Speeches by Evans.

“Given that NHS England is due to be abolished, who will take that on?”

“indicated assent.”

“The Minister attended the task and finish group, as did I. Will it meet again to consider that?”

“I want to start by finishing where I left off in the main Chamber in the debate during Suicide Prevention Month. I talked about a TikTok meme that was going around about where men go, and who they turn to, when they are at their lowest. The answers in that video are all “no one”: “No one cares”; “There’s no one”; “It’l…”

“It is great to hear about the Together Against Suicide partnership with the Premier League, but will the Minister explain how it works? Having looked at the details, it appears to be run in conjunction with the Samaritans. Is extra funding coming from the Premier League or from the Government to run the scheme? If the …”

“Will the Secretary of State just clarify: essential for what?”

“Ah.”

“In October 2024, I asked the Secretary of State about the previous Government’s idea of pumpwatch. He said, “I will not comment on the Budget, obviously. We are very sympathetic to pumpwatch”.—[Official Report, 8 October 2024; Vol. 754, c. 159.] The Competition and Markets Authority has looked into this, and the Govern…”

“This urgent question is about Budget press briefings. The Minister has repeatedly said that he takes his responsibilities very seriously. He was asked by the shadow Chancellor whether he could rule out any of the ministerial team or special advisers having leaked any of the information out to the press. Will he do so f…”

“I thank the Home Secretary for a copy of her speech. It states that “the public rightly expect that we can determine who enters this country, and who must leave,” and I agree. One thing that is missing, though, is verifying the people who come in. We Conservatives put forward the idea of age verification, which many ot…”

“I wonder if the Leader of the House could help me. We have heard of the concerns about special education needs from Members across the House. My constituency has them, too—the issue fills my inbox. He mentioned that there will be a consultation and a White Paper; the problem is that there is anxiety because they have b…”

“The hon. Gentleman has missed something from his list: the Government’s own assessment shows that when winter fuel payments are cut, it puts 50,000 people into absolute poverty and 100,000 people into relative poverty. A 2017 report by the hon. Member for Chipping Barnet (Dan Tomlinson), now the Exchequer Secretary to …”

“The hon. Gentleman talks about the trading union, but if we were to go back into the EU, one of the things we would have to take is freedom of movement. How does that tally with the Lib Dems’ position on dealing with immigration?”

“We on the Conservative Benches have been struggling to get an answer on the question of the 50% reduction in integrated care boards, for which the expected redundancy bill is about £1 billion. Today, the Government have issued a press release that says that they have dealt with that. Yet in response to my written quest…”

“The Chancellor set out in a speech only last year an absolute commitment not to raise taxes. She said, “We’ve set the spending envelope for this Parliament, we don’t need to increase taxes”. Yet here we are on the cusp of taxes going up. Is not the crux of this the fact that she cannot even stick to what she promised?”

“He is struggling on both.”

“Was my right hon. Friend as surprised as I was to hear the Prime Minister say again today at Prime Minister’s questions that his No. 1 goal is growth, when all the evidence is pointing against it?”

“To put it in simple terms for those listening at home, the Chancellor raised taxes by £40 billion, she spent £30 billion and she borrowed £70 billion. Cumulatively, that will make people think, “How am I going to get the return on that investment if we are not growing the economy? How do I ensure that the interest will…”

“This toxic concoction creates a cumulative cycle. The pubs that do survive have to reduce staffing and hours. In rural areas, that might increase loneliness and reduce opportunities for young people to get jobs. That cyclical nature means a spiral into decline. I am concerned about that in my area. Does my hon. Friend …”

“In the previous debate, we talked about tax, and the funding that the hon. Gentleman mentions was also being used to deal with the tax burden on the high street. Will he explain the Liberal Democrat policy? How would they levy these taxes on social media giants and big banks, and where would that money go? It seems as …”