Jo White MP: speeches

Speeches

• 2 Jul 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Q10. While we all revere the football stars of the past, many are struggling with welfare issues, including organised financial fraud and head injuries linked to the onset of dementia. May I give the Prime Minister this letter on player welfare from 303 former players, which local champions such as John Stiles and international superstars, including Kevin Keegan and Graeme Souness, have signed? Will he agree to meet a group of former players, as cited in the recent letter to him from one of his heroes, Michael Thomas, who of course shone when he played for Arsenal and Liverpool?

• 1 Jul 2025 · Supporting Economic Growth · Hansard source

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  Does the Minister agree that the new Green Book with its proposals on place-based analysis will mean that left-behind places like mine will start to get the infrastructure investment that they so desperately need?

• 18 Jun 2025 · Post-industrial Towns · Hansard source

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  I totally agree with the hon. Member. An industrial strategy has to support the SMEs, because they have to be part of the supply chain. They have to be part of that engine of growth, because they are an integral part of all our communities. I want to see them benefit when there is big industrial investment. They are part of that chain, and they can grow with it.

• 18 Jun 2025 · Post-industrial Towns · Hansard source

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  The post-industrial towns of the red wall areas are dying on their feet. Our young people are moving away, never to return, to the cities, to London and to the surrounding commuter towns, for good jobs, skills and higher pay. The good apprenticeships are too few, and we have low-skilled populations who are growing older, with higher health demands on our NHS and care services. Aspiration levels have plummeted and there is a collective mindset that says people have to move out in order to get on. All too often such towns have been ignored by successive Governments when wealth building or investment initiatives have been brought forward, and disregarded because they are on the “too difficult to do” list. This Government are the first in over a generation to be rebuilding our economy through the development of a strategic plan. This is the end of the free market being allowed to run free, with patchy Government intervention and growth ambitions reliant more on hope and prayers. The left-behind towns in red wall areas, such as Bassetlaw, will have their locked-in potential unleashed and will become wealth builders only through a national industrial strategy that aligns itself to their future. As deputy leader with responsibility for regeneration at Bassetlaw council at the time, I remember the last attempt to develop a strategy, under Prime Minister Theresa May. We heard lots of warm words at all levels of government, including mine, but then there was silence—it went nowhere. Now is our opportunity to define a strategy that aligns itself to our national priorities and feeds into the ambitions and vision of local areas such as Bassetlaw.

• 18 Jun 2025 · Post-industrial Towns · Hansard source

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  The development and growth of our infrastructure must include superfast broadband, so that we can all benefit from it. Too many areas are missing out, particularly remote, rural areas. We need a strong economy that includes superfast broadband, AI and energy provision to ensure that we are supercharged for the future. The announcement made by the Government yesterday that British railways will use British steel is a welcome example. That commitment must be replicated in every infrastructure project across the country, in our nuclear ambitions, roadbuilding, munitions, prisons and hospital-building projects. What steps is the Minister taking to ensure that the industrial strategy gives priority to British companies while addressing our ambitious infrastructure commitments?

• 18 Jun 2025 · Post-industrial Towns · Hansard source

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  I totally agree with my hon. Friend. This is absolutely urgent, which is why we stood to be MPs and why we are champing at the bit for change—it is why we are all in the Chamber tonight.

• 18 Jun 2025 · Post-industrial Towns · Hansard source

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  I totally agree. It has been too easy to invest in our metropolitan and city areas, so areas such as ours have missed out time and again. The fact that my hon. Friend’s constituency is in the far corner of England has made it far too difficult for previous Governments and industries to think about her communities and what they need in order to be strong again. I am so delighted that we have a Labour Government who are focused on the same priorities that we all share.

• 18 Jun 2025 · Post-industrial Towns · Hansard source

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  Again, I thank the hon. Member for his contribution. We all have our localised industries that we are proud of, but we need a Government who recognise that and enable local businesses to thrive and survive. This is about how we invest and encourage new businesses to invest in our local economies, which is an essential element of the industrial strategy.

• 18 Jun 2025 · Post-industrial Towns · Hansard source

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  Absolutely. [ Laughter. ] We are going to have no disagreement whatsoever because what we need is a Government who will deliver the jobs and skills that have already been identified. While the investment into STEP—spherical tokamak for energy production—fusion in north Nottinghamshire has the potential in time to unlock new skills, jobs and opportunities that will completely change the industrial landscape of my area for years to come, my demand of Government is an industrial strategy that encompasses and prioritises the left-behind areas.

• 18 Jun 2025 · Post-industrial Towns · Hansard source

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  Again, I totally agree with my hon. Friend. I am fortunate, as I have a new mayor, the Mayor of the East Midlands. I can already see the benefits of having a mayoral combined authority. That partnership with local government, the mayor and me is critical for investment. I had a conversation with her on Saturday and talked about my hon. Friend’s area, because areas like his will get left behind if they do not have the opportunity to have a combined authority and mayor. It makes an incredible difference, and my ask of Government is to move fast and get that sorted. [ Interruption. ] I need to wind up, I am being told, so I will go to the end of my speech to give the Minister the opportunity to wind up.

• 18 Jun 2025 · Post-industrial Towns · Hansard source

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  And Northern Ireland, of course. I will never forget the hon. Gentleman.

• 18 Jun 2025 · Post-industrial Towns · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for her contribution. I hope that Ministers are listening, as the products produced in the three constituencies of my hon. Friends from Stoke-on-Trent are critical for our industrial future. My challenge to Government is to bring forward an industrial strategy that allows the whole nation to grow, but also resources and targets the towns that are crying out for change. I begin by demanding a skills revolution in our post-industrial areas. For much of the past century, areas such as mine were dominated by key industries. In Bassetlaw, we had thousands of men working down the pits while their wives, sisters and mothers headed into the big textile factories. The history of key industries is not exclusive to Bassetlaw—there are vital and historic British industries with their roots in many red wall areas. Ceramics, fishing, automotive, steel and shipping all dominated the midlands and the north of England. While some still remain, they are struggling, fighting an ongoing international race for cheap labour and parts, with successive Governments failing them time and again. In Bassetlaw, as the mines closed and the textile factories moved to countries with cheap labour, the employment opportunities shifted, with warehousing and logistics springing up on the old pit sites. At that time, skills provision, under the auspices of the Manpower Services Commission, developed into a simplistic system. It was literally controlled by the main employers, who wanted to mould the workforce into their own needs from age 16. In Bassetlaw, it was Tony Wilkinson of Wilko and Richard Budge of Budge Mining who ran the system. For a small number, skills training was via the university route, with most never returning. The middle ground between the two was a low priority for Government, and the lazy solution has been to import the skills we need. That is the history of the past 14 years, where cheap imported skills have been used to meet industry’s short-term needs, methodically sidelining local young people and adding to soaring legal migration. We have the kernel of an alternative, with high-skilled apprenticeships, but they are not yet ingrained across the system or the country.

• 18 Jun 2025 · Post-industrial Towns · Hansard source

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  I will finish by saying that time is running out. It is not handouts we are asking for, or sympathy; our demand is strategic investment. My ask of the Minister is give us the tools. Is it little Britain or Great Britain? Is it little Englanders looking over their shoulders or Great Britons looking out to the future?

• 18 Jun 2025 · Post-industrial Towns · Hansard source

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  The Treasury’s use of that formula is the simple explanation for why we have left-behind towns across the whole of the UK. I value and welcome the fact that the Government have listened, and have resolved to overhaul the Green Book and use a place-based analysis as an integral element of the formula in future. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Rossendale and Darwen (Andy MacNae) for his work with Ministers on this issue. That change is fundamental, because being left behind means failure. We had a Government who were only interested in the easy solutions, and were willing to see parts of the country become no-go areas for new industry and new opportunities.

• 18 Jun 2025 · Post-industrial Towns · Hansard source

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  I agree with my hon. Friend. We have to invest in areas like his and mine to rebuild those jobs and our industry. Such areas in our constituencies must become the engines of the future. In Bassetlaw we have just welcomed the award of £2.5 billion for the development of fusion energy in north Nottinghamshire. In addition, £30 million has been committed to Doncaster airport to kick-start it as it reopens. The closure of Doncaster airport in November 2022 was devastating for the city and surrounding areas. The commitment from this Government will get the airport reopened, attract businesses to the area and see the economy grow, meaning there will be new jobs across the region, including in Bassetlaw.

• 18 Jun 2025 · Post-industrial Towns · Hansard source

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  I very much agree and will refer to that later in my contribution. For too long people have moved away to university and never come back. We need good apprenticeships aligned to our local FE colleges. They have to be a part of the engine of the future and our industrial strategy has to focus on that as well as where businesses go in the future.

• 18 Jun 2025 · Post-industrial Towns · Hansard source

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  I totally agree. This Government are making the change. We are being strategic and we know what our future is. We cannot rely on the market as we move forward. It is absolutely essential that we think about growing the economy, ensuring that wealth lies in the hands of the people who live in those communities so that we can build our lives back again. I want to agree with all the interventions that have just been made—

• 18 Jun 2025 · Post-industrial Towns · Hansard source

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  I have heard from all my hon. Friends from Stoke-on-Trent, who are currently seeing the demise of the ceramics industry. That cannot go on, and the cause is high energy prices.

• 18 Jun 2025 · Post-industrial Towns · Hansard source

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  Again, I thank my hon. Friend for her contribution. We need to build wealth in our local areas, and we need to stop young people having to make the horrific choice of whether to move away. By building wealth locally, we are actually able to build good houses, we have people spending money in the local economy, and we support the new independent businesses that come along. It is a circular thing, and we as a Government have to invest in that. Whether this Government focus on investment zones, improved infrastructure or high-performing colleges that turn people out who are work-fit and raring to go, they have the ability to target growth into areas where the engines that once powered our economy stopped running too many years ago.

• 18 Jun 2025 · Post-industrial Towns · Hansard source

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  I again agree: the industrial strategy has to impact the whole of Great Britain, not just the red wall areas, because if it is to be successful, Members must see new opportunities and industries come to their constituencies so that we all share in the future.

• 18 Jun 2025 · Post-industrial Towns · Hansard source

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  I totally agree with my hon. Friend—that is the way in which we supercharge our constituencies. It is about recognising their strengths and working with the local community, local government and our MPs to ensure we get the investment we need. We also have to focus on the fact that previous Governments have consistently relied on Treasury methodology to determine their priorities, applying a cost-benefit analysis framework that always results in the cities and huge conurbations scoring highly, opening up waves of funding for infrastructure and investment. It is a formula that is applied across Government, influencing a wide range of decisions, including where flood alleviation schemes go and where sports provision and support for heritage and the arts end up. It is not just red wall areas that are impacted by that methodology, and I welcome the fact that hon. Friends from Scotland and Cornwall are in their places.

• 18 Jun 2025 · Post-industrial Towns · Hansard source

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  I totally agree with my hon. Friend. I want young people in my constituency to think about the wider opportunities, including what is happening at Doncaster airport. Approximately 800 jobs were lost, which impacted people who live in Bassetlaw, but I am very supportive of what is coming forward.

• 18 Jun 2025 · Post-industrial Towns · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for his contribution. He very much reflects my priorities, and we must have a skills strategy that aligns with an industrial strategy so that our young people know clearly where their futures are.

• 17 Jun 2025 · Crime and Policing Bill · Hansard source

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  Lawlessness, antisocial behaviour, street crime and shoplifting have dragged our communities down. When people believe that they can act with impunity, without fear of apprehension or respect for others, we need Parliament to come down hard to restore law and order and give the police the resources that they need to make our streets safe again. I therefore take this opportunity to welcome the Crime and Policing Bill, which put right the years of damage and disregard caused by the previous Government. My focus today is on street racing, a problem that stretches across the country but has become a curse in Bassetlaw, where cars speed along a stretch of the A57, the by-pass that runs through Worksop and then into the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Rother Valley (Jake Richards). Those unofficial road-racing events are organised via social media. People meet up in an edge-of-town car park and then stage races up and down the A57, attracting huge crowds who come to witness the speeds and the flashy souped-up cars with booming exhausts. Residents living close to the A57 hear the noise, including the screeching of tyres, but they are terrified that they or a family member will get caught up with the racers as they drive home or go about their daily business. The fear of a nasty accident is all pervasive. Across the country, people who have turned up to watch the racing have died, such as 19-year-old Ben Corfield and 16-year-old Liberty Charris from Dudley, and 19-year-old Sophie Smith from Radcliffe—young lives needlessly lost.

• 17 Jun 2025 · Crime and Policing Bill · Hansard source

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  I wholeheartedly agree. It is not just USDAW; the Co-op party has campaigned vociferously on this matter, too. It is so important, and I very much welcome the action this Government are taking. This has gone on for too long. People need to feel safe in the workplace, and this is the best step we can take towards that. Shop workers in Worksop town centre also have to deal with an inordinate amount of antisocial behaviour. For example, I have been told about how young people come into Greggs, take food from the cabinets and throw it about. The shop workers there feel so fearful that they have not taken the covid screens down, because they do not want to be attacked. The intimidation they feel is not acceptable. I have visited an opticians where the management escort their staff out of the workplace to their cars on a regular basis. It was particularly bad last winter, when I spoke to staff and management there because I was so concerned. I have had meetings with the council and the police to tackle this issue. I welcome the Government’s commitment to increasing neighbourhood policing, with more police in our town centres. Everybody tells me they want to see more police walking the streets so that they feel safe as they go into town and can make the choice about where they shop. I do not want people to think about their safety when they go into town centres in my constituency. It is a priority that they know where the police are, know them by their names and feel safe as they go into town. This Bill goes to the heart of many of the issues that have broken our country, and we are doing what we can to repair it.