Speeches by Myer.

“Facebook Marketplace is responsible for three quarters of the fraud on social media, yet it seems uninterested in doing anything about that. Will the Minister assure the House that he will take Facebook to task, in order to clamp down on that fraud and make sure that consumers are protected?”

“Will my hon. Friend give way?”

“There are thousands of decent, moderate Conservatives all across the country who will have seen the ridiculous spectacle today of the Opposition denigrating David Gauke—of all people—on the prison system. The review was absolutely clear that short sentences are driving reoffending—60% reoffend within the year. Will the…”

“6. What progress the National Church Institutions have made on improving safeguarding.”

“Next month I will meet the Safeguarding Minister alongside my constituent and a group of survivors of abuse and safeguarding failure within the Church. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Battersea (Marsha De Cordova) for the work she has been doing to push the case for fully independent safeguarding processes. Will …”

“Thanks to the decisions of this Government, NHS waiting times have been falling consistently month on month, but there are still some delays for specific kinds of treatment. My constituent, Alan, has been waiting over a year for the specialist corrective procedure he urgently needs. Does the Leader of the House agree t…”

“I had not planned to ask a question, but I have to say that I was pretty surprised by the tone that the Opposition struck. I did a postgraduate degree in education, and I will never forget finding one of my professional mentors, who had been a teacher for years, crying at her desk because of the pressure that the then …”

“Last week I raised with the Minister for Social Security and Disability the case of a local disability charity being hit by increased bank charges, and the Minister committed to work with me on the issue. Will Treasury Ministers do the same so that we can take these banks to task and support fantastic local organisatio…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for setting out how we are falling behind many of our allies around the world. Does he share my concern that, for the first time, the UK is the only country in western Europe to be rated amber rather than green? It was a Labour Government who took forward LGBT rights in the past, and this Labour …”

“Yesterday, a Conservative councillor in my constituency said that the Government were “dancing to the tune of warmongers” because of their support for British defence manufacturing, despite one of those manufacturers being in his ward. Do the Government believe, as I do, that we need to do more, not less, to support Br…”

“Do the Government accept the subsidiarity principle wherein powers should not just sit at the mayoral level, but should be as close to the community as possible? That would empower our local authorities and communities themselves, rather than just creating structures that sit above communities and are distant from them…”

“It is now nearly 13 years since the Institute for Public Policy Research North published its landmark report, “Northern Prosperity is National Prosperity”, which set out in black and white the evidence that investing in the regions—all regions across the UK—is one of the best ways to achieve growth nationally. Does my …”

“I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention. By boosting SMEs we boost not only the defence industry, but other sectors, because many of these SMEs are working on dual-use technology, which has a strong crossover with other areas. Ultimately, growing our sovereign capacity by building more in Britain is a smart and st…”

“I agree with my hon. Friend. He and I both worked in the education sector prior to coming to this place and working in policy. It is about joining up those two things, and making sure that people have access to opportunity. So many people across our region have the can-do attitude to succeed, but they are held back by …”

“I thank my hon. Friend for her intervention, which just goes to show there is a false dichotomy between jobs and automation. A business can be grown well by embracing the future, so I commend Cummins on the work it is doing in her constituency. The industry needs a strong skills pipeline. There is a role for Government…”

“Absolutely. One of those innovative projects in my hon. Friend’s constituency is a semiconductor plant, which the Government stepped up to save with £20 million of investment. That is exactly the kind of active Government and leadership that we need. The previous Government set up procurement processes with a singular …”

“I agree. The best way to ensure that we are building the right approach to procurement is by listening directly to the SMEs that operate on the procurement frontline. I am grateful to the Minister for visiting Teesside to meet the defence and innovation cluster, and for visiting NETPark to meet other businesses. It is …”

“I completely agree. I have one note of caution for our region: although we have fantastic manufacturers and SMEs, it is important for our regional economy—the one my hon. Friend and I share—to have a proper skills pipeline. There is a real job for our combined authority and our mayor to step up and work with education …”

“I agree. The increase in defence spending an opportunity to uplift regional economies and tackle regional inequality. However, I do not want to talk down our region because we do have firms, large and small, that are contributing to our national security and industrial resilience, including Babcock in Newcastle, Nifco …”

“I absolutely agree. The investment that is coming to Thales will mean thousands of advanced air defence missiles that will be supplied to Ukraine. That is a really important cause, and of course there will be a benefit to the entire supply chain across the United Kingdom as well. Strong national defence starts well bef…”