Speeches by Fookes.

“Does anyone have any ideas on what support you would like to see for female founders with family or caring responsibilities?”

“We have talked a little already about caring and family responsibilities, particularly with you, Roni. But for everyone, to what extent have caring and family responsibilities impacted the running of your business or the businesses of those that you know? Obviously it does not have to be just childcare, but caring for …”

“You are obviously a bit further on in your journey than a lot of the women you might be helping; you are amazing women and I am sure you are reaching down to help other women come up the ladder. Is there enough networking and mentorship out there for women?”

“So, everybody?”

“Just to move on a bit: if you are going to a networking event, is it better to be a male and female networking event or a woman-only networking event? This is something that was said in a previous roundtable and there were different views, which is quite interesting. I would love your opinions on that.”

“It is great to meet you all; you have fantastic CVs. Can I start with Devie, please? What has been your experience of accessing, or trying to access, investment for your business?”

“Does anyone else want to add to any of that?”

“What do you think was the difference in the US? Why did they get it, but the UK did not?”

“To what extent is a lack of diversity among investors and investment panels a barrier to female entrepreneurs getting more investment, and why do you think that is the case?”

“It is so ironic, is it not? We are 51% of the population, so how can beauty or menopause products or health tech for women be niche? It is certainly not niche.”

“Do any of you think—Dr Savage, you might like to respond to this one—that there is merit in mandating a gender balance on investor panels or committees, or at least those that are supported by the British Business Bank? Do you think that might work?”

“My final question on the diversity of the actual investors is, to what extent do intersectional characteristics—ethnicity, age, disability and so on—make it more difficult to get funding? Izzy might be a good person to answer that.”

“I thank the hon. Lady for securing this debate. I welcome her shedding light on the terrible legacy of 14 years of Conservatives who did nothing to invest in Wylfa, but while this Government get to work on delivering the greatest upgrade to our energy system in decades, I believe Plaid Cymru is playing politics here. I…”

“This week I am privileged to be attending events across the constituency to commemorate the 80th anniversary of VE day and the sacrifices of those who fought in the second world war, including veterans such as David Edwards and Tom Griffiths, who have a school named after them in Mondrainville in France, having helped …”

“I want to talk a bit about role models. Some boys go down the rabbit hole, do they not? I think every boy is exposed to this content, but some boys go down the rabbit hole and some boys do not. Has any research been done about whether it is a strong role model that stops them going down that rabbit hole?”

“Just building on some things you said earlier about the internet, do you think there should be stronger laws for online platforms to prevent the constant serving up of misogynistic content to boys?”

“Thank you; that would be great.”

“Apologies for being late, but thank you both so much, and thank you for bringing this programme to us. As a mum of two boys, it has been really important for me. It has opened really important conversations for me. Also, I was a governor of a secondary school before I became an MP, and sexism was at best hidden and a l…”

“At my recent business roundtable in Monmouthshire, I spoke to Tri-Wall, a business that exports to the EU. Instead of sending one lorryload of its goods to different countries all across the EU, it now has to send a different lorry to every country, which really increases its costs. Does my hon. Friend agree that we ne…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Jeremy. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Welwyn Hatfield (Andrew Lewin). The post-Brexit trade deals delivered by the previous Conservative Government have just been appalling. They have not worked well for Wales. We have been flooded with New Zealand lamb—and…”