Jack Rankin MP: speeches 2025

Speeches

• 26 Mar 2025 · Tobacco and Vapes Bill · Hansard source

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  I am assuming, to be honest, that it would be the same people who are responsible for the licensing of alcohol advertising. All my amendments speak to the principles that I have outlined, which I think are consistent with the aims of the Bill, and for which I have received support from across the House. I hope that Members both in here and in the other place will recognise the value of my amendments and that the Government will take these concerns seriously.

• 26 Mar 2025 · Tobacco and Vapes Bill · Hansard source

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  Does my hon. Friend accept that there is not a risk that a black market will open, because a significant black market in tobacco already exists? In 2021, some 23.6 billion cigarettes were sold under duty, whereas in 2024 the figure was 13.2 billion, a 44% reduction. Yet an Action on Smoking and Health survey has found that smoking has reduced by only 0.5%. The black market is already here—it is not a new thing that will be created—so the Bill presents an even greater risk.

• 26 Mar 2025 · Tobacco and Vapes Bill · Hansard source

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  I agree about the practicalities of needing to pick between two adults of similar age in a shop. Does the right hon. Gentleman agree that the person selling the cigarettes will probably be a shop lad aged 18 or 19? He will have to draw a distinction between adults much older than him. We should consider the position that puts that young gentleman in.

• 10 Mar 2025 · Multi-academy Trusts: Management Accountability · Hansard source

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  14. What steps she is taking to improve management accountability at multi-academy trusts.

• 10 Mar 2025 · Multi-academy Trusts: Management Accountability · Hansard source

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  I have a case in my constituency where a governor feels that she was pushed out, having raised concerns about senior teaching staff. I understand from last year’s Sky News report that that may not necessarily be an isolated incident, as the accountability process potentially involves trustees marking their own homework. I am a strong supporter of academies, but there must be a balance. Will the Minister commit to bringing in a system of accountability and transparency to prevent such things from happening?

• 5 Mar 2025 · Defence Spending · Hansard source

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  1. What assessment he has made of the potential impact of the Government’s defence spending plans on Scotland.

• 5 Mar 2025 · Defence Spending · Hansard source

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  Scotland’s world-class defence industry will play a key role in rebuilding Britain’s military capabilities, and during my visit to Babcock at Rosyth I saw at first hand how defence spending benefits Scotland’s small and medium-sized enterprises. However, investment in Scotland’s defence SMEs lags far behind that in the rest of the United Kingdom, accounting for just 2.5% of the total spending of the Ministry of Defence, largely owing to the hostile environment created by the Scottish National party. How is the Secretary of State working with the MOD and Scotland’s defence industry to unleash Scotland’s SMEs and enhance our nation’s defence capabilities?

• 3 Mar 2025 · Independent Schools: VAT and Business Rates Relief · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Lewell-Buck. In Windsor, we are very lucky to have some of the finest state and independent schools in this country, and I am proud to represent them all. One has already been mentioned; it is very prominent, but it is not very reflective of the situation in my constituency. On two constituency visits this morning before I came into Parliament, I counted the independent schools that I passed. I passed six; 23% of the pupils in my constituency attend independent schools. The caricature that my right hon. Friend the Member for East Hampshire (Damian Hinds) said was always in the papers when independent schools are discussed does not reflect 23% of the parents in my constituency. In my recent surgeries, I have had many parents who are really struggling with the proposed policy. Often, both parents are working, and one of them may have taken on a second job. In many instances, they have remortgaged their house. They have gone without. Many marriages are under pressure, and I am concerned about those parents and their children. Because we have such a high percentage of independent schools in my constituency, they are not the only ones affected, even though they might be the most directly affected. The displaced children hit my state schools, and that means our state sector is bracing for an influx of children that it will struggle to accommodate. That is why I think this is a false choice: it should not be state versus independent. Our schools are an ecosystem, and they are all valuable, because education is a public good. It promotes social mobility, strengthens our economy and benefits society at large. No other country in the world tries to tax it. When they have tried—as in Greece, where it lasted only four months—it has massively backfired. In fact, many developed countries look to subsidise independent education to promote parental choice and drive up school standards, so the Government are unique in their policy and, frankly, their vindictiveness. Whenever the Labour Government hike taxes, there are unintended consequences. Just as their jobs tax is hitting charities and hospices, their tax on independent schools will hit military families and the 130,000 SEND pupils who are currently in independent schools. Many of the parents I have spoken to use those schools as a way of giving their children that extra bit of support that they would struggle to find in the state system. I think every single Member of this House recognises the challenges facing their local authority when it comes to SEND provision. From my involvement with the all-party parliamentary group on Down syndrome, which my right hon. Friend the Member for East Hampshire chairs, it is clear that getting an EHCP is already an uphill struggle, and taxing independent schools will create the most regressive possible outcome. It will add to the pressures already facing our local authorities, and the SEND children in the existing state provision will pay the highest price. In a similar vein—the hon. Member for Surrey Heath (Dr Pinkerton) discussed this—2,666 military families in this country rely on independent schools to give their children a stable education. For those families, VAT relief can make all the difference. I previously co-signed a letter that my hon. Friend the Member for Solihull West and Shirley (Dr Shastri-Hurst) sent to the Chancellor, calling on the Government to protect from VAT military families who make use of the continuity of education allowance. Although the Chancellor has committed to re-rating CEA, I maintain that the full exemption from VAT is needed to truly support military families. That would make a real difference to those enlisted at either of Windsor’s two great garrisons, to whom we owe so much. That support should be given special consideration in the light of the Prime Minister’s discussions over the weekend and in the House today. Labour Front Benchers frequently refer to parents who pay for independent education enjoying a tax break, but parents actually save the state £8,210—the money it costs to educate a child in the state sector—and receive no compensation for the income taxes that they pay. In my book, that is no tax break at all. Frankly, the numbers do not add up. The Adam Smith Institute has estimated that if even 10% of children move to the state sector—anecdotally, in my constituency I am seeing more than that—any revenue will be nullified. Any more than that 10%, and the policy will actually cost taxpayers money. That highlights the ideology behind the decision. In my view, the Labour party is playing politics with children’s futures. It is forcing families to have difficult conversations mid-year and make tough decisions. The saddest conversations I have had have been with parents who have felt the need to separate children from classes mid-year. Frankly, only a Labour Government could set out with the aim of improving education in this country and introduce policies that have led to 40 school closures since the Budget.

• 3 Mar 2025 · Independent Schools: VAT and Business Rates Relief · Hansard source

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  My point is that this will not raise any money. It will exacerbate the problem, because if 10% of the students are displaced, that nullifies the revenue. One thing that has not been mentioned is that all our local authorities are under some kind of financial strain, and the royal borough of Windsor and Maidenhead is under more than some others. One of the biggest exploding bills on its books is the school transport budget, which this policy harms by putting another unexpected pressure in the system that local authorities will have to pay for. I do not know whether that is in the numbers; perhaps the Minister will comment on that. I find it almost humorous that some teachers’ unions—it is not often that Conservative Members agree with them—are raising concern about the impact of this policy on staff and pupils in state schools. After only a few months, we are seeing pupils being taken out of private school at three times the previous rate. We will have to wait until September to see the full extent of the damage, as many parents are doing everything they can to get to the end of the school year before, sadly, taking their children out of the schools they love. In this country, we should be aiming to set the highest standards across the board, using schools that excel in the independent and state sectors as examples of what can be achieved. Labour would rather cut down that aspiration in return for uniformity. We are seeing this attack in their dismantling of the academy system, which has blossomed under successive Governments of all colours. Far from guiding the invisible hand, Labour’s education policy is strangling the school system. I wholeheartedly reject this “politics of envy” policy, which places politics above children, families and the good of the country, but if the Government are determined to stick with it, I urge them to introduce full exemptions for all SEND children, military families and specialist schools.

• 3 Mar 2025 · Independent Schools: VAT and Business Rates Relief · Hansard source

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  As the MP for Windsor, Eton is in my constituency. I appreciate, as the hon. Lady says, that not all private schools are Eton, but I point out in its defence that the sports centre she mentioned is used by local schools and community groups, and that Eton does an awful lot in my community. I accept her point that Eton is not among the schools that we necessarily want to focus on in this debate, but I suggest that some of those points are a bit unfair.

• 27 Feb 2025 · Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme · Hansard source

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  5. What assessment the Church has made of the potential implications for its policies of the level of funding available from the listed places of worship grant scheme in 2025-26.

• 27 Feb 2025 · Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme · Hansard source

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  Holy Trinity church in Sunningdale has served the parish for 185 years. It wants to build on that legacy with a community hub, complete with new facilities, including a volunteer-run café for the wider community. The £25,000 cap on VAT relief may be enough to sustain smaller projects, but this one will cost well over £1 million; that means that another £250,000 in donations will be needed, which cannot stretch that far. I understand that the Government are encouraging churches to apply for lottery funding, but Rev. Jon Hutchinson has raised the fact that the scope of that funding is too narrow to cover the project. Will the Second Church Estates Commissioner meet me to discuss how we can get this project over the line?

• 27 Feb 2025 · Gaza: BBC Coverage · Hansard source

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  I welcome the Secretary of State’s robust response from the Dispatch Box today, and thank her for it. This is an egregious example, but the problem is the pattern of behaviour; for example, the BBC has spent £330,000 of taxpayers’ money on legal fees to cover up the 2004 Balen report into coverage of this conflict. Does the Secretary of State agree that there are valid questions as to why the BBC has refused to submit to an independent inquiry? Does she agree that the findings of the Balen report have been suppressed, and will the Government urge the BBC to publish that report?

• 26 Feb 2025 · Family Businesses · Hansard source

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  Trade unions.

• 26 Feb 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Q4. The floods of 2013-14 devastated Datchet, Horton and Wraysbury, and the flooding last January was not much better. But shockingly, the River Thames scheme as currently proposed continues to leave my constituents at risk. The council was asked to cough up tens of millions but, like many, it is cash-strapped. Does the Prime Minister agree that the only option to protect my constituents is to fund channel 1 of the River Thames scheme as national strategic infrastructure, which really it is?

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

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  Mr Stringer, you would struggle to find a Member of this House who is more committed than I am to classical liberal ideas surrounding individual liberty and personal responsibility. I do wish there were more of us. However, when it comes to children, I very much agree with the hon. Member for Cheltenham (Max Wilkinson) that the Government’s role is very different. Our job is to protect children and give them the skills they need to make decisions for themselves as they grow into adults. That does not mean mollycoddling them or wrapping them in cotton wool: there is a clear difference between a bloody knee or a playground argument and exposure to graphic violence and pornography, which can be easily accessed on social media. As many hon. Members have noted, anxiety levels in children are at an all-time high. In particular, suicide has increased dramatically: since 2012, the rates have doubled in boys and trebled in girls. According to the “Good Childhood Report”, British children are now reporting some of the lowest happiness levels in Europe. In my constituency, a freedom of information request submitted to the royal borough of Windsor and Maidenhead found that mental health referrals in children had doubled since the pandemic. The problems are due in large part to smartphones and social media. As was stated in a recent Select Committee session, the average 12-year-old now spends 21 hours a week on their phone. As well as the obvious direct harms, there are indirect consequences, which is the point that I believe the hon. Member for Whitehaven and Workington (Josh MacAlister) was making. Those are hours in which they are not having formative experiences or interacting with the world around them—experiences that our generation took for granted. I spent my early teens climbing trees and playing rugby, not staring at a screen. Something is being missed today in the healthy development of young people. What sets social media apart is the ability to circumvent the traditional safeguards of parent, family and community, with children now exposed to the weight of the world in their bedroom. Feeling unable to protect their children from the ills of social media, many parents are resorting to banning phones entirely, which I do not think is sustainable. Things need to change. By changing the law to limit under-16s’ access to social media—I take the point from my right hon. Friend the Member for East Hampshire (Damian Hinds) that that is easier said than done—we can give parents and children a fighting chance. I believe that changing the law will play a key role in reversing the fortunes of our children, but we also need to make sure that they are prepared for the challenges of modern life. As with many of the great initiatives that have been discussed today, change in Windsor has come from the bottom up. There is already a very active branch of Smartphone Free Childhood in my constituency, and parents have shared awful stories of hardcore pornography being circulated in primary school WhatsApp groups. Separately from the Smartphone Free Childhood campaign, there is a wider movement around children’s mental health. In my constituency, the Well Windsor charity, which I emphasise is neutral on this particular proposition, is unique in what it does. I believe it could be the blueprint for change across the country. It was officially launched late last year by Andy Nuttall, along with seven other parents, who recognised that there was a gap in state services when it came to children’s mental health locally. It is more than a cluster of well-meaning adults; the charity is run by individuals with varied professional backgrounds, including former teachers, ex-CEOs, business leaders and clinical psychologists. They are proactive: they are raising funds, talking to schools and delivering already for students. The data that they have collected on mental health provision in schools in Windsor confirms what we already knew intuitively: parents and teachers feel underprepared for providing the necessary support when facing rising anxieties among children. Well Windsor works with third parties such as myHappymind to provide schools with programmes to help children to check in with themselves, practise mindfulness and improve their resilience, so that they can face the modern world head-on. The NHS, local authorities and the Department for Education can often go round in circles, directing children and parents from one service to another, while children are left to fall by the wayside. Charities such as Well Windsor go directly to the schools that need help and deliver it—not in a month’s time or a year’s time, but within weeks of discussions first taking place. Importantly, Well Windsor’s approach is non-invasive, with a focus on positivity, self-esteem and general mindfulness. We should be careful about raising awareness for the sake of it, because the last thing that suggestible children need is to be bombarded with information about depression, anxiety and mental health. That would be counterproductive. There can also be a tendency to medicate away mental health problems in children. That can sometimes come at the cost of addressing the root causes of those problems in the first place. One of them is clearly social media. I believe that if we in this place can change the law for those in our communities who are taking matters into their own hands, we can help them to turn around some of the trends that we are seeing. The only thing limiting that is political will and time. I think most of us in this House, on a cross-party basis, would encourage the Minister to move in that direction. Communities across this country have had enough of the downward spiral in children’s mental health. Parents, teachers, children and charities such as Well Windsor are taking action. It is time that we in this place did the same.

• 12 Feb 2025 · Data (Use and Access) Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  Although all-digital services are desirable, we should never freeze out those who are not digital savvy, given that over 1 million people in this country do not own a mobile phone, for example. Does the hon. Member agree?

• 6 Feb 2025 · Attorney General's Office: Transparency and Conflicts of Interest · Hansard source

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  4. What steps she is taking to increase transparency in the Attorney General's Office.

• 6 Feb 2025 · Attorney General's Office: Transparency and Conflicts of Interest · Hansard source

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  Three former Law Officers have criticised the Attorney General for not declaring his earnings, labelling it as “irregular” and a break from “normal practice”. Who is in the wrong: the three former Law Officers or the Attorney General?

• 28 Jan 2025 · Tobacco and Vapes Bill (Fourteenth sitting) · Hansard source

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  I will come on to the point about the relative effects of second-hand vaping and of smoking, but I will make some progress first. My second point, which I have made throughout our debates on the Bill, is that we are potentially conflating vapes with cigarettes in legislation, which will exacerbate the misinformation that such alternatives are equally harmful to cigarettes. That will further undermine the Government’s goal of helping smokers to quit. Indeed, Action on Smoking and Health found: “Half of all smokers…incorrectly believe vaping is more or equally as harmful as smoking…This is the highest ever proportion with this misconception across all waves of the survey and a significant increase on misperceptions found in 2023. Only one third of smokers understand vaping is less harmful than smoking.” It seems to me that if we group vapes and cigarettes together and treat them in the same way, that misperception will only be exacerbated. That may further reduce the inclination of smokers to switch to vapes.

• 28 Jan 2025 · Tobacco and Vapes Bill (Fourteenth sitting) · Hansard source

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  I think the Minister is teasing me ever so slightly. I just want to say that I did write what I said; it was not given to me by the IEA.

• 28 Jan 2025 · Tobacco and Vapes Bill (Fourteenth sitting) · Hansard source

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  I would not describe myself as libertarian; I would say I was arguing straightforward centre-right classical liberal opinions, rather than libertarian ones, but we might differ on that. An arbitrary line must obviously be drawn. The same argument could be made about someone idling in a car and people on the street. There is obviously a difference between that and smoking, where we have drawn a line. I acknowledge that I know less about heated tobacco products but, from what I have read, the spill-over effect from nearby users does not reach a threshold to merit state intervention—though I agree that that judgment is qualitative. That is the argument I am advancing. I again make the point to the Minister that heated tobacco, while a recent innovation, has been reported to be positively associated with success in quitting. We should therefore be careful and not treat it the same way as cigarettes in an effort to advance the aim of the Bill, which is to get more adult smokers to use this product and move away from smoking.

• 28 Jan 2025 · Tobacco and Vapes Bill (Fourteenth sitting) · Hansard source

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  I am afraid to say to Government Members and to the shadow Minister that I am going to break up the cosy consensus. I had lunch at the Institute of Economic Affairs, which has given me some classical liberal vibes. I know that that will warm the Minister’s heart. Part 7 of the Bill will give the Secretary of State powers to designate smoke-free places through secondary legislation; clause 139 will do the same for vape-free places. I have a few concerns about that approach. First, it has the potential to force people who have already switched or are in the process of switching from cigarettes to vapes—or indeed to heated tobacco, which is the subject of the next clause—to use their devices in the same areas as smokers, which runs the risk of their moving back to cigarettes. There is a risk that the places designated for vaping will often be the places designated for smoking. We all agree that even though we do not want people to start vaping, we would rather that people vaped if they are on cigarettes. In my view, the clause will be detrimental to its own aims.

• 28 Jan 2025 · Tobacco and Vapes Bill (Fourteenth sitting) · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend’s points have been noted for the record. From what I have read and seen in the representations to the Committee and more widely, heated tobacco seems to me to be similar to vaping, in the sense that we do not people to start it as a product, but it is less harmful than cigarettes, so we should try to facilitate a way for people to use those methods as cessation devices.

• 28 Jan 2025 · Tobacco and Vapes Bill (Fourteenth sitting) · Hansard source

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  As my hon. Friend knows, I am not a doctor as she is, but I will repeat that Cancer Research UK said that there is “no good evidence that second-hand e-cigarette vapour is harmful”. and Public Health England made a similar comment. I understand the point that the hon. Member for Worthing West has made a few times about the precautionary principle, but we could take that to any excess.