Julie Minns MP: speeches 2025

Speeches

• 15 Jan 2025 · Rivers, Lakes and Seas: Water Quality · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Dowd. Hidden River Cabins is a wonderful local business in my constituency that offers secluded wooden cabins, tucked away in the beautiful Cumbrian countryside to the north of Carlisle. It is, quite frankly, a breathtaking place. As well as providing the perfect spot to unwind and relax, it has become hugely popular as a wedding venue. Part of its charm is the River Lyne, which runs nearby. I suspect that many newlyweds have taken a late-night dip in its lovely waters; I myself have swum near the cabins and can testify to the river’s restorative effect. Fortunately for locals and visitors, that stretch of the Lyne is one of the few places in my constituency where it is relatively safe to swim. That is not the case elsewhere in Carlisle and north Cumbria. In total, some 40 sites across my constituency were polluted in 2023, and it is fair to say that few people would look to start a cosy cabin business beside a sewage spot. That draws attention to another of the pernicious problems caused by pollution that the last Government allowed to flow unchecked under their watch. Sewage, of course, poses health risks to users of our waterways, and to the wildlife and plant life that relies on those waterways, but, as my hon. Friend the Member for East Thanet (Ms Billington) mentioned, there is also an economic cost. When our rivers are clean, people will want to visit them and spend time there, and entrepreneurs will want to start businesses, creating jobs and boosting local economies. We are blessed with many beautiful rivers, lakes and seas in this country. Each of them could be lined with flourishing businesses; instead, they are off limits, their utility reduced to just how much sewage they can accommodate. Thankfully, our Government are getting on with tackling the issue. The Water (Special Measures) Bill, which the Minister is currently piloting with such passion and grace, will give us increased powers to hold rogue actors to account. I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Monmouthshire (Catherine Fookes) for securing the debate; I share her hope that our rivers will soon be places where everyone can enjoy themselves.

• 6 Jan 2025 · Flooding · Hansard source

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  I have been personally affected by flooding. In 1985, our family home was flooded when the River Caldew in Carlisle burst its banks. I can testify, as we have already heard, to the terror and powerlessness that people feel when their home is invaded by water. Although over the past few weeks we have escaped flooding in Carlisle, tomorrow marks 20 years since Carlisle was flooded and three residents, Margaret Threlkeld, Margaret Porter and Michael Scott, lost their lives. At that point, the Labour Government commissioned and completed flood defences, but they proved insufficient to hold back the River Eden in 2015, and the city was flooded again. Flood defences were commissioned but not completed by the last Government. Does the Minister agree that it is unacceptable that the residents of Carlisle have been left unprotected as a result of the last Government’s inaction?

• 6 Jan 2025 · NHS Backlog · Hansard source

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  Happy new year, Madam Deputy Speaker. Before I begin, I declare an interest, in that my daughter is an NHS nurse. My Carlisle constituency includes Cumbria’s only city, but it also has a vast rural hinterland stretching from Rockcliffe in the west to the outer edge of the Northumberland national park in the east. Although my constituency’s rurality and relative geographic isolation make getting to appointments challenging, getting an appointment at all is by far the greatest challenge. As of October 2024, NHS North Cumbria’s waiting list stood at 43,000. As for the target of 92% of NHS patients being seen for elective treatment within 18 weeks, the rate was just 59%. However, in 2010, the figure was 93.5%. In 2010, public satisfaction with the NHS stood at 70%, the highest rate ever recorded. By 2023, it had hit an all-time low of 24%. Let us remind ourselves of what happened between 2010 and 2024. First, as my hon. Friend the Member for Ashford (Sojan Joseph) outlined, we had the disastrous Lansley reforms—reforms that the King’s Fund described as a “major distraction” for the NHS. They caused huge, unnecessary upheaval and created an “unwieldy” structure with “fractured leadership”. On top of those reforms, the Conservatives led a decade of under-investment in our health service. Spending grew by just 2% a year in real terms between 2010 and 2019, well below the long-term average in England of 3.8%, which we had seen since the 1980s. That meant that when covid struck, the NHS was already severely constrained in what it could do. The result is that overall waiting lists have risen to three times their 2010 levels, and 18 weeks is now more like 18 months. That is the record after 14 years of the Conservative Government, and why I am relieved that our NHS is no longer in the Conservatives’ hands. As the Prime Minister set out today, this Government have a plan. By creating millions of extra appointments, we will finally get to grips with our backlog and give back millions of people their lives and livelihoods. I am delighted that there is recognition of the importance of providing services close to people, which is vital in rural constituencies like mine. That, and the injection of £26 billion into the NHS, will make a real difference for millions of people across the country. We are already seeing that difference in Carlisle, with the approval of a new £12 million urgent treatment centre at the Cumberland infirmary, which is set to open by the end of this year. I am also delighted that north Cumbria will be one of the beneficiaries of a new £45 million pot set aside to create health and growth accelerators. These will not just improve health outcomes locally, but research the most effective approaches to helping people back into work and to standing on their own feet. That is Labour’s plan in action. This Government will set the shattered bones of our NHS.