Speeches by Lamont.

“Thank you, Mr Speaker, for dragging the Minister to the House tonight to explain the terms of the deal. After hammering farms with the family farm tax, it now looks like Labour is selling our farmers down the river, allowing cheap, low-quality imports from the United States. President Trump’s Secretary of Agriculture h…”

“But not President Trump?”

“The Minister is absolutely right to highlight the importance of supporting local food production and ensuring that consumers here in the UK buy local. I just wonder how that stacks up with what President Trump has just said, which is that this new UK-US trade deal “includes billions of dollars of increased market acces…”

“Just to dive back in on that, in the scenario where something went catastrophically wrong by that quango or public body that was undertaking those functions and it had been kept distant from the Minister’s private office, do you think the Minister should have to resign in that scenario, or is there such a distance betw…”

“It did not work though; it failed.”

“The Auditor General.”

“Does it not just feed the voters’ frustration that that it does not matter who you vote for; decisions are being made by people who are ultimately unaccountable, not the MPs, Ministers or even the Prime Minister? Do you accept that it feeds that frustration that decisions are being made by people who are not directly e…”

“In relation to those public bodies that are out of direct ministerial control, do you think the public understand that and that it is not politicians and Ministers who ultimately make the decisions?”

“I want to talk a little about Scotland. You said it is quite hard to define what a public body is. A freedom of information request was put in to the Scottish Government that revealed there are 130 of these public bodies—or quangos, which is how they were described. Their number has increased by about 10% in the last 1…”

“Just a few weeks ago, the Business and Trade Secretary said that he would “stand up for British workers”, so it is quite astonishing that the Minister has come to the House today to announce tax breaks for immigration. This will undercut workers in Scotland and across the UK, and it comes just weeks after Labour introd…”

“6. What assessment she has made of the potential impact of the spring statement 2025 on family farms in Wales.”

“The Minister seems to have no grasp whatsoever of the constant struggle facing our family farms in Wales and across the United Kingdom, because of the lack of support in both Labour’s spring statement and Labour’s family farm tax. Farming families are not multimillionaires—they are striving to make a profit, with many …”

“I rise to present this petition from my constituents to the House of Commons, which was put together by the Wild Goat Conservation Group, particularly David Braithwaite and Gail Brown. It calls for the cull of wild goats on Langholm moor and Newcastleton hill to stop. I want to record my thanks to the more than 4,300 p…”

“What direct discussions has the Minister had with people in Scotland who have been impacted by the infected blood scandal about the slow pace of compensation payments?”

“There are proposals by Scottish Borders council to close a number of local nurseries, including those at Channelkirk, Yetholm, Glendinning, Westruther, Ednam, Cockburnspath and Fountainhall. There is strong local opposition to those plans. Local nurseries are vital to rural communities such as mine, and keeping them op…”

“The Supreme Court’s ruling goes a long way to guarantee the rights and safety of women and girls. Does the Minister agree that the judgment highlights why it is now right for the SNP Government finally to ditch the divisive gender self-ID agenda once and for all, and proves it was totally wrong for Scottish Labour to b…”

“rose—”

“I will make the same point to my hon. Friend the shadow Minister as I made to the hon. Member for Birmingham Northfield (Laurence Turner), about the tactics that the Unite trade unionists are using: the blockade of the depots to prevent the refuse trucks from leaving, and the slow walking in front of the lorries to pre…”

“Yet again, my hon. Friend is demonstrating what a powerful champion he is for his constituency. Does he share my concern that this is about more than just jobs, because if we lose the ability to produce our own steel, that is a national security concern?”

“I recently spent time with the Keeping Duns Blooming Marvellous group, picking up litter around Duns. Dozens of groups across the Scottish Borders are doing similar work. Although my right hon. Friend is right to highlight the great work that Conservative-led councils are achieving, does she share my view that, often, …”