Chris McDonald MP: speeches

Speeches

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

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  The right hon. Member has a point. Many countries struggle with recruitment, and perhaps the cuts to the armed forces and the delivery of the so-called peace dividend have been an issue in some countries. In the north-east in particular, however, which is the subject of this debate, there is no shortage of committed people desperately wishing to serve. Ultimately, it is the systems in place that are preventing them from doing that. We are clearly in an increasingly hostile world. We have war in Europe, an increasing threat from China, and, of course, what is happening in the middle east. People are seeing that on their TV screens each evening and they are wanting to serve. We should make it easier for them to do that. If the right hon. Member wants a more direct answer, I think that the outsourcing of recruitment, which was fundamentally a cost-cutting measure as part of austerity, has weakened not just our public services, but our national security. When my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence took office, he inherited a system that had missed its recruitment targets every single year for over a decade—we had more people leaving the forces than joining. That is why I welcome his commitment to modernisation. We need to cut red tape, to scrap these outdated entry requirements, and to make it fundamentally easier for people to serve. The strategic defence review recognises the scale of the workforce crisis with plans to invest in infrastructure and people. That includes the award of a 4.5% above inflation pay rise for personnel, which is the beginning of proper recognition of the professionalism and sacrifices of our armed forces, and the commitment of £1.5 billion for armed forces housing. I am sure that many hon. Members have been appalled by the current housing conditions. As my hon. Friend the Member for Darlington (Lola McEvoy) mentioned, if we want to retain talent, we need to think more long term about how people are treated when they leave, and how their families are treated while they serve. Every day, our armed forces keep Britain safe at home and abroad. They deserve more than gratitude; they deserve a system that works for them. Service personnel in Stockton, Billingham, and Norton know that they are fully supported by our local community, and I am sure they also know that they are now fully supported by this Labour Government.

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

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Allin-Khan. I congratulate my constituency neighbour, my hon. Friend the Member for Newton Aycliffe and Spennymoor (Alan Strickland), not only on securing the debate but on his doughty championing of the armed forces in our region and around the UK. Armed forces recruitment in the north-east is of regional and national importance, and matters very deeply to my constituents in Stockton, Billingham and Norton. Our armed forces community is a great source of pride, as hon. Members will have seen if they were with me on Stockton High Street on Saturday, when we had a flag-raising ceremony for Armed Forces Week. There were representatives of our local regiment, the Royal Yorkshire Regiment; the Royal Military Police, which has a base in Norton in my constituency; and our cadets—the sea cadets and RAF cadets based in my constituency, and Royal Marine cadets too. Those brave members of the regulars and reserves deserve more than my words and the words of hon. Members in this Chamber; they deserve real action. As my hon. Friend pointed out, the reality is starkly different from some of those words. The British Army is now at its smallest size in 200 years. With due respect to the shadow Minister, the right hon. Member for Rayleigh and Wickford (Mr Francois), who I know is personally a strong supporter of the armed forces, the last decade did not cover his party or the previous Government in glory on this issue. The armed forces have been hollowed out. They have been underfunded, overstretched and undervalued. As we have heard, over the last decade the number of recruits in the north-east has fallen by a third. This in an area that, as my hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West (Dame Chi Onwurah) said, is proud of its commitment to the armed forces, and where people know that joining the armed forces provides a route of opportunity that is sadly lacking elsewhere in our economy.

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

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  My hon. Friend is giving an excellent overview of regiments in the north-east. He mentions “The Northumbrians”, so will he join me in welcoming to the Public Gallery Ammar Mirza CBE, an honorary colonel of the 101st (Northumbrian) Regiment Royal Artillery? Does he agree with me that he is doing an excellent job by attending this debate, demonstrating the commitment in the north-east to our regiments not just from politicians, but from our honorary colonel?

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

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  I thank my hon. Friend for his warm speech about the pride of the various regiments in the north-east of England, but there is a big gap at the moment. A number of years ago, the Durham Light Infantry lost their national memorial when the building that was housing it was no longer fit for purpose. That is a sad loss to our region. Will the hon. Gentleman join me in calling on the new Reform Durham county council to pick up the plans previously put down by local people to recreate a fitting memorial for the Durham Light Infantry in our area?

• 24 Jun 2025 · Unadopted Estates and Roads · Hansard source

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  I commend my hon. Friend for showing leadership on this issue and supporting not only his constituents but mine in Stockton North. I have seen high service charges in my constituency at Willow Sage Court and Wynyard, and unadopted roads on the Queensgate estate were left for four years before my intervention. Does he agree that homeowners deserve, when they buy a new property, to have an agreement with the developer on when those roads will be made up and adopted, and to have a reasonable expectation that this will happen?

• 19 Jun 2025 · Immigration: Government Legal Advice · Hansard source

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  Counter-terrorism powers could optimise the effectiveness of the Border Security Command. Could the Solicitor General advise on how the Crown Prosecution Service is being empowered to tackle illegal migration and people smuggling?

• 16 Jun 2025 · Iran-Israel Conflict · Hansard source

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  I thank the Foreign Secretary for his commitment to de-escalation and I particularly thank my hon. Friend the Minister for the middle east, who has worked so hard over the last few days. Could the Foreign Secretary say a little more about our commitments to our long-standing friends and allies in the region, particularly countries such as Bahrain?

• 12 Jun 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  On Friday last week, a mass brawl broke out outside a primary school in my constituency, with children as young as four and their families witnessing violent acts, and they were understandably scared. Will the Leader of the House join me in condemning this disgraceful behaviour and in commending Cleveland police and the school for their response, and can she secure a statement from the Justice Secretary to ensure the perpetrators of such crimes feel the full force of the law?

• 12 Jun 2025 · Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy · Hansard source

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  I do agree. I recognise the figures from the Oxford university hospitals NHS foundation trust. It is quoting around £2,000 per lad treated, which I understand is very similar to other areas of the country. I see that as quite a small amount of money for the 35 lives that could be saved. Despite, as we have heard, givinostat being available for more than seven months, there has been a very inconsistent approach across the UK. A very small number of ambulant people living with DMD have so far received the treatment, and no non-ambulant boys have been treated with it yet.

• 12 Jun 2025 · Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy · Hansard source

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  The important thing for us to consider here is that with only 1,100 or 1,200 lads and young men in the country living with the disease, and only 500 boys eligible for the treatment, we could at least expect some consistency in approach across the whole of the United Kingdom.

• 12 Jun 2025 · Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for that intervention. I am very pleased that he has intervened and I think the comment about a postcode lottery is exactly right. I noted, when I looked at the figures, that currently the Belfast health and social care trust is not offering the drug to lads in Northern Ireland, because it is claiming that it will cost £309,000 for 13 patients. That is different from the rest of the country by an order of magnitude, so I would be grateful if the Minister looked very carefully at the situation in Northern Ireland.

• 12 Jun 2025 · Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy · Hansard source

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  I thank the Minister for her response, to which I am listening very carefully. I appreciate her point that it would be inappropriate for the Department of Health and Social Care to direct what trusts should do, but what we have heard from the trusts is that they would like to issue this drug, but have certain issues and problems. Perhaps it might simply be a matter of the Department giving help and support, and facilitating information-sharing between trusts that have made this work and those that have not. Perhaps it could be more encouragement than direction.

• 12 Jun 2025 · Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy · Hansard source

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  Yes, I do agree with that very timely intervention. In fact, the slogan of Duchenne UK is “Time is muscle”, and it is absolutely right that every day and every week makes a difference to these boys.

• 12 Jun 2025 · Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy · Hansard source

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  Yes, my hon. Friend is absolutely right about that. Time is muscle, as she says. Sadly, because the drug is currently only available, in the areas where it is available, to lads who are ambulant, the waiting time has meant that some lads out there who would have qualified for the drug now no longer do so. That is, frankly, heartbreaking. Of course, the use of one’s legs is not the only thing people are concerned about. We need to be able to use our arms to be able to dress ourselves, feed ourselves and brush our teeth, and givinostat could help with that. It is very disheartening that while coping with all of this, families, parents and carers and so on are having to fight for access to the drug on a trust by trust basis. They have done that with the support of all the Members in the Chamber tonight. I am very grateful for the fact that they have turned up, because I know families are watching. I also want to mention some Members who have approached me who would have loved to have been here but cannot be due to other commitments in the House. My hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend (Mary Glindon) has campaigned on this subject for many years and chaired the all-party parliamentary group. A constituent of my hon. Friend the Member for Basingstoke (Luke Murphy), who has the disease, visited Parliament on Monday and was so pleased to see on the Annunciator that we were having this debate. My hon. Friends the Members for Bury North (Mr Frith) and for Bury South (Christian Wakeford) worked together to ensure that Manchester university NHS foundation trust does now provide the drug to their constituents. William from Codicote, a constituent of my hon. Friend the Member for Stevenage (Kevin Bonavia), is living with Duchenne. The hon. Member for Chester South and Eddisbury (Aphra Brandreth) has been supporting Mr and Mrs Binns, whose son Jack has Duchenne. They do not yet have access to givinostat and are trying to get it. I have also had representations from my hon. Friend the Member for Beckenham and Penge (Liam Conlon), the hon. Member for Westmorland and Lonsdale (Tim Farron) and my hon. Friend the Member for Altrincham and Sale West (Mr Rand). We can see that there is broad support across all parties in the House, with Members working with their constituents to try to secure this drug which is free of charge—free of charge—to the NHS. We have heard that provision is very patchy across England. There is some central co-ordination in Scotland, but no lad in Northern Ireland can access the treatment.

• 12 Jun 2025 · Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy · Hansard source

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  It is really important that we remember the parents, families and carers—the big support network around these boys. It seems to be such a small thing that we need to do from the point of view of the NHS. There are some very good examples: Leicester royal infirmary is leading the way as the first hospital to dose a patient. However, as we have heard, some large specialist children’s hospitals in many areas have been slow to commit, and only a few have actually started dosing patients, although some are still working to make givinostat available. The barriers that we hear about are a lack of capacity and resource constraints. Clinics say that they need small amounts of additional consultant time for pharmacy support and extra blood tests, but really, in the context of the number of blood tests that are carried out in the NHS on a daily basis, this number is really quite small. However, some trusts still insist on telling families that they cannot deliver the treatment because of that. Given that some trusts can and some cannot, I would like to hear from the Minister what we might do to even out the service across the country. Some trusts have expressed concern that after starting patients on givinostat, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence might subsequently not approve it at its upcoming meeting in July, and trusts would have to withdraw the treatment. Well, they would not need to do so: Italfarmaco, the previously mentioned pharmacy company, has made it clear that in the event of a negative decision from NICE, it will continue to provide givinostat for those already enrolled on the early-access programme for as long as it is deemed clinically beneficial to the patient. Continuity of supply letters have been signed between hospitals taking part in the early-access programme and the company to ensure that this is in line with NHS England guidance. There are two reasons now to accelerate the roll-out before NICE’s decision in July. The first is that every day and every week makes a difference to these young lads; the second is that every lad who gets on that programme before July will be guaranteed this treatment for the rest of their lives, if it is not approved by NICE. When I met Benjamin, Jack and Eli, I had already disappointed Eli by not being able to introduce him to Sam Fender, so I thought I would try to redeem myself. I said to them, “Look, I’ve come to see you, but clearly, when you came to Parliament, you didn’t want to meet the Member for Stockton North. Who would you most like to meet?”. They all said they would like to meet the Secretary of State for Health, not primarily because he could help them with their disease, but apparently they like him—he is a very popular Member of Parliament. I said, “I’ll see if I can sort that out,” and I did manage to sort it out. The Secretary of State very generously gave a lot of his time—I think his private office thought he had vanished off the face of the earth, because he had a great time chatting to Benjamin, Jack and Eli. I know that his intervention really cheered them up, but it also gave them hope for their futures. I want sincerely to thank the Secretary of State for Health for his generosity in sharing his time on that day and for the difference that he made to those boys. I turn to my requests of the Minister. In the short term, what these families need is for hospitals with specialist neuromuscular services across the whole of the United Kingdom—in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland—to implement the early-access programme swiftly, and for it to be rolled out to non-ambulant patients, too. The free availability of the drug from the manufacturer means that cost alone is not the barrier here; the barrier is bureaucracy. My simple ask to the Minister is to act with the urgency needed to roll out the medicine across the country as quickly as possible. Every day and every week matters—the lads with Duchenne do not have time to wait.

• 12 Jun 2025 · Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy · Hansard source

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  I thank the Minister for what I think is her triple shift at the Dispatch Box today. A few months ago, I met three really great young lads—Benjamin, Eli and Jack. We had a great conversation, and they had me laughing and joking along with them for a very long time. I slightly disappointed Eli when I first opened my mouth because, listening to me, he recognised where I was from, and he asked if I could introduce him to Sam Fender. The north-east is quite small, but I do not know everyone, and I could see the disappointment on his face. One of the things we talked about was what they want to do in the future. Eli is considering being a musician, and Jack said he would like to do something involving public speaking or, who knows, even be a politician. It was really great to see that level of ambition, but for me it was tinged with sadness; I knew that they were unlikely to realise their ambitions, because Benjamin, Jack and Eli are unlikely to see their 30th birthdays. Benjamin, Jack and Eli all have Duchenne muscular dystrophy. It is a disease that affects only boys, and about 100 baby boys are born with it every year. Diagnosis is normally at the age of three or four, and at that moment the parents find out that their son has a life-limiting condition that cannot be treated, and that he will probably need a wheelchair by the age of 12 and a ventilator by the age of 20. There is no cure for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, but there is hope now with a new drug called givinostat. Givinostat was developed by an Italian company, Italfarmaco, and it is an example of the brilliance of our UK life sciences sector that it decided to develop the drug here in the UK. As it has been trialled here, Italfarmaco has given the national health service a unique option to prescribe givinostat through an early-access programme entirely free of charge. The NHS can offer this drug to boys in the UK completely free of charge, and the early-access programme has been available since November last year. Members might think that such an opportunity would be seized quickly by the NHS, but sadly it has not been. Many families have had their hopes raised, only for them to be dashed when they find that they cannot access the treatment. Patients, families and charities are now calling for urgent access to givinostat, as are many Members of this House. My constituent Tracy is one of the many who have been fighting for their child’s right to live, and for the treatment that has been proven to slow down the progression of Duchenne. Her son, Tom, is 14 years old, and she tells me that he is deteriorating. Givinostat has market authorisation for all boys with Duchenne over the age of six. It has been proven to slow its progression in clinical trials. It is not a cure—the families realise it is not a cure—but it could help boys and young men to keep walking and use their muscles for longer.

• 11 Jun 2025 · Spending Review 2025 · Hansard source

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  The Chancellor of the Exchequer may remember that the last Conservative Prime Minister boasted about moving funding from Teesside to Royal Tunbridge Wells. I am pleased to see that her statement plugs places such as Stockton North back into our economy. I thank the Chancellor for agreeing to make Stockton central one of the trailblazer areas, investing in our local facilities and tackling fly-tipping and graffiti. Does she agree that the statement shows that our Labour Government are providing jobs for working people, providing homes for working people and providing opportunities for our young people?

• 11 Jun 2025 · Sustainable Aviation Fuel Bill · Hansard source

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  We heard earlier from my hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster Central (Sally Jameson) how proud the people of Doncaster are of their airport, but I challenge her to a “pride in your local airport” competition, because nowhere is more proud of its local airport than Teesside—to the extent that whether politicians promise the continuation of flights from Teesside to Alicante is the most important issue in local politics. Quite right, too, because working people in Teesside save all year round for their seven days in the sun, and that is important to me and to everybody else who lives there. People who say that we need to reduce flights and the opportunity for working people to go on holiday are not living in the real world —they are certainly not talking to the people I talk to and live with.

• 11 Jun 2025 · Sustainable Aviation Fuel Bill · Hansard source

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  I could not agree more. As my hon. Friend the Member for Dover and Deal (Mike Tapp) said, we are indeed an island nation, if anyone had not spotted that, and the quickest way to get about is to go by air. What everyone wants is to wake up on a morning in Stockton and then be sat on a beach in Benidorm by lunch time, and of course they can do that at Teesside airport. The people of Teesside know that our future is about decarbonising. This Government have invested £4 billion in carbon capture and storage. We have the largest offshore wind monopile factory in our area, and we are producing green hydrogen in Billingham in my constituency—in fact, Billingham produces 50% of the UK’s hydrogen, and Billingham and Teesside more generally is set to become Europe’s main centre for sustainable aviation fuel. I am sure that sustainable aviation fuel will be produced in Grangemouth, Humberside, the north-west and south Wales, but the market is enormous and, as we heard from my hon. Friend the Member for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland (Luke Myer), Teesside and Billingham in my constituency is best placed in the whole of Europe to deal with this. The biggest threat to that at the moment is not the fantastic plans of this Government, but the ideological adherence of members of Reform to anti-net zero. As usual, I find myself in this House standing up for new jobs for industrial communities in my area, alongside my hon. Friend the Member for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland. Where are the Reform Members? They are not here—they are never here.

• 11 Jun 2025 · Sustainable Aviation Fuel Bill · Hansard source

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  I agree. Whether it is in Sunderland or, as I mentioned, the north-west and down in south Wales, we will see jobs in the supply chain throughout all this work. It will also benefit Heathrow and our other major airport hubs. I thought it might be useful to make a few comments about why I believe SAF is the solution. The hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam (Luke Taylor) gave a great description of why the flight range equations essentially drive us in the direction of sustainable aviation fuel. Electrification certainly would be possible for short-haul flights, but the hydrogen simply does not have the density. As I think the hon. Gentleman also said, infrastructure is important—we heard that from the Secretary of State in her opening statement—because planes take off from one place, but they land somewhere else, and they need to be able to refuel there too. Sustainable aviation fuel is certainly the right approach, but a couple of Members raised concerns in the debate about the raw materials for feedstock—my hon. Friend the Member for Brentford and Isleworth (Ruth Cadbury) raised that issue. The hon. Member for Mid Bedfordshire (Blake Stephenson) said that he had learned about second-generation sustainable aviation fuels; it is probably just as well that he is not in his place, because I might blow his mind when I talk about third-generation and fourth-generation sustainable aviation fuels. Essentially, there are concerns about the raw materials and municipal waste. Although the amount of waste per person will decline, a lot of it is put into energy from waste plants, and the new investments are really about future generations of SAF. We have heard about biomass. If that biomass is not from a feedstock, perhaps that verges into the second generation, but it is third-generation and fourth-generation sustainable aviation fuel that will enable us to scale up this industry. That will open it up to the direct combination of carbon dioxide and hydrogen using green electricity, which will enable us to scale it up. An abundant supply of those raw materials is needed, which is why I am so confident that we will see the industry spread around the whole of the UK. Why do I say Billingham will become the UK and European centre for this work? There is a justification. Teesside already produces 50% of the UK’s hydrogen, and the chemicals cluster there is well-known for producing pharmaceuticals for fertilisers and various other chemicals. We produced synthetic petrol in Billingham in the 1930s, and we produced synthetic jet fuel there in the 1940s for the Royal Air Force during the second world war. I say that not to imply in some way that we still have the skillset—many of those people are quite rightly enjoying their retirement, or have perhaps moved on from that—but to demonstrate to the House that there is not a big technological risk associated with this technology. Third-generation SAF will rely on the Fischer-Tropsch process, which has been around for 100 years. In fact, when I talk to investors in the industry and ask them what the big risks are, they highlight economic risks—with which the Government are getting to grips right now through this legislation—and political risk, which is about the consistency of Government policy. As I mentioned earlier, the biggest threat to these jobs and to this industry is the ideology of the Reform party. As we see the jobs and investment, I am confident that people in my local community will vote for jobs and investment in the future as well. As such, I warmly welcome this legislation. I very much look forward to the day when I can welcome right hon. and hon. Members to Teesside international airport, and enjoy a drink with them in the bar before we jet off to Alicante for our holidays.

• 11 Jun 2025 · Space Industry · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Betts. When we think about space, it is a natural instinct to look towards the skies, but actually someone wanting to find out a lot about what is happening up there could do much worse than dive one mile underneath the North York Moors—something I did a number of years ago when I went underground at the Boulby potash mine in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland (Luke Myer). I had never been down a mine before, and this was the second deepest mine in Europe. In the cage, we were swallowed into the darkness and down this incredibly deep lift shaft, then travelled miles underground, bumping around in a beat-up old Land Rover to get to the face of the mine. We then came to a state-of-the-art facility: an underground dark matter laboratory operated by the Science and Technology Facilities Council. It is positioned there because it is safe from atmospheric radiation. Part of what the laboratory does is enable research into dark matter, which will help us to understand how to survive in hostile environments—on Earth and beyond it, in space—and contributes to technologies such as quantum computing. That is just one of the facilities that forms the cornerstone of the north-east of England space community. I want to talk a bit about that today. I must also declare that a close relative of mine is employed adjacent to that sector. When NASA decided to build the James Webb space telescope, that was of course a great national effort for the USA, but it came to Durham for the development and engineering of the telescope. It was Durham University’s centre for advanced instrumentation that constructed the infrared spectrograph integral field unit— I am sure that everyone here knows what those five words mean individually, although when taken together they might be a little more confusing. We heard from the hon. Member for Wyre Forest (Mark Garnier)—I congratulate him on securing this debate—about the defence applications for such sensing technology, and there can be that crossover with different industries. But that centre at Durham University had the ability to develop and manufacture those components. We should be proud, as a nation, that NASA comes to the UK to obtain such components. Space is happening in the north-east, particularly at NETPark, which is in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Newton Aycliffe and Spennymoor (Alan Strickland), but also quite close to my constituency; many of my constituents work there, too. It is home to three of our catapults: the Satellite Applications Catapult, the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, and the Compound Semiconductors Applications Catapult. It also houses a number of companies. Filtronic makes mission-critical electronic components in the satellite supply chain; Lockheed Martin is working with Northumbria University on the North East Space Skills and Technology Centre; and Octric at Newton Aycliffe is the Government owned semiconductor manufacturing facility. Interestingly, Durham University business school is also working on the legal and ethical aspects of space exploitation, as we put a framework around how we can globally work together in space. There are wider economic benefits in our region. Currently, the sector contributes £130 million to our local economy; 1,300 people are employed in about 48 businesses. But the north-east of England space cluster hopes to grow to 10,000 employees over the next few years. Our regional strengths are in space manufacturing, earth observance, climate intelligence and connectivity. Having listened to the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon), I think there are great similarities between the strengths in the north-east of England and in Northern Ireland—clearly, the satellite communications and technologies are similar; perhaps our shared history in the aerospace and defence sectors has enabled us to develop those. However, there are gaps in this growing cluster and things we could do to enhance it. I have spoken a bit about the strength in our local universities, which provide early-stage research, and in the businesses. But there is a gap in the middle—there always is. Our catapult centres can help with that, but in the UK many sectors have suffered from having developed technologies but then not progressed them through the so-called valley of death, so that they are then exploited elsewhere. If we want to take advantage of our great opportunity for financial investment, identified by the hon. Member for Wyre Forest—it could be the engine that really drives the growth of the 48 primarily smaller businesses in the north-east of England—then we need the Government to work with industry to de-risk and accelerate those technology investments. I hope that the Government will invest, particularly in those catapult centres at NETPark, while supporting small businesses as they develop those technologies as well. Space is happening in the north-east of England. It is one part of the UK’s space economy. It will certainly be important for the future of the economy of north-east England and vital for our defence and aerospace industries, too.

• 9 Jun 2025 · Leasehold Reform · Hansard source

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  2. What steps she plans to take to reform the leasehold system.

• 9 Jun 2025 · Leasehold Reform · Hansard source

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  I thank the Minister for his positive engagement with me on the issue of a safe crossing at roads on the Wynyard and Queensgate estates in my constituency, but can I also bring to his attention the issue of service charges at the Willow Sage Court estate? Does he agree that our leasehold reforms must ensure fair service charges? I can send him further information about this case if he wishes.

• 9 Jun 2025 · Winter Fuel Payment · Hansard source

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  The decision to restore the winter fuel payment to those earning under £35,000 a year is the right decision. I thank the Minister and his predecessor for their constructive engagement with representations from my constituents in Stockton, Billingham and Norton on the threshold issue, but does he agree with my constituent who wrote to me to say that, although welcome, the winter fuel payment is not a silver bullet, and this Government’s commitment to the triple lock stands in stark contrast to the previous Conservative Government’s breaking of that triple lock in 2022, which is still costing my constituents hundreds of pounds a year?

• 5 Jun 2025 · Relocating Civil Service Roles · Hansard source

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  I particularly welcome the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster saying that he would like to hear more accents from different parts of the country in the civil service. Billingham in Stockton North is home to the UK’s biggest biomanufacturing cluster, and we are also somewhat exposed to international trade with our steel, chemical and automotive sectors. I very much welcome the expansion of the Darlington economic campus in the area of business and trade. Does my right hon. Friend agree that this will provide good jobs for my constituents in Stockton and Billingham, and will he ensure that policy implementation is closer to the source of economic activity?