Christine Jardine MP: speeches

Speeches

• 25 Mar 2025 · Nutrition for Growth Summit · Hansard source

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  We have 42 minutes left for this debate. I call Liberal Democrat spokesperson Monica Harding to continue, please.

• 25 Mar 2025 · Nutrition for Growth Summit · Hansard source

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  Because of our delayed start, the debate may now continue until 4.47 pm. I call David Mundell to move the motion.

• 25 Mar 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  For eight years, I have seen how a young constituent has been able to completely control his previously life-threatening seizures with medicinal cannabis, but at huge cost to his family—a cost that is prohibitive for other people. Will the Secretary of State meet me to discuss how we can make access to such treatments more affordable, accessible and safe, so that we can help more people?

• 25 Mar 2025 · Construction Standards: New Build Homes · Hansard source

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  Order. Our time is up; I am sorry. Question put and agreed to. Resolved , That this House has considered construction standards for new build homes.

• 25 Mar 2025 · Construction Standards: New Build Homes · Hansard source

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  I call Michelle Welsh to wind up briefly.

• 25 Mar 2025 · Construction Standards: New Build Homes · Hansard source

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  Because of the various interventions, we can now continue until 7.47 pm this evening.

• 25 Mar 2025 · Construction Standards: New Build Homes · Hansard source

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  Order. We have to move on to the Front Bench contributions in 12 minutes, so please keep your remarks to five minutes each.

• 25 Mar 2025 · Seriously Ill Children: Financial Support for Parents · Hansard source

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  I will call Chris Hinchliff to move the motion, and I will then call the Minister to respond. As is the convention for 30-minute debates, there will not be an opportunity for the Member in charge to wind up.

• 19 Mar 2025 · Health and Disability Green Paper · Hansard source

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  We all know that life is more expensive for someone who is disabled, and that investing in mental health and social care would give disabled people the support that they deserve. Liberal Democrats believe that if the Government were serious about cutting welfare spending, they would get serious about fixing health and social care, and the broken Department for Work and Pensions. By fixing that, we would reduce the benefits bill in the long term, but yesterday’s changes, which slash the support offered to vulnerable people, will leave many people facing difficult choices. Can the Minister assure disabled people, including the 80,000 in Scotland who are still receiving PIP, that they will be listened to, their needs will be taken into account, and they will somehow continue to get the support that they need?

• 18 Mar 2025 · Military Co-operation with Israel · Hansard source

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  Order. Sorry—time’s up. I call Jim Shannon.

• 18 Mar 2025 · Military Co-operation with Israel · Hansard source

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  Order. We are very short of time, so I ask Members to refrain from interventions, in order to get through every speaker.

• 18 Mar 2025 · Military Co-operation with Israel · Hansard source

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  I remind Members that they should bob if they wish to be called in the debate, and I ask them to keep to an informal limit of about three and a half minutes, please.

• 18 Mar 2025 · Military Co-operation with Israel · Hansard source

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  I am afraid we are out of time for Back Benchers now, but perhaps Brendan O’Hara would like to intervene on the Minister. I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

• 18 Mar 2025 · Military Co-operation with Israel · Hansard source

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  I am afraid I have to impose a formal time limit of three minutes so that we get through everybody.

• 18 Mar 2025 · Military Co-operation with Israel · Hansard source

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  I call Luke Akehurst—please keep it brief, as you have had several interventions.

• 18 Mar 2025 · Shipyards: Economic Growth · Hansard source

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  Order. I remind Members that they should bob if they wish to be called in the debate and, if possible, keep to an informal five-minute time limit to allow everyone to get in. I call Edward Morello.

• 17 Mar 2025 · Women’s Changed State Pension Age: Compensation · Hansard source

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  It is, as always, a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Edward. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for South Cotswolds (Dr Savage) for introducing the debate, and I pay tribute to the many women who have come along. I would love to say that it is a pleasure to take part in this debate, but it is not. After eight years of taking part in debates, protests, meetings, all-party parliamentary groups and proceedings on private Members’ Bills about this issue, and waiting on the ombudsman’s report, it is above all frustrating that we have to do it yet again because the Government have failed in their responsibility to uphold the ombudsman’s recommendations. For me, there is a particular irony in that. Last week, I was in New York at the Commission on the Status of Women, and I come back here and wonder exactly what this debate, and the situation that the WASPI women find themselves in, says about the status of women in this country. As has been said, this generation worked hard, and paid their taxes and national insurance; they are now finding that there is no compensation, even though the Government admit that they let them down. Looking at the Labour Benches, I am also struck by hope: if so many Labour MPs recognise the failing in this Government’s stance on WASPI women, perhaps the Government will listen. They are not listening to the Opposition or to the WASPI women, but perhaps they will listen to their own MPs when they say, “You’ve got this wrong; you’re letting these women down,” and we will have an end to this. I admit that when I was elected, almost eight years ago now, I did not know much about the WASPI women and their case. However, one of the first women who came to me after I was elected had been affected. Her letter from the DWP was late, and she had made financial decisions about her future before it reached her; she was less than two years away from retirement when she was told that she would have to wait an additional five years. Like many women, she lost out financially. Many women will also have been let down by this Government’s decision not to award compensation. The previous Government were criticised for kicking the issue into the long grass, and they did, but this Government had an opportunity to overturn that. They have not taken it, despite the promises that many of them, including Cabinet Ministers, made before the general election. Instead, they turned their back on the millions of pension-age women who were wronged, through no fault of their own. For years, we have pushed the Government to do something. I suspect that the WASPI women, not just in the Gallery but up and down the country, felt that a corner had been turned in July of last year: that the ombudsman’s report would be upheld, and that a Labour Government would stand by them. The time has come for the Labour Government to be as good as their word to the WASPI women, and take action.

• 17 Mar 2025 · Women’s Changed State Pension Age: Compensation · Hansard source

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  The Minister says that the Department will learn the lessons of this case. Does he accept that the whole point of this debate was not, as he said, to change the minds of Members who have spoken or the women who have come to watch the debate, but to change the mind of the Government? That is the lesson we would like him to learn.

• 17 Mar 2025 · Women’s Changed State Pension Age: Compensation · Hansard source

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  I take on board what the Minister says about the research, but the fact that 73% of people knew that there were would be changes to the pension age does not tell us that 73% of women, or any percentage, knew that it would affect them. That is not what the evidence tells us.

• 6 Mar 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  It has been drawn to my attention this week that there is a continuing problem in this country with a reserved matter: the supply of drugs. A 22-year-old constituent of mine, who is an elite athlete and unfortunately has inoperable brain tumours, came to me to say that drug inhibitors that would help him are currently on open access trial in this country. Unfortunately, the health board in my constituency is not taking part, so drugs that could save his life and allow him to continue with his ambitions are available, but he cannot access them. Would the Leader of the House either consider having a debate on how we make access to drugs on trial universal across the UK, or set up a meeting for me with the relevant Minister to discuss this issue?

• 6 Mar 2025 · Ambulance Response Times · Hansard source

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  I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

• 6 Mar 2025 · Ambulance Response Times · Hansard source

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  I call Nicholas Timothy.

• 6 Mar 2025 · Ambulance Response Times · Hansard source

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  I call the Opposition spokesperson.

• 6 Mar 2025 · Ambulance Response Times · Hansard source

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  I remind Members they should bob if they wish to be called to speak in the debate.

• 6 Mar 2025 · North Sea Energy · Hansard source

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  As someone with two generations of their family who have depended on the North sea oil and gas industry, I know that we have to move away from fossil fuels and that we have to drive forward to the just transition, but we must also recognise that we are not there yet and that this is not the moment to push the industry off a cliff. It is declining naturally. We are leaving ourselves in a position where we will still need oil, so will we import it? We will need gas for hydrogen production, plastics, chemicals and pharmaceuticals. All of that is necessary. We also face a threat from the Chinese trying to infiltrate our renewables, so what are the Government going to do about that?