Speeches by Kirkham.

“Does my hon. Friend agree that the Government’s fair funding review is right to take into account the sparsity and rurality of coastal areas and visitor numbers into the new calculations? For example, a hotel in Cornwall in the winter can cost £53, but in the summer it can cost £100, and county councils spend twice as …”

“It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Sir Jeremy. When the Government’s immigration White Paper was published with the proposal to increase the qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain, I received numerous emails from constituents in Truro and Falmouth who could be affected. My constituency is home to …”

“How do I follow that? It is an honour to speak in the David Amess debate. I start by congratulating Falmouth town council and Source FM in my constituency for the opening of the resource project this weekend, which will bring community radio and a community café to everybody in Falmouth. Thank you and good luck to Pend…”

“You can see how difficult that is for people watching to understand if we are talking about engineers getting 3% to 6% bonuses and these people coming in and taking 300% in one year.”

“The existence of the plan—that there was going to be one—was set out in October and November, but not the fine detail of it.”

“You said that was paused. What does that mean?”

“Why did you decide to keep the whole plan a secret?”

“The board minutes say that the potential impact of the Water (Special Measures) Act 2025 and negative publicity was considered and that the recipients themselves were asked not to say anything about it.”

“So why not say anything about it then?”

“The board minutes say that they were considered.”

“We know that Thames Water has been in difficulty for a long time. It is not only the staff at the top who feel it and get grief; it is the staff who are going out meeting people day after day. When Helena talks about training needs and so on, it is also an acceptance of what is happening on the ground and how difficult…”

“What we were trying to get at with the initial scope of the plan is that there was a lot of confusion that was first over its existence and then who decided it would happen. A plan like that needs to be transparent because if there were people on the board of the company deciding—who may have been impacted by it—then t…”

“Management retention plans or bonuses. Just to set the scene— because obviously there will be people watching this on television, and for myself to get it straight in my head—in October ‘24, Thames arranged a loan with Class A creditors for £3 billion. You said half of half of that has currently been drawn down from th…”

“Of a corroboration.”

“So the contemporary minutes were not right?”

“Yes, they were getting on with it, but without a 300% bonus. That is different.”

“I have one last question. You said that you led on workforce engagement until last year. Who is currently leading on workforce engagement?”

“The “New life for city buildings” project in Truro is breathing new life into empty high street buildings and redeveloping them. I would love for the Minister to be able to see this for himself, so will he consider coming to Truro and attending our growth summit on 18 September?”

“It is letting them off the hook a bit though, is it not?”

“There is a lot of consumer demand for change, actually. Some studies show that reusing and recycling could meet 60% of plastics demand. If there is a consumer push, it is possible. Is that something that INEOS could pick up and run with, and be a leader?”