am going to say this…”

“That sounds very much like a European defence force. In what way would that differ from the concept of a European army?”

“In 2022, we amended the Immigration and Nationality (Fees) Regulations 2018, waiving fees for non-UK service personnel. Having listened to the feedback from the Government during the Committee of the whole House, I have changed new clause 4 to reflect a further change to that legislation, adding this single paragraph:”

“The Deputy Prime Minister mentioned the meeting between the Prime Minister and Sanae Takaichi, the Prime Minister of Japan, with reference to £18 billion of investment coming into the country. Some of that will no doubt be for the global combat air programme, for which a funding deal needs to be in place by the end of …”

“I put it to her that there is a timeline—a very rigid timeline. There are only two points each year when immigration rules can be amended—in the statement of changes to the immigration rules—and the next point is due this autumn. Will the Minister assure the House that the Ministry of Defence and the Home Office will i…”

“The Minister accepts that the new clause has been significantly redrafted to try to make it as watertight as possible. I appreciate what she says about primary and secondary legislation; it seems like a little bit of a convenient get-out-of-jail-free card for the Government. Can she confirm whether there is anything wr…”