Dan Tomlinson MP: speeches

Speeches

• 26 Mar 2025 · Local Government Finances: London · Hansard source

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  Barnet council now processes 10 homelessness applications every single day—more than double the number it was processing just two years ago. This, coupled with additional spending on educational needs and adult social care, is crippling councils’ budgets, much as council leaders will try to do the best they can by their local communities. Does my hon. Friend agree that that must change if we are to see a sustainable future for councils in outer London?

• 7 Mar 2025 · Protection of Children (Digital Safety and Data Protection) Bill · Hansard source

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  I start by thanking my hon. Friend the Member for Whitehaven and Workington (Josh MacAlister) for bringing this Bill forward. I am proud to be a co-sponsor of the Bill and to have worked with him on it. I also thank him for giving us all a chance to speak in what could be the most engaged Chamber we have ever seen, as we all grapple with the hypocrisy mentioned by the hon. Member for Reigate (Rebecca Paul) and whether we can be on our smartphones. I am sure we will all be listening attentively in this debate. What were Members, collectively, all doing when they were in school, back in the mists of time? Thinking back to the early 2000s when I was in school, I would go out afterwards, calling ahead on the home phone to see whether my friends were in—we did not have smartphones then. During the summer holidays, the rule was that I had to be at home before the streetlights came on. I remember playing out in front of the local shops day after day in the long summers. If we think of children today and the childhood that they will have, we imagine them playing their favourite game, but with a device in their pocket, buzzing every minute, telling them that someone has responded to their latest Instagram post, or that all their friends are checking their phones, too. The game starts to feel a little bit different. Instead of enjoying independent play outside, today’s children and young people are spending hour upon hour of their free time glued to their screens. The average British 12-year-old is estimated to spend between 20 and 30 hours a week online, while the nation’s green spaces sit increasingly empty. That is why I believe this is an issue where the wellbeing of a generation is at stake. As other Members have mentioned, the trends that have emerged since young children started to get their own smartphones just a decade ago are concerning. I am worried about the heartbreaking rise in suicide and self-harm, rising depression and anxiety, online bullying, the things that children get exposed to through the devices in their pockets and the 46% of teenagers who say that they are using their phone almost constantly. I am worried about the risk from traffic or muggers to kids who walk to and from school staring at their phones and the evidence showing a negative impact during the school day. It is not just tired old dads like me who are concerned. Four in every five 16 to 24-year-olds say that social media has become addictive in the past five years. Most heartbreakingly of all, only 18% of girls in gen Z believe that life would be worse if social media was switched off entirely. The vast majority think that their lives would be better without it. I was radicalised over the summer, after being first elected on 4 July, by reading Jonathan Haidt’s book, “The Anxious Generation”. I decided then to reach out to Smartphone Free Childhood and my local campaign team, led by a fantastic resident called Nova Eden, to work to try to get every single school in my constituency and in my borough to go smartphone-free. I met primary school heads about that last year. Every one of them said that they were concerned—10 out of 10—about the issue. We have worked hard, and I am proud that the borough for which I have the honour of being one of the Members of Parliament will be going smartphone-free from September this year. Every single primary school—103—has signed up, and the secondary schools are following suit. I commend the work of teachers and parents—fantastic people who want to do the best by their children—in our borough. I hope that the measures in the Bill can be taken forward to help children have the best start they can in life and so that we can protect the wellbeing of future generations.

• 24 Feb 2025 · Social Media Use: Minimum Age · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. and learned Friend for mentioning the action that has taken place in the London borough of Barnet, for which I have the honour of being one of the three Members of Parliament. I have been working closely with local teachers in primary schools and secondary schools and with the fantastic Smartphone Free Childhood campaign in north London, led by a wonderful volunteer called Nova. We now have 103 primary schools in the borough committed to going smartphone free from September. Every secondary school has also said that they will go from year 7 or upwards—with some going further and faster—to go smartphone free. That is not just “not seen, not heard”, but headteachers working together, so that they have safety in numbers and are backed up by their MPs, to say that, unless there are specific exemptions that apply, smartphones will not even be allowed on the premises. Further to an earlier point, it has also been really encouraging that some teachers are going further and saying that parents should also not be allowed to use smartphones on the grounds, for the reasons that have been pointed out. I thank my hon. and learned Friend for raising Barnet. It has been fantastic to work with the campaign locally to support parents and young children in my constituency.

• 4 Feb 2025 · Social Security Benefits · Hansard source

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  I grew up in poverty. We had no money and lived in social housing. I had free school meals throughout my childhood, and the three of us were in emergency and temporary accommodation as well. And I know the benefit system was there for my mum and for us, and I have confidence that this Government will make the decisions that we need to make to ensure that our welfare system is there for families like the one I grew up in. I know a review is looking at universal credit and the welfare system, and I look forward to it reporting in the months ahead. This is a really important issue, and I thank the hon. Gentleman for raising it. On families and the state pension, often people want to pit the young and the old against one another, but the evidence shows that young people are one of the most supportive groups for the increase in state pension. That is in part because we—I still call myself young now, in my early 30s—know and have seen throughout our lives how much people who are retired, such as our grandparents or older people we know in the community, have contributed to our lives and our families and also the lives of our communities. Also, to put on my economist’s hat, increases in the state pension and support for the triple lock, which we on this side of the House steadfastly support, will benefit young people the most because an extra few pence on the state pension today means an extra few pounds—or tens of pounds or, depending on which generation we are talking about, hundreds of pounds—in the future because of the way these things compound over time. It is really important we continue to support the state pension and the triple lock.