Speeches by Western.

“I am pleased to present the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy’s third report of this Parliament, on political finance and foreign influence, and I am grateful to the Backbench Business Committee for granting time for this. Let me outline why this issue matters. First, the UK’s political finance system w…”

“I thank my right hon. Friend for his statement. As he says, steel is national security and economic security. Can I just say, it is terrific at long last to hear a Government showing some mettle? [Hon. Members: “Oh.”] The array of measures in the strategy is impressive, from tariffs to procurement and scrap, but there …”

“The Minister will know that in Warwick and Leamington, we have suffered extreme chemical pollution in the atmosphere from Berry Polymers. More recently, we have had an application from Bellway Homes that proposes dumping the equivalent of an Olympic-size swimming pool of building waste for every day that the developmen…”

“The Committee very much hopes that a new service will be able to accommodate that recommendation. We hope that there can be a centralised service, using whichever is the most appropriate vehicle; whether that be within the National Crime Agency or separately within the police service is for others to decide. The most c…”

“I remind Members that this is the summing up by the Member in charge, not an open debate.”

“The shadow Secretary of State is talking about how money may be spent from taxation. I highlight that local authority road maintenance budgets halved from £4 billion to £2 billion in the 13-year period from 2006 to 2019. If we look at inflation, Bank of England data shows that from 2006 to 2026, overall inflation ran a…”

“Will my hon. Friend give way?”

“Will the right hon. Gentleman give way on that point?”

“rose—”

“My right hon. Friend talks about the lessons learned. Despite my youthful good looks, I recall the 1979 Iranian revolution—the last Iranian revolution—which led to a fuel crisis globally. The importance of what we are doing is underlined by the need for the energy transition and the need to improve our domestic energy …”

“Order. I remind Members that they must bob if they wish to be called in the debate. I first call Gareth Thomas, who will be followed by Steve Darling.”

“I expect speeches to be around five minutes so that we can get everyone in. Please be respectful to colleagues.”

“Order. I remind hon. Members to refer to each other as hon. Members, as opposed to “you”, which is, of course, me.”

“I call Josh Taylor—sorry, I got that wrong; I call Luke Taylor.”

“The next speaker will have five minutes. Thereafter, I am afraid I will have to drop to four minutes.”

“I now call Josh Babarinde.”

“I thank the Minister for his immediate update to the House, given the recency of this breaking news. He will know that the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy did its report on the case of Cash and Berry, in which it made certain recommendations. The National Security Act 2023 is now fully in place. That …”

“The Bill introduces timely reforms, such as extending the right to vote to young people, and it addresses the rising and ever more concerning issues of harassment and intimidation. With foreign interference expected to intensify the deterioration of the international security environment, and given the threats posed by…”

“They are linked. There is a lot of commonality, but there are some distinct differences. I would not necessarily suggest that the Committee choose either/or. If time allows on the day, I would hope that we would all be able to be accommodated.”

“We live in incredibly unusual times, and I think we are at a juncture where we have to give focus and attach importance to this area of security. Jaguar Land Rover is not just impacting my constituency; it impacted UK plc’s growth last year, as did Marks & Spencer. It is not simply their concern. The concern has to be …”