Speeches by Morello.

“We received some written evidence to this inquiry that raised concerns about whether or not there was a lack of coherence between the team in New York and FCDO country-level teams—with the suggestion that that can result in a lack of joined-up working on things such as conflict resolution and stabilisation. My first qu…”

“I want to go back a little bit to the point you were making about the relevance of the UN, and how what the UN does reflects the geopolitics of the day but also tends to reflect the leadership of the UN, especially the Secretary-General. We are coming to the end of the present Secretary-General’s term; I think he has a…”

“The Perm Sec was talking about the cuts to director level and below. Do you envisage a headcount reduction in New York as a result of these overall departmental staffing cuts?”

“On that broader conversation of where staff are, we had the Perm Sec and Foreign Secretary come and give evidence to the Committee fairly recently and both talked about decisions ahead on staffing as a result of the budget that the FCDO is looking at, going forward. They also both expressed a desire to have more people…”

“My hon. Friend will know—I have said this several times in this Chamber—that the overwhelming majority of businesses in West Dorset are microbusinesses, many of them in hospitality. Does he agree that EPR represents yet another attack on the hospitality sector, alongside increases in business rates and national insuran…”

“I thank my hon. Friend and colleague from Dorset for giving way. He has talked about the issues outside his constituency of Bournemouth East, and he does not have to look far to see some of the inequalities that are in play—only to West Dorset. He will know from our beautiful part of the countryside that delivering ser…”

“I agree 100%. I will come on to the campaign that the Liberal Democrats have been running to make water companies statutory consultees, and the importance of their involvement. In West Dorset, we need genuinely affordable social housing, affordable homes for key workers and smaller homes for older people who want to do…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms McVey. I congratulate the hon. Member for Hinckley and Bosworth (Dr Evans) on securing this important debate. I have been struck when listening to all the speeches so far by the fact that so often when we talk about planning, we speak in terms of bricks and mortar and …”

“Will the hon. Gentleman give way?”

“Given the hon. Gentleman’s concerns over that Liberal Democrat-run council, I am sure he would welcome the opportunity to join me in applauding Liberal Democrat-run Dorset council, which is currently opening up its local plan to public consultation, so that communities can get involved in shaping the plan and we can de…”

“Over the weekend, I was at a village fête. I will not name the primary school, but I was approached by the head, who told me that with the expansion of the number of hours and the rate that they are being paid, the school will close within 18 months. Even though, by the standards of its sector, it had a reasonable buff…”

“My hon. Friend and neighbour’s constituency, like mine, is extremely rural; he will know that the cost of delivering services in rural areas is four to five times higher than it is in urban areas. PIP allows people to live independently. Both my hon. Friend and I see integrated care boards that are under extreme financ…”

“I felt that a lot of the conversations I was having on the Hill were with Senators and Congresspeople who were echoing the President’s line that Ukraine must settle and accept loss of territory. To what extent do you agree that that must be the cost of peace, or do you believe that we must return Ukraine to its full so…”

“The Committee was in Washington fairly recently. Almost to a tee, conversations with Republicans on the Hill were that there would be no further military assistance, and that the best that Ukraine could hope for would be more sanctions on Russia. Senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal have brought forward the s…”

“Thank you. I want to talk about the maintenance of the overseas estate. The National Audit Office has said that 933 of the 6,500 overseas properties did not meet its target condition score, and that the maintenance backlog had reached £450 million by November 2024. Given that that was 2024, could you update us on how t…”

“The spending review confirms that the settlement seeks sustained investment in the overseas estate, moving away from the reliance on one-off asset sales. However, the investment spending—the capital departmental spending limit—is cut by an average of 4.2% per year from 2024 to 2029-30. My question is: in reality, do yo…”

“But you do envisage that there will have to be some asset sales, do you? Are those being driven by the maintenance of the estate, the budget available or the political priorities of where we need to be?”

“Do its actions not meet the criteria for being added to the enhanced tier of FIRS?”

“I have some questions about the overseas estate, but before I get to them I have a specific question about the overseas employment framework. The autumn Budget requires the FCDO to deliver efficiency gains of £76 million a year by 2029. The FCDO has identified areas where it can achieve those efficiency gains, one of w…”

“I do. Earlier, we spent some time talking about the China audit with the permanent secretary. The other week, Foreign Secretary, you presented the national security strategy to Parliament. That document said, “Instances of China’s espionage, interference in our democracy and the undermining of our economic security hav…”