Brian Mathew MP: speeches

Speeches

• 8 Dec 2025 · Digital ID · Hansard source

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  Quite apart from the excellent points made by my hon. Friend and by Members on all sides of the Chamber, Singapore has a population that is 10 times smaller than ours, and it took it over 12 years to develop its system. How long would it take us to develop ours: 100 years?

• 3 Dec 2025 · Local Media · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Allin-Khan. I thank the hon. Member for Bromley and Biggin Hill (Peter Fortune) for securing this timely debate, and everyone who has spoken so far. This really is an important issue. In Melksham and Devizes, we are lucky to have a local print newspaper in the Melksham News , which is both well regarded and widely read. It is staffed by fantastic journalists who work hard to bring local people the news that matters most to them. Importantly, those journalists are rooted in the local community, something that is essential to good local journalism. Speaking to the Melksham News , I have been made aware that many local authorities exclusively publish their statutory advice for things such as road closures and consultations with larger corporate news outlets. I agree with the paper that it would surely be fairer, and indeed provide wider and more effective reach, if some of that ad spend was shared out among local, independent news outlets. Those notices should be an important source of income for small, independent publishers and it would be one small way in which we elected officials can continue to help our free and fair press. Of course, it must be acknowledged that the way in which people consume their news is changing, and has been for many decades now—from broadsheets to radio to television and social media. However, we must do everything we can to preserve and help independent local news organisations, which are keeping the flame of honest journalism alive. It was not lost on me that local papers were essential in pushing back on the misinformation spreading online last summer. If the Government are serious about changing local media and its landscape and helping local journalists, they need to implement the changes recommended in the 2023 “Sustainability of local journalism” report. I now have a regular column in the Melksham News myself, and I have noticed that what I write about is picked up and discussed around the town. It is clear that it is being read and that there is a real desire for local news for local people.

• 2 Dec 2025 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source

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  While increased investment in the NHS and the lifting of the two-child benefit cap are welcome, for the second year in a row, the Government have largely failed to deliver on their promise to tackle the cost of living crisis and grow the economy. In neglecting to fix our relationship with Europe, they are overlooking the easiest solution to turbocharge our economy and repair the mess left by Brexit. A closer, more pragmatic partnership with our closest neighbours through a customs union would mean faster growth, improved competitiveness and a reduction in the red tape that is holding back small and medium-sized businesses, like those in my constituency of Melksham and Devizes. Last week, the owner of a transport company in Broughton Gifford told me that he had been up until the small hours doing the paperwork needed for his company to export to Europe. These businesses want to expand, export and hire new staff, but they are being held back by a Government that do not seem to understand, or want to understand, business. Our hospitality sector tells the same story. In the towns and villages in my constituency, hospitality is not just an industry but an essential part of the social fabric. I have visited a number of the outstanding pubs in my constituency, including the British Lion in Devizes and the Lamb in Urchfont, and spoken to the landlords, staff and customers. They are being squeezed by high energy costs, pressures from supply chains, staffing shortages and rising prices. Wadworth, a family-run independent brewer and pub company based in Devizes that produces the much-loved 6X beer, is facing increased charges of thousands of pounds at its tenanted pubs. Despite the reduced multiplier, those pubs face an increase of 76% in their business rates, and will pay an extra £12,900 on average over the next three years, with some paying much more. That will likely lead to pub closures and job losses. I remind the Chancellor that a closed pub pays no taxes, so those measures are not only a nail in the coffin of one of our most valued assets, namely the Great British pub, but a major shot in the foot for the Chancellor and her Government. The Liberal Democrat policy to cut 5p on VAT for the hospitality sector would help those businesses not only to survive but to ensure that people can afford the little things that brighten up life, such as a pint after work, fish and chips on a Friday or a family meal, which should not break the bank. This low-growth, high-tax Budget is punishing people, hitting them with stealth taxes on their wages and failing to tackle the actual problems that our residents and businesses face. It fails to reverse the unpopular and self-defeating farm inheritance tax or at least to raise the threshold so that it protects working family farms. The Lib Dems wanted this Budget to be forward-thinking, going for growth with a deal for Europe, saving our high streets, and helping families with the cost of living. Instead, sadly, it was a missed opportunity and squandered the chance to deliver the change that is needed.

• 2 Dec 2025 · Criminal Court Reform · Hansard source

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  Justice delayed is indeed justice denied, but we have a proud history of juries in this country. If juries are to be suspended for cases in which a sentence of less than three years is expected in order to clear the backlog, will that just be for a limited time, and when will normal jury service be resumed?

• 24 Nov 2025 · Flood Resilience: New Housing · Hansard source

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  Over the past week, I am sure many of us have seen and felt the proof that our weather is becoming more extreme. That is why it is ever more important to be proactive and forward-thinking in our housing strategy. Does the Minister agree that sites that flood frequently, such as the old golf course in Bradford-on-Avon in my constituency of Melksham and Devizes, should not be included in local plans and not be called upon for development?

• 24 Nov 2025 · Flood Resilience: New Housing · Hansard source

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  16. What steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to ensure that new housing developments are adequately flood-resilient.

• 18 Nov 2025 · Gaza and Sudan · Hansard source

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  I welcome the statement, but why is the FCDO’s atrocity prevention team not working with the Sudan team? Our briefing this morning gave a minimum estimate of 60,000 murdered thus far by the RSF in El Fasher, with bodies being buried by bulldozers. El Obeid is likely to be next, and Tawila camp is expected to be attacked on Christmas day. This is the worst human atrocity since Rwanda. The Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary need to call it out for what it is—mass murder—engage with the UAE to see it stopped, and end trade if it is not.

• 11 Nov 2025 · Remembrance Day: Armed Forces · Hansard source

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  Since being elected, it has been my honour to represent my constituency at remembrance events, parades, ceremonies and services. Last weekend, I laid a wreath in Devizes. For me, it was an opportunity not just to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice, but to appreciate the community’s patriotic spirit. So many have given so much. Everyone from the Brownies and the cadets to servicemen and women, town councillors and veterans on motorbikes came out on Sunday. It was not just good to see it, but humbling to be a part of it. As a member of the Royal British Legion, it has been a privilege to campaign alongside veterans and fellow members and to meet service families. A few years ago, I had the chance with friends and fellow RBL members to take part in “Pedal to Ypres”, a fundraising cycle ride that takes participants along the frontline of the first world war as far as Vimy ridge. As we cycled back to Dunkirk with the sea wind in our faces and the situation in Ukraine very much on our minds, the curtain between the events of 1940 and the present day seemed poignantly thin. Walking around these last few weeks, it has been good to see the poppies on people’s coats and jackets and to see poppy sellers outside shops and at railway stations. Indeed, the short ceremony in Westminster Hall this morning to mark the 11th hour of the 11th day was particularly striking. At a time when the country has felt divided, it is important to remember those family and community members who served and, in doing so, to unite people across the country.

• 5 Nov 2025 · Conflict in Sudan · Hansard source

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  In last night’s Adjournment debate, I called for a Lancaster House-style conference for all the parties to the Sudan conflict, so that a way to peace can be found. Government Members also called for a peacemaking force. Given the urgency of the situation, can the Minister please see to it that both of those suggestions are investigated, and that discussions are opened with our partners in the region, including Nigeria, so that the suggestions can be acted on?

• 4 Nov 2025 · Sudan: Government Support · Hansard source

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  I completely agree with the right hon. Lady and thank her for raising that point. A third of children under five in El Fasher are suffering from acute malnutrition, and some are resorting to eating animal feed and plant waste to survive. I would hope that everything possible will be done to allow humanitarian corridors to open for civilians to leave besieged areas, and to be assured they are not going from the frying pan into the fire. The supply of weaponry and military equipment is the oxygen keeping this conflict alive, and we as penholder should lead efforts to impose a binding, enforceable arms embargo across all of Sudan.

• 4 Nov 2025 · Sudan: Government Support · Hansard source

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  I heartily agree with the hon. Member. Humanitarian workers are also under threat, and I commend the work being done as we speak by groups like Doctors without Borders—MSF—and the International Committee of the Red Cross. MSF has been treating hundreds fleeing El Fasher over the last week, including men, women and children suffering from severe malnutrition, gunshot wounds and other injuries linked to beatings and torture. As a former aid worker who has lived and worked in Sudan, although many years ago, I want to express my deep sadness over the killing of five Sudanese Red Crescent Society volunteers in Bara, North Kordofan. Humanitarian workers are often the first and sometimes only responders for people in desperate situations around the world, and they selflessly give their time and skills, as well as their courage and compassion. My heart goes out to their families.

• 4 Nov 2025 · Sudan: Government Support · Hansard source

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  We are in Remembrance Week, when we remember the dead of past wars. Right now in Sudan, a war as murderous and horrible as anything the world has faced is shattering the lives of civilians, of children, of women and of men, in ways we can scarcely countenance. I have secured this debate because what is going on in Sudan cannot continue. The fall of the city of El Fasher, after a brutal 18-month siege, is the latest disaster in what the Foreign Secretary accurately described at the weekend as “the largest humanitarian crisis in the 21st century.” Over the past week, reports have been coming in of executions, forced expulsions and organised massacres—the evidence of which is literally visible from space, with images of carnage and bodies strewn in the streets. Conditions in El Fasher have been described as “apocalyptic”. However, this was not unexpected. Tragically, it was very much predicted, with warnings from numerous sources. Descriptions of El Fasher as another Srebrenica are not misplaced, although they are in many ways worse.

• 4 Nov 2025 · Sudan: Government Support · Hansard source

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  I very much agree with the hon. Lady, and I hope that my speech will bring some ideas to the floor. The Government need to be bolder, more direct and proactive in their work to support Sudan and the Sudanese people. As UN Security Council penholder on Sudan and lead in the core group on Sudan at the UN Human Rights Council for the protection of civilians, it is our duty to try every possible avenue to push for peace and change. I am sure we are all glad to see the recent announcement from the Foreign Secretary that £5 million in aid will be going to Sudan, in addition to the £120 million already allocated this financial year, with £2 million specifically going to support survivors of sexual violence. This conflict has been particularly devasting for the women and girls subjected to that violence. They often have no potential recourse, justice or even access to the most basic health services after being attacked. We need to look to the future and to recommendations from the sources that predicted the ongoing violence. Protection Approaches, an organisation that repeatedly predicted the potential for extreme violence in El Fasher, has pointed to the city of Tawila as a next step in the trajectory of the Rapid Support Forces’ strategy.

• 4 Nov 2025 · Sudan: Government Support · Hansard source

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  I totally agree; we need to be far more outspoken on this issue.

• 4 Nov 2025 · Sudan: Government Support · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Gentleman for his comments, and I agree with him. Will the Government do for Tawila what was not done for El Geneina, Zamzam, or El Fasher, and recognise its precariousness before it is too late? Will the Government use every diplomatic pressure and avenue available to secure guarantees that humanitarian assistance and aid can be delivered unimpeded?

• 4 Nov 2025 · Sudan: Government Support · Hansard source

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  I agree with my hon. Friend. I call on the Government to follow on from the London Sudan conference held in April and hold a Lancaster House-style peace conference for all the parties to the conflict. They must hold it in a place of safety, on neutral ground, where peace in Sudan and the means to achieve it can be fully debated and a way forward can be found for peace, reconciliation and rebuilding. Some may say that such a journey is impossible, but if we do not try, we will not succeed. If a journey begins with a single step, let this be such a step. We cannot and must not allow the killing, torture and rape to continue.

• 4 Nov 2025 · Sudan: Government Support · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for his kind comments. I agree with him, and I hope to put forward some ideas that may prove useful. There are no United Nations peacekeepers on hand even to witness the killings. Current events are a continuation of a calculated political strategy to destroy and ethnically cleanse a province that gives its name to one of the tribes —namely the Fur. The Zaghawa, Berti and Masalit tribes have been similarly targeted in a strategy that began, arguably, well over 20 years ago. Despite the commendable efforts to improve international accountability—including through support for the International Criminal Court and UN fact-finding missions—as well as the efforts of many Members here and our UK aid programme to raise awareness and support the Sudanese people, what has been done so far is clearly not enough.

• 4 Nov 2025 · Sudan: Government Support · Hansard source

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  I totally agree. I thank my hon. Friend for that point. With that, I will conclude my remarks.

• 4 Nov 2025 · Sudan: Government Support · Hansard source

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  I agree with my hon. Friend. We must ensure that this business with arms is stopped. The atrocities that we are witnessing through the news, with the work of Barbara Plett Usher at the BBC, others at The Guardian and Al Jazeera, and through social media trickling through the media blackout, will be remembered for generations. El Fasher, like Srebrenica before it, will sadly likely stand as a symbol of what happens when the world turns a blind eye.

• 4 Nov 2025 · Sudan: Government Support · Hansard source

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  I agree with the hon. Gentleman; the world needs to wake up. As the penholder, we have the means and the moral responsibility to act and ensure that we and the rest of the world do not turn our backs on Sudan once more.

• 4 Nov 2025 · Sudan: Government Support · Hansard source

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  I know my hon. Friend has military expertise so I thank him for his points. Crucially, we must also suspend arms sales to the United Arab Emirates. The fact that British-made weapons, tools and equipment could be flowing into the hands of those perpetrating these actions is terrible beyond words, and I echo the words of my hon. Friend the Member for Esher and Walton (Monica Harding), who said that equipment made on our soil must never end up in the hands of those committing such atrocities.

• 4 Nov 2025 · Official Development Assistance Reductions · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Desmond. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for West Dorset (Edward Morello) for securing this important debate. Getting UK aid spending to 0.7% of GNI was undoubtedly one of the Liberal Democrats’ proudest moments. It fulfilled a promise and it put us ahead of the game in the race to reach the Brandt target, but more importantly it meant that the UK was doing its bit to make poverty history around the world. The cut to 0.3% is a tragedy for the poorest on the planet, and it diminishes our reputation and influence. I want to focus on my own area of expertise: water, sanitation and hygiene, or WASH. Sustainable development goal 6 is clean water and sanitation, but WASH also underpins most of the other SDGs. We know that the world could face a 40% shortfall of fresh water by 2030, and that progress on the sustainable development goals is way off track for meeting that 2030 deadline. More seriously, the UK’s annual budget for WASH has been cut by approximately 82% since 2018—from £206.5 million to a critical low of just £37 million in 2022. Two thirds of healthcare facilities in the 46 least developed countries do not have access to basic handwashing facilities, and without access to WASH, infections are more likely to spread. That increases the risk of antibiotic-resistant infections, which cause 5 million deaths annually. There are also economic costs. Research by WaterAid has shown that infections developed in healthcare facilities cost seven countries across sub-Saharan Africa $8.4 billion each year. In Malawi, those infections are consuming almost 3% of the country’s GDP, and a staggering 10.9% of its annual healthcare budget is being absorbed in treating them. Many antibiotic-resistant infections treated by the NHS originate elsewhere in the world. Healthcare-acquired infections already cost the NHS at least £2.1 billion a year—a cost that will increase as those infections become increasingly resistant to antibiotics. To protect the NHS, we need to ensure global health security, and that requires investment in WASH. Women’s health is disproportionately affected by inadequate access to WASH, because they are the primary household managers of water and sanitation, and because of their specific needs in childbirth and menstruation. Every year, more than 16 million women give birth in healthcare facilities that lack WASH, and infections associated with unclean birth environments account for 11% of maternal mortality. Some 1.7 billion people do not have a toilet, which makes managing periods much more challenging. With no facilities at school, at work or in public places, many women and girls stay at home every month. Many girls opt out of school altogether when they start their periods. I could go on at great length, but I will say this: let us do the right thing and restore the 0.7% aid spend.

• 29 Oct 2025 · Vehicle Headlight Glare Standards · Hansard source

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  It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Mrs Harris. I thank the hon. Member for Crawley (Peter Lamb) for securing this important debate. The statistics are stark—as stark as bright light coming around the corner at night on a dark country road. The RAC tells us that four in five drivers complain of bright vehicle lights on the road, that 95% of drivers think that at least some headlights are too bright, that 53% have been temporarily blinded while driving, that 79% find it hard to tell when vehicles were indicating because of the bright lights, that 77% find it difficult to judge the position of an oncoming vehicle in the road, that 25% avoid driving at night due to headlights, and that 22% would like to drive less at night. There is an issue that drivers with automatic headlight dipping, and indeed the manufacturers of the systems, may not be aware of: the sensors that dip the lights automatically do not seem to do so until they directly sense an oncoming light, so for those of us who can see a light in the distance and consequently dip our headlights manually, that courtesy is not returned until the first flash of the lights as they round a corner. That makes for more bad temper on our roads, occasional retaliation and of course the danger of being blinded. Some may have seen advertisements for night driving glasses, which have yellow lenses that take out the blinding, blue part of the light. I have found them effective, but it would be useful if the Government’s Transport and Road Research Laboratory, the TRL, could undertake research into the effectiveness of these driving glasses. It could perhaps, along with the British Standards Institution, issue a kitemark for approved night driving glasses and make the case for them more obvious. Other problems, such as the fitting of LED bulbs to standard car light housings are already illegal. Making that point of law more widely known and publishing statistics on the issuance of penalty points for that offence would be widely welcomed, and be a public benefit.

• 16 Oct 2025 · Persecuted Christians · Hansard source

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  Next month marks the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church, when congregations across the world will pray for those persecuted for their faith. That includes those in Sudan, where many Christians have been abducted and killed and more than 100 churches have been targeted for damage in recent years. I ask the hon. Member to use her good offices to encourage the Church of England to do all it can to protect the rights and security of worshippers across the world.

• 16 Oct 2025 · Persecuted Christians · Hansard source

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  1. What steps the Church of England is taking to help support persecuted Christians in other countries.