"My hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office, is doing great work to ensure that public procurement is on the side of working people. Outsourcing by default has not delivered, so a new public interest test would ensure that outsourcing decisions are based on value for money, social value, market …..." Nick Thomas-Symonds - View Speech
"I entirely agree with my hon. Friend’s assessment of Capita’s lamentable performance on the civil service pension scheme. We have to take individual decisions on contracts. For example, yesterday I cancelled Capita’s contract for the Royal Mail statutory pension scheme. I am robustly holding Capita to account, including by withholding …..." Nick Thomas-Symonds - View Speech
"We are taking forward negotiations with the EU to drive investment, jobs and growth for the UK pragmatically. On ideological grounds, the Conservatives and Reform would undo it all, and Green party foreign policy—let us be frank—is a dangerous fantasy...." Nick Thomas-Symonds - View Speech
"My hon. Friend can be assured that we will continue to drive forward to deliver on our commitment. The electricity trading negotiations are absolutely vital, not only for energy security but to bear down on household bills...." Nick Thomas-Symonds - View Speech
"The hon. Gentleman and I work very well on other issues; I suspect that over the next 12 months, this is an issue on which we are going to disagree. If he is genuinely asking me at the Dispatch Box to provide evidence to the country about the lamentable performance …..." Nick Thomas-Symonds - View Speech
"The new UK-EU strategic partnership will bear down on household bills, provide opportunities for young people and create jobs. The Opposition, for reasons best known to them, have decided to oppose all that...." Nick Thomas-Symonds - View Speech
"There will be a Bill—a piece of primary legislation—going through Parliament this year, which will of course have appropriate scrutiny, as will our relationship with the EU going forward. I very much look forward to those debates. I will just give one example of how we are helping businesses. Businesses …..." Nick Thomas-Symonds - View Speech
"The common understanding agreed between the UK and the EU last May provides for carve-outs, subject to negotiation. But if the hon. Gentleman seriously thinks that all the export costs and fees that businesses are currently paying, which the SPS agreement will take away, should continue, he should say so...." Nick Thomas-Symonds - View Speech
"That is an absolutely absurd question. The hon. Gentleman is asking that question when his party’s position is to keep in place all the fees that we currently have to pay on exports to the EU. He also talks about the emissions trading system linkage. Without mutual exemptions from the …..." Nick Thomas-Symonds - View Speech
"That is why the EU-UK reset is so important, as it will help us in bearing down on fuel bills and energy bills, which will help my hon. Friend’s constituents...." Nick Thomas-Symonds - View Speech