Speeches by Roca.

“As the Chair has alluded to, there was already uncertainty in the farmer opinion tracker from 2023, I don’t know if there has been a recent one. I would suggest that that acceleration and removal of direct payments might exacerbate uncertainty. How are you monitoring different types of farming and their transition to E…”

“On inputs, there is a suggestion that moving to some of these ELM schemes means that there will be less reliance on pesticides and so on, but is the Department considering reduction targets on things like pesticides and fertiliser?”

“When was the last opinion tracker? The NAO quote the 2023 one because of the timing of their report. Do we have one from last autumn?”

“I do not want to go over old ground but clearly the point we are emphasising here is the resilience fund has been well received, we are accelerating the move away from direct payments and it is something we thought the Department might have considered extending, even for a little period more.”

“Can I go back to the main capital grants scheme? It was met with some frustration. What notice was given of the closure of the scheme?”

“In October we announced the acceleration of the abolition of basic payments, so how much of the increase in applications came after?”

“On capital spending overall—this is obviously a question as a new Member of Parliament—are there underspends in capital budgets that you can steer across to other schemes?”

“I thank the Chancellor for her statement. I particularly welcome the fact that she raised the issues of Jimmy Lai and human rights in Beijing, which is really important. After 14 years of the Conservative party’s inconsistency on China, does she agree that we need a cross-Whitehall strategy and a pragmatic approach?”

“I join both Front-Benchers in paying tribute to the communities, volunteers and neighbours who helped each other with the floods over recent days. Communities affected in my part of the world, particularly in Poynton and Bollington, all pulled together. The A555 road runs through a number of constituencies, and poor en…”

“Merry Christmas to you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I warmly welcome the Minister’s statement, which demonstrates again the ironclad commitment of this country to the defence of Ukraine. Ministers will have detected nervousness across the House regarding political changes in January, so may I change tack? There are 6 million…”

“May I wish you a merry Christmas, Mr Speaker? Does the Minister recognise that the issue is being raised by the Opposition again and again, despite the cognitive dissonance that it was they who opened the negotiations in the first place? I have to endorse the comments of my hon. Friend the Member for Portsmouth North (…”

“Tim Roca, Labour Member for Macclesfield.”

“I would simply reinforce the points that Mike and Julian have made. There is clear cross-party support from the Back Benches for this debate, which is really important. It is obviously very topical, as Julian has pointed out, and because of the incoming Administration and some of the comments made by figures likely to …”

“I welcome the progress of this important Bill. We know the danger of terrorism in this country for the constituents we represent. There have been 15 domestic terror attacks since 2017, as well as the tragic arena bombing. That excludes terrorism in Northern Ireland. There have also been 43 late-stage plots foiled by th…”

“I shall not, because I think we have touched on that point enough. Finally, I pay tribute to my constituent Figen Murray for her bravery in championing these measures. No parent would ever want to have the name of their child on a law if they could help it, but she has worked tirelessly to push forward these measures. …”

“We have to be careful. Of course we want to work cross-party, and should be cognisant of small business, but on the other side of the debate, campaigners are worried that the Bill is already leaning too much the other way, and we will start to lose proportionality if we adopt the shadow Minister’s amendments.”

“I was glad to hear the good work of Cheshire police being commended in my area. May I also put on record my admiration for Nicola Thorp? Her terrifying ordeal at the hands of a man who had created 30 online accounts to stalk and abuse her should shock all of us. As we come to the end of the statement, may I ask the Min…”

“I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for South Derbyshire (Samantha Niblett) on her phenomenal maiden speech. She is already proving to be a powerful advocate for her constituents. The Finance Bill is a necessary corollary to the Budget. It is the beginning of a process that the new Labour Government are undertakin…”

“I was, Madam Deputy Speaker. I tried to intervene on the right hon. Member for Beverley and Holderness a number of times, but he would not give way, so I felt I had to squeeze in a couple of points before getting to the Finance Bill. The Finance Bill includes many important measures that I support. The freeze on fuel d…”

“Will the right hon. Gentleman clarify his comment that all the education spending that he mentioned came from general taxation? My understanding is that the figures that he just quoted include the student loan system.”