Speeches by Jopp.

“The Secretary of State is in consensus-building mode. May I offer him the opportunity to address the 10,975 members of my Spelthorne constituency who will lose their winter fuel payments, or the 100,000 pensioners who will be plunged into poverty? Can he explain to them why they are wrong when they see the Government t…”

“Chair, may I come in on the really important point that General Magowan made about whether our support to Ukraine becomes force driving in the SDR? We have seen some evidence that the training that we have been providing to Ukrainian forces is falling short because we cannot replicate the combat conditions in Ukraine, …”

“Secretary of State, you said yesterday to the House that the permanent secretary would lead a leaner Department; so, permanent secretary, does leaner mean fewer MOD civil servants? If it does, how many are going to leave and by when?”

“I thank the permanent secretary for that fulsome answer. The £56,000 is going to come down, then; do you have in your mind a particular percentage, say, as a target, and in what sort of timeframe?”

“Q7. The Spelthorne Litter Pickers is an outstanding organisation of 1,000 volunteers who do great work up and down my constituency, come rain or shine. Last week, they were awarded the King’s Award for Voluntary Service. [Hon. Members: “Hear, hear!”] Would the Deputy Prime Minister, the Government and indeed the whole …”

“T4. I recently met a GP who was in the market to hire a new seven to eight session GP to meet demand. Following the Budget and the increase in national insurance contributions for employers, he can now only afford a three to four session GP. What advice does the Secretary of State have for my friend the GP?”

“Will the Armed Forces Commissioner’s powers of investigation extend to being allowed to visit troops deployed on operations, to question them, and to seize documents?”

“Q4. Now that Sue Gray has, remarkably, turned down the opportunity to be the Prime Minister’s special envoy to the nations, will he finally admit that it was an invented job on taxpayers’ money for one of his cronies? If it wasn’t, is he going to hire a new one?”

“People can only go so far out of London into the Spelthorne constituency on their Oyster card; they have to buy a train ticket for the last couple of stops. This anomalous situation means that major employers such as BP and Shepperton Studios send buses up the line to pick up their workers to do a day’s work. The Secre…”

“A couple of weeks ago, I visited the Bronzefield category A women’s prison in my Spelthorne constituency. I saw that prisoners doing work were rewarded with small amounts of money, but the weighting of their pay preferred people who take part in numeracy and literacy over skills, such as working in the bicycle repair s…”

“We had the Budget recently, which has resulted in a little more money for defence, so an up arrow. Professor, can you give us a sense of what that new money enables us to do? Is it treading water, pot-boiling stuff, or are there enhancements to defence capability? Have you been able to make an assessment of what the Bu…”

“Clearly the figure is an input. I am interested in the MOD’s thinking on how developed, sophisticated or otherwise it is. I have heard other things from MOD colleagues, who have said, “If you gave me all that money now, I wouldn’t know what to do with it,” which is deeply disappointing. Do you think that the debate has…”

“18. What assessment she has made of the effectiveness of education and training provided to prisoners.”

“How sophisticated is the MOD’s thinking about what getting to 2.5% looks like? Do you think there is a strong sense of what that would mean?”

“We have an anomalous situation in Spelthorne whereby people can use an oyster card to pay for six different red buses, but not the train. That is crippling small businesses and people going into London. Will Ministers in the Department use their combined might to lobby on my behalf and get me a meeting with the Ministe…”

“Q13. First we had the embarrassment of the Labour party being sued by the Trump campaign. Then we had the national capitulation—[Interruption.]”

“Thank you, Mr Speaker. Then we had the national capitulation of the Government over the sovereignty of the Chagos islands, and now we have had the personal humiliation of the Prime Minister at the Commonwealth Heads of Government summit, all of which begs the question: how on earth does the Foreign Secretary still have…”

“Q13. First we had the embarrassment of the Labour party being sued by the Trump campaign. Then we had the national capitulation—[Interruption.]”

“Thank you, Mr Speaker. Then we had the national capitulation of the Government over the sovereignty of the Chagos islands, and now we have had the personal humiliation of the Prime Minister at the Commonwealth Heads of Government summit, all of which begs the question: how on earth does the Foreign Secretary still have…”

“My right hon. Friend makes a powerful point and places on the record distinguished veterans and their contributions to national life, and I thank him for it. As a former soldier who has lost men, let me get one thing straight: these men and women died for us all to be free—free to do whatever the laws of the land permi…”