Josh Babarinde MP: speeches 2024

Speeches

• 19 Dec 2024 · Violence against Women and Girls · Hansard source

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  My family knows what domestic abuse looks like, but the law does not. That is because there is no specific offence of domestic abuse in the law, which means that many abusers are convicted of things like common assault or actual bodily harm. For victims and survivors, that does not reflect the full gravity of the offence, and it also means that abusers qualify for early release schemes. Women’s Aid is backing my Bill, which would create a dedicated set of domestic abuse aggravated offences in the law. Will the Solicitor General meet me to discuss my Bill, so that we can better respect and protect survivors?

• 16 Dec 2024 · Water (Special Measures) Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  In Eastbourne, we are blessed with 94 beaches, but our water quality has dropped from “excellent” in 2015, to a low of “satisfactory” under the last Government. At the same time, Southern Water has made significant amounts of money—with more than £2.9 billion in dividends, and the chief executive receiving £183,000 in bonuses this year and a salary of £765,000. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that the last Government allowed that to happen, and will he apologise for what they allowed to happen to our water industry?

• 16 Dec 2024 · “Get Britain Working” White Paper: Long-term Health Conditions · Hansard source

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  The “Get Britain Working” White Paper rightly says that “people deserve the opportunity to thrive and that sports, arts and culture are crucial to achieving this goal”, especially for those with disabilities. The Sovereign centre in Eastbourne, where I learned to swim, provides vital sports and leisure opportunities that will help serve that aim. With the future of two of its pools being considered, does the Minister agree that to best honour the aims of the White Paper, Eastbourne borough council should engage with all interested providers who may be able to protect our fun and training pools at the centre before making any final decisions on the next steps?

• 12 Dec 2024 · Prison Capacity Strategy · Hansard source

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  I thank the Minister for advance sight of the statement, and I thank the Chair of the Justice Committee, the hon. Member for Hammersmith and Chiswick (Andy Slaughter), for the point of order that I think helped to bring the Minister to the House with this statement today. Years of neglect under the previous Conservative Government have left our prisons overcrowded and unequipped to provide the tough rehabilitation required, which has let down victims and survivors in my patch and across the country. In fact, as recently as this week, the Conservative Opposition let down those victims and survivors by voting against the measure to exclude people such as stalkers and murderers from the early release scheme. The result of the Conservatives’ incompetence is the SDS40 scheme—the standard determinate sentences early release scheme—which has seen thousands of ex-offenders released early to unlock emergency prison places. The Minister knows my concerns about that scheme, particularly in relation to domestic abuse, and I hope she will support my proposals to patch it up. Will she, however, confirm what the criteria will be for reviewing the scheme next year? Ultimately, Liberal Democrats believe that we need a sustainable solution to tackling this problem, because more prisons mean more offenders, more offenders mean more victims, and more victims mean more failure. With 80% of people in prison being reoffenders, we know that reducing reoffending must be the key. I know that from having spent my career before reaching this place supporting kids out of crime and gangs, so why, in a prison capacity statement of over 1,000 words, was reducing reoffending mentioned just once? Will the Minister reaffirm her commitment to that effort, and can she provide more details on how she will reduce reoffending to protect victims and survivors across this country?

• 10 Dec 2024 · Early Release Scheme · Hansard source

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  I thank the Secretary of State for that answer—I hope to have the chance to meet her to discuss it in more detail. The Liberal Democrats are deeply concerned about survivors who have been told that, as it stands, their abuser is set to be released early. One such survivor is Elizabeth Hudson, who I met on the set of “Good Morning Britain” today when launching this campaign. She has written to Ministers about her concerns, but says that she has not received a response. Will the Secretary of State meet Elizabeth and me to discuss her case and how survivors can be respected and protected?

• 10 Dec 2024 · Early Release Scheme · Hansard source

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  There are no specific domestic abuse offences in law, so abusers hiding behind convictions such as actual bodily harm are being let out early under the SDS40 early release scheme. That is not right, so I have introduced the Domestic Abuse (Aggravated Offences) Bill to create a specific set of domestic abuse aggravated offences—a bit like racially aggravated offences—that could be excluded from early release schemes. Women’s Aid is backing my Bill; will the Secretary of State back it, too?

• 4 Dec 2024 · Draft Home Detention Curfew and Requisite and Minimum Custodial Periods (Amendment) Order 2024 · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Mundell. I thank the Minister for his remarks. I also thank him and the Government for taking seriously and addressing the issue of overcrowding in our prisons. They inherited a completely unsustainable position, whereby our prisons were driven to the brink by the last Government. It is clear that urgent action was needed. I am concerned, though, and so are Liberal Democrats, about the implications of the SDS40 scheme—and the administration of it thus far—for victims and survivors of domestic abuse. The Minister will be aware of this because I have mentioned it in the Chamber many times, as well as in private meetings. It is welcome that this order seeks to tighten up loopholes in the scheme, excluding from early release perpetrators of six different offences, including breaches of restraining orders, sexual harm prevention orders and stalking protection orders, revenge porn, and indeed murderers who were convicted in other jurisdictions. But a key concern is that the order is coming in now, after the release of several thousand individuals, some of whom may fall into those categories. What I want to know, and what survivors of domestic abuse need to know, is: how many people who have breached those various orders—how many perpetrators—have already been released? Secondly, of those who have already been released, if the number is more than zero—and my assumption is that it may well be—how many do the Government intend to recall if they are now saying that these people should be not on our streets but behind bars, continuing their punishment and robust rehabilitation? How did the Minister and the Government come to the conclusion that these six offences, and no further ones, were to be considered as further exclusions? What consultation have they done with groups in the sector, including the likes of Refuge and Women’s Aid—I have been engaging with so many more—to understand the effectiveness of the additional six offences and whether there ought to be any more? Does the Minister have plans to further consult those groups, which are incredibly concerned about this situation? In addition, a key concern of many victims and survivors groups is over the interaction between the SDS40 scheme and the victim contact scheme. If and when an abuser is to be let out—whether early or not—it is critical for victims and survivors to know that that has happened. It is important for them to be able to prepare for what life will be like after that moment. As it stands, the victim contact scheme only kicks in if a perpetrator has been sentenced for 12 months or longer, but we know that there are many abusers, including those convicted of common assault, who are in prison for less than that amount of time and therefore do not fall under the victim contact scheme. Refuge, and many other organisations like it that I have engaged with, have been pushing the Government to expand the victim contact scheme to include victims and survivors of all abusers, no matter how long the abuser’s sentence, and I want to push the Minister and the Government on that again today. In the Chamber and beyond, this Government, and the Secretary of State in particular, have given assurances to victims and survivors of domestic abuse that they will keep them safe, but unfortunately that has not been the case so far. We have seen that through the loopholes that the Government left the first and second time round. More assurances are required from this Government in order for survivors of domestic abuse to feel safe in the context of the scheme, which has been brought about as a result of the last Government’s maladministration of our prison system. I will leave it there.

• 3 Dec 2024 · Economic Investment · Hansard source

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  Local leisure and sports facilities, such as the Sovereign centre where I learned to swim, deserve more long-term investment. I want Eastbourne to be able to invest its £20 million from the towns fund in such facilities, but it will not be unlocked by the Treasury until 2026. Will the Chancellor commit to accelerating the unlocking of that funding, so that we can invest in facilities for local families and people in Eastbourne much sooner?

• 21 Nov 2024 · Condition of Local Roads · Hansard source

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  The safety and condition of our roads are hugely dependent on those who drive on them, but too many vehicles illegally use our roads without tax, without registering their details with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, and without their MOT. I thank Jamie from Seven Sisters garage for sorting my MOT out last week. Will the Secretary of State meet industry experts, such as Eastbourne’s very own Alan Wood of the National Persistent Evader Database, to discuss their solutions to tackling this problem, and making our roads safer?

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

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  I am proud that the Liberal Democrats were the first UK-wide major party to call for an immediate bilateral ceasefire between Israel and Gaza, and we continue to push the Prime Minister to honour that position. I am also proud that many Eastbourne campaigners have been calling for that from the get-go, and have come out to condemn the rising tide of Islamophobia and antisemitism across the country. What global efforts to stem this tide of prejudice did the Prime Minister discuss with G20 leaders, and will he congratulate Muslim and Jewish leaders in Eastbourne, as well as incredible neighbourhood policing officers such as Fareed Kamar—you know him too, Madam Deputy Speaker—for uniting to root out hate crime locally?

• 20 Nov 2024 · Digital Connectivity: Rural Areas · Hansard source

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  Organisations such as TechResort in my constituency support people who are digitally excluded to become digitally included. The Minister has a long list of meetings to go to, so instead, can the Secretary of State come along the coast to the sunniest town in the UK to visit TechResort and hear more about the funding it needs to power its work?

• 19 Nov 2024 · Mental Health Support · Hansard source

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  Facilities such as leisure centres and swimming pools—like the Sovereign Centre in Eastbourne where I learned to swim—are critical in supporting people’s mental health locally. Will the Minister support me in putting pressure on the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to expand the criteria of the towns fund to allow us to be able to spend it to invest in our leisure centres and sports and fitness facilities for local people?

• 18 Nov 2024 · Bus Funding · Hansard source

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  A few hours ago, I marched with Eastbourne residents such as Jodie Atherton, and Eastbourne businesses such as DB Domestics and the Rosy Lee café in Seaside, against Conservative-run East Sussex county council’s car-crash bus service improvement plan, after the council failed to adequately consult residents or properly model the impact of the plan. Will the Secretary of State review East Sussex county council’s catalogue of failure in this area, and will she introduce safeguards to ensure that community voices are at the heart of any bus service improvement plan that the money she has announced today will fund in my patch of Eastbourne?

• 11 Nov 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Eastbourne veteran Pauline was awarded military compensation for injuries that she sustained in the service of our country, but she said that that has caused her pension credit entitlement to plummet from £70 to just £10.42 a week. Will the Minister meet me to discuss her case and ensure that no veteran is penalised for their service to our country?

• 6 Nov 2024 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source

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  The returning tide of populism that we have seen today is a sobering reminder of what can happen when people feel that the system has not been delivering for them. This reality makes fiscal events, such as a Budget delivered by a new Government, so critical. A Budget is more than just an annual accounting practice; it represents an opportunity to reassure our communities that they can trust us—all of us—to recognise their needs, aspirations and concerns. A Budget is an opportunity to meet those needs and to inoculate our communities and our country against the populist contagion that has invaded yet another host today. Against that backdrop, I will shamelessly share some of Eastbourne’s needs. Eastbourne needs support to tackle homelessness, which has meant that our food bank was the country’s busiest last year. I therefore welcome the £230 million announced in the Budget for homelessness prevention, and I hope the East Sussex floating support service can benefit from it, but we have been let down by the lack of emergency support to help councils like mine with the unsustainable cost of temporary accommodation, as so eloquently described by the hon. Member for Vauxhall and Camberwell Green (Florence Eshalomi). Eastbourne also needs services at our local hospital, where I was born, to be protected. I welcome the NHS investment announced in the Budget, but I am disappointed that the status of investment in our hospital via the new hospitals programme has still not been confirmed. This means that local mums, who in many cases are having to travel more than 20 miles to have their babies, are still unclear about what investment their hospital will get. Our significant population of local pensioners and I have pleaded with the Government to review their decision to remove the winter fuel allowance from many pensioners who need it. It is unacceptable that those calls have been ignored. Our local businesses need additional support to thrive, yet the increase in employer NICs will make it harder for them to survive—especially many of our hospitality businesses, which I am proud to represent as a patron of the Eastbourne Hospitality Association. Eastbourne’s WASPI women, led by Angela Boas, deserve compensation, which was missing from the Budget. Eastbourne’s SEND families, supported by advocates like Kate Humphries, must benefit from the £1 billion SEND funding that was announced. Overall, the Government have made progress, but they must go further to reassure my community that they will deliver for Eastbourne on all the counts I have described. Failure to deliver will leave my town more vulnerable to the vice of great hardship, and more exposed to the venom of populist predators.

• 5 Nov 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  An estimated 80,000 disabled young people are unable to benefit from their child trust fund savings, because their families are being thwarted by a complex legal process before they can access them. The previous Government let these families down by tolerating that, so this Government need to act. Will the Minister commit to simplifying this agonising process to ensure that these disabled young people get the cash that they deserve?

• 5 Nov 2024 · Domestic Abuse and Violence against Women · Hansard source

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  I welcome the new shadow Justice Secretary to his place. As he has campaigned to withdraw from the European convention on human rights, I am sure we can rely on him to champion international law for all of us across the world. I want to ask about domestic abuse. For too long, domestic abusers have been able to exploit a loophole in our legal system, whereby the domestic abuse that they perpetrate is masked by the ambiguous conviction of common assault. This has meant that, under this Government and the previous one, domestic abusers have qualified for early release schemes. When I pushed the Secretary of State on this issue the other day, she admitted that her measures to exclude domestic abusers from early release were “not of course fully comprehensive.” —[ Official Report , 22 October 2024; Vol. 755, c. 206.] The Liberal Democrats believe that things need to go further. Will the Minister meet me and domestic abuse charities to discuss some of our proposals for closing the loopholes so that victims and survivors get the justice they deserve?

• 4 Nov 2024 · Skills and Employment · Hansard source

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  Eastbourne, as the sunniest town in the UK, is on a mission to be a solar energy superpower. At the heart of that is East Sussex college’s green training hub, which is supporting students, young and mature, to move into that sector. Will the Minister join me in celebrating the hub’s second birthday, and will she come down to Eastbourne to visit the hub and its principal, Rebecca Conroy, and to soak up some Eastbourne sun?

• 31 Oct 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Some 29% of jobs in Eastbourne, the sunniest town in the UK, are connected to the hospitality sector, but many businesses in that sector have expressed concerns about yesterday’s Budget, which UK Hospitality has described as the “latest blow for hospitality”. Will the Minister meet me and local hospitality businesses to discuss those concerns? I declare an interest as the patron of the Eastbourne Hospitality Association.

• 29 Oct 2024 · Sustainable Public Finances · Hansard source

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  The last Government left Eastbourne borough council in a position in which it spends 49p in every pound it collects in council tax on temporary accommodation. We need a solution, because that is not sustainable for councils or families. Will the Chancellor commit to supporting councils with the cost of temporary accommodation, and to investing in preventing homelessness in the first place?

• 28 Oct 2024 · Remembrance and Veterans · Hansard source

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  It is an honour to pay tribute to our armed forces community this evening, and it is particularly special to be able to pay tribute to my late great-grandfather, Flight Lieutenant Thomas Gittins. He was a tool salesman who joined the RAF Reserves in the hopes of becoming a pilot. He was pretty small in stature, so he was never allowed to get near the cockpit. He fell at the first hurdle, despite being almost small enough to walk under it. He did, however, join 196 Squadron as a rear gunner in Wellington and Lancaster bombers, and between 1940 and 1945 he completed 51 missions, including towing gliders to transport soldiers to Normandy on D-Day. For his service he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, which was pretty rare for folk serving in his position. Like so many war heroes, my great-grandfather was intensely humble about his grand achievements. He was too humble to say that his bravery contributed to the preservation of our democracy, and to accept that his service meant that Members of Parliament, including his great-grandson down the line, could stand up here for our country. As with many war heroes, the atrocity of war took its toll on his mental health as he transitioned back to civilian life. Today, we recognise those challenges as combat stress. Thanks to so many volunteers across my wonderful constituency of Eastbourne—the sunniest in the UK—local veterans have access to more support than ever, including through our Royal British Legion branch, chaired by Alan Leith, who I recruited as my driving instructor. He is supported in chairing the RBL in Eastbourne by his fab secretary, Daphne Geninazza. I have also had the chance to meet inspirational veterans such as Eric Deach and Brian Perry, who is known as the formidable poppy salesman at the Tesco in the Admiral Way retail park in St Anthony’s. There is also local support in the form of the brilliant Eastbourne and District Veterans Association; I was proud to lead on its incorporation as a community interest company. I pay tribute to the wonderful Barry and Petra Coase and their dog Bella, who are involved with the charity Combat Stress, which supports veterans locally, and to the Blue Van drop-in group. We all need to go even further to support our armed forces, and I am delighted to speak up for them today.

• 24 Oct 2024 · Temporary Accommodation · Hansard source

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  I absolutely would encourage that. There needs to be more co-ordination between local authorities, educational settings and health and care settings. Many have advocated for a notification system in order to aid the knowledge of those situations, so that they can be addressed. The circumstances are devastating, and we hear from hon. Members who have made interventions that that is the case in their patches too. Shelter estimates that more than two thirds of people in temporary accommodation have inadequate access to basic facilities—to cook, for example. Many food banks, including mine in Eastbourne, supply kettle packs, because many families in temporary accommodation are unable to cook or heat the food that they get from a food bank in any other way. Isolation is also a consequence, especially for those who are placed in temporary accommodation miles away from their support networks, or where the rules of their accommodation ban visitors. Most shockingly, according to the Shared Health Foundation analysis of the national childhood mortality database, temporary accommodation has been a contributing factor in the deaths of 42 infants since 2019. We cannot go on like this. Not only is that unacceptable on a human level, but as I said earlier, the National Audit Office has been clear that the situation is unsustainable for local authorities—especially mine in Eastbourne. In my hometown, the number of families in temporary accommodation has doubled since 2019. That, combined with our food bank becoming the busiest Trussell Trust food bank in the country—it distributed more food parcels per head than any other in the UK—led to my campaign to declare a cost of living emergency in Eastbourne. It was the first place in the UK to do so, and that unlocked emergency support for those struggling most. The surge in temporary accommodation led to the financial cost to the council jumping from £2.2 million in 2019 to the £5 million projected for this year.

• 24 Oct 2024 · Temporary Accommodation · Hansard source

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  The Minister has spoken about the importance of working collectively. Council leaders such as Stephen, who is in the Gallery, are very keen to do that. The Minister said that she has seen the correspondence from him and other council leaders. Would she be willing to meet a delegation of council leaders, including Stephen, to talk about the ideas and proposals in that correspondence, if she is not going to address them? But maybe she will, later in her speech. It will be really important to hear from Stephen directly about Eastbourne’s situation, and to go from there.

• 24 Oct 2024 · Temporary Accommodation · Hansard source

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  The hon. Lady has a crystal ball, because she has again pre-empted something I will say later. I absolutely agree, and I commend her work in her former role as Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, which I know took a deep interest in this matter. Costs in Eastbourne have skyrocketed. In fact, the council has said that 49p of every £1 that the council collects in its share of council tax is currently spent on temporary accommodation. As a result, Eastbourne borough council has been forced to consult on incredibly tough saving decisions to avoid issuing a section 114 notice, and the picture is similar in other councils.

• 24 Oct 2024 · Temporary Accommodation · Hansard source

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  I could not agree more, and I will come to the costs of temporary accommodation later. The hon. Lady knows as well as I do that the National Audit Office described the situation as unsustainable. It needs a resolution, which is why today’s debate is so important. On securing the debate, I called Kelly, shared the news, and she said in reply: “What needs to be said is going to be said in the place it needs to be said to the person it needs to be said to. You are the right person to say it, Josh.” It is therefore so humbling to welcome Kelly and her son Joseph to the Public Gallery. I hope that I am the right person, that I say what needs to be said, and that I do not let Kelly and families like hers down. With her blessing, I have shared some of Kelly’s story today. She is just one of the 117,450 families who are in temporary accommodation in this country right now. That is a 12% rise compared with last year. Heartbreakingly, more than 150,000 children are living in temporary accommodation, which is enough to fill 5,000 classrooms.