David Burton-Sampson MP: speeches

Speeches

• 14 May 2026 · Point of Order · Hansard source

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  On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. On 29 April, my hon. Friend the Member for Portsmouth North (Amanda Martin) and the hon. Member for Lewes (James MacCleary) raised a point of order concerning the right hon. Member for Newark (Robert Jenrick) visiting their constituencies without notifying them. In response, Mr Speaker reminded the House of the importance of the courtesy of doing so, but his advice seems to have been ignored. The right hon. Member for Newark shared a post on his social media just last week on a visit to my constituency and did not have the courtesy to notify me either— unlike his boss, the hon. Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage), who visited recently and emailed just as his bus was rolling into the constituency; perhaps he was a little bit lost on his way to Clacton. Madam Deputy Speaker, can you please advise me in relation to this matter concerning the right hon. Member for Newark?

• 19 Mar 2026 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Southend recently held its second City Day to celebrate and recognise us officially becoming a city following the tragic murder of Sir David Amess. This year the celebration stretched right across the city, including to Leigh-on-Sea in my constituency—a town filled with heritage and culture, and which I am backing to become UK town of culture 2028. Will the Leader of the House join me in congratulating Councillors Matt Dent and Daniel Cowan, and the whole team at the city council, on their excellent work in delivering another brilliant City Day?

• 12 Jan 2026 · Higher Education: Government Support · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Southend East and Rochford (Mr Alaba) for securing the debate. He knows that we both care passionately about this matter, especially given the impact that the closure of the Southend campus of Essex University will have on both our constituencies and our constituents. It is a great shame for the students of today and the students of tomorrow, and a great loss for the city. Let me begin by expressing my backing for my hon. Friend’s positive moves to support students who have expressed concerns to both of us in recent weeks. I understand and share those fears, which is why my hon. Friend and I, together with the leader of Southend city council, are pursuing the university’s leaders to create a workable plan at least to alleviate the worst effects of this deeply disappointing decision and find some resolution for the staff, the students and the city of Southend. I was so fortunate that my own university experiences told a very different story. It is said that education opens doors to worlds you never knew existed. I look around me now; when I started out as a child of a working-class single-parent family—the first to attend university—I could never have imagined standing here today. The opportunities afforded to me by attending university and completing my degree have helped to shape my career and make me the person I am, both personally and professionally. It might come as a surprise, when hon. Members look at the shrinking violet I am now, to learn that I trained as an actor; I took a degree in performing arts at the world-renowned Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. The end of the acclaimed East 15 acting school in Southend, a casualty of this campus closure, is therefore a loss very close to my heart. I spoke to a course lecturer over the weekend who is devastated at the loss of this facility—not just the loss for her, as she will not be able to transfer to Colchester, but at the loss for the students, and for the city; it loses the Clifftown theatre, a much-loved cultural resource. Like the rest of my generation, I was lucky enough to get a grant for my degree. That experience changed my life. My degree gave me lifelong skills and abilities and expanded my horizons. The days of grants are sadly long gone, but the ambition should not be gone. That is why the closure of the Southend campus is a disaster. It denies the students of the future opportunities to train in their chosen area. Many of the courses are for key workers, including vitally needed nurses, dental technicians and midwives, who have trained at that campus in Southend for the past 18 years. Now, all that is to end, and local youngsters will have to go elsewhere to fulfil their dreams. If they do not have the means to do so, this could snuff out their ambition and deny their potential, with lifelong repercussions.

• 8 Jul 2025 · Football Governance Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend will know that my football club, Southend United, nearly disappeared because of mismanagement. Does he agree that the Bill will make sure that we keep these football clubs at the heart of our communities, because, ultimately, that is where they belong?