Speeches by Jopp.

“We are shortly to appoint a national armaments director with a salary of more than £600,000 a year. I hope that that colossal salary comes with the mandate to be able to tear up the book on defence procurement as we rearm the nation. Will the Minister reassure me that when we get the national armaments director back to…”

“7. What assessment she has made of the adequacy of incentives to seek employment.”

“The people of Spelthorne are very hard-working and do not mind their taxes being paid for a safety net for the most vulnerable in our society, but they really do get annoyed when they see their taxes going to people who are scamming the benefits system. What assessment have any of the Ministers on the Front Bench made …”

“The Minister says that the situation is completely clear, so I feel like a bit of an idiot for asking for more clarification, but I will anyway. Pre-sentencing reports are allowed to take in further background on the lives of offenders from an “ethnic minority, cultural minority, and/or faith minority community”. What …”

“It is a great pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Tipton and Wednesbury (Antonia Bance). She is such a compelling advocate that I am tempted to go on strike myself. I do sense a certain amount of antipathy between the two sides of the House, so, before I come on to make a fair point in support of amendment 292, I wa…”

“I think the hon. Lady has slightly missed the point of what I was saying. Reading the body language of Members on the Government Benches, I think they all wanted to hear how this story ended up. It did help that the then Secretary of State for Defence was a friend of mine, with whom I served in the Scots Guards. We did…”

“There are 24 Members sitting on the Government Benches. Would my hon. Friend like to issue an open invitation to them to name a single small business that has been in touch to say that it supports this legislation?”

“Minister, you mentioned the 10/30 rule. When that was announced, I thought, “Wow, good luck with that”. It is incredibly demanding. I genuinely did mean “good luck with that” because it would be fantastic. It may not be your bag, but could you give us an update on where we are with the implementation of that new rule?”

“Among the 5,000 small businesses in my hon. Friend’s constituency, has my hon. Friend come across one that is in favour of the Bill or lobbied him to vote for it?”

“That is days, yes.”

“Minister, thank you. I would like to pick up on a couple of words in your opening remarks—“societal drift” and the principle that no one is disadvantaged—by quoting from a letter produced recently by the SAS Regimental Association: “Hundreds are ensnared in legacy processes; in many cases facing years more of uncertain…”

“Do you think the extension of the armed forces covenant is the vehicle by which you will eventually protect them, or is it going to be something else?”

“The admiral used the case of medical treatment, but also said, I think, that because things are different we cannot level up in the way that Mike is asking. When we visited RAF Lossiemouth, one of the issues, meeting the people there, was access to free childcare and the different thresholds in age. Under anyone else’s…”

“Sitting in those seats last week were defence industry representatives, who reminded us that if you sign a contract with SpaceX it is six pages long, and if you sign it with the Ministry of Defence it is 70.”

“I signed up when Centurion was a rank, not a tank.”

““Go big or go home” is fantastic. It is a lovely intent. Wouldn’t it be fantastic if you just left it at that? Unfortunately, as you and I know, what gets measured gets resourced. There is a really knotty problem, as you roll this out to other Government Departments, as to how you agree those measures of effectiveness.…”

“When this legislation comes to the House, people are going to want to know that it is not just performance art, but is going to have an effect. Those measures of effectiveness are clearly crucial.”

“It is a huge piece of work to accompany the Bill. If any Government Departments or local authorities do not get the point, limited conscription would be perfect.”

“Yesterday afternoon, a group of five and six-year-old special educational needs children had great fun running circles around their Member of Parliament on the football pitch at Matthew Arnold school in my constituency. Can Labour Front Benchers please use their good offices to encourage Surrey county council to contin…”

“I think that International Women’s Day is fantastic because it gives me the opportunity to pay tribute to someone whose birthday would have been on International Women’s Day had she not been born in 1909. I hope that she passes the “gladiator” bar to which the hon. Member for Luton North (Sarah Owen) referred. Beatrice…”