John Cooper MP: speeches

Speeches

• 2 Jul 2025 · A75 and A77 Roads: Economic Impact · Hansard source

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  There cannot be a person in Northern Ireland who has not either been along the A75 or the A77 or had something delivered to them that has been driven through the ferry port at Cairnryan. We in Dumfries and Galloway and people across Scotland know that these are the highways from hell. This morning, even as we speak, the A75 has been closed by another overturned lorry. We are crying out for improvements. Can I count on the support of the might of the Northern Ireland Office to get the Department for Transport here to engage, as well as the Scottish Government?

• 2 Jul 2025 · A75 and A77 Roads: Economic Impact · Hansard source

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  1. What assessment he has made of the potential impact of the adequacy of the A75 and A77 roads leading to Cairnryan ferry port on the Northern Ireland economy.

• 1 Jul 2025 · Business Energy Supply Billing: Regulation · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Dowd. It is customary to congratulate the hon. Member who secured the debate, but I would like to go further: the hon. Member for Tamworth (Sarah Edwards) is an outstanding champion not only for her constituents—through the Select Committee on Business and Trade, on which I also serve—but for the public more widely, with her expert nose for unfairness. Many businesses and homes in my rural constituency of Dumfries and Galloway are not on the gas grid and, like so many across the UK that are outwith the urban centres, are reliant on such things as tanker-delivered liquefied petroleum gas or kerosene for heating. But almost without exception, everyone is on the electricity grid and so gets a bill for at least this one utility. Given that ubiquity, people might expect the energy market to be the best regulated, and yet, as we have heard this morning, the regime is less the quiet and precise order that one might expect of an old-fashioned provincial bank and more the rough-house of a wild west saloon. Is there an MP in the House who does not have an example of blundering over bills or of sharp practice? A small business in my constituency struggled with an electricity bill for an astonishing £18,000—that figure again. It was of such magnitude that it would have sunk a much-loved high street fixture and an important employer. Queries—pleas, indeed—went unheeded. I am pleased to say that, following intervention from my team, the bill was waived when it transpired that the issue was a convoluted tale involving a disconnected smart meter and wildly inaccurate estimated bills. There was a happy ending, but that is surely indicative of a wider problem. Energy firms are increasingly a law unto themselves and are judge, jury and executioner over bills, billing and the recovery of debts, both real and imagined. Too often, they hide behind automated “computer says no” responses and infuriating call centres whose hold muzak should be the Cuckoo waltz: you hang on for an eternity, despite your call apparently being “very important” to them, although of course they are experiencing a “very high volume of calls” 24/7, 365. I am a huge fan of the free market. I think it delivers competition, which gives consumers choice, which in turn drives down bills. However, it falls to us in this place to regulate that market: not to put the dead hand of Government on the tiller, to proscribe the private sector or fence it in, but to create an environment that is fair to both sides—industry and public—and is delineated, transparent and responsive. And so the spotlight shifts from the energy firms to the regulator. Ofgem seems to be the victim of an overly wide remit: it has to deal with networks plus retail, and has ended up being criticised by the industry and consumers alike. It is difficult not to agree that it has lost its way when, as my hon. Friend the Member for Bromsgrove (Bradley Thomas) raised at the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee, it spent taxpayers’ cash on irrelevances such as courses called “Pride in intersectionality” and “Perspectives from Rainbow Regulators”. Regulators rest on three pillars: deterrence, detection and enforcement. The first two are intertwined, because if there is no prospect of getting caught, there is no deterrent. Many regulators fail on the third pillar: they talk a good game and threaten all sorts of dire retribution, yet they deliver little enforcement. Ofgem writing to suppliers demanding to know why they have not ended sharp practice such as back billing does not look like a regulatory crackdown; it looks like regulatory breakdown. The Government have been consulting on Ofgem, and the conclusion must surely be that the regulator is having a shocker when it comes to billing. I hope that the Minister can assure us today that the Government are getting wired right into the fuse box of this vital, but apparently overwhelmed, regulator. Of deterrence, detection and enforcement, the greatest is enforcement. When will the Government apply a bit of that to the regulator itself, so that my constituents can have some faith that the bills piling up on their doormats, and increasingly in their inboxes, are at least accurate?

• 30 Jun 2025 · Red Arrows · Hansard source

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  The TSR-2 aircraft was a world beater. Unfortunately, the only thing that it could not beat in a dog fight was a Labour Government, who knew the cost of everything and the value of nothing. Will the Minister assure me that we have learned the lessons of TSR-2, and that we will look at the replacement for the Hawk in the light of pressing a British-designed and manufactured aircraft that can sell Britain abroad?

• 30 Jun 2025 · Red Arrows · Hansard source

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  7. What steps he is taking to maintain the capability of the Red Arrows.

• 30 Jun 2025 · Glastonbury Festival: BBC Coverage · Hansard source

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  A blind man on a horse could see that there were going to be difficulties broadcasting a band called Kneecap, named after a terrorist punishment, who had called for the death of people in this House. We should take a moment to reflect that Airey Neave and Ian Gow were both killed by republican murderers. Given the events of the weekend and previous incidents, is there not a pattern emerging? Will the Secretary of State at least test the idea that the BBC has a fundamental problem with Israel?

• 26 Jun 2025 · G7 and NATO Summits · Hansard source

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  The situation in Scotland is very difficult. I welcome the news that we are to go further with our at-sea deterrents, and of course the nuclear missile Trident boats are based at Faslane. But as we have heard, First Minister John Swinney and his SNP Administration do not back nuclear weapons. Further, they have created a hostile environment for defence firms in Scotland because they will not back any firms that make ordnance. This week we have also heard former First Minister Humza Yousaf claim—wrongly—that allowing our American allies to use the Prestwick air base to refuel is some kind of war crime. What can we do to nullify the threat to British security from these fifth columnists?

• 26 Jun 2025 · Floating Solar Panels · Hansard source

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  I am very grateful to my hon. and gallant Friend for giving way a second time. I do wonder if I may have stumbled across another advantage to floating solar, which may not have occurred to him. If water quality is improved, will that not help the fish? Clatteringshaws loch reservoir in my constituency has some of the best pike fishing in the country. I wonder if the fish might benefit from having a roof over their heads.

• 26 Jun 2025 · Floating Solar Panels · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. and gallant Friend for allowing me to intervene. We are told that there is nothing new under the sun, but he is describing something that ticks both boxes—it is quite remarkable. I learned much about reservoirs from playing by the side of the scenic Penwhirn reservoir, outside by home town of Stranraer. I also learned about them in geography classes at Stranraer academy, and it strikes me that one of the reasons that reservoir levels rise and fall is to do with evaporation, and water is obviously a precious resource. Does covering reservoirs help to combat evaporation?

• 26 Jun 2025 · Floating Solar Panels · Hansard source

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  The Minister is right to point to the figures now, but this is a growing problem. One of the difficulties with the land that goes under solar panels is that it tends to be south-facing land, which is prime agricultural land. That is where the crops would normally go, so this is a growing problem.

• 26 Jun 2025 · Floating Solar Panels · Hansard source

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  I thank the Minister for allowing me to intervene again. She is making a powerful argument for looking again at the CfD scheme, which is notoriously complicated and very difficult. I think we need a two-pronged approach—we need some changes to CfD, but obviously technology associated with solar is moving on all the time, so perhaps the two could come together.

• 25 Jun 2025 · Nuclear-certified Aircraft Procurement · Hansard source

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  Thank you, Mr Speaker, for the rare opportunity against the run of play to follow my near neighbour, the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) from Strangford. Mark Rutte, the NATO Secretary-General, has recently congratulated President Trump on his “decisive action in Iran”, which he says “makes us all safer”. Will the Minister take the opportunity to do what no one in government has so far done and congratulate the Americans on taking out the Iranian nuclear programme? If not, will she explain why we are out of step not only with the Americans, but also now with NATO?

• 25 Jun 2025 · National Armaments Director · Hansard source

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  I have been banging on like a howitzer—well, maybe like a small-bore cannon—about the need to mobilise British industry as we ramp up for possible conflict in an increasingly hostile world. I welcome the news that the new national armaments director is being resourced to oversee the alliance between our military brains and brawn and the sinews of the British defence industry. Civilians talk tactics, but veterans talk logistics, for old warriors know that a modern army marches not so much on its stomach, as in the days of Wellington and Napoleon, as on a very long supply chain, anchored mainly in small and medium-sized enterprises. That extends—to use the military’s favourite phrase—to all domains. We have had recent sharp lessons on the reality of modern warfare, from the muddy hell of trenches in occupied Ukraine to the arid highlands of Iran. We have seen high-tech systems—drones, cyber, space and stealth—undergo a baptism of fire. We have also seen weapons that would have been familiar to my infantryman grandfather on the shores of Gallipoli in 1915 plying their old trade to deadly effect; artillery remains the queen of the battlefield. While our sailors, soldiers and aircrew are the tip of the spear, the essential shaft is our factories and shipyards, and every corner of the country can play its full part. I say “every part”, but there is bad news from Scotland under the yoke of the SNP, where the nationalists and their Green party fellow travellers have engendered a hostile environment for defence firms. We have seen young apprentices denied entrance to the Holyrood Parliament by an elected representative tipped to lead the Greens; and, in recent days, we have seen former First Minister Humza Yousaf—still an MSP—blundering around on the world stage, shroud-waving about it being a war crime to allow US military aircraft to refuel at Prestwick airport, and bemoaning the proscription of the saboteurs of Palestine Action. There is a presumption, as we heard from the hon. Member for Dunfermline and Dollar (Graeme Downie), that the Scottish Government will not channel funding towards ordnance—a battlefield prerequisite. That has led this Government to step in and say that they will help to fund a new Rolls-Royce centre of welding excellence on the Clyde, which will be key to submarine and warship building. The stakes could not be higher. Scotland is already a defence powerhouse. Umbrella body ADS estimates that 16,250 people in Scotland work in the sector, producing Royal Navy warships, cutting-edge radars, optronic masts—do not dare call them mere periscopes—for submarines and smart missiles such as Storm Shadow. Even my rural constituency of Dumfries and Galloway produces the helmets vital to the sensor suite on F-35 Lightning fighter bombers, of which we are purchasing 12 more nuclear-capable Alpha variants. Figures from 2023 show that the Ministry of Defence spends £370 per person living in Scotland. It is—or ought to be—Britain’s arsenal, and as such, Scotland should be top of the national armaments director’s in-tray, yet firms wanting to set up the new ordnance factories recommended in the strategic defence review, or seeking to expand in order to fulfil new MOD orders, cannot count on financial support via the Scottish Government. Whose side is Scotland’s First Minister on? Will the Minister tell the House what powers the new armaments director will have to eliminate the Scottish Government’s reckless fifth columnist policies on defence?

• 23 Jun 2025 · UK Military Base Protection · Hansard source

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  Humza Yousaf, the former First Minister of Scotland, has invited those in this place to check their moral compass over the proscription of Palestine Action, but I think we have heard here today that no one is seriously suggesting that these people are anything other than saboteurs, and that anyone who expresses sympathy for them has their moral compass spinning like a peerie, as we would say in Scotland. Mr Yousaf further suggested that American aircraft using Prestwick airport in Scotland could leave us open to charges of war crimes, and I wonder whether the Minister agrees with me that that is absolute nonsense. Prestwick airport is owned by the Scottish Government—in fact, it is a civilian airport, although it is heavily used by our allies, in particular America and Canada. What can we do to protect those aircraft at that civilian airbase?

• 19 Jun 2025 · UK Infrastructure: 10-year Strategy · Hansard source

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  The creation of another new authority will be met with an eye-rolling sigh in Scotland, because although it is called the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority—a very shiny title—the reality is that it will have little oversight in Scotland. The plan announced today will generate Barnett formula money, which will go to Holyrood and disappear—it will go into ferries that do not float and things like that. In my constituency the A75 road is a piece of critical national infrastructure. It services the ferry ports to Northern Ireland, and it is vital for all the countries that make up the United Kingdom. Will we see any money coming for that road through today’s innovation, or will the money once again disappear into the coffers in Holyrood?

• 19 Jun 2025 · Incontinence · Hansard source

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  Incontinence is no respecter of person, and no respecter of sex, and it is male incontinence that I rise to speak about. The wry old joke is that men do not know they have a prostate until their other half reads about it in the Daily Mail . Campaigning newspapers, such as the Daily Mail , and charity groups like Prostate Buddies in my Dumfries and Galloway constituency have done a power of work to make men aware of prostate disease and prostate cancer—just as well, given that prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men. One in eight of us will be diagnosed with it, and that figure rises to one in four for black men. It is well recognised that early diagnosis is key, but it is less well known that as many as 60% of those treated with surgery will face urinary incontinence, outwith surgical intervention. Prostate Cancer UK says that one in 25 men aged over 40 will experience some form of urinary leakage every year. The scale of the issue, and the number of people facing the problem who report feeling shame, embarrassment and isolation, is greater than many suppose. The guardedly good news is that far from being alone, people suffering incontinence are a very large portion of society. It has been another silent epidemic, and people have been left to suffer in obscurity. Today is part of the solution to that. I congratulate the hon. Member for Dudley (Sonia Kumar) on securing the debate. Given her medical background, I defer to her for advice on what can be done to relieve the physical symptoms of incontinence—and much can be done. According to the American Urological Association, better prostate treatment is cutting the number of men who suffer incontinence after prostate treatment. Pelvic floor exercises can help both men and women, as can bladder training. But what can Government do, aside from making health policy decisions on treatment for incontinence in all its forms, be it suffered by men or women, and be it post-op, prostate-related or childbirth-related? Small steps can help. When the hon. Member for Cheadle (Mr Morrison) asked whether there had been discussions about providing bins in men’s toilets for disposal of sanitaryware made necessary by incontinence, a Minister in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs gave a rather technocratic answer, promising a Health and Safety Executive review of workplace regulations dating back to 1992 on the provision of disposal facilities in workplace toilets “in due course”. I hope the Minister can today confirm that the consultation can be fast-tracked. I hope that we have taken a giant stride in this place today by stripping away some of the stigma merely by giving an airing to the issue of incontinence. There has been much talk recently about Parliament at its best, but surely this is Parliament at its best, considering unfashionable yet critical issues. Today we bury the myth that this condition is somehow shameful. With this first ever debate on the subject, we take a modest but significant step towards improving the life of those who struggle with the burden of incontinence.

• 16 Jun 2025 · Iran-Israel Conflict · Hansard source

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  Israel is a democracy, a pluralistic society and an ally. In contrast, the unhappy and ignoble regime in Tehran is a theocracy that wants to wipe Israel from the map, that foments terrorism around the globe and that suppresses its own people to the extent that even dancing is a crime. Is not the best use of British military assets in the eastern Mediterranean to try to do something to stop the rain of hypersonic missiles and drones on civilian areas in Israel?

• 12 Jun 2025 · Industrial Strategy · Hansard source

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  I thank the Chair of the Business and Trade Committee for his hard work. It is really heartening that the report has received cross-party support on the Committee and across the House. This is about growth and the economy, which affect every single one of our constituents. Does he agree that the word “practical” is absolutely right in this case? The industrial strategy cannot simply be a Soviet-style tractor production statistics list—it cannot be self-congratulatory. Our report is practical and provides almost a blueprint, and its implementation is absolutely key. The right hon. Gentleman has done an excellent job of setting out the potential that is within our reach. The trick is to make it within our grasp.

• 12 Jun 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  When it comes to bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis and the jobs at risk there, there is not an elephant in the room—there is a Chinese dragon. The company is in competition not with commercial organisations from China, but with entities of the Chinese state. What representations will the Secretary of State make to the Prime Minister in an attempt to level a playing field that is currently about as flat as the Galloway hills?

• 5 Jun 2025 · Bank Closures and Banking Hubs · Hansard source

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  At the risk of disappointing the hon. Member for Blyth and Ashington (Ian Lavery), I rise not entirely to criticise the banks, which have done tremendous work on apps and the like, and many people—not all of them spring chickens—make great use of them. But as banks retreat from bricks and mortar locations, a problem is that even silver surfers who are comfortable with the technology may simply not be able to get the relevant app to work. In rural Dumfries and Galloway, we have too many notspots, where the mobile phone signal is sketchy at best and non-existent at worst. Similarly, there is a lack of decent broadband. The ground truth is that while it might be easy-PC for some to get online, sclerotic broadband and thick stone walls designed to keep out the Scottish damp make too many computers and smartphones expensive placemats. The need for access to face-to-face banking services remains high, as we have heard. As we have also heard, there are numerous issues with the current banking hub regime. Take Wigtown in my constituency: it is Scotland’s official book town, yet the current banking hub criteria fail to capture the significance of that. Wigtown is evaluated on its modest resident population, with no account taken of the huge influx of visitors when its famous book festival opens its covers. I have a stream of reports of the town centre cash machine running out of spondulicks outwith the festival and anecdotal reports of people gathering for a trip to the nearest hub in Newton Stewart to lift their pensions. That hub is 12 miles distant, and notwithstanding our positively balmy climate in Dumfries and Galloway—no, really—it is not walkable. As for the public transport system, let us just say that we need a calendar and not a stopwatch to time the buses. When Dalbeattie, the third biggest town in my constituency with a population of more than 4,000 souls and a slew of thriving businesses, struggles to get a banking hub, surely there is a compelling case for lowering the threshold for hubs. I accept that we cannot have an ethos of “wherever two or three are gathered, there shall be a banking hub”, yet equally, we cannot expect one ATM to carry the banking needs of hundreds, if not thousands, of people. Banking has come on in leaps and bounds since the days of little pens chained to counters and limited opening hours, but on balance, too many people are being left behind in the technological revolution. American banker Felix Rohatyn, who rescued New York from financial disaster, said: “banking is not simply about profit, but about personal relationships.” Even in this digital age, we need to capture some of that spirit via our banking hubs.

• 5 Jun 2025 · Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy · Hansard source

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  I thank my right hon. and gallant Friend for giving way on that point. Is this not a case of the old adage that rules are for the guidance of wise men and the obeyance of fools? Are we not seeing a punctilious following of rules here, when a man’s life is at risk?

• 2 Jun 2025 · UK Nuclear Deterrent · Hansard source

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  Most military operations require an element of surprise, and the Government certainly achieved that by delivering the news of the return of tactical nuclear weapons through the medium of The Sunday Times. That marmalade-dropping moment aside, what impact will the apparent purchase of F-35 Lightning fighters from America have on the global combat air programme that we are putting together with Italy and Japan—or should I wait for the “You read it here last” strategic defence review?

• 22 May 2025 · Independent Sentencing Review · Hansard source

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  Under the yoke of the SNP, Scotland already has a presumption against short sentences, and now the new Scottish commission looking at sentencing and penal policy has been accused of being packed with activists determined to keep criminals out of jail. Why is the Lord Chancellor in Westminster following this lead and failing to put victims at the heart of the justice system?

• 22 May 2025 · UK-EU Summit: Policy Priorities · Hansard source

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  I thank the right hon. Gentleman, whose tremendously adroit chairmanship of the Committee has allowed a lot of cross-party working, which has been really refreshing and very good. This is a moment of regret: the Committee did flag up how fragile coastal communities could be damaged badly by a multi-year deal on fishing, and the 12-year deal is beyond anything anybody imagined. It will hammer fragile communities right across Britain, and particularly in Scotland; that is unfortunate. Does he agree that achieving an SPS deal must be balanced with the deals with India, America and so forth that are coming down the tracks—I am sure the Committee will look at this—and that we must have due care for ensuring that the Brexit freedoms that allow us to strike those deals are not damaged?

• 21 May 2025 · Business and the Economy · Hansard source

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  The hon. Lady is a doughty campaigner on the Business and Trade Committee. Unquestionably, mistakes were made. We know that and we have been through it before, but this Government have been in charge for 10 months now, and we see inflation rising and jobs slipping away. As I said, we are through the looking glass: trade deals are bad, except when they are good. The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs last week criticised the Conservatives’ Australia and New Zealand deals for hitting farmers, while saying that his Government’s US deal protects farmers. The US deal put the welly boot into beef farmers, who face cheap imports here and US quotas over there that they just cannot fulfil.