Johanna Baxter MP: speeches

Speeches

• 19 Jun 2025 · Warm Home Discount · Hansard source

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  I warmly welcome my hon. Friend’s statement today on the expansion of the warm home discount. It will mean that 240,000 people across Scotland, including many thousands in Paisley and Renfrewshire South, will receive £150 directly off their energy bills from this UK Government. Will my hon. Friend say a little more about the work being done to accelerate proposals to introduce a debt relief scheme, which would target unsustainable debt built up during the energy crisis?

• 10 Jun 2025 · Nuclear Power: Investment · Hansard source

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  Happy birthday, Mr Speaker. New nuclear has the potential not only to power communities across our country, but to create jobs in every constituency. That is why it is particularly extraordinary to hear SNP representatives argue against those jobs. Will the Secretary of State confirm how many new jobs will be created by today’s announcement and what conversations he has had with workplace representatives to ensure that those are genuinely good jobs, with good terms and conditions?

• 13 May 2025 · Mansion House Accord · Hansard source

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  I welcome the agreement that has been reached today. Does the Minister agree that the pension funds are able to make those ambitious commitments only because of the improved investment environment that this Labour Government are nurturing through economic stability—economic stability that is vital to protect working people, including those in Paisley and Renfrewshire South?

• 27 Feb 2025 · War in Ukraine: Third Anniversary · Hansard source

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  I thank the right hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith) for bringing forward this debate. I am happy to support it. Like some colleagues in the Chamber, I spent Sunday evening in an underground bomb shelter in Kyiv as Russia launched a massive drone attack on the city and many others across Ukraine. While it was a terrifying experience, I was proud to join the UK’s cross-party delegation to Ukraine to mark the third anniversary of Putin’s illegal invasion. It is, of course, a grim milestone in a conflict that has claimed the lives of thousands of innocent Ukrainian civilians and displaced many, many more. As the only female MP on the delegation, it would be remiss of me not to tell the House about the vital role that Ukrainian women are playing in this conflict. As James Brown once said, it’s a man’s world, but it would be nothing without a woman. Strength and bravery take many forms, and Ukrainian women have shown extraordinary resilience in not just defending Ukraine against Russian aggression, but rebuilding a nation that refuses to be broken. As the House will know, when Russian forces invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022, President Zelensky ordered that all able-bodied men aged 18 to 60 were to remain in the country to bolster Ukraine’s defences, but Ukrainian women also stepped up. Today, more than 50,000 women are signed up to the Ukrainian army. One in 10 of those women holds a senior position, and more than 4,000 are engaged directly in frontline combat. This week, I had the pleasure of meeting some of the women who have served on the frontline. There was no mandatory conscription for Ukrainian women, meaning that every single woman who has signed up has done so voluntarily, driven by their immovable resolve to defend their home. However, women are also playing a vital role off the battlefield, and have been vital in sustaining the economy against Putin’s war machine. Ukraine has changed the law so that women can fill labour gaps in mining, transportation, logistics and agriculture, ensuring those critical sectors continue to function in the face of bombardment and destruction from Putin’s forces. Today, one in every two new businesses started in Ukraine is started by a woman. I met women this week who are camped out in drone factories, making the kit that is being sent to the frontline. Ukrainian women are doing all this while many of them have lost their fathers, brothers and husbands.

• 10 Feb 2025 · Defence Spending · Hansard source

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  In the light of the growing threats facing our United Kingdom, it was genuinely shocking to read at the weekend that Conservative Defence Ministers spent taxpayers’ money sponsoring a race car. My constituents in Paisley and Renfrewshire South are livid about the waste of their taxpayers’ money. Can the Secretary of State reassure my constituents that he will continue his actions to root out every aspect of wasteful spending in the Ministry of Defence?

• 16 Jan 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

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  I thank my right hon. Friend for his statement. The news of a possible deal is very welcome indeed, and I associate myself with the hopes of colleagues across this House that the hostages will be released and returned, and that humanitarian aid will flood into Gaza as soon as possible. We know that the only way to ensure a lasting peace is that two-state solution, so can my right hon. Friend outline what steps the Government will take to support the creation of an international fund for Israeli-Palestinian peace?

• 17 Dec 2024 · Climate Change: Nature-based Solutions · Hansard source

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  My constituency of Paisley and Renfrewshire South is home to the beautiful RSPB Lochwinnoch nature reserve. In addition to supporting our biodiversity, the reserve serves as a natural carbon sink. Globally, wetlands hold approximately 20% to 30% of the Earth’s soil carbon despite covering only 5% of the land surface. Will the Minister outline how the Department is integrating wetland and peatland restoration into its strategy for meeting the UK’s carbon capture and storage targets?

• 17 Dec 2024 · Climate Change: Nature-based Solutions · Hansard source

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  25. Whether he is taking steps with Cabinet colleagues to support nature-based solutions to climate change.

• 8 Oct 2024 · Climate Change: International Work · Hansard source

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  It is brilliant to see the Secretary of State commit to putting climate diplomacy back at the heart of Cabinet, and I know he will bring a great amount of experience to that role. Sir David Attenborough has repeatedly warned that our planet hangs in the balance, so will my right hon. Friend explain to the House what he will do to ensure that Britain is once again a main player on the world stage in tackling the climate emergency? Will he meet me and representatives from my constituency of Paisley and Renfrewshire South to discuss the work that they are doing on rewilding, in an effort to play their part in tackling the climate emergency?

• 8 Oct 2024 · Climate Change: International Work · Hansard source

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  2. What steps he is taking with his international counterparts to tackle climate change.