Cameron Thomas MP: speeches

Speeches

• 4 Mar 2025 · Bathing Water Regulations · Hansard source

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  I was not bobbing; I was just going to intervene.

• 13 Feb 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  As well as being home to both GCHQ and NATO’s Allied Rapid Reaction Corps headquarters, Gloucestershire has the largest concentration of cyber-tech businesses and aerospace engineering firms outside London, but the county, and particularly Tewkesbury, is subject to slow, unreliable and grossly outdated rail services. It is also underserved by road transport links eastward. The Government recently announced that they will develop a silicon valley between Milton Keynes—

• 5 Feb 2025 · Gambling Harms · Hansard source

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  It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Turner. I thank the hon. Member for Halesowen (Alex Ballinger) for securing this important debate. Tewkesbury is home to the prestigious and internationally famed Cheltenham racecourse, which is one of the largest in the UK. Every year, more than 250,000 people visit the racecourse across four days of racing at Cheltenham festival, and many enjoy betting on the results. A 2023 study conducted by the University of Gloucestershire found that the economic benefit of Cheltenham festival was an estimated £274 million. I consider myself a horseracing sceptic, but, as the Member of Parliament for Cheltenham racecourse, I must take a nuanced position. That £274 million is an astonishing figure, and I value that contribution. We must also consider the associated financial harms and the mental and physical health impacts of gambling on the UK economy, which cost £1.4 billion per year. I am also acutely aware that problem gambling is a serious public health issue. I proudly submitted the Liberal Democrats’ contribution to the Gambling Act 2005 (Operating Licence Conditions) (Amendment) Regulations 2024 just last week, supporting financial caps on bets made online. Public Health England reports that approximately 246,000 people are problem gamblers in England alone, and a further 2.2 million people are at risk. Shockingly, it further reports that there are more than 400 gambling-related suicides per year. My constituents deserve a Member of Parliament who puts their wellbeing ahead of the interests of private betting companies, while recognising the economic and social contribution of the industry. My residents deserve to be protected from exploitation by betting companies, which cannot be trusted, much less expected, to self-regulate. Our residents do not need another round of public consultations; they need action. I want to see significant restrictions on gambling advertising, including but not limited to that which plagues young people’s social media feeds and YouTube videos. Gambling firms are at pains to present their industry as symbiotic with sport, deliberately placing their adverts around football broadcasts, stadiums and shirts.

• 5 Feb 2025 · Gambling Harms · Hansard source

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  I absolutely agree, but we should not leave it to gambling companies to make that statement. We should instead take action. Gambling is not symbiotic with sport, and the companies should not be allowed to indoctrinate children, whose parents, like me, just want to introduce them to the beautiful game. We no longer allow fast food companies to align themselves with sport, and we should treat gambling companies in precisely the same way.

• 5 Feb 2025 · Closure of High Street Services: Rural Areas · Hansard source

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  I am very fond of my hon. Friend’s constituency. I recall a visit to Stratford-upon-Avon for a stag do, when my friends and I embarked on one of its many ghost tours—I have to say that my Geiger meter was unmoved. There is so much about her constituency and mine that adds to the character of the UK, and I am sure she will agree that it is worth investing in.

• 5 Feb 2025 · Closure of High Street Services: Rural Areas · Hansard source

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  It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Ms Furniss. I thank my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross (Jamie Stone) for securing this important debate. There are no bustling city centres in the Tewkesbury constituency. Instead, our historic town and village high streets are characterised by independent stores, restaurants and pubs, which provide jobs and attract tourism. Less overtly, they promote social inclusion and tackle loneliness. My hon. and gallant Friend referred to the loss of connectivity and isolation. The largest age demographic in my constituency is the over-65s. They are typically less mobile than younger demographics and are more likely to live alone. According to Age UK, more than a million older people say that they regularly go over a month without speaking to a friend, neighbour or family member. The withdrawal of high street services is only likely to amplify the loneliness epidemic, particularly for my residents. Recently, I was pleased to work with the excellent independent councillor Gemma Madle to return post office services to residents in Winchcombe after a period of time when they had lost them. Almost half of the Tewkesbury constituency is categorised as within the lowest 30% of decent broadband connectivity across the UK. That is a shameful indictment of the national planning policy framework in a constituency largely comprised of the fastest-growing borough outside London. That again disproportionately exposes my over-65s, because their demographic has a lower rate of IT literacy than younger groups. Those older residents who do adopt technology to access online services are most likely to become victims of fraud: Age UK reported in 2019 that someone over 65 is defrauded every 40 seconds in the UK, and that not only the impact of that but even that threat is likely to dissuade residents from venturing online. Those examples show why it is especially important that my constituents have reliable public transport links to get them to our high streets, and that those high streets are preserved so that people can access the services they need. Currently, public transport links are woefully inadequate across my constituency; although the bus fare cap rise from £2 to £3 is unwelcome, it is unlikely to affect those thousands of my residents who do not even have a reliable bus service. If the cap rise were utilised to fund additional services in constituencies such as mine, I would support it. Regardless, I urge the Government to look at alternative measures for public transport, such as on-demand services. One example is the Gloucestershire Robin service. I hope that the Minister will commit to funding the infrastructure upgrades that my constituency already needs, if it is expected to grow yet further to accommodate the Government’s housing targets.

• 30 Jan 2025 · Avian Influenza · Hansard source

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  For my daughter’s second birthday, I took her to the wonderful Birdland in Gloucestershire, which has hundreds of different exotic and rare birds. Could the Minister please tell me how he is going to support that type of business model and how he is going to keep staff and visitors safe?

• 30 Jan 2025 · Proportional Representation: General Elections · Hansard source

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  No, for two reasons: the Liberal Democrats defied the odds, but there are many other smaller parties who are not adequately represented; and, as I will come to later, 58% of voters across the country did not get the MP they voted for, and that is true even in my constituency. At the general election, Tewkesbury did see change, but only through the coming together of several unique circumstances, and despite first past the post. Like my hon. Friend the Member for Chelmsford (Marie Goldman), I was loaned the trust of Labour, Green and Conservative supporters. The general election may have been won by Labour and returned Liberal Democrats in record numbers, but let us not delude ourselves: the country voted tactically in record numbers for whoever would remove the catastrophic, nepotistic and morally bankrupt Conservative Government of 2019. July’s election brought the briefest respite before frustrations rose once again. This is the most disproportionate House of Commons in British history, with Labour MPs in 66% of seats but with the lowest vote share—some 34%—of any winning party since 1945, and 58% of UK voters did not get the MP they voted for. I have previously described first past the post as “barely democratic”, and these figures vindicate me. Public apathy towards politics is reflected in a steady decline in general election turnouts since the 1950s, from over 80% to less than 60% in 2024. If we want to arrest this decline, people must feel that their vote matters. The only way to ensure that the next election returns a representative Parliament is to transition to a proportional representation electoral system. I have occasionally been challenged by those who say that proportional representation would increasingly return hung Parliaments, and would lead to bickering and chaos, rather than functioning government. This challenge falters when those people are presented with the fact that the previous Government and their 80-seat majority were elected through first past the post. Never in the field of British politics was so little achieved by so many. They scrambled from controversy to controversy, fighting among themselves while undermining our institutions and allowing our public services to crumble. Today, our friends in the United States are living with the inevitable result of their two-party system. Far-right populists have seized the previously conservative Republican party, neutered the media and dismantled many institutional safeguards. We must recognise that we face the same threat, as our Conservative party—the most successful election-winning machine on earth—continues its lurch to the right and brings fringe opinions into the mainstream. It can happen here, and we must have a fair electoral system to mitigate that. Liberal Democrats were elected in record numbers in 2024 on a pledge to deliver proportional representation. Labour Members want proportional representation, and the public increasingly want proportional representation, so I say to the Government: let us come together and do something historic. Let us put aside our individual and party political interests for the many. Let us do the right thing. Let us change our country for the better and deliver proportional representation.

• 30 Jan 2025 · Proportional Representation: General Elections · Hansard source

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  I invite the Minister to join the APPG for fair elections. She will see that there is a very clear correspondence between first past the post and the lack of engagement over time.

• 30 Jan 2025 · Proportional Representation: General Elections · Hansard source

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  It is an honour to sit on the fair elections all-party group, which is so well chaired by the hon. Member for Leeds Central and Headingley (Alex Sobel). It is also an honour to take up this fight in this House with the Liberal Democrats for whom electoral reform has been a central tenet for decades. In order to be here today, I had to resign my commission in the Royal Air Force where I had, for 23 years, defended our country and our interests overseas. However, I came to recognise that the most crucial way to defend our democracy was to do so here while backing proportional representation. Throughout the 2024 general election campaign, residents across Tewkesbury constituency frequently expressed their frustrations with an electoral system that was certain to condemn them to another five years of the same Conservative Member of Parliament whichever candidate they voted for. Tewkesbury had been represented by my predecessor for 27 years, and it was the view of many residents that Tewkesbury would never experience change because our broken electoral system would see this safe Conservative seat won by the Conservatives at an eighth consecutive election.

• 30 Jan 2025 · Proportional Representation: General Elections · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend speaks of low turnout. I would be grateful for his opinion on whether a switch to an electoral system of proportional representation would be to the deficit of any particular parties in the House, and whether that is reflected in their turnout at this debate.

• 30 Jan 2025 · Women’s Health Strategy · Hansard source

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  I represent almost 40,000 women, and they and the men who love them would invite the Minister to state explicitly that the Government will not draw down their access to women’s health hubs or remove their women’s health targets.

• 29 Jan 2025 · Draft Gambling Act 2005 (Operating Licence Conditions) (Amendment) Regulations 2024 Draft Gambling Levy Regulations 2025 · Hansard source

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  The Liberal Democrats support the regulations. The stake limit will help to address gambling-related harm associated with online slots, which have rapid, repetitive play patterns and high average losses per customer. It reflects a commitment to tackling problem gambling and is a progressive step in the right direction, strengthening player protection. Combating problem gambling is a topic the Liberal Democrats have campaigned on consistently. It is a serious public health issue, and it is vital that we take robust action to mitigate the risks. According to the latest Public Health England report on gambling, approximately 246,000 people are problem gamblers and 2.2 million are at risk. The introduction of the statutory levy is a welcome step, as are the regulations, but I urge the Government to go further. We urgently need action to tackle pervasive gambling advertising and sponsorship. We also need action on black market gambling, and we need gaming products such as loot boxes to be regulated as gambling products to protect children from gambling harms. Fundamentally, we need a commitment from Government to treat the issue as the public health issue it clearly is. That was the approach agreed in the 2023 White Paper, and it must give primacy to protecting the public from gambling harms. My party has also called for the remote gaming duty to be doubled, and I urge the Government to look carefully at that proposal. It is evident that urgent action is needed, and the regulations are an important step forward. Therefore, the Liberal Democrats support them.

• 28 Jan 2025 · Road Safety: Young Drivers · Hansard source

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  I did not manage to make this point in my speech, but whereas one in five young people will be involved in a reportable road traffic collision in the year following their test, that figure is reduced to one in 33 for those who complete that course. I invite the hon. Member to agree.

• 28 Jan 2025 · Road Safety: Young Drivers · Hansard source

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  It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Sir Desmond. I commend the hon. Member for Shrewsbury (Julia Buckley) for securing this important debate. Just three weeks after the 2024 general election, four young men were killed in Ullenwood, just outside my constituency, when their car collided with a tree. They were three 20-year-olds and one 18-year-old. “This is Andrei, my child full of dreams,” his mother said in a tribute to her son. Of course, it is not always young people who suffer such accidents, but many suffer vicariously through the loss of their loved ones. I recall the deaths of two motorcyclists, which happened separately but within 90 minutes, on the same stretch of road on 30 August 2023. One lost his life near Ashchurch, and the other near Evesham. One was a friend of a friend. Let the record recall Philip Beer, described by his lifelong friend Richard Price as an ex-Conservative councillor in Longlevens ward, but the good type of Tory—very moderate and centrist—and someone who had voted for Labour and the Liberal Democrats in recent years. He was a Spurs supporter. He left behind his wife, Louise, and his children, Izzy, Charlie and Henry. I have previously spoken of my admiration for members of the emergency services, who selflessly put themselves in harm’s way to protect and treat others. I hope everyone in this room will spare a thought for our police officers, paramedics and firefighters who arrive at the scenes of road traffic collisions. In July, I learned a truly shocking statistic: one in five young people will be involved in a reportable road traffic collision in the year following their driving test. In 2023 alone, there were 281 road collisions in the Tewkesbury constituency, and just under 20% involved people aged between 17 and 24—that is one young person per week, just in Tewkesbury. Driving is popular among all demographics in my constituency. Many young people use cars to travel to school, to see their friends and to play for local sports teams. Like Shrewsbury, Tewkesbury, with its broadly dispersed towns and villages, suffers from irregular and unreliable public transport, so driving is heavily relied on. According to the Department for Transport, there has been a 24% decline in passenger journeys on local bus services in the Gloucestershire region since 2015. We should acknowledge that, for many young people, learning to drive is a significant milestone and a source of immense pride. But it is one that exposes them to significant risk. Men aged 17 to 25 have higher rates of fatal road collisions than almost any other age group—they are second only to over-85s. One initiative that I proudly endorse is the under-17 Pathfinder Initiative, which is active in Gloucestershire, West Mercia, Yorkshire and Humberside. It is a low-cost and socially mobile initiative, with various bursaries available so that young people of all socioeconomic backgrounds can benefit. Volunteers guide aspiring drivers through theoretical and practical training in a controlled environment, away from public roads. In August 2024, I visited the initiative in South Cerney and was driven around safely by a young lady under tuition, alongside her father. The reduction of speed limits is controversial among drivers, and I myself sometimes find the practice frustrating. However, this cannot be about our own frustrations; rather, it must be about our children. A reduction in the speed limit on high-risk routes in Lincolnshire resulted in a 75% reduction in collisions in which someone was killed or seriously injured. For that reason, I would endorse the practice in Gloucestershire. I hope the Minister will take those statistics back to her Department, alongside my endorsements.

• 23 Jan 2025 · Holocaust Memorial Day · Hansard source

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  Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. “We had reached the bottom. It is not possible to sink lower than this; no human condition is more miserable than this, nor could it conceivably be so. Nothing belongs to us any more; they have taken away our clothes, our shoes, even our hair…They will even take away our name: and if we want to keep it, we will have to find ourselves the strength to do so, to manage somehow so that behind the name something of us, of us as we were, still remains.” “He who loses all often easily loses himself.” “My number is 174517; we have been baptized, we will carry the tattoo on our left arm until we die.” Prisoner 174517 was liberated from Auschwitz concentration camp in January 1945, one of only 20 surviving members of the 650 who had arrived on his transport 11 months earlier. He was liberated strictly in a physical sense, but remained tortured by what he had experienced until his death in 1987. Before his death, Italian-Jewish liberal Primo Levi wrote extensively about his experiences. I recommend his collection of essays, “The Drowned and the Saved”, as one of the bleakest—yet most compelling—books I have ever read. My past visits to Dachau and Sachsenhausen camps cast long shadows in my memory. We are fortunate that those relics of this horror continue to haunt their landscapes as foreboding reminders, but with the surviving voices fading year on year, we must guard against the path that led to Auschwitz. The Holocaust was unique in its industrialisation of genocide; nothing so terrible at such scale had happened before, nor since. We must not delude ourselves that it could not. As the hon. Member for Hendon (David Pinto-Duschinsky) said, “never again” must mean never again, and as the hon. Member for Brent East (Dawn Butler) said, genocide does not occur overnight. The black shoots of fascism were intolerance. It was then—as it is now—spread throughout a frustrated population, appealing to their sense of national identity and stimulating a feeling of injustice. In this environment, nationalism festers and larger groups are mobilised by divisive populism that validates them as superior, but oppressed by an imagined elite and undermined by minorities. In 1920s and 1930s Germany, the Jews were both the imagined elite and the minority. Today, we see various groups demonised, including Jews, Muslims and refugees—it depends on the source. I recommend that Members read a compilation of Nazi propaganda, “The Jewish Enemy”, by Jeffrey Herf. Those who choose to read it will observe very clearly the parallels between such propaganda then and now. It is not a coincidence; it is learned and it is finessed, with the same stereotypes, the same accusations, the same divisive rhetoric, and the same risks of following that same terrible path. We must not be fooled by those who mislead us—who minimise, normalise and amplify the actions and the rhetoric of division and fascism. Those who do must be challenged, outed and comprehensively defeated. I associate myself with the Minister’s statement that remembrance without resolve is not enough. Let us honour the memory of those who suffered the Holocaust by standing vigil to stave off its repeat.

• 17 Jan 2025 · New Homes (Solar Generation) Bill · Hansard source

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  I pay tribute to my neighbour and hon. Friend the Member for Cheltenham (Max Wilkinson) for so boldly taking up this cause. His so-named sunshine Bill, which to my mind reflects his own disposition so brightly—as though it was his own glowing cranium— [ Laughter. ]

• 17 Jan 2025 · New Homes (Solar Generation) Bill · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend has so eloquently put across the pragmatism that we can enjoy from Liberal Democrats in working across parties for the benefit of our constituents, and I thank him for that. This undertaking by my hon. Friend the Member for Cheltenham has been brought up consistently on doorsteps across the Tewkesbury constituency in recent years. Widely considered to be a blindingly obvious antidote to rising energy bills and the phasing out of fossil fuels, people have tended to ask, with an exasperated tone, why on earth new homes are not built with solar panels by mandate. As my hon. Friend has described, the public roundly support such measures, with one poll registering 70% support. Whether or not the New Homes (Solar Generation) Bill goes to a vote today, I hope that the Government will recognise the alignment with their environmental pledges and that they will take the ball and run with it.

• 17 Jan 2025 · New Homes (Solar Generation) Bill · Hansard source

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  Earlier, the hon. Member for Waveney Valley (Adrian Ramsay) lamented—in good faith—the drawdown of environmental pledges in 2016. Of course, that was not the coalition Government; what we saw and what we got is what happens when the Liberal Democrats are no longer there to hold people to account.

• 16 Jan 2025 · UK Air Defence · Hansard source

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  The Minister represents a city and a football club that are close to my heart. I also thank the right hon. Member for South West Wiltshire (Dr Murrison) for bringing forward this important debate. I am heartened to hear that the Minister views the interoperability of our workforce and our assets alongside our NATO allies. Do the Government view the defence of UK airspace not singularly but, as I do, as the western front of European air defence?

• 15 Jan 2025 · Rivers, Lakes and Seas: Water Quality · Hansard source

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  It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Mr Dowd. Tewskesbury is characterised by its waterways, and most commonly known for its propensity to flood. It floods because, from north to south, the western boundary is the River Severn, and the River Avon also flows into Tewkesbury town. Tributary waterways course across the constituency. I will return to flooding shortly. According to The Guardian , among other sources, the River Avon is one of the worst-polluted rivers in England. There were 6,573 sewage spills in 2023, registering the River Avon as the third most-polluted river in England. In the same year, sewage was released into the River Severn for more than 30,000 hours across 3,057 spills, registering the Severn as another of the worst-polluted in England and Wales. Since the general election, I have been working with Tewkesbury Friends of the Earth and Safe Avon, two dedicated groups of local environmental campaigners. In November 2024, I joined both groups at the Abbey mill in Tewkesbury to draw water samples from the River Avon. The samples we recovered tested consistently with the findings they have been recording since June 2023: they contained very high nitrate pollution and high phosphate pollution. Such levels of those pollutants stimulate algae growth, which absorbs the oxygen in the water and suffocates wildlife. The pollution levels are also dangerous to people. Please take a moment to consider what it is like for thousands of my residents whose kitchens, dining rooms and living rooms are swamped with this filth on an annual basis. Severn Trent Water’s chief executive officer was paid £3.2 million last year, while my residents’ water bills are due to rise by 40%. To add insult to injury, the Environment Agency awarded Severn Trent its highest grade for environmental performance. That, in and of itself, is a scandal. The Liberal Democrats want to stop overseas shareholders drawing money out of private water companies that are already struggling to stay solvent. Rather than nationalise these companies, we want to see them turned into public benefit companies. I call on the Government to prevent CEOs from drawing huge bonuses while this scandal continues, and to fine them according to the mass of sewage discharged.

• 15 Jan 2025 · Rivers, Lakes and Seas: Water Quality · Hansard source

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  Will the hon. Lady join me in celebrating the activities of local campaigners who do so much to bring this scandal to light?

• 13 Jan 2025 · Children’s Social Media Accounts · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member, my constituency neighbour, makes an interesting point. My school years are long behind me and we sometimes look back at our youth with rose-tinted glasses, but being at school can feel like being in a warzone—there is so much pressure. If someone is being consistently bullied, I can barely imagine what it must be like for them to try to escape that at home and then have a device in front of them with such material coming in, even at night. Does the hon. Member agree?

• 13 Jan 2025 · Children’s Social Media Accounts · Hansard source

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  We owe it to our constituents that we work together, and leave no stone unturned to understand the trends and drivers that lead our children to take their own lives. Social media companies headquartered overseas have repeatedly demonstrated that they cannot be relied on to take reasonable action out of good will, so I invite the hon. Member to agree that it is up to Parliament to legislate accordingly.

• 13 Jan 2025 · Children’s Social Media Accounts · Hansard source

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  On that note, we have heard from several Members today about their concerns for children’s mental health, when their expectations are often measured against heavily doctored images they see online. Will the Minister commit to use and/or amend legislation that commits hosts—as is common with regulated news outlets —to clearly identify doctored imagery, and the accounts and pages that spread them?