Joe Morris MP: speeches

Speeches

• 30 Jun 2025 · Driven Grouse Shooting · Hansard source

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  The right hon. Gentleman is making an interesting speech. I was drawn to his comments about Scotland where, as this matter is devolved, there is a degree of responsibility—vicarious liability—on landowners. To crack down on wildlife crime, does he share my desire to see the Minister explore the potential of introducing more vicarious responsibility for landowners across the UK, so that if wildlife crime is taking place on managed estates, it can be properly prosecuted and the landowners ultimately held responsible?

• 2 Jun 2025 · Violence against Women and Girls · Hansard source

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  For some families of victims, further review of release decisions can provide some solace, but it cannot do so for my constituent Doreen Soulsby. Her daughter’s murderer was released before the Victims and Courts Bill passed through this place. Will the Minister meet Doreen and me to discuss clause 61 of the Bill and the release of life prisoners?

• 1 Apr 2025 · Relationship Education in Schools · Hansard source

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  I will shortly wind up. I am pleased that progress is being made in putting specialist rape and sexual offences teams into every police force, and with improving how domestic abuse is processed in 999 handling. It is a matter of culture. I congratulate the hon. Member for Epsom and Ewell again on bringing forward this important debate, and allowing all Members to discuss how we tackle this emerging, growing and potentially endemic problem.

• 11 Mar 2025 · Intimate Image Abuse · Hansard source

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  I pay tribute to the Minister for the work being done. Although that work is welcome, we need to direct our attention towards ensuring that police have the necessary technical tools to investigate reports. Will she meet me to discuss what further action can be taken to address and prevent intimate image abuse in all our communities?

• 15 Jan 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Later this month, my constituency will mark the anniversary of the tragic murder of Holly Newton. Will the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary look urgently at the calls from Holly’s mother Micala Trussler to lower the age at which a person can be recognised as a victim of domestic abuse?

• 9 Jan 2025 · Violence against Women and Girls · Hansard source

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  In my very short time in this place, I have always been conscious of the history of this Chamber and the speeches that have been made in the years and decades previously. However, this debate is the first time I have spoken where I have been aware that whatever I say will be dwarfed by what has been said in speeches previously by every Member who has spoken. The right hon. Member for Staffordshire Moorlands (Dame Karen Bradley) was absolutely right: this is the House at its absolute best. It is a privilege to speak in this debate. I will speak a little bit about some campaigners in my constituency. First and foremost, I will mention the families of Holly Newton and Joanne Tulip, and in particular Joanne’s mother, Doreen Soulsby, who has been a diligent and doughty campaigner for more than a quarter of a century. I also pay tribute to the work of Northumberland Domestic Abuse Services; in my first month after being elected, I was extremely honoured to be asked to become one of its patrons. I celebrate the work that Sharon Brown and her incredible team do in providing support to some of the most vulnerable people in England’s most sparsely populated county. One thing I would like to do as a result of this debate is to invite the two Ministers on the Front Bench, the Under-Secretary of State for Justice, my hon. Friend the Member for Pontypridd (Alex Davies-Jones), and the Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham Yardley (Jess Phillips), to come up to Hexham to see the work being done by NDAS. I would be absolutely honoured to welcome them and to celebrate the work Sharon and her team have been doing. Since April 2024 alone, NDAS has been into 23 schools across Northumberland and worked with almost 2,000 children on the perils of domestic abuse. Ultimately, as my hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh (Chris Murray) was just saying, it can be tough to figure out our place in this debate as men. It needs to be led by women. However, if we do not stand up and speak, we are complicit in contributing to that culture of silence. I have only a minute left, so I will not detain the House’s attention for too long. I am aware that in this debate, as in so many others, we stand on the shoulders of giants. I was very pleased to be sent an email by my office manager during this debate from a constituent of mine, saying to my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham Yardley just how supportive she is, and how supportive constituents across all our constituencies are, of her tireless dedication to women across the country and to safeguarding them.

• 5 Dec 2024 · Plan for Change: Milestones for Mission-led Government · Hansard source

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  The legacy of 14 years of the Conservatives in government and a century of Tory complacency in Hexham is seen in how police numbers in Prudhoe fell under the last Government, and indeed in Callerton and Throckley. They have also fallen in our most rural communities. Rural crime is unfortunately brought up with me regularly. That is an example of how the Conservative party has failed to understand the modern countryside. Will the Minister outline how this plan will make a measurable change for our rural communities, as well as towns like Prudhoe?

• 11 Nov 2024 · Rural Affairs · Hansard source

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  I absolutely agree. When I go to places like Bellingham, where I have a constituency surgery coming up soon, I am often told about the impact of second homes on the community. It contributes to a decline in a sense of place and in opportunities, and of course it crowds out younger people from getting on to the housing ladder. I agree that we urgently need to look at that, and I hope that the Government will consider it strongly. Briefly, in the time I have left, I will celebrate the rural crime strategy. Members from all parts of the House have spoken about it a lot. During the election campaign, I spoke to a farmer who had someone try to nick her quad bike. She confronted him and had to wait 30 minutes for a police officer to arrive. She said that was a speedy response, and she was quite pleased with it. That just shows the level to which rural crime fighting sank under the previous Government.

• 4 Sept 2024 · Sheep Farming · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member makes a valid point, which takes me back to a conversation about rural crime that I had near Byrness in my constituency. A local farmer told me that when criminals came out, she had to wait 45 to 50 minutes for the police to arrive. I hope that the Government will look carefully at sheep worrying as part of a broader rural crime strategy and I look forward to the Minister’s answer on that. On trade deals, we must look at the lack of basic oversight and scrutiny in our trade negotiation processes. I know that is not the Minister’s responsibility, but I hope that he will energetically lobby his colleagues at the Department for Business and Trade to make sure that decisions are made with the security of our farmers in mind. I spoke to farmers who were consistently worried about rising input costs, with the rise in the cost of energy and the rate of inflation biting away at their takings. More than most, farmers have been hit by the chaos inflicted on the country by the mini-Budget and the previous 14 years. They saw their income drop because of the playing field being rigged in favour of producers from other countries who did not have to meet the same welfare and production standards. They also saw big business whittling away at small farmers and able to continually—

• 4 Sept 2024 · Sheep Farming · Hansard source

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  I will finish my sentence and then give way. Farmers saw larger businesses able to continually dictate terms to tenant farmers when it came to selling their produce.