Andrew Murrison MP: speeches

Speeches

• 31 Mar 2025 · Draft Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Regulations 2025 · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Hobhouse. I will not say a great deal, but the Minister is quite correct to introduce this statutory instrument. Plainly, its provenance is in measures taken by the previous Government. Since she mentioned where most of this work is under way, I am interested to know how much she expects the legislation to boost the sector in this country, and whether she has had any discussions with the European Union, which will probably take a dim view of some of this. One of the benefits of leaving the European Union is that we can make such legislation, whereas it was previously extremely difficult to do so. How does the Minister believe that the legislation will impact growth in the sector, and can she assure us that in applying this basic research, we will be able to capitalise on it? Unfortunately, the story in this country is that we are exceptionally good at doing basic research, but other countries and jurisdictions take on that research and we see very little of the uptick or benefit from it. It seems to me that this is a case in point. It would be unfortunate if we were to carry out such research—it will be expensive—in England, only to find that it was exploited elsewhere, particularly in America. What is the Minister doing to make sure that will not be the case? Does she intend the Government to offer any fiscal or other encouragement to companies that might seek to exploit our basic research?

• 27 Mar 2025 · Prevention of Drug Deaths · Hansard source

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  Short speeches mean that more colleagues get in.

• 27 Mar 2025 · Prevention of Drug Deaths · Hansard source

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  That was commendably brief.

• 27 Mar 2025 · Prevention of Drug Deaths · Hansard source

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  Order. There is a lot of interest in this debate. I will not set a firm limit on speeches, but I suggest that an indicative three minutes should get most people in, but probably not all. I remind Members that if they want to speak, they have to indicate that they wish to do so.

• 27 Mar 2025 · Scunthorpe Steelworks · Hansard source

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  Given the geopolitical uncertainty ushered in by the new American Administration and by America and China’s attitude to net zero, will the Minister assure the House that in making decisions on the future of critical national infrastructure that touch upon the defence of this country, such as the extraction of shale gas and the continuance of blast furnaces producing virgin steel, she will be very careful about doing anything that would reduce this country’s capability to stand on its own two feet?

• 24 Mar 2025 · Disruption at Heathrow · Hansard source

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  Does the Secretary of State agree that what happened on Thursday and Friday is a complete national embarrassment and should never have happened? Will she do an assessment of our remaining airports to ensure not only that they also have multiple supply points for electricity, but that they do not rely on the illusion, as plainly happened at Heathrow, that those multiple supply points made it completely reliable as a hub airport? That appears at first glance to have been the case for Heathrow, and it is not adequate.

• 19 Mar 2025 · Winter Fuel Payment · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is being exceptionally generous in giving way. Does she agree that the Government need to be completely transparent about the costs of this policy? It has been estimated that it will cost the NHS—already pressed—£169 million. We know from NHS England that 100,000 extra people aged 65 or over have been through A&E this relatively warm winter. Is this policy not a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul?

• 19 Mar 2025 · Winter Fuel Payment · Hansard source

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  The Minister is being generous in giving way; congratulations to him on making the best of a bad job. He knows that old people die in cold homes. In 2017, the Labour party did some research on which to attack the Conservatives, which showed that 4,000 old people would probably die in the event that we removed winter fuel allowance; we did not do that. I wonder whether he got his officials to repeat that research and, if so, what it showed.

• 19 Mar 2025 · Transport Connectivity: North-west England · Hansard source

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  Well done, everybody; all Members have got in. I call the Lib Dem spokesman, Tim Farron.

• 19 Mar 2025 · Transport Connectivity: North-west England · Hansard source

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  It would be good if other contributions could be similarly brief, to allow as many colleagues as possible to speak.

• 19 Mar 2025 · Transport Connectivity: North-west England · Hansard source

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  Order. I call the shadow Minister, Jerome Mayhew.

• 19 Mar 2025 · Transport Connectivity: North-west England · Hansard source

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  Order. I call the Minister.

• 17 Mar 2025 · G7 · Hansard source

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  It is good to hear that the G7 believes that Iran should not be allowed to build a nuclear bomb, which is a statement of the obvious. It is also good to hear that President Trump has sent a strongly worded letter to the Supreme Leader. Does the Foreign Secretary agree that the JCPOA was dead in the water the minute that President Trump pulled out in 2018? He talks of what we might do now, and says that nothing is off the table—would the Foreign Secretary confirm that that includes military action?

• 12 Mar 2025 · Rural Communities: Government Support · Hansard source

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  I remind Members that they should bob if they wish to be called. Members will have observed that the debate is oversubscribed, with a long list of people who want to contribute. Therefore, I urge discipline and an indicative limit of two minutes, and if you were not here at the start of the debate, you will not be called. We will start the winding-up speeches from the Front Benchers at eight minutes past 5.

• 12 Mar 2025 · Rural Communities: Government Support · Hansard source

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  Order. I call Gregory Stafford.

• 12 Mar 2025 · Rural Communities: Government Support · Hansard source

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  Order. I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

• 11 Mar 2025 · North Sea Vessel Collision · Hansard source

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  Automatic identification systems and radar should mean that these sorts of things do not happen, even in dense fog, which is why many of us thought initially that this could well be a maritime 9/11-type event, or that a malign state actor could be involved. Fortunately, that appears not to be the case, but the event has exposed a vulnerability, and ships like the Stena Immaculate could be said to be sitting ducks. What audit will the Minister do of that vulnerability? Will he put in place what is practically necessary to prevent such occurrences?

• 10 Mar 2025 · Syria · Hansard source

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  The transitional Government have obliquely referred to what they call foreign parties in the coastal regions of Syria, but given Iran and Russia’s long-standing alliance with Assad and the Alawites, it is not difficult to understand who is being referred to. Given the current uncertainty, will the Government be very circumspect about who they share intelligence, information and data regarding the region with, given where it may well end up?

• 5 Mar 2025 · Antisocial Behaviour and Illegal Bikes · Hansard source

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  Order. Colleagues will see that there is significant interest in this debate. I do not intend to impose a time limit, but we will have the Front-Bench spokesmen at 5.10 pm. Do the maths—I suggest two minutes per contribution.

• 5 Mar 2025 · Renewables Obligation Certificate Scheme · Hansard source

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  I call Opposition spokesman Nick Timothy.

• 5 Mar 2025 · Renewables Obligation Certificate Scheme · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to the hon. Member for Strangford for the accolade. Maybe he knows something that I do not.

• 4 Mar 2025 · Iranian State Threats · Hansard source

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  I very much welcome the statement. The Minister is absolutely right to underscore the interconnected nature of the threats that we face from malign state actors—which George W. Bush called the “axis of evil.” Given recent events in the US—the apparent distancing of Washington from some of its allies, and an alignment, perhaps, with President Putin—and noting the strong connection between Tehran and Moscow, does the Minister share my concern that America may not have fully understood the connection between the two, and what conversations will he and his colleagues have with the US about the need for it to distance itself entirely and cauterise its relationships, as far as that nexus between Tehran and Moscow is concerned?

• 3 Mar 2025 · Ukraine · Hansard source

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  I have the honour and privilege of representing a very large number of servicemen and servicewomen and their families, and they will be looking at this very anxiously indeed. Although they always stand ready to do their duty, does the Prime Minister agree that it would be utter folly if the United Kingdom, France, Norway or Canada sent their sons and daughters into harm’s way without all necessary security guarantees from the United States?

• 26 Feb 2025 · British Indian Ocean Territory · Hansard source

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  Will my right hon. Friend give way?

• 26 Feb 2025 · British Indian Ocean Territory · Hansard source

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  She is being very generous in giving way. Does she agree that the Government stand accused of perhaps being guilty of some creative accounting? If they are transferring money from the international development budget to defence, and then transferring the self-same money from defence to Mauritius, allowing Ministers to benefit from the fiction of an uplift in the defence budget, the public are entitled to smell a rat.