Speeches by Clifton-Brown.

“It is a privilege to speak in this debate under your chairmanship, Mr Twigg. I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith) on securing this important debate to mark the 75th anniversary of the Korean war, and on his excellent opening speech. It is a great privil…”

“My right hon. Friend is entirely right: freedom is not free, and nor is it enduring. We cannot assume that we will always be free; we have to continuously fight for and believe in it. That is why we want to support Ukraine and other countries that are being unjustly penalised in an illegal war, to make sure that they c…”

“I am grateful for the Minister’s words, but what I was really trying to ask in my speech was whether the British Government would work with the Americans. It is only through the Americans that we will get the political buy-in from the North Koreans to allow these things to take place.”

“I am grateful to my friend and constituency neighbour for giving way. She is speaking with a huge amount of common sense. Of course, her problems in the South Cotswolds are replicated in the North Cotswolds. The problem with increasing the housing numbers—doubling them from 500 to 1,000 a year, as she said—is that the …”

“In a recent hearing of the Public Accounts Committee on planning improvements, we heard from the Home Builders Federation that 34,000 social houses in England and Wales remain unsold. That seems to be an absolute tragedy when there is such demand for social housing. I ask the Minister to look at that urgently.”

“I have been campaigning for a long time on the reinstatement of tax-free shopping for foreign visitors, particularly those from Europe. Recent evidence from business suggests that we are losing £6 billion of income from this potential change, and £500 million in extra VAT generated from those tourists. Will the Chancel…”

“I note that the Appeal Court judges in last Thursday’s judgment were using article 8 of the European convention on human rights as a reason for the interim injunction on the Bell hotel to be quashed, yet the Home Secretary has argued in her statement today that she wants to alter the interpretation of that same article…”

“Sticking with homelessness for a minute, we discovered that the cladding remediation levy was sucking up so much of developers’ funds that affordable housing starts in London last year—I accept from a fairly low base—dropped by 90%. That surely is not going to help either the people who have been made homeless or your …”

“Good afternoon, Prime Minister. Following on from Florence’s last question about local housing allowance, some 45% of households now face a shortfall between the local housing allowance they receive and the rent they pay. Some local authorities top this up, and that is costing them, in aggregate, £204 million. When the…”

“A final question from me. You have just said that you want to change the way that jobcentres work. Could you elucidate on what is in your mind?”

“Prime Minister, I do not think you quite answered what I asked. You said, I think, that the work coaches would be given more time. In fact, not only have the initial interviews been cut from 50 to 30 minutes, but the follow-up interviews have been cut considerably as well. In other words, people seeking to get into wor…”

“Hello again, Prime Minister. It seems that we have, as Debbie Abrahams was saying, a long-term trend of unemployment increasing every month. The rate now stands at 4.7%, with 1.67 million people out of work. It was therefore perplexing to me, and I hope it might be perplexing to you, that when we published our report i…”

“One of the hardest things I found in our inquiry was that, in June ’24, almost 6,000 households with children were being housed in bed and breakfasts, of whom almost 4,000 were over the six-week limit. I just ask you, Prime Minister, to imagine what it is like to live in a B&B with children, when you are probably havin…”

“I warmly welcome the Secretary of State’s announcement that he is going to merge all four water regulators into one. However, I offer a slight note of caution: it is no good moving the deckchairs around the deck unless the situation has been improved. When will he produce the White Paper and what teeth will he give thi…”

“Following Anna’s questions, one of the worst stats in the Report is on page 18, paragraph 1.9: the total number of concessionary fares has fallen by 29% post covid. Stephen, I think you said that it had improved by 5%, so there is still a long way to go. Bearing in mind the exclusion of people who are likely to use con…”

“I commend the Secretary of State for the calm and sensible way in which he has announced the change in Government policy today. I can already announce to the House that, since the briefing earlier today, I have made preliminary arrangements for MOD officials to address the Public Accounts Committee to examine the cost …”

“But speed had a huge effect on the cost, didn’t it, because the higher the speed the higher the spec must be for the whole railway? The bunds, the rails, the catenary and the rolling stock all have to be of a higher specification. We were trying to build the highest-speed railway in the world.”

“Thank you very much. Stewart says that the ambition was to build the best and fastest high-speed railway in the world, connecting first London and the north of England, and subsequently Scotland. Do you think, with hindsight, that the whole concept was misconceived? Instead of being high-speed rail, should it have been…”

“Lord Hendy, James Stewart said that he tried to ascertain where design decisions were made, and how they were challenged, but could not find a definite answer. Can you explain how the process should work, and why it did not operate in that way for HS2?”

“Can I briefly follow Dr Arthur’s question on optimism bias? This is perhaps a question for you, Alan Over. James Stewart said, on optimism bias, that the provision—the so-called P value—was 46 in the cost schedule and benefit section, and 50 in the departmental target cost. It was P75 for the overall project. Crucially…”