Roger Gale MP: speeches

140 published records · newest first.

Speeches

29 Oct 2025 · International Baccalaureate: Funding in State Schools · Hansard source
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Order. Let us get the ground rules right: this is an intervention, not a speech.
29 Oct 2025 · International Baccalaureate: Funding in State Schools · Hansard source
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Before we start, it has been drawn to my attention that a photograph is to be taken in the Chamber at 11 o’clock. We have no power to suspend this sitting to accommodate that, but I will try to get a message to the Speaker’s Office to say that there are Members here who would like to be in the Chamber for that and that if it could be held off until about 11.5 am, that should give Members here time to get across. Those of us taking part in the second debate will not have that luxury.
11 Sept 2025 · UK Ambassador to the US: Appointment Process · Hansard source
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The Minister is a decent man, and the House knows that the business of the House was delayed while he hurriedly had to rewrite the statement that he was expected to make, but he is stretching the bounds of credibility too far. Yesterday, the Prime Minister told the House that he had full confidence in a man who befriended the vilest of convicted paedophiles. He should not have been appointed in the first place—that was a gross error of judgment and everybody in this House knows it—and the Prime Minister has to take responsibility. Now that Lord Mandelson has gone, will there be a Cabinet Office inquiry into the manner in which Mandelson was negotiating with a convicted paedophile while he was a Minister?
11 Sept 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source
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I too welcome the new Leader of the House to his position. I suspect he will have rather more fun at the Dispatch Box than his successor in the Government Whips Office will. I associate myself with his kind remarks about Colin Lee, whose service as one of the Clerks of the House has been exemplary. As one of the longest-serving members of the Speaker’s Panel of Chairs, I have had the pleasure of working with Colin over very many years. He will be sorely missed, and the House owes him a huge debt of gratitude. Charities in the United Kingdom working in Africa tell me that as a result of the withdrawal of the United States Agency for International Development, women and children are dying in droves. The House will not be sitting when President Trump visits the United Kingdom, so we will not have an opportunity to send a clear message from this House at that time, but the Prime Minister will have an opportunity. Will the Leader of the House ask the Prime Minister to place on the agenda for discussion in the margins the withdrawal of USAID from Africa, which is having such a devastating effect?
11 Sept 2025 · Life Sciences Investment · Hansard source
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Discovery Park in my constituency at Sandwich is the phoenix that rose from the ashes of Pfizer. It is now a cluster of over 100 enterprising and successful small companies in the life sciences field. The loss of cornerstones such as AstraZeneca and MSD could have a devastating effect upon the architecture of the pharmaceutical industry in this country. What are the Government going to do, practically, to reverse the decline in confidence in that industry?
9 Sept 2025 · Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill · Hansard source
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The International Court of Justice ruling is not binding. It is not in law. We did not have to abide by it. Why are we giving away British territory to Mauritius and then renting it back? There was no need for us to do so. Why are we doing it?
9 Sept 2025 · Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill · Hansard source
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Will the Minister give way?
9 Sept 2025 · Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill · Hansard source
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The point has been made over and over in this discussion that we are giving away something that we did not have to give away, and are renting it back—and the British taxpayer is paying for it. Last week, I asked the Leader of the House how much this was going to cost. She said, “alongside legislation we publish all the necessary documents, including the costings, which we have been transparent about.” —[ Official Report , 4 September 2025; Vol. 772, c. 453.] I regard the Minister as a friend, but to say the least, his figures have been opaque. Let me ask one simple question that my right hon. Friend might know the answer to: how much is the United States contributing to this deal?
9 Sept 2025 · Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill · Hansard source
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We have been given an assurance from the Front Bench that no advance notice will need to be given about operational arrangements from the base. However, my hon. Friend the Member for Harwich and North Essex (Sir Bernard Jenkin) earlier indicated that there had to be Mauritian Government approval for the construction of facilities. How can we have the operational facilities without the construction of the facilities that back them up?
4 Sept 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source
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Regardless of the fact that there is no legal requirement on the Government of the United Kingdom to transfer ownership of the British Indian Ocean Territories to Mauritius, the Government have challenged the Opposition’s figures about the cost of that exercise. Before the debate on Tuesday, will the Government place in the Library of the House of Commons detailed estimates of the cost to the British taxpayer?
2 Sept 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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It has now been some weeks since President Trump invited the leader of the Russian Federation to the United States of America. Since then, Putin has increased his assault on the civilian population of Ukraine and shown no sign whatsoever of reaching the ceasefire that was desired, so Trump’s initiative has failed. Will the Foreign Secretary use his visit to the United Nations next week to call again for real United States sanctions on Russia?
22 Jul 2025 · Sir David Amess Summer Adjournment · Hansard source
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Order. No.
22 Jul 2025 · Sir David Amess Summer Adjournment · Hansard source
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Order. I think the Father of the House was reaching his peroration. I am fully aware of the friendship between the right hon. Member for Rayleigh and Wickford (Mr Francois) and Sir David, but he will have the opportunity to make his case shortly.
22 Jul 2025 · Sir David Amess Summer Adjournment · Hansard source
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Order. Before I hand over to the Chairman of Ways and Means, I would like to say that this will be my last session in the Chair for the foreseeable future. I thank colleagues for the courtesy with which I have been treated, and thank you in particular for the tributes that you have paid to my friend David Amess. David and I signed on the register on the same day when we came into the House. I am very grateful to you all.
22 Jul 2025 · Sir David Amess Summer Adjournment · Hansard source
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I am sure we can all say amen to that. There are 34 Members seeking to intervene in this debate, and we need to go on to the wind-ups at about 6.30. Work it out for yourselves: that is about five minutes a head. I am not going to put a time limit on at this stage, but it may mean that some people drop off the end if colleagues are over-zealous with their time.
22 Jul 2025 · Sir David Amess Summer Adjournment · Hansard source
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Order. We are beginning to play “beat the clock”. I understand that the right hon. Member for North East Cambridgeshire (Steve Barclay) has some important information about the restoration and renewal of the Palace of Westminster that I am sure Members will wish to hear, so I do not propose to impose a time limit immediately. After he has spoken, I shall impose a time limit of five minutes.
22 Jul 2025 · Sir David Amess Summer Adjournment · Hansard source
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Order. I call Jodie Gosling.
21 Jul 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source
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I call the Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee.
21 Jul 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source
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I call the Liberal Democrat spokesman.
21 Jul 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source
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The hon. Gentleman clearly did not listen to a word that I said, but I am sure that the Foreign Secretary did.
21 Jul 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source
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I call the shadow Secretary of State.
21 Jul 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source
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Order. Once again, a very large number of hon. Members wish to take part in this discussion. The intention is to try to accommodate everybody, but that will mean Members exercising a degree of self-restraint that was not entirely evident during the previous statement. I leave it to you, but if you want everybody to be called, then please, we need questions, not statements. If I may say so, Foreign Secretary, we also need relatively brief answers.
21 Jul 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source
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I call the Father of the House.
21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source
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I call the ever-patient Peter Swallow.
21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source
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I call the shadow Minister.

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