Speeches by Coghlan.

“I will briefly challenge you on the point that we are close to the cliff edge, because during the austerity years, a lot was influenced by Reinhart and Rogoff saying, “When debt hits 100% of GDP,” blah blah blah, which has been discredited now due to a forecasting error. We have the second-lowest debt in the G7. It is …”

“Are you saying we are not close to the cliff edge?”

“We have touched on the principles of this already: the Institute for Fiscal Studies has advocated a fiscal traffic light system to get away from having a single-point indicator on the five-year horizon. What are the panel’s views on that?”

“Given the fate of the Russian Black sea fleet from maritime drones and that of ground forces from first-person view drones, does the Minister agree that there is unlikely to be a military solution to reopen the confined waters of Hormuz, and that we therefore need to find a diplomatic solution as quickly as possible?”

“We heard yesterday from economists that, in fact, if you strip out the risk-free rate, UK gilt yields are actually in line with the G7 average, and the UK actually has the second lowest debt-to-GDP ratio in the G7 right now. So what is holding you back from increasing defence to 3% of GDP now, given that it fits entire…”

“He didn’t do it himself.”

“Has the UK accepted the invitation from Prime Minister Carney to participate in the charter negotiations for the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank? If not, what is holding you back?”

“Chancellor, first, thank you for what you have done for special educational needs. Moving on to defence, if we send ground troops to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire, like all reservist soldiers, I will be at risk of serving. British soldiers were killed in Afghanistan, in part because previous Governments failed to…”

“Thank you. You have mentioned the former Chancellor Jeremy Hunt quite a lot today. He, of course, called in the Chamber on Monday for defence spending to increase to 3% of GDP—”

“Is the defence investment plan on your desk?”

“You couldn’t look at other examples where sovereigns have guaranteed different forms of debt? I am just thinking, for example, of Greece and Germany during the eurozone crisis, for example, and the impact on the gilt yields paid for by the sovereign.”

“The UK is, of course, the third highest defence spender in NATO, but our defence capability and output would suggest the opposite. Where has the MOD got this wrong?”

“Mr Josephs, you rightly highlighted the fiscal position and borrowing concerns. If the Government’s portion of borrowing related to defence spending was guaranteed through common issuance with allies, would you expect that would improve, or have a positive impact on, the fiscal position given the common guarantee on th…”

“This last week has underlined our perilous national security situation and the potential risks to growth. Does the Chancellor agree that now is the time to raise defence spending to 3% of GDP, perhaps funded by borrowing, along with our European and Canadian allies, to reassure the bond markets and to drive growth and …”

“I agree with what the Minister says, and it is good that all this provision is coming in, but I simply do not understand why, if she is so confident that these reforms will work, it is necessary to reduce children’s rights. I know that she is likely to say that the Government are not doing so, but it is the view of KCs…”

“I fully believe that the Minister’s heart is in the right place, but for me the test is what lawyers and KCs—not to big them up too much—are saying about the White Paper: specialist educational lawyers are clear that the White Paper is reducing children’s rights. I would love to support the White Paper, but our country…”

“I have repeatedly raised with the DFE over the last year very serious misconduct by Surrey county council, including concealing for over 14 months the fact that it had the highest number of complaints in the country and reclassifying complaints as inquiries to reduce complaint volumes. As far as I am aware, no discipli…”

“I welcome many aspects of the special educational needs and disabilities White Paper, especially those on early intervention and increased funding. We know that most local authority SEND staff care deeply, and we are grateful for them for that, but local authority SEND provision is chronically underfunded and too often…”

“The Minister is being very generous with her time, and I am being slightly cheeky. I have a horrendous case involving a child in Dorking who is 12 years old. I saw the mother in September, a week after the child’s second suicide attempt. The child and adolescent mental health services wrote to the GP one week later, sa…”

“Will the Minister give way?”