Speeches by Obese-Jecty.

“I do not believe that there is a timetable for delivering on this commitment, for no more complex a reason than the Minister telling me when she was the Veterans Minister that there was not. On 19 January, she told me:”

“Here we are again, but what has changed since last time? Two weeks ago, at Home Office questions, I asked the Minister responsible for migration and citizenship, the hon. Member for Dover and Deal (Mike Tapp) what progress he had made in progressing the waiving of visa fees for indefinite leave to remain for the depend…”

““(c) in a case where the application is made by a person who is a spouse or child of a member or previously serving member of the armed forces who have served for four or more years.””

“That is it—that is all I am asking the Government to do. Page 119 of the 2024 Labour party manifesto says:”

“What part of new clause 4 do the Government now disagree with?”

“By the way, let us not pretend that the Government do not know how they would pay for it, because that is on page 127 of their manifesto, listed under “additional public services spending”, using the last year of the 2028-29 Office for Budget Responsibility forecast. The manifesto clearly states:”

“I have asked the Government on no fewer than eight occasions when the manifesto pledge would be delivered and what progress towards delivering it has been achieved, and answer came there none. Last week, I asked the Minister responsible for migration and citizenship whether he could estimate the number of spouses and c…”

““the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.””

“Sure. We should bear in mind that both the Home Office and the Ministry of Defence claim to be working on delivering this, but as they have no idea about the current impact, it is safe to assume that no impact assessment has been conducted.”

“I asked the Minister responsible for migration and citizenship what the planned timetable is for delivering the manifesto pledge that the Government are so committed to delivering. He told me:”

“I have spoken to a lot of MPs in the past week to ask them to support the new clause. Regardless of whether they said that they would or would not do so, I have yet to find an MP who fundamentally disagrees with its aim—I include within that group Ministers. It is only Reform that believes that the immediate families o…”

““I am working with colleagues in the Ministry of Defence at the moment to deliver that important manifesto commitment.”—[Official Report, 8 June 2026; Vol. 787, c. 7.]”

“The issue of waiving fees for indefinite leave to remain for the spouses and children of our service personnel has become something of a crusade: a worthy cause that is a rarity in this place. It is one that we fundamentally agree on, but, with the best will in the world, it will never be a flagship policy. Hence, thre…”

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“How long does it take? He has been in post for nearly a year—it took half a day to tweak this new clause, working with the Public Bill Office—so what is the hold up? If he has time to make AI slop videos recounting the history of constituencies, “Tapp into History,” he has time to improve the lives of the people he ser…”

“I appreciate the hon. Member’s position and have previously spoken to her about new clause 4, which I tabled. The Government have been in power for two years, and nothing has yet been done on delivering their pledge. Why should Labour Members not vote for new clause 4, given that it will deliver their manifesto pledge?”

“I wish to speak to new clause 4, tabled in my name. I thank all those across the House who signed my amendment. Some 10% of MPs in the House supported the amendment. Although that is not exceptional, it is certainly unusual, and I wish to put on record my thanks to all those who put their name to it—particularly those …”

“I appreciate what the hon. Member is saying. I am not putting the Minister under scrutiny here; I am merely highlighting the invidious position that he finds himself in and the situation as we find it. I spoke to the hon. and gallant Member, the Minister, earlier today, so he knows full well that I am going to say this…”

“That sounds very much like a European defence force. In what way would that differ from the concept of a European army?”