Speeches by Maynard.

“Let us talk about trade—”

“I think we should have all the economic benefits of Europe while controlling our borders and controlling movement—[Interruption.] Well, look at Norway, Switzerland and Turkey. There are lots of options out there. Let’s go and negotiate something that makes sense for us. My final point is that we need an office for valu…”

“They are interested in what costs them money, and their mortgages are more expensive because of the decisions the Conservatives took three years ago—[Interruption.] Well, read the Financial Times. Moving on, I suggest that the digital services tax is another way we should be looking at to raise revenues. We would incre…”

“There is a real irony in the fact that the Conservative party has tabled a motion calling for the control of public expenditure and for trust to be returned just three years after a notorious mini-Budget that saw the biggest set of unfunded spending commitments in recent memory and that continues to damage the markets’…”

“I wholeheartedly agree with my hon. Friend—[Interruption.] People might be joking about it, but our reputation as a country matters. That is why people invest in our country, and that is why traditionally our debt prices have been low. When we self-sabotage, we pay for it not just for a few weeks or months but for year…”

“I have already said that the Government should keep their promises, so there we are. May I continue, please? We want to back hard-pressed households and small businesses and push for practical steps that will help ease the burden on families and get our high streets thriving again. We have called on the Government to r…”

“I thank the right hon. Gentleman for that. We want to back—[Interruption.] It was unquestionably a disaster for our ratings—I will happily give the right hon. Gentleman that—and I do not want the Government to break their promises. That is absolutely right and correct.”

“If hon. or right hon. Members would like to intervene, will they please do so?”

“I think the hon. Gentleman will find that the moron premium relates to Liz Truss. People are feeling pressures and that has a huge impact on everybody individually. Pay cheques go less far, tax bills are higher and small luxuries such as having a slice of cake or a pint, or taking the family to the pub, are increasingl…”

“Let us talk about trade, Madam Deputy Speaker. I find it extraordinary if we look at the future. I think it was Stephen Bush in the Financial Times who talked about the permanent lobotomy that the Tory party needs to have when talking about Brexit. If we are talking about getting money into the Exchequer, let us get ou…”

“Will the hon. Member acknowledge that debt has risen from £0.5 trillion to £2.9 trillion from 2005 to 2026, forecast to March? That is nearly six times as much, and the great majority of that happened under the Conservatives’ watch. Yes, we can talk about covid, but covid is a very small portion of that—about £0.7 tril…”

“Thank you.”

“I understand that the Competition and Markets Authority is currently running only four independent investigations, one of which is set to run for two years and eight months. The last significant fine was in October 2021. The activist chair of the CMA was fired in January and a former Amazon UK boss was hired in his ste…”

“What have they told you?”

“We currently have a two-year qualifying period for protection against unfair dismissal. That was going down to an immediate day one right. There seems to be something about a longer period taking shape in the Commons and the Lords. What do you think is the right decision? In Witney, I hear endlessly from businesses, “I…”

“Okay. I refer you to the Reuters newspaper, the New York Times, and the FT, which have widely reported on this based on the evidence out there. The UAE has refused to answer questions from the UN and others. I do not understand why we are playing for time—I am afraid that is what it looks like: that we are too busy mak…”

“Criterion 2 is international humanitarian law.”

“Sorry, but arms export controls come under your Department, yes? We have responsibilities under the conventional arms transfers principles at OSCE. We have responsibility under international humanitarian law. The Guardian, Reuters, the FT and UN experts have all reported on this extensively. The UAE has refused to prov…”

“Secretary of State, I am not asking whether our weapons are being recycled onwards. That is irrelevant; please let’s not go down that rabbit hole. What I want to say is this: if the UAE is taking, let’s say, Bulgarian arms and shipping them into the Sudan, that means we cannot export any weapons to the UAE.”

“It has been widely reported in the international press and by credible UN experts that the United Arab Emirates is arming the RSF in Sudan, which is committing terrible and severe ongoing atrocities. The UK’s arms exports criteria look beyond whether UK-exported weapons ultimately reach Sudan—that is not what we are ta…”