Speeches by Race.

“I thank the hon. Member for her intervention. Some hon. Members joined me and others at a recent meeting with the rail Minister Lord Hendy to discuss the impact of the works at Old Oak Common associated with HS2. I will not go into that too much in this speech, as it is a big topic. I am in favour of HS2 going ahead, a…”

“It is a pleasure to continue serving under your chairmanship, Mr Pritchard. The third reason why the Exeter-Barnstaple line would be of benefit to Exeter and Devon is that it would double the hourly service to two trains per hour between Barnstaple and Exeter, and would provide three trains per hour for Crediton. It wo…”

“I absolutely agree that we have a good working relationship across Devon on strategic issues, including dentistry, railways and pharmacies, and I hope that that continues, but we live in the world in which we live so we have to be pragmatic about what we can achieve. Acknowledging where we are starting from is importan…”

“Like many cities, Exeter is home to a Syrian refugee community, and it is frankly delighted by the demise of Assad’s appalling regime. What efforts can the Government make to support an inclusive political settlement that includes all Syria’s ethnic and religious groups—including, of course, the Kurdish community—poten…”

“13. What progress her Department has made on ending rough sleeping.”

“T4. The Government are consulting on the future of pan-regional partnerships such as our own Great South-West, which covers Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Dorset. Businesses I speak to value the ability of our regions to speak with one voice on economic issues to Government and to investors, which are important for our …”

“As a result of the Localism Act 2011, introduced by the Conservative party, the ringfence around homelessness funding was removed. Due to that, and despite the good work that the Government are doing on funding homelessness services, Tory-led Devon county council is consulting on cutting its entire homelessness support…”

“Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, and I thank the Minister for coming to the House to give this statement and for all the work the Government are doing to support the Sudanese people in the face of severe malnutrition and starvation. Keeping the Adre crossing open is extremely important. The Sudanese armed forces have c…”

“I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Danny Beales) on securing this debate to mark World AIDS Day. Colleagues have made important points about the huge progress, both medically and socially, that we have made as a nation over recent years, but of course there is always more to do. In…”

“I want to put on the record my thanks to the hundreds of Exeter and Devon families who have played host to over 500 Ukrainian families over the past 1,000 days. I also thank those Ukrainian families for bringing such life and vitality to the city and for readily sharing their culture with us. What are the Government do…”

“I thank the Secretary of State on behalf of residents in Exeter and across Devon, who will be delighted with the £11.6 million of extra funding for our bus system. As I look around the Chamber, it is very clear who takes buses seriously and who does not. Devon and Torbay have already been given the powers to franchise …”

“T5. I am proud that Exeter is already a global leader in climate research. Does the Minister agree that this Government’s mission on clean power will deliver lower bills, energy security and allow this country to enter COP29 as a world leader when it comes to climate action?”

“I have a couple of questions to follow up. First, we are catching up on funding for Horizon as part of the current Budget. What is your view on the impact of that within the current Budget?”

“What is your view on how we measure the impact of our participation in Horizon? Obviously, it is complicated—it is through EU and European institutions. How do we make sure that we maximise both our participation and the outputs of participating in the programmes?”

“We have talked tangentially about the skills base and getting people into the country. Clearly, the funnel through secondary schools is not good enough, and with our removal from Horizon, we have wrecked that for a few years at least. What are some of the other challenges that you face in getting researchers and people…”

“Turning to the Government’s future commitments, what do you think are the long-term ambitions for R&D investment? Are there any particular areas that you think need to be prioritised over the longer term?”

“I think that is a really interesting conundrum. The other aspect of this is access to private capital in the regions.”

“My region, the south-west, gets about 2.7% of all private investment in the country. The vast majority is obviously sucked up by London and the greater south-east. It would be great to hear more, maybe in the future, about what we can do as a country to get private investment into scale-ups working better for the whole…”

“I am here to speak on behalf of Exeter residents about the parlous state of NHS dentistry in our city after 14 years of the Tory Government, who allowed NHS dentistry to fall into complete disrepair. We have heard that the south-west is one of the most notorious dental deserts, but most troubling is the proportion of c…”

“I am pleased to be able to speak in the debate on behalf of my constituents in Exeter. This Budget is a welcome break from 14 years of policy uncertainty, fiscal incompetence and austerity for our public services. It starts to put this country back on a firm footing, rebuilding the foundations, and investing in communi…”