Speeches by Dillon.

“Yes, thank you. Potentially a two-part question: first, are you aware of proxy voting within the House?”

“Excellent. Our Committee is currently doing an inquiry into proxy voting; not always, but more often than not, it is exercised by the Whips of relevant parties. Given your situation, do you feel that you could avail yourself of proxy voting? Have you availed yourself or the technical group availed yourself of proxy vot…”

“It was to John, if I may. John, you are a senior Member of Parliament, you were the shadow Chancellor—”

“They are witnesses. Did you know that, if another Select Committee is doing an inquiry and a call for consultation or evidence, as an individual Member you could submit evidence to that Committee?”

“Do you think that or are you aware of anybody else who has had a Whip suspended where they have then had issues with the procedures of the House, and it is actually your seniority that stops the impact being felt?”

“As the Leader of the House will be aware, the community infrastructure levy is a requirement to make a contribution towards essential infrastructure. However, in West Berkshire, Waverley, Horsham and Bracknell Forest, there is evidence that exemptions that should have been given were not, resulting in residents being c…”

“I refer Members to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. I welcome the Deputy Prime Minister’s statement today, but I want to pull out a few points of procedural process that we will be going through over the next 12 months. First, senior officers will be spending hundreds of hours focusing on reorg…”

“My own council, West Berkshire, a small unitary authority, now has only 2% of its net revenue budget in reserves, and has written to the Government seeking £16 million of exceptional financial support. I urge the Minister to stand with West Berkshire council and to grant that support, so it can continue to deliver thos…”

“My hon. Friend is making a powerful speech about those most in need of benefits and the difference they can make. He spoke about the WASPI women and about children in poverty, but does he agree that veterans could also be helped out more by the DWP, such as by the Government backing the Royal British Legion “Credit the…”

“Lee Dillon, Newbury.”

“The hon. Gentleman talks about the importance of family and I could not agree more, but does he also agree that a family is a unit designed by that family and an arbitrary limit of a two-child benefit cap does nothing to protect that family unit if they have more than two children?”

“Fines: do you find that there is an issue with recovering the fine once you have set them? Take the unincorporated body example: two foreign nationals who set up an unincorporated body and make a donation. If you fine them, how do you get the money back at the end?”

“I am Member of Parliament for Newbury, a unitary councillor and town councillor.”

“In following your request for brevity, Madam Deputy Speaker, may I ask the Minister when is the correct time to recognise Palestine as a state?”

“No, it is fine. We can follow up.”

“My hon. Friend talks about the financial pressures that charities face. Volunteer Centre West Berkshire has said that charities in West Berkshire will need to find an additional £383,000 next year just to stand still, because of the increase to the minimum wage and national insurance contributions. With the Government …”

“The reform of public services and the reliance on artificial intelligence to deliver that led the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to pilot the Microsoft Copilot program. That pilot ended after six months, yet it demonstrated transformative improvements in departmental efficiency and was particularly …”

“I congratulate the hon. Member for Stroud (Dr Opher) on securing this debate. I thank him for raising interesting aspects of which I was not aware, such as the 13 cancers. I also thank the right hon. Member for Wetherby and Easingwold (Sir Alec Shelbrooke) for sharing his personal journey with us in this Chamber. It wa…”

“In a few weeks’ time, I will celebrate my 42nd birthday. I was born at the Royal Berkshire hospital in Newbury, and given the Secretary of State’s announcement today, I will be celebrating my 60th birthday when the new hospital is due to open. Will the Secretary of State talk us through how operational budgets will be …”

“Will the Government look at redefining affordable housing in national policy so that it is pegged to average local income rather than at the whim of an overheated housing market?”