Speeches by Doogan.

“You talked about access to finance and the cost of that finance, and you talked about investment in yards that Governments make. So, there are two things. Is that all it is? If the UK decides to wake up and smell the coffee, is it the case that all the UK has to do is to start giving commercial yards in the UK access t…”

“You mentioned quite clearly in your earlier contributions about the wholly unfair playing field that commercial yards are up against internationally, and that state subsidies of foreign yards are not even subtle; they are explicit. Meanwhile, in the UK, everything is getting played with a straight bat, and we wonder wh…”

“Three or four years hence, how effective do you think the National Shipbuilding Strategy is? I am thinking of issues like fleet solid support.”

“Good morning, Mr Chant. We do not have a shipbuilding tsar any more. Do we miss him?”

“Yes, but I am asking you; could you give me an answer in relation to it?”

“Will the hon. Gentleman take an intervention from a Member on the Opposition Benches?”

“This has been a difficult statement for the Secretary of State—make no mistake. He said in his statement that this was a breach of very strict data protection protocols. Well, on the basis of this breach and the other breaches around Afghan resettlement, those protocols were clearly not strict enough. He has declined t…”

“Yes, it had to come, and I am relieved that there is a cleavage. Where I diverge with them is on a wealth tax. I see that we are in a state—the UK is not a country—where poverty levels among our children are rising in every country in the UK except Scotland. In Scotland, it costs us £150 million a year—it will be £200 …”

“The shadow Minister talks about kindness. Does she agree, therefore, with the Children’s Commissioner for England, who has said that children in England are now living in “Dickensian levels” of poverty? A principal element of that is the two-child cap. What element of kindness does the shadow Minister see present in th…”

“That is a welcome and comprehensive round-up of some of the broader issues on this, but it speaks to the fiscal innumeracy that says, “There is no cost to any of this; we can just help ourselves to that and it won’t have any impact.” As the right hon. Member for Wetherby and Easingwold (Sir Alec Shelbrooke) pointed out…”

“The first line of the Tories’ motion gets to the word “manifesto”, and I accept their premise that that is what this is about—it is about the commitment “not to increase taxes on working people, and not to increase National Insurance or the basic, higher or additional rates of Income Tax”. I do not think that is a tall…”

“I would just like to follow up on the hon. Gentleman’s talking down of Scottish skills and training—classic Labour. How does he reconcile the disparaging characteristic that he paints of Scottish skills, entrepreneurialism and training when Scotland has, for 10 years running, been the top destination for foreign direct…”

“Will the hon. Gentleman give way?”

“With the exception of the London vortex that sucks in wealth capital and talent from across these islands, it is Scotland that tops the league for foreign direct investment. It is Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh that are among the top 10 cities in the UK for FDI, as they have been for 10 of the 18 years in which the SN…”

“Can you think of another industry with substantial domestic demand and substantial domestic supply capacity where the Government would introduce an externality, such as the role that the Government or their agencies have in licensing, to restrict the domestic ability for supply to meet demand? Is there any other indust…”

“I hope you find a buyer.”

“Grangemouth stopped refining after the election. Labour was in power when Grangemouth stopped refining. Although Petroineos did not go bust, we have a refinery in England, in Lindsey, that has gone bust and the Secretary of State is moving at pace to look for ways to continue its refining. It is an unhelpful contrast t…”

“I would urge caution in comparing it to Equinor.”

“And generate?”

“It remains to be seen how important GB Energy will be for Aberdeen, because of course there is not any meaningful employment from GB Energy in Aberdeen to date. Finally, can you explain to the Committee what GB Energy will facilitate through its incorporation as a wholly owned Government energy company—I use those term…”