Cameron Thomas MP: speeches

Speeches

• 6 May 2025 · Dedicated Schools Grant · Hansard source

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  As somebody who was—let us be generous—barely educated in Oxfordshire himself, I am very much aware of the issue. My mainstream schools in Gloucestershire fall into the bottom 20% of DSG funding, earning £1,000 less per pupil than schools in the top 20. This means that Cleeve school, for example, with its 1,851 pupils, faces an approximate annual deficit of over £1.8 million compared with a similarly sized school in Middlesbrough.

• 6 May 2025 · Dedicated Schools Grant · Hansard source

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  I thank all hon. Members for their speeches. My hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Honiton and Sidmouth (Richard Foord) equated the differential in funding to an entire teacher’s salary. The hon. Member for Hexham (Joe Morris) contextualised the crisis faced by constituents with inadequate transport infrastructure and unfit buildings. I join him in thanking our teaching staff for their inspiring work ethic. My hon. Friend the Member for Thornbury and Yate (Claire Young) explained how her diverse constituency suffers from not being rural enough and not being urban enough. Her young people do deserve more. My hon. Friend the Member for Glastonbury and Somerton (Sarah Dyke) highlighted the legacy inequity locked into the current system. My hon. Friend the Member for Taunton and Wellington (Gideon Amos) called for the national funding formula to reflect current need, not historical need. My hon. Friend the Member for North Norfolk (Steff Aquarone) broadened the picture by explaining that families are having fewer children because they struggle to support even themselves. I thank the Liberal Democrat spokesperson, my hon. Friend the Member for St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire (Ian Sollom), who spoke of the postcode lottery perpetuated by a systemically flawed funding formula. I thank the Opposition spokesperson, the hon. Member for Reigate (Rebecca Paul), who joined our call to review the national funding formula, even if her recollection of her party’s record differs from that of the rest of the country, not least my teachers. I thank the Minister, who described her ambition to put education at the heart of the Government’s national rebuild. I am pleased that the Government will commit to reviewing the national funding formula. I am sure she will not mind if my colleagues and I chalk that one up to this debate. Once more, Ms Butler, I thank you for the honour of bringing this debate under your chairship. Question put and agreed to. Resolved, That this House has considered the Dedicated Schools Grant.

• 6 May 2025 · Dedicated Schools Grant · Hansard source

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  I entirely agree. I have long spoken out against the short-sightedness of the national insurance hike, and I will come back to the short-termism that I think it important this Government escape. The dedicated schools grant is allocated according to the national funding formula, which is outdated and puts schools such as mine in Gloucestershire under increased pressure. Mainstream schools in the lowest-funded local authority receive £5,000 less per pupil per year than they do in the highest-funded authority.

• 6 May 2025 · Dedicated Schools Grant · Hansard source

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  With such gravity, my hon. Friend says it better than I could ever hope to. The inequity is there for all to see, and it is interesting that one of his teachers has experienced both ends of that scale. My four-year-old daughter and her friends will begin their primary school education in Gloucestershire in September. I want them to have, as the Labour manifesto put it, the opportunities they deserve. To me, that means the same opportunities as every other child—but by the time they finish their GCSEs under this inequitable system, the dedicated schools grant will have invested between £10,000 and £50,000 less in our children than in those elsewhere in the country. The Government might point to an upward trend in the dedicated schools grant in Gloucestershire since 2021, but on the current trajectory, it will take 15 years to achieve equity. By then, my daughter and her friends will have long since left school. Unless the Government act now, their potential will have been diluted by the dedicated schools grant as is. By the time we achieve equity, according to trends based on the Government’s own statistics, the vast majority of those teaching today will have retired. My headteachers have told me that, for most schools, approximately 85% of their funding is ringfenced for staffing costs, but that rises to over 90% in some particularly desperate cases. The level of teaching experience in our schools is diminishing because our headteachers are having to make their most experienced and highly paid teachers redundant, so that they can recruit less experienced teachers on lower wages just to balance the books.

• 6 May 2025 · Dedicated Schools Grant · Hansard source

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  I wholeheartedly agree, and will come to that point shortly. I hope my hon. Friend will pass on my empathy to her headteacher. Our teachers are no longer simply expected to educate our children according to the curriculum. Governments and society continue to expect more and more of our already overburdened teachers. Increasingly, four-year-olds are being introduced to school non-verbal, unable to use cutlery, and sometimes wearing nappies—but those are just the headlines. Discipline, time management, self and social awareness, self and mutual respect, moral courage, honesty, work ethic, public service and charity are soft skills and attributes that should be introduced in the home and honed within society as well as at school. This Government, with honest intentions towards our children’s healthcare, now have teachers cleaning their pupils’ teeth—just one additional straw upon the camel’s back. It is no wonder that teaching assistant posts are vacated or lie empty when people can earn more working in the local supermarket. I understand that fixing the education system will be complex and expensive, and that action must also take place beyond the scope of the Department for Education, but something that can be addressed now is a more equitable allocation of funding. This would go a long way to remedying the situation for many schools in Gloucestershire and elsewhere. The dedicated schools grant is the mechanism through which the Department funds local authorities, which in turn allocate their resources to the schools within their jurisdiction.

• 6 May 2025 · Dedicated Schools Grant · Hansard source

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  I beg to move, That this House has considered the Dedicated Schools Grant. It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Ms Butler. I thank the f40 group for its assistance with this issue, as well as all those in attendance, including the Minister, whose presence is greatly appreciated. I bring this debate forward on behalf of the headteachers, teaching staff, support staff and young people across Gloucestershire and the other local authorities that are among the lowest-funded councils by the Department for Education across England. In its 2024 manifesto, Labour pledged to “transform our education system so that young people get the opportunities they deserve.” There is a clear alignment between that and the Liberal Democrats’ commitment to increase per pupil funding above the rate of inflation every year. Our goal is to support all pupils and expand educational provision, not to shift resources away from more disadvantaged counties like Gloucestershire. Schools in my constituency are faced with increased pressure right now, owing to the inequitable dedicated schools grant, combined with the rising cost of special educational needs provision. Consecutive Governments have failed our children. With short-term mindsets, they have not adequately resourced education through which our children could otherwise go on to boost every workplace across the country. Those Governments left our children to emerge into a country where every public service is crumbling, but in which they need a university degree to become a police officer. Brexit took away their access to Erasmus and left a bitterly divided society, which is still struggling to readjust following the covid-19 pandemic. When Sir Kevan Collins recommended a £13.5 billion covid catch-up fund for our children, Boris Johnson’s Government fielded only one tenth of that figure, after thoughtlessly spending billions on botched contracts for personal protective equipment. Our children continue to suffer the consequences of that decision through a mental health crisis; an explosion in demand for special educational needs and disabilities provision; and almost a million young adults not in work, education or training. I entered politics because I believe in fairness. Whatever else we do in this place, I believe there are two routes through which we can improve the future of our country—political, including electoral reform; and education, education, education. Within every child lies the potential for greatness—the potential to solve tomorrow what seems impossible today. Our children represent our hope for the future. They are yet unburdened by the decades of dogma, societal pressure and institutional inequity that weigh upon us, and dilute our own potential. In every aspect of our lives, we must strive to prepare the ground ahead of them, and leave them a better country and a better world than was passed to us. Our teachers recognise that more clearly than any of us. They dedicate their careers to the fulfilment of our children’s potential, because there is no more rewarding pursuit than to help others to develop. No salary compares to being thanked in the street by those you have helped, and watching with pride as they go above and beyond what they imagined they could. Labour’s 2024 manifesto described teaching as a “hard-earned and hard-learned skill” and pledged to work to “raise its status.” I commend both the observation and the commitment, but we are continuing to fail our teachers too.

• 30 Apr 2025 · Safety of Humanitarian Workers: Conflict Zones · Hansard source

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  The hon. Gentleman makes an interesting point, which rang an alarm bell in my mind. What he is describing are the same tactics being used by the state of Israel, or at least its Government, as were exhibited by the IRA back in the 1980s: a bomb would be set off and once help had arrived, a secondary device would be set off at the point of evacuation. Does he recognise that as terrorism, as I do?

• 30 Apr 2025 · Safety of Humanitarian Workers: Conflict Zones · Hansard source

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  Would my hon. Friend be so kind as to pass on my gratitude to his constituent, and echo my gratitude for anyone from our country who puts themselves in harm’s way—not for financial recognition, but for humanity, which transcends politics altogether?

• 28 Apr 2025 · Football Governance Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  Supporters of lower league football clubs know the score: relegation all but confirmed, millionaire financiers abandoned, desperately clinging on to former glory, leaky at the back, midfield absent, not much going on up top, leadership completely out of their depth—but enough about the Conservative party. Despite the Conservatives’ attempt to turn this debate into a game of two faces, I have a serious point. In 2008, business partners Yasuaki Kagami and George Synan became majority shareholders at Plymouth Argyle, which had been shortlisted to host games at the 2018 world cup, had England’s bid been successful. It was not, of course, so their interest in the club collapsed. Finances were withheld and Argyle, with one eye on the premier league, were relegated from the championship to league one and then league two, in the space of three years. They were on the brink of insolvency before they were rescued by James Brent. English football clubs such as Argyle should never become cash cows for vultures such as Kagami and Synan. Our largest clubs should never become money laundering operations for oligarchs tied to murderous dictators. Our football clubs are the beating hearts of our communities, around which local economies thrive; identities, friendships and rivalries are forged; and our culture is exported. I broadly welcome this Bill for the regulation of ownership that it will introduce, but there are no mentions of slavery or human rights in the ownership test. Will the Government answer whether they consider those issues important in the fit and proper ownership of clubs? I have one more point. It is unfortunate that the Government voted down an amendment from the Lords that would have reduced gambling advertisement and sponsorship in English football. There is an obvious opportunity here to protect our young people from a toxic industry that deliberately preys on the vulnerable. I do not often give too much credit to Arsenal alumni, but I know that Paul Merson would have wanted this. Will the Government tell me why they voted down that amendment?

• 22 Apr 2025 · Residential Estate Management Companies · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend the Member for South Devon (Caroline Voaden) for securing this important debate. I purchased my home in 2017. By the time I surrendered a deposit of several thousand pounds, which had taken me a decade to accrue, I had already engaged with a financial adviser, secured a mortgage in principle and researched my eligibility for a Government equity loan. I had already picked the carpets by the time I was told to sign an estate management contract. The concept was completely alien to me; it was explained that on top of my council tax—paid to a local authority to maintain my public services—I would now pay a private company to maintain certain other things around the development. If I declined, I was not allowed to buy a home. It felt a lot like blackmail. It is worse than I realised at the time; the private company is entirely unregulated and it can, and does, charge me and fellow residents whatever it wants for services. Residents can, and often do, see their annual bills rise severalfold. In serving her local residents, the excellent local councillor Sarah Hands for the Innsworth ward can regularly be found mediating an abdication of responsibility between Persimmon Homes—it still has not passed the estate on to the local authority almost a decade after moving offsite—the local authority, Severn Trent Water and the estate management company. FirstPort is so notoriously difficult to even find a point of contact for that residents give up and then Sarah Hands gets it in the neck instead. I echo the requests made by the hon. Member for Mid Cheshire (Andrew Cooper). The restructuring of local government gives us an opportunity to end this scam, return estates and services to the local authorities, and outlaw the practice of signing these contracts at the point of house purchase.

• 22 Apr 2025 · Ukraine Update · Hansard source

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  The Secretary of State spoke of sending a clear signal to Vladimir Putin—I hope that his US counterpart will not take that too literally. Regardless, I would prefer to send drones the way of President Zelensky, and some £25 billion of frozen Russian assets would buy an awful lot of drones. I hear what the Secretary of State says, but I plead with him to take the lead on this and let the Ukrainians win in their finest hour.

• 7 Apr 2025 · New Homes: Sustainability · Hansard source

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  2. What steps she is taking to ensure that new homes are sustainable.

• 7 Apr 2025 · New Homes: Sustainability · Hansard source

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  I thank the Minister for his response. While visiting the Netherlands with the Environmental Audit Committee, I saw the benefits of long-term, joined-up, strategic planning. In Rotterdam city centre, rooftop gardens provide mental health benefits and allotment space, while at ground level, sunken community spaces and underground car parks mitigate flooding. The Tewkesbury garden town will bring 4,000 new homes to my constituency. Will the Minister meet me and stakeholders who support the garden town, so that we can set the standard for development across the country?

• 1 Apr 2025 · Foreign Influence Registration Scheme · Hansard source

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  While aligning myself with the concerns expressed by the shadow Home Secretary, I am happy to take the Minister at his word. In the last decade, the previous Government badly misjudged Vladimir Putin’s aims regarding the United Kingdom, and his exploitation of our naivety. So that the current Government do not make the same mistake with the Communist party in China, will the Minister commit himself to releasing a full, unredacted Russia report, and an audit and report on the activities of the Conservative Friends of Russia—or, as they were more recently termed, the Westminster Russia Forum?

• 31 Mar 2025 · Police Forces: Gloucestershire · Hansard source

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  I thank the Minister for her response. In 2015, Baroness May of Maidenhead, the then Home Secretary, accused police forces of “crying wolf” over funding cuts. In the decade since, police services across the country, such as mine in Gloucestershire, have never truly recovered from her scandalous cuts to their numbers. Gloucestershire constabulary is one of the worst funded in the country—the victim of an unfit-for-purpose funding formula. Last week, the chief constable announced 60 staff cuts as she battles with a £12 million deficit. Will the Minister meet me and my chief constable to discuss those challenges?

• 31 Mar 2025 · Police Forces: Gloucestershire · Hansard source

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  15. What steps her Department is taking to support police forces in Gloucestershire.

• 31 Mar 2025 · Political Donations · Hansard source

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  I am delighted to hear that the Government will give 16 and 17-year-olds the right to vote. Do the Government intend to appropriately educate 16 and 17-year-olds about the right to vote?

• 31 Mar 2025 · Political Donations · Hansard source

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  It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Mrs Harris. Conservative Friends of Russia, later renamed the Westminster Russia Forum, was founded in 2012 as a lobby group, posing as a think-tank, with absolutely no research published. It was founded at the Russian embassy in London by, among others, Vladimir Putin’s man in London, Sergey Nalobin, and Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the official Vote Leave campaign. The opening was attended by Boris Johnson and his wife, Carrie. To date, the public has never had access to the group’s activities or fundraising records, but, through this group, Putin’s regime had access to Conservative MPs and, according to one of Britain’s top spies, Kremlin money changed hands to influence the Brexit campaign. We know that the hon. Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage), whom I will shortly email to notify of this mention, then leader of the UK Independence party, met the former Russian ambassador to London, Alexander Yakovenko, which the hon. Member initially denied. We know that Arron Banks, who donated millions to the leave campaign, met the Russian ambassador at least three times. We know that event organisers for the forum were largely London-based businesses but with an interest in Russia, and that, at its peak, events drew 170 attendees. We also know that the Conservative party took millions of pounds in donations from Russian oligarchs, and accepted such donations at least as recently as March 2022, after Russia’s full invasion of Ukraine and several years after its occupation of the Donbas and Crimean peninsula. The Westminster Russia Forum was disbanded shortly after the full invasion. I consider it a matter of public interest that the full extent of the group’s activities and fundraising is published unredacted. The Liberal Democrats further call for the full, unredacted release of the Russia report to pierce the veil of secrecy of Russian influence in UK politics. We call for greater independence for the Intelligence and Security Committee to investigate Russian interference. The Conservative party declined to do so, and it is easy to imagine why. No longer should the PM have control over its membership, nor the authority to prevent publication of its reports, as Boris Johnson did with the Russia report. This is both a matter of national security and of public confidence in our politics.

• 31 Mar 2025 · Political Donations · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member made an interesting point about the role of companies, and specifically referred to Reform UK. Will she join me in putting on the record that Reform UK is not a political party like most of ours are, but in fact a limited company registered at Companies House, with the primary shareholder being the hon. Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage)? Does she agree that, where necessary, any change to legislation needs to incorporate such risk factors?

• 27 Mar 2025 · Gloucestershire: Eastward Transport Links · Hansard source

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  13. What assessment she has made of the adequacy of eastward transport links from Gloucestershire.

• 27 Mar 2025 · Gloucestershire: Eastward Transport Links · Hansard source

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  The Government recently announced a UK-silicon valley project linking Oxfordshire, Milton Keynes and Cambridge. There was no mention of Gloucestershire, with its burgeoning cyber-tech and engineering sectors. From Gloucestershire, our primary arterial road eastward to Oxfordshire is the A40 and it is woefully inadequate as a single carriageway. Will the Minister meet me to develop improved links eastward from Gloucestershire to the benefit of our neighbours in the east?

• 25 Mar 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  General practitioners in my constituency have consistently restructured over 10 years of constant systemic and economic pressures. How will the Minister convince the Treasury to exempt GPs from the increase to national insurance contributions, and show my GPs that he has their back?

• 13 Mar 2025 · Young Carers: Educational Opportunities · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member makes a valid and important point about schools having a young carers lead, and I am proud to say that every school in Gloucestershire has one. My constituent Christian, who I met yesterday, has been caring for his grandmother from the age of six, but it was not until he was 11 that he was identified by his school as a young carer. Does the hon. Member therefore agree that, although it is an excellent endeavour to have more leads, more still needs to be done?

• 12 Mar 2025 · Rural Communities: Government Support · Hansard source

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  It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Dr Murrison. I thank my hon. Friend the hon. Member for South Devon (Caroline Voaden) for securing this debate. Tewkesbury is home to the fastest-growing borough outside London, but almost half of my constituents have the worst 30% of broadband connectivity in the UK. Mobile reception in Bishop’s Cleeve, one of the largest parishes in my constituency, is embarrassing. Those are not the only symptoms of a constituency that has had haphazard housing development without any of the necessary infrastructure to support it. My residents resort to travelling by private vehicles because the public transport infrastructure simply is not there. Some of my villagers walk for miles along dangerous roads, sometimes without pathways, to reach a bus stop. If they miss a bus or suffer a cancellation, they might be waiting for several hours. I have previously called for investment in on-demand bus services, such as the Gloucestershire Robin. Later this year, the Cotswolds Designer Outlet will open just off the M5 on the A46 in Ashchurch. There has been no road or rail infrastructure to accommodate this development, which is likely to draw hundreds of thousands of very welcome shoppers every year to our beautiful constituency, if they can get here. Ashchurch’s railway station suffers more delays than 90% of stations nationwide. The A46 is already plagued by daily gridlock because thousands of new homes have been built there by developers with the resources to overpower the local authorities. Those issues could be alleviated if the Department for Transport accepted and supported Gloucestershire county council’s proposal for a new junction 9A on the M5, which would relieve some of the burden from the A46. Our modest Ashchurch station, which also serves Tewkesbury, badly needs investment to accommodate the coming influx of visitors to the constituency.

• 5 Mar 2025 · Department for Business and Trade · Hansard source

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  I hope the hon. Member for Portsmouth North (Amanda Martin) will pass on my thanks to her son for his service. I do wonder how Lord Nelson would feel about the increasing necessity for us to align with our English channel neighbours. Labour’s national insurance hike will hit small businesses, social care providers and local GP services across the country. This rise will have dire consequences for the many historic villages and towns of my rural constituency. In recent years, small businesses have increasingly been forced out of our historic high streets and replaced by soulless international chain stores and restaurants with the resources to cope with inflation. Over time, our high streets are losing their unique character. Among the small businesses that will suffer are pubs and breweries, which generate approximately £15 billion of tax revenues each year. According to UKHospitality, the economic value of the hospitality industry in Tewkesbury is £67 million a year. Last month, I visited the Plough in Prestbury, where I spoke with the landlord, Emma, who told me that this one establishment is worth £100,000 a year to HMRC. Having diversified and restructured to the nth degree, she is now accumulating debt to stay solvent. The pub is also her home. How do the Government expect to accrue revenue if they tax such businesses into oblivion? Small local businesses are vital to the unique identities of rural high streets across the country. They are often the backbone of local economies, and it is important that we do not inadvertently force them to the wall. This single policy will have such an outsized impact—I hope the Government will review this decision with economic growth in mind.