Speeches by Turner.

“The Minister said in his response that the Treasury and the OBR are exchanging information, but that did not happen in the period immediately before the last election, when spending pressures were withheld from the OBR in a way that the chair said may have broken the law. Will the Minister confirm that that failure is …”

“I am grateful to my hon. Friend for becoming the human face of tax collection in this debate. A number of my constituents also work for HMRC, and they have told me that the period of cuts has impeded the agency’s ability to collect corporate taxation and get into the public purse revenues that are rightly due. Is that …”

“I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention, because it brings me to my next point. The Opposition have come to the House today stating that all these difficult matters have been resolved and there is no need for tax increases at all. They say that they have a plan for cutting £47 billion of public expenditure. I h…”

“Opposition motions are usually detailed—as, indeed, is the next motion on the Order Paper, relating to energy—so the brevity of this motion deserves comment. The most important line is, I think, the first: “That this House calls on the Government to control public expenditure”. In the hands of this Opposition, that sho…”

“No. I have already taken two interventions and I want to make a bit of progress with my speech, but I might come back to the hon. Member. I hope that the Opposition do publish more detail, because, if they do not, it will be widely suspected in the country and the House that they know that their claims do not withstand…”

“I have said it a number of times on the record and in this House before, so it is no evasion to say that I am no fan of the cap at all. As an incrementalist, I would like to see at least some solid progress on lifting that cap, and I hope that we will be in a position to remove it completely.”

“The Minister has just spoken about public services and touched on productivity. At the start of the debate, the shadow Chancellor talked about the importance of timely public sector pay settlements to productivity increases. Having been a union official in the aftermath of the strikes by ambulance workers, I have some …”

“I will happily say to the hon. Gentleman that I do not think any of us come to this place wanting to raise taxes. I will just draw attention to one thing in the Labour party manifesto: an important statement that a growing economy needs strong public services. I welcome the record investment in our NHS—the biggest in 2…”

“Other colleagues may come back on the point that you just made. You mentioned the taxis and private hire licensing review. That review took three years to be completed. A draft Bill was published in 2014. We did not see any progress on that work in the decade that followed. Other examples of slow progress include the r…”

“It is a short supplementary question on a topical issue relating to buses. It was reported over the weekend that Norwegian authorities have found that buses produced by the China-based manufacturer Yutong could be remotely stopped or rendered inoperable. The Department—or a spokesperson—said, “We are looking into the c…”

“It is interesting to hear that we might be transitioning to an approach that has a longer design phase before projects are introduced. Another issue with access for all has been the end of one control period and the start of another, which is an issue in common with other parts of the rail capital programme. Last May, …”

“We have heard from a number of witnesses that there are improvements and efficiencies to be had from integrating track and train. There is perhaps a bit of a question mark over what integration actually means. The Department’s consultation published in February spoke about a single organisation with a single cohesive s…”

“Secretary of State, you mentioned the rail accessibility road map earlier, which contained a commitment to reform the access for all programme. It said that this would be as part of the establishment of Great British Railways. Can you tell us more about what reforms you envisage? What is going wrong at the moment? Is t…”

“I will give way to my constituency neighbour.”

“My hon. Friend is right, and we could all point to examples of waste and inefficient spending under the previous Government. That is, of course, part of the context of where we find ourselves today, as are the £9.5 billion of undisclosed spending pressures that were withheld by the Treasury on their watch from the Offi…”

“When Opposition Members talk about defenestration, I do listen—because of their greater expertise in these matters. And, of course, “What’s past is prologue”—the hon. Gentleman tempts me to get on to the Zinoviev letter, but that might be one for another day. However, I have actually made only one brief reference to th…”

“Good morning. The Department’s response to our report on accessibility and disability access, Access Denied, committed to approaching the Law Commission with a view to carrying out a review of the relevant legislation. That is very welcome from our perspective. The Department’s response was that there would be a series…”

“Thinking about the destination as well as the journey, in 10 years’ time, once we are past that implementation period, do you foresee, for example, West Midlands Rail existing as a unit within Great British Railways, or could it be an approach that is more similar to the old split that used to exist between regional ra…”

“Finally, you mentioned liveries. The InterCity livery and brand has been successfully exported around the world, but, in perhaps a very British fashion, we no longer use it in this country, where it was created. Do you think that that could make a return?”

“Yes, thank you. Mr McGookin, you mentioned that you worked at Austin and later MG Rover. I have a particular local interest: the site is in my constituency and the impacts and scars of that closure can still be seen to this day. Thinking about what happened to Austin and other transport manufacturers that have declined…”