Childcare and Early Years

My hon. Friend demonstrates his considerable knowledge and expertise in this space, and his all-p...

The hon. Gentleman is making an interesting speech, and I commend him on his focus on the importa...

I want the Government to listen to many groups across the whole sector and see the case for inves...

My hon. Friend is making such an important point, which is one of the reasons why the all-party g...

My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and I am glad that he has declared his family connection in t...

I have to pick up the term “early educator” because the reality is that most children start nurse...

I recognise my right hon. Friend’s point. That is part of the dilemma of covering this as an issu...

I absolutely love this important debate. What the country and the sector want is parental choice....

My hon. Friend has been a great champion for parental choice; I know that she has worked with Onw...

Does my hon. Friend agree that a beneficial but often overlooked by-product is that people can be...

My hon. Friend, on whose Select Committee—the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee—I am happy to se...

My hon. Friend is quite right to use the word “investment” in this context. Has he ever come acro...

My right hon. Friend makes an excellent point. We had a very interesting debate on the Levelling-...

Happy International Women’s Day, Madam Deputy Speaker. It is great to see you back in the Chair.<...

May I say what a huge pleasure it is to see you back in the Chair, Madam Deputy Speaker—and what ...

On that point, will my right hon. Friend take an unlikely intervention?

My colleague is going to tell us how to breastfeed, ladies!

I have never name-checked them in this House, but Auntie Jane and Auntie Jenni ran the BABIES bre...

That is lovely, and I pay tribute to the thousands of volunteers who provide breastfeeding suppor...

I applaud my right hon. Friend’s work on the early years and, as she knows, I share her enthusias...

My right hon. Friend is absolutely spot on.

That gives me the chance to mention the London ...

It is a pleasure to see you back in the Chair, Madam Deputy Speaker.

It is a pleasure to fo...

At the risk of encouraging the hon. Lady to further think we agree on everything, may I ask wheth...

I could not agree more with the hon. Gentleman on that. Embarrassingly, I have to confess that ev...

It is an honour to be able to address this Chamber on International Women’s Day. It is a great op...

It is an honour to be speaking in this debate on International Women’s Day. I cannot think of a p...

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Putney (Fleur Anderson); having heard about her ex...

I realise that I have banged on a lot in this debate, but on my hon. Friend’s point about trainin...

I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend. We need to be able to focus on training and look at all t...

I am grateful to the hon. Member for giving way, because she mentioned the exchange we had recent...

I am grateful for that clarification, because the perception is, in all the trails and all the ne...

I would be grateful if the hon. Member could help not to reinforce inaccurate perceptions in ever...

I would absolutely love to sit down with the hon. Member on the Front Bench and go through some o...

It has been an interesting debate. We have heard a lot about the experience of mothers in the Hou...

This has been a rich debate, and while I agree with much that has been said, it is important to f...

My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech, and I agree with him entirely about the progress th...

My hon. Friend is absolutely correct to highlight the point about return on investment. As a Cons...

indicated dissent.

The hon. Member shakes her head; I appreciate that the Labour party and the previous Labour Gover...

To a certain extent I think my hon. Friend is right about ratios, but does he accept that they in...

My right hon. Friend is right to highlight that there will always be a degree of risk aversion. F...

We now come to the wind-ups.

4.33 pm

I pay tribute to the hon. Member for Worcester (Mr Walker) for securing this important debate. I ...

It is brilliant to be here on International Women’s Day, and it was wonderful to see Madam Deputy...

For the final word, I call Mr Robin Walker.

4.53 pm

I thank the Minister for that response and for setting out some of the areas in this space beyond...

rose—

And, no, I am not going to give way to him on that.

My hon. Friend the Member for Ruislip, ...

I will now suspend the sitting until 7 pm, when we will take all the remaining business, includin...

With the leave of the House, I will put the Questions on motions 2 to 7 together.

On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. I apologise for not having given you prior notice of t...

I thank the hon. Gentleman for that point of order. I am not sure whether he spoke in the earlier...

indicated dissent.

There was an opportunity to speak—[Interruption.] Excuse me—I can handle this, thank you. There w...