Speeches by Blackman.

“Q9. I welcome the Prime Minister’s commitment to combat antisemitism, but the regular hate marches we have seen on our streets with the chanting of “globalise the intifada” have led directly to attacks on Jewish businesses, synagogues and individuals in the streets, and now to an arson attack on where Jewish people liv…”

“The Minister must understand that to create the jobs that we need, we must encourage the private sector to invest. In my constituency, every single hospitality venue has halved the number of staff it employs. When I ask why, the answers are national insurance, non-domestic rates and the new Employment Rights Act. Exten…”

“The Minister must understand that to create the jobs that we need, we must encourage the private sector to invest. In my constituency, every single hospitality venue has halved the number of staff it employs. When I ask why, the answers are national insurance, non-domestic rates and the new Employment Rights Act. Exten…”

“Obviously, the Minister is not aware that the previous Conservative Government froze fuel duty for 14 years. Some of us lobbied for the Government of the day to abolish the escalator, but we did not do it. However, may I ask her one key question? How much extra money has the Treasury obtained as a result of the rise in…”

“As we approach the end of the domestic football season, it is only right that we congratulate Aston Villa on winning the Europa league last night. Indeed, it was only a year ago that I was celebrating Tottenham winning the Europa league. If I may say so, however, the most vital game on Sunday is Tottenham versus Everto…”

“This is somewhat baffling. I know that the Minister was not here for it, but we had a full day’s debate yesterday on energy supply and no Government Minister mentioned anything to do with this particular issue—hence the need for an urgent question today. The Minister will know that liquid gas, diesel and petroleum are …”

“Well, yes, but in practical terms not really. It would be end-of-day business more than anything else.”

“No, it could not come out of that. To be straightforward, the problem with the current position is that we would have to make the judgment of Solomon: does the Petitions Committee get time in the Chamber or does another colleague who has a valid request for a debate get time in the Chamber? The time is precious, so we …”

“Technically, at the end of a Session the queue goes into abeyance and we start from scratch. In practice, obviously at the end of a Session we write to the new Committee saying, “There are all these debates in the queue; what do you want to do about them?” We would obviously write to the Leader of the House if general …”

“The problem is that we get five applications a week on average, which then build up over periods of time. When the Backbench Business Committee began, colleagues went in front of the Committee to make their application, and they were either granted the debate or they had to reapply—that was it. The drawback of that was…”

“The drawback would be that fewer people get to speak or people make shorter speeches. You would have to weigh the options. On Thursdays, almost inevitably, we already have a time limit on speeches. Nominally, the debates are supposed to be three hours, but in my experience we have never, ever had three-hour debates; th…”

“Yes. We would like to be able to grant topical debates. One reason why I say that we could potentially have three debates on a Thursday is that two of them could be scheduled in advance and then in our meeting on a Tuesday we would then consider topical debates which could be granted for the Thursday, or alternatively …”

“Our process is that when an applicant comes before us for a Chamber debate, we expect 15 colleagues, evenly split between Government and Opposition parties, to have signed that application and to participate. We monitor those who sign applications and then turn up and actually speak. Funnily enough, the number of speak…”

“As you will probably know, the hon. Member for Strangford is a season ticket holder—rarely does a meeting of the Backbench Business Committee go by when he is not in front of us with an application. In his defence, his applications are interesting and it is really quite important that they are debated. We have a tenden…”

“Colleagues, when they are presenting, often say they want a debate in the Chamber because it has greater focus, greater attention and more popularity, and of course it is screened out to the waiting world. Westminster Hall tends to be a second choice for colleagues. We promote it, both because of the timing and because…”

“Yes.”

“Thank you for that introduction, Chair. Thursday is not necessarily a backwater, in my view. The reality is that, certainly over the last Session, Backbench Business debates have gone right up to the moment of interruption almost inevitably, and often time limits have had to be introduced for speakers. To be fair, one …”

“It is a way for the Petitions Committee to get a debate in the Chamber. Personally, I have no objection to the Petitions Committee getting time in the Chamber, as long as it does not come off our allocation. These big petitions with large numbers of MPs who wish to debate them should get time in the Chamber; obviously,…”

“I would like to see it formalised, obviously. The last Session, for example, went on for nearly two years, and therefore we would be looking for almost double the number of days. With a new Government being elected with a wide-ranging legislative programme, some Thursdays were taken, which I understand completely, but …”

“Yes. Generally speaking, historically there have been fewer requests towards the end of a Parliament, as Members want to be in their constituencies, but at the beginning of a Parliament, there has more interest from new colleagues who want to get debates on subjects that they want to talk about rather than the ones tha…”