Gregor Poynton MP: speeches

Speeches

• 2 Jul 2025 · Spending Review 2025: Scotland · Hansard source

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  I agree with the hon. Lady on that point; I think the oil and gas sector is vital. I am on the record saying that I support Rosebank and Jackdaw, and I think we should get on and do it. We need to invest in that sector, because ultimately, those are the people with the skills and supply chains that will allow us to transition to the green jobs of the future, at the same time as securing jobs now. I agree with much of what she said. The SNP Government have presided over an NHS in crisis, with one in six Scots on a waiting list and a generation of young people growing up in temporary accommodation. They have no plan and no urgency, and we have seen absolutely no progress. That is why next year’s Scottish Parliament election is so important. If Scotland is to make the most of this historic Labour investment, we need a Scottish Government we can trust, and that means voting for change. It means voting for a Scottish Labour Government. When Labour governs, we do not just talk about fairness; we fund it and deliver it. Let me turn to what the spending review means for my Livingston constituency. I am proud to represent a community with ambition and innovation at its core. Now, thanks to Labour’s investment, that potential has been matched by real support. The Falkirk and Grangemouth growth deal, with £100 million in joint funding for both the UK and Scottish Governments, is a huge vote of confidence in our region’s industrial future. Grangemouth, just down the road, is key to Scotland’s energy transition, and the Labour Government are stepping up where others have failed. The spending review also confirms £750 million for a new national supercomputer in Edinburgh, which places Scotland at the forefront of high-performance computing. That is not abstract. It means new opportunities for medtech, life sciences and clean tech industries in my constituency. These are well-paid, high-skill, high-quality jobs for my constituents. Scotland is also now benefiting from £8.3 billion for Great British Energy, headquartered in Aberdeen, ensuring that we lead the world in clean, affordable and home-grown energy. For our communities, the spending review has delivered £234 million in new local investment funds, empowering towns and local councils to invest in what really matters to people: revitalising high streets, upgrading infrastructure and supporting jobs and investment. Let us not forget our role in global trade, too. Thanks to the Government’s leadership, new trade deals are opening doors for iconic Scottish products. In India, Scotch whisky, our largest export, is getting a tariff cut, boosting a £180 million market. US steel tariffs have come down, helping manufacturing jobs across the UK, including in Scotland. That is what serious government looks like: ambition backed by delivery, and investment guided by our values. The spending review represents a huge opportunity for Scotland, but only if we have a Government in Holyrood who can rise to the moment, and that means change. The SNP Government have had their chance, and after nearly two decades, frankly, if they were going to fix our NHS, deliver green jobs or improve education, they would have done it by now. They did not, they cannot and they will not. It is time for a Scottish Labour Government who will.

• 26 Feb 2025 · High Street Businesses · Hansard source

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  I completely agree. We need to be much more creative about how we use the units. Some of these businesses, frankly, are not coming back to our high streets so we should be honest about that and look at other options such as childcare, co-working spaces and housing in town centres to help rejuvenate those places and get them into action. That creative policymaking in planning is absolutely required. The Scottish Government can take a number of steps. First, we need a level playing field between the small businesses based on our high streets and the global online retailers. Secondly, as has been discussed, more thought needs to go into the housing stock being built in our towns. With many buildings left empty, it is right to relax planning rules to make it easier to convert shop fronts into flats, while still ensuring quality housing for their residents. Thirdly, the way people work now has changed, and our town centres must reflect that, so we need to prioritise superfast broadband in our town centres. Local planning should also take childcare into account, ensuring the businesses can thrive in the places to be. Fourthly, councils should be encouraged to use the powers available to them to make ownership data on high street properties public, so that the community has the opportunity to step in and take over some units. Finally, as my hon. Friend the Member for Slough (Mr Dhesi) said, town centres will never thrive unless people feel safe in them, so a focus on safety is key. All those ideas can perhaps contribute to making our towns better places to live; none would constitute a revolution, but they would be revolutionary for millions of people because, for too long, main streets in towns and villages such as Fauldhouse, Broxburn, West Calder, Uphall and others in my constituency have been neglected by the SNP Government. This can change: we can refresh and rejuvenate our high streets, but it will require fresh and rejuvenated leadership.

• 24 Feb 2025 · Social Media Use: Minimum Age · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Vickers. I am the chair of the all-party parliamentary group on children’s online safety, but I am contributing on my own behalf. The opportunities and perils of social media are increasingly weighing on the minds of parents, educators, society and, above all, young people themselves. My hon. Friend the Member for Beckenham and Penge (Liam Conlon) spoke about balance, which I think is one of the key issues. Our young people require digital skills and literacy in order to access the modern world, be it the world of work, public services or their social lives, and we need to give them the tools to do that. This has been a useful debate to think about how we do that. We can see the strength of feeling about this measure reflected in the parliamentary petition that we are discussing. It is a petition signed by 92 of my Livingstone constituents, and it speaks to the widespread anxieties about the impact of social media on our children and young people. Those concerns are real and heartfelt, and they come from not only parents and communities, but young people themselves, who are having to navigate those digital landscapes every single day. They tell us that social media is not merely a tool for connection, but a space where the line between reality and illusion is often blurred, and where photoshopped images and curated lifestyles can distort self-perception. I am convinced of the merits of enforcing a minimum-age requirement of 16 for social media on the Australian model. I am in favour on mental health grounds, with social media shown in study after study to be linked to increased anxiety, depression and low self-esteem for young people. I am in favour on online safety grounds, with social media exposing children to cyberbullying, predators, misinformation and harmful content. I am in favour in order to try to reverse children’s decreasing attention spans; we need to give our kids the support they need to focus, to learn and to reach their full potential. I believe, however, that it is vital not to leave young people out of those conversations, but to centre on their concerns and experiences. I spoke the other week to academic colleagues at the University of Manchester, who stressed the complexity and variety of young people’s views on these subjects. They have conducted research, including focus groups, to understand how children use social media and what it means to them and their lives. They pointed out that a key concern of those young people in the focus groups, short of a ban, was the capacity to better distinguish between content that is real and content that is faked, manipulated or highly curated. Their point was not so much about disinformation or misinformation, but more about those perfect lifestyles that are shown on Instagram and other platforms. As has been mentioned, that is more insidious and not easy to ban, but it has a real effect on young people and on their perceptions of themselves and their lives. That point brings me to the role of social media companies. Many hon. Members have mentioned those companies in this debate, and it is right to say that they have not taken enough responsibility for the content on their sites. The incentive at the moment is to let loose, for eyeballs and time spent, rather than to ensure that the content is properly moderated and is going to the right people. We already have various minimum-age restrictions in place, but the challenge has been to enforce them. Social media companies must adhere to and enforce them. With or without a ban, we need more effective oversight and accountability for how those platforms operate. There is also a vital role for industry leaders such as Google and Apple through their app stores. These gatekeepers possess significant influence and could do much more to ensure that age verification and content moderation is robust and reliable. Hon. Members have also mentioned smartphone bans. I was pleased that at the Scottish Labour conference at the weekend Anas Sarwar, our leader in Scotland, said that in our manifesto for the 2026 Scottish parliamentary elections will be a ban on mobile phone use in Scottish schools. That gives parents and educators—and children themselves—clarity on what we think is right and not right. I do not believe that having phones in schools is right for children or for the educators trying to do their jobs. I believe that the minimum age for social media is an idea whose time has come. For me, it is a matter of protection and of ensuring that we prepare young people mentally and emotionally as best we can to handle the pressures that social media can bring. Even without a ban, however, we must ensure today that existing age limits are being properly and rigorously enforced, and we must engage robustly with the tech companies to ensure that they are doing all they can to protect our young people and children.

• 5 Feb 2025 · Gender Pay Gap · Hansard source

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  I thank the Minister for her response. Does she agree that while the Conservatives think that maternity pay has “gone too far” and that the childcare roll-out is a mistake, it is this UK Labour Government who are supporting women in my Livingston constituency and right across the country by bringing in better protections for pregnant women and mums on maternity leave?

• 7 Jan 2025 · Budget: Scotland · Hansard source

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  That was a long intervention. As I said before, they have the powers and the money, and it is up to the Scottish Government to make the decisions that SNP Members talk about. They complain about every single penny that we have raised in this Budget, but that money is being invested in Scottish public services. They cannot enjoy the money that is being spent on the one hand and complain about every penny piece that has been raised on the other. A National Care Service Bill that was ill-thought-through has now been binned, and there is no plan to reform or be ambitious for Scotland’s NHS to deliver the care our constituents need. The proposed East Calder medical centre in my constituency is a textbook example of how these failings manifest themselves at a local level. Patients, doctors, the local community and the health board all agree that we need a new health centre in East Calder. The one thing holding it back is the Scottish Government’s management of NHS resources. With this year’s unprecedented Budget settlement, the funding is now there to deliver projects such as this, and there can be no more excuses. Where is the planning reform to unleash growth and get Scotland building again? There is a terrible shortage of planning officers in Scotland and no plan to tackle it. There is no substantive commitment to build more homes or any sign of the action needed to make that happen. The drift and lack of vision is summed up in the Scottish Government’s behaviour around the proposed Berwick bank offshore wind farm. The planning application was submitted in December 2022 but still awaits a decision from Scottish Government Ministers. What are they waiting for? Why are they dithering? Why is it taking so long for Scottish Ministers to get a grip of this important decision? As the Aberdeen & Grampian chamber of commerce has said, all they are achieving is putting potentially billions of pounds of investment and thousands of high-quality green jobs at risk. And the list goes on. Where is the investment in skills and in the future of our young people, our economy and our country’s prosperity? We know what the jobs of the future are. There are many sectors in which Scotland has the potential of competitive advantage if only the Scottish Government would take action and get ahead of the curve. But we have seen the precise opposite of urgency, ideas and energy from them. Why are we not preparing and supporting our workforce, young and old, with a wartime-like effort to train our people to take advantage of these enormous opportunities and grow our economy? There is just more dither, delay and a lack of ambition and vision for Scotland. What are we doing to arrest the decline in educational attainment and the widening attainment gap? Nicola Sturgeon once said that closing the attainment gap was the “defining mission” of her Government. Instead, it is getting worse. Educational attainment for all children is down. For those children from the poorest homes, it is down most of all. What a shameful record of almost 18 years in power. For John Swinney, just being a bit better than Humza Yousaf is not good enough. This is a Government not holding themselves or Scotland’s public sector to anything like the high standards the Scottish people deserve. I applaud the Chancellor’s Budget of 30 October. I applaud, above all, the huge investment in Scotland and the highest ever budget settlement for the Scottish Government, but the ball is now in the Scottish Government’s court. They have nowhere to hide. They must halt the drift, the buck-passing and the managed decline. They must seize this opportunity to unleash the enormous potential of Scotland or make way for a Scottish Labour Government who are ready and eager to make that happen.

• 18 Nov 2024 · Armed Forces Commissioner Bill · Hansard source

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  Last week I commended the Secretary of State’s introduction of this Bill as a promise made and a promise fulfilled. It delivers on the Government’s manifesto commitment to strengthen support for our armed forces communities. As a Scottish Labour Member of Parliament, I am proud to speak in support of it today. The Bill represents this new Government’s determination to renew the contract between the nation and those who serve and protect our country. I know this Government will always stand up for our armed forces; that is why they have already confirmed the largest pay rise for personnel in 20 years. At its core, the Bill is about ensuring that our brave men and women in uniform are properly supported and protected, and that they are treated with the dignity and respect that they deserve throughout their careers. Our armed forces are an essential part of the fabric of our national life, both in Scotland and across the UK as a whole. That is brought to life in my Livingston constituency, which is home to the Military Museum Scotland at Wilkieston. That fantastic, award-winning museum covers Scottish military history from world war one to the present day. West Lothian is also home to the Ancre Somme Association Scotland, a wonderful charity with Councillor Harry Cartmill, who represents Bathgate, as its chairman and founding member. ASA prioritises the education of local armed forces history, working with schools, communities, veterans, families and serving personnel, to show the importance of our armed forces in our communities. From Scottish regiments that have served with distinction on battlefields across the world to present day personnel based in the Livingston constituency, and towns and cities across Scotland, our servicemen and women stand ready and willing to defend our way of life. They not only serve our country but embody the values that we hold dear: duty, loyalty, sacrifice and service. Too often, however, we hear of the struggles faced by service members, such as difficulties in accessing mental health services, or issues with accommodation or childcare. The creation of an Armed Forces Commissioner represents a significant step forward in addressing those challenges. As a strong, independent champion for serving personnel and their families, the commissioner will be a direct point of contact for people to raise issues that impact service life. Not only will the commissioner be a voice for the concerns of serving families, but they will also hold the Government—any Government, including this one—accountable. As many Members have said, it shows real leadership that we are willing to put that on the line to ensure that every year we have to respond to those challenges. The Bill has the support of service personnel, the Royal British Legion and Poppyscotland. Feedback from Germany on the establishment and functioning of a similar role indicates strong support from service personnel for an independent commissioner. This Labour Government are a champion of our armed forces, as all Labour Governments before them have been. A Government’s first duty is to national service and the defence of our country, and that includes a duty of care to those who take up that burden. In conclusion, the new Armed Forces Commissioner must have the powers needed to investigate complaints, scrutinise the Government’s actions and ultimately provide meaningful recommendations for action. The Bill is a commitment to ensuring that the welfare of our armed forces personnel is not an afterthought but an ongoing priority day in, day out. It is a recognition of the need for a long-term vision for a better future for our forces. I believe the establishment of the commissioner will help us to build a military that is not only strong in its purpose, but strong in its support for those individuals who serve in it.

• 13 Nov 2024 · Educational Opportunities · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Pritchard. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Tony Vaughan) on securing this important debate. University is great, but it is not for everyone. We need to have alternatives of equal status, value and quality. West Lothian college in my constituency, under the principal Jackie Galbraith, is a fantastic institution that delivers a range of vocational and non-vocational courses to thousands of pupils and learners every year. But colleges across Scotland have faced a decade of decline under the SNP, with a lack of focus and a lack of funding. Since 2021 there has been a 17% real-terms decline in college funding, with the most recent Scottish budget cutting £32.7 million from the budget for Scottish colleges, including a £12 million cut to student support funding. However, with a UK Labour Government there is hope for further education in Scotland. The UK Budget delivers an extra £1.5 billion to the Scottish Government this year, and an extra £3.4 billion next year for them to invest in Scottish higher education. The Scottish Government now have the resources to restore Scottish colleges to their full potential, but they must act at pace and with a competence that they have so far not shown in order to do so. On apprenticeships the picture is no better. The SNP promised to deliver more apprenticeships, but they had to be bounced into funding modern apprenticeships for the next financial year when a press release from the Scottish Training Federation noted how their failure to fund Skills Development Scotland had left “apprentices, training providers and employers in limbo”. Across Livingston constituency I have met employers in renewables, house building and the food and drink sector, and all have spoken to me about the lack of apprenticeships in their sectors. Now that the Scottish Government have the funding, as my colleague in the Scottish Parliament Pam Duncan-Glancy has said, they have “nowhere to hide” from their record on funding for education and apprenticeships. It is finally time for them to show ambition for Scotland and break down the barriers for people across the Livingston constituency and across Scotland.

• 15 Oct 2024 · Scotland’s Economy · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend talked the importance of the university sector to Scotland, and that is clear. I have two points on that. First, yesterday’s industrial strategy is welcome. This is about how we support scale-ups and start-ups coming out of our Scottish universities. There are already great examples in my constituency of Livingston, but also across Scotland. However, more work needs to be done to help them and to ensure that the great thinking that is going on in universities can come to be more commercial. Secondly, I have been told by many people that there is not the same access to finance, and oftentimes these companies are either bought up or have to look to move to America. The work that the UK Government are doing to create a stable environment and to involve the City of London, as part of the UK, to try to unlock some of the £3 trillion in pension funds to invest in these scale-ups is incredibly important. It is important not just that we start them in Scotland, but that we can grow them to a significant scale.