Speeches by Chope.

“Is there anything else that you could do to bring to the attention of these residents their right to be informed about how much their landlord, for want of a better expression, is paying, so that they can then calculate whether they are being ripped off? At the moment, most people seem to be rather ignorant about those…”

“Last year, my understanding is that the previous Government issued a consultation around this whole area. Where has that got to? What are you expecting to happen as a result of that, or is it dead in the water?”

“I am sorry that I had to absent myself, but I am on the Procedure Committee as well, and we had the Speaker coming to give evidence. I am delighted to be able to get on to this issue, which is about non-domestic users, and domestic users of non-domestic contracts. I am very grateful to Tim Jarvis for having responded t…”

“Going back to the more general issue of non-domestic users, we touched on the costs at the very beginning of this evidence session. What more can you do to reduce energy costs for non-domestic business users, so that they are more internationally competitive? Our costs are so high.”

“It is also about the extent of the gas prices. You have not really mentioned the word “growth” in your answer. If the Chancellor really wants to go for economic growth, what are you saying that you are going to be able to do to help deliver that by reducing our overall costs of energy, particularly to industry? At the …”

“Does my right hon. Friend agree that an unintended consequences of this Bill could be that it is no longer possible to build a new thatched house? In Dorset and Hampshire, we welcome people who are developing new thatched houses. How will that work with this Bill?”

“Will the hon. Member explain why his Bill excludes the use of solar thermal panels?”

“Does the Minister not share my concern that this is a Bill of very limited ambition? Considering what she has said, surely there is a strong case for deregulating this whole area and for getting Parliament and the Government out of hospitality businesses’ hair.”

“The Minister, quite rightly, expresses sympathy for the victims of covid-19, which is something we all share, but he has not mentioned anything about the victims of covid-19 vaccines, of whom there are thousands. We know that those people did the right thing and took the vaccines, but they were not warned of the risks.…”

“Will the hon. Lady therefore support my private Member’s Bill, which is coming up in March and is designed specifically to exclude repairs to listed places of worship from the VAT regime?”

“I shall try to be brief, Madam Deputy Speaker. I follow the hon. Member for Blackley and Middleton South (Graham Stringer) by referring to a quote from Hayek’s book, “The Road to Serfdom”. I do not claim credit for identifying it myself; it was quoted in the other place by Lord Hannan of Kingsclere on 15 January in the…”

“On that point, does my right hon. Friend accept that one of the consequences of the lack of transparency has been a public distrust of vaccines, which is spreading rapidly? As a consequence, for example, there is less take-up of MMR vaccines than there should be and used to be, and that is because of a lack of trust in…”

“My right hon. Friend hits on an important point. What action did the MHRA take to apologise for or explain its failure to give adequate and timely warnings to potential patients?”

“I am not suggesting that. What I am suggesting is that you should be willing as a member of the Government to insist that greater priority should be given to investment—”

“But you are ducking the question about adaptation and resilience. We used to be global leaders in adaptation and resilience, and the Climate Change Committee says we have fallen behind on that. You are not prepared, it seems, to say publicly that you believe that adaptation and building resilience are and should be top…”

“Secretary of State, in your 2008 Act you put a lot of emphasis on the need for adaptation and for building resilience measures. You have not mentioned that in your opening remarks, and you will know that the Climate Change Committee is extremely critical of the lack of progress on that front. Bearing in mind that the E…”

“If the Government were to decide that investing in adaptation and resilience measures should take priority over some of the capital programmes in your budget, would you go along with that, on the basis that adaptation and resilience are of much greater significance for the ordinary people—you mentioned working people—t…”

“Greater priority should be given to investment in adaptation and resilience, even if it means having to cut back on some of your own ambitions within your own Department.”

“In the Netherlands in 1953, some 2,000 people were killed as a result of flooding. We have similar problems now in the United States—masses of people being killed as a result of the consequences of climate change. Are you going to stand there and say that this Government are going to ignore the priorities that have bee…”

“In the meantime, we don’t have to wait until October, do we, for you to get the Government to respond to the concerns that you have articulately expressed here?”