John Slinger MP: speeches 2025

Speeches

• 18 Dec 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Madam Deputy Speaker, I wish you, all Members and everyone who works in this place a very happy Christmas. Unfortunately, I cannot bring any Christmas cheer with my question, since it relates to the slow progress of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill in the other place. Will the Leader of the House join me in reaffirming that this elected Chamber has primacy in all legislation? The Government of course remain neutral on that particular Bill, but does he agree that we cannot be neutral about that principle, and that what is happening risks damaging the reputation of our political process?

• 17 Dec 2025 · Local Government Finance · Hansard source

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  I warmly welcome the settlement, which puts fairness at the heart of local government funding. I thank the Minister for the increased funding for Warwickshire, which will benefit people across the county and in Rugby. Would she care to comment on the fact that there is not a single Reform UK MP in the Chamber? Does that not indicate that Reform does not take local government seriously?

• 17 Dec 2025 · Puberty Suppressants Trial · Hansard source

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  I have immense respect for my right hon. Friend, in particular for his commitment to equal access to healthcare. Will he say a little more about the mental health support available for children and young people involved in the trial, those who will not be able to be in the trial, those who are currently receiving puberty blockers, and those for whom the ban is causing immense stress or worse?

• 17 Dec 2025 · UK-EU Common Understanding Negotiations · Hansard source

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  As the son of a Deutschlehrer, may I say danke, because Christmas has come early for the young people and teachers in my constituency? Does the Minister agree that greater co-operation and friendship across Europe and beyond is the best way forward for our world and for our country, and that perhaps that is why those with EU derangement syndrome are so opposed to his policy?

• 16 Dec 2025 · Transgender People: Provision of Healthcare · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Turner. I feel it is incumbent on me to speak out on behalf of parents of trans people and, by extension, their children. On a couple of occasions, such parents have come to see me with, frankly, some of the most harrowing cases I have heard as an MP. One family is planning to leave the country. What kind of country have we become where that is even a possibility? One parent’s child, who is currently receiving puberty-blocking drugs and who has been thriving at school and socially as a girl, has in recent months seen her horizons shrinking just at the moment she hoped they would be expanding, as is the right of any young person. As people opine about rights, and debate the apparent clash of rights on this sensitive topic, hon. Members and members of the public would do well to put themselves in the shoes of that girl. How is that young person to feel, knowing that there is a growing hostility towards people like her that is being weaponised, exploited and unleashed? Although of course it is right that there is rigorous scrutiny of the efficacy of drugs, given the perceived risk of harm, I ask the Minister to consider that thousands of young people are deeply fearful because they are currently on puberty blockers that are now being banned. Just imagine if we suggested taking drugs away that treated a conventional medical issue. That would cause enough fear, but imagine what it must be like to fear that your very essence as a human being is going to be damaged against your will. As others have mentioned, the trial of such drugs will be for 226 young people, but many thousands are waiting to be seen by gender identity services, some of whom are ineligible for the trial anyway. We must put the humanity back into the debate about human rights, especially when they are seen to clash. We must put humanity back into our deliberations and the human back at the centre of our thoughts. Empathy and kindness cannot be drowned out in a debate about rights, and I will continue to speak up for vulnerable people.

• 16 Dec 2025 · Finance (No. 2) Bill · Hansard source

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  On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. I would be grateful if you could confirm whether any points of order raised by Members of this House since this parliamentary Session began have actually been deemed to be points of order. If this is not the case, could you provide guidance to hon. and right hon. Members about what does constitute a point of order, so that the time of Members is not wasted in this House?

• 15 Dec 2025 · Sudden Cardiac Death in Young People · Hansard source

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  Does my hon. Friend agree that the activities of charities such as the Our Jay Foundation in my Rugby constituency are critically important? Naomi Rees-Issitt created the Our Jay Foundation in memory of her son Jamie. Not only has it installed hundreds of defibrillators in Rugby and the surrounding area, including bleed control kits, but—to her point—it holds training sessions in the community given by qualified paramedics and nurses. I have attended one of them, and they are lifesavers just as much as the defibs that go into our communities. All of this helps to reduce the number of sudden cardiac deaths in young people.

• 15 Dec 2025 · Sudden Cardiac Death in Young People · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is making a moving and powerful speech about the tragic loss of young lives—all the years that are lost of their lives, their families and so on, and all the suffering that happens when people die so young. I, too, lost a friend whom I met while we were studying master’s degrees at University College at Durham University in 2001. He died in 2012 of an undiagnosed heart condition, and he is a much-loved and missed son, husband, father and dear friend of mine. Does my hon. Friend agree that the huge loss that families and friends feel should inspire us all to seek as much effort as possible from the Government, from scientists and from medics to prevent these often avoidable situations? I continue my life with him in my memory, and I am inspired by everything that Michael McCarthy did and by our friendship. I miss him dearly.

• 15 Dec 2025 · Online Safety Act 2023: Repeal · Hansard source

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  On that critical point about the lack of equality between offline and online, does my hon. Friend agree that if I were to go out into the street and staple to somebody’s back an offensive but not illegal statement that was impermeable to being washed off and remained on their back for months, if not years, I would probably be subject to immediate arrest, yet online that happens routinely to our children—indeed, to anyone in society, including politicians? Is that not illustrative of the problem?

• 15 Dec 2025 · Online Safety Act 2023: Repeal · Hansard source

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  Ofcom officials came before the Speaker’s Conference, of which I am a member, so I declare that interest. They spoke about section 100 of the Act, which gives Ofcom the power to request certain types of information on how, for example, the recommender systems work on the companies’ algorithms. Unfortunately, they said that could be “complicated and challenging to do”, but one thing they spoke about very convincingly was that they want to require—in fact, they can require—those companies to put information, particularly about the algorithms, in the public domain to help researchers. That could really help with the point my hon. Friend is making about creating regulations that improve safety for our population.

• 15 Dec 2025 · Online Safety Act 2023: Repeal · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for making an impassioned and powerful speech. Does she agree that outrage ought to be directed at us for not doing enough on these issues rather than for the way in which we have started to try to tackle them? If the behaviours that my hon. Friend and other hon. Members have referred to happened in the real world—the so-called offline world—they would be clamped down on immediately and people would be arrested. Certain items cannot be published, be put in newsagents or be smuggled into school libraries and people could not get away with the defence, “This is a matter of my civil liberty.” We should be far more robust with online companies for the frankly shoddy way in which they are carrying out their activities, which is endangering our children and doing immense damage to our political system and wider life in our country and beyond.

• 10 Dec 2025 · Seasonal Work · Hansard source

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  Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

• 10 Dec 2025 · Seasonal Work · Hansard source

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  It did not carry all the way to me.

• 10 Dec 2025 · Seasonal Work · Hansard source

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  The hon. Gentleman is making an interesting speech. On his point about risk, Conservative Members always look at that through the lens of the employer. There are, of course, risks—I spent most of my career in the private sector, so I have some experience of this—but does he accept that employees also take risks? When they take up a job, they need to be paid sufficiently so that they can live their lives with dignity, look after their children, and so on. Does he accept that a balance must be struck between people seeking jobs and employers providing jobs?

• 10 Dec 2025 · Seasonal Work · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend, who continues to make an excellent speech, has referred to unfair dismissal. I think it worth putting on record that much of the debate over recent hours, days and weeks has implied that employers will not be able to dismiss people. That is simply not the case. What we are talking about here is unfair dismissal, not dismissal. This is a right that absolutely has to be at the heart of the biggest uplift in workers’ rights that any Government have introduced for a generation, or perhaps more.

• 10 Dec 2025 · Seasonal Work · Hansard source

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  Does the hon. Lady accept that more 18 to 24-year-olds are in employment than a year ago—210,000 more, according to the November labour force survey? The story of doom and gloom that she is portraying is not entirely the case.

• 10 Dec 2025 · Seasonal Work · Hansard source

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  Thank you, Mr Speaker. Conservative Members often talk about wealth creators. Of course business people and entrepreneurs are wealth creators, but does the hon. Gentleman agree that wealth is also created by the public services and infrastructure that we need, which has to be paid for?

• 10 Dec 2025 · Seasonal Work · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech. Did she notice yesterday that the Leader of the Opposition said that she did not want the national minimum wage to increase at all? Does my hon. Friend think that indicates that there might be a cold freeze in the air?

• 10 Dec 2025 · Seasonal Work · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Gentleman for giving way. Hon. Members—

• 9 Dec 2025 · Support for Entrepreneurs · Hansard source

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  In my constituency, I can combine rugby and gin, so I am grateful to the Chancellor for the measures in her Budget to help the hospitality trade and small businesses. Following, my visit to the family-owned Rugby Distillery—branded and flavoured around the game—can I ask what steps her Department could try to level the playing field, such as by extending small producer relief to alcohol above the 8.5% ABV limit? Small-scale producers find it harder to compete fairly with big producers, and we must help them to tackle their challenges and convert their entrepreneurial spirit into greater success.

• 9 Dec 2025 · Support for Entrepreneurs · Hansard source

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  13. What steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to support entrepreneurs.

• 8 Dec 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I have been campaigning for a youth hub and working with officials in the DWP and local councils to try to secure a much-needed youth hub in Rugby. Does my right hon. Friend agree that this service, offering employment advice, wellbeing support and more, would help tackle the problem of youth dependency on benefits, which is at 16% in Rugby—roughly the national average? Does he further agree that, as young people would say: no cap, it is only this party that will do what is necessary to back young people?

• 8 Dec 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.

• 8 Dec 2025 · Restriction of Jury Trials · Hansard source

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  Does the Minister recall that the right hon. Member for Newark (Robert Jenrick) was chastised by the Office for Statistics Regulation when he was Housing Secretary? Does she further agree, therefore, that we will not take lessons from him?

• 4 Dec 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Will the Leader of the House join me in congratulating schools and youth groups in my constituency for their phenomenal 53 engagements with UK Parliament Week? It is not a competition, but I would like to update the House that Rugby came 12th out of 650 constituencies, and second in the west midlands. I visited Ashlawn school, Rugby Free secondary school, Cawston Brownies, Binley Woods youth club and the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh Rugby branch to discuss politics with young people, while English Martyrs RC primary, Clifton-upon-Dunsmore Church of England primary and the 1st Hillmorton Guides sent questions that I answered on social media. Their questions and enthusiasm for contributing to improving their community, country and world shows that democracy has a bright future. Will the Leader of the House join me in paying tribute to the brilliant parliamentary staff who worked so hard to ensure a very successful UK Parliament Week?