Extract from Defence
Questions
(Plymouth, Sutton and
Devonport) (Lab/Co-op): When he plans to announce the
long-term arrangements for Royal Marines bases.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence
(Mr Tobias Ellwood): Before I answer this question, Mr
Speaker, may I join you in welcoming our overseas guests here
today? They are strong, important and valued Commonwealth allies.
In particular, I thank our Australian representative: Sydney
hosted the Invictus games in October and did an absolutely
fantastic job in reminding all of us that there is life after
injury, and that, through sport, people can develop a new chapter
as they advance.
On the Royal Marines, I hope, Mr Speaker, that you will join me
in congratulating the Royal Marines as they celebrate 355 years
since their formation. They have a fantastic history: helping
Lord Nelson secure victory at Trafalgar; ensuring that we secured
The Rock in 1704; enabling us to land at Normandy with 17,500
Marines; and, of course, helping in the liberation of the
Falklands. We all owe those who earned the coveted Green Beret a
huge debt of gratitude...
Extract from Commons
debate on the EU Withdrawal Agreement
(Gloucester)
(Con):...Some of my colleagues prefer a no-deal
solution. They believe that there is a way, as an invitation this
evening put it, to open up the political space to take a
different approach, but the nation’s employers simply do not
agree. I have spoken to manufacturers big and small, to retail
and services companies, to the university in my constituency and
to many other traders and investors as the longest-serving of the
Prime Minister’s trade envoys in the House of Commons, working
with one of the fastest growing regions in south-east Asia, and
not one has told me that no deal is the best way forward.
Instead, they tell me that fear of uncertainty is holding back
investment, jobs and apprenticeships and beginning to lose them
contracts. Are they all scaremongering—the FSB, Business West,
the NFU, Gibraltar, the Falklands, or even a family-owned Gloucester
SME, which told me on Friday that
“customers and jobs will go elsewhere, and we are 14 weeks away
from the most damaging impact on our economy for at least a
generation”?
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