Josh Fenton-Glynn MP: speeches

Speeches

• 10 Mar 2025 · Crime and Policing Bill · Hansard source

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  I absolutely agree that the last Government failed people on tackling crime, particularly due to its hollowing out of the police. Indeed, in West Yorkshire alone, within just six years of the Conservatives taking office, over 1,200 police officers had been let go, and 1,000 of those were in frontline roles, leaving their numbers even more depleted than the Opposition Benches. When the numbers rose back again, it was just not the same because the previous Government failed to recognise that police are more than just a number on a spreadsheet. They got rid of 1,200 officers who knew their communities, who added local intelligence and understanding of the local nuances, and who had experience supporting those neighbourhoods. We lost the heart of neighbourhood-based policing—the best tool to combat antisocial behaviour—and one of the best reassurances that evidence can have. The lack of local knowledge is why we have seen over 3,000 reports of antisocial behaviour in Calder Valley in three years, ruining lives. The lack of trust in police is why I know that so many more incidents simply go unreported. After 14 years of the last Conservative Government allowing antisocial behaviour and other crime to grow unchecked, I am proud that this Labour Government are restoring respect for law and order, standing with and bringing communities and police closer together, with named officers in every community, backed by £2 million of funding to kickstart recruitment for the new neighbourhood police officers. The Government will end the impunity that criminals feel they can operate under by giving officers stronger powers to tackle antisocial behaviour, violent crime and persistent offenders who make people’s lives a misery. Against a backdrop of the lack of trust in our police service that was allowed to fester over 14 years, this Bill is an important step in the process of rebuilding trust and confidence and why, on behalf of my constituents from Calder Valley, who have suffered because of antisocial behaviour, I am backing the Bill to take action today.

• 10 Mar 2025 · Crime and Policing Bill · Hansard source

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  Antisocial behaviour ruins lives. On Friday, I held an event at the Field Lane estate in Calder Valley, the first in a series of events across my constituency to listen to members of the community about antisocial behaviour, and their stories were heartbreaking. Families are being terrorised by problem residents, children are scared to go to school and residents fear for their property and personal safety. All the while, people have no trust that making reports to the police will bring an end to the fear their families are facing. Sadly, this lack of trust became all too common a feature in communities under the last Government. They know that, no matter how many reports they make or how much evidence they have, the police will either not turn up or turn up late and then not take people seriously, after the last Government hollowed out our policing services.

• 10 Mar 2025 · School Building Programmes · Hansard source

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  18. What recent progress she has made on school building programmes.

• 10 Mar 2025 · School Building Programmes · Hansard source

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  Cross Lane primary school, Shade primary school, Brooksbank school, Calder high school, Todmorden high school and Walsden Saint Peter’s Church of England primary school are among 11 Calder Valley schools to be rebuilt under this Government, where the last Government failed. Will the Minister confirm that under this Government no children will be left learning in classrooms that are not fit for purpose?

• 6 Mar 2025 · Government Advertising: Social Media · Hansard source

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  18. What assessment he has made of the effectiveness of Government advertising through social media.

• 6 Mar 2025 · Government Advertising: Social Media · Hansard source

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  Since Elon Musk purchased X three years ago, Departments have continued to spend money on subscriptions and ads on the site, and one Department has recorded a spend of more than £400,000 since 2022. Given the lack of adequate content moderation, and an increase in the peddling of conspiracy theories, misogyny and racism on the site, often actively encouraged by its owner, does the Minister think it right to review Government spending on X?

• 5 Mar 2025 · Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office · Hansard source

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  rose —

• 5 Mar 2025 · Department of Health and Social Care · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member has frequently been quick to criticise NHS pay rises. Will there be more or fewer sickness absences in the ambulance service if its staff are better paid?

• 5 Mar 2025 · Department of Health and Social Care · Hansard source

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  Under the last Government, 20% of NHS doctors were thinking about moving overseas. Does the hon. Lady agree that solving GP contracts is a first step towards keeping GPs working in this country?

• 5 Mar 2025 · Department of Health and Social Care · Hansard source

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  I am pleased to be called to speak in this important debate, Madam Deputy Speaker. When we talk about the NHS, we can argue either about specific investments or about general principles, and like many colleagues, I have received a great amount of correspondence highlighting no end of specific areas where investment is needed. I could also speak about the need to invest in urgent treatment centres in Todmorden, or to celebrate the work of Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS foundation trust—two things that I continue to raise with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. However, as I have the privilege, along with others, of sitting on the Health and Social Care Committee, I want to talk in more broad terms about some of the problems facing our health and social care system, and about how the proposed shifts in the NHS need a reprioritisation of resources. I will focus on what I argue is the most important of those shifts—the so-called left shift of care from hospitals to the community. The hon. Member for North Cotswolds (Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown) outlined the need for that well—even if to hear him speak one might think that it had come from on high, and not as the result of 15 years of the previous Government. One in 10 people are stuck on waiting lists in a healthcare system that is becoming increasingly hospital-centric, and those lists will only grow if we continue on the same course. There is no solution to our crisis in emergency medicine without the left shift of solving problems earlier and closer to home. Of course we need hospitals and to invest in them, but they should be where people go with acute and complex cases, not where they go for want of working services elsewhere. Despite the need to shift to community care being obvious to just about everyone, one of the most glaring revelations of the Darzi report was how poorly successive Governments have gone about achieving that. Meanwhile, we are not training or retaining enough GPs—that is where the renegotiation of the contracts is important. In Calder Valley, the retention crisis has meant that Bankfield and Church Lane surgeries, Northolme practice, and Rastrick health centre all have a ratio of patients to fully qualified GPs that is far higher than the local, regional and national averages—averages that simply do not meet what is needed from our health service. More than a decade after the Dilnot report, social care remains the forgotten service—the Cinderella service, as my hon. Friend the Member for Poole (Neil Duncan-Jordan) artfully called it. With 1.4 million social care staff, our care system is the same size as the NHS workforce, but it receives nothing like the support or understanding of other areas of our health system. The consequence is that our Committee, week after week, hears about delayed discharge, with 20% of beds in my local hospital taken up by people who should be treated at home or closer to home. Meanwhile, carers are missing their appointments because they are delivering care to loved ones, and they end up with worse illnesses, adding to the strain on the NHS. In less than a year, this Government have ended the industrial action in our NHS and delivered 2 million additional appointments, and they are now setting up a new deal with GPs. However, that cannot be the extent of our actions. The 10-year plan cannot continue down the same road that the last Government took us on, of trying to fix a crisis in the NHS by putting more money into hospitals and nothing else, because that tackles the symptoms but not the causes of the problem. Therefore, when setting out the estimates, I urge the Minister to be mindful of the shifts we need to ensure that funding not only increases, but increases with a focus on community and social care. That is what we need for a sustainable system that will protect the rest of our health service in future, because a sustainable system is the only way to deliver better healthcare and better social care for people across the country.

• 5 Mar 2025 · Department of Health and Social Care · Hansard source

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  Another issue my hon. Friend may wish to reflect on is that the council tax base differs from place to place, so councils are even more disadvantaged than the NHS on funding.

• 3 Mar 2025 · Ukraine · Hansard source

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  I thank the Prime Minister for today’s statement, and for his diplomatic efforts to restore our international reputation since taking office. Will my right hon. Friend confirm the basic principle that no decision can be made about the future of Ukraine without including its elected leadership in the negotiations, and that any ceasefire must be adhered to by Russian aggressors and not just the Ukrainians?

• 27 Feb 2025 · Gaza: BBC Coverage · Hansard source

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  I welcome this statement because I think it is important that we talk about our tone in public life. I worry that sometimes the public outside the Chamber do not see this House as being the best arbiter of appropriate tone. In fact, in recent days I have heard jokes about suicide, I have seen sexism and so much more. Does the Secretary of State agree that we should lead from the front and set a good example in this House on how we police our own boundaries and language?

• 26 Feb 2025 · British Indian Ocean Territory · Hansard source

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  I pay tribute to my gallant and hon. Friend for her service and pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Leyton and Wanstead (Mr Bailey) for his. Will she look back to that experience and say what kind of support those in the forces want? Did they want more funding for our defence or did they want another debate about the Chagos islands?

• 26 Feb 2025 · British Indian Ocean Territory · Hansard source

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  I welcome the hon. Member’s interest in the Chagos islands and his desire for detail. It is obviously an issue he is very passionate about, but he has not mentioned it previously in his time in Parliament. I wonder whether, given his desire for detail, he could let us know the names of the four main Chagos islands?

• 26 Feb 2025 · High Street Businesses · Hansard source

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  It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Desmond. I thank the hon. Member for Stockton West (Matt Vickers) for securing this debate, which has been a wonderful tour of Members’ high streets, although, as a member of the Health and Social Care Committee, I cannot recommend a deep-fried Mars bar. I pay tribute to those who, on top of running their own businesses, put time into a broader business community, such as Calder Valley’s town deal boards, including in Todmorden, Elland and Brighouse, and those who have helped their towns to thrive by having a bigger vision for what their towns can be. Even though I did not always see eye to eye with local businesses on parking charges when I was a councillor, those businesses show how the spark of an idea can end up as a dream that becomes part of a community of successful businesses, because success breeds success. Calder Valley is a series of towns, all of which have their own personalities. A great proponent of this theory is the Totally Locally campaign, a national campaign that was founded in Calder Valley and remains active in the towns of Brighouse, Elland, Todmorden and Hebden Bridge. It extols the virtues of local businesses’ working together and the power of spending money locally. Their annual “Magic Tenner” campaign uses analysis from the New Economics Foundation that found that £10 spent in a local shop could be worth as much as £50 to the local economy, as those local shops use local suppliers, so the money is recycled again and again. The campaign highlights that by having participating businesses offer deals for a tenner, and we are going to see that operating throughout Calder Valley and across the country starting next week and running until 16 March. I urge people to take part in those Totally Locally campaigns. I pay tribute to the small-business owners of Calder Valley who started with a dream and ended up building a proud business community.

• 26 Feb 2025 · Child Maintenance Service · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend will know that getting it right for the most vulnerable children is important, but we are increasingly seeing post-separation abuse and post-separation financial abuse coming to light. Indeed, the report from Gingerbread that I cited earlier said that 45% of people who report post-separation financial abuse say that it gets worse when the CMS is involved. I hope that any report into the work of the CMS and supporting vulnerable families will look at that question and help us get some answers on that issue.

• 26 Feb 2025 · Child Maintenance Service · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for securing this important debate. I note that I am an officer of the APPG on single-parent families. The recent excellent report from Gingerbread on fixing the CMS noted that where child maintenance is paid, child poverty is 25% lower in those families. Does he agree that Gingerbread’s work is absolutely vital, but that it is also vital, as an important step towards solving the problem of child poverty, that we fix the Child Maintenance Service?

• 25 Feb 2025 · Maternity Services · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Christopher. I thank the hon. Member for Chichester (Jess Brown-Fuller) for securing this important debate. I should note at the start my officership in the APPG for infant feeding and the APPG on single-parent families. Women’s health is often an already under-prioritised area of our health system, with the UK found to have the largest female health gap in the G20, as my hon. Friend the Member for Worthing West (Dr Cooper) noted earlier. Women are falling through the gaps, which have been made worse by the past 14 years of austerity and reorganisations in the health system. The situation facing midwifery and maternity services is even more dire. As a member of the Health and Social Care Committee I have met the Royal College of Midwives, which made clear its worries about the need for better investment in midwifery and maternity services, and its concerns about safe staffing levels in a workforce facing crisis. Those real concerns are borne out by the national review of maternity services, which found that 47% of services were rated as requiring improvement on safety grounds. That is not to say there are not bright spots of positivity, and I have nothing but praise for the work of Calderdale’s maternity services, which were fantastic and supportive at the births of both my children. However, the national picture is one of services that are stretched and midwives who are working extra hours to plug the gaps. At the end of last year, figures showed that more midwives than before have left the profession after five years or less. The story across the health service is, sadly, consistent, and that is the result of pressure in an NHS that Lord Darzi warned was on life support. That is why the NHS 10-year plan is even more vital and timely. It gives us not only a real opportunity to begin undoing 14 years of damage to our health service, but the chance to rebalance our health system and focus on different priorities that have been long neglected, be that maternity services or mental health. Women who access maternity services often do so at a time when they feel most vulnerable, and it is important that those services are there to protect them at that time.

• 24 Feb 2025 · Breakfast Clubs: Early Adopters · Hansard source

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  Stories of children arriving for lessons hungry are far too common in my constituency and across the country, and the issue was exacerbated by the massive rise in child poverty under the last Government. Because of the actions of this Labour Government, however, my constituency will see pilots in Cornholme junior, infant and nursery school, Scout Road academy, Elland Church of England junior, infant and nursery school, and Luddenden Church of England school. Will the Minister confirm that the child poverty strategy, when it is delivered, will build on that and make the scandal of children missing meals a thing of the past?

• 13 Feb 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  The Calder Valley line was listed as a top priority for improvements by Transport for the North’s electrification taskforce 10 years ago, back in 2015, yet my constituents are still waiting for those improvements. Will the Minister commit this Government to delivering the infrastructure for my constituents that the last Government could not?

• 11 Feb 2025 · Hinchingbrooke Hospital · Hansard source

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  Given that the Tory predecessor of the hon. Member for Huntingdon (Ben Obese-Jecty) failed to mention RAAC once, and mentioned Hinchingbrooke hospital only five times in 23 years, does the Minister agree that people in Huntingdon and across the country need a Labour Government committed to rebuilding the NHS, not a Tory Government who pay lip service but fail to back it up?

• 5 Feb 2025 · Domestic Violence Prevention Services · Hansard source

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  In her 2022 report, the Domestic Abuse Commissioner warned of “A Patchwork of Provision” in local services. Just six in 10 victims reported being able to access a helpline, and only four in 10 reported being able to obtain refuge accommodation. Local organisations such as WomenCentre Calderdale and Kirklees do fantastic work for my constituents, but not all victims and survivors have the right support when they need it. Will the Minister ensure that the upcoming violence against women and girls strategy includes a requirement for the Government to engage with the sector so that women across the country receive consistent care and support?

• 5 Feb 2025 · Domestic Violence Prevention Services · Hansard source

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  1. What assessment she has made with Cabinet colleagues of the accessibility of domestic violence prevention services for women.

• 4 Feb 2025 · National Cancer Plan · Hansard source

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  I welcome this plan. I note that it was a recommendation from the Health and Social Care Committee in the last Parliament, and, as a member of that Committee, I hope that it sets a precedent. Two weeks ago I lost my brother, Alex English, to high-grade acinic cell carcinoma. While I pay tribute to all those who gave him care, can the Minister confirm that we will look at rare cancers and make sure that we research some of them and find treatments?