Speeches by Lewell.

“T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.”

“The hospitality industry in South Shields has really struggled over the last year. There are now deep concerns, which I share, about the imposition of a tourism tax. Can my right hon. Friend explain what assessment he has made of such a tax’s impact on beautiful little coastal tourist towns, like mine?”

“1. What steps he is taking to build more social and affordable homes in the South Shields constituency.”

“After a long campaign from myself and constituents, South Tyneside council has eventually agreed to curtail any new houses in multiple occupation, but we remain saturated with them. My right hon. Friend knows that they are no substitute for good social housing, so does he have any plans to strengthen the licensing regi…”

“Order. I call Gregory Stafford. My apologies; we were having issues with the clock. It should be okay now.”

“I will need to put a two-minute time limit on Back-Bench speeches.”

“I am terribly sorry; we are not able to take any more Back-Bench speeches. I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.”

“Order. I call Graeme Downie.”

“You said that there was bafflement and confusion. Who is to blame for that?”

“Good morning. It is nice to see you both. Following on from the Chair’s comments, every time we hear about Defence reform, they say that culture change is key. Every time it has failed, they say it is because the cultural change has not happened. How on earth do you change culture in the MoD?”

“I suppose what I am getting at is this: who is in charge of Defence reform? Whose responsibility is this?”

“As an aside to that, do either of you think that the Government’s defence reform programme is going to work?”

“So should those senior people not be transitioning into the corporate world? Should they stay where they are, and should it be totally separate?”

“Okay. I will leave it there.”

“Thank you very much, Chair. Good morning, everyone. I want to touch on the Rimmer review. Based on the evidence that we have before the Committee, I am struggling with how the risk assessment moved from individuals at risk of death in August 2023 to secrecy still needed to protect life in November 2024. Then in June th…”

“I am just wondering how you would reconcile your view about lifting the super-injunction with continued reprisals. That must be quite—”

“Holly, on the back of that, why do you think Rimmer did not look more deeply into reprisals?”

“At the point when the assessments that the super-injunction relied upon were made, and it was put in place, was it being said then that the Taliban could already have the list?”

“I think you said that you have never seen these defence intelligence assessments, or that you were not privy to them. Do you know whether they were being refreshed regularly throughout these years? Do you know who did them? Do you know how many assessments were being done? What was the process?”

“We want to know.”