Josh Fenton-Glynn MP: speeches

Speeches

• 11 Dec 2024 · Finance Bill · Hansard source

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  Will the shadow Minister give way?

• 11 Dec 2024 · Finance Bill · Hansard source

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  rose —

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

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  I completely understand that we are asking people to consider something that they have never experienced or had to consider, but is that not what we do with fire regulations?

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

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  Listening to Conservative Members, one would think we were left a golden legacy. Despite that halcyon legacy, it is no wonder the Conservatives were resoundingly beaten in the last election—my constituents want an NHS that can be relied on, yet Lord Darzi’s report was clear that we have not sorted out the health service or social care. Indeed, 13% of NHS beds are taken up by people who could be in social care. Will the Minister outline what he will do to ensure that we finally get to grips with that crucial issue?

• 4 Dec 2024 · Employer National Insurance Contributions · Hansard source

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  Will the hon. Lady give way?

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

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  Conservative Members talk about being friends of the farmers but for the past 14 years they were not. It shows how little they care that only 18% of their parliamentary party is present for a debate that they have called— [ Interruption. ] Only 21 out of 120 Conservative Members.

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

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  Why is the right hon. Member so dismissive of DEFRA, which is a fine Department whose work those of us who believe in the countryside value? I wonder why he was not so loud when 875 agribusinesses in his region closed in the last 14 years.

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

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  Will the right hon. Member give way?

• 3 Dec 2024 · Home-to-School Transport: Children with SEND · Hansard source

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  It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Mark. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock (Jen Craft) for securing this debate. While she has personal and constituency experience, this issue is a national crisis for people with SEND. That is due in no small part to the huge rise in the number of people with EHCPs over the last few years. In 2018-19 in Calderdale, where Calder Valley sits, 1,068 children had EHCPs. In the last year, 1,761 children did. That is the start of this problem. We then have the transport plans, which are put together at the last minute. That means that we end up with September stress for SEND parents, who are trying to create a stable school environment for their kids but who find out only at the last minute when they are coming in. On that point, I pay tribute to all SEND parents, who work an extra job in looking after their children, and to some of the charities that do brilliant work in supporting them, including Unique Ways in Calder Valley, which is a fantastic charity. I recently heard a particularly distressing story about SEND provision in Calder Valley. Two children had their epilepsy triggered by stress, and their parents and teachers struggled to provide the support that they needed.

• 29 Nov 2024 · Men’s Violence against Women and Girls · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for securing this debate, and for the way it has been conducted at the end of quite a long day. I have been a proud champion of the White Ribbon campaign for many years—it is based in my constituency. Key to that campaign is the idea that it starts with men taking responsibility for how they and their friends act. In this place, our job is to legislate. Does my hon. Friend agree that part of that job is ensuring that we get education right? At the moment, the education system does not do enough to address this, and we can see that in the results. UK Feminista stats show that almost four in 10 girls who go to mixed schools have been sexually harassed while at school. That is not acceptable. Children cannot learn if they are in fear. Human beings should have the right to live without fear. That is what I want to see in this country, in our education system and throughout society.

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

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  Three women a week commit suicide because of male violence against women, two women a week are killed by their current or former partners, and nearly four in 10 girls attending mixed schools have experienced some form of sexual harassment. In the year to March, there were 11,000 complaints about violence against women and girls on public transport. White Ribbon Day, which we marked earlier in the week, sends the clear message that dealing with this starts with men and the education of men. Given that it is clearly a cross-Government issue, may we have a debate in Government time on cross-Government solutions?

• 26 Nov 2024 · COP29 · Hansard source

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  I welcome my right hon. Friend’s statement. My constituency is at the mercy of climate change, as the floods showed at the weekend. It is deeply frustrating for many of my constituents to hear the Opposition fail to grasp the urgency. We are on the frontline of the impact of climate change, but we also want to be on the frontline of the response, so many of my constituents welcome the warm homes plan. What is he doing to ensure that we have the workforce to deliver that plan, particularly in constituencies such as mine that have houses that are quite hard to retrofit?

• 25 Nov 2024 · Storm Bert · Hansard source

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  This weekend, much of my constituency was under a severe flood warning. Businesses, roads and homes were flooded. We were luckier than in previous years in terms of severity, but in places it was agonisingly close, with rivers centimetres away from breaking their banks. Calder Valley has had two major floods in the past decade, and the fact that we avoided the same level of destruction this time was in no small part because of the work of local flood wardens, natural flood management organisations such as Slow The Flow and Calderdale council. I pay tribute to them. It is almost a decade since the serious floods in Calder Valley on Boxing day 2015. We had further floods in 2020. While the Environment Agency has carried out flood prevention works in Mytholmroyd and Brighouse, it has not even made a start on planned schemes in Hebden Bridge and Elland. Will the Minister meet me to discuss the plans we have upcoming and get some action from the Environment Agency? My constituents are understandably really anxious.

• 25 Nov 2024 · Non-Domestic Rating (Multipliers and Private Schools) Bill · Hansard source

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  The Stop School Cuts campaign website estimates the combined school cuts since 2010 in Thirsk and Malton, the shadow Minister’s constituency, as more than £70,000. Will he point to where in the public record he has spoken out about that?

• 25 Nov 2024 · Non-Domestic Rating (Multipliers and Private Schools) Bill · Hansard source

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  One of the first things the coalition Government voted to do was to scrap the Building Schools for the Future programme, which impacted schools in my constituency including Calder high school, Brooksbank and Todmorden high school. Will the hon. Lady reflect on whether that was a mistake by her party and whether it has prevented state schools from being able to provide for more students?

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

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  A constant theme in my casework inbox is rogue private parking companies and their intimidating behaviour. Just this month, my constituency office has returned over £200-worth of fines to my constituents. Will the Leader of the House advise me on the best possible way to put the issue on the record and get the Government to take action on this behaviour?

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

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  Today, the United Nations has said that virtually no aid has got into Gaza for the past 40 days. This winter, hundreds of thousands of people face malnutrition or worse. Can the Prime Minister give an update on conversations he had at the G20 that could help us end this conflict, release the hostages and finally get aid back into Gaza?

• 18 Nov 2024 · Children’s Social Care · Hansard source

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  In my time as a councillor and corporate parent, nothing was more distressing than the complex safeguarding issues that we had to deal with, and nothing more enraging that seeing people profit from them. That is why Calderdale council did good work to bring children’s homes in house. I hope that the statement means an end to that profiteering.

• 14 Nov 2024 · National Insurance Contributions: Healthcare · Hansard source

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  Does my hon. Friend join me in welcoming the Opposition’s new interest in social care? Does she further agree that the problems that social care faces owe more to the previous Government’s failure to do anything with Andrew Dilnot’s 2011 report than they do to anything that is happening now with national insurance?

• 12 Nov 2024 · House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill · Hansard source

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  rose—

• 12 Nov 2024 · House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill · Hansard source

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  The right hon. Gentleman makes an important point about the need to govern responsibly and reasonably, whatever one’s majority. While I was sitting here, I was interested in his record of following through on that strong belief, so I googled his name and “Prorogation”, and I did not see any results. Will the right hon. Gentleman perhaps reflect on any points when he thinks recent Governments might have abused their power?

• 12 Nov 2024 · House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill · Hansard source

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  Will the right hon. Member remind me how long a parliamentary term is and therefore how long we have to implement our manifesto?

• 12 Nov 2024 · House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill · Hansard source

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  I appreciate that the right hon. Gentleman is not a doctor, but could he explain the biological process by which someone inherits expertise?

• 11 Nov 2024 · Rail Performance · Hansard source

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  My constituents in Calder Valley are also sick of the performance of Northern Rail. In July, the Department for Transport issued a breach of notice to Northern Rail, because of its underperformance. Northern Rail’s chief operating officer said that performance was “not good enough”. Will my right hon. Friend confirm that she will prioritise getting Northern Rail back on track?

• 6 Nov 2024 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source

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  I am proud to stand up on behalf of my constituents in Calder Valley and thank this Government for the Budget delivered by our Chancellor—a Budget that rebuilds the country and protects the NHS. As someone who spent eight years in local government before coming to this place, I recognise some of the huge steps that this Budget takes to cement local government, guaranteeing funding for high street projects like those in Calder Valley, and ending the beauty contests that see communities pitted against one another for meagre funding. There was £600 million guaranteed for social care and a commitment to longer-term, proper funding for our highways and the scourge of potholes. Most importantly, we get three-year funding settlements—no more annual scrabble in December to work out how to make a budget fit. Local authorities and businesses can plan long-term, which is what they want, and it is the stability that we need. It has been quite something to sit through this Budget debate for the past few days, because it seems like there have been two Budgets. One was delivered by my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer, which fixed our foundations, supported hospitality and the high street, provided billions for the NHS, found funding for SEND and opened breakfast clubs. Then, there has been the Budget that exists in the imagination of Opposition Members. Today, the Leader of the Opposition claimed that it did not mention the word “defence”. The speech mentions it six times, and the Budget has a whole section in the funding settlement for defence. Today, we heard from the hon. Members for Solihull West and Shirley (Dr Shastri-Hurst) and for Sleaford and North Hykeham (Dr Johnson) about the problems of social care. That should not be a new concern for Conservative Members. Andrew Dilnot released his report in 2011. We were then promised that we would get some kind of proposal in 2014. In 2017, the Conservative Government released their proposal, but then withdrew it because they had an election. They then delayed it in 2018. It came back in 2021 and was delayed again in 2022. Then they said that they would deliver it in 2024, but did not find the funding. Throughout all that, there has not been a shred of contrition or acknowledgment from the Conservatives that they left the country on its knees. They have no idea yet why the public rejected them so resoundingly at the last election. I hope that as they sum up, they will perhaps show some contrition and answer the Budget as it is, not the one that exists only in their imagination.