Speeches by Bool.

“Yes, because I understand that some other offers that were put forward were actually asking about significant credit haircuts, and then they were obviously talking about a debt for equity swap. Had you discussed that with Ofwat or the other regulators at this time?”

“If you do actually go down this element of the senior creditors wanting to do this debt for equity swaps and if, as you said, that is a real possibility, are you happy about a distressed debt specialist taking ownership of a regulated water company?”

“Just in terms of the gearing feature, you mentioned earlier that you think actually you are at around about 88%. I know that Ofwat always says that a company over 70% is in distress, so what is the target gearing figure that you are ultimately aiming for?”

“Is that your aim?”

“In mid-March, in my role as a vice chair of the EU-UK Parliamentary Partnership Assembly, I formed part of the delegation that headed out to Brussels for the assembly meeting ahead of the 19 May summit meeting. While it was a convivial affair, I came away with great concerns about the tone of the conversations and cont…”

“What is the feeling amongst the other Departments? You must have a feel or a steer at this moment in time as to whether it is likely or not. I know you may not want to commit outright.”

“It was in terms of the indication with the other Departments. It is across Departments, so I am asking what the feeling of other Departments is at the moment? Are they happy that they are ready to start on 1 July?”

“Again, you are cutting a bit too close and too fine to time for this. We cannot keep saying as an excuse that you are having other discussions. The market needs to know.”

“They have said that they have had no communication, and July is only eight weeks away. Are you going to postpone it again or not? It is fair to say that now you should know, and they deserve to have that certainty.”

“Why did the Government take down their own tweet about it? I then thought, “Hold on a minute. Have they reversed the policy?” I could not find anything more.”

“That is the only source that I have heard. It may be sensible to come off Twitter, but that would be the big plug.”

“Perhaps you can report back to us and tell us if you see it.”

“I just really wanted to make a push on that, because it is actually very unnerving that, eight weeks out, we do not know for definite. Everything you have said is, “We think”, or, “We believe”. You either have to make a decision now or postpone it again. You have had long enough. You have postponed it since January; it…”

“You have the EU meetings on 19 May, then there will be further discussions. What is happening?”

“Baroness Hayman, you said at the beginning that you want to tighten up on personal imports. I was coming back from an EU country on Easter Monday, at the end of April, but not a single announcement was made, nor could I see any signs, of the ban that was being introduced. Indeed, the tweet that went out on X, which was…”

“When will that come into place? Time is of the essence.”

“It would be quite an easy step for the airports to take to make an announcement. If you look at the Australian modelling as well, you cannot even enter. You have the checklist, and it is very clear. I would have expected that, on the flight that I got, there was an announcement saying, “Do check. You cannot bring this …”

“It does not seem that we are going to get too many more answers here, but, if there is anything else, that is the concern.”

“May I associate myself with the comments about the passing of Pope Francis? As a Catholic, I very much appreciate them, and I wish the best to the conclave in selecting our new Pope. As was mentioned earlier, if the current trend continues, more than 1.5% of my constituency will be covered in solar farms. One of my mai…”

“I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Hornchurch and Upminster (Julia Lopez) for securing this most important debate. When thinking about the debate, I looked up some quotes on hair. My favourite was, “Invest in your hair: it is the crown you never take off.” That is a very true sentiment, although I apologise to the m…”