Iqbal Mohamed MP: speeches 2024

Speeches

• 13 Nov 2024 · Disabled People: Discrimination · Hansard source

  More

  Young women and girls in my constituency travel abroad to stay with relatives, sometimes for several weeks or months, and they get into difficulties or are impacted by safeguarding issues. Will the Secretary of State confirm what support is available to help repatriate such girls who have dual nationality and have, in many instances, had false allegations made against them by perpetrators who do not want them to leave the country?

• 12 Nov 2024 · Social Security Advisory Committee: Winter Fuel Payment · Hansard source

  More

  The Minister will be aware that billions of pounds in benefits and financial help, including pension credit, goes unclaimed every year due to the stigma associated with claiming benefits, and the huge difficulty that claimants encounter when navigating the system. What measures are the Government taking to encourage greater take-up and to simplify the benefits system?

• 12 Nov 2024 · National Youth Strategy · Hansard source

  More

  I welcome the statement from the Secretary of State and fully support her aims to provide fit-for-purpose and effective support to the young people in our country. One key component is the provision of sports and leisure facilities for young people. In September 2023, the Dewsbury sports centre and swimming pool were closed due to limited reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete. Last week I attended a full council meeting in which the Labour cabinet decided to close the Dewsbury sports centre permanently, citing repair costs of £9 million to £10 million and the lack of £1.13 million in running costs. The impact of the closure on my constituents, including thousands of young people, is catastrophic. Will the Secretary of State meet me to discuss how the Government can help with the reopening of the Dewsbury sports centre as soon as possible?

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

  More

  Again, I will confess to my lack of knowledge on the detail around the alternative proposed by the right hon. Member for New Forest East (Sir Julian Lewis). I would defer to the House to select an appropriate working model that best represented the people of our country.

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

  More

  Thank you for calling me to speak, Madam Chair. I am honoured to serve under your chairmanship. Before I begin my prepared remarks, I wish to commend and pay tribute to right hon. and hon. Members across the House for their skills of oratory and persuasion and their education and ability to entertain. It has been an absolute privilege to hear Members with such experience speak, so well-informed are they on such topics. I also wish to speak to new Labour Members who, like me, are finding their feet and learning the ways of the world in this place. I am pleased to hear that they are passionate about pushing and challenging their party to implement the laws and changes that the constituents and the country demand. but I remind them of the consequences of that. Rebellion, as I have seen in this short time, is rewarded with sanction or suspension, so it is better to get as much as possible into this Bill now than to hope that they may ever get a chance to do so again. The House has been made aware that faith in political parties and institutions is at a low ebb—perhaps the lowest in my lifetime. We have been told that only 12% of the British public say that they trust politicians; political parties are the least trusted of any UK public institution, and trust in Parliament is on the decline. Any measure that helps to rebuild that trust is to be supported, which is why I support this Government Bill to remove hereditary peers. The anachronistic nature of hereditary peerage contributes to the sense not only that the House of Lords is out of touch, but that all our political institutions are out of touch. It feeds a disconnect between the people and their systems of governance and reinforces a belief that politics is the preserve of another elite, the political elite, that lives in its own bubble in Westminster. Given this urgency to rebuild faith in politics and the need for radical change to that end, it is disappointing that the Government have chosen to be so timid in their ambition. I understand that further changes could be introduced further down the road. Indeed, hon. Members have said that they will try to push for more changes. For instance, perhaps they could remove the over-80s from the Lords, or retire the 26 bishops who are automatically given a seat. The Lords themselves have raised the idea of removing those Members who rarely, if ever, attend. But even these tame reforms appear to be too much for this Government at this stage. We need much bolder action.

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

  More

  That is a very important point. I agree that representation across the four nations is key, and that the balance between the two Houses and how they work together is also very important. We have seen what happens when people feel alienated from their political system: they can gravitate to those with divisive answers. Unaddressed political grievances combined with a lack of faith in political institutions can be a toxic combination. Reforming the House of Lords so that it is fit and proper is not the sole solution to that problem, but is a key part of the solution. We in this House, as elected officials, have a duty to do the right thing at the right time in the right way to deliver the right outcome for our constituents and our country, and the right thing is to adopt the sensible and democratic amendments that have been tabled, and the right time to do that is now.

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

  More

  I thank the hon. Member for his intervention. I agree that the Bill is a positive step, but it is the smallest of the steps that could have been taken by this Government. As we all know in this place, the promise of jam tomorrow is just a promise and hardly ever materialises. We need much bolder action now. It is bad enough that we are alone in Europe in having a fully unelected second Chamber. It is frankly ridiculous that, with more than 800 Members, it is so large. I will put that into some perspective: the US Senate has 100 elected members, who serve a six-year term, and a third of the membership is elected every two years; the Canadian Senate has 105 members and a mandatory retirement age of 75; and the French Senate has 348 elected members, who serve six-year terms, half of whom are up for election every three years. The fact that our second Chamber has been allowed to balloon out of all proportion looks more sinister when we consider that last year Lords appointees donated over £50 million to political parties. When it looks like our political institutions are up for grabs to the highest bidder, with jobs for life, is it any wonder that people see it as another private members’ club?

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

  More

  The right hon. Member makes a very important point. I, as a new Member of Parliament, am not educated or informed enough to answer it immediately, and I would defer to the House to define how that process would work.

• 5 Nov 2024 · Income Tax (Charge) · Hansard source

  More

  I congratulate hon. Members who have made their maiden speeches in the House today. The first Budget of a Labour Government in nearly 15 years is definitely an improvement on the 14 years of Tory austerity and waste, but it is a missed opportunity to bring about the transformative change that the country needs. I welcome the increases in the national minimum wage and carer’s allowance, but it is disappointing that those changes have been accompanied by cuts to social security and disability benefits. I am grateful for the long-overdue investment in hospitals and the NHS. However, the Government must guarantee that those resources will go into our NHS and not into the pockets of private shareholders. Some 4.2 million children are growing up in poverty and a quarter of a million people are homeless; meanwhile, we are on the brink of an irreversible climate disaster. Those crises demand bold solutions. The Government could have implemented wealth taxes and closed corporate tax avoidance loopholes to bring about a more equal and sustainable society. Instead, they have chosen to bake in decades of inequality by feigning regret over tough choices they do not have to make. Those include keeping the two-child benefit cap, cutting the winter fuel allowance and increasing the bus fare cap by 50%. At the same time, the Government have committed to an additional £3 billion of military spending. I echo the comments of my right hon. Friend the Member for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn) on the link between housing and health. While I welcome the measures in the Budget to increase funding for housing, I am concerned that they do not go nearly far enough. Real security is when everybody has a decent home, and we will solve the housing crisis only with rent controls and a huge council house building programme. The Government will be aware that plans to freeze the local housing allowance will have a detrimental impact on hundreds of thousands of families struggling in temporary housing or facing eviction. According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, if the LHA remains frozen over this Parliament, private renters on housing benefit will on average be about £700 worse off. If the Government are serious about tackling child poverty and homelessness, they need to start by ending the LHA freeze and linking housing costs to housing support. While I welcome the commitment from the Deputy Prime Minister to deliver 5,000 new social and affordable homes, that is only scratching the surface.

• 5 Nov 2024 · Income Tax (Charge) · Hansard source

  More

  I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention. I completely agree that there is a direct link between pensioner poverty and demands on the NHS. The Government’s proposals in the Budget do not go nearly far enough. The situation is simply not sustainable. The ability to provide the bulk of its citizens with a roof over their head is a litmus test for the success of any state. Unfortunately, that test has been failed by successive Governments. Without more radical measures to increase the stock of affordable housing, I fear it is a test that this Government will also fail.

• 4 Nov 2024 · Budget: Implications for Farming Communities · Hansard source

  More

  Can the Minister reassure the House and the people of my constituency and our country, that the Budget will not add to the cost of producing food and will not result in consumers having to bear the brunt of rising prices, higher inflation and higher interest rates?

• 30 Oct 2024 · Children’s Hospices: Funding · Hansard source

  More

  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Twigg. I thank the hon. Member for Liverpool West Derby (Ian Byrne) for securing this important debate. In preparing for it, I learned that more than half of children’s hospices around the UK reported a deficit in 2023-24. As a result of a lack of long-term and sustainable statutory funding, coupled with the increasing costs incurred when providing lifeline care to seriously ill children and their families, more than half of children’s hospices in England ended the year in deficit. Looking ahead to 2024 and ’25, the picture gets even worse, with nearly three quarters of children’s hospices forecasting a net deficit and with the total shortfall across 35 organisations estimated to reach £25 million. In Kirklees, where my constituency sits, Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice is an essential part of our local health and care system. It offers vital palliative care and support to seriously ill children and their families. Despite that, however, the hospice is facing a turning point: crucial services, including respite and end of life care, will be cut if the Government fail to maintain the existing £25 million NHS grant funding for children hospices. For Forget Me Not, the impact of losing that grant would be catastrophic and result in a significant reduction in services in our area. That comes on top of already fragile sustainability as a result of historic underfunding, making it one of the least funded hospices in the UK. Amid a year of high inflation and the growing costs of recruiting and retaining skilled and experienced staff, children’s hospices’ costs are rising. UK Government Ministers must act urgently to ensure that seriously ill children and their families can access the crucial hospice and palliative care services they need. I stand here and join other hon. Members in asking the Minister to maintain the £25 million as ringfenced, centrally distributed NHS funding for children’ hospices beyond 2025, and to ensure that that funding increases by at least the rate of inflation. I also ask the Minister to use the new 10-year plan for England to review the way in which children’s palliative care is planned and funded, and to ensure that those vital and critical services are funded in full and not left to rely on community fundraising.

• 29 Oct 2024 · Great British Energy Bill · Hansard source

  More

  Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to make my maiden speech today. I congratulate my hon. Friends the Members for Bolsover (Natalie Fleet) and for Erewash (Adam Thompson) on their excellent maiden speeches. They have set a high bar that I will struggle to match. I thank the people of Dewsbury and Batley for the trust they have placed in me. I am honoured and humbled to be their representative and a voice for all residents. Dewsbury and Batley is a newly formed constituency, so I thank my two predecessors. First, I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Spen Valley (Kim Leadbeater) for her service as the MP for Batley and Spen. She helped secure funding for the town centre, and became an MBE for helping to promote social cohesion and tackling loneliness. I wish her well as the new Member for Spen Valley. Secondly, I thank Mark Eastwood for his service as the MP for Dewsbury. He was a man of great perseverance and helped secure over £40 million in funding for the town. I am honoured to follow Mark as the second locally born and bred MP for Dewsbury. I stand here as the eldest of six children born to Gujarati Indian immigrants who came here in the ’60s. I am an immensely proud, passionate and no-nonsense British Indian Muslim Yorkshireman who grew up on a council estate in Dewsbury Moor on free school meals and uniforms. My late father, Gulam Ahmed, and my mother, Noorjhan Fatima, gave us love, put food in our bellies and taught us proper British and Islamic values, such as honesty, integrity, hard work, friendship, compassion and wanting the best for others. My political journey started when I was around nine or 10 years old. I remember standing in front of my parents’ wardrobe mirror and asking God to make me one of two things when I grew up. I asked to be either a “Blue Peter” presenter, because a job that paid you to travel the world, do amazing activities and be on TV was surely the best gig in town, or—and I did not know why at the time—I asked God to make me a parliamentarian. I remember looking down at the colour of my skin and thinking that that might be difficult, but here I am today in the most diverse Parliament in history, where I look forward to breaking down barriers, making friends, doing good and preventing harm. If a “Blue Peter” producer is watching, however, I am still available for a guest appearance or a Christmas special.

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

  More

  Will the hon. Lady give way?

• 10 Oct 2024 · Gaza and Humanitarian Aid · Hansard source

  More

  Does my hon. Friend agree that the UK must act urgently to enforce UK Security Council resolutions?

• 10 Oct 2024 · Gaza and Humanitarian Aid · Hansard source

  More

  Throughout the past 12 months, the UK Government have failed to highlight or prevent the Israeli Government’s denial of international assistance into Gaza and their clear breaches of international humanitarian law. The UK has also failed to highlight the Israeli Government’s not complying with International Court of Justice orders, which require them to facilitate the unimpeded access to Gaza of United Nations and other officials engaged in the provision of humanitarian aid. The UK is failing to stand up for international law as Israeli forces are forcibly transferring civilians as we speak—

• 8 Oct 2024 · VAT: Independent Schools · Hansard source

  More

  State schools in my constituency are bursting at the seams. There are no spare spaces to move into for the more than 1,000 children being educated in independent schools there. The fees charged by those independent schools are a quarter to half of the cost of state school provision per pupil.

• 8 Oct 2024 · Independent Schools: VAT and Business Rates Exemptions · Hansard source

  More

  The state schools in my constituency are already bursting at the seams, and we have hundreds of children who are outside of education, many of whom are unable to receive homeschooling. There are six private schools in my constituency, educating more than 1,000 children. The lowest fees start at £1,800, with the highest at around £3,300. We are talking about working-class, low-income families with children who have special educational needs. If enacted, the policy would be hugely damaging to those families’ financial situation and their children’s education. I strongly urge the Government to assess the impact of that and put in place protection mechanisms for such schools.

• 7 Oct 2024 · Anniversary of 7 October Attacks: Middle East · Hansard source

  More

  I join the Prime Minister and the House in offering my condolences to the families of all those Israeli civilians killed on 7 October, and of all innocent civilians—Israeli, Palestinian, Lebanese or any other—killed over the last 12 months. Over the last 12 months, more than 950 Palestinian bloodlines have been wiped off the face of the earth—no family member remains from those generations. Over 1,000 families have only one sole survivor remaining living today. What message does the Prime Minister have for the British Palestinians and the surviving Palestinians in the affected region, and what is he doing to protect them from the same fate as the 42,000 and counting?

• 10 Sept 2024 · Ukraine · Hansard source

  More

  I congratulate the Defence Secretary and his Ministers and welcome them to their place. It is right that the UK stands with Ukraine to protect the lives and freedoms of the innocent people and the sovereignty of a free state. In addition to the military support provided, will the Secretary of State update the House on what diplomatic efforts are being made to negotiate an end to the Russian aggression, a full withdrawal from Ukraine and a return to peaceful co-existence as soon as possible?

• 9 Sept 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

  More

  I congratulate the Secretary of State and her team, and welcome them to their places. In my constituency, children are being unenrolled after 20 days of absence, even when there is a valid and compassionate reason for their leave. Will the Secretary of State commit herself to reviewing this harmful and punitive rule, which is leaving children in my constituency without a school for many months, and will she take steps to make the necessary changes to protect those children and their right to an education?