Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: Cabinet Office

Oral Answers to Questions

John Lamont Excerpts
Wednesday 24th June 2026

(1 month, 1 week ago)

Commons Chamber
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Keir Starmer Portrait The Prime Minister
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My hon. Friend is a great champion of our armed forces, and the fact that the national celebrations are returning to Aldershot this week is a testament to her campaigning. The racist attack that she described is utterly disgraceful. I condemn it, as I hope the whole House will. We stand with our Gurkhas, who have made an incredible contribution to our armed forces and continue to do so. Ministers have met my hon. Friend, veterans and the Government of Nepal for constructive discussions on Gurkha pensions, and those discussions will continue. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend for her dedicated work on this.

John Lamont Portrait John Lamont (Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk) (Con)
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Q12. May I start by wishing Scotland well in their match tonight against Brazil?Following the conviction of former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell for embezzlement, serious questions about governance and oversight remain unanswered. The Scottish Government are refusing to establish an inquiry, despite clear public concern. The law does provide for UK inquiries into devolved matters when there is a wider public interest, so as the Prime Minister prepares to leave office, will he set up an inquiry with the powers needed so that we can uncover the truth?

Keir Starmer Portrait The Prime Minister
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I, too, wish Scotland well in the upcoming match, and of course I wish England well in the third match—a little better than last night, hopefully.

The SNP and the Scottish Government need to answer a serious set of questions, and they simply refuse to do so. They call for transparency and accountability from everyone else when they have giant questions of their own to answer. “Nothing to see here, don’t want to know, don’t want to have an inquiry”—totally the wrong approach.