Speeches by Gilmour.

“Sir Chris, how lovely to see you again. I am looking forward to you visiting Minehead in my constituency as soon as it can be arranged because, as you know, my constituency has one of the largest demographics of elderly and poor people in the country. Given your previous reporting on frailty and an ageing society, how …”

“I take that on. I make absolutely no criticism of my GPs or my nurses. Just to let you know, the very good news is that, because the medical centre in Minehead is now seen to be improving and becoming satisfactory, we have recruited two new GPs in the last six months.”

“And coming back!”

“Looking at the constituency statistics we have all been provided with, mine is particularly bad, as always, partly because I have a larger population of deprived elderly people, but also because of a lack of intervention by GPs and, therefore, a poor reflection on the ICB. I wonder whether, rather than just measuring t…”

“I am very proud to represent some fantastic small businesses in my rural constituency. Mr Barclay, the owner of CardByMeLove in Tiverton, has been left to shoulder an administrative burden that is not of his own making, chasing missing parcels and placating disgruntled customers. To make matters worse, he has faced an …”

“The west Somerset side of my constituency bears many of the hallmarks of a forgotten coastal community. In Somerset, 7.5% of young men aged 16 and 17 are not in education, employment or training, which is significantly above the national average in England. Does the hon. Member agree that when young people grow up with…”

“T6. Members of the armed forces are the only uniformed service without a professional body to represent and support them. Will the Minister give assurances that the Armed Forces Bill will include provisions to establish such a body, ensuring that serving personnel and veterans have access to legal and welfare support w…”

“As so many of my colleagues have rightly said, our thoughts today should be first and foremost with the victims. I hope that no political party in this Chamber would use this as an excuse to cover the backs of some of the less fragrant Members of the House of Lords. The fact that Lord Mandelson was, as ever, interested…”

“Thank you, Ms Butler. It is a pleasure to serve under you. I thank the hon. Member for Bournemouth East (Tom Hayes) for his kind words. I should start by declaring a couple of interests: before I came to Parliament I was head of strategy for the Environment Agency, specialising in water flooding and the water framework…”

“I have thousands of WASPI women in my constituency, which is already very deprived. I cannot express how angry and disappointed they feel today. I am afraid that I will have to use strong language: this is simply gaslighting by this Labour Government. They know full well that it was not about whether the letters were s…”

“The Chapel in Cotford St Luke in my constituency is a fan favourite, but because of the decisions of this Government, it is dying. It has been hit exceptionally hard by VAT and the business rates regime, as is the case for many establishments in our part of the world, many of which rely heavily on tourism. Can the Lead…”

“I thank the hon. Member for his intelligent and incisive comment. Mandatory medical markers help to support the rural community. They ensure that if someone is struggling, the licensing process is equipped to respond swiftly and sensitively. The public understand that. Some 70% of firearms licence holders support manda…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms McVey. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Epsom and Ewell (Helen Maguire) for securing this debate. We have all watched with great sadness the recent shootings in the United States—scenes that should have shaken any civilised society. Thankfully, Britain is not a…”

“Thank you, darling Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee. As vice-chair of the Country Land and Business Association’s rural business and rural powerhouse APPG, I fully support the idea of a centralised licensing system. It is interesting that the chair of the APPG is a Liberal Democrat MP like me, so I am pretty c…”

“Will the hon. Member give way?”

“I thank my hon. Friend for being so generous. As the Member of Parliament for Tiverton and Minehead, I represent two water companies, Wessex Water—who are no angels—and South West Water—who I have been chasing for several months in order to get a meeting on behalf of a constituent whose bakery was flooded to such an ex…”

“Why not?”

“I cannot pretend to understand the complexities of AI bots or the stuff that we have talked about this afternoon, but I do understand the impact that sexual abuse has on children and girls in my constituency. On Saturday, I was talking to a grandmother, who told me that her granddaughter had been groomed; as a conseque…”

“The hon. Gentleman is also a near neighbour of mine in Devon. Does he agree that the changes to agricultural property relief feels like a double taxation that burdens farming families in their old age? One can reasonably reach only one conclusion: this Government neither understand nor value this country’s farming comm…”

“Does my hon. Friend agree that this is not a tax on passive wealth, but that it punitively, cynically targets productive enterprise? The Government expect to raise roughly £1.4 billion from the inheritance tax changes, but analysis by Family Business UK suggests that behavioural responses could produce a net fiscal los…”