David Pinto-Duschinsky MP: speeches

Speeches

• 24 Jun 2026 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Q4. My Hendon constituency is proud to sit at the heart of the UK’s largest Jewish community in the London borough of Barnet, but today many of my constituents and many from that community are living in fear. In north-west London in recent months, we have seen Jewish charities firebombed, synagogues attacked and Jewish people stabbed in the street, and all that against the backdrop of a daily drumbeat of abuse and intimidation. I know that everyone on the Government Benches is determined to defeat that despicable hatred, and I welcome the actions that the Government are taking to root out the poison of antisemitism. Can the Prime Minister tell the House what the Government are doing not only to protect the Jewish community in Hendon and Barnet, but to ensure that they—we—can live full and proud Jewish lives, free from fear?

• 14 May 2026 · National Security · Hansard source

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  I thank the Minister for his statement. As Members of the House will be all too painfully aware, our Jewish community in north-west London, including in my constituency, has been subject to repeated despicable antisemitic attacks in past weeks. Our Iranian community has also been attacked. In my constituency, I also have many members of the Hong Kong community, who live under the shadow of transnational repression. Given that context, I warmly welcome the Government’s announcement in the King’s Speech of fast-tracked legislation to deal with hostile state threats. Can the Minister share more details of the timetable, so that we can get that welcome and essential piece of legislation on the statute book as quickly as possible?

• 20 Apr 2026 · Antisemitic Attacks · Hansard source

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  On Saturday, my constituents awoke to the news of a despicable antisemitic attack at the heart of our community, at the former headquarters of Jewish Futures on Hendon Way. As the Minister said, this is not an isolated incident; we have seen the abhorrent attacks on Hatzola just a mile down the road in Golders Green, and on Finchley Reform and Kenton United synagogues, both nearby. Many of my constituents face discrimination and abuse every single day for no other reason than that they are Jewish. I am working intensively with the police and I am grateful for all they are doing, but, as the Prime Minister has said, we must not just ensure that our Jewish community is safe; we must ensure that Jewish people in Hendon and across the whole country are able to live full and proud Jewish lives, free from fear. Will the Minister share more about what additional measures are being taken both to protect the community in the wake of these despicable attacks and to ensure that the Jewish members of my community are not forced to live smaller Jewish lives?

• 23 Mar 2026 · Hatzola Ambulance Attack · Hansard source

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  I thank the Minister for his statement, and I echo his thanks to the police and the other emergency services. This antisemitic attack happened only a few hundred metres from my Hendon constituency. So many people in my community, Jewish and non-Jewish alike, rely on the work of the selfless volunteers of Hatzola in both Golders Green and Edgware. It has been my honour to visit Hatzola Edgware on a number of occasions. This is not just an attack on our Jewish community, despicable though that is; it is an attack on Britain and on our core values. It was good to meet the Prime Minister earlier today with community leaders to discuss what can be done to defeat this tide of antisemitism. Can the Minister give more information to the House on what is being done to co-ordinate between the police and community organisations to give the reassurance that my community so desperately wants?

• 11 Mar 2026 · Protest Policing · Hansard source

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  The al-Quds Day march, glorifying a despicable, blood-soaked regime, has long been a cause of great concern to my constituents in Hendon. That is why I wrote to the commissioner of the Met asking for the march to be banned, and why I thank the Home Secretary for her resolute action today. However, the threat posed by the Iranian regime to our Jewish community has not ended. Following the arrest of four men for allegedly spying on our Jewish community on behalf of the Iranian regime, what steps have been taken to keep our Jewish community safe?

• 19 Jan 2026 · Iran: Protests · Hansard source

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  I share the Minister’s horror at the brutal repression we have seen in Iran. Hendon is home to a large and vibrant Iranian community, and we are all horrified beyond words to see the savage, murderous violence being meted out by the Iranian regime to protesters. Is it not the reality that even when there are not protests in the street, the regime is engaged in industrial levels of violence against its own people? Executions in Iran more than doubled in the last year alone. Does the Minister agree that we must keep up the pressure on the Iranian regime to end this barbarity once and for all, and to let the Iranian people exercise their fundamental rights?

• 20 Nov 2025 · Bus Services · Hansard source

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  In constituencies like Hendon, bus services are not a luxury—they are a lifeline for the community, in particular the elderly and disabled people, yet there is more to be done to ensure that all residents are within easy reach of a bus stop. Does my hon. Friend agree that frequent, well-placed bus stops are essential to ensuring that local bus services are truly inclusive and accessible?

• 28 Oct 2025 · Stamp Duty Land Tax · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member says that owning a home gives people a stake in their community, and I agree with him. Why then does his party oppose this Government’s moves to help build 1.5 million homes and reform the planning system?

• 8 Sept 2025 · Indefinite Leave to Remain · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for that excellent point. She is of course right, and I am proud to have welcomed many people with BNO status to my constituency of Hendon, particularly in Colindale. That growing and vibrant community adds immeasurably to the life of the area. I have talked to many BNO holders who have come to the UK to start a new life. They are absolutely committed to our country for the long term. They are keen to put down roots. They are planning their working lives, their children’s educations and their retirements here. That is why the five-year ILR timeframe is so important to them. Without ILR, BNO holders cannot get home fee arrangements at university for their children or access their pension savings from their mandatory provident fund accounts. I have talked to many families who are directly and profoundly affected by that, leaving them in great financial difficulty. Without ILR, people cannot begin the path to full UK citizenship. When they applied for BNO status starting in 2021, they did so on the basis of a five-year ILR period. Extending the ILR period for them will potentially create great uncertainty and hardship. The Government are absolutely right to tighten the rules on migration to address the appalling failures of the previous Government. The measures laid out in the recent migration White Paper will make an important and welcome difference, and I fully support them. However, it is still worth considering the obligation we have to certain groups when making that important change.

• 2 Sept 2025 · Pension Schemes Bill (Second sitting) · Hansard source

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  Q How do you see the Bill helping? Councillor Phillips: From that point of view, it is very helpful. Because we are a very transparent pension fund, pressure will be put on some of the pools to make sure that their workings are done in a transparent manner. They are now, but there will be even more pressure because lobby groups will go straight to them rather than the funds. Consolidation with regard to administration is not quite so easy. The last consolidation was between Northumberland and Tyne and Wear, and that was with maximum co-operation on both sides. This is a very well administered scheme, but bringing two administration authorities together is quite challenging. It needs to be done with co-operation and collaboration, never with a big stick behind it. Certainly in London, there is a case for some rationalisation of the number of funds, and there is always going to be an issue about some of the smaller funds as they deal with it, but pooling is not just about consolidating your investments. It also brings the opportunity for the member funds that own the pools to start working more collaboratively, particularly on things like communications and other areas of work. There is great potential there. One of the things that the scheme advisory board is very keen to do is to make sure we develop and grow those chairs of funds to be the competent leaders that they are, and make them even better. Robert McInroy: I think you were asking about the challenges of implementation. It is easy to see the direction on this and to think that there is not much change for the LGPS. There is a huge magnitude of change in these reforms. The LGPS funds and the pools already have a very full to-do list. They have stretched resources. They are asked to deliver an awful lot in a short period of time. They are transferring all of the remaining assets from the funds to the pools—there is still about 30% of those assets to come across in a short period of time. Two pools have been asked to change their operating model to be FCA-regulated. Every pool has been asked to build advisory functions—that is all from scratch, apart from one. They have been asked to build local investment capabilities as well, which is of paramount importance to be able to kick-start and contribute to the UK economy, and to implement some of these governance reforms, and now we know that two of the pools are being asked to wind up, so there is £100 billion of assets to transfer, which is implicated across 21 funds. That is a huge amount to do under any timescale. Some of what is envisaged in the consultation is that this would be completed in a little over six months’ time. That puts risk on some of these reforms, and I think that should be recognised.

• 2 Sept 2025 · Pension Schemes Bill (Second sitting) · Hansard source

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  Q The Minister picked up a point that I was going to touch on, but I would like to ask about broader consolidation. Councillor Phillips, you mentioned that often councils are wrestling with multiple pools in a small area. I think there is broad consensus that consolidation is a good idea, and clearly this is the direction of travel being laid out by the Bill. What kind of challenges do you see to successful implementation of consolidation and how will the Bill drive that forward? Councillor Phillips: Let us be quite clear. I think the Government’s frustration, which is shared by many of us, is that we are talking about what is generally accepted to be the sixth largest pension scheme in the world, and it does not punch its weight, which is what it needs to do. That is what pooling, which began in 2016, was meant to address, and to date, it has been successful, but it needs to be better. That is where I see a very big positive of coming together.