Alan Strickland MP: speeches 2025

Speeches

• 23 Jun 2025 · UK Modern Industrial Strategy · Hansard source

  More

  I welcome this incredibly ambitious industrial strategy. I will ask specifically about our high-tech SMEs. At NETPark in Sedgefield, we have a cluster of more than 40 businesses making satellite components, medical imaging equipment and other high-tech products. However, as the Secretary of State knows, too often they struggle to get private finance, and they have struggled in the past to get Government innovation funding. How will this strategy really put the rocket boosters behind high-tech SMEs in regions such as the north-east?

• 23 Jun 2025 · UK Military Base Protection · Hansard source

  More

  I thank the Defence Secretary for the urgent review he has launched, and the Minister for the leadership he is showing. I join Members from across the House in condemning the appalling attack at Brize Norton, which I was privileged to visit earlier this year with the RAF parliamentary scheme. As well as attacking military installations, Palestine Action has launched violent assaults on defence businesses, including in my constituency. As well as rightly holding a review of military base protection, will Defence and Home Office Ministers review what additional security measures and advice—through the MOD, the police and other bodies—our defence manufacturers may need in the coming years as we ramp up defence production?

• 19 Jun 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

  More

  Will the Leader of the House join me in condemning the appalling recent epidemic of antisocial behaviour in Spennymoor, which has seen shops attacked, playgrounds vandalised and public parks damaged? Does she agree with me that the measures we have been voting on this week, to introduce respect orders and put 13,000 police officers back on our streets, are desperately needed, because we must retake control of our streets and our town centres?

• 18 Jun 2025 · Post-industrial Towns · Hansard source

  More

  My constituency had the Stockton and Darlington railway, which began the passenger railway. Since the election, after years of Tory dither and delay, we are proud to have had £800 million put into a world-class train factory. Does my hon. Friend agree that, with the right investment by an active Labour Government, the industrial areas that powered our past can really power our future?

• 13 May 2025 · Defence Industries: North-East · Hansard source

  More

  I commend my hon. Friend for this excellent debate and the Minister for the leadership that she is showing—I was grateful for her recent visit to NETPark in Sedgefield in my constituency. Does my hon. Friend agree that there is another significant benefit of more work going to SMEs? Warfare is changing at such a rapid pace that we need to take hold of innovation and the innovative products being delivered by our SME community in Sedgefield and around the country, so that we are battle-ready for the future.

• 8 Apr 2025 · Easter Adjournment · Hansard source

  More

  Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. Now that I know I get to go first, I might have birthdays more often. It is a real pleasure to speak in this Easter Adjournment debate. In doing so, I pay tribute to the memory of our late colleague Sir David Amess. I was not a Member of the House at the time, but I hear that the number of community organisations that Sir David managed to cram into his speeches was the stuff of legend. I am unlikely to match that, but I wish to talk about three organisations in my constituency that make a particular contribution. I start with Spennymoor Town football club. Players, fans, club staff and everyone else in Spennymoor are celebrating the club’s fantastic win against Rochdale at the weekend. Winning that game means they will play in the FA trophy final, which will be held in May at Wembley stadium—that is absolutely incredible. I am really proud of what the club have achieved, and it was brilliant to see them play recently in another fantastic match, so I congratulate everyone involved. I am also hugely grateful to Spennymoor Town football club for the contribution it makes to the community. Since being founded as Spennymoor United in 1904, the club has been at the heart of the town’s life. Its community meals programme supports 100 residents a week; it engages 300 young people in Tudhoe, Cassop, Fishburn and Spennymoor through its youth work; and it is widening participation through its disability football scheme so that more people can take part in the sport. I thank the club for that work, congratulate it on its win, and pay particular tribute to chairman Brad Groves, manager Graeme Lee, and managing director Ian Geldard. Spennymoor Town FC is a reminder of what many football clubs used to be, and what all could and should be: organisations that unite communities, support local people and invest in the next generation of players. Next, I pay tribute to everyone involved in running Coxhoe village hall and thank them for the wide range of activities they provide. It is a village hall like no other—a thriving community hub used by people of all ages, running a community pantry to feed local families and organising makers’ markets to sell local produce, as well as fitness classes, hearing loss support groups and many other great activities. I was pleased recently to be invited to its beer festival, for which volunteer Nick Young handmade a bar that held 40 different draught ales and ciders. I felt that it was my public duty to sample the available produce, and I am pleased to report to the House that, from my hazy memory of the evening, all the beer was excellent. Sticking to the liquid refreshment theme, Coxhoe village hall also hosts the craft group Pimm’s and Needles, but there is no need to worry about either of those groups getting out of hand, because it also hosts rehearsals of Durham police’s male voice choir. While many villages have seen a loss of shops, pubs and other facilities, the incredible team of volunteers at that hall reminds us that it is still possible to have thriving anchor institutions at the heart of our communities. Finally, I would like to recognise Friends of the Stockton and Darlington Railway for the leadership it has shown. Since 2013, its volunteers have led the campaign to ensure that the bicentenary of the world’s first public passenger railway is properly marked. I am really proud that 2025 marks 200 years since Locomotion No. 1 was placed on the tracks of what is now Heighington station in my constituency. That crucial moment was the birth of the passenger rail network, to which all rail around the globe can trace its beginnings. The friends group has championed the cause of the railway, encouraging investment in local museums and the establishment of a heritage trail, and has helped shape the international festival to mark the anniversary that we kicked off recently. I place on record my thanks to its chair, Niall Hammond, for leading that incredible work. Celebrating this anniversary is not just of local interest; our nation’s defining contribution to the creation of the railways is something that I hope Members from across this House will join us in the north-east in recognising this year. It is a matter of particular pride that my home town is not only the birthplace of the railways, but central to their future, with modern battery-powered trains rolling off the production lines at the Hitachi plant, which I was delighted to welcome the Transport Secretary back to last week. In closing, I thank everyone involved with Spennymoor Town football club, Coxhoe village hall and Friends of the Stockton and Darlington Railway. It is community organisations such as these that make my constituency and our country the thriving places of pride and opportunity they are today.

• 25 Mar 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

  More

  T2. It has been brilliant to meet residents who in recent weeks have had their operation dates brought forward, thanks to the additional evening and weekend appointments that the Labour Government have funded, but we know that too many people are still waiting too long. What more will Ministers be doing to really drive down waiting lists in my community and across the country?

• 25 Mar 2025 · Terms and Conditions of Employment · Hansard source

  More

  I strongly welcome the proposed increases to minimum wage rates, which will help people of all ages across all communities in our country. There is a particularly welcome boost for apprentices, who are the future of our economy. Those increases will make a real difference to people in my constituency and across our great nation, for three reasons. First, as colleagues have said, we must make work pay; that is vital for the health of our economy. It is crucial that we ensure that those who contribute to our economic growth, deliver services in our communities, and manufacture the goods that we need are fairly rewarded, but for too long, that has not been the case in my constituency, or in other areas. Between 2014 and 2022, salary growth in County Durham was among the lowest in the United Kingdom, increasing at less than half the rate of the growth in regions such as London. To tackle these issues, we need to drive economic growth in regions like mine, but we also need clear action to ensure that those on the lowest wages see the growth in their pay that they deserve. Secondly, it is crucial that we tackle the cost of living crisis. In the two and a half years I spent campaigning as a Labour candidate before being elected to this House, the cost of living crisis was raised with me time and again. Family after family has been hit by rising bills but flatlining pay. That issue affected my local residents particularly acutely, because median weekly pay for those in full-time work in my constituency is £150 less a week than the UK average—that is £600 a month less to pay the bills and make ends meet. That is why it is so vital that this time, the Government have taken the cost of living into account when setting minimum wage levels. Thirdly, we must support growth. If we are to grow our economy, routes into work—including apprenticeships, entry-level jobs and other routes into starting a career—must be attractive. A key part of that is having pay levels that reward those going into work and incentivise participation in the labour market. For young people in my constituency, getting a job with decent pay has too often meant moving away from the town they grew up in. That is another reason why this direct action to tackle low pay is so important. As the representative of a constituency with a significant history of manufacturing, including modern manufacturing, such as in the fantastic Hitachi trains factory, I particularly welcome the wage increase for 18 to 20-year-olds, and for those on apprenticeships. It will ensure that young people going into work, who are the future of our country’s manufacturing sector, are paid properly, and that a secure future is possible locally. I came into politics to make a genuine difference to the people of my home town of Newton Aycliffe, the wider constituency, and our country. Increasing the minimum wage is one way to do that, putting more money into the pockets of 3 million of our citizens. That is the difference a Labour Government make.

• 18 Mar 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

  More

  T5. I have recently met a number of families who are members of the British Coal staff superannuation scheme. While I know they will welcome the Minister’s earlier comments, as has been said, many are in their 70s and 80s, and they are keen for answers. Could the Minister expand on her earlier comments to say more about the next steps and when my constituents might get a sense of the timeline and progress going forward?

• 6 Mar 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

  More

  Two hundred years ago this September, the modern passenger railways were born when locomotion No. 1 was put on the tracks at Heighington station in my constituency. Can the Leader of the House tell us how the Government will support the global anniversary of the Darlington-Stockton railway, and will Ministers meet me to discuss how we can bring back to its former glory the dilapidated original station, which is so key to our heritage?

• 3 Mar 2025 · Ukraine · Hansard source

  More

  I thank the Prime Minister in these incredibly difficult times for the strong leadership he is showing. Does he agree that one of the many things that has become clear in recent months is that the security of Britain rests on a secure Europe, that a secure Europe relies on peace in Ukraine, and that peace in Ukraine requires a unified stance against Russian aggression? Does he agree that as free peoples in the UK, Europe, America and our other allies, we must stand firm and stand together and show that democracy will be defended and tyranny will not be tolerated?

• 30 Jan 2025 · Industrial Strategy · Hansard source

  More

  4. What progress his Department has made on developing an industrial strategy.

• 30 Jan 2025 · Industrial Strategy · Hansard source

  More

  I strongly welcome the inclusion of defence in the draft industrial strategy and was pleased yesterday to host a roundtable in Sedgefield with the Minister for Defence Procurement and Industry. Many of the innovative small and medium-sized enterprises that we talked to spoke of the struggles that they have with red tape, bureaucracy and contracting with Departments across Whitehall. How will Ministers grab the opportunity of the industrial strategy to remove this red tape, which too often can thwart SME growth?

• 28 Jan 2025 · Defence Procurement: Small and Medium-sized Enterprises · Hansard source

  More

  I thank the hon. Member for her intervention. I agree. As she rightly says, warfare is developing very quickly and high-tech solutions, of the excellent type she described in her constituency, must absolutely be part of that. When I talk to innovative SMEs at the Durham University spinout science park in my constituency, it is clear we need to think differently about defence procurement. NETPark in Sedgefield is home to more than 40 cutting-edge firms, many of which supply major defence companies and our allies across the globe. They include Kromek, which invented new ways of detecting radiation and biological weaponry; Filtronic, which manufactures satellite components; and Graphene Composites, which produces ultra-light ballistic shields. Their experiences suggest that we need to do more to remain globally competitive. As other hon. Members have rightly said, too often small businesses can feel that UK defence procurement focuses on process at the expense of outcomes and can stifle bottom-up inventiveness with top-down bureaucracy. Our allies show us how we might do this differently. The United States Defence Department takes a broader approach to encouraging and funding military innovation. SMEs are encouraged to approach the Government directly with ideas for new products or with potential technologies they are developing and to showcase tech solutions to problems that may not have even been considered yet by officials. In turn the US Defence Department and its research agency, the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, proactively seek out innovative small companies that offer new ideas and technologies that contribute to tackling future military challenges.

• 28 Jan 2025 · Defence Procurement: Small and Medium-sized Enterprises · Hansard source

  More

  I beg to move, That this House has considered SME participation in defence procurement. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. I recognise that procurement is not usually a topic that gets pulses racing, but the threats posed to the UK and our allies certainly should. Central to our ability to rise to these challenges is using the defence industrial strategy to unleash the inventiveness, ingenuity and creativity of British industry. I will cover three things: our need to respond to the changing face of warfare; adopting a proactive entrepreneurial approach to acquiring the defence supplies we need; and the practical steps we can take to place small and medium-sized enterprises innovation in the service of our national defence. I turn first to our need to respond to the changing face of warfare. Technology has been rapidly altering the nature of warfare at a pace rarely witnessed before. We see this most clearly in Ukraine, where drone technology has rewritten the rules of modern conflict. Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine and the resulting war have shown us the incredible speed at which military technology is advancing. Reconnaissance drones paint detailed maps of occupied territory, helping to guide unmanned attack drones in strikes on Russian vehicles and equipment. The role of this technology is now so important that a dedicated branch of the Ukrainian military has been established to deploy it. Here at home, I have seen first hand the RAF’s latest unmanned air systems as part of an armed forces parliamentary scheme visit. Drones, artificial intelligence and rapidly evolving satellite technology are being used to redefine all aspects of conflict, from the battlefield to the information war, to who controls space. Amid those significant and growing global threats, it is vital that Britain is at the forefront of developments to ensure that we can defend not only ourselves, but our allies and interests across the globe.

• 28 Jan 2025 · Defence Procurement: Small and Medium-sized Enterprises · Hansard source

  More

  I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention. He is absolutely right: across the economy with the Government’s growth mission, defence must be a crucial sector, but as he has said, too often SMEs are shut out by bureaucratic processes, which I will be keen to talk more about.

• 28 Jan 2025 · Defence Procurement: Small and Medium-sized Enterprises · Hansard source

  More

  I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention. I absolutely agree. In my previous life in the housing and the charity sector, I have interacted with Government procurement across Departments. There is a challenge with culture across Whitehall, as my hon. Friend says, of often struggling to deal with the realities of innovative and agile small firms. The approach I described means the US spends around a quarter of its entire military budget directly with SMEs, much higher than the comparable figure for the UK. The UK Defence and Security Accelerator does good work in directly using SMEs to fill technology gaps. However Northern Defence Industries, representing more than 300 companies, has called on the MOD to do more to facilitate open call competition. That would allow SMEs to showcase their defence products directly to Government, without having to wait for specific procurement projects and tenders to be opened. I strongly welcome the intention of Defence Ministers to use the defence industrial strategy to drive engagement with non-traditional contractors, including SMEs. We have a real opportunity to change the way Government think about procurement and a real chance to grow the culture, to which my hon. Friend the Member for Reading Central (Matt Rodda) referred, that gives us the wartime pace of innovation that we need. Just as Churchill’s groundbreaking military technology labs did during the second world war, let us use the resources of the British state to harness the inventiveness and ingenuity offered by our world-leading science and tech companies. Turning finally to the practical steps we can take to place SME innovation in the service of our national defence, one of the key things we could look at is the reliance across Government on the prime contractor model. In practice this means that the Ministry of Defence often uses large contractors to work with SMEs further down the supply chain rather than engaging with them directly. For some years it has been common across Government, under all parties, to shift to working with smaller pools of larger suppliers. That has some obvious benefits, such as reducing the number of contracts that officials need to manage, transferring financial risk and outsourcing much day-to-day contract management, but there is also evidence that the approach can have its downsides, particularly in squeezing out smaller, innovative suppliers. When I worked in the charity sector, strengthening the prime contractor approach in delivering the Work programme led to a number of innovative charities with a real track record of getting people into jobs being unable to work with Government in the future. So what can be done? Where possible, let us try to reserve complex framework contracts for large projects that genuinely need them, reducing the proportion of tenders available only to prime contractors. Where large contracts are required, can we look at these to see whether we can break them down into smaller components that are more accessible to SMEs? Secondly, where working through a prime contractor is the right answer, could we strengthen the requirements for them to engage with SMEs proactively and simplify contract arrangements? Thirdly, could we open up opportunities for the Ministry of Defence to contract directly with SMEs by removing red tape and doing so with an agile and entrepreneurial mindset? If businesses at NETpark can be direct suppliers to DARPA, the US Defence Department, NASA and other allied Governments, I am confident that, through the defence industrial strategy, we too can open up more opportunities for SMEs.

• 28 Jan 2025 · Defence Procurement: Small and Medium-sized Enterprises · Hansard source

  More

  My hon. Friend makes a really important point. Considering that we have shop-bought drones making such a difference in Ukraine and that technology is being used in all sorts of ways, my hon. Friend is absolutely right that we need to hunt out and support the small, innovative businesses doing very different and distinctive work in constituencies around the country. It has been a privilege to set out some of the challenges faced by our innovative SMEs and how the defence industrial strategy can address them. I look forward to welcoming the Minister to my constituency soon for a business roundtable to discuss these issues in more detail. I strongly welcome the Government’s putting growth at the heart of the new defence industrial strategy. The defence sector supports one in 60 jobs in the UK, the majority of which are outside London, so this is a real and tangible way of spreading growth, skills and opportunity to all corners of our country. More than that, if we can improve the way we work with SMEs, it will allow us to build an ironclad, sovereign supply of vital defence equipment. Not only will that provide jobs and drive growth but it will protect us from global shocks in the supply chain. Warfare is changing, and we must change with it. Global production is threatened, so we must ensure sovereign supply. As the threat grows, so must our defence manufacturing base. I look forward to working with Defence Ministers on this important strategy and to further contributions from hon. Members of all parties in this debate.

• 28 Jan 2025 · Defence Procurement: Small and Medium-sized Enterprises · Hansard source

  More

  I thank the Minister for her strong leadership on this vital issue. We have discussed these matters on a number of occasions and I know the Minister is committed to really driving this priority through the defence industrial strategy and the wider strategic defence review, which I strongly welcome. I also thank hon. Members around Westminster Hall for what I think has been a strong shared sense of purpose about the importance of tapping in to our innovative small businesses to meet the challenges we face. We have heard about the real pride in defence contractors around the country from the hon. Member for Honiton and Sidmouth (Richard Foord), my hon. Friend the Member for Mansfield (Steve Yemm) and my hon. Friend the Member for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland (Luke Myer). We have heard of the importance of ensuring that economic growth across the country is driven by the defence industry from the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) and the hon. and learned Member for North Antrim (Jim Allister). We have also heard really important points about payments from the hon. Member for Caerphilly (Chris Evans). I thank the Minister and everybody who has taken part today. We have all acknowledged that the global threat is growing, becoming more complex and evolving much more quickly. There has been broad agreement that part of the answer is ensuring that we can open up more opportunities to small, nimble, agile high-tech SMEs across the United Kingdom which can be at the forefront of helping us and our allies to meet this challenge. Question put and agreed to. Resolved, That this House has considered SME participation in defence procurement.

• 28 Jan 2025 · Defence Procurement: Small and Medium-sized Enterprises · Hansard source

  More

  I thank the hon. Member for his intervention. He is absolutely right that the commitment of Ministers and the defence industrial strategy to sovereign supply must include all parts of our United Kingdom, including the excellent capabilities in Northern Ireland. Being war-ready for conflicts we cannot predict that will use technology that has not yet been invented, means giving our military the agility and capability to adapt to this changing landscape. Changing the way in which we think about defence procurement is central to this. My second point is around adopting a proactive, entrepreneurial approach to acquiring the defence supplies we need.

• 6 Jan 2025 · Defence Industrial Strategy: SMEs · Hansard source

  More

  The North East Technology Park in Sedgefield is home to many innovative defence businesses, producing satellite technology and biological and radiation detection equipment that is used by our allies across the world. Those businesses proudly contract directly with the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency, NASA, the American Defense Department and other allied Governments, but too often they struggle with MOD procurement rules, which exclude SMEs. Will the Minister meet me and NETPark businesses to discuss how to remove the red tape that hits small businesses in my constituency and across the country that are designing and producing innovative defence supplies?

• 6 Jan 2025 · Defence Industrial Strategy: SMEs · Hansard source

  More

  10. What steps he plans to take through the defence industrial strategy to increase support for defence sector SMEs.