Freddie van Mierlo MP: speeches

Speeches

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

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  Will the hon. Member accept that the changes to inheritance tax damage the economic realities in the UK because farmers will be disincentivised from investing in their land and increasing its productivity?

• 21 Nov 2024 · Chiltern Railways: Overcrowding · Hansard source

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  Haddenham and Thame Parkway train station is a key transport hub for my residents who commute regularly to London. However, constituents face overcrowded trains; some even report fainting on hot, stuffy trains. I understand that Chiltern Railways has an active business case with the Department for Transport. Will the Minister approve, as a matter of priority, the replacement trains and carriages that it is requesting?

• 21 Nov 2024 · Chiltern Railways: Overcrowding · Hansard source

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  14. If she will take steps to help reduce overcrowding on Chiltern Railways services.

• 12 Nov 2024 · House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill · Hansard source

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  I certainly share much of the right hon. Gentleman’s zeal on the removal of the Bishops from the Lords. Does he share my concerns about the privileged speaking and seating positions that they have in the Lords?

• 12 Nov 2024 · House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill · Hansard source

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  Does the right hon. Gentleman accept that new clause 4 does not take into account illness or maternity and paternity leave, and that perhaps eight weeks is a little too brief?

• 12 Nov 2024 · House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill · Hansard source

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  As I am surprised that the Conservatives, as the so-called party of aspiration, are stalwartly defending the principle of hereditary peers. Do they not accept that, in a meritocracy, positions in the legislature should be open based on merit, not inheritance?

• 12 Nov 2024 · House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill · Hansard source

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  Why are the Government proceeding with such timidity and “first steps” when they have such a large majority and could push through their will if they wanted to?

• 6 Nov 2024 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source

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  Will the hon. Member join me in expressing concern about the rise in national insurance contributions and the impact it will have on GP surgeries, including potential closures? GPs in my constituency have been asking me about the impact.

• 23 Oct 2024 · Paternity Leave and Pay · Hansard source

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  Like the hon. Member for Telford (Shaun Davies), I recognise that my experience of fatherhood is heteronormative and I appreciate that there are many other forms of families. I will probably end up repeating some of the excellent points put forward by the hon. Member, but since they are very good ones I will not hesitate to repeat them. My first point is that the paternity system is classist: white-collar workers generally get much better provision from their employers. Some workers get up to six months, if they work in high-demand industries. Contrast that with the provision in precarious industries and the gig economy and for traditional blue-collar workers. They tend to get very little indeed: two weeks’ statutory pay or naught if they are self-employed. Paternity leave is essential to avoid the woman becoming the default primary care giver. Inequality in the length of parental leave further entrenches inequalities. On maternal health, I highlight that receiving only two weeks of paternity pay is extremely challenging if one’s partner or birthing partner has experienced a traumatic birth, whether that is a C-section or otherwise. My wife went through a 40-hour labour and also a really difficult pregnancy with hyperemesis, and that had impacts on both her physical and mental health. Many other women experienced the same, and the support of their partner is essential at that time. As so many people move around the country these days for work, many people live far away from their families, so having the father or the partner there is essential. The evidence from other countries is clear: the longer the paternity pay, the better we are at closing gender pay gaps and the less the impact on the career prospects of the person giving birth. I end on a riposte to the previous Government for their shameful response to a petition in the last Parliament on this topic. Rather than extending paternity leave, the Government responded to it by simply exalting the benefits of being able to split the two weeks up and take them at different times. How generous that is! How useful that is cannot be underestimated—I am obviously being facetious. The Employment Rights Bill clearly does not go far enough, but I welcome this debate and the noises from those on the Government Benches that indicate they will consider this issue in the future.

• 16 Oct 2024 · Access to Primary Healthcare · Hansard source

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  I very much welcome this debate. GPs are rightly pillars of our community—doctor remains one of the most trusted professions, perhaps unlike ours—but I want to mention some of the other key professions in the primary care sector, including practice nurses, who dedicate their lives to working on behalf of our residents. Right now, practice nurses are working hard to deliver flu, covid, RSV and shingles jabs to many of our residents. They are the unsung heroes who keep primary care going, but their number is declining due to wage constriction. New nurses looking to boost their salaries often opt for hospital-based care because they can improve their pay packet with unsocial hours payments. Mental health nurses, healthcare assistants and social prescribers also provide essential services, and we must not forget receptionists, who bear much of the public’s frustration after 14 years of failed government. They have my thanks. GPs are in crisis. The Tories let waiting times soar and failed to deliver a new framework contract for GPs in time, leading to industrial action. I am very concerned that in my area we have sleep-walked into a two-tier health system, with long waits for those who cannot afford private care and access for those who can. In Henley, we are seeing the first fully private GP practices and many people going for jobs with corporate insurance plans. There are now routinely four-week waits in places such as Thame, Benson, Watlington and Chalgrove, where we have seen significant housing growth. As my hon. Friend the Member for Didcot and Wantage (Olly Glover) mentioned, developer funds have been collected, but in Oxfordshire they are not being released in time to deliver the infrastructure that is needed. I want to highlight the impact of those waits on some of the most vulnerable people. I recently spoke to my constituent Suzannah Windsburrow, a tenacious campaigner with learning difficulties, who highlighted to me just how important timely access to healthcare is for her. The collective impacts of a lack of access mean that people with learning disabilities die earlier than those without one—23 years earlier for men and 27 years earlier for women. I very much welcome the Liberal Democrat commitments on health, and I encourage the Labour party to copy our manifesto—honestly, we won’t mind—including our commitments to ensuring that people can see a GP within seven days or, if it is urgent, 24 hours; to 8,000 more GPs; and to providing a named GP for people over 70. I also hope that Labour will copy our very important policy on delivering mental health professionals in schools.

• 8 Oct 2024 · Chalk Streams: Sewage Discharge · Hansard source

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  My constituency suffered quite considerably from flooding in the past month. One reason is that chalk streams can be over-engineered, culverted and canalised through villages. Nature-based solutions offer a really good solution to improve the flow of rivers. Does my hon. Friend agree with me on that point?

• 12 Sept 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Will the Secretary of State meet me and the Environment Agency to discuss the closure of Marsh Lock bridge on the Thames path in Henley-on-Thames?

• 12 Sept 2024 · Sir David Amess Adjournment Debate · Hansard source

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  That was very well pronounced, Madam Deputy Speaker. I echo the comments about Sir David Amess. I am also grateful to the right hon. Member for Rayleigh and Wickford (Mr Francois) for alerting me to the Westminster dog competition. My two Shiba Inus looking on at this debate will be very excited about that. I congratulate the hon. Member for Doncaster Central (Sally Jameson) on her maiden speech. Her passion for her constituency is clear. I am looking forward to visiting HMP Huntercombe in my constituency and paying tribute to the prison staff there. I thank my predecessor, John Howell, who represented the constituency for 16 years before stepping down. I am sure that the whole House will join me in wishing him well as he recovers from a stroke. Among his achievements was his commitment to the Council of Europe; he led the UK delegation for many years. It is sad to see Conservative leadership hopefuls now calling for the UK to step back from the Council of Europe by leaving the European Court of Human Rights. That would put us alongside Belarus, Russia and the Vatican as the only non-member European nations. It is an honour to be the new MP for Henley and Thame, which is a new constituency made up largely of the former Henley seat that was last Liberal in 1910. In the intervening period, the constituency has played host to well-known Members of the House, including, most famously, Michael Heseltine and the former Prime Minister, Boris Johnson. Although they are well-known names, I am very much looking forward to making my own distinct contribution to this House. I can only hope to emulate my relative, Hans van Mierlo, the founder of the Dutch liberal party D66, who exited government more respected and popular than when he entered—a rarity in modern politics. I will not comment on which of my predecessors achieved that feat and which did not. Thame is one of the two main towns of the constituency, alongside Henley-on-Thames. As well as hosting two stunning, chocolate-box market towns, the constituency is characterised by the Chilterns national landscape and its iconic escarpment, and is bisected by a section of the historic Ridgeway national trail. Henley and Thame is also host to a significant portion of the Oxford green belt, and is criss-crossed by an abundance of well-cared-for villages and hamlets, such as the wonderful Waterstock and Waterperry in the north of the constituency, and the aptly named Christmas Common, which has supplied and decorated Christmas trees for No. 10 for many years. Watlington is the constituency’s lesser-known third town, but is nevertheless known locally for its vibrant high street and welcoming community. It is also the town that I have had the sincerest pleasure of representing as a county and district councillor since 2021 and 2023 respectively. The Rivers Thames and Thame and their chalk stream tributaries define not only much of the physical landscape of the constituency, but the communities that live there. Henley is, of course, home to the annual royal regatta, which fills residents with pride. This year, there is much to be proud of as we welcome our Olympic and Paralympic heroes back to Oxfordshire. In recent years, however, the river has been filled with something altogether more sinister. Rowers treat the water as a toxic substance, meticulously cleaning hands and covering mouths while they row, but that is still not enough to stop the steady flow of reports of serious illness following encounters with the waste-filled water. The shameful sewage crisis cuts deep in Henley and Thame, with Henley-on-Thames town council recently declaring no confidence in Thames Water in a precedent-setting vote. I join the council in declaring no confidence in Thames Water in this Chamber, and call for proper root and branch reform. I am honoured to represent RAF Benson and its residents, and I pay tribute to the men and women of the armed forces who serve this country so ably. The constituency has a considerable and proud military history that dates back to the battle of Chalgrove field in 1643. Exactly 300 years later, construction started on Chalgrove airfield, from which reconnaissance missions were flown in preparation for the invasion of occupied Europe. Later, US army Pathfinders set off from Chalgrove, dropping into Holland as our allied forces sought to liberate my father’s home town of Arnhem in Operation Market Garden. That same airfield now hosts the world’s leading manufacturer and tester of ejector seats and fighter aircraft. Sadly, the airfield was sold off to Homes England under the Conservatives and forced into an unpopular local plan as a site allocated for a new town. I will continue to support residents in their fight to keep Chalgrove a village and to protect its heritage in defence. I close with a few words of thanks to my wonderful wife, who has put up with so much from me as I set about reversing 114 years of Conservative rule in Henley and Thame. I feel extremely privileged to stand in this Chamber, but whatever the future holds, I will have no greater privilege than being married to my wife. Having committed that sentiment to the public record, I trust I have now corrected my failure to mention her in my 6 am acceptance speech.