Speeches by West.

“My hon. Friend is quite right, and is well versed on these issues. UK businesses face more red tape when they want to import from and export to the EU, invariably adding to costs in the sector. On 19 May last year, the UK and the EU agreed an exciting new strategic partnership, including an agreement to work towards a …”

“My hon. Friend, who is a former Minister, makes an excellent point. I know that the Minister present will look into our idea of a publicly backed food hub or wholesale platform. It could operate on a cost-recovery basis and work with local suppliers to help them to supply food to local schools, households and NHS facil…”

“We have had an excellent debate and a lot of hope from the Minister in her remarks today. We have seen GDP figures up, the costs of borrowing falling, train fares frozen and cheaper fuel bills announced in the Budget, a pick-up in the housing market and the lifting of the two-child cap in April. There is a lot that we …”

“Indeed, and it is wonderful to hear hon. Members speaking up on behalf of their constituents, particularly farmers—we now have so much more information about farming now than there was before. Coming back to the point about the prices of cheaper foods rising at a much higher rate than the prices of more expensive food,…”

“I know the Minister will have much to say on that issue, and I look forward to her response.”

“Very briefly, when you write back to the Committee, could you outline your assessment of the effort that it has taken and the lessons that have been learned in relation to other, as we might call them, targets of HMRC in terms of other fraud? For example, I note, in other reading for this Committee, that some of the wh…”

“Very briefly, recording studios are saying that they are now being viewed as offices and, therefore, their rates have gone up and they will have to close because of this increased cost. I just wanted to ask about that because the creative sector is often a little bit anomalous. Why has that decision been made at a tech…”

“People in Hornsey and Friern Barnet have written to me in absolute desperation. What discussions has the Foreign Secretary had with partners to co-ordinate efforts to promote human rights even in these desperate times, including the treatment of prisoners, many of whom have been detained so brutally since last month?”

“I had another very quick one. Is there a scheme whereby there could be a charge on the property over time, in order to give time to find out who the owner of that property is? How will that mechanism work? I suspect it could take quite some time to establish ownership of some of these properties. Is there a proposal to…”

“I wanted to ask about the owners versus the renters being liable for this measure. Is this something new for the Department to be grappling with? Some open sources have suggested that understanding who the owner of a property is can sometimes be quite hard. Have you taken that into calculation in terms of the scheme?”

“My understanding, Chair, is that there are some circumstances where local authorities do not know who owns properties in their own jurisdiction. With the liability being on the owner of the asset rather than the occupier, is there an impression that this might grow in popularity in terms of the way it is administered? …”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Betts. I thank the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) for securing this important debate; he is well known in the House for defending the rights of minority faith groups, wherever they are found. The Backbench Business Committee was right to grant this importa…”

“It is an honour to follow the leader of the Liberal Democrats, the right hon. Member for Kingston and Surbiton (Ed Davey), in this debate. Put very simply, this is a family-friendly Budget, and every family up and down the UK will be welcoming it. Gone is the vile rape clause, and an increase in family income is very w…”

“I thank my Treasury Committee colleague. There was quite a lot in today’s Budget on skills and nutrition for children so they can get their educational qualifications, and quite a lot that will help us to solve the productivity puzzle. I look forward to questioning, with him, the OBR on its data and how it got to that …”

“In other words, you can see the outside of the wallet, but you are not sure who it belongs to.”

“On the reputational aura around the asset class, you would be aware of the quite high-profile case of Qian Zhimin, who was the bitcoin queen, and the £5.5 billion Ponzi scheme that was built up. That obviously has quite a lot of relevance in terms of the way that she then came to the UK on a stolen passport and so on. …”

“Professor Yüksel Ripley, do you have a view on maintaining that balance between an elected Parliament saying, “This is the tax that there is going to be”, voting on it and therefore having that ripple through the financial services, and how you manage tax leakage in some of these more modern products?”

“Going the other way on that final question around the tax system and how we can encourage investment, you have mentioned that, in your view, it does not have an intrinsic value. Are there ways of understanding how tax could leak out through these asset classes? What remedy would that attract?”

“It is lovely to see you, Chris. He is my former constituent, just to let people know. I have two questions. First, should crypto be allowed to be held within stocks and shares ISAs? ISAs are quite a popular topic of discussion right now. Lots of people are thinking about them. Do you have a view on limiting crypto to i…”

“I do not know whether Mr Gravelle would like to come in as our regulator voice.”