Speeches by Holmes.

“rose—”

“Will the Minister give way?”

“I would like to say that I have given that great thought, but as hon. Members across the House will know, after we came back in July, my tenure as a shadow Home Affairs Minister was rather short—[Interruption.] I thank the Minister, who said, “Shame”. That was after being shadow Northern Ireland Minister, shadow Foreig…”

“My hon. Friend is reasonable and a very good colleague in the way she carries out her duties in this House, so it will come as no surprise to hear that I absolutely agree with her. I do say that about some Government Members, so I am not being partisan—[Interruption.] Most of the time. However, my hon. Friend makes a g…”

“My hon. Friend is correct. My constituency has a number of small football organisations, some of which are subject to legislation that is currently going through the Lords more slowly than we would necessarily expect a piece of legislation to progress. The income of small football groups will be the focus of that Bill.…”

“Thank you for your indulgence, Madam Deputy Speaker, as I had to nip upstairs to sit in a Bill Committee programming session. I am delighted to be here to speak on this legislation. As I mentioned earlier to the shadow Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Stockton West (Matt Vickers), I had the privilege of working …”

“As my hon. Friend knows, I piloted the measure as shadow Minister on Second Reading. I welcome the Minister to his place and thank him for his usual courtesy. This is genuinely not a political point, but does my hon. Friend agree that, with other measures currently burdening small business such as increases in taxation…”

“It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Makerfield (Josh Simons). I rise to speak in favour of the motion on the Order Paper in the name of the Leader of the Opposition. I do not rise to speak in this House because I think the Labour party’s Budget is vindictive, but I do think that the national insurance rise w…”

“Does my right hon. Friend the shadow Chancellor remember any Labour MP in the last general election standing on a fully costed manifesto that would mean economic growth was forecast to be lower than under the previous Government? Perhaps the hon. Member for Swansea West (Torsten Bell) should remember that Labour MPs st…”

“I simply say—and the Chief Secretary should know this because he supposedly wrote the Budget that we voted on a couple of weeks ago—that growth forecasts were higher under the last Government than those of the Government for whom he is now leading in the Treasury. I say to the Government that business confidence is at …”

“I know the hon. Gentleman liked to pride himself on being the oracle of economics when he led a think-tank, but if he looks at the bare facts of business confidence out there, he will see that it has been lower under the five months of the Labour Government than it ever was under the 14 years of the Conservative Govern…”

“I am not giving way. [Interruption.] Well, I do not have time. Let us look at the hospice sector. Many Labour Members probably hoped that the parachute leads had been cut, but I raised £10,000 by jumping out of an aeroplane for the Mountbatten hospice in my constituency. Some 70% of its income is from charitable donati…”

“I like the hon. Gentleman, so I will give way.”

“The last Government gave the highest amount of investment into the national health service ever. I happened to jump out of a plane because I was very keen to do so, as I am a bit of a thrill seeker but also because I wanted to raise money for a good charity. If the hon. Gentleman votes for the Government measure or aga…”

“On that point, will the Minister give way?”

“The hon. Lady stated that she was intimidated by her Budget. I should imagine that is very true—”

“Okay. Well, was she intimidated by her Budget? I take it that she would be intimidated by the growth that has been revised downwards, by business confidence crashing, and by private sector employers stating that they will have to let employees go because of the red tape put on businesses, all through this Government’s …”

“We can see that after just five months, the Government’s target of 1.5 million new homes lies in tatters. The National Housing Federation says that the Government will miss their target by 475,000 without more grant—last week the Housing Minister said the same—and now Labour-run South Tyneside council says that the pla…”

“Sadly, homelessness is projected to rise by 27% this year. The Government’s broken promise on national insurance rises has wreaked havoc across the charitable sector, with 110 national homelessness charities warning the Chancellor that £50 million to £60 million will be lost in the sector and Homeless Link calling the …”

“Mountbatten hospice, which serves my constituency and Hampshire more widely, receives 70% of its income through charitable donations. It has told me and my hon. Friend the Member for Isle of Wight East (Joe Robertson) that its viability is under risk because of the national insurance contributions policy that this Gove…”