Speeches by Turner.

“I think we have it there: the Opposition do not see this as a political priority. They chose not to take steps or to put forward meaningful proposals to raise the employment standards of school support staff. My challenge was: do they have any proposals for this group of workers, particularly in light of the Low Pay Co…”

“In addition to the interest to which I drew attention earlier, my partner is a trustee of a multi-academy trust. The reinstatement of the school support staff negotiating body is a hugely welcome measure and long overdue. It is a real shame to hear that there will be cross-party division on this question, because the c…”

“I will pick up the point just made about the changes made in 2017. Some of the opposition at that time came from the august institution of the Institute of Economic Affairs, which said that, if the regulations were introduced, “they may encourage outsourcing of lower-paid jobs which happen to be taken by women (to avoi…”

“I thank the Minister for giving way at the death. Does he also recognise that one example of a council that tried to go down the wholesale outsourcing route was Northamptonshire? We all know how that story ended, and Eddie Martin, the Conservative former leader of Cumbria county council, stated that the then Government…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Mundell. Merry Christmas, everyone. In that spirit of glad tidings, I draw the Committee’s attention to my declarations in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests and my membership of the GMB and Unite trade unions. Clause 25 enables the reinstatement of one of…”

“I would say better, having had some experience. The hon. Gentleman might want to return to that point. On the substance of the clause, there were some concerns about the original incarnation of the two-tier code. It was purely voluntary and did not contain meaningful provisions for redress where an employer who had sig…”

“Like my hon. Friend, I have intense sympathy with many of the arguments put forward by the hon. Member for Dundee Central, but the “Make Work Pay” document published earlier this year, which was subsequently endorsed in the Labour manifesto, stated: “It is important that businesses can restructure to remain viable, to …”

“I will not speak for long, because most of the points have been made in the debate, but I want to come back to the point made by the shadow Minister and the hon. Member for Bridgwater. There is perhaps a legitimate difference in principle between the two sides: when there are extreme examples, should there or should th…”

“I want to continue on the shadow Minister’s theme of milk. It used to be common in factories where there were particulates in the air to include a clause in someone’s contract that said they were entitled to a glass of milk during the day, because it was believed at the time that a glass of milk would remove those part…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Vaz. I draw attention to my declarations in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests and to my membership of the GMB and Unite trade unions. Before we move past the hon. Gentleman’s point about information, which we have talked about a lot, is the core problem not …”

“Continuing the midlands theme, 10 million people live in the midlands; 15 million people live in the north of England, but we haven’t always had two thirds of the political attention or funding when it comes to rail infrastructure. The Department has funded some development work on the midlands rail hub, and I saw…”

“I want to follow up on the comments you made, Minister, about wanting the new body to be arm’s length. Perhaps the last deliberate attempt to set up an arm’s length structure was the Strategic Rail Authority. It is fair to say that that independence, because circumstances changed, came to be seen as a problem in Westmi…”

“I want to pick up the thread from Baggy’s questions about the forthcoming legislation. Obviously, we have the previous Government’s draft rail reform Bill in the public domain. How much of the new legislation is likely to be carried over from the previous work by the former Government, and how much material should we e…”

“We heard from the now previous Secretary of State recently that a lot of work had already been done in opposition on the design of GBR. What decisions are still being made? What I am trying to get at is not so much the matters of implementation that are being worked on, but the policy decisions that are still being wei…”

“It falls to me as a Birmingham MP to ask about the trans-Pennine upgrade and the northern programme. What version of the Northern Powerhouse rail project is this Government going to deliver, and to what timetable?”

“Yes, I want to follow up on the earlier discussion about an accessible railway. The minutes of the May board meeting of Network Rail stated that the lack of traction on the Access for All programme which had significantly underperformed in CP6 now created challenges in the transition to CP7. Earlier this week, the Mini…”

“The hon. Gentleman says that there will be situations where it is not just difficult, but impossible for an employer to abide by the Bill. Can he give some examples of the situations he has in mind?”

“I draw attention to my declaration in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests and my membership of the GMB and Unite trade unions. I noticed last week that the Prime Minister made a James Bond joke, and I wondered whether he was following the Committee’s proceedings in real time. There is a valid question here: wh…”

“Does my hon. Friend agree that, in those cases where someone has ended up taking the equalities route because that is the only route available to them, it can be particularly reputationally damaging to the employer? Does he also agree that, because by the nature of those claims—particularly where they relate to disabil…”

“Will the hon. Gentleman give way?”