By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Andrew Bridgen MP (who writes a good piece on health and safety red tape on ConHome today) recently put a written question asking how much the €uro Implementation Unit cost UK taxpayers. Mark Hoban, Treasury Minister, has just replied: The cost of the Euro Preparations Unit in each year since […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter Unfortunately Tuesday's main business, the reading (and passing) of the Finance (No. 3) Bill, was more like a left-wing meeting than a proper debate. Labour MPs proposed various ways of taxing banks, including a "Robin Hood Tax" (a tax on financial transactions), and attacked the Coalition's bank levy as too […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter. Yesterday in the Commons Tory MPs voiced concern about legal financial companies that charge very high interest rates. They were speaking in response to proposals from the Labour benches. Learning the lessons from anti-smoking campaigns, Neil Parish MP called for health warnings to be added to the advertising of […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter. In the late 1990s the Tories became the anti-€uro party but in the Commons yesterday a Tory Treasury minister would not echo Boris Johnson's comments and say that it was time for Greece to leave the single currency and pursue an export-led recovery. The frontbench's reluctance contrasted with the […]
By Jonathan Isaby Yesterday afternoon saw the Commons approving a variety of documents on "European Union Economic Governance". Treasury minister Mark Hoban insisted that none of the conclusions of the EU Economic Governance Task Force chaired by Herman Van Rompuy "encroaches on Parliament’s economic sovereignty" and as regard to the plans for macro-economic surveillance, no […]
By Jonathan Isaby Further to my report earlier and that of Lee Rotherham on Monday about Herman Van Rompuy's Task Force on EU Economic Governance, Treasury MInister Mark Hoban came to the Commons this afternoon to answer an Urgent Question from Bill Cash on the issue. Mr Hoban said: "The report concludes that the EU […]
On Friday the House of Commons had its second reading of the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies and Credit Unions Bill, brought in by Labour MP Malcolm Wicks (Croydon North). Shadow Treasury Minister Mark Hoban spoke for the Conservatives. Here are some highlights from his speech: "The hon. Gentleman asked whether we would support the […]
This written answer to Shadow Charities Minister Nick Hurd from 21 April suggests that the Government isn't tightening its belt like it should: "To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform with reference to the answer to the hon. Member for Fareham of 4 February 2008, Official Report, column 894W, […]
Treasury questions came around yesterday. The Equitable Life scandal was rightly prioritised by Conservative members, who leapt on Economic Secretary to the Treasury Ian Pearson, who had this to say: "I am very disappointed that the Public Administration Committee should choose to obscure the real help that it accepts the Government’s payments scheme will deliver […]
Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office Francis Maude has pressed the Prime Minister over the rather fraught issue of Lord Falconer’s pension. In November 2007 the Telegraph reported that Lord Falconer was ready to sue Gordon Brown over the size of his pension. Lord Chancellors have historically had generous arrangements to reflect the fact that […]
Update: Some more examples of Mr Pickles’s written questions have been added, to give a fuller flavour. Eric Pickles, Shadow Communities and Local Government Secretary and MP for Brentwood & Ongar, has come top of a league table. He was followed closely by Mark Hoban, MP for Fareham and a Shadow Treasury Minister. In 2007-08 […]
Westminster Hall held a debate on Equitable Life yesterday. The mutual life insurer defaulted on its obligations to policyholders back in 2000, and the effects are still being felt today. Mark Hoban, Shadow Financial Secretary to the Treasury, spoke forcefully: "In the four months that have passed since the Minister received the ombudsman’s report, we […]