Speeches by Eastwood.

“I thank the Minister for his response. I have to declare an interest because I started a parliamentary petition exactly on a VAT cut for hospitality in Northern Ireland, the reason being that we have the Republic of Ireland with its very competitive VAT rate right up against us. Businesses saw the official Government r…”

“I welcome the Chancellor’s statement this afternoon. As she has outlined, Northern Ireland is uniquely exposed, with up to 70% of people across Northern Ireland reliant on home heating oil. Instead of meeting me, does she have plans this week to meet the Minister for the Economy and my ministerial colleagues in the Nor…”

“We might even do a sidestep—get it?”

“It’s “Strictly Come Dancing”!”

“For me, the issue of reform is very much linked to the following. I am very passionate about Northern Ireland. I am proud to be Northern Irish. I am also proud to be British and Irish. But if we do not show people that we are capable of operating a durable system that does not inherently allow for these very natural di…”

“Good morning, everybody. Colleagues have very helpfully largely covered the ground of my question, so I am going to discuss the same issue but in a slightly different way. A few weeks ago, I led a debate in Westminster Hall about reform of the institutions, and all political parties from Northern Ireland that take thei…”

“People in Northern Ireland are entitled to be British, Irish or both. As such, many have travelled to the middle east on an Irish passport. We know that the FCDO has asked people to register. However, those Northern Irish citizens who have an Irish passport and are also UK nationals cannot register. Will the Prime Mini…”

“I support the Bill, but can we please ensure that the Electoral Commission and the Electoral Office for Northern Ireland are funded, as are other statutory agencies? Not all these potential offences will be civil; some will meet the criminal threshold. We need to ensure that the statutory agencies responsible for captu…”

“Will the Secretary of State give way?”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Twigg. I pay tribute to the hon. Member for Hinckley and Bosworth (Dr Evans) for securing this debate. My goodness, where do I start? I think this debate is an incredibly good jumping off point. This is something that comes through in all our constituencies on a dai…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Desmond. I thank the hon. Member for Arbroath and Broughty Ferry (Stephen Gethins) for introducing the debate. I simply wanted to say that, for years, I watched from afar as a normal member of the public in Northern Ireland as this place discussed my, my family’s a…”

“Yes, indeed—I thank the hon. Member for giving way. I remind colleagues that Northern Ireland voted to remain. It is regrettable that Northern Ireland has borne the brunt in all of this. I do not spend my time relitigating Brexit, because it tore my country apart, but for our community and voluntary sector in Northern …”

“Will the hon. Member give way?”

“I thank my right hon. Friend for bringing this debate. Whenever I wrote to the relevant Minister a year ago, the MOD confirmed that there were at least 310 people in Northern Ireland who fell within scope, but I agree entirely that there is absolutely no point in the Government deciding to fight this or seek in any way…”

“Health is a devolved matter, but the fight against cancer is not. Will the Minister join me in praising the work of the All-Island Cancer Research Institute, which is led by Queen’s and others, and ensure that our efforts to address cancer are done not just in Northern Ireland or the four nations, but between these isl…”

“I pay tribute to the people who have brought this issue so far. Would the hon. Gentleman agree that the emotional toll he speaks of is living large in the lives of those families and that they deserve, at the absolute least, an apology and redress?”

“Does the hon. Member agree that, at a time when trust across the UK is at a low, what the public—and victims and survivors—out there will see is the wagons being circled, no matter which party is involved? Trust is the real casualty today. Does the hon. Member agree that that is what is at stake?”

“I think there is a huge issue there. We had the current Chief Constable with us last week, and I asked him this same question. Do you think we should have a situation where, because the vast majority of legacy cases were under direct rule and were therefore under the previous legacy body, which reported directly to the…”

“You are in danger of leading me into the second part of my question.”

“If that trend or trajectory continues, what do you think will be the biggest impact on day-to-day community policing? You have already talked about neighbourhood policing.”