Speeches by Snell.

“rose—”

“I thank the shadow Minister for giving way to me for a third time. I presume what he is suggesting is more about the title and the style than about a seat in the legislature. He will know that under the 2011 royal warrant that granted the justices of the Supreme Court the style and title of Lord, that did not come with…”

“rose—”

“My hon. Friend is making an excellent point. The work that Lord Grocott did on this in the other place is commendable, but it was sadly blocked time and again by the Conservatives. On my hon. Friend’s point about the youngest hereditary peer and the number of general elections that may have passed before he will have s…”

“I draw attention to my interest on two fronts, in that my wife is a life peer in the House of Lords and a salaried Minister.”

“I am sorry to intervene again, but this is an important point. Since the general election, there have been 21 nominees to the other place. That would have counted for half the entire hereditary peerage group of the Conservative party, had the Leader of the Opposition taken the opportunity to promote them to life peerag…”

“I thank the shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster for his indulgence. He says that Lords amendment 1 makes a significant improvement to the Bill. Why, then, when it was brought forward in the other place by Lord Grocott as a private Member’s Bill and in this place by David, now Lord, Hanson, did the Conservatives…”

“I obviously declare an interest as my wife is a Member of the House of Lords—and a salaried Minister, for good fortune. The shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster recognises that the Labour party won an election but is talking about deals that go back further. Does he not realise that he risks undermining the Sali…”

“My constituents—like yours, I am sure, Madam Deputy Speaker—want to have ready access to cash and banking facilities, but when the Lloyds bank in Stoke town closes its doors later this year, the town will have no banking facilities. The Link assessment has determined that the three sub-post offices just under a mile fr…”

“It is hard to overestimate the valuable contribution that the Cross-Bench peers make to the House of Lords, not least the number of retired members of the judiciary who come in to fulfil certain judicial or pseudo-judicial responsibilities. The hon. Gentleman probably has an element of a point that I would almost agree…”

“The hon. Gentleman poses a fair question. I would argue that having a ringfenced number of seats reserved almost exclusively for white men sends the wrong message to my constituents. I fully accept that there are Members of the House of Lords at whom my constituents can look and think, “They have done something spectac…”

“Yes, she is very good. I thank my hon. Friend for that. I want to start by addressing some of the points that the hon. Member for Perth and Kinross-shire (Pete Wishart) made—he has left. His characterisation of the House of Lords is grossly unfair. He characterised everybody who is a Member as being some sort of pocket…”

“It is a small element, as the hon. Gentleman says, but by that same logic, the removal of that small element will not have a big impact. We are grasping at straws. Let me address the suggestion that this is an attack on the hereditary principle. The hon. Member for Romford (Andrew Rosindell) is probably one Member of t…”

“rose—”

“I think the whole House can welcome the investment that has been announced today. We know that going through early education makes young people more ready for school, and closing the school readiness gap also closes the attainment gap later on in education settings. When I visit primary schools across Stoke-on-Trent Ce…”

“Will the Father of the House give way?”

“Without getting drawn into the debate on the rights and wrongs, I will say that if the Scottish National party had wanted an elected second Chamber, it could have had one in the Scottish Parliament but chose not to. There are things about the way in which our democracy works that mean the SNP Members come down here sim…”

“Much like the ceramics sector, the refinery sector is an energy-intensive industry that is at the mercy of industrial energy prices, which are beyond its control but have a huge impact on its viability. It is welcome that the Minister thinks that the energy-intensive certification programme could expand to include the …”

“7. What steps his Department is taking to improve electronic patient record systems in the NHS.”

“T3. My constituency of Stoke-on-Trent Central has some of the deepest ingrained health inequalities anywhere in the country. My constituents are just as deserving of first-class healthcare as anyone else, so can the Secretary of State set out how the 10-year health plan will help reduce those health inequalities and en…”