Speeches by Morello.

“It is a pleasure to serve with you in the chair, Sir Roger. I congratulate the hon. Member for Rossendale and Darwen (Andy MacNae) on securing this important and timely debate. It is particularly pertinent to me as West Dorset is nothing but small towns and villages, and 60% of the population live outside of the towns.…”

“My hon. Friend raises the spectre of Jhoots, which resulted in the closure of the Bridport and Lyme Regis pharmacies in my constituency. Jhoots exposed serious concerns around contractual failures, unsafe practices, staff treatment and service continuity, leaving staff in my constituency relying on food banks. When I m…”

“The UK should be the world leader in greenhouse gas removals, but the sector is struggling to attract funding and off-takers because of uncertainty about Government support for GGRs. Will the Government please confirm when they plan to publish their response to the independent GGRs review, and whether the Department is…”

“The UK should be the world leader in greenhouse gas removals, but the sector is struggling to attract funding and off-takers because of uncertainty about Government support for GGRs. Will the Government please confirm when they plan to publish their response to the independent GGRs review, and whether the Department is…”

“The UK is home to fantastic and innovative clean technology start-ups in the energy space. However, these businesses tell me that funding for start-up and, importantly, scale-up phases in this space is falling off a cliff. The net zero innovation portfolio, which awarded more than £1.3 billion in grants and crowded in …”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Barker. I congratulate the hon. Member for Dunfermline and Dollar (Graeme Downie) on securing this important debate. Before summer has even begun properly, an amber wildfire alert has been issued in West Dorset. Since 2021, there have been 397 wildfire incidents meeti…”

“7. What steps his Department is taking to expedite defence procurement.”

“In the south-west, the defence sector and associated supply chains provide more than 40,000 jobs and contribute more than £3 billion to the economy. In West Dorset, firms provide skilled employment and apprenticeships, but they are frustrated by repeated delays to the defence investment plan and a slow and uncertain pr…”

“Apologies if we are going over the same point here, but for the point of clarity, the due diligence report is produced by the Cabinet Office. You received that. Did the Prime Minister receive the full unredacted due diligence report, or did you summarise it, or did you brief him orally? What did the Prime Minister rece…”

“I want to quickly go back to your presentation of the conversation with Matthew Doyle: that if there were upcoming ambassadorial posts in the Foreign Office, he should consider applying for them. Can you see how, if you were Matthew Doyle and had just seen the Prime Minister ram Peter Mandelson down the throat of the F…”

“He received the full report. Did you discuss the contents of the report with him?”

“Do you have a view on the accuracy of the statement?”

“No, you wouldn’t have because he would have been sitting there thinking, “Well, if I want the job I am definitely going to get it because the Prime Minister got Peter Mandelson one.””

“That is not what Sir Olly Robbins told us. Sir Olly Robbins told us that Matthew Doyle’s name was another one floated as a political appointee. Given that when the Prime Minister politically appointed Mandelson it was a lock, it would be fair to assume, if you are Matthew Doyle, that effectively a similar guarantee was…”

“I think this follows on from what Alex was asking you, Sir Philip. You are requesting to see the due diligence report; you are flagging to the Foreign Secretary that you have concerns. In his evidence, Sir Olly told us that this was the only time in which the security department requested to see him on whether to grant…”

“It does, thank you. More broadly in terms of the process, you have already mentioned that you have never seen the now infamous traffic-light boxes. Apparently, according to the letter we received last night, the departmental head of security had also never seen the traffic-light boxes and was not aware of them. Sir Oll…”

“Okay. I mentioned already you served under four Prime Ministers. A search through the records, and you can correct me on this, suggests that the only other political appointment that happened during your tenure as permanent secretary was Sir George Hollingbery, the former Member of Parliament for Meon Valley, who was a…”

“So that was unique. Given that you never had cause to see the traffic-light system, should we read anything into the fact that Sir Olly, when he had that meeting, was not shown it?”

“Do you want me to narrow it down?”

“Did that conversation happen at a point at which he had read the report? There is a difference between receiving the report and reading it, I guess.”