Gregor Poynton MP: speeches

Speeches

• 6 May 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Lung cancer causes more deaths in Scotland than anywhere else in the UK. In England, early detection programmes are under way, and by 2028 every patient is likely to gain access to screening. In Scotland, doctors tell me that that programme is a distant dream. Does my hon. Friend agree that the SNP is failing Scottish patients and Scottish healthcare professionals? This UK Government are getting on with the task of fighting this deadly cancer.

• 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?

• 23 Jan 2025 · Infected Blood Compensation Scheme: Payments · Hansard source

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  I do not imagine there is one MP in this House who has not had constituents come to talk to them about the infected blood scandal. In fact, this week I spoke to one such constituent, Linda Cannon, who told me her story, saying: “I lost my husband, Billy, in February 2013 to Hepatitis C after a blood transfusion in 1986, for a stomach ulcer, at Bangour Hospital. He was not informed till 2011 that he had been infected, only finding out after presenting with a sore back. He underwent severe treatment, without success, which will live with me forever. Life has been difficult to deal with after this”. The consequences have been completely devastating for her family. Mr Cannon will not see justice, but several of my other constituents must. I welcome the urgency with which this Government have moved forward with this issue, because justice for the victims of this injustice is long overdue. Can the Minister update the House on how he has been working—not just in England, but across Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland—to make sure that payments get to those who need them immediately?

• 9 Jan 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Wherever I go in my constituency, local residents raise with me the poor standard of the local bus service. One resident in Livingston Village told me that the elderly and people with children are forced to walk a long way, or pay for a taxi, to get to hospital appointments. Adambrae has lost its bus, and in Addiewell, Stoneyburn and Longridge, my constituents have to take multiple buses to get to the hospital. Unfortunately, this is not unique to my constituency, as statistics show that local bus services in Scotland have collapsed by 44% since the SNP took charge. Will the Leader of the House agree to a debate on the importance of local bus services to our constituents? Perhaps the SNP Government in Scotland can learn something from the UK Government about protecting our bus services.

• 7 Jan 2025 · Budget: Scotland · Hansard source

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  You can borrow to invest. Also, the hon. Gentleman’s party has announced that it is ending the two-child cap but with no money to pay for it—that, to me, is “buy now and pay later”. Scots can see that the SNP has lost its way and is out of ideas, and that its Ministers are incompetent and wasteful with public money. Scots earning over £29,000 a year pay more in tax in Scotland than people in the rest of the UK, which Scottish Labour will look at if we win the next election. What do Scots get for those higher taxes? They get a Government who waste millions on delayed discharge and agency staff in our NHS, ferries that do not sail and pet projects that do not deliver for Scotland, all while decimating local community funding, which means that vital services are lost. Where, for example, is the vision for reform of Scotland’s NHS, which lurches from crisis to crisis? What was once an annual winter crisis now stretches further and further into other seasons. Our heroic NHS staff do a fantastic job under the most difficult circumstances, but they and the Scottish public are being badly let down by their political leadership, who waste millions on delayed discharge and agency staff. This week, we have seen the UK Labour Government commit to a plan to get waiting times down from 18 months to 18 weeks, and to put in place the firm foundations to deliver proper social care services. Where is the SNP’s ambition on either of those two issues?

• 7 Jan 2025 · Budget: Scotland · Hansard source

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  This has been a valuable, if not always consensual, debate. I thank the hon. Members for Angus and Perthshire Glens (Dave Doogan), for Gordon and Buchan (Harriet Cross) and for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East (Seamus Logan). I did not agree with all or much of what they had to say, but I do believe their views are genuinely and passionately held. To the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross (Jamie Stone): I for one will not tire of hearing him continue to raise the issues he raised until we have resolution to them, and I know he will do so. My hon. Friend the Member for Glenrothes and Mid Fife (Richard Baker) is right to raise the opportunities we have in the energy sector that are supported with this Budget; my hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh North and Leith (Tracy Gilbert) right to raise the new deal for working people; my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow East (John Grady) right that business confidence is growing; my hon. Friend the Member for Na h-Eileanan an Iar (Torcuil Crichton) right that in his constituency it is an NHS unfortunately in name only due to mismanagement; my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow North (Martin Rhodes) right to talk about the choices we have had to make in this Budget; my hon. Friend the Member for Paisley and Renfrewshire South (Johanna Baxter) right to talk about the social care problems we are seeing in Renfrewshire; my hon. Friend the Member for Airdrie and Shotts (Kenneth Stevenson) is a champion for manufacturing jobs; and my hon. Friend the Member for Dunfermline and Dollar (Graeme Downie) is an expert on the mineworkers’ pension scheme. The Chancellor’s Budget provides the Scottish Government with the largest financial settlement in the history of devolution—an additional £1.5 billion to the Scottish Government to spend in this financial year and an additional £3.4 billion to spend in the next. Let us have no more buck-passing, blaming Westminster and ducking of tough decisions. This Budget provides the SNP Scottish Government with more than adequate resources to deliver real and meaningful change in our economy and our public services. Let there be no question about it: any ongoing failures are those of the Scottish Government. They must own them and take that responsibility. They have nowhere to hide. The ball is in their court. As the Under-Secretary of State for Scotland, my hon. Friend the Member for Midlothian (Kirsty McNeill), said, I was proud to vote for this Budget. Question put and agreed to. Resolved , That this House has considered the fiscal impact of the Autumn Budget 2024 on Scotland.

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

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Pritchard, and to speak as a father of two small boys. In fact, I was lucky enough with both my children to receive paid paternity leave, but frankly that was because I was in a white-collar job that allowed it. With my second child, I would not have qualified for the paid paternity policy, but the good will of my employer allowed me to have that time with my family, which is so important. However, it should not be about the good will of employers. In this country, we have only 52 weeks of maternity leave and two paid weeks of paternity leave. Ours is the most gendered leave system in the whole world, and the country’s statutory pay offer is the least generous in Europe. Eligible UK fathers can take a maximum of two weeks’ paid paternity leave at a rate of £184 a week. That is simply not enough for families to live on. Fathers are often not even eligible for that, for reasons of not being deemed employees, being self-employed, or not having worked long enough for their current employer. Shared parental leave is a welcome innovation, but too few families feel that they can take it—1% of mothers and 5% of fathers. There are huge barriers of eligibility and affordability, as well as the need for mothers to surrender their time at home so that fathers can take it. A 2023 TUC study that looked into shared parental leave found that 35% of fathers in a household with an income of under £25,000 did not take it. That shows the huge class element: fathers on lower salaries are not able to take that time. Some 53% of families that do take up the leave struggle financially. We see that self-employed fathers cannot take the time, with about 70% not doing so. I am pleased that the Employment Rights Bill will give day one rights at work to fathers so that we can give stronger support to our working families in my Livingston constituency and right across the whole country.