Speeches by Cocking.

“In the interests of time, I will keep my remarks brief. First, I would like to speak in favour of Lords amendment 26, which would ensure a brownfield-first approach. If this were well and truly a brownfield-first Labour Government, they would support this amendment. Broxbourne has had its fair share of development, but…”

“Will the Minister give way?”

“I suspect it is an issue faced by Members across the Chamber, and I completely agree with the hon. Lady. Where the amendments go wrong is that the Government plan to give the regulations to local transport authorities, rather than district councils. At the moment in my area, district councils do parking enforcement. We…”

“I am Lewis Cocking, MP for Broxbourne.”

“That is a crazy statement to make.”

“You have to determine whether each of the constituencies are within the 5% threshold across the country. With some voters automatically registered and others not, there will be loads of constituencies out of that variance.”

“I do not understand how that can be true if half the voters are automatically registered and the other half are not.”

“To take my constituency of Broxbourne, I have two councils, so two authorities that deal with electoral roll. One of those has automatically registered people and the other one has not. Would that be a fair boundary at the next general election for me to stand in the Broxbourne constituency?”

“I have some questions for you, Tom, about automatic voter registration. We heard today that about 7 million to 8 million people are not currently registered to vote, and some of that may be through choice. I have asked Ministers a number of times around whether they are all going happen at the same time for the same ge…”

“If all the voters who are currently not registered are not automatically registered by 2028, will the next Boundary Commission proposals and review be fair for the next general election?”

““It is very difficult to register to vote in the UK”. It is free; it is easy.”

“New figures reveal that 73% of teachers think there is not enough focus on preparing young people for employment while they are still in school. A good apprenticeship can bridge that gap, but the number of starts has fallen for those under 19 in the past year. Will the Minister change course and lead a real change, and…”

“3. What steps she is taking to promote apprenticeships as an alternative to university education.”

“My constituents George and Areti are in the Gallery. Their story is one that no parent should ever have to go through. Their 15-year-old son, Chrisopher, was an active and outgoing young man with a bright future ahead of him. One night in January 2022, Christopher was in his room playing video games. He clicked on a po…”

“Q4. Welfare spending is set to rise by another £70 billion by 2030. The last time I asked the Prime Minister about this, he said he was mending the system. Since then, this disastrous Labour Government have raised taxes on working people to give even more to those who do not work. The people I speak to across Broxbourn…”

“The hon. Member is speaking about company donations. I am not saying I agree with this, but does she feel that the same logic should apply to trade union donations? If she feels that companies cannot donate, does she still feel that trade unions can?”

“When postal voters are notified by their local authority that they are about to drop off the roll, does the Minister agree that they should not always be encouraged to do that online? Some people who have postal votes do not want to make online applications. Does she also agree that they should be sent a fresh applicat…”

“The criteria for choosing the Government’s preferred options for local government reorganisation seem to have been applied differently in Surrey than in Hampshire and Essex. Will the Government release their reasoning behind it? Let me be clear: when it comes to Hertfordshire, I do not want any reorganisation at all, b…”

“We will not stray into the issue of online banking, banking hubs and high street banks, but I have some sympathy: I have family members who do not want to do online banking. The hon. Lady’s mother can get a free voter authority certificate from the council, or she could choose to vote by post, and then her signature wo…”

“The shadow Minister is making an excellent speech. He has probably seen, like I have, leaflets from all the political parties represented on this Committee that tell people what form of ID is acceptable way before we even get into the election period or the election date is just around the corner. Does he agree that th…”