Deirdre Costigan MP: speeches

Speeches

• 22 May 2025 · Diego Garcia Military Base · Hansard source

  More

  I thank the Secretary of State for his statement. As the Prime Minister confirmed earlier today, the cost of this deal is slightly less than the average annual cost of just one aircraft carrier without the aircraft. Does the Secretary of State agree that this is a price well worth paying to ensure our country’s safety and security?

• 13 Feb 2025 · LGBT+ History Month · Hansard source

  More

  Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for allowing me to speak, as a lesbian MP and as co-chair of the now very large parliamentary Labour party LGBT+ group, on what is the 20th anniversary of LGBT+ History Month. LGBT+ History Month was first celebrated in 2005, but I first came to this country well before that—in the early 1990s—and for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, it was a very different place from what it is now. We were a community ravaged by the HIV epidemic that killed so many people and so many young people, but in a cruel twist, LGBT+ people were blamed for the very epidemic that was killing us. This led to section 28 —that pernicious Conservative law that put teachers in fear of being sacked if they even acknowledged our existence, and left many LGBT+ kids alone and often bullied mercilessly at school. On the streets, LGBT+ people were in fear of their lives. In 1990, in my own constituency of Ealing Southall, Michael Boothe was kicked to death by six men in Elthorne park in Hanwell simply because he was gay. Both the stigma of HIV and the chilling effect of section 28 kept so many people in the closet, living lives they could not be honest about for fear of the consequences. They were unable to be open to their own families, and always fearful of being outed, of being beaten up and of losing their ability to earn a living. In the 1990s, people could be sacked from their job just because of who they loved. As unreal as it now seems, you could even be refused service by a shop, a hotel or a restaurant because you were gay. There was no law against it. How life has changed since then! The last Labour Government transformed LGBT+ people’s lives. We repealed section 28, we lifted the ban on LGB people in the military and we equalised the age of consent. We outlawed discrimination against LGBT+ people in society and in the workplace. We gave LGBT+ people the right to adopt and to access NHS fertility treatment. We brought in tougher sentences for anti-LGBT+ hate crimes, with the first ever conviction for homophobic murder in the case of Jody Dobrowski on Clapham common. We introduced civil partnerships, giving same-sex partners the same rights as married couples. We changed the law to finally acknowledge trans people’s rights to live their lives, and one of Labour’s final acts in government was the groundbreaking Equality Act 2010. Labour built a more equal society but since then progress on LGBT+ equality has been painfully slow or has gone backwards in many respects. Anti-LGBT+ hate crime soared to record levels under the last Conservative Government, which comes as no surprise given that they demolished neighbourhood policing in this country. They slashed funding to local councils so that life-saving services for young LGBT+ people—like youth clubs and libraries, and specialist housing and sexual health workers—were cut, and they fanned the flames of a toxic debate about trans people’s right to exist. It has taken a new Labour Government to pick up where we left off and restart the work that is still needed to ensure equality for LGBT+ people. We are righting the wrongs of the past by paying compensation to those sacked from the armed forces for being LGBT+. We are rolling out opt-out HIV testing, with the Prime Minister himself taking a test on camera this week. And we have opened the first of six new trans healthcare hubs. It is still too easy for employers to sack an LGBT+ worker but pretend it was nothing to do with discrimination. So Labour’s Employment Rights Bill introduces a new day one protection against any unfair dismissal, which should make it harder for employers to get away with discriminating. Our plan to end zero-hours contracts will help stop young and low paid LGBT+ workers being denied work because of who they are. LGBT+ workers often have to come out to their employer when asking for time off, but the Employment Rights Bill introduces a new day one right to bereavement leave and a default right to flexible working, both of which will make it easier for LGBT+ workers to get what they are entitled to without having to tell their life story to their employer. The Minister has confirmed she will reform outdated gender recognition laws and will soon be coming forward with inclusive plans to outlaw conversion practices, a promise repeatedly made by the last Conservative Government but which they again and again failed to deliver. Labour will finally stop this licensed abuse of LGBT+ people. As part of our plan for change we will be modernising healthcare for trans people and we will be putting a specialist mental health professional in every school. We are also rolling out Young Futures hubs in every community, bringing back those youth services. This Labour Government will also put neighbourhood police back on our streets and make LGBT+ hate crime an aggravated offence. LGBT+ History Month is a time to celebrate everything that has been achieved but also to acknowledge the work still to do to win true equality. This new Labour Government will transform LGBT+ people’s lives again, just as we did before, and our plan for change will rebuild the NHS, the police and the education system that we all need, whether we are LGBT+ or not.

• 16 Jan 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

  More

  On behalf of so many of my constituents in Ealing Southall, may I wholeheartedly welcome this news about a potential ceasefire in Gaza and the return of the hostages? I thank the Foreign Secretary and his ministerial team for all their hard work to get us to this moment of hope, but this is only a beginning. Can the Foreign Secretary tell me how he will use our hard-won experience of brokering a lasting peace in Northern Ireland through the Good Friday agreement to help achieve a two-state solution and long-term peace, security and prosperity for the people of both Palestine and Israel?

• 8 Jan 2025 · Heat Batteries: Decarbonising Homes · Hansard source

  More

  I beg to move, That this House has considered decarbonising homes and heat batteries. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms McVey. My constituents in Ealing Southall regularly speak to me about the cost of heating their homes. Gas bills have risen astronomically over the past few years, and in freezing weather like this, people are often afraid to turn up their heating in case they are hit with a massive bill. Indeed, research by the House of Commons Library confirms that the annual increase in gas bills in October 2022 was the largest ever recorded, based on records going back to 1970. How did this happen, and what can we do to reduce people’s bills? There is one reason why bills have increased to such a degree: we have become almost completely dependent on Russian gas—on gas internationally, in fact. When Russia, a huge gas supplier, invaded Ukraine, it disrupted global gas supplies. Prices shot up across the world. As a country, we have put all our eggs in one basket. Some 23 million homes have gas boilers, and 85% of us depend on gas to heat our homes, so we had no option but to pay higher prices. It is a basic mistake that anyone can see if they think about it. For years we lived off cheap gas, until we were addicted to it. Then, when supplies were disrupted, we were left at the mercy of higher prices.

• 11 Dec 2024 · Non-Domestic Rating (Multipliers and Private Schools) Bill (Second sitting) · Hansard source

  More

  Q Thank you, Minister. I know you are a former local government leader. I want to ask about local councils and what support there will be to ensure that they can administer the Bill and help to support rebalancing the high street in a way that I know all local authorities want. Jim McMahon: Again, there is a wider context. It is about ending the cap-in-hand bidding process, through which the previous Government aligned councils, one by one, getting them to compete with each other for a very restricted pot of money to support local high street improvements. In the end, we must provide a fairer way of funding local councils, which has to be based on need. I will be careful again not to get ahead of next week’s provisional settlement, but measures will be very clear in there about the intent and the direction of travel. In the end, it is about making sure that councils have the resources they need to ensure that wherever a council is—outside of the bidding war that we saw previously—they have the resources to intervene on the high street. Resource is part of that, but the powers are also important. The community right to buy, the asset register and having a proper period to be able to self-organise are part of that. The measure is about making sure that when businesses are open and they are operating, they are sustainable businesses because their tax burden from business rates is fair and equitable.

• 22 Oct 2024 · Gaza: Humanitarian Situation · Hansard source

  More

  4. What steps he is taking to help improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

• 22 Oct 2024 · Gaza: Humanitarian Situation · Hansard source

  More

  I recently met representatives from the West London Islamic Centre in my constituency of Ealing Southall, who told me that they are deeply concerned about the plight of severely injured children in Gaza who need urgent medical help. Will the Minister outline what work she is doing to ensure that those children have access to the very best medical attention?

• 10 Sept 2024 · COP29: UK Priorities · Hansard source

  More

  I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention; he makes a good point. As I said, we had a Conservative Government who made promises that they had no intention at all of keeping. I am confident that this Government will come to an agreement that we will stick to and deliver in full. The climate emergency is not something happening to other people in faraway places. If we do not act now, more people will be killed by flooding, drought, wildfires and extreme heat than by war. Millions of refugees will pour across borders as cities and whole nations become uninhabitable due to rising sea levels. Our entire economy will be destroyed, and life as we know it will be changed utterly, as we lose access to basic commodities like food and water. That is the worst case scenario, if we do not take action. It is a scenario that the Conservatives were content to sleepwalk us into. Under this new, Labour Government we have already shown that we can be world leaders in undoing the harm of climate breakdown and preventing further damage. If we get our priorities right, then this COP29 climate conference is our chance to fearlessly lead the way to a better future, both at home and abroad.

• 30 Jul 2024 · Gaza: Humanitarian Situation · Hansard source

  More

  6. What steps he is taking to help improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

• 30 Jul 2024 · Gaza: Humanitarian Situation · Hansard source

  More

  Last week, I met some of my constituents in Ealing Southall who live in the Hanwell Broadway area. They told me about Hanwell Friends of Sabastiya, a friendship and support network between our corner of west London and a village in the north of the west bank. My constituents have heard at first hand how Palestinians are suffering across the territory. What difference will the decision to restart UNRWA funding make to the lives of ordinary Palestinians, and what discussions has the Minister had with UNRWA’s commissioner-general to maximise its impact for the Palestinian people?