Chi Onwurah MP: speeches

Speeches

• 2 Jul 2025 · Heathrow Substation Outage: NESO Review · Hansard source

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  Speaking as a chartered electrical engineer and as the Chair of the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, I am absolutely amazed that such an important and large part of our critical national infrastructure in the National Grid was not properly maintained for seven years and that Heathrow—the busiest airport in the world—had a single point of failure. The Minister has outlined some of the processes and procedures that will follow, but will he say how he intends to improve the standards of engineering maintenance culture and excellence in our critical national infrastructure, which have clearly been allowed to fall significantly under successive Conservative Governments?

• 2 Jul 2025 · Prevention and Suppression of Terrorism · Hansard source

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  I often show visitors the statue of Viscount Falkland and its missing spur, removed when a suffragette chained herself to it. I was here when protesters superglued their buttocks to the glass panel above us, causing some scandal and damage. Will the Minister confirm that criminal damage, no matter how creatively or indeed scandalously undertaken, will always be dealt with under criminal law, and not as a terrorist act?

• 30 Jun 2025 · Welfare Reform · Hansard source

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  The north-east has the highest rate of disability in the country—31%—and more than a quarter of those of working age live in poverty, so the Secretary of State is absolutely right to say that welfare reform is hard, essential and must reflect Labour values and disabled voices. Will she set out how the co-production of the new system with disability groups will ensure that it is a fairer system? How will disability groups in the north-east be able to be involved?

• 26 Jun 2025 · G7 and NATO Summits · Hansard source

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  Last week, as part of the armed forces parliamentary scheme, I visited NATO headquarters in the UK, where I met fantastic young men and women who are learning great skills as they prepare to defend Britain abroad. However, my constituents, when they see cuts of such great amounts—for example, as proposed in the welfare Bill—may well ask why defence spending is rising. For the benefit of my constituents, could the Prime Minister simply and briefly set that out?

• 25 Jun 2025 · Armed Forces Recruitment: North-east England · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for giving way, for securing this debate in Armed Forces Week and for the fantastic speech that he is making. Proportionally, the north-east sends more of our young people into the armed forces than any other region in the country. I am proud of that contribution, yet relative to other regions, we have fewer armed forces personnel stationed in the region, and the Ministry of Defence spends less with businesses and industry in the region—in fact, I think it spends the least there. Does he think that the Ministry and the armed forces could be more visible and do more to champion the contribution of the armed forces to our region?

• 25 Jun 2025 · Artificial Intelligence: Schools · Hansard source

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  AI is already prevalent in the workplace and in the education system, and we need to equip the next generation to be able to use AI tools productively and securely while also delivering on their unique potential as human beings. How is the Minister working with the Department for Education to ensure that the AI tools that are used in our education system support this kind of learning? Specifically, what advice has she given to the Department with regard to the procurement of edtech tools, which are widely available? Some are free and some need to be paid for, so how are schools to decide which to use?

• 24 Jun 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  The all-party parliamentary group for Africa, which I chair, recently published its report on Africa’s just energy transition to accessible and renewable clean energy. What assessment has the Minister made of the report’s nine recommendations, including the recommendation on reforming carbon markets so that they work in Africa’s interests, and the recommendation on ensuring that international development funding is blended with private sector funding for investment in that transition?

• 23 Jun 2025 · UK Modern Industrial Strategy · Hansard source

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  As Chair of the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee,, I really welcome this modern industrial strategy because it delivers on the promise Labour made in opposition to put science, innovation and technology and the skills they require at the heart of the drive for growth and industrialisation. I also welcome the strategy as a north-east MP because of the emphasis on regional growth and regional strengths. My Committee found that one of the major barriers to regional growth and innovation was access to capital. The industrial strategy commits to doubling business investment by 2035. Will the Secretary of State say a little about how the north-east—just for example—might benefit from that?

• 20 Jun 2025 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  No, I will not take any interventions, thank you. I particularly fear the impact on the most vulnerable and disadvantaged—those without the social capital of so many arguing for the Bill. There seems to be an assumption that those who have been most unequal in life will suddenly be rendered equal in death, but the least valued by society are often those who value themselves the least. We know that the last year of life is so often the most expensive for the NHS and the most distressing for friends and family; why not save everyone the trouble of being a burden? This Bill lacks the safeguards, which we must have, to deal with the reality that there are powerful economic and personal incentives for both the state and family members to encourage the vulnerable into taking their own lives. We should specifically consider the impact on ethnic communities: we know the prism of racist assumptions through which healthcare has too often been administered —the huge inequalities in maternal health and mental health, to name just two examples. There is nothing in this Bill to protect the vulnerable and those whose experience of life and death has already been biased. Finally, to vote against this Bill is not to accept the status quo. It is not our job now to propose a better Bill—that was on Report and at Committee stage—it is our job to judge the Bill as it is, and that is why I say to hon. Members, please, do not vote for this Bill.

• 20 Jun 2025 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  In general, this debate has shown Parliament at its best: informed, considered and passionate. I have not spoken in it before; I have listened, reflected, read, and sought to understand the intention and the impact of the Bill, particularly on the most vulnerable. I will now take five minutes to say four things. First, I was brought up on the right to die. My mother, who was disabled, often in great pain and a cancer survivor, was a member of the Voluntary Euthanasia Society and Exit, as Dignity in Dying was previously called. I can honestly say that Newcastle United, feminism, and the right to die were mother’s milk to me. My position is not based on ideological, cultural or religious reasons. I urge colleagues not to vote for the Bill, because it is without the rigour or scrutiny necessary to make assisted dying work in practice. I have a great deal of respect for my hon. Friend the Member for Spen Valley (Kim Leadbeater) and the Minister for Care, my hon. Friend the Member for Aberafan Maesteg (Stephen Kinnock). They have said that the Bill has received more scrutiny than most Government Bills. But this is not your average Bill. It fundamentally changes the relationship between state and citizen. It allows the state to take the life of a citizen. Yes, it is on request, but that is still a huge change. We say that it is the first duty of any Government to keep our citizens secure. But now the state will also be able to kill them. Our NHS was set up to secure improvement in physical and mental health, and as my hon. Friend the Member for Mitcham and Morden (Dame Siobhain McDonagh) has so powerfully argued, the Bill could change the founding principles of the NHS. Clinicians are trained to save lives; now, they will also be able to kill people. The job of our police and armed forces is to protect life and liberty; now, they will also protect those who take people’s lives. Because this marks a fundamental change in the relationship between state and citizen, it requires much more public and parliamentary debate. We have not even begun to interrogate all the social implications of this change. All of human life is here. It will change the ethos of the NHS. It will enable private companies to kill private citizens. There will be an information campaign so that everyone is aware that the state is able to kill them.

• 10 Jun 2025 · Data (Use and Access) Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  Will the Minister give way?

• 10 Jun 2025 · Data (Use and Access) Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  I apologise for not being here earlier. I commend the Government for engaging in a cross-party discussion about AI, which is what the country needs to do, but the key issue is ensuring from the beginning that the tech companies understand that transparency in copyright and AI is not a “nice to have” but an absolute requirement, and that if they will not deliver it, the Minister will.

• 2 Jun 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T5. On Saturday, residents in Westerhope told me how nuisance vehicles, illegal and modified e-bikes, off-road bikes and speeding cars are making their lives an absolute misery, and I have had similar complaints from residents in Slatyford and Newbiggin. The chief constable of Northumbria tells me that his force has already tripled the number of vehicles impounded over the past few years, so it is keen to enforce the laws, such as they are. Will the Minister set out how her new proposals will make life better for residents in Newcastle?

• 2 Jun 2025 · Strategic Defence Review · Hansard source

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  There is much in this strategic defence review that will be of interest to my Committee. I welcome the report and in particular the recognition that science, innovation and technology are an opportunity as well as a threat. Can he confirm that the numerous references to AI in the report are to a sovereign AI capability, whether publicly or privately developed? Having spent last week in Brunei as part of the armed forces parliamentary scheme, observing the amazing work of the Royal Gurkha Rifles, will he also confirm that despite this tilt back to NATO, he recognises the contribution and strategic importance of that base in the South China sea?

• 20 May 2025 · UK-EU Summit · Hansard source

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  A trade deal with the world’s fastest-growing economy, which the Tories failed to achieve; a trade deal with the world’s richest economy, which they also failed to achieve; and a trade deal with the world’s biggest trading bloc, which the Tories and Reform would tear up, despite the enormous benefits for British businesses, consumers and tourists—does the Prime Minister agree that all that, plus financial stability, investment in key public services and our national security and infrastructure, makes the UK the best place to start and grow a business in the world? Would he further agree that given our fantastic quality of living, our great universities and our skilled and passionate people, the north-east should be the destination of choice for such investment?

• 14 May 2025 · Data (Use and Access) Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  Will the Minister give way?

• 14 May 2025 · Data (Use and Access) Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  Will the Minister give way?

• 14 May 2025 · Data (Use and Access) Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  rose—

• 14 May 2025 · Data (Use and Access) Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  I rise to speak to Lords amendment 43B, which deals with the safeguarding of scientific research and ensuring that the exemptions in the Bill are used for the purposes of such research alone. On Second Reading, the Minister was unable to address the points that I raised; he ran out of time because of the length of the debate on AI and copyright, and I rather feel that the same has happened today. In the meantime, however, he wrote to me extensively to address my concerns. Although I do not think all of them were fully addressed, I was convinced that the Minister and, indeed, the Government did not intend this measure to widen the circumstances in which data could be reused for scientific research without consent. I am thinking of circumstances in which data would be reused for the training of AI models which were in themselves not contributing to new, creative scientific research. I believe—let me emphasise this—that all scientific research is creative, and that even if it is simply reproducing existing findings, it is creating confidence in the stock of scientific knowledge. I understand that the Minister does not intend to create a wild west, and I hope that he can confirm specifically that it is not the policy, intention or effect of the provisions to enable the reuse of personal data for AI.

• 14 May 2025 · Data (Use and Access) Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  I thank the Minister for his inadvertent intervention, and I look forward to my future happiness. Given his reassurances, I think the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee can work with the Government to ensure that the Bill enables scientific research through the use of the fantastic datasets that the UK is proud to have, without exposing the public to the reuse of their data for the purposes of training AI models or for other commercial purposes that are not within the remit of scientific research. I will be pleased to accept the Minister’s reassurances, and on that basis I do not wish to engage in further ping-pong between the Houses.

• 14 May 2025 · Data (Use and Access) Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  I thank the Minister for his generosity in giving way, which has made this a real debate. I commend him for his determination to bring together the tech sector and creatives to develop a solution—I know that many creatives are technical, and many technical people are creative. May I urge the Minister to ensure that he works with a wide range of tech companies? As I have said to him, I do not believe that large tech platforms have the right incentives to develop an appropriate tech solution to this, and I urge him to be transparent about how he engages with them. Finally, the tech platforms refused to appear at a joint sitting of the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee and the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, but it is through transparency that we can ensure competition to identify the best technical solution.

• 14 May 2025 · Data (Use and Access) Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  On the point that Lord Winston made in the other place, will the Minister explain how setting a test for scientific research, so that data could be reused, would have prevented in vitro fertilisation?

• 14 May 2025 · Data (Use and Access) Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  The Minister makes a hand signal, but I am of the view that hand signals are not reflected in Hansard . The Minister has far greater knowledge of proceedings in this House than I do, so I suspect he knows that too. If he would like to intervene on me, I would be very happy for him to do so.

• 14 May 2025 · UK-US Trade Agreement: Digital Services Regulation · Hansard source

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  I really welcome the US-UK trade deal and the fact that the Secretary of State and the Prime Minister kept their commitment not to put online safety on the table in those negotiations. My Committee’s inquiry into social media misinformation and algorithms has heard evidence that the algorithms in social media drive the spread of misinformation, and we saw the consequences of that in the summer riots. Will the Secretary of State confirm that, as well as not watering down the Online Safety Act, he will look to strengthen it and is discussing how to do so with our allies in the US?

• 13 May 2025 · Mansion House Accord · Hansard source

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  The Science, Innovation and Technology Committee inquiry into the innovation and growth of the regions has repeatedly heard evidence that the lack of access to investment, particularly outside London and the south-east, is a barrier to scaling up our fantastic science and tech start-ups, so I welcome the commitments to put more of our pensions and savings into the productive economy—and I am rather surprised by the response of the shadow Chancellor. Will the Minister say a little more about how these commitments will support growth through innovation?