Kim Johnson MP: speeches 2025

Speeches

• 14 Oct 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

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  I welcome the Prime Minister’s statement today, and I welcome the ceasefire and the release of hostages as part of this historic but fragile peace deal. I also welcome the release of Palestinian women and children who were held in Israeli military prisons without trial. What steps will the Government take to ensure that justice and accountability is made a reality for all victims of international law violations in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories?

• 13 Oct 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I am pleased that Everton East in my constituency will receive £20 million in Pride in Place funding. Does my hon. Friend agree that the Pride in Place programme not only talks about devolution, but delivers it?

• 11 Sept 2025 · UK Ambassador to the US: Appointment Process · Hansard source

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  I would also like to offer my support to my hon. Friend the Member for Washington and Gateshead South (Mrs Hodgson). That incident follows a number of others that she has experienced this week. It is out of order. I thank the Minister for his statement, and I am really pleased that Lord Mandelson has been sacked, but I would like to know what due diligence was undertaken prior to his appointment. Everybody knew about his relationship with Epstein before it.

• 11 Sept 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  I think I am the only MP who can say they have two amazing football stadiums and two majestic cathedrals in their constituency. Liverpool Riverside is in the top 10 areas nationally for jobs, economic income and economic value. However, the hospitality sector is still struggling to recover from covid and the rise in national insurance contributions. Will the Leader of the House allow for a debate in Government time to discuss how we can bring the UK closer to EU competitors by reducing VAT and providing the maximum discount for hospitality sites with a rateable value of under £500,000, to stimulate demand, boost competitiveness and keep venues open?

• 11 Sept 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  The Liverpool city region Mayor, Steve Rotheram, has submitted a new town bid with Liverpool and Sefton councils, to regenerate the most deprived areas of the country. Does the Minister agree that for new towns to succeed, there needs to be proper funding for integrated transport, and will he commit to working and meeting with the mayor and the politicians to make that happen?

• 11 Sept 2025 · Life Sciences Investment · Hansard source

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  Life sciences play a significant role in the economy and public health initiatives across the Liverpool city region. It was a blow earlier this year when AstraZeneca pulled out of the £450 million deal to expand its plant in Speke. How is the Department supporting the Liverpool City Mayor and the life sciences investment zone to build confidence and secure greater investment for the sector?

• 10 Sept 2025 · Qatar: Israeli Strike · Hansard source

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  This morning on Radio 4, an Israeli politician, Fleur Hassan-Nahoum, offered no apology for the Israeli attacks on Qatar and could not explain what makes Israel exempt from international law and able to act with impunity. How does the Minister justify the genocidal comments of President Herzog? These individuals must be held accountable. What we are seeing is not diplomacy—it is shameful complicity. Does the Minister agree that today’s meeting with Herzog should never have taken place?

• 9 Sept 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  As the sixth richest economy in the world, we should not have 4.5 million children living in poverty. The former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has proposed raising £3 billion by looking at reforming gambling taxation. Will the Chancellor consider undertaking those reforms so that we can end the epidemic of child poverty?

• 8 Sept 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  How will the Government ensure that Cammell Laird’s shipbuilding expertise and workforce are fully integrated into the defence industrial strategy, in order to both strengthen sovereign capability and support skilled jobs in the north-west?

• 8 Sept 2025 · Palestine Action: Proscription and Protests · Hansard source

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  Hundreds of people have now been arrested for terror offences, facing up to 14 years’ imprisonment, for no more than peacefully holding a placard. Most are elderly, and many are healthcare workers, priests and ordinary working people. All are prepared to risk severe punishment for doing what our Government have failed to do. The proscription of Palestine Action is an authoritarian attack on the right to protest. It is absurd, unworkable and unsustainable. Will the Minister, and the new Home Secretary, consider the Government’s position?

• 3 Sept 2025 · Duty of Candour for Public Authorities and Legal Representation for Bereaved Families · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for securing this important debate and for all the amazing work he has done on this subject for such a long time. Does he agree that if the Hillsborough law is not delivered as promised, it will be a massive betrayal of not only the people of Liverpool, the families and the survivors, but the whole country?

• 3 Sept 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T7. Shelter’s “My colour speaks before me” report highlights systemic discrimination in access to housing, from disproportionate scrutiny of applicants to barriers in both social and private rented housing. How are the Government ensuring that tackling structural racism is at the heart of housing reform and this Government’s policies?

• 2 Sept 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T8. Given that the UK is the penholder for Yemen, will the Minister explain why the Government continue to support Israel when it has admitted to the killing of Yemen’s Prime Minister and other Ministers and is causing widespread devastation? What steps have the Government taken to support Yemen in achieving peace, reconstruction and development, and in ending the humanitarian crisis?

• 1 Sept 2025 · Borders and Asylum · Hansard source

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  The Home Secretary said in her statement that she will never “seek to stir up chaos, division or hate”, yet that is what we have seen this summer. The far right are emboldened, because of racism and demonisation in the media and from politicians. Instead of scapegoating refugees and asylum seekers, perhaps the Home Secretary needs to be thinking about more humane policies, including safe routes, employment and the right to remain. Can she explain whether these policies have been, or will be, considered?

• 22 Jul 2025 · Orgreave Inquiry · Hansard source

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  As the chair of the all-party parliamentary group for miscarriages of justice and a lifelong trade unionist, I welcome the long overdue announcement of a statutory inquiry into Orgreave and pay tribute to all who have campaigned for truth and justice, particularly the Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign. However, given the serious concerns about evidence that has been destroyed, tampered with or withheld, will the Minister confirm that any inquiry will be underpinned by a clear legal duty of candour to guarantee full transparency and accountability on the part of all those involved, including the police and former Government officials, so that the victims and campaigners receive the full answers that they deserve?

• 21 Jul 2025 · Infected Blood Inquiry: Additional Report · Hansard source

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  Victims, survivors and campaigners have been fighting for decades for truth and justice due to cover-ups by public servants. Last year, the Prime Minister called for a duty of candour law to prevent future cover-ups, such as the infected blood and Post Office scandals, and I could not agree more. But if we are to restore trust in the state, does the Minister agree that it is high time for a Hillsborough law to be implemented in full, as promised by the Prime Minister last September?

• 14 Jul 2025 · Council Tax Revenue: Student Accommodation · Hansard source

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  Liverpool is a university city, and I have three universities in my constituency. Liverpool city council is estimated to lose £9 million in council tax revenue each year due to student exemptions. Will the Minister explain when and how those anomalies will be dealt with, so that the council does not lose that amount of funding every year?

• 9 Jul 2025 · Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill · Hansard source

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  Today, I rise not just with a heavy heart, but with huge disappointment. Despite the concessions made last week, the Bill remains a danger to disabled people, and it is not just a bad policy, but economically reckless. When we take away essential support, we do not reduce costs; we shift those costs on to the NHS, local authorities, unpaid carers and working-class communities. Despite the hard-won concessions, this Bill remains an assault on disabled people. It is not a strategy for inclusion or support; it is a calculated effort to slash funding and vital support from those of our constituents who need it the most. According to the Government’s own impact assessment, it will mean £2 billion-worth of cuts, which are set to cost around 700,000 future universal credit recipients an average of £3,000 each year by 2030. The Bill will push 50,000 people into poverty and will be disastrous for people already living in poverty. I was not elected as a Labour MP to take money out of the pockets of the poorest and most vulnerable.

• 8 Jul 2025 · Prison Education · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for his response. However, 82% of prisons and young offenders institutions have been rated as “requires improvement” or “inadequate” by Ofsted on education, skills and work provision. Despite that, the prison education service still outsources the same poorly performing contracts to poorly performing providers, and prison educators are paid less than educators in further education settings, causing a crisis in recruitment and retention, according to the Education Committee. When we will see the greatest insourcing in a generation, and will the Minister consider insourcing prison education with proper pay, terms and conditions for prison educators?

• 8 Jul 2025 · Prison Education · Hansard source

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  20. What steps she is taking to improve the quality of prison education.

• 2 Jul 2025 · Prevention and Suppression of Terrorism · Hansard source

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  Today’s push to proscribe Palestine Action, a non-violent direct action group, as a terrorist organisation is a disastrous turning point of historic proportions. It risks undermining existing prosecution cases against activities by Palestine Action activists and is legally dubious. Human and civil rights organisations, lawyers and UN experts have all spoken out against the misuse of terrorism laws, calling the move unjustified and warning of a chilling effect on protest and advocacy generally, especially in relation to the defence of human rights and international law in Palestine. We have already seen the chilling effect on protest. Palestine Solidarity Campaign has been prevented from protesting outside Parliament this evening, with police placing restrictions on the demo and pushing it further down Whitehall. For hundreds of years, protests outside Parliament have gone ahead. Limiting dissent in this way should concern us all, and we have seen that in the last couple of weeks in relation to the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, abortion and the empty welfare cuts. The question that Members of this House must ask ourselves today is whether non-violent political groups should ever be designated as a terror threat. If Palestine Action is proscribed this week—

• 2 Jul 2025 · Prevention and Suppression of Terrorism · Hansard source

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  No, I will not. By the weekend, anyone with a branded t-shirt or bag could face a terrorism charge. Amnesty International has flagged that if Palestine Action is proscribed this week, even meeting their lawyers to discuss intervening in judicial review proceedings could see its members fall foul of counter-terror legislation. Those are all examples of potential grounds for prosecution under counter-terrorism laws if Palestine Action is proscribed, which could come to constituents who are not members of the organisation and have never engaged in direct action. The scope of what we are talking about is insanely broad. Will the Government really demand that we vote to criminalise our constituents in that way? Proscribing Palestine Action today would set a dangerous precedent for future Government misuse of counter-terror laws. It would be the first group proscribed mainly for serious damage to property and the first proscribed direct action group. Proscription is neither necessary nor proportionate. We already have sufficient criminal legislation that has always dealt with this when necessary and the Home Secretary has provided no impact assessment as “no, or no significant, impact on the private, voluntary or public sectors is foreseen.” However, we have received no reassurances about how the proportionality test has been applied or whether unintended impacts on the wider pro-Palestine movement were considered by the Home Office and the proscription review group. Indeed, we have heard from civil rights groups that there have allegedly been meetings with representatives from the Israeli Government and arms companies such as Elbit, but none with human rights groups. Whether or not Members of this House debating and voting on this statutory instrument today agree with the methods or aims of Palestine Action, we should all be able to agree that lumping Palestine Action together with the other two obscure groups to ensure that it is proscribed is a disgraceful manipulation of parliamentary procedure. Searching Hansard , I see that neither of the other two groups has been mentioned, as they are so obscure. This manoeuvre is transparent, and it shows that the Government know just how shaky this proscription is. Today they come for Palestine Action. If this measure is passed today, who and what will be next? I look forward to the Minister answering the concerns we have raised, particularly about the three organisations being grouped together.

• 2 Jul 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Q5. I have a follow-on question. The Prime Minister visited my constituency in 2022 and told families that“one of my first acts will be to put the Hillsborough law on the statute book.”He repeated the same promise at conference last year, saying that the Bill would be published on the anniversary in April. That did not happen. However, the Government are now planning to table a watered-down version that does not deserve to be named a “Hillsborough law”. After PMQs, my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool West Derby (Ian Byrne) will seek to introduce the real Hillsborough law. Can the Prime Minister finally honour his promise and back the law in full? If not, why not?

• 1 Jul 2025 · Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is making a very good speech, and we are here as legislators. Does she agree that the fact that we have been denied the opportunity to scrutinise the Bill denies us the opportunity to make it right for disabled people?

• 25 Jun 2025 · Criminal Justice · Hansard source

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  I thank my good friend, the Chair of the Justice Committee, for his excellent speech and for securing this debate. I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in it and I declare my interest as chair of the all-party parliamentary group for miscarriages of justice. I welcome the estimate and the commitment in the spending review, but I want to focus my remarks on an area of grave concern: Ministry of Justice spending on criminal justice—and, more specifically, the adequate prevention and correction of miscarriages of justice. What is the value of justice if innocent people are still being convicted, imprisoned and left to rot in our criminal justice system? The sad truth is that for all the billions we debate today, the Ministry is failing in one of its most fundamental duties: ensuring that innocent people are protected from wrongful conviction and supported when the system fails them. Miscarriages of justice are not theoretical; they are real and ongoing, and they destroy lives. Andrew Malkinson was wrongfully imprisoned for 17 years for a crime he did not commit. He was exonerated last year, but only after a tortuous journey through a system that was more interested in protecting itself than uncovering the truth. Peter Sullivan, wrongfully convicted of murder, spent 38 years in prison before being exonerated only last month. He is a victim of the longest miscarriage of justice involving a living prisoner in British legal history. These cases expose deep systemic flaws and happened in plain sight, but across the country individuals are experiencing criminalisation and injustice without proper recourse. Their names do not always make the headlines, but their stories are no less important. Miscarriages of justice are not rare accidents; sadly, they are now an inevitable consequence of a failing system stripped of its checks and balances. At the heart of that system is the Criminal Cases Review Commission—a body that was designed to be the safety net, to identify where the system had gone wrong and to help innocent people find justice. Yet the CCRC is in crisis. In May, the Justice Committee published a damning indictment of its leadership and performance. It stated that the CCRC had shown “a remarkable inability to learn from its own mistakes” and that it had “deteriorated significantly” in its ability to fulfil its vital function. The Committee concluded that “root and branch reform” is required, and it is found in the clearest possible terms that it was untenable for the current chief executive Karen Kneller to remain in post. That is not political rhetoric; it is a cross-party Committee of this House carrying out its scrutiny function and reaching deeply troubling conclusions. The CCRC’s failures come at a terrible cost, not only to those wrongfully convicted but to public confidence in the rule of law. Every year that it fails to identify miscarriages, innocent people remain behind bars, their lives on hold or, worse, permanently destroyed. But I also want to acknowledge a step in the right direction. I welcome the appointment of Dame Vera Baird KC as the interim chair of the CCRC. Dame Vera has a long and respected record of championing justice and accountability. I hope her leadership marks a turning point, and I look forward to seeing real progress, not just in leadership, but in culture, performance and independence. For that to happen, the Government must take these responsibilities seriously. Reform cannot come on the cheap. The CCRC must be properly resourced and empowered to do the job it was created to do, because until we properly fund our safeguard, miscarriages of justice will continue, the human cost will remain unbearable and the financial cost unsustainable. I also want to touch on two areas critical to justice: legal aid and forensic sciences. Since 2010, funding has been slashed by hundreds of millions of pounds, and access to justice and representation is now a postcode lottery. We are seeing the collapse of criminal defence provision across England and Wales. There are now entire areas with no local legal aid solicitors, which disproportionately affects those from marginalised groups—those most vulnerable to miscarriages of justice. Forensic science, which was once the gold standard, has been fragmented and degraded. A three-year inquiry into forensics set up by the APPG for miscarriages of justice recently concluded that the sector is in a “graveyard spiral”, leading to poor police investigations, increasing numbers of unsolved crimes and more wrongful convictions. Evidence shows that our system continues to fail to ensure not only the prevention of miscarriages of justice, but their speedy identification and resolution when they do occur. We support calls for a full national audit of forensic provision to access the urgent support needed to prevent further decline and to protect future investigations and trials from preventable failure. Let me turn to prisons and the chronic underfunding that is failing staff and those in custody. At the justice unions parliamentary group yesterday, I heard at first hand about the crisis in prison education. According to Ofsted, 82% of prisons and young offender institutions are rated “inadequate” or “requires improvement” for education, skills and work provision. Prison educators are paid less than their counterparts in the wider further education sector. The Education Committee warned in 2022 that poor pay, unsafe working environments and a lack of respect have driven a recruitment and retention crisis. That is unacceptable. Education is one of the most powerful tools for rehabilitation, yet we are underfunding and undervaluing the very people delivering it. The same is true of prison maintenance. Privatisation has been a costly failure. Basic repairs remain undone, squalor is widespread and the maintenance backlog is estimated to cost nearly £2 billion. I support the POA’s “Bring it Back” campaign for insourcing prison maintenance. The promised biggest wave of insourcing in a generation must start here. In our crumbling prisons, where contracts have failed, conditions are decaying and dangerous for both staff and prisoners. I also support the POA’s campaign on retirement age. Asking officers to work until they are 68 in such a high-stress, high-risk environment is simply unsustainable. Sixty-eight is simply too late. We are debating how to spend £18 billion in the Ministry of Justice, but money alone is not the issue; it is about priorities. If the very foundations of justice are crumbling, every other investment is undermined. The criminal justice system continues to fail innocent people. Chronic underfunding has rendered safeguards weak and ineffective. Leadership has been absent where it was most needed, and time and again the system refuses to admit it when it gets things wrong. Miscarriages of justice are not tragic accidents. They are the inevitable consequence of a system that is under-resourced, poorly led and structurally resistant to scrutiny. Every wrongful conviction is not just a personal tragedy, but a betrayal of our legal system and the values it claims to uphold. Justice denied to one is justice denied to all. Let us invest not just in buildings, but in truth; not just in processes, but in people. Above all, let us put real justice—not convenience or cost-cutting—at the heart of everything the Ministry of Justice does.