Frank Dobson: When would such an order become valid—when it was served on the person concerned? How would the British officials involved identify the person in order to serve the order on them? Would the process be triggered only if the person sought to come to this country?
Frank Dobson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether the chief executive of NHS England is permitted under his contract to publicly welcome financial commitments to the NHS made by the Shadow Secretary of State for Health.
Frank Dobson: The right hon. Gentleman talks of technicalities, but the law is full of technicalities—that is all it is. He says that Ministers and officials are frightened of judicial review, and so they should be. The pressure on them is to comply with laws and regulations that we have passed. We are encouraging law breaking if we let someone say, “Well, it’s okay. You can skate over that, or you...
Frank Dobson: My hon. Friend mentioned Lord Woolf. Will he remind the House which judicial position was held by Lord Woolf? Would he, like me, be more likely to agree with Harry Woolf than with the right hon. Member for Epsom and Ewell (Chris Grayling)?
Frank Dobson: Will the Secretary of State give way?
Frank Dobson: Will the Secretary of State tell the House how much money is now being diverted from patient care to the negotiation of legally binding contracts between commissioners and suppliers of services, or will he confirm that he cannot do so because he does not bother to collect the information?
Frank Dobson: I support the motion, because I think it is about time that the rich paid a fairer share of income tax. They have been getting away with 40%, 40p in the pound, for far too long—[Interruption]—since 1988-89. Let me point out to Government Members, who usually rant on about the wonders of the Thatcher Government, that the top rate of income tax came down to 40p only after Mrs Thatcher had...
Frank Dobson: No, I will not, because others wish to speak. Let me make it clear that the Labour Government did not bring down the top rate of income tax to benefit the richest and at the same time freeze the pay of nurses, freeze the pay of doctors and freeze the pay of teachers, while at the same time the bankers got their bonuses. At HSBC, which lost £27 billion in the credit crash, Barclays, which...
Frank Dobson: No, as I shall finish shortly. None of these people would have any difficulty finding an extra 5p or even 10p in the pound on their income tax.
Frank Dobson: Yes, I give way to my hon. Friend.
Frank Dobson: I entirely agree with my hon. Friend. My final point is this: the bulk of people who will benefit are in the banks and the rest of the finance industry. This is a very privileged industry, because every other industry in the country has to pay a 20% transaction tax, which is known as VAT, yet the City businesses pay virtually no transaction tax. I think if we want to raise some more money we...
Frank Dobson: Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?
Frank Dobson: Does the hon. Gentleman acknowledge that average annual economic growth during the Callaghan and Wilson Governments was almost exactly equal to the miraculous levels achieved during Mrs Thatcher’s prime ministership?
Frank Dobson: rose—
Frank Dobson: There have been references to the ladder of opportunity. Education and training are a major part of that. It is this Government who have taken away the education maintenance allowance, which allowed large numbers of working class children to stay on at school, at college and in training. Taking that away has shifted several steps out of the ladder of opportunity.
Frank Dobson: I do not wish to delay the Minister in turning his attention to the tunnel, but can he explain why the terms for urban areas are different from those for rural areas?
Frank Dobson: My constituents might not fancy the idea of a new station, but what they really do not want is having to live next to a construction site for a decade or more. That is what they are bothered about.
Frank Dobson: In my area, around Euston, people will be living next to the biggest construction site in Europe for 10 or 15 years. They will be living within a yard of the works. However, they will be entitled to no compensation at all. As the right hon. Lady will know, uncertainty is a major source of blight. The revised proposals for Euston were supposed to be presented next month, but that has now been...
Frank Dobson: It is customary to begin a speech by declaring an interest, but in this case I can declare a disinterest, as I am not standing at the next general election. Also, so far as I know, in the year of the great expenses scandal my expenses were the lowest of any Member of Parliament. However, I am firmly opposed to the Bill, and not because it does not go far enough, as the hon. Member for...
Frank Dobson: That is what I believe in. I do not believe that introducing a recall system will further that degree of independence. There is a brilliant example from my own constituency —not me, I rush to point out. My distinguished predecessor, Lena Jeger, was the Member for Holborn and St Pancras South, which was an overwhelmingly Roman Catholic constituency in the 1960s. Lena Jeger was an advocate of...