John Cooper MP: speeches

Speeches

• 27 Nov 2024 · Budget · Hansard source

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  With 14 miles between my constituency of Dumfries and Galloway and Northern Ireland, I know how much we have in common. Unfortunately, we also share the fact that hospitality businesses in Northern Ireland and much of Scotland are not benefiting from a 75% discount on business rates bills. That cannot be called “headwinds”; to quote Van Morrison, it is a “Full Force Gale”. Does the Secretary of State agree that by increasing employer national insurance contributions rather than growing the economy on both sides of the North channel, we are threatening jobs, stopping investment, jacking up prices, and putting business viability at risk?

• 27 Nov 2024 · UK Air and Missile Defences · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for giving way; he has done so already. Scotland is a tremendous asset in defence. Companies right across the country provide enormous pieces of equipment, such as the aircraft carriers built in Scotland. Scotland also has many small and medium-sized enterprises—we have Raytheon, which provides parts for Tomahawk, and Thales on the banks of the Clyde. However, does the Minister know that there is something of a hostile environment from the Scottish Government towards companies that need to ramp up and access finance to deliver the large orders coming from the Ministry of Defence? Senior Scottish Government figures have boasted about the fact that, under their watch, money would not be given to large companies for warfighting capabilities; it would be for civilian use only. That is alarming. We will need to ally with defence companies as well as NATO.

• 26 Nov 2024 · COP29 · Hansard source

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  As champions of the North sea, the previous Government underpinned 200,000 jobs right across the UK. What does the Secretary of State say to Offshore Energies UK, which says that the Government’s energy tax has stripped out around £13 billion of investment in the North sea—money that will not be recovered by the anaemic and frankly invisible GB Energy?

• 25 Nov 2024 · Israel-Gaza Conflict: Arrest Warrants · Hansard source

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  Israel is a democracy. In the past, its courts have shown themselves unafraid to put even senior politicians on trial. What assessment has the Minister made of the Israelis’ own ability to bring human rights cases in their own courts?

• 21 Nov 2024 · G20 and COP29 Summits · Hansard source

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  In government, my party championed North sea oil and gas, securing 200,000 jobs, not just in Scotland but right across this country, in every constituency—including mine, rural Dumfries and Galloway. The Prime Minister talks about us having Putin’s boot on our throat, but surely pulling the plug on the North sea oil and gas industry, as he is doing, delivers us into the hands of Putin and makes our energy security less viable.

• 18 Nov 2024 · Armed Forces Commissioner Bill · Hansard source

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  My constituent Major Charles Milroy, who served for a long time in the reserves, pointed out that on deployment it was often difficult for the reserves to access the support in place for serving personnel. Does my hon. and gallant Friend agree that it might help if the commissioner could look into that aspect of military life?

• 14 Nov 2024 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  The previous Government identified the A75 road as of crucial importance to the UK as a whole, so despite the fact that transport is a devolved matter, money was earmarked for improvements. I have been trying, without success, to find out what is happening to that money. I was astonished to find that a Labour MSP was able to tweet details about the road—he apparently knows more about it than anyone in this House. May we have a statement from the Government explaining what is happening with the A75 and the money that was clearly earmarked for it?

• 11 Nov 2024 · Rural Affairs · Hansard source

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  Late in 1745, Dumfries was menaced by the Young Pretender, Bonnie Prince Charlie, who demanded cash and shoes as he retreated north. Today, Dumfries and Galloway is threatened by the great pretenders, the Cabinet, who also want cash. Apparently, they are sorted for shoes and Croydon wellies, though. At the weekend, I attended the Dumfries and Galloway life awards, a tremendous celebration of the people of south-west Scotland. They are self-starters and hard workers, and just as well, for they face not only indifference from the Scottish Government but active harm from this Government. I spoke with one award winner, Kerr, whose expansion plans for his food business face a pause as he weighs the impact of increased employer national insurance contributions. I spoke with a farmer whose best hope of avoiding the Chancellor’s predatory death taxes is for his parents to live a further seven years—they are both aged over 80. Rural Dumfries and Galloway does not want special treatment; it wants its fair share. It wants an acknowledgement that its way of life—with an emphasis on aspiration—is not wrong, though it does pose particular challenges. It wants an Agriculture Secretary who does not devolve and forget, but who sees some of Britain’s most productive grassland as a jewel in the crown and a vital part of UK food security. It wants a Government who appreciate that if someone in a town or city has £10 in their pocket, they will be able to do something with it, whereas in remote and rural Britain, that tenner probably will not get them to the farm road end. Rural Britain is a greenhouse, bringing forth a rich harvest of food to our tables, but it could be more. It could be a powerhouse if the urban-obsessed party on the Government Benches stops treating it merely as a larder to be plundered. Bonnie Prince Charlie took those stolen shoes and trudged off to defeat. Perhaps Dumfries can seek reparations via the supine Foreign Secretary. Regardless, this Prime Minister and his Cabinet are limping towards their own electoral Culloden.

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

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  Farmers in Dumfries and Galloway, who have been contacting me over the weekend, are not shroud-waving—let us be clear about that. Less clear are the figures. The NFU says that as many as 50% of farms that are producing food, meeting environmental targets and providing jobs in remote and rural areas could be at risk. Napoleon knew that an army marches on its stomach, and he also said that a good retreat is better than a bad stand. This Government are making a bad stand, and they have a chance to reverse this decision. Will they not do that?

• 31 Oct 2024 · Sectoral Collective Bargaining · Hansard source

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  Undoubtedly, Government legislation is empowering the unions—we saw that this week when the Secretary of State for Scotland was unable to meet CBI Scotland, an important body, because he could not enter his own building because of a picket line. We read in the papers this morning that ASLEF, a rail union, insists on using fax machines and will not allow its members to use email. How is that helping collective bargaining?

• 31 Oct 2024 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  I am aghast to hear that it is scaremongering to talk about the damage being done to agriculture. I can tell the House that the howls of concern in Dumfries and Galloway are real. We really need to discuss this issue, because Britain cannot live by air-freighted mangetout alone. The Budget imperils food security in this country, and we must have action on that. It is incredible that the Environment Secretary seems so uncaring. As my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Buckinghamshire (Greg Smith) asked, can we please have the Secretary of State in the House for the Budget debate?

• 30 Oct 2024 · Employment Rights: Scotland · Hansard source

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  One of the criticisms of the employment legislation that is being brought in is that it delivers us into the hands of the trade union barons. Does the Secretary of State agree that we are indeed in the iron grip of the barons, since he was unable to attend an event in his own office last night because he would not cross a picket line?

• 30 Oct 2024 · Roadworks: Journey Times · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship today, Sir Roger, and I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Broxbourne (Lewis Cocking) on securing this very important debate. Tonight, drivers in my constituency of Dumfries and Galloway will set what I think is a record. At the stroke of 8 pm, traffic cones will close the A75 road to motorists and force them to undertake a 96-mile—yes, 96-mile—diversion. That must surely be among the longest diversions ever forced on drivers. The overnight closure between Newtown Stewart and Castle Douglas is not a one-off; it is just the latest in a round of closures that will continue into November. A journey that normally takes 40 minutes will become a two and a half hour epic. Although transport is devolved to the Scottish Parliament, I raise this issue in this Chamber because the A75, which is grandly titled the “Euro route” although it is often more akin to a cart-track, has significance for every one of our constituents. Sir Peter Hendy’s Union connectivity review identified the A75 as the key link between Northern Ireland, Scotland and England, as it serves the busy ferry port of Cairnryan in my constituency. It is of UK-wide importance. Estimates vary, but perhaps as much as 60% of Northern Ireland’s trade grinds along that road. Maintenance, as we have heard, is welcome and vital, but diversions such as the one I mentioned treat the public with contempt. Surely we can do better. The other road that services the port of Cairnryan is the A77. It too could be a record breaker, for it had, according to the A77 action group, three closures for road accidents and 161 for works—and that is only between January and September of this year. It was shut on Monday and again on Tuesday; once for a lorry on fire and once for a lorry off the road. Further, the A77 still hangs by a thread in Glen App, where literally years of roadworks have failed to cure a landslip risk. Scotland’s First Minister has agreed to visit Galloway to discuss roads from hell, which are screaming out for investment beyond mere patch-ups, and the £5 million in today’s Budget for the A75 is a start. I have invited the Secretary of State for Scotland to drive the A75 and the A77 too. He says his busy schedule will not allow it, but might someone from the Department for Transport make time to see how awful those unenviable record-breaking roads are? We hear boasts that Labour has reset relations with the SNP, so perhaps they could share a car with the First Minister. Finally, I want to make an early plea that should anyone suggest a traffic cone tsar, we should instead call the position the cone arranger.

• 22 Oct 2024 · Pub and Hospitality Sector · Hansard source

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  The point about closures is significant. In Scotland, the Government have imposed minimum unit pricing, which was introduced at 50p per unit of alcohol and has recently risen to 65p. It was intended to reduce alcohol-related deaths—a laudable aim—but unfortunately they rose to 1,277 in 2023, which is an absolute tragedy. The rate of hospitality business closures in Scotland is twice that of England, so does my hon. Friend agree that minimum unit pricing appears to be a blunt instrument that is not helping at all?

• 21 Oct 2024 · Employment Rights Bill · Hansard source

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  No, I have waited 40 years for this. Much of the 2016 Act will be tossed into picket line braziers, and as ever it is the public who will suffer. The plan to make union funding of Labour opt-out, not opt-in, is another back-to-the-future move. It is naked opportunism from the Labour party. The Bill will be hardest on small and medium-sized businesses, the backbone of the economy. We must not forget that they are run by people who are themselves workers and strivers. Napoleon disparagingly called us a nation of shopkeepers. With legislation as skewed as this, Labour risks shutting the shops and turning us into a nation of strikers and their union rep handmaidens. This skimpy Bill is so heavily skewed that it resembles the blade in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Pit and the Pendulum”, leaving employers strapped in red tape between the ever-present pit of insolvency and the slice, slice, slice of costly, pro-union, anti-growth legislation.

• 21 Oct 2024 · Employment Rights Bill · Hansard source

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  We have heard some electrifying and remarkable maiden speeches today. I rise to speak as a former member of a trade union. I do not miss the subs going out of my pay packet; it did little for me. This is no mere Bill, but a time machine that could take the whole country back decades. The unions are gonna party like it’s 1979. For your benefit, Madam Deputy Speaker—you were not there—1979 was the winter of discontent when the unions bit back, the rubbish piled high in the streets and a Labour PM was soon out with the bins. With this hastily assembled Employment Rights Bill, Labour is feeding the union alligator that may yet eat it, too. That is because the Bill lacks balance, assuming that all employers are robber barons intent on exploiting workers. The Prime Minister has talked of growing the economy and cutting red tape, yet now we see the reality: proposals that will frighten firms away from taking on new staff and burden them with still more rules and regulations. My constituent Rory, a forward-thinking dairy farmer, has written to me about Labour’s pledge “to make Britain the best place to start and grow a business.” Like me, he sees fine sentiments, but the Bill risks the opposite effect. There is even an expensive new layer of bureaucracy: the fair work agency, whose costs will be borne by business and passed on to the public. The people’s tape is deepest red. The Bill makes it easier for militant unions to infiltrate workplaces, and it strips out sensible curbs on their power. Strikes will hit the public harder without Conservative safeguards such as those that guarantee minimum service levels. An impact assessment of the Trade Union Act 2016 indicated that it would cut strikes by about 35%.

• 15 Oct 2024 · Renewable Energy Projects: Community Benefits · Hansard source

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  I resist the invitation to back a land grab, but the hon. Gentleman makes a valid point. We have a chance now to bake in greater benefits for our communities, and they should be seen, not as bribery to buy off opposition, but as the power giants entering partnership with communities. I still say that our communities need a far greater say over wind farm consents, but the urban-obsessed SNP in Edinburgh and Labour here in this place will not shift. There is an undeniable whirlwind of change on wind power. We have the chance to reap a positive harvest from that whirlwind for the people living in the shadow of giant turbines and pylons. Let us seize that chance.

• 15 Oct 2024 · Renewable Energy Projects: Community Benefits · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Huq. I congratulate the hon. Member for Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire (Mr MacDonald) on securing this a vital debate. “Wha but lo’e the bonnie hills”, the very first line of the song “Bonnie Galloway”—I will spare you by not singing it, Dr Huq—extols the virtues of the rolling uplands of the south-west of Scotland. Yet the tranquillity of the moors, farms and forests has been disturbed these last few years by the relentless march of wind turbines. Now Dumfries and Galloway is festooned with them and we have many more on the way. We are in the foothills of a renewables revolution. Arguments for or against wind farms are not for today. I feel that battle has been lost, but we must fight a rearguard action against ever-bigger turbines. Giants of over 650 feet from base to rotor tip are the fashion, and they are moving ever closer to our towns and villages. I feel that we will see Governments happily trample local opposition to wind farms and turn a deaf ear to forcing power cables underground. Whether we welcome wind farms or have them foisted upon us, we must wrest from them what community benefit we can. Communities already see little enough of the supply chain benefits. It is to be hoped that the previous UK Government’s efforts to create freeports in Scotland might see more of the manufacturing based here in Britain. I have hopes, too, that Labour will make good on a Northern Ireland enhanced investment zone, as mapped out by the previous Conservative Government, that included the western end of my constituency. That would be a game changer: imagine the jobs created if we could build those giant turbines in Stranraer and ship them out via the deep-water port of Cairnryan. On renewables, we in rural Scotland have had much of the pain and little of the gain.

• 15 Oct 2024 · Scotland’s Economy · Hansard source

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  I have learned a lot today about this great new relationship, and I wish the hon. Gentleman all the best with that, but the universities sector is a very difficult area. In Scotland a cap has effectively been placed on the number of Scottish pupils able to leave school and go to university, while foreign students are incentivised. The universities sector in Scotland has a fine past, but does it have a great future?

• 14 Oct 2024 · Ukraine: Military Support · Hansard source

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  In the shell crisis of 1915, the Government of the day and industry came together to support our troops on the western front. We are hearing much about new contracts being placed for things such as ordnance, which is critical to the defence of Ukraine and to replenishing our own stocks. Does the Secretary of State share my concern that senior figures in the Scottish Government seem reluctant to put money into those defence companies, except for civilian use? Can he explain how Scotland can play its full part since it provides so much of the ordnance, with everything from Storm Shadow to Type 26 destroyers built in Scotland?

• 9 Oct 2024 · Renters’ Rights Bill · Hansard source

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  I have seen the reality of such measures in Scotland, because these matters are devolved. They have driven up costs for renters, reduced choice, and made it exceptionally difficult to get that first home and almost impossible to get student accommodation in our wonderful university cities. Does my hon. Friend agree that it is important that we get this right, and if we are to do so we are going to need changes?

• 11 Sept 2024 · Rural Depopulation · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for Na h-Eileanan an Iar (Torcuil Crichton) for securing a debate on this very important subject. We were previously on opposite sides of the great newspaper divide. I was on the true blue Tory side supporting the Daily Mail , and he was on a red rag called the Daily Record , but we will not dwell on that. Depopulation is the curse of rural areas—a blight that creeps up and strangles the lifeblood. It can precipitate a crisis, after which shops and schools close, and so communities wither and die. It is a multiheaded hydra of a problem, and we are hearing that today. There is no one cause; therefore, there is no one solution. There is no magic wand here. Bright lights and big cities will always have their charms. As a proud country boy myself, I think all that is overrated, but we need to make moving away from a rural area a choice, not a necessity. Some of the issues are common to rural areas across the UK and the whole globe. First among them is jobs. If someone cannot find work, their choices are stark: move, if they can, or linger where they are. That can be a miserable existence, for rural deprivation is real. Issues with connectivity, especially public transport, can add genuine isolation to the burden. Scenery in rural areas such as my Dumfries and Galloway constituency is lovely. It is a delight for locals and tourists alike, but you cannot eat the scenery. Another layer of difficulty, peculiar to Scotland, lies in the fact that we have two Governments: one here in Westminster and one at Holyrood. The arrival of the devolved Parliament was designed to shorten the distance between the people and the Government and deliver a light-on-its-feet legislature able to deliver Scottish solutions to Scottish problems, such as depopulation. The theory was marvellous, but the reality perhaps less successful. Much great work has been done by MSP colleagues, but problems persist, not least when one side of the equation is not the willing partner it ought to be. From previous experience as a special adviser in the Scotland Office, I found that the SNP Scottish Government were capable of foot-dragging, with little interest in making joint projects with the UK Government a success. Take the A75 road—critical to connectivity between Northern Ireland, Scotland and the rest of the UK. Carrying perhaps as much as 60% of Northern Ireland’s trade, it is a sorry cattle track of a road, very often dubbed “the road to hell”. The UK Government earmarked money for improvements, but the Scottish Government cried foul because transport is devolved. The result? No action on the road that is the very spine of my rural constituency. How can we attract young families to rural Scotland when the quality of schools is such a lottery? Why, with one so-called “Curriculum for Excellence” in Scotland, are 32 local authority heads of education delivering that in 32 different ways? Why is there a postcode lottery, where one school may offer nine exams while one 25 miles down the road may offer 10? Regardless of pupils’ ability, some are at an instant disadvantage. Housing is a problem. Someone may find a job, but can they find a rural home within affordable commuting distance? Probably not. Housing sits with the Scottish Government. We are told that there will be a reset in relations between the new Administration here and the one in Edinburgh.

• 11 Sept 2024 · Rural Depopulation · Hansard source

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  Our advice was that things like Scottish visa projects have a fundamental problem, in that if someone arrives in Scotland with a bit of paper that says they can be there, there is nothing to keep them there. We have found difficulties with the black economy. People disappear rapidly, and again, it’s bright lights and big cities, so there is a fundamental problem. We on our side think that the UK should have one immigration policy and not break it up piecemeal. As we say in Scotland, the proof is in the preein. We will see what this new relationship brings and whether it is fruitful. Perhaps we could all be friends between Westminster and Edinburgh. I certainly hope so but, again, as we say in Scotland, I hae ma doots. Housing is worthy of debate entirely on its own; it is a sprawling subject and we simply do not have the time to dwell on it today. Having touched on many of the difficulties, I will turn briefly to some of the solutions. If depopulation is one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse for rural Britain, then indifference is coming up on the rail, and that is something that we as politicians can tackle. We can, as we are doing today, raise these issues. We need to lift the profile of rural Britain. We can rail against the urban-centric policies of those who do not understand what rural life, with all its challenges and all its benefits, is truly about. Most importantly, we can fight for the three j’s—jobs, jobs, jobs.

• 10 Sept 2024 · Winter Fuel Payment · Hansard source

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  We have heard descriptions today of pensioners as millionaires. We have heard that this is a principled decision to cut money from them. I am astonished at that description. Like my hon. Friend the Member for South West Devon (Rebecca Smith), I am from the south-west—the south-west of Scotland—and I can count on one hand, I would suggest, the number of millionaire pensioners there. Even if their homes were worth millions, having risen in price through no fault of theirs, they are asset-rich, and that is very different from being cash and liquidity rich. If they are hit with a bill, they cannot sell their home. That leaves people in an absolute bind. We have heard very little today from the SNP, because in Scotland the SNP Government have the ability to ameliorate this decision, should it go ahead. It will cost, they estimate, £160 million. I accept that is not buttons; it is not peanuts. However, the last Conservative Government sent £41 billion to Scotland and I think we should be able to find that money in Scotland to help the worst-off in our society. This is a wrong-headed decision, and I am astonished to hear it being described as a principled decision.

• 4 Sept 2024 · Energy Industry · Hansard source

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  I welcome the Secretary of State to his place and thank him for his generous words about the work of Sir Alister Jack, who was previously in that role. Does the right hon. Gentleman share my consternation this morning that two sanctioned Russian oligarchs now have a share in Harbour Energy, our largest producer of North sea oil and gas? That seems incredible at this time, not least because the company that they are using to have this stake—LetterOne—was forced to divest itself of a broadband company because it was a threat to national security. Can we look again at this decision?