Ben Obese-Jecty MP: speeches

Speeches

• 27 Nov 2024 · Respect Orders and Antisocial Behaviour · Hansard source

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  Antisocial behaviour is a blight on our communities and I agree that the police should be given the resources to tackle it. In my constituency, Cambridgeshire Constabulary is overstretched. In the past week, the Policing Minister has twice dismissed my question as to whether she would review the police allocation formula so that it receives its fair share of funding, and my constituents have noticed. Will she review the formula? If not, how will the Government meet their guarantee for neighbourhood policing?

• 25 Nov 2024 · Retail Crime · Hansard source

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  The Home Secretary has repeatedly reiterated her pledge to tackle shoplifting and violence against shop workers by having a named officer in each community, as part of the 13,000 uplift for neighbourhood policing. I spoke to Cambridgeshire constabulary recently, which confirmed that under the Home Secretary’s plans there would be one police officer to cover the whole town of St Ives. That officer would cover not only St Ives, but the town of Ramsey and all the villages in between—Woodhurst, Old Hurst, Pidley, Warboys, Wistow and Bury. Last week, the Policing Minister would not commit to reviewing the police allocation formula to ensure Cambridgeshire receives its fair share of funding. How can one officer be expected to cover such a large area effectively, given that Cambridgeshire is likely to receive only a handful of the officers?

• 25 Nov 2024 · Storm Bert · Hansard source

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  The flooding Minister, the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice, recently confirmed to me that the Government’s new floods resilience taskforce brings together a range of partners, including the Environment Agency, the devolved Administrations, selected regional Mayors and lead local flood authorities. However, following flooding in Brampton and St Ives that was caused by the high level of the River Great Ouse last month, Cambridgeshire county council informed me that its role as lead local flood authority was only a supporting one, and residents have been understandably frustrated by the lack of clarity about who owns what. Can the Secretary of State offer some clarity on which agency leads the multi-agency response during a flooding event, and how is that reflected in how it interacts with the floods resilience taskforce?

• 20 Nov 2024 · Police Reform · Hansard source

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  Cambridgeshire constabulary is one of the most poorly funded in the country under the current police allocation formula, which is based on population data from 2012. Cambridgeshire has grown vastly since then and is projected to grow by nearly 20% in the next decade. In order to fulfil the Government’s pledges and ensure neighbourhood officers are not overstretched under her plans, will the Policing Minister commit to reviewing the formula before the forthcoming announcement of the 2025-26 police funding settlement, so that Cambridgeshire receives its fair share of the £0.5 billion increase? Will she explain how many officers, of the 13,000 she mentioned, each force will receive?

• 19 Nov 2024 · NHS Dentists: Access · Hansard source

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  Toothless in Huntingdon in my constituency has written to me highlighting that 36% of patients under Cambridgeshire and Peterborough integrated care system no longer have an NHS dentist. It wants dental practices to provide access to those needing emergency treatment and a priority pathway for referrals from hospital departments such as cardiology and oncology. To that extent, what steps are being taken in Huntingdonshire to improve dental access across rural Cambridgeshire? How are the Government helping the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough integrated care system to address those issues?

• 18 Nov 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Labour’s manifesto made it clear that it was committed to scrapping visa fees for non-UK veterans who have served this country for four or more years, as well as their dependants—a pledge I wholeheartedly support and have campaigned on. The Veterans Minister previously stated that the MOD has started to work with the Home Office, so what is the timetable for delivering that manifesto pledge?

• 11 Nov 2024 · Defence: 2.5% GDP Spending Commitment · Hansard source

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  I would urge the Secretary of State to exercise a little bit of caution when referring to defence spending under the last Labour Government. As someone who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and who used some of the kit and equipment that was issued then, I know that there were some serious concerns at the time, particularly around the Snatch Land Rovers, for example. I spent a lot of time driving around Basra in one of those, and a lot of people lost their lives in those vehicles, so I would exercise a little caution and restraint. My question is on a different topic: the CEA. How much will meeting the additional cost of VAT cost the MOD from its own budget?

• 11 Nov 2024 · Rural Affairs · Hansard source

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  Will the Secretary of State give way?

• 11 Nov 2024 · Rural Affairs · Hansard source

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  Buses in Cambridgeshire are controlled by the combined authority and its Labour Mayor. Will the hon. Member, whose constituency neighbours mine, put pressure on Mayor Johnson to ensure that all our rural communities are included in the bus franchising and that we get the services that are desperately needed? As the hon. Member has pointed out, the Mayor is failing in that respect so far.

• 11 Nov 2024 · Rural Affairs · Hansard source

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  As an MP in a largely rural Cambridgeshire constituency, the potential impact of the changes to both agricultural and business property relief stand to have a devastating effect on the livelihoods of our family farms. I struggle to believe that newly minted rural Labour MPs, or indeed Cambridge’s own farming Minister, are experiencing full-throated support for this policy. We are yet to see Government Members take a stance against this policy on behalf of their constituents. They must be receiving the same angry and worried emails that we are, yet the few who actually come to the Chamber to speak in these debates genuflect before the Government’s anti-farming policy, while hundreds of others hide themselves away. From my local perspective, I can only assume that farmers across the constituency boundary in Labour North West Cambridgeshire simply will not be impacted. Except they will be: there are 203 farm holdings, with a further 306 in Huntingdon and 688 across Huntingdonshire. Guy is an arable farmer in Warboys, right on the constituency boundary with North West Cambridgeshire. His is a 600-acre arable farm producing wheat, barley, beans and sugar beet. Under the Government’s changes to APR and BPR, if Guy were to pass away before passing the farm to his children, the whole business would face a 20% tax bill, equal to £1.2 million, or £120,000 a year over 10 years. That is the entire surplus generated by the farm before any wages are drawn. The only way to fund such a bill would be to sell the land—over 20% of the farm. Once that land is gone, it is gone. As the Prime Minister himself stated at the 2023 NFU conference: “losing a farm is not like losing any other business—it can’t come back”. That land will end up being sold through necessity to developers for houses or for solar farms, both of which, conveniently, are political priorities for this Government. Farming clearly is not. Next week, thousands of farmers will be here in Westminster lobbying us, their representatives in this House, to tell us of the impact this policy will have on their livelihoods. The fact that the NFU has been forced into taking these steps—after unproductive discussions with the Secretary of State, whom many will feel they can no longer trust after his pledge that the Government had no plans to make changes to APR turned out to be a falsehood—is a damning indictment of Labour’s commitment to farmers. The Prime Minister claimed that this Labour Government: “seeks a new relationship with the countryside and farming communities…A relationship based on respect and on genuine partnership.” Whether it be in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire or any of our rural heartlands, the Prime Minister is not delivering on that promise. The Prime Minister’s “new relationship” has quickly soured into a toxic one. I hope that Labour MPs will be brave enough not only to face their constituents when they come to Westminster next week, but to lobby the Chancellor and the Secretary of State to ensure that our family farms are not taxed out of existence.

• 11 Nov 2024 · Rural Affairs · Hansard source

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  Will the Minister give way?

• 6 Nov 2024 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Does the Prime Minister think it is acceptable for a Back-Bench MP to suggest that the Leader of the Opposition represents “white supremacy in blackface” and is “the most prominent member of white supremacy’s black collaborator class”, with all the race traitor innuendo that that carries? If he does not, why has he not removed the Whip?

• 4 Nov 2024 · Budget: Implications for Farming Communities · Hansard source

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  As a fellow Cambridgeshire MP, and having already announced a forthcoming ban on neonicotinoids for our sugar beet farmers, what message will the Minister give to the Cambridgeshire farmers so gravely impacted by the Government’s family farms tax that will lead to farmland being sold, and potentially see more of our best and most versatile land being used for vast solar farms? How does the slashing of agricultural property relief help farmers in Cambridgeshire?

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

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  This Labour Government pledged that taxes would not be increased on working people, but they could not even stick to that. It does not matter how cleverly worded their manifesto was, these tax raises are undoubtedly not in the spirit of the sentiment on which Labour’s entire election campaign was founded. Small businesses have been left reeling by the measures imposed on them. Duncan Blake is a GP at the Priory Fields practice in Huntingdon. I recently visited the practice and discussed some of the challenges it faces. He warned how the increase in national insurance contributions and the lowering of the thresholds will serve only to undermine access and patient care, in addition to the significant financial pressures that GP practices already face. Practices such as Priory Fields are wedded to the NHS and dependent upon it for funding. There is no ability to increase prices to absorb increased costs. GP practices are not eligible for employment allowance, so will bear the full brunt of these rises. Why are the Government not treating GP practices like other parts of the NHS and reimbursing those costs?

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

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  I agree with my hon. Friend. In my constituency, farmers have been left reeling by the Government’s ruinous family farms tax that effectively ends the family farm through their reckless slashing of agricultural property relief, yet the Government repeatedly claimed there would be no tax rises on “working people”. Are the Government honestly suggesting that farmers are not “working people”? Those on the Government Benches made repeated assurances over the past year. The duplicity of the Labour party on this issue is breathtaking. At last year’s Country Land and Business Association conference, the now Environment Secretary stated that “we have no intention of changing APR.” The CLA has said that the change could harm 70,000 UK farms, declaring it a “betrayal” that “puts dynamite beneath the livelihoods of British farming.” The Prime Minister and the Environment Secretary were more than happy to leverage support from the countryside, with glossy photoshoots of rambling around the countryside in designer wellies. Indeed, the Prime Minister was very eager to make his pitch to rural communities during his Country Life article and photoshoot in September last year, in which he said: “The need for stability now is urgent: farmers need to plan for the long term more than ever before.” I doubt farmers were expecting that long-term planning to include being forced to sell 20% of their farms, making them unviable, or taking a 20% loan to cover those costs, potentially saddling the next generation with debts that farming is not profitable enough to repay. Only yesterday, the Chancellor stated on the BBC that: “Only a very small number of agricultural properties will be affected”. A £1 million farm is 100 acres. According to DEFRA’s agricultural facts summary, published the day after the Budget, on 31 October, the average UK farm size is just over 200 acres. How can the Chancellor make her claim when the relevant Government Department has itself contradicted her position? Given the speed and alacrity with which the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero has covered the countryside with solar panels, it should come as no surprise that the Government are so eager to force farmers out of business, freeing up swathes of the countryside to be sold to developers for more of the same. The Government will be forced into rowing back on this policy, whether it be now or after the visual spectacle of demonstrating farmers blockading Parliament Square with tractors. I urge the Government to do the right thing now, rather than being forced to do so in a few weeks.

• 28 Oct 2024 · Remembrance and Veterans · Hansard source

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  In Huntingdon, one in nine households has a veteran in it. That astonishing figure illustrates the historical link between our armed forces and a constituency that still has RAF Wyton and two United States air force bases, RAF Alconbury and RAF Molesworth—legacy bases that can trace their history back to the second world war. I am hugely proud to represent such a vibrant veterans community. My own service was as an infantry officer in the Royal Yorkshire Regiment. I served in the British Army during the most kinetic period of operations since the Korean war. Operation Herrick 11 in Afghanistan was a difficult tour. In Sangin, our battlegroup lost 30 soldiers; a further 170 were wounded. I remember being in the operations room when two new battle casualty replacements arrived on a resupply helicopter. I did not stop to have a brew, or help them settle in; my interaction with them both was fleeting—transactional. It was an everyday occurrence, and I thought little more about it. A fortnight later, on Tuesday 15 December 2009, I was manning the operations room, and over the radio came an all-too-familiar message: “Contact IED. Wait. Out.” There follows a pause that lasts an eternity. You know somebody is now fighting for their life; they might already be dead. You know that you can do little other than stand up the quick reaction force and wait to find out how grave the situation is. A suicide bomber had ridden his motorbike into the checkpoint and detonated the bomb, instantly killing the two Afghan soldiers manning the checkpoint and fatally wounding two of our soldiers providing cover. I pressed our commander on the ground for an update. To my eternal regret, I was quite short with him, and continued to harry him for a sitrep. I did not know at the time that he was trying to give lifesaving first aid to one of those soldiers while under fire. The medic that day tried valiantly to save both soldiers. Ignoring the bullets cutting the air around her, she calmly moved between each casualty, determined to do all she could to care for them. The weight of enemy fire increased. With flagrant disregard for her own safety, Bushbye nevertheless continued to move between the casualties, personally administering CPR to one of the soldiers. For her actions, Lance Corporal Sarah Bushbye was awarded the Military Cross. Rifleman James Brown was 18 years old. He had arrived on that helicopter. He had been in Sangin for less than two weeks. Age shall not weary him, nor the years condemn. I have always promised to remember him, and to give him the opportunity to live on that he sadly never had. We have a duty in this House to consider the ramifications of committing our soldiers to operations. I do not recount this story to dissuade, but to put a human face on the price it costs. They were the best of us, and the very least we can do is remember them.

• 24 Oct 2024 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  In Huntingdon, we have a swathe of new energy infrastructure developments. We already have the near-2,000-acre East Park Energy solar farm proposed for near Great Staughton, and the Government recently forced through plans for the Envar incinerator on the edge of St Ives, after an appeal from the developer. Over the past week, many constituents have written to me expressing their concerns about the proposed Warboys incinerator at the Old Brickworks, just 4 miles from the Envar incinerator site. The parishes of Warboys and Pidley-cum-Fenton are placed between those sites. Will the Leader of the House make time in the parliamentary schedule for this House to discuss the impact that new energy infrastructure is having on the rural communities that it is being imposed on?

• 24 Oct 2024 · Special Educational Needs and Disabilities · Hansard source

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  Cambridgeshire county council is failing to meet the conditions of the dedicated school grants safety valve agreement, with only 5% of EHCPs being granted within the 20-week timeframe; the average in England is 49%. Families in my constituency face huge challenges in ensuring that their children’s education is not disrupted or negatively impacted. How do the Government plan to address these unacceptable delays?

• 24 Oct 2024 · Black History Month · Hansard source

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  Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I am grateful for someone recognising the difference between me and my friend the hon. Member for Eastbourne (Josh Babarinde)! I do not like talking about race. I do not like talking about the colour of someone’s skin, with the innuendo that often accompanies it, not because it is awkward and not for any lack of pride or identity, but simply because it is so rare for the context to be positive, as well as because of the inevitable abuse from those on the left that follows any contribution from Conservative Members. Sometimes the distance between the two sides of this Chamber is far greater than just two swords’ lengths. My father met my mother in 1969 when they were teenagers, he the son of the Stool Chief of Apirede-Akuapem, Nana Oboni Ayim Nyarko III, she a white girl from West Sussex who worked in the local bank. Neither of them was a toolmaker or worked for the NHS, but I doubt that anyone will be surprised to learn that 1969 was not the cultural epoch of inter-racial relationships. It was hard—much harder than anything that I have ever had to go through. They faced prejudice that I could never imagine. But, as one might expect, they had the strength to persevere, and I am hugely proud of them because they are still together. This Christmas eve, it will be 55 years since they met, and they are still going strong. They blazed a trail that I, and thousands like me, have been able to follow. They never asked for any recognition or, I am sure, expected to receive any, but they absolutely grizzed it out, and I would not be standing here today if they had not lasted the course. Reclaiming the narrative started with their story and others like theirs. Too often, we talk about life as a black Briton through the filter of injustice. We obsess over slavery and reparations, over grievances and micro-aggressions, over systemic and institutional racism. We unintentionally drip feed an invective of nihilistic victimhood and exculpable underachievement, and then we wonder why some find it so easy to look down on the black population, and why some within it are so unwilling to do their share of the heavy lifting. We risk reinforcing a “them and us” narrative that tells black Britons that they are second-class citizens. We lazily accept a media landscape that revels in promoting the very worst aspects of black culture, repeatedly valorising criminality and violent gangs and exploiting negative stereotypes for commercial gain, without ever really holding to account the companies that happily do so. It is one of the contributing factors to the milieu that feeds concerns around stop and search on the one hand, and children carrying knives on the other. It is for all of us in this House to reclaim that narrative, recognising that it is not the historic narrative that we are saddled with, but a current one to which we are voluntarily yoked. We have a responsibility in this House, whether we like it or not, to be role models for those who follow us. We who have the confidence, the talent or the simple good fortune to find ourselves in this place have shown that race need no longer be a barrier to success. We must recognise that. Reclaiming the narrative starts with those of us who are privileged enough to be a visible representation of what is possible. Not through all-black shortlists or well-meaning but clumsily implemented pushes to increase diversity that inevitably come at someone else’s expense, but because we earned it. I would never want to think that my success was in any way manufactured because somebody took pity on me because I am not white. Nor would I want that for anybody else. Being black does not stop anyone from being selected in a rural Conservative seat, being the London mayoral candidate or running for the leadership of historically the most successful political party in the world. I am hugely proud to be British, to have served in the British Army and to be here now on the green Benches. I hope that others can feel that this country is one that they are proud to serve, too. Generously, I will leave the last word to the Labour party, and in particular to the first black Cabinet Minister, Lord Boateng, on his promotion to Chief Secretary to the Treasury: “My colour is part of me but I do not choose to be defined by my colour.” For me, as somebody who does not like to talk about their race, that is one sentiment that makes the gap between the two sides of the House a little less than two swords’ length.

• 22 Oct 2024 · Large-scale Energy Projects and Food Security · Hansard source

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  In Huntingdon we have a new solar farm proposed that is going through the planning application at present. It will be 1,900 acres in size. East Park Energy covers a vast range of farmland, all of which is grade 2 or grade 3a. Does the hon. Member agree with me that until we fully explore the opportunity to put solar panels on rooftops, we should not be pursuing putting solar power on good quality farmland?

• 22 Oct 2024 · Ukraine · Hansard source

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  It is concerning that we have received only the briefest of updates in this House on the direct involvement of North Korean troops, after one week of it being widely reported in the media. Last week, during Defence questions, the right hon. Gentleman gave his full-throated support for Ukraine but made no mention of the Government’s awareness of the potential deployment of North Korean reinforcements up to brigade strength. What is the Government’s current assessment of the scope of North Korean involvement, and how do overt North Korean boots on the ground in Ukraine necessitate a change in our posture?

• 14 Oct 2024 · Veterans: Support · Hansard source

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  Wait for it. Last week, the Government confirmed that that would actually be done by exempting veterans from local connection and residency tests, rather than by making dedicated housing available. Given that it was a key conference pledge, what guarantees are the Government able to offer veterans that homes really will be there for them?

• 14 Oct 2024 · Veterans: Support · Hansard source

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  During his Labour conference speech, the Prime Minister made one of his key announcements: “We will repay those who served us and house all veterans in housing need. Homes will be there for heroes.”

• 10 Oct 2024 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Many happy returns to the Leader of the House, who shares her birthday with the true legend that is my father. Last week, we saw significant flooding in the east of England, and across Cambridgeshire in particular. In my constituency of Huntingdon, I visited local residents whose houses either flooded or were at risk of flooding on Hansell Road and Centenary Way in Brampton, and on Whitecross in St Ives. In all instances, local residents told me that they were frustrated by the lack of co-ordination in the multi-agency response. Afterwards, I wrote to the chief executive of Cambridgeshire county council to address that. He was very quick to abdicate responsibility, stating that “being a Lead Flood Authority does not mean we are the lead agency in addressing a response to flooding”. With the Government implementing a flood resilience taskforce, will the Leader of the House make time in the parliamentary schedule to debate the role and responsibilities of co-ordinating the multi-agency response to flooding?

• 10 Oct 2024 · Local Bus Services · Hansard source

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  In my constituency of Huntingdon, eight villages receive no bus services whatsoever, including Molesworth, where we will shortly see a half a billion pound investment in upgrading and expanding our defence infrastructure at RAF Molesworth. Given that franchising will potentially be introduced in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, will the Secretary of State meet me to discuss how we can guarantee that our rural villages are given the focus they urgently need?