Speeches by Akehurst.

“I do share my hon. Friend’s viewpoint, and I will come to that later in my remarks. We do not know how much turnout would increase in areas where it is now depressed because the outcome under first past the post appears to be a foregone conclusion. My hon. Friend anticipated the next thing I was going to say. The curre…”

“I think that is a different subject to the one we are debating. If the hon. Gentleman does not mind, I will proceed on the subject of proportional representation. We do not know how voters would behave if they were confronted with a different voting system. We cannot say that because Labour got 34% of the vote in 2024 …”

“I thank the hon. Members who secured this important debate. I have been debating on this subject outside the House for, unbelievably, nearly 40 years, so I have had some time to assemble my thoughts on it. During that time, I have often heard people argue for or against proportional representation or first past the pos…”

“I thank the hon. Gentleman for the intervention. I have looked at compulsory voting, which was advocated at one point by Lord Watson of Wyre Forest. I am open to the suggestion, but basically that is about forcing people to vote when we should be trying to enthuse them to vote through both how we do politics and how th…”

“I wish to present a petition relating to the potential closure of the post office in Chester-le-Street, which has been at the heart of the community in North Durham since 1936. The petition states: The petition of residents of the constituency of North Durham, Declares that Chester-le-Street Post Office, which provides…”

“I thank the hon. Member for Taunton and Wellington (Gideon Amos) for securing this debate, which, as is shown by the number of hon. Members wishing to participate, is incredibly timely—not least because later today, coincidentally, I will present a petition to the House about the potential closure of Chester-le-Street …”

“I thank the hon. Gentleman for his generosity in giving way to a number of Members during his important speech. On the proposal to replace Crown post offices, does he agree that franchised post offices are no substitute? In fact, that is a huge risk. WHSmith, which often takes on the franchises, announced this week tha…”

“Under the last Government, only two out of 49 major defence projects were being delivered on time and on budget. Will the Minister set out what the Government are doing to get to grips with the financial mismanagement and failed procurement system that we inherited in defence?”

“After the tragic cases of Star Hobson, Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and Sara Sharif, will the Secretary of State remind Opposition Members why those measures are vital if we are to protect children?”

“Last week, the Leader of the Opposition dismissed safeguarding measures in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill as a distraction. [Interruption.]”

“9. What steps she is taking to strengthen safeguarding for children.”

“I rise primarily to talk about amendment 2, tabled by the hon. Member for Epsom and Ewell (Helen Maguire). It was an honour to serve on the Bill Committee. I would have spoken to the amendment had it been tabled in Committee— I think a timetabling issue meant that it could not be. There is already a public sector equal…”

“I thank the right hon. Gentleman for giving way. He has raised some interesting specific policy issues that are clearly of concern to large numbers of people receiving armed forces pensions, but the Bill makes it clear—and Ministers have been very clear throughout its consideration—that the independent commissioner wil…”

“Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?”

“Will the right hon. Member give way?”

“Does my hon. and gallant Friend agree that an easy way to measure morale is through retention rates? We are not recruiting and retaining armed forces personnel to the degree we would wish. Part of the motivation for introducing this Bill to address general service welfare issues—I am making sure that I use the correct …”

“The tone of the hon. and gallant Gentleman’s remarks suggests that he does not really support the thrust of the Bill, and is extremely sceptical about the potential areas of involvement of the Armed Forces Commissioner per se. Having heard what was said from the Opposition Front Bench in Committee, I was under the impr…”

“I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Dunfermline and Dollar (Graeme Downie) for ensuring that this important debate takes place. I especially wanted to put on the record my support for the Government’s nuclear triple lock, which demonstrates our commitment to the strategic nuclear deterrent and the industries that sup…”

“Can the hon. Lady confirm something for me? Her remarks suggest that the Liberal Democrats now support the continuous at-sea nuclear deterrent, but I remember a review when Nick Clegg was the leader of the Liberal Democrats that suggested scrapping the continuous at-sea deterrent and using coastal-launched cruise missi…”

“I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to give police powers to enter a private dwelling for the purpose of seizing an off-road bike that has been driven in an anti-social way or without insurance; and for connected purposes. Members across the House will be starkly aware of the menace of off-road bikes …”