Deirdre Costigan MP: speeches

Speeches

• 1 Jul 2025 · Parental Leave Review · Hansard source

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  It is 55 years—over half a century—since the Equal Pay Act 1970, yet women are still paid less than men. The phrase I read 20 years ago about childcare being “catastrophic for women’s careers” could still be quoted today. The Employment Rights Bill that this Government have brought forward ensures that businesses do not just publish their gender pay gap; they will now have to do something about it, with mandatory action plans. Will the Minister tell us how today’s parental leave review will help further reduce the gender pay gap and finally deliver equality for working women?

• 1 Jul 2025 · Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill · Hansard source

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  Will the hon. Member give way?

• 1 Jul 2025 · Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill · Hansard source

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  I wonder whether the hon. Member has told her constituent, Sarah, that under these proposals, nobody who is currently on PIP will have a single penny of their income cut, and they will be protected for time immemorial.

• 1 Jul 2025 · Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill · Hansard source

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  Will the hon. Member give way?

• 1 Jul 2025 · Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill · Hansard source

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  Will the hon. Member give way?

• 1 Jul 2025 · Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill · Hansard source

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  I know that many hon. Members were concerned that support would not be put in quickly enough. However, my constituency of Ealing Southall already has £8 million of funding from the Government’s get Britain working trailblazer programme. Does she welcome that the new proposals include £1.3 billion for investment in that programme and that that help will be rolled out to every disabled person who wants a job?

• 1 Jul 2025 · Clean Energy: Funding · Hansard source

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  Although my constituents in Ealing Southall are no doubt sweltering in today’s heat, they are worried that come winter, they will again face eye-watering energy bills to heat their homes. The previous Government left us with the leakiest homes in Europe, slashing grants for loft and cavity insulation. Can the Minister set out the work that this Labour Government are doing not just to support the clean energy sector, but to upgrade my constituents’ homes to take that clean, cheap energy and bring down bills in Ealing Southall?

• 1 Jul 2025 · Clean Energy: Funding · Hansard source

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  6. What steps she is taking to help increase funding for the clean energy sector.

• 30 Jun 2025 · Deprivation of Citizenship Orders (Effect during Appeal) Bill · Hansard source

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  Will the Minister give way?

• 30 Jun 2025 · Deprivation of Citizenship Orders (Effect during Appeal) Bill · Hansard source

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  Southall Community Alliance in my constituency has long been a defender of human rights. Would the Minister confirm to the alliance that this Bill means we will continue to use the power to deprive people of their citizenship very sparingly, and that there will be no changes to the existing right of appeal or any widening of the reasoning under which we would deprive somebody of their citizenship in this country?

• 30 Jun 2025 · Road Safety Powers: Parish and Town Councils · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for inviting an intervention. In my constituency, road safety is a huge concern of local people, despite the fact that London boroughs have the power to set speed limits—indeed, most of Ealing Southall is a 20 mph zone. However, the council does not have the power to enforce the speed limit; only the Metropolitan police has that power. Does my hon. Friend agree it is important that we consider whether councils that already have the right to set speed limits should also have the power to enforce them?

• 25 Jun 2025 · Department for Transport · Hansard source

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  The previous Government forced Transport for London to come with a begging bowl every year to get the money needed to keep the tube and the buses going in the capital. Does my hon. Friend welcome this Government’s multi-year funding deal for TfL, which is the largest settlement for over a decade, and does she agree that it will bring stability to TfL’s finances and the ability to plan ahead?

• 23 Jun 2025 · Unemployment Levels · Hansard source

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  The previous Government left us with one in eight young people out of work, training or education, and with 2.8 million people out of work due to long-term sickness, not only costing the economy billions more but costing people opportunity, hope and dignity, and now the Conservatives cannot even agree a plan among themselves to address that. Does the Minister agree that the Conservative party is in chaos, while this Government are bringing forward sensible plans to give the country a way forward after the mess the Conservatives left it in?

• 19 Jun 2025 · Warm Home Discount · Hansard source

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  I welcome the Minister’s statement. This announcement will mean that over half a million more Londoners will benefit from a £150 discount on their energy bills this winter. Does she agree that along with our free breakfast clubs, the £1,400 per year increase in the minimum wage and free childcare in schools, today’s announcement shows that Labour is putting money back into the pockets of working people in Ealing Southall and across the country?

• 18 Jun 2025 · Future of the Gas Grid · Hansard source

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  I wish my hon. Friend a happy birthday. My constituency has very small houses with not much space, and heat pumps might not always be an option. There are lots of flats with no outside space. Does he agree that other technologies, such as heat batteries, might also be an option, and that it would be worth the Government’s considering whether they should be included in the boiler upgrade scheme and assessing whether the current VAT situation is the most useful?

• 17 Jun 2025 · Crime and Policing Bill · Hansard source

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  A constituent came to see me yesterday and explained that when she was 16 she was coerced into a forced marriage by her family. She had not been allowed to have any sex education, so when she became pregnant she did not even realise. It was only when her mum noticed that she managed to access a legal abortion, but she told me that she could have been in a situation in which she would have had to get out of that marriage in order to have a late abortion. Does my hon. Friend think it would be in the public interest to go after women such as my constituent who were in forced marriages? Is that helpful?

• 16 Jun 2025 · Employer National Insurance Contributions: School Redundancies · Hansard source

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  I very much welcome the 2,300 extra teachers that Labour’s plan for change has seen in our schools, but school support staff are just as important as teachers in ensuring the delivery of the well-run schools we have in Ealing Southall. Will the Minister update the House on progress in reinstating the school support staff negotiating body, which was abolished by the Conservative party in 2010?

• 16 Jun 2025 · Windrush Day 2025 · Hansard source

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  I have learned a lot about my hon. Friend’s constituency from her speech. She mentions the difficulties that victims of the Windrush scandal have had in accessing support and getting the compensation that they deserve; in fact, many of them have been afraid to go to the authorities, because it is those same authorities that treated them that way in the first place. Does she welcome the £1.5 million that the new Labour Government have put into the advocacy support group, which will help smaller, local advocacy groups and community groups to assist people in accessing the compensation that they deserve?

• 16 Jun 2025 · Windrush Day 2025 · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is making a very powerful speech. She talks about the experience of black children in education, and could I remind her of my constituent, Eric Huntley, whom I serendipitously bumped into at the weekend? He and his wife Jessica, who lived at 141 Coldershaw Road in West Ealing, established the Bogle-L’Ouverture Publications Bookshop back in the 1960s and 1970s. They also established the Black Parents Movement, which was to help children who were stuck in such schools and were not being given the education they were entitled to. Does she agree that we still need to continue that work to make sure that black children in our schools are treated fairly and get the education they deserve?

• 11 Jun 2025 · Spending Review 2025 · Hansard source

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  A woman came to my surgery in Ealing Southall last Friday and showed me photos of the one bedroom she shares with her four children. The five of them share beds and they live with black mould on the walls. All the kids have been hospitalised, no doubt because of related bronchial infections. It is temporary accommodation, but she has been there 10 years. That is not unusual. Does the Chancellor agree that today’s record £39 billion investment in social and affordable homes marks an end to Conservative austerity and an end their failure to build, and that it will finally give hope to families stuck in damp, overcrowded flats in London and across the country?

• 11 Jun 2025 · Sustainable Aviation Fuel Bill · Hansard source

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  I support the right of my hon. Friend’s Stockton North constituents to go on holiday to Alicante. Equally, in my Ealing, Southall constituency, 53% of people—including me—were born in a different country. Does he agree that they have the right to go home and visit family and friends, so it is important that we accept the reality of air travel and focus our time and energy on realistic plans, such as the one before us, to invest in sustainable air fuels?

• 11 Jun 2025 · Sustainable Aviation Fuel Bill · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend, like me, represents a west London constituency. Brentford and Isleworth is very close to my constituency of Ealing Southall. She will know that while our constituents support the work towards a more sustainable air industry, they also want to see work to reduce the noise we hear in west London from the airline industry. Does she agree that the airline industry must also look at new, quieter planes and airspace modernisation for those communities?

• 5 Jun 2025 · Bank Closures and Banking Hubs · Hansard source

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  I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this important debate. In West Ealing, in my constituency, we have seen all the banks close over the past decade or so. In fact, the town centre itself has visibly declined, in the way that he alluded to. Does he agree that the Labour Government’s decision to permanently reduce business rates for retail and hospitality businesses and to end the scourge of late payments, along with the 350 banking hubs that he mentions, will help revitalise places like West Ealing?

• 4 Jun 2025 · Street Parking on Estates: Bracknell Forest · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for raising these very important issues, and his constituents will be delighted that he is doing so on their behalf. In Ealing, electric vehicle charging points have been a major concern for the council to ensure they meet the need. There are currently 900 electric vehicle charging points throughout the borough, but we need 1,800 by 2030. The council has been consulting on an electric vehicle roll-out strategy to take a strategic approach to the issue. Does he agree that other areas would benefit from taking a similar strategic approach to the roll-out of electric vehicle charging points?

• 3 Jun 2025 · Serious Fraud Office · Hansard source

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  I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this important debate. He mentions constituents: two of my constituents in Ealing Southall were victims of the collapse of JVIP Group, a complicated network of 100 companies. Although some victims were compensated by their banks, the collapse of the company was not properly investigated by police or the Serious Fraud Office. Does he agree that it is important to take a consistent approach to allegations of complex corporate crime and that the Serious Fraud Office should look at these issues seriously?