Speeches by Malthouse.

“I completely agree with my hon. Friend.”

“I am perplexed by the argument the Liberal Democrats have advanced that abolishing stamp duty will raise prices. Presumably the quid pro quo is that raising it would lower prices, so why are they not proposing that policy?”

“I will in a minute. The third point I want to make, which I guess is the one that might appeal most to Government Members, is that this tax is generationally unfair. Younger people move house more often, so they are more exposed to this tax. The younger someone is, the more likely they are to be building a family, to r…”

“I was Housing Minister for 12 golden months, during which, I am pleased to say, the United Kingdom achieved its highest starts and finishes of housing for 10 years either side—not entirely due to my stewardship, but nevertheless, I will take the credit. I am with the hon. Gentleman in wanting to encourage the building …”

“The hon. Lady should not assume from the outward utterances that there was not an internal conversation going on within the party about our tax strategy. Those in the Chamber who shared the Cabinet table with me will know that that was often a vigorous conversation. I will leave it at that.”

“I am very sorry to hear about the antipathy of the hon. Member for Pendle and Clitheroe (Jonathan Hinder) towards the south-east. I can assure him that it is not reciprocated, and no doubt the London Members who may or may not be present for this debate will have something to say to him about the wealth and welfare of …”

“As the Secretary of State knows from her time at City Hall, Heathrow has been a planning disaster since it was accidentally sited to the west of London, forcing planes to land over millions of heads. While it might be amusing to watch her take the chainsaw to all those trees planted at Sipson by a series of Labour poli…”

“Therefore, it is what they tell you; it is a handshake.”

“Sorry, can you just answer my question about how you extract that confidence? Is it human contact?”

“How do you extract that confidence, and from whom? A senior person comes out and tells you they are taking all of this terribly seriously? Without investigating the day-to-day practice how can you assure yourself, particularly in the light of a previous breach from which they had not learned the lessons?”

“I hope you would accept that an investigation is not just about learning lessons. There is also a deterrent effect from an investigation. Putting an organisation through a root and branch investigation is something it really does not want to do and will seek to avoid for the future.”

“Were there meetings above a certain rank? Did they wheel out, as it were, the Chief of the General Staff? Were high-ranking generals wheeled into the meeting to talk to your staff? I am referring to those kinds of human-level influential things with an organisation which wants to keep this very quiet, and went to court…”

“I share the Chair’s surprise that, given the severity and significant impact of this data breach, both on individuals and financially on the taxpayer, you have, broadly, said to us—forgive me for shorthanding it—that it was dealt with by a few unrecorded meetings and a handshake. “See ya, nothing to see here.” It seems…”

“It is more about what they told you about how they would go about it.”

“The investigation would never physically look at the software and hardware practice in reality; it would just take it as read on the basis of, “Whatever I send you in a letter is true.””

“An investigation looks at what physically happens to the data and what steps are taken in handling the data on a physical machine where the steps are auditable and verifiable; it is not just taken on the basis of, “Well, I did this; believe me.””

“No, it is not.”

“Setting aside the fact that we find ourselves in a situation where conditions have been placed upon the cessation of the annihilation of an entire people and the strange delineation between hostages on one side and prisoners held in administrative detention on the other, we should all of course, as the Prime Minister s…”

“It does not have to be agreed. If it is the Department of Health and Social Care’s budget, it gets a say, even if you say, “We don’t think that’s enough.””

“Mr Lucas, you did not answer the second question about when you first told the Government.”