Speeches by Jopp.

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Butler. I rise to support amendment 110. I suspect the Minister might say that we do not need to cover everything and that there is a general catch-all measure in the clause, so we do not need to make this amendment. I will draw the Committee’s attention to a simila…”

“I welcome the fact that the Minister is saying, “Let’s trust existing organisations to do it”, rather than bringing it within the purview of a higher regulator. On the basis that the FA has exercised such responsibilities when it comes to names, why cannot it be trusted to have the same consideration for emblems and co…”

“The shadow Minister is making a completely reasonable amendment. We have the emblem, colours and name. Does he agree that it would be helpful if the Minister explained why the name has been taken out for different treatment from the emblem and the colours?”

“It continues to be a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Butler. I do not know whether the Minister has ever run a company that was approaching either administration or insolvency, but had she, she would know that a number of incredibly onerous and important duties are placed on the directors of such companies, …”

“The Minister knows—I have approached her about this—that a club in my constituency of Spelthorne has gone into administration. It has no home ground, but it does have a training ground, which is a community asset. I am intrigued to know whether, in the potential conflict between the purview of the regulator and the ena…”

“I appreciate the desire to legislate for bad owners, but is the hon. Gentleman not concerned about good owners who might find money very tight? They have assets beyond the home ground and team itself that they might have to consider selling, including a training ground, to remain financially viable and therefore be on …”

“The hon. Member makes a pertinent point. As I said, the word “competition” seems to refer to the sort of flyaway league we have discussed; are one-off friendlies competitions under the terms of the Bill?”

“I wish to build on my hon. Friend’s themes. Football has the unfortunate concept of the friendly; frequently, they are not very friendly at all. When I read the Bill, it was clear to me that the drafters had in mind the prevention of another flyaway European super league, which we have debated. I would like the Ministe…”

“Lky7 Sports is a small cycle and nutrition business in Ashford in my constituency. It has been hammered by the loss of small business rate relief, and wrote to me yesterday saying: “The Government say that they are helping small business, but this is a joke when our business rates have gone from nothing to £1,800. We a…”

“Let me provide some context. I will not name the team, but there is a team in the National League whose cash at hand in 2020 was £25,000, and by 2022 that had reduced to £9,802. We are talking about clubs with an incredibly tight financial structure. I completely agree with my hon. Friend the shadow Minister that chang…”

“If a club has lost its licence, has it not therefore been taken beyond the purview of the regulator? How is the regulator still empowered to pursue the owner?”

“You would effectively extend the dates, rather than bring them in, if spending were to remain at 2.5% and we were not to achieve the nationally stated ambition of 3% by the next Parliament.”

“General Barrons, I distinctly remember that at the launch of this process you said two things that struck me at the time and have remained with me since. You said that the reviewing team were not required to seek consensus and that you were not required to take heed of or pay attention to holes in the legacy programme,…”

“Obviously it is a fairly sensitive process, but you said that some of the assertions you made were less popular than others and you got pushback. Can you give us an idea of where those areas were?”

“We read in the press that what we have in the SDR is version 14. Is there anything in version one that you initially delivered that you regret not seeing make the final cut?”

“On the point you just made about ambition and timelines, Lord Robertson, we had the Chief of the Defence Staff here yesterday—I have to choose my words incredibly carefully, because he implied nothing; I inferred this from what he was saying—but he made the point of saying, “You will notice that in the recommendations …”

“I guess we are all asking the same question in different ways. If, as a result of future decisions, defence expenditure stays at 2.5%, how much of the SDR should I tear up?”

“Lord Robertson, just a quick one on defence reform and the Department’s huge challenge in following through on what it wants to do. They say that culture eats strategy for breakfast. My understanding is that part of the reform is to try to make the Department of State function more strategic and more policy-focused, le…”

“I thank the Chancellor for her statement, but I fear that she may have misunderstood the question that my hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Dr Spencer) asked about the River Thames scheme. He asked whether the scheme is included in the £4.2 billion TDEL—total departmental expenditure limit—over three …”

“If I could summarise what I think it means, people are going to get into and stay in their lane a lot more. The military is going to do military stuff, and the Department of State is going to do its policy stuff. Is that a fair way of putting it?”