Speeches by Robertson.

“I beg to move, That this House has considered e-petition 658365 relating to holidays during school term time. It is a pleasure to address you, Sir Edward, in what is an important debate and my first attempt at presenting a debate on behalf of the Petitions Committee. I am chuffed to do so, because this subject is reall…”

“Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I sincerely hope to be last but not least. Let me begin by congratulating my hon. Friend the Member for Amber Valley (Linsey Farnsworth) on her first speech in the Chamber. I too, like many Members who are present today, am relatively new to the House, and I do not think I will ever for…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for securing this important debate. He may not know that I was a teacher for almost seven years in north Birmingham. I used to regularly see 11 and 12-year-old kids coming into school having had no breakfast, and with their lunch for the day being a bag of Haribo sweets and a one litre bottle of …”

“T5. I welcome the record allocation for agriculture in the Budget. However, the simple fact is that that agriculture budget is no good if it stays in the Whitehall coffers. Last year, there was a £300 million underspend in the agriculture budget, worth more than £1,400 on average for every single farm holding in the co…”

“Does my hon. Friend—like many Members across the House, I am sure—support the idea of a bathing status award for water quality?”

“Over the past 14 years, the Conservative party saw this issue become a growing crisis. Conservative Members have spoken much today about how we need a deterrent, but does the Minister agree that, for someone who is willing to get into a vessel of questionable seaworthiness to cross one of the busiest shipping lanes on …”

“There appears to be a lot of discussion about agricultural property relief on inheritance tax today. Could the Minister confirm what percentage of the farms that claimed more than £1 million of agricultural property relief in the past two years actually received any agricultural income in the past five years?”

“Since 2011, Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service has lost 437 full-time equivalent firefighters. More than that, the number of on-call and retained firefighters has dropped by more than 60% from 483 to just 189. That is a significant drop in the amount of fire cover, and the cuts have been 1.5 times deeper than in any…”

“High streets in Lichfield and Burntwood in my constituency were let down as, for 14 years, the Conservative party fiddled while our high street economies burned. Can the Chancellor assure me that regenerating high streets, as the physical manifestation of how well our economy is doing, is a priority for this Treasury?”

“11. What progress she has made on increasing economic growth.”

“I closely associate myself with all the remarks that have been made in the debate about the work of the Royal British Legion, and all it does to support remembrance, particularly in November. When November rolls around, I make sure to clear time to remember Charles Leslie Whitehead and William Arnold Robertson, my taid…”

“Saxon Hill academy in my constituency does amazing work to support young people between the ages of two and 19 with physical disabilities and complex needs, but for many of the students, it is much more than a school. It is literally a home away from home, due to its sleepover club, which allows pupils to stay at the s…”

“If we are talking about footballers, can we remember people such as Alex Scott, who is a trailblazer for the women’s game, as well as those from the men’s game?”

“My constituency is made up of 21 local government wards. One of them, Bagots and Needwood, was subjected to 3,000 hours of sewage spills in just one year. Can the Secretary of State assure me that, after 14 years of failure from the Conservative party, the commission will leave nowhere to hide for criminal water bosses…”

“I commend the work of five volunteers in my community who run Lichfield Community Media CIC. By operating a news website, they have prevented our area from becoming a news desert. Unfortunately, their posts are being blocked because algorithms on social media sites highlight them as spam. Does the Leader of the House a…”

“I congratulate the hon. Member for Newton Abbot (Martin Wrigley) on his excellent maiden speech. I am sure he will be a fierce advocate for the people of Newton Abbot and the surrounding area over the coming years. I look forward to working with him. I am very glad to be able to speak in this debate, because primary ca…”

“rose—”

“I am taken by the right hon. Gentleman’s talk about getting it right, which was a phrase also used by the previous speaker, the hon. Member for Boston and Skegness (Richard Tice). They both suggest taking the time to get it right, but surely that is what the Government are committed to doing. The Government are committ…”

“I thank my neighbour, the right hon. Member for Great Wyrley, Penkridge and Stone—apologies, I might have got that the wrong way around—for giving way. He has been selectively quoting from the Labour party manifesto. He says the manifesto says we will introduce a retirement age for peers, but fails to mention that the …”

“It is wonderful to contribute to this debate. I had to intervene when my hon. Friend spoke about university campuses, and about university buildings in city centres. My Lichfield constituency does not have a large university campus, but we do have a small satellite campus of the University of Staffordshire that support…”