Speeches by Jopp.

“We had an evidence session with Professor Peter Roberts from Exeter University, who said that, at the entry level, you are talking about £20 billion. Obviously, that is iterative because move creates countermove, which creates counter-countermove—it is a dialectic. It is important that we are getting into this business…”

“Mr Roome is not in his place, but he told a horror story about an SME in his constituency that was on a down select to a prime from eight to seven, and it was being charged 100 grand to do the testing for that down select. Leaving aside the fact that a down select from eight to seven is not a down select, surely the Na…”

“The first line of defence in national resilience is us, the citizenry. The Health Secretary and the Education Secretary wrote recently lamenting the absence of much-needed grit among many of our young people. Now that that risk has been identified at the highest level of Government, does it appear on the risk register?”

“We had a long discussion in Committee about assessing how much this regulator was going to cost and how big it was going to be, but all the amendments we put forward were voted down. When will the Minister know that this thing has grown too big and costs too much?”

“I was just googling “dirigiste” and my right hon. Friend’s everyman quote. Will he comment on the fact that OMERS, which he would probably agree is one of these megafunds that he thinks are slow and unwieldy and invest in infrastructure and illiquids, returned a 7.1% net return over the last 10 years and the London Pen…”

“Before the general election, the Chancellor said that this would be the most pro-business Government ever. She spoke recently at The Times CEO summit. Before she was introduced to the CEOs, the host asked how many of them thought that this Government are still pro-business, and not a single hand went up. Why does the C…”

“The Mercure hotel in Stanwell in my constituency is used to house asylum seekers, and I have had multiple reports of asylum seekers there working illegally. Will the Department please put that on immigration enforcement’s radar, so that it can take the appropriate action?”

“The way in which the Minister is talking about insurance buy-out suggests that, in the Government’s mind, insurance buy-out is still in some way a gold standard. Can he reassure the House that he is seeking to flatten the playing field, such that the increased choice available to defined-benefit pension schemes will me…”

“I regret that the Pensions Minister, the hon. Member for Swansea West (Torsten Bell), is no longer in his place; I wanted to pay him something of a compliment for getting the Bill here today with typical ambition and enthusiasm. I should, however, remind him of my grandmother’s favourite saying: an ounce of experience …”

“Secretary of State, was the recent US military action against Iran legal, in the view of MOD lawyers?”

“I want to come in on the back of the defence reform and the drive to speed things up. Obviously, getting defence export licences has pretty much ground to a halt within the last 12 months—defence companies in my constituency tell me it is much, much slower. As part of the reform reorganisation, would the Department con…”

“Did we have the option to have a UK sovereign tactical nuclear capability?”

“Permanent secretary, when you came to speak to us in November, you said that over the course of this Parliament you were going to reduce the number of permanent civil servants by 10%. I wonder, seven months on, how you are getting on.”

“When you speak to your opposite number in the US, how understanding are they about the fact that the Government have not been able to support them publicly?”

“So you are prepared to welcome the ends but not the means.”

“If we are totally as one with the US—that is the phrase you just used—why can you not say publicly that you support the US’s actions?”

“Secretary of State, I like you, but I also like Mr Twigg, because Mr Twigg asks great questions. He asked you, on the tactical nuclear capability, why did we not go for a sovereign capability? Why did we go for a dual key? You gave him a very long answer, but you did not answer that question. Will you give it another g…”

“It is a please to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Mundell. I congratulate the hon. Member for Cramlington and Killingworth on bringing forward this Bill. I have only one question for the Minister to answer in his summing up. On reducing the notice given to providers from seven to two years, I agree with the character…”

“Ametek, a defence manufacturer in my constituency, has reported to me that the process of getting a defence export licence has almost ground to a halt in the past 12 months. Could the Ministry of Defence send someone sufficiently threatening round to the Department for Business and Trade—perhaps the Veterans Minister—t…”

“My hon. Friend makes a fantastic point. The Queen Mary reservoir in my constituency has a plug-in point to the national grid at one end of it. The ability to minimise the disruption that is caused by placing solar farms away from where the power is needed is certainly a consideration that plays into this. Hon. Members …”