Speeches by Wright.

“Will the Home Secretary give way?”

“I am bound to say that the Home Secretary, for whom I have huge respect, is wrong to suggest that she cannot take interventions because of a lack of time—she has decided that there is a lack of time. I want to make one simple point to her, which my hon. Friend on the Opposition Front Bench has adverted to. Jonathan Hal…”

“I was going to ask the Home Secretary later but, as she has raised the matter, perhaps I can ask her this now. On proposed new section 17C of the National Security Act and, indeed, in respect of other parts of the Bill, the knowledge of the person who may be committing an offence becomes important. Can the Home Secreta…”

“Order. I thank the hon. Lady for opening the debate, and remind all Back-Bench colleagues who wish to speak that they should continue to bob—not right now, but as the debate continues—so that I know they want to speak. I am hoping we can avoid any time limits this morning. We have five Back Benchers wishing to contribu…”

“I am grateful to all Back-Bench contributors to the debate. We now move to the Front-Bench speeches, beginning with the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.”

“There is a great deal to welcome in what the Secretary of State has said, but she will know that detail really matters, so can I ask her two points of detail arising from her letter to Ofcom that was published today? First, she talks about launching “a rapid assessment of what highly effective age assurance looks like …”

“I will focus my remarks on clauses 1 to 3 of the Bill and the breadth of the powers that they give to the Secretary of State. I start with the meaning of a “steel undertaking” in clause 1, which is one “that carries on a business consisting of or including…the manufacture or processing of steel, or…iron”. As the Minist…”

“I recognise that the hon. Gentleman does not normally engage in the detail of legislation, but if he did, he would know that this is the Committee stage, where we look at the detail. What the Government could perfectly properly do is pass the legislation, as amended by my hon. Friend the Member for West Worcestershire,…”

“I understand the logic of the hon. Gentleman’s argument. He has referred several times to the series of proposals being made in Committee by the Conservative party, as outlined by my hon. Friend the Member for West Worcestershire (Dame Harriett Baldwin). They come to this: that no Government should be able to create fo…”

“In clause 3, the Secretary of State purports to limit his powers by use of a sunset clause. The problem is, he also proposes to allow himself to reset the sunset, and to do so indefinitely, under subsection (3). I am afraid that makes a mockery of the concept of a sunset clause.”

“The definition of “public interest” in the Bill is wider still, because the three examples given in subsection (2)(a) to (c) are just that—examples. The Bill allows the Secretary of State to nationalise on the basis of any other definition of the public interest that he may choose, undefined in the Bill. I therefore su…”

“The Minister is aware of my concern about the interaction between whatever the Government choose to ban and the workings of the Online Safety Act 2023 that we already have. I know the Minister recognises that that is an important interaction. Will he reassure me that the Government are fully aware that whether they ban…”

“The question must surely be: how small a part of the UK will do to satisfy that criterion? The closure of one steel-related facility will have an obvious economic impact on the town or immediate area in which it is located. Is that sufficient to meet the paragraph (c) criterion and justify the Secretary of State decidi…”

“The Minister will recognise that I raised that point, too, on Second Reading.”

““the economy of the United Kingdom or any part of the United Kingdom.””

“Of course, it is the Secretary of State’s judgment about the public interest that counts here, so we need to be confident that his power to do so is appropriately constrained. As has been discussed, subsection (2) sets out some examples of when the public interest test may be met, but there is plenty of breadth even in…”

““exercise a principal transfer power…if the Secretary of State considers it necessary to do so in the public interest.””

“Clause 2 gives the Secretary of State authority to”

“I take the Minister’s point that such undertakings may be vanishingly unlikely, and that the majority of enterprises we are concerned with are predominantly engaged in the manufacture of steel, but we have to ensure that the legislation we pass is fit for purpose not just in the usual case, but in all anticipated cases…”

“It is a genuine privilege to follow the hon. Member for Pontypridd (Alex Davies-Jones). Knowledgeable and passionate Ministers are a huge asset to any Government, and she is a significant loss to this one. If I may say, the same can be said of the hon. Member for Birmingham Yardley (Jess Phillips), who sits next to her…”