Speeches by Johnson.

“Thank you, Mr Speaker, for granting this urgent question. At the start of the covid pandemic, NHS volunteer responders were set up to support vulnerable people. Following its success, the previous Government expanded the scheme into adult social care, forming a joint NHS and care volunteers programme. That service has …”

“(Urgent Question): To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care if he will make a statement regarding the volunteer and care service.”

“On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Notwithstanding the response to the urgent question that you were kind enough to grant, we still have no idea how long the gap in the service will last, or what will happen to the most vulnerable people who are using it. What other parliamentary mechanisms could I use to secure the answ…”

“Will my hon. Friend give way?”

“rose—”

“Will the hon. Lady give way?”

“Will the hon. Lady give way?”

“Will the hon. Lady give way?”

“I rise to support the hon. Lady’s new clause 1. As a doctor, I am very aware of the trust that the public place in doctors and the seriousness with which they take what we say. If a doctor gives somebody information about assisted dying, it is quite reasonable for that person to think that the doctor is suggesting that…”

“Persistence pays off. When considering the Bill, I had presumed that the doctor concerned would be a senior clinician—a senior doctor—but page 63 of the impact assessment refers to pre-registration doctors, who have just completed medical school and are on a provisional registration. Will the hon. Lady confirm that it …”

“Further to that point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. My point was that under a Labour Government and Secretary of State, a Labour donor has been given permission to build a great big solar farm just outside my constituency. That is the point I was making: the Labour—”

“Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I hope the Minister has listened carefully to what has been said, and has understood that this is not about nimbys—it is not about “not in my back yard” and it is not even about the aesthetics of solar farms. It is about the overwhelming scale of the proposals and the fact that solar fa…”

“The Minister says that this is not a competition between energy security and farming security. It should not be; the reason it is becoming one is that his Government are allowing our best and most versatile farmland, used for growing crops, to be taken over by solar farms.”

“Will the hon. Member give way?”

“I think the hon. Member is making part of the point that I was trying to make in my speech. Some 7% of my constituency is the subject of solar panel applications. Does he agree that that is an obscene amount of solar panels to put on our best quality farmland?”

“rose—”

“I thank the hon. Lady for her intervention. I wonder if the average jumbo jet flying into Heathrow does a loop-the-loop on its way in. RAF Digby is the headquarters of the joint cyber and electromagnetic activities group. Any interference with that part of the defence estate could cause significant harm. My constituenc…”

“My hon. Friend is right. As a farmer’s wife, I understand that farmers are being put under a lot of pressure by the various changes that this Government have made to taxation on cab pick-ups, inheritance tax, national insurance and much more. Displacing our farmland leaves us reliant on imports, which use more land, ma…”

“My hon. Friend is right, but I do not believe that the land will ever be returned to farmland, and many of my constituents feel the same. It is worth noting that 99.1% of solar installations cover the best and most versatile land, but tests procured by the developers appear to suggest that soil is of poorer quality tha…”

“My right hon. Friend is right. I will come on to the cumulative effect later in my speech. He will recall that the previous Government brought in measures to ensure that happened, but it does not seem to be happening. In my survey, 91% of respondents were concerned about the enormous scale of proposals, and 73% were co…”