Speeches by Maynard.

“It will take one second.”

“I refer Members to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests regarding the business that I founded in 1996, BDA partners, in which I still hold a stake but have no role or responsibility. Economically, this agreement offers some benefits. As per the Government’s impact assessment, and as the Minister sta…”

“Will the Minister give way?”

“To what extent is market concentration having an impact on a lack of competition, particularly in, say, the food markets, although I am interested in other markets as well. In the supermarket sector, the top four have something like two thirds of the market; the top six have 80% of the market. The CMA looked into that …”

“To what extent are the CMA or other bodies covering the pitch and getting around? There seem to be some very long, big, slow studies, but few fast-footed, quick studies into that market, this sub-market or that sub-market. Therefore, the consumer—the person on the street—is potentially getting whacked. I do not see muc…”

“I completely agree, and what spooks me is that the Labour Government are saying, “Hey, we are really pro-business and pro-growth.” But if you are seriously pro-growth, you want to have a strong, competitive, fair market. You therefore need to have the CMA going like the clappers around all those markets and whacking pe…”

“In terms of the set-up of trading standards, the thought of trading standards going up against Amazon, and Suffolk’s trading standards being in charge of Felixstowe, feels very unbalanced. Are there any recommendations—I am not saying root-and-branch reform—where you think someone has the best ideas on reform? Are ther…”

“But is there anywhere whose reports you would recommend, and where the best ideas are? Somebody has probably done one.”

“Coming back to the conversation we had earlier, I have just looked at the CMA’s strategic steer from May last year. Under the heading of “Delivering investment, consumer benefit and economic growth” , it talks about using tools “proportionately, with growth and investment in mind.” It could not be stronger messaging, a…”

“The CMA publishes its investigations and market studies. What about asking for information on lower-level things, just to see what it is doing? At the moment, we only see the odd investigation list but no other information about what it does. The thing we all want comfort on is, “Are you doing anything?” Would that be …”

“Given what the Government state—you are an economist—do they understand the laws of economics and competition? Because their actions are exactly the opposite.”

“It came in in April last year—”

“Just running with that, I did a comparison with various other countries. Australia and the Nordics have a super-ombudsman, rather than tiny sectoral ones that are funded by their own sectors, which makes it very hard to go up against those sectors. The super-ombudsman can take things directly to court, they have real t…”

“I thank the hon. Member for that intervention. The situation I described is obviously cruel, and this moving of the goalposts will make it miles crueller. To the point made by the right hon. Member for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell), I really hope that the Minister is reading the room, because the country is up …”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Edward. I thank the hon. and learned Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Tony Vaughan) for securing this important debate. This morning I met a constituent, Petra, who has been in the country for three and a half years. She works in the care sector. She works extremel…”

“I will let it pass from here. Question put, That the Bill be now read the Third time.”

“My chief concern with this Bill is that, like a lot of the measures that the Chancellor announced in the Budget, it looks like it may be a route to some medium-term increased tax revenues, but it gives no thought to longer-term consequences. That will help the Chancellor meet her fiscal rules, but I say “may” because t…”

“I welcome the White Paper and thank the Secretary of State and her team for their work. I am keen to understand how it will work in practice. As the Secretary of State will know, Thames Water’s largest equity shareholder wrote down its shareholding to zero in May 2024, so the equity is widely regarded as worthless. Tha…”

“I absolutely agree—well said. The Government may well say that the Bill will not affect low earners, who are likely not to be saving £2,000 in a given year, as the hon. Member for Harlow (Chris Vince) has just said. However, that is too simplistic a way to look at this issue. The impact assessment by His Majesty’s Reve…”

“Labour is a separate conversation, but if we had goods, capital and services—it takes two to tango; I get that—would that be something to which you would instinctively say, “That sounds good, because it worked before”?”