Speeches by McDougall.

“I am envious of my hon. Friend’s meeting Lee Child. If I had known, I might have asked him to put in a word for me to be the next Jack Reacher —I think I have the build for the role. The Government continue to reach businesses through the West Yorkshire mayoral authority’s £1.4 billion investment over 30 years, includi…”

“I am very happy to meet my hon. Friend to discuss that issue, and I know that he is a constant campaigner for small businesses in his constituency. In addition to my answer a moment ago about the measures within the business strategy, it is important to note that this has to be a cross-Government effort, including tack…”

“I, too, enjoyed small business Saturday; I got to return to Beveridge fishmongers in Giffnock in my constituency, where I used to work. According to Small Business Britain, the boost given by small business Saturday has been the biggest in six years, so there is real room for optimism for small businesses as we go into…”

“On this, as on all things, my hon. Friend is a strong voice for the problems faced by her local people. I know that she raised those concerns about local services and resourcing challenges, particularly in Middleton, with Royal Mail. I understand that Royal Mail has recruited 17 more staff in the past few weeks, and th…”

“I have discussed Royal Mail’s performance with the chief executive of Royal Mail and its parent company, and they recognise the need to do more to meet service delivery targets. In addition, Ofcom fined Royal Mail £21 million for failing to meet its service targets, and told it to urgently publish and deliver a credibl…”

“I beg to move an amendment, to leave out from “House” to the end of the Question and add: “notes the Government’s strong support for small and medium-sized businesses, including those employing seasonal workers; further notes that the Government’s Employment Rights Bill will help seasonal workers by bringing the UK’s o…”

“My apologies, Madam Deputy Speaker. Opposition Members raise the matter of business rates as well. It is exactly because we recognise the stress that retail, hospitality and leisure businesses face that the smallest of those properties will now have the lowest business rate since 1991, and those with values below £500,…”

“The hon. Lady makes an important point, which is exactly why we are trying to drive down costs for business, not least when it comes to red tape. If there is something in particular about your constituent’s business—I do not know if it is the hairdressers that you yourself frequent—perhaps I could pop along. I would be…”

“Again, I will talk about the transitional relief that we have brought in. Under the plans for valuation that we inherited, pubs were looking at rates increasing by about 45%; because of the relief we have introduced, they will face about a tenth of that. So we are acting. I have to say, the Conservatives knew that this…”

“Let us start with a few weeks ago, when we brought in changes meaning that thousands upon thousands of companies—particularly smaller companies—no longer have to engage in so much of that corporate reporting, which was completely unnecessary, saving about £250 million on the way to our wider target of cutting the regul…”

“My hon. Friend is absolutely right. That is one of the important ways we will get the welfare bill down as well as getting more money into people’s pockets, and ultimately more money into tills. Instead of fantastical unfunded tax cuts, we are giving real help to high streets across the country. Millions of British peo…”

“But it is in our plan. We have just passed the Budget, which introduces the relief on business rates. Let me return to the theme of “A Christmas Carol” and the visit of the ghost of Christmas past. Let us travel back to when the hon. Member for Droitwich and Evesham gushed about Liz Truss’s mini-Budget, with her unfund…”

“That is exactly my point—the Conservatives were not going to make those choices. Those choices were not in their financial plans, but they are in ours.”

“I will make some progress first. We are lowering costs. The hon. Member for Droitwich and Evesham mentioned the burden of regulation and red tape, but I have to ask: where was he for the last 14 years? When Labour came to power, we inherited a situation where businesses were spending 380 million staff hours on form-fil…”

“My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I recall working in this place as a younger man when we had all-night sittings, as the Conservatives united with those in the other place to try to stop our efforts to make work pay for people—and here we are again, a quarter of a century later.”

“I could not agree more with my hon. Friend. Again, the Conservatives do not understand the link between what is in people’s pockets and what goes into the tills. I spent a fantastic day with my hon. Friend and his local businesses last week, and I was impressed by how those at the businesses were all on first-name term…”

“If the hon. Member had been here at the start of the debate, she would have heard me talking about how I ran a business as well. She mentions job creation. The first year of this Government has seen 138,000 more jobs.”

“I have yet to see any pub with any such sign. My hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent Central (Gareth Snell) spoke about how disastrous the implementation of the future high streets fund was on the ground, and we are trying to learn lessons from that. The hon. Member for Droitwich and Evesham also criticised the E…”

“No, I am coming to a close. This is the most expensive time of year, and December is the most expensive month. Labour is proud to be acting to ensure that families can plan for the expense of Christmas and look forward to Christmas without worrying and having anxiety about whether they can make it to the end of the mon…”

“No, I have given way several times. I will make progress. The Government are fully supportive of the variety of working arrangements that people, including young people, might choose depending on their circumstances, but the key word there is “choose”. Until now, that flexibility has been entirely one-sided; it has bee…”