Speeches by Thomas-Symonds.

“I am someone who rewards effort, so as the right hon. Gentleman has put in such effort, I will give way.”

“No. The scope of the motion could also include thousands of documents. It is obviously in the national interest to protect national security, and to be transparent and act with urgency—I completely accept that—but it is important that we now take time and care to balance those elements.”

“I hope the House has seen, even over the course of this debate, the constructive approach I have tried to take on the role of the ISC in this process. That is precisely what I have done. I want to turn now to another aspect of this matter, which is the peerage. Another action the Government are determined to take is to…”

“I hope the House takes in good faith what I have sought to do in the course of my speech, let alone in the course of the debate. I think that scrutiny of the process is very important.”

“The Prime Minister answered that question at Prime Minister’s questions. He was lied to about the depth and extent of the relationship.”

“Beyond the deadline to amend the motion—a familiar situation that the right hon. and learned Member and I have found ourselves in before—I want to say something very clearly. I hope the House takes my previous answer on this as having been given in good faith—”

“I think my hon. Friend and I have similar memories of that particular Parliament. To give an example, in the motion relating to Lebedev, we included the words, “in a form which may contain redactions, but such redactions shall be solely for the purposes of national security.” When I was involved in drafting Humble Addr…”

“The specifics are obviously for the usual channels, but, frankly, I welcome debate and significant scrutiny of this Bill.”

“The answer to that is absolutely, in terms of having respect for and working with the devolved Administrations. One issue is that obviously UK foreign policy is reserved, while some of the implementation, particularly in SPS, is devolved. I chair an appropriate interministerial group that involves representatives from …”

“I want to answer that question. Can we vote and then come back?”

“Precisely what it looks like will obviously be part of the negotiations going forward. Broadly speaking, I expect it to be at official level and to look at what exactly is coming down the track and at our particular arrangements. While we are discussing the role for Parliament and the arbitration panel, I should say th…”

“It will be on the Bill. As is ordinarily the case, Parliament will have a vote on the Bill and what the Bill contains. Hopefully you won’t have too long to wait for that.”

“I guess the direct answer is that you could also raise it with your Chair.”

“Charlotte, if I may say so, I think that was a very pertinent declaration of interest, as that is the first topic we are going to discuss. Before I come to the details, I should say at the outset that the service, or lack thereof, that is being provided to people who have worked for many years and given their lives to …”

“I am sure you could raise it at business questions. That would be one way to do it. The Select Committee Chairs may well have something to say about it collectively as well.”

“First of all, the two aspects involving alignment that we are looking to conclude by the next summit are the sanitary and phytosanitary agreement and the emission trading systems linkage. As I have said, the electricity trading negotiation began back in December, but that is not timed to finish by the next summit. With…”

“The straight answer to that is yes, and I will come to the permanent secretary to set that out. To be clear with Members, it was known that there was a backlog; it is something that I had spoken to the chief executive of Capita about, so it did not come as a surprise. On that aspect and the recovery plan, I will turn t…”

“We have had quite a thorough run around the various issues.”

“It is certainly the case that something that is embedded is more difficult to change subsequently.”

“I would certainly have thought that the Leader of the House of Commons would play a facilitating role in it, as he always does.”