John Hayes MP: speeches 2024

Speeches

• 19 Dec 2024 · Hospice Funding · Hansard source

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  We can all agree that hospices, such as St Barnabas in Lincolnshire, do vital and valued work. I hope we can also all agree that every Government—Labour and Tory—have increased national health spending, for that is simply a matter of fact. I ask the Minister to show a little wisdom in contrition in acknowledging that the national insurance increase that was imposed on charities and hospices has done immense damage. We welcome the funding today—of course we do—but she needs to be straightforward: was she, or any of the Health team, consulted before the Budget about the impact of the NI increase on hospices, health charities, pharmacies and so on? May I advise her to put down the folder and tell us what she really thinks?

• 19 Dec 2024 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Mindful of the Leader of the House’s advice, I am suitably booted, I am speaking through the Chair and, of course, I have Chorley imprinted on my heart. In that spirit, may I ask the Leader of the House for a debate on the WASPI women? I know she has said we can apply for a debate, and I was going to ask for something quite different, but given what the hon. Members for South Shields (Mrs Lewell-Buck) and for Dundee Central (Chris Law) have said, it is essential that when we have an ombudsman report of such seriousness—I have rarely seen one like it in my time in this House—we have the chance to debate it. If the Leader of the House does not offer a debate, I will apply to you, Madam Deputy Speaker, immediately following business questions.

• 19 Dec 2024 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  I am extremely grateful— [ Interruption. ] Oh, I beg your pardon.

• 19 Dec 2024 · Crown Prosecution Service: Support for Victims · Hansard source

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  You will know, Mr Speaker, that Edmund Burke said: “Justice is itself the great standing policy of civil society”, but injustice reigns when victims feel that the cause of their plight is being neglected. Such was the case in Sutton Bridge, where a constituent of mine, a six-year-old girl, suffered the dreadful event of indecent exposure. The man was known in the community and was reported by the father of the child, and CCTV footage was available. When crimes of that kind are not investigated properly, people lose their faith in justice. We must deal with those crimes, in the interests of the very justice that Edmund Burke recommended.

• 19 Dec 2024 · Crown Prosecution Service: Support for Victims · Hansard source

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  5. What steps the Crown Prosecution Service is taking to improve support for victims of crime.

• 12 Dec 2024 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  The Leader of the House may not be aware of this, but Vodafone franchises across the country, including in my constituency, have launched a High Court action because the company has cut remuneration without notice and with no justification, despite benefiting from Government payments during the pandemic to support struggling franchises. Can we therefore have a debate on how these soulless, heartless corporate businesses are costing livelihoods, oblivious of the consequences? These struggling franchises will close, and the workers will be sacked.

• 12 Dec 2024 · Building Homes · Hansard source

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  The hon. Gentleman is a thoughtful and diligent Minister who shares my disdain for the identikit, soulless, ubiquitous housing estates that have been built during his lifetime and mine. I welcome the NPPF’s commitment to design codes that provide “a local framework for creating beautiful and distinctive places”. Will he write to every local authority to make it clear that design is a key planning determinant, and is absolutely salient? Will he also write to the Planning Inspectorate to ensure that, when local authorities turn down an application on the basis of poor design, the inspectorate will back them up?

• 11 Dec 2024 · Puberty-suppressing Hormones · Hansard source

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  I associate myself with the remarks of my hon. Friend the Member for Beaconsfield (Joy Morrissey) about both the tone and content of the Secretary of State’s remarks. I first raised my concerns about the Tavistock clinic back in 2019, when a number of professionals resigned because they were so concerned about what was happening with regard to prescribing. He will know that anyone who raised those issues—I think of Kathleen Stock, for example—has been treated very poorly, and with spite, by some of the militant activists in that field. Although I entirely recognise the tone that the Secretary of State adopts—he is a thoughtful and sensitive man—I must ask him this. He has been clear that the prescribing practice was inappropriate, that people were not given time to give their full and informed consent, and that it was an unacceptable safety risk. Who oversaw that? When were those decisions made? Who made them, and how will they be held to account? Many young lives have been severely damaged.

• 9 Dec 2024 · Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill · Hansard source

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  To reassure my hon. Friend on that subject, he will understand that those of us who have served on the Intelligence and Security Committee are fearless in holding Ministers to account, as this Minister will no doubt find out, and similarly fearless in challenging the agencies, which do such a wonderful job for us. He is right that the agencies need to be questioned appropriately and scrutinised fully. On my hon. Friend’s second point, about proportionality, it is, of course, right that our response to risk measures the real character of that risk and is proportionate to it.

• 9 Dec 2024 · Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill · Hansard source

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  Mindful of what the Minister said about consulting and acting in accordance with the consultation, and of what I said earlier about the changing character of the threat, I ask him to commit from the Dispatch Box to considering, as the legislation begins to have effect, changing the guidance and improving regulation where necessary, sensitive to those circumstances.

• 9 Dec 2024 · Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill · Hansard source

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  The hon. Gentleman is right to say that Manchester, in a way, stimulated or catalysed this legislation. It is bigger than that, but it is no more tragic, for it could not possibly be, as he has described. He is also right to say that terrorists are becoming more adaptable, so we have to adapt the way we deal with them. Legislation is part of that. It is difficult, because legislation takes a long time to perfect, if properly scrutinised in this House. The amendments that have been tabled today are an attempt to improve the Bill, not to frustrate it. Does he agree that the Minister and the Government will need to regularly review the provisions of the legislation—there is reference in the Bill to reviews, guidance and so on—and that that will become an ongoing part of how we deal with that increasing adaptability on the part of those who seek to do us harm?

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

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  I welcome the Minister’s commitment to revitalising faith in democratic politics, and I agree that Government can be a force for good, but he will know that perhaps the biggest macroeconomic challenge that we face is productivity; indeed, he mentioned it today. I am therefore disappointed to see in the plan no real mention of work- force skills or national economic resilience, in terms of growing more of the food that we eat and making more of the goods that we need. Will he look at those two areas and set productivity targets, for which Ministers can be held accountable, so that what really counts is not just what we spend but what we get for what we spend?

• 5 Dec 2024 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Problem gambling first breaks people and then costs lives. It is a far cry from the weekly pools coupon of my father’s day, and it is devastating people in Lincolnshire and elsewhere. Given the announcement of a new £30 million statutory gambling levy, will the Leader of the House arrange a debate so that we can discuss how to guarantee that that money is spread fairly, and is not eaten up by organisations sponsored by the gambling industry?

• 4 Dec 2024 · Farming and Inheritance Tax · Hansard source

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  rose—

• 4 Dec 2024 · Farming and Inheritance Tax · Hansard source

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  I welcome the contribution of my former ministerial colleague. Had the tax been levied on exactly the people he describes—the super-rich, and non-working farmers—few would have complained, but it has been set at the wrong level. That is why I asked for detailed modelling to be made available to the House.

• 4 Dec 2024 · Farming and Inheritance Tax · Hansard source

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  The hon. Gentleman will want to explain this, Mr Speaker. The Government have argued that only 27% of farms will be affected by this measure, while the National Farmers Union says it is 75%. Will he at least give us an indication from the Dispatch Box, perhaps supported by a note in the Library of the House, showing the modelling that contradicts the NFU’s figures?

• 4 Dec 2024 · Farming and Inheritance Tax · Hansard source

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  The hon. Lady is making an interesting speech, and I am grateful for it. She is right that we should import less food and use Government procurement to help with that, and she is right about the inter-generational quality of family farms. Will she acknowledge that, in delivering the kind of food security that her speech implies, we cannot have the most productive farmland eaten up by large-scale solar developments and housing? We need to protect our grade 1, 2 and 3 land for the very reason she gave, because that allows us to deliver the food security that she and I both want.

• 4 Dec 2024 · Farming and Inheritance Tax · Hansard source

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  I entirely endorse what the hon. Gentleman, my constituency neighbour, said about recognising and celebrating the work of farmers, and indeed farm workers, but does he understand—I am sure that most Conservative Members understand this well—that assets and income are entirely different things? Farmers’ assets are our landscape. Their wealth is our common wealth—something that the Government have seemingly failed to appreciate by imposing a tax on farmers that confuses their ability to make a living with the asset that is essential for them to feed the nation.

• 4 Dec 2024 · Farming and Inheritance Tax · Hansard source

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  The hon. Gentleman is making a profoundly important point. Not for the first time he is speaking as a Liberal Democrat, but also in a way that belies the fact that he is a Liberal Democrat, because he is genuinely committed to the countryside. He has made a point about family farms; the important thing about them is not only the arguments that he has already advanced, but the sense that they represent a continuum—an investment for the future. The reason this policy is so detrimental is because it impacts on that sense that farmers are investing now for generations to come.

• 4 Dec 2024 · Farming and Inheritance Tax · Hansard source

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  Mr Speaker, I know that you, as a man of integrity and honour, will be as disappointed as I am that the Government should promise one thing and then do the exact opposite.

• 4 Dec 2024 · Farming and Inheritance Tax · Hansard source

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  rose —

• 4 Dec 2024 · Farming and Inheritance Tax · Hansard source

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  As my right hon. Friend has said, the word “betrayal” is fitting because, long before the election, pledges were given, by both the Secretary of State and the Prime Minister, that these changes would not be made.

• 29 Nov 2024 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is making a superb speech, as I expected him to do. On the issue of process, I say this to the hon. Member for Boston and Skegness (Richard Tice), my constituency neighbour: as he will know, I have introduced some very serious Bills, including the one that became the Investigatory Powers Act 2016. It was preceded by three independent reports and pre-legislative cross-party scrutiny by both Houses, which happened before the Committee stage. The point is that that process should take place before Second Reading, not after.

• 29 Nov 2024 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  I have known well only one person who committed suicide: my former professor. I learnt after his death that he had been haunted by imagined demons for most of his life and, in the later part of his life, hounded by heartless humans. Had assisted suicide been available to him, I am sure that he would have died much earlier. After those demons first visited him, he had a loving wife and three daughters, so he had moments of joy, though most of his life was punctuated by pain. I am just as sure, because I knew him well, that he would have voted against this Bill today, for all our lives are a mix of sorrow and joy. I will not amplify the arguments about process, although I think it is immensely naive to assume that this Bill could be changed substantially in Committee. As a shadow Minister and a Minister for 19 years, I oversaw many Bills in Committee, and I know what Committees do. They calibrate, refine and improve legislation; they do not fundamentally alter the intent voted for on Second Reading. Neither shall I talk too much about what happens in other jurisdictions, except to say that it is certainly true that everywhere it has been introduced, assisted dying has expanded—not always by subsequent legislation, but often through judicial interpretation. The idea that we should put this charming but rather naive faith in the judiciary to make these decisions subsequent to the House passing the Bill is just that: innocent—that is the most generous way I can describe it. What I will talk about is simply this: the Bill would change the relationship between clinicians and patients forever. It would say to the NHS, “Your job is not only to protect and preserve life; it is sometimes to take life.” I am not prepared for our NHS to be changed in that way. Beyond that, the Bill would change society’s view of what life and death are all about. This is not just about individual choices, as hon. Members have said in their interventions and speeches; it is about a collective, communal view on how we see the essence of life and death. Finally, we have had a civilised debate in this place, but it is very different out there on the mean streets, as each and every one of us knows. There are many cruel, spiteful, ruthless and unkind people in the world, and there are also many vulnerable and frail people. When those two groups collide, the outcome is not good for the second. I fear this Bill. I will vote against it. I will vote for what a politician in another place once called “the audacity of hope”—hope that we can improve palliative care; hope that we can do better. I fear for the disabled and vulnerable people who would be affected by the provisions of this Bill, which—regardless of the good intentions of its advocates—I believe will fan the flames of fear.

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

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  Madam Deputy Speaker, you may know that I have long campaigned for the interests of the British nuclear test veterans, young men who, long before our lives, devoted part of their young life to witnessing the first nuclear test, following which their blood and urine was tested, presumably to see the effects that radiation had on them. Those records have been declassified, yet are not clearly available to remaining veterans and not available at all to their loved ones. May we have a statement on the matter from the Secretary of State for Defence, who, I understand, is not unsympathetic? The Prime Minister, when he was Leader of the Opposition, promised those veterans accountability and justice. They deserve nothing less.