Speeches by Lamont.

“Will the hon. Lady give way?”

“Having reflected on the point made by the hon. Member for Blackley and Middleton South (Graham Stringer), I would add that the key difference is surely that MPs are elected by their constituents, but the Prime Minister is appointed by the monarch, on the basis that that person can command the confidence of the House of…”

“12. What assessment his Department has made of recent trends in levels of business confidence in the hospitality sector.”

“Hospitality businesses in the Scottish borders are being squeezed by rising energy costs and wage and supply bills. Does the Minister think that this Labour Government’s jobs tax has helped or hindered the hospitality sector?”

“My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech. I am sure that, like me, he has received many emails and letters from farmers over the last few days, given that the price of red diesel, heating oil and fertiliser has gone up in the light of recent uncertain events. Does that not demonstrate and remind us all how fragile …”

“What is the cause? In opposition, probably all political parties say they want to cut back the number of these bodies, yet when they come into government, they fail to do so. What is the cause of that?”

“Over 50% of properties in the Scottish Borders are not on the mains gas grid and are completely dependent on heating oil. They are being hammered by the increase to the price of heating oil over the last week or so, and they need to see concrete action from this Government to stop the excessive prices and the profiteer…”

“You say that there is a presumption against the use of public bodies, but obviously there are many out there. Does the driver for their creation come from Ministers or from civil servants?”

“My experience, certainly, was that Ministers were appointed based on who had backed whom during various leadership elections, as opposed to whether they had leadership skills or the ability to develop policy. For me, that is always going to end in disaster.”

“Is that done on purpose? During my time as a Minister, I spoke to colleagues who were also Ministers, and some were told by their private office or by civil servants, “You can’t touch that. That is something away from us. It’s an arm’s length body.” Other Ministers were told, “You are the Minister. You can give directi…”

“Lord Maude, one thing you missed out during that last exchange was that surely the onus rests with the Prime Minister to make sure that the people he or she appoints have the skills to be Ministers?”

“Do you think these bodies help Governments achieve their political objectives, or are they obstacles?”

“In the different Departments responsible for ALBs, do Ministers fully understand how to control what these bodies are doing?”

“But in terms of your objective, when you were in government, of trying to reduce the numbers, do you view that as a successful period?”

“Good morning, Lord Maude. When are public bodies used and when should they be used?”

“Why would any Minister sign up to that? If they are losing control and handing over a responsibility for policy delivery, why on earth would they agree to that?”

“4. What assessment he has made of trends in the number of foreign nationals claiming universal credit.”

“According to the Government’s own figures, most foreign nationals who are claiming universal credit are not in work. The Government do not seem to want to do anything to bring that figure down, so will the Minister tell us how much this is costing the UK taxpayer?”

“T2. Thousands of former public sector workers are facing delays to their pension payments. Both MyCSP and Capita have catastrophically failed as the administrators of these pension funds, but the real failure is the Cabinet Office’s inability to negotiate contracts that include financial sanctions, in order to drive up…”

“They were entirely new.”