Speeches by Adam.

“I was aware.”

“I have tried in one and I was not accepted.”

“I am part of multiple APPGs, which I find very useful, and that creates cross-party alliances as well, but for Select Committees it feels we are not able to contribute the expertise that we bring. We are still as elected as any other individual from any political party. We hold the same mandate, so I feel that is one a…”

“When I submitted initially, I probably did not have as many parliamentary colleagues that I knew across the parties and the Chamber. I think that has changed now. I have not cognisantly felt that reticence on these issues at all up to this stage.”

“No.”

“That is one area where I feel that I am not asking the right questions because they keep being returned to me from the Table Office: “How is it that you want this question to be articulated?” We have submitted multiple written questions, and we get that response back the majority of the time. As for putting my name dow…”

“Again, we could definitely have done with a little bit more assistance on that.”

“I have applied for a Westminster Hall debate—I think possibly two, but definitely one. I have not been selected, but again I don’t know what the ratio is for other people. I have not applied for an adjournment debate. At the moment I have not been selected for a Westminster Hall debate, but I have not seen a pattern fo…”

“I feel that we do overall. I have never felt that I have been ignored. The feeling that I get—and this is a judgment I am making on my experience, because I spend quite a lot of time in the Chamber—is that I am called relatively late on in a debate. Maybe everybody feels that, but it is sometimes two, three, four hours…”

“One day or was it two days?”

“I concur with my colleague. I think the most common question I get asked is, “Is it difficult being an independent?” My answer is, “It is, but I don’t know any different.” Is it any more difficult than being a new parliamentarian from a particular political party? What I found very useful is that in the beginning in ou…”

“Thank you. I am Shockat Adam, the independent MP for Leicester South.”

“Likewise. I was aware of it prior to that but, thankfully, have not had the need to use it. But if there is, now we are part of the alliance, we would be able to navigate that quite comfortably, I think.”

“Procedurally, all I can see is advantages to it.”

“In terms of procedural, no. In terms of the mechanisms that go behind being part of a political party, then obviously that opens up a whole different can of worms.”

“It is not something that I have spent too much time thinking about. I am not advocating for it. It is not something that has really crossed my mind. Obviously, not being part of a political party means that we are at a disadvantage with what we could spend our resources on in terms of assistance, and so on. There are p…”

“I think it was a bit of both. I suspect that outside it gave people something, “There is a unity among the independents”, so they were pleased that we were working together. Procedurally, we would hope that with our numbers there would be certain changes as well going forward.”

“Sorry?”

“I think similarly, prior to being elected, with due respect—I am sure Iqbal will say the same—we had not even heard of each other, Iqbal, Ayoub and Adnan. I think I had heard of Adnan, but I did not know him. We had come into this completely independently. We campaigned on a lot of similar things, on NHS and so on, but…”

“It is very difficult to say because before the alliance there was only about four weeks, and I was still getting lost getting to the Chamber at that stage. We had the recess and then we formed the alliance. I honestly cannot compare and contrast. I would not be able to say whether I have noticed any difference in the p…”