David Smith MP: speeches

Speeches

• 22 Jan 2025 · Public Services: Rural Areas · Hansard source

  More

  I could not agree more. I will come on to talk about bus services, but the situation is especially challenging in counties such as Northumberland. I certainly find that there are students in my constituency who struggle to get to school. Getting around areas such as North Northumberland without a car is extremely difficult, and North Northumberland residents are right to be sceptical of local bus services, considering that Arriva, which runs the primary bus service in my area, is owned by an American equity investment fund based in Miami. Members can make of that what they will. From 2017 to 2022, the distance travelled by bus services in Northumberland fell by over a third—the highest reduction of any authority in the north-east. The confused status of cross-border buses makes a bad situation worse, with many people around Berwick crossing the Scottish-English border multiple times a week, and having to own multiple bus passes or buy new tickets to change services. Also, the elderly cannot use their free bus pass on both sides of the border. Recently, I was made aware of a constituent’s teenage daughter who undertook an apprenticeship across the border in July. Emma—not her real name—lives in Berwick and was catching a bus to and from work; however, just a few weeks later, Borders Buses removed the morning bus. This young woman is now relying on taxis to get her to her apprenticeship in the morning. This is costing her family, who are not in a position to afford it, £150 a week. She endured a difficult time at school, but was thriving in her apprenticeship, yet that is now at risk. What we need in rural areas is a publicly controlled bus system run for public service, not private profit, with an emphasis on accessibility, affordability and simplicity. As luck would have it, that is exactly what the Government are aiming for and what Kim McGuinness, the Labour metro Mayor for the North East, is seeking to introduce. She has capped bus fares at £2.50 for over-18s and started the process of bringing bus routes back into public control, and she wants to invest in an integrated public transport system that gets people where they need to go. No one expects rural Britain to have the same level of public transport as central London, but a reliable network would boost confidence, improve work and school opportunities, and boost struggling communities.

• 22 Jan 2025 · Public Services: Rural Areas · Hansard source

  More

  Yes, I wholeheartedly associate myself with the comments of my hon. Friend and constituency neighbour. Last Friday, I was in the village of Chatton, which is near the border between our two constituencies, to speak to a group focused on autism and special educational needs. There was palpable frustration in that room among 30 parents and carers who are simply unable to get the support they need from the county council, despite the additional funding. I believe that he and I can work on that together. Let me move on to my third and fourth points, which relate to healthcare. Until schools improve, and until transport becomes more reliable, healthcare professionals will not move to rural areas. For Berwick to have an accident and emergency department, and for North Northumberland to have genuinely local primary care, we must incentivise doctors and nurses to move, with their families, into our neighbourhoods. Until they do, rural healthcare will continue to suffer. Some 25% of rural residents are aged 65 or over, and in North Northumberland the average age is 54, but rural councils receive 14% less grant funding for social care services and 58% less for public health. Dental care provision is also extremely sparse. It is estimated that a 1,500 sq km region of North Northumberland has no NHS dentist. Imagine someone living alone in Wooler or Rothbury—miles from the nearest NHS dentist—whose tooth starts to twinge.

• 22 Jan 2025 · Public Services: Rural Areas · Hansard source

  More

  I do not know whether I should declare an interest as a Scotsman who is the Member of Parliament for an English constituency—and proud to be so. I have seen that with my own eyes, and I agree that the record settlement that the UK Government have given the SNP Government in Edinburgh should be used well to provide for the whole of Scotland, but especially rural areas. I will stick with education but look a little more at special educational needs. There are 588 children on an education, health and care plan in North Northumberland. Many of those with more severe special educational needs face a 100-mile round trip to access adequate education. There are not enough specialist schools nearby, or enough specialist places at mainstream schools, to support their learning. That is why I welcome the Government’s £1 billion increase in special educational needs funding—that is excellent—and I look forward to ensuring that rural areas receive their fair share of it. Rural areas get held back by a lack of educational opportunities. They need help from a broad coalition of local residents, businesses, council and Government to develop outstanding solutions that can become engines for opportunity.

• 22 Jan 2025 · Public Services: Rural Areas · Hansard source

  More

  Yes, sadly my constituency absolutely has those same challenges with mental ill health in the farming community but also in the rural community, which often comes about from isolation. People living generation after generation in rural communities are proud and resourceful. Sometimes they perhaps do not reach out for help, but I would encourage them to do that—it is always a good thing for someone to reach out for help if they are struggling, and I thank the hon. Gentleman for raising that important point.

• 22 Jan 2025 · Public Services: Rural Areas · Hansard source

  More

  I thank my hon. Friend. However, I hope a few points have become clear from my remarks.

• 22 Jan 2025 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Money) · Hansard source

  More

  I am sorry; I am almost finished. This could seem like a tangential point to make on a money resolution, but, to summarise this and my other points, I fear the consequences of the relationship between money—this resolution in particular—and assisted dying. Although I will not be voting against this resolution, because I believe in the democratic process, I think we seriously need to consider the relationship between money and this Bill.

• 22 Jan 2025 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Money) · Hansard source

  More

  I would like to raise a couple of practical and principled concerns about the finances around assisted dying. First, on the practical, I welcome the comment from my hon. Friend the Minister that there will be an impact assessment in due course. However, until we see it, we have no idea what the measure will cost. We are being asked to approve a blank cheque for assisted dying. We have heard that the NHS is a blank cheque, but the NHS has a clearly defined budget. At this point, we do not have any sense of what the Bill will cost. If that were the case for any other legislation, we would be shouting about it. The Bill represents a profound change to the very nature of our healthcare system, and we are simply guessing at the cost. That is not good for the Bill Committee’s ability to scrutinise, and not good for this place, or for the democratic and legislative process. In order to legislate well, we need a firm commitment. I am glad to have heard that the impact assessment will be published before Report. We have heard from my hon. Friend the Member for Spen Valley (Kim Leadbeater) that the motion is routine, and I accept that. However, the consequences are extraordinary, and that is why this is an important moment. On the principle, whatever the cost, once it is assessed, and despite the Government’s recent financial boost for the hospice sector, palliative care is massively underfunded. The postcode lottery in the provision of end of life care has led to some of the horror stories that we heard on Second Reading. The hospice sector has only 30% of its funding provided by central Government, so this technical stage represents a commitment to taking potentially scarce funding from end of life care and allocating it to ending lives.

• 22 Jan 2025 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Money) · Hansard source

  More

  I do not have time. That opens up the dark possibility of a race to the bottom—to looking for savings in the health and social care budget. Any Government would be tempted, where cost saving is a possibility, to push assisted dying as a cost-saving measure; we have seen that in jurisdictions such as Canada. Finally, let me say this with humility and respect to my hon. Friends on my left. I fear that the Bill will lead to the marketisation of death and dying. We have learned from other jurisdictions that many medical services and clinicians do not want to be part of the delivery of assisted dying, for reasons of principle or because they fear that they will be sued. Independent private health organisations will have to take over to fill the space. Those businesses will have shareholders and annual reports. They will be driven by the desire to maximise profit, with death for the bottom line. They will advertise and seek to expand their market share.

• 15 Jan 2025 · Legacy Discussions · Hansard source

  More

  My first full-time job in the early 2000s was setting up and running a peacemaking programme for young people in Northern Ireland, so I am pleased that the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery was salvaged from the remains of the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023. However, I am concerned that in the discussions around legacy the goal of cross-community reconciliation is being treated as secondary to information recovery for individuals, important as that is. How will my right hon. Friend ensure that ICRIR works with key stakeholders to foster cross-community reconciliation in Northern Ireland?

• 15 Jan 2025 · Legacy Discussions · Hansard source

  More

  11. What discussions he has had with stakeholder groups on Northern Ireland's legacy.

• 14 Jan 2025 · Syria: Religious Minorities · Hansard source

  More

  I thank my hon. Friend for welcoming me and for his commitment and that of the Department to work with the nascent Syrian Government as they seek to protect and respect religious minorities. However, I am sure that he is aware that over Christmas there were attacks by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham fighters on the Christian-majority town of Maaloula, and some reports of attacks on Alawite communities. What more can he and his Department do to work with the Syrian Government as they seek to build a society in which all religious communities can take part without fear of religious persecution?

• 14 Jan 2025 · Syria: Religious Minorities · Hansard source

  More

  11. What diplomatic steps his Department is taking to support the rights of religious minorities in Syria.

• 7 Jan 2025 · Road Safety · Hansard source

  More

  This is an important subject. There seems to be a common denominator in many of the comments: the significance of rural areas. I note that my hon. Friend’s constituency has large rural areas, as does mine. Does he agree that there is a particular challenge—whether with rural B roads or even major national roads or national infrastructure, such as the A1 that runs through my constituency—with the type of vehicles on the roads and the proximity to small local communities, making them particularly unsafe, and that that should therefore be a priority for our national road safety strategy?

• 19 Dec 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

  More

  I welcome the landmark £5 billion agriculture budget announced in the Budget, which is the biggest-ever budget for sustainable farming. My farmers in North Northumberland desperately need that money. In that context, what more can the Secretary of State do to push for his Department to get that money out the door in a way that the previous Government did not?

• 4 Dec 2024 · Northern Ireland: Legacy of the Troubles · Hansard source

  More

  I thank the Secretary of State for his statement. I was in Belfast this week with other members of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, and it was clear that all sections of Northern Ireland society were opposed to the legacy Act as it was constituted. Will the Secretary of State work with all stakeholders going forward, including the Irish Government, as he plans a new way forward on legacy and as he considers how to have full co-operation from the Irish Government in relation to information they may hold on legacy cases?

• 4 Dec 2024 · Farming and Inheritance Tax · Hansard source

  More

  I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate, and I am grateful that the Conservatives, after many years of ignoring farmers, have finally decided to pay attention to farming and food security. Farming plays a vital role in the past, present and future of North Northumberland. There are almost 2,000 farms across Northumberland, in my constituency and that of my hon. Friend the Member for Hexham (Joe Morris); each of them proudly and patiently shaped the landscape that we view as quintessentially British, and they play a crucial role in sustaining local communities. Farmers are good for North Northumberland. Since becoming a Member of Parliament, I have spent a great deal of time meeting them and representing their concerns in Parliament. In fact, my first non-maiden speech was on the virtues and challenges of sheep farming. I have done that because I understand, as the Government do, that farming is central both to the communities I represent and to our way of life in the UK. Put simply, our country cannot flourish without a flourishing farming sector. Farming has been battered for 14 years under previous Governments. As I was preparing for this debate, I read a recent letter from a farming constituent about a range of difficulties he faces: “For many years government intervention has always dominated the top of my risk register, due to inconsistent policy and its oft re-enforced reputation as a poor payer.” It would be convenient for the Conservatives if farmers across the UK were to forget about the past 14 years and blame all the current difficulties on a Government who have been in office for just six months. However, creating a reputation for Government as a “poor payer” and having inconsistent policy takes years, not months. In July 2023, the Competition and Markets Authority found that the post-2020 squeeze inflicted on our food supply chain was a combination of significant rises in energy, commodity and labour costs, made worse in some cases by adverse movements in the exchange rate. In other words, farmers have been squeezed for years by energy prices, labour costs and a depreciation of the pound, and the previous Government bear some responsibility for all those factors. In April 2024, the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit found that since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Government had enacted only three out of 10 policies necessary to improve energy security and bring prices down in the long term, which speaks to years of failure on energy, whether that is selling off gas storage capacity, dodging tough decisions on nuclear or going cool on the urgency of global warming by banning onshore wind. When global energy fluctuated, the lack of long-term preparation left our farmers exposed to rocketing prices. Another matter I would like to raise is the issue of large retailers at times letting down our farmers. They are able to dominate negotiations around own-label products, and, with 90% of farm-produced vegetables being sold by supermarkets, farmers are stuck in a monopoly position that threatens their business. I urge the Government to do what they can to ensure reliable pricing and supply arrangements can be set between farmers and retailers that benefit our national food security. There is also the issue of subsidy. We need to get the money out the door to farmers, and make sure they can actually get the funding that they did not get under the previous Government. I will finish by mentioning another of the issues we have talked about today on APR. There is a need for continued constructive engagement around the recently announced proposed reforms. While every farmer I have spoken to welcomes the proposal to end taxpayer subsidies for the super-wealthy buying up land in order to avoid inheritance tax, I am aware that the Government are facing two competing responsibilities. The first managing the national finances, and the second is ensuring that every community can follow its traditions and dreams. As a farmer recently wrote to me: “Despite all that was thrown at my father over the years, all he ever wanted to do was farm and he LOVED it. Somehow, it was in his blood.” I know the Government understand this. I urge the Minister to continue to keep that front and centre as we support the contribution of farmers to our national life. After many years of ineptitude, neglect and the doling out of crumbs by the Conservatives, it must be Labour that truly becomes the party of farming and rural life.

• 27 Nov 2024 · Violence against Women and Girls · Hansard source

  More

  8. What discussions he has had with the Northern Ireland Executive on tackling violence against women and girls.

• 27 Nov 2024 · Violence against Women and Girls · Hansard source

  More

  According to Women’s Aid, a fifth of all crime in Northern Ireland is domestic abuse. We know that paramilitary organisations make reporting, confronting or escaping such abuse even more difficult. How are the Government working with the Northern Ireland Executive to break down those coercive barriers to support for women and girls?

• 26 Nov 2024 · Middle East: Humanitarian Situation · Hansard source

  More

  9. What steps he is taking to help improve the humanitarian situation in the middle east.

• 26 Nov 2024 · Middle East: Humanitarian Situation · Hansard source

  More

  As we have been hearing, the situation in Gaza—especially northern Gaza—is dire, with the UN anticipating that this year up to 60,000 children under the age of five could be facing acute malnutrition. At the same time, the trucks entering Gaza have reduced by 63% since October 2023. I welcome the leading role that the Government are taking in providing vital humanitarian aid for Gaza, but does the Minister agree that the ongoing Israeli restrictions on the flow of essential aid are completely unacceptable and should be lifted immediately?

• 12 Nov 2024 · School Transport: Northumberland · Hansard source

  More

  I am absolutely delighted to speak in this debate alongside my hon. Friend the Member for Hexham (Joe Morris), and I am delighted that he secured it. The lack of accessible transport options to Northumberland secondary schools, in particular, may not attract national attention, but it affects children, young people and parents in my constituency much more directly than almost anything else we discuss in Parliament. In North Northumberland, it is now common in villages such as Pegswood for an 11-year-old to spend up to two hours a day on four different buses making the round trip to school and back. When we factor that in for SEND students, as my hon. Friend said, parents face a collective nightmare. One constituent recently wrote to me—I have changed the name of their daughter—to say: “We are currently having issues with school transport for our daughter who is autistic. Northumberland County Council have rejected our appeal for alternative provision. Sarah is no longer attending school, due to a number of issues, the first being transport. We are now homeschooling Sarah.” That issue is repeated over and over again in my mailbox. There are two reasons why it matters so much. The first, which I have just highlighted, is the most obvious: the cost and strain on parents is totally antithetical to the ideal of the state school. Families are spending hundreds of pounds a year making sure that their child gets to school, worrying the whole time about their safety, as we heard. Our state school system should not rely on significant private expenditure to meet basic educational needs. In fact, it was designed to do the very opposite. Secondly, school transport is a pinch point in terms of a wider range of northern rural inequalities in education and transport, and deservedly reinforces the idea that places such as Northumberland have been left behind and ignored over the years by the powers that be. There have been repeated failures across the county in the way that our schools, roads and rail are run, and school transport exposes them all, pointing to a much wider range of issues. How did we get here? North Northumberland has too few schools, and in some areas that is leading to huge pressures. The nearest secondary school to Pegswood, the village I mentioned, is in Ashington—Ashington Academy—which is a 20-minute bus journey away. However, Ashington is oversubscribed, so students are often sent to Cramlington instead. If parents cannot drop them off, there is a range of ways to get there, of which the quickest takes 41 minutes and involves a train. The season ticket for that train costs £1,120 a year, so most take the cheaper option—a bus journey. Actually, it is two bus journeys, which take up to an hour and a quarter and will cost at least £960 a year, according to the very confusing and unhelpful Arriva website. This very afternoon, teenagers from Pegswood who finished school in Cramlington at 3 o’clock will only just be getting home, having taken four buses on a £1,000 ticket. Commutes like that are happening in towns all over North Northumberland, from towns and villages such as Belford, Wooler, Rothbury and Amble. We heard from my hon. Friend the Member for Hexham about the state of some rural roads and about how that often makes journeys more challenging. Nowhere is this issue more visible than with SEND schooling. Like my hon. Friend the Member, I welcome the Government’s commitment to spend £1 billion pounds more on SEND next year. North Northumberland has three SEND schools and they do a remarkable job supporting the flourishing of young people with more complex needs. However, the nearest school might not necessarily be the best option, which can require pupils to spend over an hour in a taxi or bus to get there—we heard about the hour-and-a-half journey in each direction that some have to make in my hon. Friend’s constituency. Parents are increasingly resigned to the notion that having a child with more complex needs will require spending large amounts of money and time travelling to school. The Education Act 1944—I am sure hon. Members did not expect me to bring that up in this debate—established modern secondary schools and came into being because, “when poorer children were offered free places” —at grammar schools, as they then were— “parents often had to turn them down owing to the extra costs involved.” Free state schools were instead set up to cater to all needs and incomes, but my constituents seem to have ended up trapped in a new system that promises equal and free schooling, but includes submerged and unexpected costs that put family finances under strain. On the wider issues, the school transport issue has not emerged in isolation but is evidence of a wider series of pressures on public services across the county. First, the education system is struggling in various guises in some parts of Northumberland. The town of Berwick, in my constituency, is extremely reliant on its one state secondary school to nurture the necessary skills and qualifications for the town’s economy, so when the school struggles, the town struggles. A 2017 report said: “Berwick is one of Northumberland’s most deprived towns. It has a vulnerable economy characterised by poor quality job opportunities, part time working, low wages and very limited education facilities.” North Northumberland’s further education is in a poor way too, and 16 to 18-year-olds who want to take up a vocational course have to travel miles out of the constituency and at great expense. Another constituent recently got in touch about this very issue, saying: “I have been made aware of a colleague’s 16 year-old daughter who undertook an apprenticeship across the border in Scotland in July. She lives in Berwick and was catching a bus to and from work. However, after just a few weeks, Border Buses removed the morning bus. Emma”— whose name I have changed— “is now relying on taxis to get her to her apprenticeship in the morning. This is costing her family, who are not in a position to afford this, £150 a week. Emma is a vulnerable young woman who has endured a difficult time at school and yet is thriving in her apprenticeship, but this is now at risk.” North Northumberland’s GCSE and apprenticeship levels keep pace with the rest of the country, but A-Levels and higher education qualifications are behind the England and Wales average, and that will be in part because of the inaccessibility of further and higher education. However, those pressures are also evidence of a public transport system that is not up to the job. North Northumberland residents are right to be sceptical about local bus services, considering that Arriva, the largest provider, is owned by an American equity investment fund based in Miami, which is hardly ideal for a public service. In fact, from 2017 to 2022, the distance travelled by bus services in Northumberland fell by over a third—one of the highest reductions for any authority in the north-east. It is for that reason that, like my hon. Friend, I am delighted that the Mayor of the North East, Kim McGuinness, has started the process of bringing buses back under public control so that we know that they go where they are needed and not just on the routes that make the most money. Having spoken to the Mayor of the North East about that, I know that one reason she is keen to do that is the positive impact it would have on rural services. Meanwhile, local train services are increasingly sidelined in favour of London to Edinburgh links on the east coast main line that squeeze stopping services from the timetable. Cost-benefit calculations designed to extract value do not favour rural areas, which need targeted public investment and intentional support. Poor transport is a contributing factor to low rural productivity. As my hon. Friend the Member for Hexham said, all of this is the natural end point of 14 years of a real-terms education spending freeze, with reduced school capital spending; of 14 years of neglect of public transport that let franchising diminish the value of rail travel and bus companies be driven by international investors; and of 14 years of letting economic liberalism expose rural communities to economies of scale that make post offices, banks and other essential services non-viable. It is not by accident that hundreds of schoolchildren cannot go to schools in their own communities—it is the consequence of the policies of the last Government. However, the work of change has begun locally and nationally. I am working with Berwick stakeholders to rethink our vision of what an outstanding education system could look like, with a campus model and associated further education facilities having the potential to transform education in the town and even the town itself. I am fully supportive of the campaign by the South East Northumberland Rail User Group to introduce a regular stopping service up the east coast main line that serves local residents and opens up the region to inward investment. I welcome the £1 billion committed by the Government to local transport, with another £650 million towards transport and buses in towns, villages and rural areas. The difference between a Labour and a Conservative Government is that when we see communities facing economic disadvantage and inequality, we have no issue putting our money where our mouth is and making sure that where someone starts in life or where they live does not determine the opportunities they can pursue.

• 12 Nov 2024 · School Transport: Northumberland · Hansard source

  More

  I have a simple question: would the hon. Gentleman agree that the last Government had 14 years to dual the A1 and did not manage to do so?

• 11 Nov 2024 · Mental Health: Farming and Agricultural Communities · Hansard source

  More

  I thank the hon. Lady for giving way and for securing this important debate. On the vital issue of the tragedy of suicides among the farming community, I have met several farmers in my constituency who have felt that pressure—the common theme is that everybody knows somebody who has felt that pressure at some point, or sadly has even taken their own life. Does the hon. Lady agree that right across the House, we should agree to support farmers in whatever way we can?

• 5 Nov 2024 · NHS Dentistry: Rural Areas · Hansard source

  More

  I commend the hon. Lady for securing this important debate. She mentioned that dental deserts can be a problem up and down the country. That is certainly the case in my constituency of North Northumberland. I welcome the Government’s dental rescue plan and the commitment to an additional 700,000 appointments per year. However, my situation is like hers: constituents in hundreds of square kilometres of my constituency tell me that they simply cannot access NHS dentistry. It is a real shame that no Conservative Members are here to hear this. Does the hon. Lady agree that rural residents should expect the same provision of NHS dentistry as those in urban areas?

• 28 Oct 2024 · Social Housing Supply · Hansard source

  More

  10. What steps her Department is taking to increase the supply of social housing.