Ben Coleman MP: speeches 2024

Speeches

• 16 Dec 2024 · Water (Special Measures) Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  I am extremely encouraged by what the Secretary of State is saying. In my constituency—I have been following this for well over two years—the amount of sewage discharge has been absolutely contemptible. In 2023 alone, Thames Water pumped sewage into the river 116 times, for 990 hours, even when it was not raining. I am heartened to hear that, unlike the last Government, our Government intend to take serious measures to ensure that bosses are forced to clear up the mess that they create, and stop them doing it. Can the Secretary of State reassure me that, unlike the last Government, he will ensure that the regulators use the powers they are given and do not behave as feebly as they have for the past 14 years?

• 16 Dec 2024 · Water (Special Measures) Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  May I suggest that if the right hon. Lady wishes to see the situation in the Thames, she need only go three bridges downstream to my constituency of Chelsea and Fulham, where the people who live in the Chelsea Reach houseboats regularly send me photos of the dirt and sewage coming down the river after 14 years of absolute failure to regulate the industry?

• 6 Dec 2024 · European Union (Withdrawal Arrangements) Bill · Hansard source

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  Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

• 6 Dec 2024 · European Union (Withdrawal Arrangements) Bill · Hansard source

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  Does the hon. Gentleman think that the Bill would make it easier or more difficult for the Government to enter into successful negotiations on a sanitary and phytosanitary agreement?

• 6 Dec 2024 · European Union (Withdrawal Arrangements) Bill · Hansard source

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  I very much like the image of the law of unintended consequences poking its head around the door. One thing that has occurred to me during this debate is that we need, in Northern Ireland and Great Britain and the whole of our United Kingdom, to try to reduce the red tape that Brexit has introduced. One of the most important steps that we could take is to enter into a sanitary and phytosanitary agreement with the European Union, but if we are to do that, we will need the EU to trust us, and to accept that if we negotiate with it and reach an agreement, we will stick by that agreement. Is not the challenge, in the context of this particular Bill, that one of the laws of unintended consequences might be that the EU simply will not engage in the discussion and negotiation that we need in order to proceed with those red-tape-reducing measures?

• 6 Dec 2024 · European Union (Withdrawal Arrangements) Bill · Hansard source

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  Will the hon. and learned Gentleman give way?

• 6 Dec 2024 · European Union (Withdrawal Arrangements) Bill · Hansard source

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  I find myself surprised to agree to an extent with the former leader of the Conservative party, the right hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith): we need to move away from some of the ridiculous, extreme language. There is no reason why the European Union would want to colonise Northern Ireland. Are we not talking about a sensible agreement that does not seek to impose sovereignty but instead seeks simply to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland, to safeguard the Good Friday agreement in all its dimensions and, at the same time, protect Northern Ireland’s place in the UK and in the UK internal market? Should we not recognise that and stop using extreme language that does nothing to take the debate sensibly forward?

• 3 Dec 2024 · Home-to-School Transport: Children with SEND · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock (Jen Craft) for securing this debate. It is fantastic to see so many hon. Members and hon. Friends sticking up for disabled children and young people and their families. That reflects the focus that we have had on SEND in this new Parliament. According to Contact, a charity for families with disabled children aged 25 or under, 79% of disabled young people are being denied or charged for school transport when they turn 16. One in 10 of them pays more than £1,000 a year, and nearly half of families experience increased stress and financial difficulties. Although I am pleased that in Fulham, which is part of my constituency, the Labour council has chosen not to charge for transport and to maintain free educational transport for disabled children and young people up to the age of 25, I recognise from all that I have heard today and all that I know that that is far from being the case elsewhere. We need to end that unfairness and change the statutory framework, and we need to make free educational transport available to all up to the age of 25. Finally, I encourage those who want to know more about the significant additional costs of caring for disabled children and young people to come to an event that I will be chairing in the Thatcher Room tomorrow at 5.30 pm, at which Contact will launch new research into this issue.

• 2 Dec 2024 · Grenfell Tower Inquiry · Hansard source

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  Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I fully understand the challenge that you face, so I will do my best to keep to four minutes. It is an honour to follow the Deputy Prime Minister and so many hon. Friends and hon. Members, and to have so many people sitting up in the Public Gallery listening patiently to the debate, having suffered so much over the years. I begin by recalling, as others have, the 15 disabled people who died in the Grenfell Tower fire. There was no plan in advance to ensure that they could be evacuated in a crisis. I am pleased that the Government have announced today, in publishing their response to the consultation, that they will introduce a set of measures on residential personal emergency evacuation plans. However, I agree with Grenfell United that personal emergency evacuation plans for disabled residents must be mandated—that is essential. Let me turn to other matters that my hon. Friends have set out so well. The report is scathing about the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and its tenant management organisation. What leaps out in page after page of the report is the council’s absolute lack of respect for so many of its residents—how it refused to listen to people living in social housing when again and again they raised concerns about the problems with the Grenfell building that eventually contributed to the terrible fire; how it treated the most dissenting voices as enemies; and how, once the fire had happened, it treated its own residents. At the time, I was a councillor in the neighbouring borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. The day after the fire, our council became aware, purely by chance, that Kensington and Chelsea council had placed Grenfell residents in hotels in our borough, because some of those residents happened to wander down to the local West Kensington and Gibbs Green estate, where they were given food, shelter and clean clothing. They happened to mention that they had been placed at the Holiday Inn Express in Fulham, and our council leader got council officers to go to all the hotels in the borough, which we discovered were full of Grenfell residents. No one from Kensington and Chelsea council had tried to tell us. The report talks about the council’s response being “muddled” and “piecemeal”, but perhaps another word is “cruel”. Teams from Hammersmith and Fulham council kept a close eye and visited every week to look after the residents as best we could. My hon. Friend the Member for Hammersmith and Chiswick (Andy Slaughter) came and sat with Grenfell residents on the grass at the West Ken and Gibbs Green estate. They asked, “Are you really a Member of Parliament? Because no one official from our borough has been to see us at all.” I cannot speak highly enough of how the community responded. I am keenly aware that where Kensington and Chelsea council failed, the community got it right. The council in Kensington and Chelsea says that it is determined to learn from what it got wrong. That is very welcome, as is the fact that the scope of its review is going to explicitly consider racial as well as social discrimination—I look forward to that being the case. However, I still have serious questions about whether that council really gets it, because thousands of my Chelsea constituents live in social housing, and time and again they say that they do not feel that their voices are being heard, or that the culture has changed. The Friday before last, I decided to call a meeting on the World’s End estate to talk about some serious crime issues—sadly, a man from another estate had been stabbed in an altercation and had died. I invited all the residents to come and have a conversation with me about it. To my surprise, senior councillors from the Conservative Kensington and Chelsea council tried to dissuade me. They said that they had already engaged with residents and that another meeting would bring no more benefit. In the event, more than 50 residents came. We had a great conversation; not everyone agreed with each other, but everyone had a chance to speak and to be heard. Only one thing really shocked me, which was the number of residents who said at the end of the meeting, or even during the meeting, that they had lived on that estate all their lives or for decades, and that this was the first time they had ever been to a meeting like this on the estate—one where they felt listened to. To sum up, I hope that residents will be listened to. If I may, I hope that we will have a debate like this every year, so that we can look at the recommendations. I request that Front Benchers enable that to happen. I am grateful for your time, Madam Deputy Speaker.

• 18 Nov 2024 · Primary School Breakfast Clubs · Hansard source

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  In the Fulham part of my constituency, children in primary schools have enjoyed free breakfasts since 2019. The council initially negotiated that from developers and now it pays for them itself. It has also started providing free school lunches at one of the schools in Fulham. Does my hon. Friend agree that the threshold for children to receive free school meals is currently far too high, and that we ought to be aiming for every child to be given a free breakfast and a free lunch, to avoid the stigma that can damage children’s confidence and impair their performance?

• 5 Nov 2024 · Income Tax (Charge) · Hansard source

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  I am sorry for interrupting my hon. Friend at the very last minute, but he raised the important issue of the rebuilding of St Mary’s. May I suggest to him that that should come alongside the full refurbishment of Charing Cross hospital and Hammersmith hospital, as they all form part of the Imperial College healthcare NHS trust?

• 29 Oct 2024 · Economic Investment and Growth · Hansard source

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  14. What progress she has made on increasing economic growth.

• 29 Oct 2024 · Economic Investment and Growth · Hansard source

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  Thousands of my constituents in Chelsea and Fulham come from European Union countries, and they are all passionate about the UK economy doing well. Does the Chancellor agree that, for the UK to achieve its full economic growth potential, we need to deepen our trading links with the European Union? If she does, will can she say how the Treasury is working with other Government Departments to achieve this?

• 16 Oct 2024 · Carer’s Allowance · Hansard source

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  This has been an extraordinarily interesting debate. I pay tribute to everybody who has spoken and thank the would-be official Opposition for having secured it. In my constituency of Chelsea and Fulham, we have nearly 7,000 unpaid carers, a quarter of whom provide more than 50 hours of care a week. I know many of them, and I know what a vital, tough job they do for their loved ones, as well as the value that carers bring to this country’s economy—many speakers have touched on that. I also know that carers deserve to be treated with kindness, but instead have been treated with cruelty. My hon. Friend the Member for Bexleyheath and Crayford (Daniel Francis) touched on the local cruelty that he has experienced from his Conservative council, but nationally, through a mixture of official incompetence and political indifference, carers have been treated cruelly. Let us be clear: the Department for Work and Pensions cocked up here and cocked up badly. When carers told officials dealing with universal credit that they breached earnings limits, officials did not necessarily pass that on to those officials dealing with carer’s allowance. When carer’s allowance officials were alerted to breaches, they did not act, in many cases for months. They did not look at their emails, so payments were allowed to build up, as has been remarked on, to as much as £48,000. Then the Department for Work and Pensions swooped in, threatened prosecutions and penalties, and in many cases did not listen to perfectly reasonable explanations. It brought in a technical solution that failed to sort the problem out. Why? Because it was woefully under-resourced. Those at the top of the Department for Work and Pensions have never properly apologised for the cruel system that they allowed to be maintained for so long. Why did they not do that? It is simple: they took their cue, as people in the civil service do, from those above them—from their political masters, the Ministers. The shadow Secretary of State was asked by the would-be Leader of the Opposition whether he had ever asked officials how much overpayment was fraudulent. From his response, I suspect it was a question that he never asked. Why did he not ask that, and why did he fail to publish the DWP report from 2021 on the overpayment crisis until just before the election? I suspect the answer is that he was more interested in covering up than in finding out what was going on and sorting out the problem. I am delighted that the Labour Government are now sorting this out. The review is a start. As many Members have said, there is much more to be done to support unpaid carers, but they will no longer be hung out to dry by a cruel, incompetent, indifferent Government, and that has to be a good thing.

• 16 Oct 2024 · Access to Primary Healthcare · Hansard source

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  As a new Member, I am learning how this place works, so I am interested to see how much you expect the Labour Government to have achieved in 100 days. Why is it, after 14 years, that you left the country with the longest waiting lists ever and small children having to get their rotten teeth seen at A&E? What can you say that is helpful to us in understanding why the failure of 14 years of Conservatism took place, and do you feel any remorse about that?

• 16 Oct 2024 · Access to Primary Healthcare · Hansard source

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  I apologise, Madam Deputy Speaker. I used the word “you” instead of “the hon. Member”.

• 15 Oct 2024 · House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill · Hansard source

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  Will the shadow Minister give way?

• 15 Oct 2024 · House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill · Hansard source

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  We are talking not just about today but about what happened 25 years ago. Looking back at today’s debate, has my hon. Friend been struck, as I have, by Opposition Members’ saying that this reform has come too soon, that there has not been enough discussion, that it will cause dire consequences and that we should be looking wider? Those are not arguments from today but from 25 years ago. Does she not think that the Conservatives should be straight and not just fluff things—

• 9 Oct 2024 · Renters’ Rights Bill · Hansard source

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  It is absolutely extraordinary to hear strong opposition to every part of the Bill from the right hon. Lady, or am I mistaken? Is she opposed to the parts of the Bill that will protect children from getting breathing problems and ending up being hospitalised? Is she against the protections the Bill introduces so that people can finally live in decent accommodation? If she does not oppose those things, why is she so relentlessly negative and—forgive me, as a new Member—so relentlessly patronising?

• 9 Oct 2024 · Renters’ Rights Bill · Hansard source

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  My right hon. Friend will be aware that the Darzi report last month highlighted the severe problem of damp and mould, particularly in the private sector, and the bitter impact of that, notably on children’s health. Over a third of my constituents in Chelsea and Fulham live in privately rented homes, and in Fulham the council has had to chase landlords 74 times in the past year alone to address damp and mould. It is tremendous that the Government are tackling this, and I know that my constituents will be delighted. May I ask her to ensure that councils are resourced sufficiently to exercise the stronger investigatory and enforcement powers that the Bill provides?

• 8 Oct 2024 · VAT: Independent Schools · Hansard source

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  rose —

• 8 Oct 2024 · VAT: Independent Schools · Hansard source

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  Will the hon. Member give way?

• 8 Oct 2024 · VAT: Independent Schools · Hansard source

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  I am most grateful to the hon. Member. Does she not think that a little bit of an apology from her and her colleagues for the disgraceful SEND system that they left as a legacy is merited? As people cannot get EHCPs or support in the state sector, and councils and cash-strapped families are turning to the private sector, should she not apologise for the legacy that she and her colleagues have left the country?

• 8 Oct 2024 · Independent Schools: VAT and Business Rates Exemptions · Hansard source

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  Will he apologise?

• 8 Oct 2024 · Independent Schools: VAT and Business Rates Exemptions · Hansard source

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  I am glad the hon. Member appreciates the point I am trying to make. I will make the point it absolutely clear: because children cannot get an EHCP thanks to the failures of the Conservative Government, local councils and parents who can ill afford it are having to send their kids to private schools. I am concerned that the use of EHCPs as a criterion for VAT exemption is too limited, but I do not think that any Conservative Member here has a right to talk about SEND without first saying, “I am sorry.” I support the suggestion of my hon. Friend the Member for York Central (Rachael Maskelll) that before we go ahead with this policy, we undertake a proper assessment of the impact on the education of children with special educational needs who do not have EHCPs. That is a perfectly reasonable point to make, given the hideous, cruel and inept situation in which the Conservative party has left this country’s special educational needs system.