Josh Newbury MP: speeches

Speeches

• 8 Sept 2026 · Israel and Palestine · Hansard source

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  Palestinians in the west bank have told the world of being held at gunpoint, of blockades, and of searchlights and lasers being shone into their homes and at their livestock. Given that the integrity of the E1 zone is essential for a two-state solution, does the Foreign Secretary agree that the international community should do whatever it can to prevent settler occupation, and that settlements constructed there should be dismantled as part of the peaceful future that we all want to see?

• 7 Sept 2026 · Surrogacy Law and Legal Parenthood · Hansard source

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  The hon. Lady and I are very much on the same wavelength; I was about to move on to that. On the carefully formulated proposals the Law Commission came forward with, it has been through that debate and has struck a fair balance. It recommended a new regulated pathway under which intended parents could become legal parents from birth, but with screening and safeguards, while retaining parental orders for cases where court involvement is still necessary, as we have heard. I would like to acknowledge and thank the 268 of my Cannock Chase constituents who signed the petition—the highest number of signatures in the west midlands. I do not know the individual circumstances of those signatories: some might have experienced infertility, some might be part of the LGBT community and some might simply believe that our laws should better reflect the reality of modern families. However, the signatures of our constituents right across the country show us that this issue touches many more lives than we realise. I therefore welcome the Government’s recognition that the current pathway and delay to legal parenthood can cause some uncertainty. My ask is simply that we move the conversation and the debate forward. Will the Minister tell us whether discussions are taking place about how we might modernise the system and make sure our courts deal with the cases that genuinely require their time, while retaining the safeguards that matter to surrogates and children? Call me naive, Mr Pritchard, but I believe we can do both, and I hope this rich debate can be a step towards getting the balance right.

• 3 Sept 2026 · Vaccination Rates: England · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under you in the Chair, Mrs Barker. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Danny Beales) for securing the debate. I am the parent of two children who had plenty of vaccinations. One of them took it in her stride and the other made the biggest drama in the history of medicine, so I can appreciate why so many parents approach this topic with trepidation. Before this debate, my team and I spoke to staff working in the Cannock North primary care network, which covers seven practices in the most deprived part of my constituency, about their efforts to improve lagging vaccination rates. They told me that rates are quite good for young babies, but they start to fall off as children get older, so they are looking at how they can step in earlier. They have produced plain and simple leaflets that explain the symptoms that a child might experience if they are not vaccinated. Staff will still hear parents say, “Well, I wasn’t vaccinated against it,” or “I’ve never even heard of polio,” so they are tackling the false assumption that choosing not to vaccinate is safe. They are also looking at a simple sticker system for the red book as a quick visual reminder of the schedule. Relationships with health practitioners can also be vital, as we have heard. The PCN suggested that trained health visitors could provide early immunisation, which I know is being trialled in other parts of England. The more hurdles we can remove, the better. That brings me to neighbourhood health centres, where services could be joined up and accessible. I agree with the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent ICB and NHS Property Services that Cannock and Rugeley would both be prime spots for centres. We know that vaccination programmes delivered strictly through GP practices see up to 27% lower uptake in deprived areas, whereas accessible pharmacy, community and neighbourhood programmes narrow that gap to as little as 7%. The lesson I took from speaking to the Cannock North PCN team is that improving vaccination rates does not necessarily require one huge intervention. Finally, I would like to finish by raising a funding issue with the Minister. Since funding for childhood immunisations moved to the quality and outcomes framework, practices receive the funding only if they meet the 96% target. In a deprived area with a significant Traveller community, like Chadsmoor, that can be incredibly difficult. Practices can spend significant time and money contacting families but still find themselves falling well short. For example, a practice could move from 70% to 80% after a huge effort but still receive no funding. I ask the Minister whether QOF could recognise progress in closing health inequalities, rather than just rewarding in-built advantage. Clearly, the route to achieving high vaccination rates will look a bit different in every community. The practices I have spoken to are doing brilliant work despite funding disadvantages, and I wonder whether we could see outstanding outcomes in Cannock Chase and right across the country if we put rocket boosters under the innovation that we already see right across primary care.

• 3 Sept 2026 · Churches: Financial Viability · Hansard source

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  Whether it is holding coffee mornings to bring people together, stepping in to provide activities for young people where council services have disappeared, or providing affordable spaces for community groups, our churches are part of the fabric of Cannock Chase, but what they do carries a cost. One parish in my constituency saw its parish share reduced from £35,000 to £15,000, yet even that lower figure required it to draw on reserves, which are now exhausted. What assessment have the Church Commissioners made of how many parishes are in a similar situation, and what support might be available to those churches once their reserves have run out?

• 16 Jul 2026 · Sir David Amess Summer Adjournment · Hansard source

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  Like many colleagues who have spoken, I pay tribute to Sir David Amess. Today, I make a speech that I never thought I would have to make, to pay tribute to a good friend, Councillor Shanika Mahendran, who passed away on 1 July at the age of just 28. I met Shanika in 2022 on the Next Generation programme run by the Local Government Association’s Labour group. Although I wondered why I was among such an incredibly talented cohort, it was plain to see why Shanika was. Despite being a relatively new councillor, she was clearly destined for an outstanding career in local government, and anything that she put her mind to. She was particularly passionate about planning, placemaking and her beloved home city of Milton Keynes. As a young woman of colour in politics, Shanika faced condescension and sexism that no one should, particularly given that she was outstanding in all the roles she held. Despite that, Shanika carried a lot of self-doubt, but one of the joys of knowing her was seeing her confidence gradually blossom into a realisation of the enormous contribution she made. That is why we were devastated to hear, towards the end of June, that Shanika had been diagnosed with a rare and aggressive brain tumour. Such is the cruel speed at which this condition can move that Shanika was with us for just one week after we heard that news. I do not think that Shanika’s loss has really sunk in yet, but I wanted to make this speech because, above all, she was someone who believed in doing things, not just saying things. I hope that sharing her story can shine a light on the experience of thousands of others. Brain tumours remain the biggest cancer killer of children and adults under 40, yet fewer than 13% of adults diagnosed with a high-grade tumour will survive beyond five years, and the condition accounts for just 3.2% of national cancer research funding. There are more than 120 types of brain and central nervous system tumours, making them particularly difficult to identify quickly. The Brain Tumour Charity found that 41% of patients visited their GP three or more times before receiving a diagnosis. I welcome the Government’s commitment to improve outcomes through the national cancer plan, including by investing in the national Brain Tumour Research Consortium. Researchers are developing new approaches, from immunotherapies to personalised medicine, but many promising breakthroughs have yet to reach the bedside and we need to do more to support that. In Shanika’s memory, we can back earlier diagnosis and more research to ensure that every patient has access to the best possible care. Before I completely go to pieces, I will finish with a few words from a poem by David Harkins that was sent around our Next Generation cohort by Councillor Lorna Fielker: “You can shed tears that she is gone, Or you can smile because she has lived. You can close your eyes and pray that she will come back, Or you can open your eyes and see all that she has left”.

• 16 Jul 2026 · Local Government Reorganisation · Hansard source

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  Like many in Cannock Chase, I am glad that this reorganisation, which no one asked for and no one voted for, is finally nearing its conclusion. It is fair to say there was not a whole lot of consensus on council boundaries in Staffordshire, but there is consensus on wanting a combined authority, so that we can seize the opportunities open to other parts of England and turbocharge growth in our incredible county. Will the Secretary of State give me some reassurance that we can get on with this as quickly as possible, for the benefit of the people of Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent?

• 9 Jul 2026 · Lobular Breast Cancer: Moon Shot Project · Hansard source

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  It is a real pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Hobhouse. Thank you for the reminder. I very sincerely thank the hon. Member for Horsham (John Milne) for leading the effort to secure this debate and for his incredibly powerful speech. His recounting of Susan’s final visit to Parliament and the words of her husband, Tristan, was very moving indeed. He has done Susan, her loved ones and the thousands of supporters of her campaign proud today. I too welcome Tristan, Susan’s aunt Sally and her cousin Andrew to Parliament. Tristan kindly shared with us the briefing that he prepared for Members ahead of the debate. I know that many of us have drawn on it this afternoon and absorbed it. Susan had just one symptom: one tiny millimetre-long mark on her breast. She had no pain and no lump—none of the warning signs that many of us have been told to look out for. But that tiny mark concealed something a lot bigger: 7 cm of invasive lobular breast cancer. There is something profoundly cruel about that. The disease was growing silently while every reassuring scan understandably gave Susan and her family reason to believe that everything was fine. As we heard, incredibly, nine days before she passed away, Susan launched the scientific programme for the Lobular Moon Shot Project. Even while facing the unimaginable, she was looking beyond herself and fighting to ensure that other families might one day be spared what hers endured. I have no doubt that she would be immensely proud to see her family and her Member of Parliament continuing that work in her memory. Since I was elected, 14 of my constituents have contacted me about breast cancer. They felt compelled to write to me because this disease touched their lives or the lives of somebody they love. One in particular contacted me in every way she could to command my attention and make sure I signed up to this campaign. If my two years in this House have taught me anything, it is that for every person who writes to us, hundreds more are affected but, for whatever reason, do not write in. I would be surprised if there is anybody in this Chamber whose life has not been shaped in some way by cancer. My family unexpectedly lost my wonderful aunt during the pandemic, after her cancer was spotted too late. It reaches into every family, every community and every constituency. I am sure most of us know somebody whose chair at the dinner table is empty because of cancer, or someone who is still sitting there because it was found in time. That is the difference that early diagnosis makes. A cancer diagnosis is literally a race against time. Every second of delay gives cancer a head start that it really does not need. Our NHS can only fight with the tools that we give it. If those tools cannot see a disease or cannot treat it properly, we cannot expect patients to get the outcomes that they deserve. Invasive lobular breast cancer accounts for about 15% of all breast cancer diagnoses, and yet there are still no treatments development specifically for it. Across the world, 1,000 people are diagnosed with the disease every single day, and for them this debate is about far more than statistics; it is about whether future patients hear the words, “We found it early,” rather than, “If only we had got it sooner.” Cancer is a race against time, and every missed diagnosis gives the disease a head start. As we have heard, the Lobular Moon Shot Project seeks just £20 million over five years to better understand the biology of the disease and develop targeted treatments. It has already secured the support of hundreds of Members of this House. That level of cross-party support reflects a belief that patients with this horrendous disease deserve to be seen and understood, and to benefit from research that gives them the same hope as every other breast cancer patient. That was Dr Susan Michaelis’s mission, and that was her call to us. As the hon. Member for Horsham said, we have a window of opportunity to do that, and I hope that every possible effort is made to seize it.

• 6 Jul 2026 · Environmental Protection · Hansard source

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  Cannock Chase knows all too well the impact of waste crime, and especially that of fly-tipping. Residents of Norton Canes and Little Wyrley in particular find that our country lanes, easily accessible from Walsall and Wolverhampton, are blighted by illegal dumps that are often huge and dangerous. I know that the Minister is passionate about tackling these vile crimes, and she is right to say that the current system is simply not fit for purpose. I am glad that she highlighted the case of Beau Vine, the Charolais-cross cow owned by Ann Maidment, the director of CLA South West, which, although humorous, highlighted the stark holes in our current system. I very much welcome the robust new system, which will be in line with much of the rest of the waste sector. The public have rightly been calling for background and competence checks so we can have confidence in those whom we trust with our waste. In this context, I am always reminded of an elderly constituent who came to me when I was a district councillor in Norton Canes. She had contacted a waste carrier, checked his licence to make sure that—as she saw it—he was legit, and handed over her waste and her money. A few weeks later, she was contacted by the council because her waste had been dumped, along with that of others, not 3 miles away in a rural part of our community. She was distraught, and told me that she would never have been intentionally careless about who she gave her waste to. Thankfully, in the end she was able to help identify the criminal who had exploited her and he was prosecuted, but many of our constituents end up paying the price under the current system. I pay tribute to the environmental protection team at Cannock Chase district council. As a cabinet member, I saw at first hand the brilliant work that they do. They are more effective than those in many Tory-controlled neighbouring councils. I hope that the new Reform administration continues Labour’s long-standing backing for their work, and that local government reorganisation brings others up to their top-notch standard. The regulations will give us the structures that we need to root out waste criminals, from sole traders all the way up to organised crime groups, which, as we have heard, are increasingly moving into waste crime as a whole business model. I welcome stronger powers for the Environment Agency, particularly the ability to revoke permits, which I hope will act as a powerful disincentive—something that we lacked before this Government came to office. I am particularly happy to see the requirement for the visibility of permit numbers—on vans, for example. This weekend, I met business owners who run high street shops in Hednesford and Rugeley to discuss various illegal practices happening on the high street. The Minister will not be surprised to hear that among them was waste crime. One told me of a business that regularly dumps its waste “out the back” in black bags—probably including electrical waste, because the business sells vapes. It is picked up by an unmarked van, and goes who knows where. Meanwhile, the business owners I spoke to have bins that are fully compliant, because they take their responsibilities seriously, and they want to know that others who do not will be hauled over the coals. This is not just about fly-tipping at beauty spots in protected landscapes like Cannock Chase and idyllic hamlets like Little Wyrley; it is about fly-tipping in our high streets and town centres. Wherever waste crime occurs, the regulations will be another plank in the Government’s strategy to crack down on this vile criminality, so that our constituents can see the back of these blights on our communities.