Dave Robertson MP: speeches

Speeches

• 20 Oct 2025 · A50/A500 Corridor · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend or right hon. Friend—sorry, my right good friend—and neighbouring MP for giving way. He has mentioned the Staffordshire chambers of commerce, which is so excited to see these investments happen. At the corridor’s closest point to my constituency is one of the roundabouts in Uttoxeter that gets so snarled up—it is just 4 miles away. Improving these roads will affect not just constituencies along the corridor, but those adjacent to it and further afield. Does my hon. Friend agree that investment in this road is not just an investment in getting to and from places faster, but an investment in real, good, high-quality, unionised jobs?

• 16 Oct 2025 · Ada Lovelace Day · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to be here and to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Furniss. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Morecambe and Lunesdale (Lizzi Collinge) for securing the debate. We are here to celebrate Ada Lovelace Day—a day to celebrate women in STEM across the country and across the world. When I spotted this debate on the Order Paper, I was reminded of 12 July last year, when I received a Facebook message, of all things, from a former pupil— I have no idea how she found me. She had just that day passed out, getting her doctorate in astrophysics, and had placed a note in the acknowledgements section of her thesis thanking me “for being so inspiring and enthusiastic…and planting the seed by asking me the all-important question once after a class: Have you ever considered studying astrophysics at university?” That does not sound like an exact quote—I suspect there was possibly more sarcasm when I said it—but it made me reflect on the fact that we should never miss the opportunity to ask such a question of a young person. We need to go further and faster. We need women working in STEM and women teaching STEM. We also need to change the way we do this. We need to talk about adjectives, not just verbs. We need to talk about the beauty of mathematics. It is hard to describe to a non-mathematician, but it is so beautiful. We need to talk about the creativity of physics. We need to talk about how caring some of the life sciences can be. We need to talk about the adjectives, not just the verbs. We also need to make sure we have a cross-governmental response to encourage more people into STEM. It is the Department for Transport, DSIT, the Department for Work and Pensions and further afield. We need parity of esteem for vocational courses in STEM. We need access to triple sciences for more kids, not just the highest achievers. We need the measures in the Employment Rights Bill. We need the women’s tech taskforce. Here’s hoping that, soon, every day can be Ada Lovelace Day.

• 16 Oct 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  The Arthur Terry Learning Partnership is an academy trust with 24 schools across the west midlands, including five primary schools with alternative provision and my old secondary school in Lichfield. Last year the trust was bailed out by the Department for Education, and last Friday it wrote to all its staff inviting applications for voluntary redundancies and suggesting that there may be compulsory redundancies to follow. This is a huge worry, not only for the hard-working staff but for parents, pupils and the community. I have reached out to other Members affected—the hon. Member for Birmingham Perry Barr (Ayoub Khan) and my hon. Friends the Members for Tamworth (Sarah Edwards), for Birmingham Erdington (Paulette Hamilton), for North Warwickshire and Bedworth (Rachel Taylor) and for Coventry North West (Taiwo Owatemi)—as they share my concerns. Can the Leader of the House arrange for me and those Members to meet the relevant Minister to discuss how we can ensure that the trust is supported to continue to deliver the best possible education?

• 13 Oct 2025 · Education Committee · Hansard source

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  I started my teacher training in 2008, and I continued to work as a teacher and to be a teacher trade unionist until 4 July last year. I knew that the SEND system was broken, although I did not realise quite how broken it was until I opened my emails on day one. We all know that the system is broken throughout the country, but it is most broken in Staffordshire, a place that I have the pleasure to represent but which has the eighth highest refusal rate for EHCPs in the country, rejecting more than 45% of requests. It also has a high rate of appeals, more than double the national average at nearly 10%, and a startling 98% of those appeals are successful. Does my hon. Friend agree that if we genuinely want to solve the SEND crisis, we must solve the problem of the postcode lottery that so disadvantages people in Lichfield, Burntwood and the villages, and more widely across Staffordshire?

• 13 Oct 2025 · Baby Loss · Hansard source

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  I place on record my thanks to the co-sponsors of today’s debate and to all Members who have shared their personal experiences. It has been a very difficult debate for many of us on such an important but such a difficult subject. Like many Members today, I am here to speak on behalf of my constituents. Tim and Hannah lost their son Zack when he was just 14 hours old. Zack’s inquest found that there was a total and complete failure in his care. I genuinely do not know how parents can receive an inquest verdict like that and find the strength to put themselves back together, but Tim and Hannah did—I am sure that is something we will see in many of the people in the Gallery today. They found the strength to put themselves back together and start looking to what comes next. Zack’s story is that he caught a group B strep infection as he was born. It is incredibly common—20% to 40% of women have it on any given day—and it is generally symptomless in adults, but if it passes from mum to baby during labour, it can be fatal. On average, one baby a week in the UK dies of a strep B infection. Group B strep is common in mums and highly dangerous to babies, but the UK does not routinely test for it during pregnancy. Instead, we rely on risk factors to identify expecting mums who have it, and too often—as in Zack’s case—that approach is not working. I am pleased that a major trial, the GBS3 trial, is under way to look at whether we would be better off routinely testing, and is due to report later this year. It is no overstatement to say that that trial is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to look at our approach to the safety of babies in this situation. I really hope that it reports and moves us towards a situation in which we can routinely test for this condition during pregnancy. The gold standard test costs just £15, and can save lives—potentially, a life a week. We must do all we can to protect babies like Zack and ensure that no more parents go through what Tim and Hannah have had to.

• 15 Sept 2025 · Children with SEND: Assessments and Support · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is a powerful advocate for children with SEND right across the country. Given her personal experience, and the experience of many of our constituents, it is clear that the system is broken. Across Lichfield, Burntwood and the villages, I have set up a network of people looking to challenge Staffordshire county council, which significantly underperforms even the atrocious national standards. Does my hon. Friend agree that it is essential that the voices of those with experience of the system are heard as we move towards the White Paper and the Government work to fix the mess they inherited?

• 11 Sept 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Many right hon. and hon. Members will know the name Armitage Shanks as the company that has been making basins and toilets for over 200 years. However, fewer people will know that it takes its name from the village of Armitage in my constituency. Sadly, Armitage Shanks is planning to scale down its operation there, shutting one of its kilns and threatening up to 100 jobs. I am working closely with the GMB union to make sure that those affected can find other opportunities and to safeguard as many livelihoods as we can, but the impact of those job losses on the community will be serious. Can the Leader of the House arrange for a debate in Government time on how the Government can help protect historic brands such as Armitage Shanks?

• 11 Sept 2025 · Regional Transport Inequality · Hansard source

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  I am pleased to follow my hon. Friend the Member for East Thanet (Ms Billington), who talked about the impact of covid on transport. Many of my constituents across Lichfield, Burntwood and the villages rely on the cross-city line to get to Birmingham for work, for social activities—to visit the theatre or go for a night out—and for many other reasons. Unfortunately, during the pandemic the service on the line was cut from four trains an hour to just two. That was understandable at the time, given the circumstances, but years have passed and those trains are still not back. The cross-city line is the busiest commuter train line in the country outside of London. In the year before covid, a million journeys started at Lichfield City, going towards Birmingham New Street. Lichfield is a city of 35,000 people and a million journeys began at that train station. It is a busy line—it is important infrastructure. This debate is about regional transport inequality; the idea that on a line that busy that served anywhere in the south-east or London the service would be halved and nothing done about it for years is absolutely laughable. But because it is in the west midlands, the services have not come back. The villain in this piece is just how busy New Street is. It is over capacity; we cannot get any more trains in or out. That is why I am so glad to have campaigned to get the midland rail hub project funded and to have co-ordinated dozens of Back-Bench MPs to support the campaign. That will improve the capacity at New Street, meaning that we can get our trains back on the city line. It also means that 50 stations across a number of regions will get to see improvements in their services. That is a fantastic example of this Government investing in the projects that we need to close some of the transport inequality gaps, and I thank the Minister for that. As I have a minute left, and given that those improvements are coming, let me say this. I have a line from Lichfield to Burton that passes by the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire. It would make a brilliant place for a passenger service, so that everybody from around the country can get to the National Memorial Arboretum to enjoy the fantastic facility that it is and take part in remembrance all year round, not just in November.

• 10 Sept 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T3. Too many of my constituents in Lichfield, Burntwood and the villages are struggling with appalling mobile signal. It is a problem we see across the country, and it is often worse in rural areas. What steps are the ministerial team taking to ensure that the Government’s review of the mobile market leads to a faster roll-out of 5G?

• 8 Sept 2025 · Renters’ Rights Bill · Hansard source

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  rose —

• 8 Sept 2025 · Renters’ Rights Bill · Hansard source

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  I am glad that I managed to sneak in this speech, and I hope I will finish it. There have been many speeches made by Members on both sides of the Chamber, many of which have focused on the many things that the Bill will hopefully achieve. I confirm that my hon. Friend the Member for Paisley and Renfrewshire South (Johanna Baxter) does have two very cute cats.

• 8 Sept 2025 · Renters’ Rights Bill · Hansard source

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  Earlier in response to my hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Danny Beales), the shadow Secretary of State said that my hon. Friend did not need to pay any attention to the people in his inbox who had contacted him. Was he not advocating exactly that—we should not listen because it is a small number of people, and we should accept these amendments so that this legislation can be watered down? Is he not arguing both sides of the same coin on this?

• 4 Sept 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  For 16 years, people in Burntwood in my constituency have had to visit their GP in portacabins in the car park of a leisure centre. The site was closed in March 2024, but there was no replacement and 5,000 patients were distributed to other surgeries. No one agreed with that decision, but we were told that all would be well because the Conservative-controlled county council would have a replacement built and ready to operate by the end of this year. That council failed, and now the Reform-controlled county council is failing too. It has not even submitted a planning application, and there is no chance that it will keep its promise to the people of Burntwood and open the centre this year. Will you join me in telling that council to get their thumb out and get this done?

• 4 Sept 2025 · House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill · Hansard source

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  Does the shadow Minister honestly think that I could go back to my constituents in Lichfield, Burntwood and the villages and say that by supporting the amendment, as he is encouraging me to do, there would be more Ministers from the other place and fewer from the Commons? How does he think that would go down on a doorstep? I have been punched in the face, and it is not great.

• 4 Sept 2025 · Early Education and Childcare · Hansard source

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  I thank the Minister for all the work he has done in bringing us so far, so quickly. I have three school nurseries opening in my constituency this year, which will mean dozens of families and scores of children being given the very best start. Can he advise me on how best I can remind those parents that while we hear platitudes from Opposition parties, they have either voted against or failed to support all the measures we are taking to fund this provision? The Minister mentioned a plan without a pledge; it is this Government who are delivering on a plan for that pledge.

• 16 Jul 2025 · Cross-border Rail Connectivity · Hansard source

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  9. What steps she is taking with the Welsh Government to improve cross-border rail connectivity.

• 16 Jul 2025 · Cross-border Rail Connectivity · Hansard source

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  Bore da. Does the Secretary of State agree that the introduction of the midlands rail hub project, which will see an additional train per hour from Cardiff in south Wales to the midlands, is a great sign that this Government are investing not just in Wales and the midlands but in the whole country?

• 15 Jul 2025 · Renewable Energy · Hansard source

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  A business in the village of Fradley in my constituency has a plan to put millions of watts of solar on the roof of its businesses. Unfortunately, it cannot proceed with that application, because there is not sufficient export capacity on the site. It would never export a watt of that electricity, which would meet only a fraction of its energy needs. Will the Minister meet me, so that we can discuss how we can make regulatory changes to support projects like this one?

• 8 Jul 2025 · Road and Rail Projects · Hansard source

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  Today’s announcement is great news for people across Lichfield, Burntwood and the villages. To the north, we have improvements on the A38, making access to the University of Derby easier; to the west, we have improvements to the M4 and M6 link road, which will be great for access to the i54, and to Telford and Wales. To the south, we have the midlands rail hub, which will be excellent for the cross-city line. All we need is for Reform-controlled Staffordshire county council to the east to sort out Chetwynd bridge; then we will have the entire compass covered. Turning to the south, the cross-city line is the busiest commuter line outside of London, but since covid, we have had just two trains an hour from Lichfield Trent Valley to Birmingham. The midlands rail hub will get us back up to four. Will the Secretary of State come to Lichfield to meet me—potentially on her way to Redditch—and ensure that we can deliver more trains on the cross-city line as quickly as possible?