Speeches by Darlington.

“I thank my hon. Friend for securing this important debate—we can see how important it is by the huge amount of people who have come to see the debate and who want to speak in it. Is he aware of the recent DACS survey of visual artists, most of whom live on pay under the minimum wage? That survey showed that 84% of arti…”

“I thank the hon. Member for North Shropshire (Helen Morgan) for introducing the debate. We will be talking a lot about Milton Keynes, because if you wait for a speech about its hospital, you get two at once. For me, the story about Milton Keynes hospital is really personal, as it involves my family and my in-laws. Unfo…”

“There are some days when I am really proud to be an MP and to witness the level of debate in this Chamber, and there are some days like today—when, quite frankly, the Leader of the Opposition was absolutely appalling. She continues to talk over people, to not listen and to laugh at people while they are talking about a…”

“The debate we have in this Chamber is listened to by people who are scared. The behaviour of the Leader of the Opposition has been to talk over people and laugh at people, and when cis-men violence was mentioned, there was laughter on the Opposition Benches. That does not reassure women or trans women in this country. …”

“Gavi was created very much with the UK as a driving force. It is one of the proudest achievements of the previous Labour Government. It has immunised almost 2 billion people in the world, and not only is it saving lives but it is important for jobs and work here in the UK in our fantastic life sciences sector. Will the…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairwomanship, Mrs Harris. In the interests of transparency, I would like to declare that I have received no donations from business, but I have received donations from UK citizens, including via the trade union GMB, of which I am a member, and through fundraising dinners and quizz…”

“Rape victims were failed under the previous Government, and too few actually got to see the inside of a courtroom. Among those victims were the victims of Andrew Tate here in the UK, who suffered rape and other violence against them. While I know that the Home Secretary cannot comment on the current extradition notice …”

“That is a very good foray into my last point. My hon. Friend is absolutely right to mention unincorporated companies or LLCs that are not transparent about where their money comes from. I have to ask why businesses are the ones giving money in the first place. I always think: what is the reward? I understand it better …”

“I thank the hon. Member for bringing forward such an important debate. Does he agree that one of the challenges of the current system is that domestic abusers and perpetrators are often convicted of a single act when domestic abuse happens over many years and can vary in the type of attacks and abuse that happen? Convi…”

“I think it is quite a nice way to end this series of questions. We have talked a lot about the regional dimension; we have talked a lot about how we match skills, finance and ideas. What role should local government play in that? I am also thinking about the Mayors. What should be their role potentially in marketing, a…”

“What role should local government leaders and Mayors have in the priorities for the British Business Bank?”

“I am not going to revisit the Crick case but just remind you that it was actually about a replacement for Mill Hill, which was already based in London. Having been involved in the building of the case and getting it funded by the Treasury, there is a lot more to it than you are describing and the decisions that were ma…”

“I know.”

“Paul was not even involved in the beginning; right? I don’t think he was even back in the UK at the point when it was first conceived. Let’s talk about how Government should be making decisions about science infrastructure. Should they be making decisions on the basis that there is low economic growth and low wages in …”

“There might be really good reasons.”

“I do not disagree with you on translational research being an important part, but it would require significant change about where money goes in our university sector to support institutions that have strengths in translational research. Dr Mackay, you have a real commitment to the west midlands, to the midlands, yet yo…”

“UWE Bristol is fantastic but often not considered within that. We have Coventry and what goes on there. Again, it is not necessarily listed under research intensive. I guess what I am trying to get to is that I absolutely take your point about breaking the biases, but, actually, do we need to challenge some of the bias…”

“As Steve would tell you, the south-west has some great institutions.”

“Can I challenge that point about research intensive? Research-intensive institutions are what we tend to talk about as Russell Group institutions, but when you look at the innovation at the old red brick in terms of their impact on innovation spin-outs, some of them have a much better success record than the research i…”

“We have had to make the case that we are actually important to the arc.”