Gareth Thomas MP: speeches

Speeches

• 9 Sept 2026 · Public Confidence in the Police · Hansard source

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  I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Pendle and Clitheroe (Jonathan Hinder) on securing the debate and on the way in which he approached the subject. I join him and my hon. Friend the Member for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland (Luke Myer) in paying tribute to the police officers from the Cleveland force who lost their lives so tragically just recently. I want to raise two or three points on the question of confidence in the police and the role of Government. Too often, the police get criticised for the failings of other agencies and I want to talk about that issue in the particular context of my constituency in Harrow. As other Members have already alluded to, I also think that we need to keep the funding—in the case of Harrow, that is for the Metropolitan police—under very close scrutiny. I also want to suggest that the Metropolitan police does not get recognition across the whole of the UK for its hugely important work in tackling national and international crime, and that perhaps more recognition of that is required in the funding formula. Lastly, I want to dwell on the issue of online crime and the hatred that gets stirred up online, which can make the job of the police much more difficult. I am struck by the criticism that I have heard in my constituency about the police. So often when one gets into the issues that people are concerned about, they are actually the responsibility of other agencies locally and it is the police having to respond to the other agencies’ failure to take action that has led to the criticism of the police. In particular, in Harrow, we recently saw enforcement teams contracted out to an organisation called Kingdom. The responsibility for that contract was with Harrow council. There was widespread criticism of the way some of the staff employed by Kingdom tried to levy fines on a number of young people in south Harrow, in my constituency. The council could have taken much tougher action against Kingdom. It could have used some of the funding from the contract to pay for additional police officers, instead of contracting the work out to people who are far less well trained than the police. Even at this late stage, I hope that Harrow council will use some of the funding it is spending on the Kingdom contract to fund additional police officers. Local councils such as Harrow need to invest more in youth facilities that divert young people away from crime. Some of the CCTV projects in my constituency that Harrow council has turned down—in Wealdstone, south Harrow and central Harrow—should get funding. It is not clear to me that the council is investing in drug addiction services, tackling street homelessness or tackling poor performance by the owners of large blocks of flats to prevent antisocial behaviour. More Government scrutiny of the performance of local authorities in tackling antisocial behaviour at a local level would be timely, certainly in the case of Harrow council. The Metropolitan police saw a £1 billion real-terms funding cut between 2010 and 2014. That led to a marked drop in policing in my constituency and across London more widely. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has done a huge amount to try to redirect funding from other parts of his budget to minimise the impact of that cut. I also welcome the fact that the Government have delivered on their manifesto commitment to boost police funding more generally, so that an extra 3,000 police officers can be recruited across the country. We are seeing the benefit in Harrow, where there has been an increase in police numbers, but we are certainly not back to the level of policing that we had when the last Labour Government left office in 2010. I seek assurance from the Minister that we will never again see the scale of real-terms cuts to the Metropolitan police that my constituents had to endure between 2010 and 2014. One way we can further support the Metropolitan police is by allowing it to keep more of the proceeds from successful operations, such as recovering stolen funds hidden in bitcoin assets. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Minister on her elevation to the Front Bench, and urge her to go into battle with the Treasury to help the Metropolitan police use more of the funds it recovers for investment in local policing, police stations and so on. We also need to do more about what goes on online, which feeds criminal activity in our constituencies. Will the Minister update the House on the effectiveness, as she sees it, of the Online Safety Act 2023, and on what other work crime agencies are doing with Ofcom to crack down on online hatred?

• 8 Sept 2026 · Safety of the Jewish Community · Hansard source

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  I appreciate my hon. Friend’s speech, particularly her reference to what happened at Kenton synagogue, which partly serves the people of Harrow. She referred to many of the physical manifestations of antisemitism. May I draw her attention to online antisemitism? We increasingly expect Ofcom to police the very worst of social media. Is it not time that we had some clear measures of success by which we can hold the Online Safety Act 2023 and Ofcom to account, so that if we still see no reduction in antisemitism online we can consider what further steps are necessary to crack down on that source of antisemitism?

• 1 Sept 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T8. The catastrophic events in Nepal last week have had a profound impact on the significant Nepalese community in my constituency. As well as underlining the need for further, sustained effort to tackle climate change internationally, do not those events also underline the need for continuing aid to Nepal?

• 9 Jul 2026 · Israeli Settlements: Trade Ban · Hansard source

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  If my hon. Friend will forgive me, I will not, just because of time. Britain would not be acting alone. Spain has already introduced a ban, while Ireland, Belgium and the Netherlands have either committed to or are advancing similar measures. If they are willing to act, why are we not? Others have already identified the fact that there is a comparable restriction on goods originating from illegally occupied Crimea and other Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine, so the principle of a ban is neither novel nor unprecedented, and, with the appropriate care and consultation, could take place here in the UK. We have the means to act and the responsibility to do so. A ban on trade with illegal settlements is both justified and overdue.

• 9 Jul 2026 · Israeli Settlements: Trade Ban · Hansard source

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  Like others, I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield Central (Abtisam Mohamed) on securing this this debate. Like her, I support a complete legal ban on all British trade with Israeli settlements in the occupied west bank. These settlements are illegal under international law, and Britain should not permit trade that helps to sustain or profit from activity that is clearly unlawful under international law. We have both a legal and a moral obligation to act. The settlements form part of a broader pattern of land confiscation, home demolitions, movement restrictions, settler violence and the denial of basic human rights. These policies are being actively encouraged by the Netanyahu Government and are intended, at least in part, to extinguish any realistic prospect of a future Palestinian state. If we genuinely support a two-state solution, want to respect our obligations under international law and recognise our common humanity, then Britain must act. Palestinian children in the west bank are among those suffering most from the escalating levels of settler violence. According to UNICEF, 70 Palestinian children were killed in the west bank between January last year and May this year, which is roughly one child every week. The wider trend is equally alarming. According to the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs, March this year saw the highest number of Palestinians injured in settler attacks for two decades. Illegal settlements now physically occupy nearly 10% of the west bank, while settlement regional councils exercise control over approximately 40% of the territory. This has dramatically reduced the land available for Palestinian housing, infrastructure and economic development. The World Bank has repeatedly highlighted how restrictions on Palestinian access to land undermine economic growth and development. Without meaningful action to curb settlement expansion, poverty will deepen in the west bank, and the prospects for peace will recede further still. Large areas of Palestinian agricultural land have been confiscated for the direct benefit of settlers. It is clear that this is not accidental or incidental, but a deliberate policy that enjoys the active support of the Israeli Government. Last September, Prime Minister Netanyahu stated, “there will be no Palestinian state”, while advancing the E1 settlement expansion plan, which would effectively split the west bank in two. In its 2024 advisory opinion, the International Court of Justice concluded that Israel’s policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are contrary to international law and stated that other countries, clearly including us, have obligations not to support or assist in the maintenance of the unlawful situation created by the settlements. A comprehensive ban on settlement trade would therefore be a practical and necessary step towards meeting those obligations and challenging continued settlement expansion.