"It is a pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Swansea West (Geraint Davies), and I will try to irritate Government Members less. Given his track record, it will, I think, be impossible to irritate them any more.
"I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that remark. I am afraid that I have just been very unkind and tweeted that not only were there only three Government Members—I think it was—in the Chamber, but the Opposition Whip had fallen asleep. [Interruption.] I should have said that the …..." Fiona O'Donnell - View Speech
"I am willing to take responsibility when that is due, but it seems as though for this Government the past three years have not happened. In my constituency, a coal-fired power station has closed down. That is good for the environment, but Scottish Power and the Spanish firm, Iberdrola, cannot …..." Fiona O'Donnell - View Speech
"It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship this morning, Ms Primarolo—[Interruption]. We have just made it into the afternoon. It is also a pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle upon Tyne North (Catherine McKinnell), who made such a strong case for …..." Fiona O'Donnell - View Speech
"As ever, my hon. Friend makes a reasonable and forceful contribution to the debate. This is shocking complacency from Government Members—their constituents and mine will be watching them—as unemployment rises and as families face an average cut of £17 a week as a result of all the changes they have …..." Fiona O'Donnell - View Speech
"My hon. Friend makes an excellent point. The problem is not restricted to high streets. In small rural constituencies, there may be one village shop, where the local post office is located. The post office network is also being put at risk as such small village shops are unable to …..." Fiona O'Donnell - View Speech
"I am sure that Members on both sides of the House are seeing that in their constituencies. I hope that Government Members will visit food banks in their communities to understand the causes of food insecurity. As my hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle upon Tyne North said, it is …..." Fiona O'Donnell - View Speech
"No, I am not. I would say that the catastrophic political mistakes are most often made on the nationalist Benches. We are stating clearly that, if we were in government today, we would not be scrapping the 50p rate. There is no ambivalence or doubt about that. That is the …..." Fiona O'Donnell - View Speech