Speeches by Jopp.

“Very simple question: why are police numbers coming down under a Labour Government?”

“I am grateful to the Minister for giving way on the negotiations. He is making great play of the fact that the previous Government started the negotiations and that there were 11 rounds of them. Is he not aware that, in 1965, the United Nations passed a resolution saying that we should enter into conversations with Arg…”

“Will the Minister give way?”

“I am grateful to the hon. and gallant Member for giving way. On the pricing, he said that Government Front Benchers are putting it out that this is a good deal. Would it still be a good deal if it was £35 billion or something like that?”

“I do not know whether the hon. Member listened to the outstanding, forensic dismantling of the Government’s case by my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Kenilworth and Southam (Sir Jeremy Wright), but on the basis that every constituency in this country will kiss away the opportunity to have £52 million as a…”

“If the Minister is such a big fan of the social time discounting method that has been applied, will he tell the House where the social time discounting method has been used in other parts of Government to generate net present value?”

“Did you ever entertain the idea that the leak was deliberate and, if not, why not?”

“I am going to do the quickfire round at the end of the interview, which is the fun questions. Who did the leak and why have they not been court-martialled?”

“On the basis that I have elicited the inimitable statement that this is a well-run programme, I hand back to the Chair for others to question.”

“The 138 would have been the basis on which the programme—”

“That is based on the whole hundred and however many it is, not just the 40. The costings that the NAO Reports are the only ones that it could unearth.”

“Can you remember, when it passed its main gate business case in 2013, how the Department thought it was going to cost compared to what we think it is going to cost now?”

“Can I paint a picture and see whether this is something that you recognise or not? You want a new whiz-bang bit of kit and it is going to cost a load of money. The military say to the Permanent Secretary, “It is going to cost a lot less than you think, Permanent Secretary” in order to get into the programme. Underpinni…”

“In the £850 million estimate for the cost of this, have you factored in the premium that we will have to pay to host people in order to gain their support come future operations?”

“I visited a nursery in Staines in my constituency, and the head there reported to me that, because of the charging regime and what they can and cannot charge for, every Saturday morning she ends up doing many hours of work on education, health and care plans, for which she cannot pass on the cost. Does the Minister rec…”

“T9. It has been more than a fortnight since the Alaska summit, and the deadline set by President Trump at that time has now passed. What diplomatic efforts are the Government making to maintain US focus on the Ukrainian theatre of operations in the face of Russian intransigence?”

“It is a pleasure to come in on the side of David versus Goliath. Is my right hon. Friend aware that the 10,000 acres being proposed in his constituency could be replaced by 5,000 acres of floating solar on the reservoirs of this country? In my constituency, I have 2,000 acres of raised reservoirs. They are all closed s…”

“The Stanwell hotel in my constituency is being used to house asylum seekers. I wrote to Home Office Ministers on 24 July, again on 25 July, and again on 29 July, and I have had zero responses to any of those letters. Please will the Home Secretary show some respect to my constituents and the people of Spelthorne and re…”

“Spelthorne residents Emma and John lost Holly to cancer in October last year. They set up the charity Holly’s Heroes in her name. Before she died, Holly was given a wheelchair by the NHS, and Emma and John cannot now give it back to the NHS for love nor money. I have raised this with the chief executive of the trust, b…”

“I thank the Minister for that answer. On Friday, I had the opportunity to visit the outstanding Springfield primary school in my constituency. It has 500 pupils, 30 of whom have education, health and care plans, with six applications in currently. Can the Minister reassure the parents of those six children and the many…”