Lewis Atkinson MP: speeches

Speeches

• 8 Jun 2026 · Progression of Bills through Parliament · Hansard source

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  I will finish my point. Fundamentally, the question is whether we can achieve social change in this country through parliamentary means, or not. I will just go back to how Sophie, the key petitioner, felt. She summed it up in the following way: “I’m living with incurable cancer and I know how precious time becomes when you’re facing the end of life. Watching Parliament waste that time because of the actions of a tiny number of unelected politicians is heartbreaking”. It is not that the House of Lords was improving the Bill. It may have been in some cases, but the fact that the House of Lords, in 16 days, did not divide once and decide on one amendment—

• 15 Dec 2025 · Online Safety Act 2023: Repeal · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair for the conclusion of this debate, Sir John. I thank all Members for their contributions. I think that we had a really constructive and thorough debate, and I certainly learned a lot in the course of it. I only wish that I had heard some of the contributions before I wrote my opening speech. I particularly thank the Minister for being so generous with his time in giving a thorough response and taking interventions, which I think gave us significant insight. The contributions from the Liberal Democrat spokesperson, the hon. Member for Harpenden and Berkhamsted (Victoria Collins), were thoughtfully made, and the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Hornchurch and Upminster (Julia Lopez), clearly brought to the debate her expertise on this subject. I think that the points about the wider impacts on mental health and wellbeing of the new online world will be particularly relevant as the Government think more widely about the approach to mental health in their strategy, which I hope will be forthcoming. I can say, as the Minister did, that my only regret is that the few Members of the House who have publicly called for outright repeal of the Online Safety Act were not here this afternoon to give their perspective and to engage with the thoroughness that I think all Members present have engaged. I have a final couple of reflections. I think that everyone I have heard in this space and debate has been motivated by a desire to preserve rights and our British values, whether it be rights to freedom of speech, freedom of expression or freedom of association, including through small online spaces and forums, but as my hon. Friend the Member for Worcester (Tom Collins) rightly said in his excellent contribution, safe spaces online open up space for further freedoms, and the freedoms of children cannot be infringed by freedoms for adults. It was really shocking to hear the extent of the harms that children are suffering in the current environment. I think that the motivations behind this petition were not about that at all, but it was very much about making sure that the freedoms of association that we hold dear in this country are able to be continued online through small forums. I welcome the Minister’s assurance that the Government see ample space for small and independent providers in the future as part of that. A reflection that I had in the course of the debate is that increasingly we are talking about safety by design, but a lot of online forums came about in a world in which there was no safety by design. Part of the implementation issue is that the tech being used for online forums is probably 10 or 15 years old in relation to message boards. If a new message board were being set up today, with the use of new tech standards, I would hope that safety by design would be much more embedded, and the responsibilities that fall to individual volunteers and administrators would be lessened as a result. It is entirely natural that the first attempt at regulation and legislation will not get everything right and that it will require evolution. The Online Safety Act was a landmark attempt to regulate online harms, but I think it is fair to say that the consensus that we have heard today is that it needs to evolve—that we should be looking not to repeal the Act but to evolve at pace and ensure implementation at pace, so that we tackle online harms in a way that is consistent with our British values and the freedoms of expression and association that we have heard about. It only remains for me to thank again Mr Baynham, the creator of the petition, and all the petitioners for their online engagement—I have to say—in the petition process, without which today’s really informative debate would not have occurred. Question put and agreed to. Resolved, That this House has considered e-petition 722903 relating to the Online Safety Act.

• 26 Nov 2025 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source

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  On putting up taxes, a household living in a band A property in Sunderland that is worth £50,000 currently pays more council tax than one living in a £50 million property in Westminster. Do the hon. Gentleman and his Reform UK colleagues agree that reforming the system to increase council tax for those in higher bands is a good tax change to make in order to reduce people’s energy bills and to take 2,000 kids in Sunderland Central out of poverty?

• 15 Jul 2025 · Sustainable Aviation Fuel Bill (Second sitting) · Hansard source

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  Q I am neither a chemist nor an aviation policy expert, so I will ask my questions from the perspective of my constituents in Sunderland. Looking at this policy area, they would be interested in the potential impacts on jobs and airfares. On jobs, could you say a little more about what you think the potential upside is in areas like mine? On airfares, can you confirm that clause 10, which deals with the payment of potential surpluses back to levy payers, creates the potential for downward pressure on airfares, depending on where the strike price ends up? Mike Kane: First, you have been a big supporter of sustainable aviation fuel in your constituency, because you have the Wastefront tyre-to-fuel plant, so your constituency is already benefitting from jobs that have been created by that company. The Bill also allows us to scale up the technologies that we want to use, which could be of particular benefit to the north-east. I am also the maritime Minister, and we have announced £1 billion investment at the Port of Tyne for LS Cables, and Teesport is about to announce big investments in sustainability as part of our clean energy mission. The mayor, Kim McGuinness, is absolutely tied into this agenda, and using the whole north-east coast to support our green energy mission is vital. You are absolutely right that the pressure on ticket prices could be downward. Very recently, there was an article in The Sunday Times by the International Airlines Group, which hedged its SAF supplies a long time ago in advance of this. It says that it will now, as an airline, have a competitive advantage in the price of ticketing over the next few years, because it got SAF at the right price at the right time.

• 15 Jul 2025 · Sustainable Aviation Fuel Bill (First sitting) · Hansard source

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  Q Building on the point Mr Ervine made about the potential wider economic contribution of SAF, I am particularly interested in the jobs. We have heard that 70% of existing fuel is imported, and therefore a significant part of your economic supply chain is essentially providing economic benefit overseas. Could you say a little more about—if we get this off the ground, as it were—how far you think that value chain and economic benefit will shift into the UK from imports? In particular, could you talk about the potential regional economic benefits of SAF, as opposed to being concentrated on London and the south-east? Jonathon Counsell: From our modelling and analysis, we still want to have the flexibility to import SAF, because there is a global market there and we do not want to put ourselves at a competitive disadvantage by saying that all mandated SAF has to be produced in the UK. We still want access to imported SAF, particularly 1G SAF; we do not think the UK has much competitive advantage in producing 1G SAF. We think roughly 50% feels about right, and you have to compare it around that. Our view is that, of the mandated SAF, approximately 50% should be produced here in the UK—but, as I said earlier, not all of that will need the revenue certainty mechanism. One of the key points that I want to make is that the revenue certainty mechanism is for those plants that cannot get funding: they are early stage, first-of-their-kind technology, and cannot get tracker funding because it is perceived to be too high risk by the investment market, and they cannot get that revenue certainty through any other mechanism, so therefore they rely on this mechanism. We think that roughly half of that 50% will need the revenue certainty mechanism. A good example is LanzaJet in Teesside, the speedboat project that I mentioned earlier. That does not need the revenue certainty mechanism because we at IAG are providing the company with a long-term committed take-or-pay offer. We are giving the revenue certainty to LanzaJet, so that project does not need it; but other projects do, typically including the municipal solid waste projects that take black bag waste. They are at a very early stage, using less mature technology, and they are massively capital intense projects. They definitely need the revenue certainty mechanism, so we must ensure that it is targeted. As Luke said, we think that by 2030 there could potentially be 10,000 extra jobs in the UK from that UK production. We can share a piece of analysis that we did through Sustainable Aviation that showed what that looks like for each region of the UK. We think there is certainly potential to build plants in Wearside, Teesside, Humberside and south Wales; if we get the policy right, we think there could be up to 14 plants within the next 10 years, which will deliver £1.8 billion in GVA by 2030. However, the big prize will come in 2050: 60,000 jobs and £10 billion in GVA. We are creating a new energy industry for the UK. I have to congratulate the Government: we have potentially the most powerful package of SAF policy in the world, with the mandate, the revenue certainty mechanism and the advanced fuels fund. Taken together, they mean that we are the envy of the world and we have a huge chance to be a world leader on SAF production. Lahiru Ranasinghe: To add to that, it would also enable UK aviation to grow. Our estimates are that each aircraft based in the UK supports around 400 jobs and £27 million of GVA. We have over 150 aircraft in the UK as it is, we have three aircraft going to a new base in Newcastle shortly and we absolutely intend to continue with the growth in the UK. By having the RCM unlock SAF production and SAF supply, that opens the doors to us to continue growing, while also decarbonising. That is a massive part of the economic benefit that the RCM helps to unlock, beyond the obvious effects of supporting jobs and production on the ground in the SAF industry. Luke Ervine: Just to add a note on benefits, it is important to recognise the cost of not having the RCM. We have spoken a lot today about the buy-out. The UK is unique in its ambition to have a 2G SAF mandate, so the cost of not having the RCM is important. If we do not have it, we pay buy-out, and then we are going to lose out regionally to other areas, such as Europe and the US, that do not have those 2G SAF mandates, so it is important that we recognise that there is a cost of not having the RCM.