Dan Tomlinson MP: speeches

Speeches

• 19 Nov 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Earlier this month, I visited Barnet hospital to see the way in which it is changing the emergency care department so that more patients can be seen more quickly, freeing up capacity in accident and emergency. What steps are the Government taking to ensure that trusts such as the Royal Free and others across the country get the support they need, through investment and reform, to improve patient care?

• 6 Nov 2024 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source

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  I thank Members for their maiden speeches—such warm and thoughtful contributions. I look forward to hearing more from the Members who spoke today. Growth for higher living standards is the defining mission of this Government, and rightly so. Labour Members know—we have seen it play out over the last 14 years—that there is a link between the health of the national economy and the health of family finances up and down the country. Why have families in this country suffered in the last 14 years? It is because productivity growth has been on the floor. Had wages in this country continued to grow since the financial crisis at the rate they had before, families would not be just £1,000 or £2,000 a year better off; on average, workers would be £10,700 better off had the Conservative party grown the economy and our productivity so that families’ living standards could improve. I think particularly of young people and children, and the economy that they will grow up in. I want people all over the country—not just in Chipping Barnet but across the United Kingdom—to enter a jobs market where good jobs are available in every place. In elections to come in five, 10 or 15 years’ time, I want our politics to be defined not by scarcity and fighting over limited resources because we have continued on the path of decline that the Conservatives set us on, but by abundance and there being enough—maybe even more than enough—for every family. Then, children from whatever background —particularly those from backgrounds like mine, growing up in low-income families, in social housing and on free school meals—can have the opportunities that they need. This Budget has done so much to help children and families like that. We have changed the fiscal rules so that we can invest again in our public services and infrastructure. We are reforming welfare so that we can support more people into work. We are putting money into affordable housing so that we can get to 1.5 million new homes. We are investing in transport, including Northern Powerhouse rail and here in London. I am confident that, thanks to those reforms, the Office for Budget Responsibility, which set out that it had not yet taken account of many of the reforms that the Government are implementing, will be able to revise up those growth forecasts so that, as the Chancellor said, what we have achieved so far is not the summit of our ambitions but only the beginning.

• 28 Oct 2024 · Middle East · Hansard source

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  I thank the Foreign Secretary for his statement. The humanitarian situation in Gaza is catastrophic, so can he please update the House on the work that the Government are doing to provide more aid and to ensure that it gets to those who need it?

• 28 Oct 2024 · Remembrance and Veterans · Hansard source

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  Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. May I start by praising my hon. Friend the Member for Nuneaton (Jodie Gosling) for her fantastic maiden speech? Like other Labour Members, I have Nuneaton seared into my memory because of its role in the 2015 general election. It is nice now to be able to think of such a fantastic speech when I think of Nuneaton. I pay tribute to my predecessor as the MP for Chipping Barnet, Theresa Villiers, who served with much hard work and diligence over her 19 years of service. She was a hard-working Member of Parliament, and I hope to follow in her footsteps in that regard. Just yesterday, I was with members of the East Barnet branch of the Royal British Legion, and I thought then, as we think now, of all those who have given their lives and livelihoods to service to keep our country safe. Chipping Barnet is not, as some may assume, in the Cotswolds, which is home to Chipping Norton and Jeremy Clarkson’s farm—although we do have 14 farms in the constituency. We are, in fact, a suburb of London—part of the London borough of Barnet—and it is the suburbs that I would like to speak about today, for it is my contention that when a political party understands the suburbs, it is able then, and only then, to speak on behalf of, and govern for, the country as a whole. Let me give the House a little history of Chipping Barnet. Back in the 1700s, a weary traveller trying to make their way northwards out of London, on the great north road, would find that the natural resting point for their first night’s stay would be Chipping Barnet, where no fewer than 25 public houses could put them up for the night. I will ensure that I continue supporting and patronising the pubs in Chipping Barnet during my time in office. If we roll forward 200 years, we get to the extension of the Northern line to the constituency, joining us up with the city of London proper. With a relatively liberal planning system pre-1947, that connectivity enabled a surge of housebuilding, which Labour Members will think about, I am sure, when we seek to build and invest for the future. Chipping Barnet is home, as I said, to wonderful farms and green spaces, and many of us moved to Barnet because we value a house with a garden, room to raise the kids, and maybe even space to park the car out front—the aspirations of suburban life. Let me say to people of faith in my constituency just how grateful I am for the warmth with which I have been received in churches, synagogues and mosques. In particular, I say to Jewish and Muslim residents that I will always stand with them against the antisemitism and Islamophobia that I know has been on the rise in recent months and over the past year. It is important to do good work locally as a Member of Parliament, but it is my firm belief that we must raise our game in this House and nationally if we are to truly make a difference for our constituents. The need for change is great. Gone are the days when a child could grow up in a low-income family and on free school meals, just as I did, but with the security of a social security system that was there for them and genuinely affordable social housing. Representing the suburbs is just as much about standing up for the people who cannot afford to or do not commute into town as it is about representing those who do. People’s aspiration for a better life for their families and communities is still there, but it is not being met. I am talking about the deal of suburban life: people who put in so much—spending their time stuck in traffic or on the Northern line, raising their kids to know right from wrong, and serving in their communities and working hard—expect in return that the Government will just get some things right by providing public services that are there when needed and ensuring that the economy is strong and growing. I saw that deal fall apart somewhat during my time as an economist before entering this House. I worked at the Treasury for a time, and then at the Resolution Foundation and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. I saw that deal fall apart in charts and in numbers on spreadsheets, but since becoming a parliamentary candidate and then a Member of Parliament, I have heard at first hand from constituents in the suburbs about how that deal has fallen apart. I think of young people who cannot afford to move out of their parents’ homes and own or rent in the suburbs. I think of many residents who want to buy a new car but are scared that if they do, it will be stolen and the police will not follow up. Those everyday aspirations are not being met any more. My work in this place—our work on the Labour Benches—will be to rebuild that deal of suburbia and ensure that those who put in so much get it back again. I say to residents of Chipping Barnet, whether they live in Brunswick Park, Whetstone, Totteridge, Mill Hill East, Arkley, Edgwarebury, Underhill or one of the many Barnets—High Barnet, East Barnet, New Barnet or Barnet Vale—that it is the honour of my life to serve and represent them. I will do all I can for our communities during my time in this place.

• 21 Oct 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I thank you, Mr Speaker, for making time for Back Benchers in the questions today. I rise to raise the issue of car theft in my constituency. Many hundreds of residents have had their cars stolen, and the police do not have the capacity to follow up. Next year, I am hosting a car theft summit in Chipping Barnet, and I invite the Minister to attend with me.

• 7 Oct 2024 · Hamas Attacks: First Anniversary · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for giving way so early in his speech. It is worth pausing to reflect on the fact that the atrocity was so bad and so many people lost their lives at the hands of Hamas because Hamas intended for that to be the case. In the year that has followed, so many innocent people have lost their lives, suffered and been displaced. Will he join me in condemning Hamas and its evil actions, which took place on 7 October?

• 3 Sept 2024 · Living Standards · Hansard source

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  The economic chaos of previous Conservative Governments pushed up interest rates, causing mortgage costs to rise by £500 a month for families in Barnet. What steps is the Chancellor taking to bring down those rates so that families who have worked hard and saved hard can get the living standards boost that they so desperately need?

• 3 Sept 2024 · Living Standards · Hansard source

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  15. What steps she plans to take to help improve living standards.

• 30 Jul 2024 · Iran: Alleged Human Rights Violations · Hansard source

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  I welcome the Minister to his place. As we were tragically reminded again this weekend, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is a destructive, malign and terrorist force that is operating through proxies in the middle east, including Hamas and Hezbollah. Will the Minister please update the House on the ongoing work to proscribe the IRGC, which the Conservatives sadly failed to do when they were in government? Will he please also reassure the House that the UK continues to stand shoulder to shoulder with Israel against the IRGC’s continued aggression?

• 24 Jul 2024 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Q11. The previous Conservative Government cut the funding for the police in London by one third, taking £1 billion out of the budget for London’s policing and forcing the closure of both police stations in the Chipping Barnet constituency. Does the Prime Minister agree with me on the importance of our police stations and on the need to rebuild local policing?

• 23 Jul 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T8. I am sure the whole House will want to celebrate the fact that the NHS is safe in Labour hands once again. Specifically in the Royal Free trust area, which covers the community that I now have the honour of being the MP for—Chipping Barnet in North London—there are 100,000 people on the NHS waiting list, so what steps will the Minister take to reduce the waiting list in places such as mine so that we can see more people getting the treatment and support that they need from the NHS?

• 19 Jul 2024 · Israel and Gaza · Hansard source

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  I welcome the Foreign Secretary and the whole Front-Bench team to their place—it is wonderful to see. I also welcome the visit that the Foreign Secretary made to the middle east, and thank him for the time he spent visiting the families of the hostages who have been held in Gaza for nine months now. I ask him to commit to do everything he can to ensure those hostages are released immediately.