Adam Jogee MP: speeches

Speeches

• 29 Apr 2025 · Kashmir: Increasing Tension · Hansard source

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  I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Smethwick (Gurinder Singh Josan) on securing this urgent question, but I do say to the Minister that this really should have been a statement. We are all horrified by the act of terror that we saw just days ago and condemn it without equivocation. I have heard from many of my constituents from both diasporas in recent days, and it is important to note that many people are feeling this act of terror deeply in my community, and up and down the United Kingdom. India and Pakistan are two very important members of the Commonwealth. Can the Minister specifically outline what engagement the British Government have had with the Commonwealth to help to reduce tensions?

• 29 Apr 2025 · Staffordshire: Cultural Contribution · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to speak in this important debate on the cultural contribution of Staffordshire to our economy and country. I am probably the only hon. Member present who has a constituent sitting in the Public Gallery, so I shall be on my very best behaviour. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Stafford (Leigh Ingham)—the county town, where my mother was born—on her excellent speech. She set herself up nicely to be the first honorary patron of the Staffordshire tourist board—run a close second by the right hon. Member for Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge (Sir Gavin Williamson). On Thursday 1 May, people across Staffordshire will be marking Staffordshire Day, and I look forward to being back home in Newcastle-under-Lyme to mark this important day in our collective calendar with a nice cold drink at one of our wonderful local public houses—there are plenty to choose from—as well as getting out the vote with our excellent Labour candidates. In my maiden speech last July, I said: “While some might look north of the Watford Gap and see a cultural desert, I see vibrancy.” —[ Official Report , 29 July 2024; Vol. 752, c. 1120.] I went on to champion the wonderful New Vic Theatre, which attracts locals from far and wide, including hon. Members who have been seen walking through its doors. We heard from my hon. Friend the Member for Stafford about how wonderful the New Vic is. We have the wonderful Apedale museum and the light railway, which is an excellent day out. We have the fantastic Brampton museum, which tells the story of our ancient and royal borough. We have the award-winning Newcastle College, which has many brilliant young people engaging with arts and culture, as my hon. Friend said—we do share it, but I have the headquarters in my constituency. Just a few weeks ago, I was at the Philip Astley Centre, which is in our town centre—a great community asset, dedicated to the memory of the creator of the modern circus, Phillip Astley, who was born and raised in God’s own community of Newcastle-under-Lyme. From eating to horse riding, and from walking to a brilliant higher education institution in Keele University, Newcastle-under-Lyme packs a punch. This is an important year for the 1st Newcastle Brownies and Guides. The 1st Newcastle Guides is one of the oldest surviving units in the country, and the oldest in the midlands. The Brownie unit turns 105 years old this year and the Guide unit turns 110. As part of the celebrations, they are fundraising so that both units can open the eyes and ears of their young women. Our faith groups do much for the arts. Just on Saturday, St Mark’s Basford, which is not far from my house, had a fundraising barn dance—I did not dance. Father Tommy, the vicar, is moving on to pastures new; we wish him well and thank him for his service to our community. As we address the cultural contribution of Staffordshire, however, we must rededicate ourselves to the fight for our fair share of investment in housing, transport and, yes, the arts and culture. There is so much good happening in all parts of Staffordshire, as we have heard already, and today is an opportunity to touch briefly on that in the House. I could speak about Newcastle-under-Lyme all day, and at times since my election I have tried to do just that, but I will not test hon. Members’ patience this afternoon, and will simply say this: Staffordshire is at the heart of our country, and Newcastle-under-Lyme is at the heart of our county. Long may that continue, and a happy Staffordshire Day to all.

• 29 Apr 2025 · Staffordshire: Cultural Contribution · Hansard source

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  When the Minister comes to Staffordshire, she will meet some very wise people, not least the folk who elected nine Labour MPs out of 12 at the general election. Many hon. Members had to scribble away half their speeches, so when the Minister goes back to her colleagues, will she encourage them to find Government time for a debate on these issues?

• 24 Apr 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker; all good things come to those who wait. Will the Leader of the House join me in paying tribute to my constituents Yvonne Yorke and Jackie Wood from Newcastle-under-Lyme, Sue Jackson from Stafford, and Linda Lock from Stoke-on-Trent South, all members of the Potteries branch of Alzheimer’s Research UK? They have raised more than £15,000 in many different ways, including their “human fruit machine”. Can the Leader of the House assure me and my constituents that conditions such as Alzheimer’s and dementia will be at the heart of our plans for early diagnosis?

• 24 Apr 2025 · London Sudan Conference · Hansard source

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  The scenes from Sudan are beyond harrowing. There is brutal murder, millions at risk of starvation, and millions more have been displaced, with women and children watching their sons, fathers and husbands be brutally killed and many of those women and children being victims of the most horrendous sexual violence. In Newcastle-under-Lyme, I represent a number of people from the Sudanese community—either born in Sudan or whose parents were born in Sudan. They are watching the TV in horror, fear and sorrow. What we are doing to engage with and support the British Sudanese community here in the United Kingdom?

• 22 Apr 2025 · Young Offenders: Staffordshire · Hansard source

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  4. What steps her Department is taking to support young offenders in Staffordshire.

• 22 Apr 2025 · Young Offenders: Staffordshire · Hansard source

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  At the election, we promised to take action to reduce youth offending, with a network of Young Futures hubs and a crackdown on antisocial behaviour which causes so much pain to my constituents and to people up and down our country. Criminals must face the full force of the law, and young offenders cannot be a lost cause. Will the Minister confirm that this Government will do whatever we can to divert young people away from a lifetime of crime?

• 22 Apr 2025 · Coalfields Regeneration Trust · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend, who represents Cumbernauld—and the rest of her constituency—in Scotland: a great part of our United Kingdom. She raises a powerful yet basic point: the CRT does amazing work in all parts of our country. It is no surprise that the Whip on duty is my hon. Friend the Member for Merthyr Tydfil and Aberdare (Gerald Jones), who similarly represents coalfield communities—I suspect that he would be speaking, were he allowed to. I feel sure that the Minister, in his upcoming meeting with the CRT, will hear that it is seeking the reinstatement of UK Government support to enable it to keep doing what it does and to scale up its model with a proposal of capital investment of £50 million over a five-year period, equating obviously to £10 million a year. That would generate additional long-term sustainable funding of £3.5 million to £4 million, which would be invested to benefit people living in coalfield communities such as mine. I support those calls. Let us be clear: that is an ask not for grant funding but for investment in coalfield communities and in people like my constituents in Newcastle-under-Lyme. I know that it is one that will pay off. The CRT has proven time and again across 25 years that it is a wealth generator. Its community wealth building model has delivered growth in the coalfield communities that Labour members represent. With support from the Government, it will continue to do so.

• 22 Apr 2025 · Coalfields Regeneration Trust · Hansard source

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  My other constituency neighbour raises a very good point—

• 22 Apr 2025 · Coalfields Regeneration Trust · Hansard source

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  I will happily give way to another Staffordshire man.

• 22 Apr 2025 · Coalfields Regeneration Trust · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend raises a very good point. I suspect that the reason he is here, joined by many Labour colleagues from Scotland, is that the SNP Government were found wanting on a number of issues. Thanks to this Labour Government’s Budget, at the end of last year Scotland had an increase in the last financial year of £1.5 billion. There is no excuse for them not to turn up and do the job properly. I feel sure that my hon. Friend, alongside many others, will be holding the SNP Government to account. I have seen the positive impact of the CRT at work in my constituency. Fourteen local organisations are part of the free membership programme CRT Support, including charities I have worked closely with, such as the excellent Tri Services and Veterans Support Centre right in the heart of Newcastle-under-Lyme.

• 22 Apr 2025 · Coalfields Regeneration Trust · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend makes a very good point and I agree with her wholeheartedly. It says a lot that people who have been mouthing off in recent weeks and months are missing in action this evening. The 2024 “State of the Coalfields” report found that, “if the coalfields had been a region in their own right, all clustered together in one corner of the country, the statistics would probably show them to be the most deprived region in the United Kingdom.” That is unacceptable and it says a lot. It would be the responsibility of any Government of this country to address this disparity, but for a Labour Government, it must be our duty to do so. Our movement was born in the coalfields, ensuring that communities like mine in Newcastle-under-Lyme could prosper and thrive, while making sure that local people had a fair go, as my hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent Central (Gareth Snell) alluded to. That is why, in 1999, the last Labour Government set up the Coalfields Regeneration Trust. It was created to support the regeneration of coalfield communities, and it did just that. Since 1999, the CRT has helped 26,332 people into work, created and safeguarded 5,174 jobs, and helped 341,871 people to improve their health and wellbeing.

• 22 Apr 2025 · Coalfields Regeneration Trust · Hansard source

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  How lucky are we to have my hon. Friend’s experience and background on these Benches? I defer to her both in terms of her commitment to the cause and her experience of standing up for the very people that we on the Government Benches are here to speak up for this evening. If these themes sound familiar it is because they closely align, as my hon. Friend has said, with the priorities of this Labour Government: to improve our national health; to get Britain working again; to improve our skills provision; and to ensure that people can get and stay in stable, well-paid and fulfilling work.

• 22 Apr 2025 · Coalfields Regeneration Trust · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend and neighbour makes the important point that this is about pride, power and people. The sooner we see the Government respond positively to his calls and to the calls of many on the Labour Benches, the better. Wages in the former coalfield communities are 6% to 7% lower than the national average. There is a shortage of quality jobs, as we have heard, leading to a brain drain, as working-age residents with degree-level qualifications leave to find jobs elsewhere. This is a dangerous cycle; our young people are forced to leave their communities to find the best jobs. It leaves communities like mine losing out not just on economic growth, but on the energy and dynamism that young people bring to the job market.

• 22 Apr 2025 · Coalfields Regeneration Trust · Hansard source

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  As you can see, Madam Deputy Speaker, team Staffordshire hunt as a pack. My hon. Friend makes a good point. The Government pride themselves on ensuring that the taxpayer gets the best value for money, and I, like all Labour Members, agree with that wholeheartedly. Every penny of the £50 million that we are asking for will be invested back into the service of working people. How much more positive could that be? If the CRT was a stock, investors would be climbing over each other to buy it. But it is not a stock; it is a service set up by a Labour Government to provide a public good, and it is a service that the Government must support. The funding stream would be invested in the most deprived coalfield communities and the more than 900 grassroots organisations that the CRT currently works with, helping the Government to deliver their plan for neighbourhoods by creating safer, stronger and more prosperous communities. This is the first Labour Government to have won an election since the Tories cut funding to the CRT— a Labour policy that the Conservatives scrapped. The Government have already shown that they will do the right thing by coalfield communities. They have already done work to address the injustice of the mineworkers’ pension scheme, and I hope that they will act on the British Coal staff superannuation scheme before too long. Too many people in coalfield communities have lost faith in politics and our collective ability to do anything for them. After 15 years of being let down by consecutive Conservative Governments, who could blame them for thinking that way? This is an opportunity to show those people—our people—what Government can do. It is a time to show them that things can change. The creation of the CRT by a Labour Government makes me proud. It is what Labour Governments are here to do—it is in our DNA. I accept that the Minister may not be able to make a financial announcement tonight, although he will be very welcome if he chooses to. Hon. Members will believe me when I say that I made the case to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, my right hon. Friend the Member for Bristol North West (Darren Jones), when he came to Newcastle-under-Lyme before Easter, but I hope the Minister will pass all our comments and interventions up to his ministerial colleagues. By supporting the CRT in coalfield communities such as mine, this Government will continue to make me proud and, most importantly, will help me deliver for my constituents in Newcastle-under-Lyme and people living in coalfield communities up and down our United Kingdom.

• 22 Apr 2025 · Coalfields Regeneration Trust · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to my hon. Friend for intervention, not least because my wife and I were at Trentham Gardens in her patch at the weekend. I am very pleased she was the first person to intervene, and I agree wholeheartedly with her tribute. Some 5.7 million people live in Britain’s coalfields—one in 10 people in England and Scotland, and one in four in Wales. Almost half of coalfield communities—43%—are in the 30% most deprived communities in the United Kingdom. The number of health problems faced by those in coalfield communities is higher than the national average. According to the 2024 “State of the Coalfields” report, 7% of all coalfield residents report bad or very bad health, and more than 10% claim disability benefits—7.7% higher than the UK average. As I have said in this House before, life expectancy is a year lower than the UK average, too. I will turn now to the rate of growth in the number of jobs in coalfield communities.

• 22 Apr 2025 · Coalfields Regeneration Trust · Hansard source

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  I am grateful for that intervention from the dean of the coalfield communities. My hon. Friend works tirelessly on this issue and demonstrates by his leadership that it is one for all and all for one; I thank him for his work. My hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent North (David Williams) touched on “CRT game on”, which does a tremendous amount of work in Newcastle-under-Lyme as well as in Stoke-on-Trent North. I think in particular about what it is doing with our local club, Newcastle Town FC, where it plans to introduce free, weekly, structured turn-up-and-play football sessions for 11 to 18-year-olds in Knutton in the heart of Newcastle-under-Lyme, where the excellent Bayley Dickin is standing for Labour in the by-election on Thursday 1 May. I am sure that Labour colleagues will wish him well in that election. It will be the CRT that will provide the funding for the Newcastle Town coaches to deliver those sessions, and it will be the CRT that will enable young people in my constituency to access good-quality sport provision, no matter their background.

• 22 Apr 2025 · Coalfields Regeneration Trust · Hansard source

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  I am grateful for the intervention from my hon. Friend,, who has a much better head of hair than his predecessor—and it is his. He makes a very good point. As I said to my hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent Central, pride, power and people must drive us as we move forward. Despite 15 years of Conservative-led Governments failing the CRT and, by extension, our coalfield communities, the CRT has still managed to create an asset base worth £55.5 million, supporting almost 3,500 jobs.

• 22 Apr 2025 · Coalfields Regeneration Trust · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for that intervention. My wife is from Northern Ireland, so when he said he was making inquiries, I was worried how far that was going to go. He raises a very important point, both about the power of British coal and the importance of Newcastle-under-Lyme for many parts of our United Kingdom.

• 22 Apr 2025 · Coalfields Regeneration Trust · Hansard source

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  I will happily give way to another Staffordshire colleague.

• 22 Apr 2025 · Coalfields Regeneration Trust · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend makes a very good point. She speaks to the cross-nation commitment to this issue, and about the many people who live in, work in and benefit from the potential in our coalfield communities.

• 22 Apr 2025 · Coalfields Regeneration Trust · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member for Strangford, of course, wants to intervene.

• 22 Apr 2025 · Coalfields Regeneration Trust · Hansard source

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  I want to start by acknowledging the death of the Holy Father yesterday. Many people in Newcastle-under-Lyme, up and down the kingdom and across the world will be feeling his death deeply. Our thoughts are with the Catholic community the world over, and all who admired him. This week, we mark St George’s day 2025. As I have said in this House before, I am proud of my Britishness and my Englishness, and I say a very happy St George’s day to my constituents back home in Newcastle-under-Lyme and to people right across England. The case for Government support for the Coalfields Regeneration Trust makes itself. I want to start by thanking all those at the trust for their work. Support for the trust aligns very closely with the Government’s priorities for our country. The trust provides support to some of our most deprived communities, and its work continues the legacy of the last Labour Government and the late former Deputy Prime Minister, Lord Prescott.

• 22 Apr 2025 · Coalfields Regeneration Trust · Hansard source

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  I agree wholeheartedly with my hon. Friend, and not for the first time. I would make that call not just for Derbyshire, but for Staffordshire, too.

• 22 Apr 2025 · Coalfields Regeneration Trust · Hansard source

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  I agree, and I will make that specific request later in my remarks. My hon. Friend raises a very good point; I join him in calling on Government to step up and help to deliver for my constituents and his. I am sorry to say that I was not in his patch at the weekend, but I am looking forward to an invitation before too long. The former coalfields have a job density of only 57 employee jobs per 100 working-age residents, compared with a national average of 73 per 100 and 88 per 100 in the main regional cities. More than 18.7% of people living in the coalfields—many of whom are represented by hon. Members in the Chamber this evening—are classed as economically inactive. That must change, and it forms a key part of my focus as the Member of Parliament for Newcastle-under-Lyme.