Speeches by Mohamed.

“The people who put us here put us here as independents. As I said earlier, if that changes that will change based on what my constituents want me to do. I have not investigated or looked into and never considered even until now the organisation and the elements to bring a party structure together. My constituents elect…”

“Primary for me was the impact in this place, so being one alone versus one of five, and having that coverage. If I am not there, I am not around. If there is an important topic, I know somebody is there. They will be speaking, and they will probably be saying what I would want to say. Participation in the questions and…”

“To build on what Shockat said, I was elected as an independent to put in all my resources, intellect, time, energy and some finances that I was able to use for serving my community. I would like the opportunity to be able to do that to the maximum in this place. On Short money—thanks for the summary—there are two views…”

“I do not see any disadvantages of being formally recognised as a technical group. The challenges of a party—I have never been in one, and I have never tried to start one—would be many and would probably distract us at the moment from the work we have been elected to do.”

“If I may clarify—sorry for not being clear earlier—I was not comparing parties to groups; it is just an MP is an MP is an MP. I was talking about individual MPs, whatever party they belonged to or did not belong to. As I say, when the electorate go to the voting booth they are not voting for a party because that party …”

“Yes.”

“I learned about proxy voting in preparing for this session—I did not know before then—and I have not had to avail myself of it until now. With my children all grown up, I probably do not expect to be availing of it, God forbid, unless I am ill. But I am happy to know that I could avail of it if I needed to. There are p…”

“I don’t think so. I am good.”

“Thank you very much, Chair. My name is Iqbal Mohamed, the absolutely proud independent Member of Parliament for Dewsbury and Batley in West Yorkshire.”

“For somebody who has never run for office and only ever visited Parliament once in my life, it was a very new experience. I did find the current training programme was positive and helpful. Going through some of the training with all the new MPs was really positive. I love meeting people, so to mix with the new MPs acr…”

“Yes, it was spread over—there were about four separate sessions across two days in that first week. If I may add one specific point to Shockat’s points, it is a simple thing. You come in and your constituents are waiting for you to deliver your maiden speech. On the rules around the maiden speech and what you can do be…”

“I concur with what Shockat said. I am in there quite a lot when I think I need to speak and represent my constituents. I have not felt ignored or not called. Yesterday, because the time was very tight and there were lots of people bobbing, I did not get a chance. However, while I do not take that as anything about me, …”

“I have not applied. I have not learnt the process yet. I mentioned earlier about the inductions to the key elements of an MP’s role and the processes that we can participate in to apply for debates and speaking opportunities or to raise issues. I will learn it and when I am ready, I will submit. One of our colleagues g…”

“I have relied mostly on being in the Chamber and bobbing, and I have been quite successful in getting called to be able to put a relevant question. I get questions and information from constituents in real time on an evening the day before or on a morning and, coincidentally, they know which Minister will be at the Dis…”

“We do not get a place on any Select Committees. It is not even an option. We cannot lobby for it; we cannot apply for it; we cannot express interest in it. We have quite a wide breadth of experience across the alliance. I have my specialist knowledge, and I would absolutely want to contribute the maximum I can as an MP…”

“I spoke on the Data (Use and Access) Bill before recess, where the Minister proposed or encouraged people—not just me, but other speakers who had suggestions for improvements—to put their names forward to participate in the Bill Committee. Until that point—maybe that is on me—I was not aware that I could volunteer or e…”

“I was not aware.”

“I was not aware of either of those things.”

“There are two parts. One is to know that you can put yourself forward to provide evidence to an inquiry, but the other part is: what is the process for suggesting areas of inquiry to a Select Committee? There is an EDM form, there is a questions form, but I did not find anything that says, “Do you have something that y…”

“As a single person, I am an independent MP. That is what my constituents elected me as and that does not change until or unless they want that to change. It was finding, thankfully, four other independents who overlapped and aligned on pretty much the majority of issues, challenges, policy areas, principles and our int…”