Desmond Swayne MP: speeches

152 published records · newest first.

Speeches

1 Jul 2026 · Engagements · Hansard source
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Q11. Through omission or insufficient advice, injured veterans may fail to place their compensation in a trust within the one year allowed by universal credit. Can discretion be had in compassionate cases?
30 Jun 2026 · Defence Investment Plan · Hansard source
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In what year will we reach 3%?
24 Jun 2026 · Farming Road Map and Profitability Review · Hansard source
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Common land.
24 Jun 2026 · Farming Road Map and Profitability Review · Hansard source
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And Labour!
24 Jun 2026 · Farming Road Map and Profitability Review · Hansard source
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When can we expect a resolution to the problems that are preventing payments in respect of commoning?
24 Jun 2026 · Engagements · Hansard source
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Q3. I hope there is still time in which the Prime Minister will be able to enlighten his party as to the moral of the cautionary tale of Jim, who ran away from his nurse, and was eaten by a lion.
23 Jun 2026 · Clergy Conduct Measure (HC 221) · Hansard source
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I am as surprised as I am delighted to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Lewell, for I was nominated by the Committee of Ways and Means to chair the Committee, only then to discover that I was to have the pleasure and honour of serving on it. This is a most welcome Measure because it reverses a very unwelcome modern trend—namely the trend to reduce discretion and to centralise decision making. The method by which the lead assessor will assess the different levels of complaint, whether grievance, misconduct or serious misconduct, enables him to have the decisions on the outcome of those complaints for grievances dealt with at the local level. Even where the threshold for misconduct is reached, if it is at the lower end of the scale, the lead assessor still has the discretion to have the matter resolved as a grievance. Nothing used to infuriate me more, as an assessor on the board of courts martial, than seeing a number of what I regarded as trivial cases come before us that, frankly, earlier in my career would have been settled and resolved by the commanding officer. Because they went through this litigious procedure, it wrecked careers and put officers and men under a huge amount of strain. We have heard from the Second Church Estates Commissioner, about the trauma that people accused of offences go through with prolonged procedures, so I welcome that provision. The other thing I welcome about this Measure is the provisions for dealing with vexatious litigants. The Church, like our constituency parties, is a voluntary organisation—although I sometimes wonder why I volunteer when I am subjected to some of the more gruesome modern liturgies. Nevertheless, it is a voluntary organisation in that, overwhelmingly—exclusively—the congregation is voluntary, and a significant amount of the clergy are now non-stipendiary. We all know from our experience of handling our own voluntary organisations that character clashes and differences emerge. It was always said that, when it came to any kind of selection, the local candidate was at a disadvantage because, if they know you, they know they do not like you. Therefore, these provisions for dealing with vexatious litigants are most welcome. On that basis, I will certainly be voting for this Measure.
16 Jun 2026 · West Midlands Police: Government Support · Hansard source
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Order. The sitting is suspended for 45 minutes.
16 Jun 2026 · Access to Dental Services: West Sussex · Hansard source
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Order. I haven’t any proposals.
16 Jun 2026 · Lifelong Learning: “University of the Air” White Paper · Hansard source
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Patrick Hurley, you have two minutes to wind up.
15 Jun 2026 · Defence Investment Plan · Hansard source
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The Minister told us that the former Secretary of State had asked him to stay. Had he not been so asked, would he have resigned too? How much persuasion did it take? [ Laughter. ]
11 Jun 2026 · Passenger Rail Services · Hansard source
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I dare not think how many years of my constituents’ lives have been given over to points failures and signal failures, and the confusion that follows, on the line between Waterloo and the south coast. What can Ministers do about it?
9 Jun 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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May I have a meeting to discuss my parents, carers and babies Bill, which affords support to the Best Start family hubs and healthy babies programme?
9 Jun 2026 · Middle East · Hansard source
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Those clinging to life in Gaza and scratching an existence in the west bank merely occupy different circles within the depths of the inferno. Any relief is dependent on the policy of Israel, and that in turn would require pressure from its principal ally, the United States of America. What is the Secretary of State’s estimate of any prospect of that?
4 Jun 2026 · Business of the House · Hansard source
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May we have a statement next week from the Lord Chancellor so that he can reassure the House that in cases where a not guilty plea is entered but a guilty verdict is delivered, the sentence will reflect the fact that the offender put the victim through the ordeal of a trial, particularly in cases of rape?
4 Jun 2026 · Children’s Social Care: Enduring Relationships Strategy · Hansard source
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Madam Deputy Speaker, you will know that, apart from the time when I was sitting on it, I have been unsparing in my criticism of the occupants of the Treasury Bench, irrespective of their party. Every now and again, however, there is a Minister who has a record of expertise and commitment to their brief. That was on display today, as it was when the Minister came before the Joint Committee on Human Rights yesterday.
4 Jun 2026 · Russian Attacks on Civilian Infrastructure · Hansard source
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Given that our own infrastructure is under constant cyber-attack, will the hon. Lady reassure us that Russia would be right in understanding that no such attack will go unanswered, like for like?
2 Jun 2026 · Voluntary Carbon and Nature Markets · Hansard source
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Does the Minister plan to allow clean community energy companies to sell power directly to households and businesses?
18 May 2026 · Backing Business to Create Economic Growth · Hansard source
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Quite right: interest rate reductions. They have done all these wonderful things, but at the same time they languish because we are not a member of the European Union. We have heard that criticism several times already today: we would be doing so much better if we were a member of the European Union. The reality is, however, that the European Union is not doing as well as Ministers are trumpeting that we are doing.
18 May 2026 · Backing Business to Create Economic Growth · Hansard source
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No, I will not. The reality is that Ministers are trying to have their cake and eat it by saying that the British economy would be performing so much better if it were a member of the European Union while at the same time trumpeting its performance.
18 May 2026 · Backing Business to Create Economic Growth · Hansard source
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Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for calling me so early on the third day of five that we are investing in scrutinising the Government’s programme, at a time when the party of government is abandoning its unique selling point of bringing political stability to our economy after a time of so much churn, with so many Prime Ministers in such a short space of years.
18 May 2026 · Backing Business to Create Economic Growth · Hansard source
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Irrespective of who was responsible, the question is: what is happening now? The reality is that we are facing a danger, notwithstanding the investment of time we are putting into scrutinising the Government’s programme, that it will not remain the Government’s programme for very much longer, such are the very different priorities of those who are lining up to take the Prime Minister’s job. When the Prime Minister warned his party last week that unleashing a leadership election would bring about chaos, he was quite right, but that chaos also comes with a cost. Such is their horror at the prospect of those lining up to take the Prime Minister’s job, the markets that fund our gargantuan and growing appetite for borrowing are charging a risk premium higher than was charged for the Truss regime, and higher than is charged for Greece when it seeks to borrow. I am not a particular fan of the current Prime Minister, but I urge Labour Members—and, indeed, the voters of Makerfield, who will apparently have a rather more significant input in the settling of this matter—to take account of Hilaire Belloc’s cautionary verses, and, in particular, the tale of poor Jim, who ran away from nurse and was eaten by a lion: “And always keep a-hold of Nurse For fear of finding something worse.” His Majesty told us that the legislative programme would include a Bill to strengthen our relationship with the European Union, but it is far from clear what that actually means. Do the Prime Minister’s red lines—no return to a customs union, or to free movement, or to the single market—still hold firm, and do they hold firm in the view of those who have expressed a much more enthusiastic agenda for returning to closeness with the European Union, among those candidates who are lining up behind him, seeking his job? Labour said in its manifesto that it was going to make Brexit work, but it has made it the excuse for the lacklustre performance of the British economy. There is a measure of cakeism going on whereby Ministers, including the Secretary of State, tell us how wonderfully they have been doing. They have delivered the fastest economic growth in the G7, much faster than the countries that the Secretary of State identified in the European Union. They have delivered a reduction in inflation. They have delivered—
18 May 2026 · Backing Business to Create Economic Growth · Hansard source
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I am with the hon. Gentleman—I believe the reality is that the British economy is performing in a lacklustre way. But I put it to you, Madam Deputy Speaker, that the cause of that lacklustre performance is the huge imposition of regulation in the previous King’s Speech, and the delivery of new employment taxes on every enterprise in the land as part of that deal. The best King’s Speech that we could have had would have been a very, very short one, containing only a statute of repeal of all the impositions of the previous King’s Speech.
18 May 2026 · Backing Business to Create Economic Growth · Hansard source
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No. The hon. Lady has had her turn.
27 Apr 2026 · Northern Ireland Troubles Bill (Carry-over) · Hansard source
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On the question of the failure of the Government of the Republic, the reality is that they have an outstanding interstate case against us.

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