Speeches by Vickers.

“Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. The Chairman sends his apologies to you and the House. I know that he will be pleased to hear the Leader of the House’s comments about Tottenham Hotspur. In addition to the business already announced, the Committee agreed at its meeting earlier this week to another Select Committee stat…”

“I am sure he will not take offence.”

“Earlier, the Foreign Secretary used the phrase “morally wrong”. I entirely agree with that, and I am sure we can all agree that the original Hamas massacre is equally morally unacceptable. May I take him back to the issue of recognition? I am one of the Members who has previously supported the recognition of the state …”

“The prosperity of northern towns is very much dependent on good transport connections. Will the Chancellor ensure that National Highways is adequately funded, so that it can improve access to the port and town of Immingham through improvements to the A180, and also that the Department for Transport has adequate funds t…”

“This appears to be another rather muddled decision from the Government. The Minister has acknowledged that these volunteers provide a vital service, but if they want to continue they now have the inconvenience of going to the new portal, registering and so on. Would it not have been better at least to maintain the curr…”

“As the House will know, I have been raising the prospect of a direct service from Cleethorpes and Grimsby to King’s Cross since 2011. Will the Minister give an absolute assurance that he and the Rail Minister will seriously consider the importance of that and actually deliver a service? We do not mind whether it is run…”

“One thing we can all agree on is that we want to see the safe release of the hostages. It is evident that military action, in and of itself, was never going to achieve that. With that in mind, do the Government support or condemn Israel for the most recent escalation of military action? If they are not prepared to cond…”

“T2. Will the Minister confirm the state of the current negotiations over the future of Gibraltar, including whether they will be concluded before the EU-UK reset, and will he confirm that the views and interests of the Gibraltarian people will be paramount?”

“My apologies, Sir Jeremy. In that case, I will conclude by saying that our churches and cathedrals play such an important part in our local communities. The National Churches Trust is conducting a survey at this time, which I urge Members to take part in to refer to the importance of the churches in their local communi…”

“It is a pleasure to take part in this debate with you in the Chair, Sir Jeremy. I congratulate the joint sponsors, the hon. Member for Battersea (Marsha De Cordova) and the right hon. Member for Salisbury (John Glen), on obtaining this very important debate, which highlights the important role that churches play in our…”

“Well, you can guarantee that, if it was in the Chamber, the Government would make sure that there were statements on that day to squeeze it.”

“I agree.”

“Both Stella and Richard could each speak for 90 minutes themselves about their different perspectives on this. You can guarantee that it would be a well-subscribed debate, which means that people end up with three minutes or something like that, which is not adequate to articulate the pros and cons of EU collaboration.”

“Very odd!”

“Order. Interventions should be somewhat briefer than that.”

“Order. I remind Members that they should bob if they wish to be called to speak in the debate. I will not impose a formal time limit at the moment, but I will be calling the Front-Bench speakers at 10.28 am. Jim Shannon will show us how it is done.”

“If hon. Members restrict their speeches to four minutes, we will fit everyone in.”

“I will call Alberto Costa to move the motion, and then I will call the Minister to respond. I remind other Members that they may make a speech only with prior permission from the Member in charge and the Minister. As is the convention in 30-minute debates, there will not be an opportunity for the Member in charge to wi…”

“In 2014, I was one of 39 Conservatives who voted in this House for recognition of Palestine. Since then, Governments have come and gone, and thousands of lives on both sides have been lost. The Minister said a few minutes ago that he could not go into the full details, but I am sure it would be helpful—if not today, in…”

“I thank my Member of Parliament for giving way. She talks about strengthening the Bill even further, but does she acknowledge that the fans at Blundell Park would not blame a supposedly independent regulator, like Ofwat, Ofgem or whatever, but would blame the politicians, if the regulator made a decision about potentia…”