Louise Sandher-Jones MP: speeches

Speeches

• 24 Jun 2025 · China Audit · Hansard source

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  May I say to the Foreign Secretary how much I welcome this China audit? I would like to highlight one aspect in particular. As someone who studied Chinese at university and lived there for a year, I know how complex and different China can be, and the many misconceptions and ignorance around China have been a source of frustration for me. Whatever anybody thinks of our relationship with China, it is absolutely vital that we have clear communication and that we deal with China from a position of knowledge. Does the Foreign Secretary agree how important it is that the FCDO is upskilled to ensure that we have that knowledge of Chinese culture and language skills, so we are fully prepared for the years ahead?

• 23 Jun 2025 · UK Modern Industrial Strategy · Hansard source

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  Businesses in my constituency are heavily reliant on great connections and making sure that our young people can access the skills they need, so I really welcome this industrial strategy, which recognises the many different aspects that go into supporting our local economy. Can the Secretary of State expand further on what we can do to support better transport connections and a better skills pipeline for the young people in my constituency?

• 19 Jun 2025 · Social Mobility: Careers Education · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Lewell. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Wrexham (Andrew Ranger) for securing this important debate. I want to touch on a couple of points that hon. Members have already eloquently made. First, on careers education for those with special educational needs and disabilities, the SEND system in Derbyshire is failing many of our young people. Many of my constituents are struggling to get their children adequately cared for in school or to secure them a place in school at all. I would like to highlight Landmarks specialist college in Eckington, which does a fantastic job in weaving careers education throughout the general education it provides, and sees the core of its mission as preparing its young people to enter the world of work and achieve their full potential. In careers education, as well as highlighting the many fantastic careers that young people can go on to do, it is important to have an industry approach to careers and advise young people of the breadth of careers available within a specific industry, if that is what excites them. Many young people tell me that they are excited about becoming a YouTube influencer, or something related, and there are many fantastic careers in the industry, such as being a video or sound technician, that they might get just as much out of. My hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow North East (Maureen Burke) spoke eloquently about the social mobility opportunities available later in life. That reminded me of my mother, who could not go to university until she was my age, and what a difference it made to her life. I have often seen that at first hand when people leave the military. Many people serve in the military for only a few short years before they go on to another career. It is important to say to young people aged between 12 and 18 that the decisions they make now will not lock them in for the rest of their lives. Many of the opportunities that are available—such as university and further education—will be there for them in their 20s, 30s, 40s and even beyond. One of the people I served with started her A-levels in her early 30s and is now a fully qualified doctor. It is never too late to change your future. I hope that the Minister will be able to give us some assurances when it comes to careers education. Although we should tell young people about the opportunities, jobs and so on that could be out there, we should also tell them to focus on the industries that they are interested in. Although the decisions they are making have a large impact, they should not forget that they will have plenty of time throughout their adult lives to take advantage of other opportunities.

• 21 May 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Q4. I recently visited Barrow Hill primary school in my constituency—a school in receipt of a new free breakfast club. The team there are doing a fantastic job, but challenges remain. What more can we do as a Government to support both them and local parents to give the children of Barrow Hill the start in life that they deserve?

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

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  The hon. Gentleman need not worry. The night is young, and I will come to that. Perhaps we could have heard what the Conservatives’ solution to those issues would be, now that they have had time in opposition to reflect on the many ways they caused the issues in the first place. Instead, we are talking about the Chagos islands. Perhaps we could have discussed what other measures are desperately needed in constituencies like mine, such as better buses, investment in transport infrastructure such as light and heavy rail, a step change in educational opportunities for our young people, energy security and how we can provide affordable houses.

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

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  There have been many questions, as recorded in Hansard , about the projected cost, and I look forward to seeing the final result of the negotiation in due course. It is already well documented in Hansard that these negotiations were started by the Conservative Government and we all deserve to know why they decided to start them. They said they were necessary to “ensure the continued effective operation of the joint UK/US military base on Diego Garcia”. —[ Official Report , 3 November 2022; Vol. 721, c. 27WS.] They knew that the status quo was untenable and a poor choice. This deal is the only way to ensure legal certainty for a vital base. Like it or not, doing nothing has left us under the threat of legal challenges which jeopardised the future of the base. In my corner of the military I was well aware of the vital importance of this base and I am glad that we are now securing it. I assure Members that, unlike the Leader of the Opposition, who as of a couple of weeks ago had, I understand, refused a classified briefing on the base—Members can correct me if I am wrong—I know what I am talking about. If the Conservatives would like to suggest a better idea that is not just to do nothing, I would be interested to hear a credible point of view; otherwise, forgive me but I will support what will actually work. When I go back to the constituency and have my surgeries and knock on doors, as I will tomorrow, I will be happy to tell my constituents that answer, but I know that it will not be needed, because they will not be asking about the Chagos islands. Instead my constituents rightly prioritise health, transport, education, immigration and housing. They would rightly wonder why these are not also the priority of a political party interested in their vote. Doing nothing was the hallmark of the previous Conservative Government. It looks like irrelevance will be the hallmark of this Conservative Opposition.

• 13 Feb 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Last week, I had the honour of visiting Unstone junior school in my constituency, and I pay tribute to the fantastic work of the staff. There was also the opportunity for some of the children to ask me questions, and a range of issues were raised, including the environment. Crucially, I was asked this question: what more can we do to support the school in providing healthy eating and, in particular, allowing the children to have watermelon and strawberries for their lunch?

• 12 Feb 2025 · SEND Provision: Derbyshire · Hansard source

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  Like all the other Members from Derbyshire sitting here today, I have received hundreds of emails on the terrible state of SEND provision in Derbyshire, and hundreds of stories of children and their families being let down by Conservative-led Derbyshire county council. While our wonderful staff members all do their best to help and to deal with these cases, we know that behind every number there is a heart-wrenching story of a family who want the best for their child yet, despite all the love in the world, feel that they are prevented from giving them this. One of these stories concerns my constituent Lacey, who contacted us in despair over her son Spencer, who suffers from a rare genetic condition called mucopolysaccharidosis type 6, or MPS. The condition, which affects every bone and organ in Spencer’s body, means that he has special educational needs. He was meant to start secondary school in September—an exciting time for any young person. The family were looking forward to buying his first-ever secondary school uniform and taking the big photo outside his family home for his first day at big school. Devastatingly, this did not happen. In June his family were told the news that his chosen school had no place for him and that, even worse, there was not a single SEND place suitable for him available in Derbyshire at all. This is a failure of planning. The issue here is clear: it is Derbyshire county council that has failed. Members do not have to take my word for it; as we have already heard, Ofsted said in its inspection just last year that there were widespread and systemic failures leading to significant concerns, making it one of the worst in the country. I want to put on record just how serious the situation has become in Derbyshire. We know that SEND provision all across the country has been struggling in general, but it is clear that there are other factors at play in Derbyshire to result in such a dire finding. The Ofsted report made it clear that this was the result of several years of uncertainty at Derbyshire, with senior posts unfilled or filled by interim and contract staff. Shockingly, some senior staff were not present for the inspection itself. Clearly there has been a failure of leadership for several years now by the Conservative leadership of the council, and the Conservative cabinet member for education in not gripping the problem or realising what it takes to deliver a long-term plan. Instead, they have been too content to let consultants provide them with shiny PowerPoints instead of delivering real change for our constituents. We desperately need real change at Derbyshire county council, because for as long as the Conservatives are in control of the council, I fear that the situation will not improve. I will not throw my hands up and say, “Oh, it is what it is. SEND is difficult everywhere.” Like my colleagues, I would like to say to my constituents who are worried about the challenges facing their children, “I will never stop fighting.” We will never stop fighting and standing up for those children, to get the education they need and deserve.

• 6 Feb 2025 · Financial Education · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for Broadland and Fakenham (Jerome Mayhew) for his obvious passion for the subject. In October 2023, National Trading Standards released research showing that 73% of UK adults have been targeted by scams, and just over a third of those lost money as a result. The Government are cracking down on online crime and fraud, but clearly one other long-term solution is to make sure that everybody is financially educated and financially literate. If we educate our children and young people to be more confident with how and why they manage their money, over time they will be less susceptible to those frauds and scams, which, sadly, can only grow with the development of artificial intelligence. As we have already heard, many young people form their money habits at a very young age, as young as seven or eight. I remember my parents teaching me the importance of saving, giving me a little savings book and making sure that every week I put away some of the £3.50 that I earned from my job delivering newspapers. Unfortunately, as we have also heard, parents who have not managed to acquire financial literacy sometimes pass on bad habits to their children, and up to a third of British workers live from pay cheque to pay cheque. I fear that we are not doing enough to help parents and young people to break that cycle. I am shocked to hear people working in food banks say that many users of their services would benefit hugely from financial education and literacy, and even some simple advice on how to draw up a budget and understand how to make sure they will have enough money when the bills are being sent out. Even simple things can make a huge difference so that people do not have to end up relying on food banks. With the future as yet unknown, pupils entering secondary school this September will finish their GCSEs in June 2030 and their A-levels in 2032. If they decide to go on to university, they might graduate in 2035. I think it safe to say that, while we do not know for sure what opportunities will be available to them—things may well look very different from the way they look now—good financial education and literacy will stand them in good stead. Financial literacy education has previously been added to the national curriculum, but more must be done to ensure that children are taught the subject. Financial education must have breadth, teaching students not only how to budget and all the good stuff like simple versus compound interest, but enabling them to understand the importance of saving for a pension, and to recognise an investment scheme that is protected by the Financial Conduct Authority, for instance, so that they can avoid some of the more “sparkling” deals online. The good news is that those who have received a financial education and remember it are more likely to save, feel confident about money and use a bank account. That shows that when effort is put in, it does indeed reap rewards. The need for financial education is clear to everyone in the House and beyond. It is not a luxury but a necessity. I well remember being taught in depth about trigonometry, and I have to say that I wish I had been taught about pensions instead.

• 6 Feb 2025 · Coalfield Communities · Hansard source

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  Last weekend when I was out door-knocking in Eckington, one gentleman told me of his frustration with politics and his disbelief that it would ever achieve anything for him. I have to admit that I am sometimes frustrated by this attitude, because I do not believe that the answer is never to try, but I was none the less mulling over exactly why he had given up so much. Also last weekend, I went to an exhibition and talk organised by women to show what they had done to support the miners. Like many members of my generation who grew up after the strikes, I was aware of them but, as with so much working-class history, we were never taught about them at school. It was therefore a huge privilege to hear Janet and Kate give such a fascinating talk about the huge role that they had played, and about the sheer strength of the mining community who had fought so hard to support each other during this period. How little they had, but how much they shared! It is clear that the roots of my constituent’s apathy do not lie just in the past 14 years of Conservative-imposed national decline, but go all the way back to the miners’ strikes, when the British Government said, “We will take your jobs away and there is nothing you can do about it. Get on your bike, we are not interested, you are on your own.” If the Government in Westminster did that to you, why would you ever look at them again? The fact is that the closure of the mines did not just remove employment, but showed huge contempt for areas such as North East Derbyshire, and ripped the heart out of the social cohesion of communities. We in Labour knew when we came in that we had to deliver for those communities. One of their biggest champions was the late John Prescott, and I applaud his work in establishing the Coalfield Task Force and then the Coalfields Regeneration Trust, which has been doing excellent work ever since. However, despite the general rise in living standards that we delivered, along with an improvement in the NHS and a huge push for aspiration, we could not close the gap between our coalfield communities and other places, and what work we did achieve was rapidly slashed by the coalition Government and many Tory Governments after that. Let me just say, as an aside, how disappointing it is, when I see so many of my Labour colleagues in the Chamber, to note how few representatives of the Conservative party are present—and how few representatives of smaller parties such as Reform, who profess to care. My message to my constituent in Eckington, and to everyone else, is that I am not going to give up fighting for them and for the step change in opportunity that is so desperately needed in North East Derbyshire, and I know that I have hundreds of colleagues in the Labour party with me in that fight. In communities like mine, we do not need charity; we just need the tools to build our own future, and then we will just get on and do it. We need infrastructure so that we can access jobs, customers, markets and education. That is why I am campaigning for the Staveley bypass to better connect Staveley, Barrow Hill and Mastin Moor. That is why I am campaigning for more buses and better buses, so that so people in Killamarsh can get to work on time when work starts at 8 am—remarkably, the first bus is too late for that. That is why I am campaigning to make better use of our existing rail links, so that Dronfield, a town of 20,000, does not just have one train an hour to Sheffield. It is a 10-minute train ride, and we have one train an hour—it is ridiculous. That is why I am campaigning to explore bringing light rail back to communities across North East Derbyshire, to connect us from Clay Cross and Killamarsh to places such as Chesterfield and Sheffield. It is about the social infrastructure that we have lost as well. We need youth facilities, to show early on that our Government care about young people. We need support for our high streets, so that they can be the heart of our communities. We need to crack down on petty crime and antisocial behaviour, so that we can feel safe. We need our rural roads to be safer, so that we do not see families devastated by loss. Underlying this is the vital work that the Government have already started on fixing our NHS, improving our schools and growing our economy. For my constituents in North East Derbyshire, I am fighting for our Government to give them the tools they need, and we will put in the hard work together to build a better future. We have done it before, and I know we will do it again.

• 4 Dec 2024 · Employer National Insurance Contributions · Hansard source

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  A former Conservative leader once had the famous phrase, “There is no magic money tree.” Sadly, that is a lesson that Opposition Members have yet to learn. Let us be clear about the economic situation that we are facing. In July, when the Conservatives left office, the tax burden was at a 70-year high, and they left us with a £22 billion black hole in our public finances. This is their legacy and they must live with it: confidence in public services is at an all-time low, and the tax burden at an all-time high. They could not even deliver on their promises in my constituency. If they had chosen to invest the money needed into our NHS, they would have seen the benefits. If they had invested the money in our schools, they would have seen the benefits. If they had funded our armed services to take on the challenges of tomorrow, we would all see the benefits. Instead, when I look at the primary care centre in Clay Cross, I see hard-working health staff let down by the former Government. When I look at Killamarsh junior school, again, I see hard-working staff and young children let down by this former Government. As I speak to my former Army colleagues, I see no improvement in the situation there either, thanks to the former Government. We must take action. It is our duty as a Government to take the hard choices necessary. I believe that in the long run, this is a positive and necessary step for our UK economy, public services and workforce. National insurance contributions are the backbone of funding for our essential services such as healthcare and pensions, and my voters chose that.

• 4 Dec 2024 · Farming and Inheritance Tax · Hansard source

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  All Governments have to make tough decisions. Faced with a £22 billion black hole, Labour has chosen to raise taxes on only the very wealthiest. The Conservatives’ record was instead to choose to place the burden on the poorest in society—those with disabilities and those who are very young. In fact, I am seeing that in real time in Derbyshire, as the Conservative leader of Derbyshire county council has chosen not to spend his time dealing with the disastrous recent Ofsted report on the sorry state of special education needs and disabilities provisions in Derbyshire affecting thousands of vulnerable children, or trying to deal with the terrible county finances which it is trying to plug by closing much-loved care homes, again leaving some very vulnerable people with an uncertain future. Where was he? He was marching with wealthy landowners down here in London. I ask the shadow Minister what she thinks first attracted various multimillionaires in various industries to suddenly discover a passion for farming and buy farms in their late middle age. I had thought that the Conservatives would want to discuss the huge challenges facing our NHS, the cost of living crisis affecting so many of my constituents or their failed track record in delivering vital regional infrastructure; but no, we have had silence on those issues. What has got them out literally marching on the streets is a rush to defend multimillionaires. My constituents can see what is the No. 1 priority, and it is not the same as theirs. Let us be clear: retaining the status quo, for which the Conservatives are arguing, would see 7% of claimants receiving 40% of the relief. That is £219 million given to just 117 estates. Why should 117 of the richest get £219 million in tax relief, and not ordinary families? One would have thought that, after such a profound rejection of their party’s record in government back in July, the Conservatives would have taken some time to listen to the electorate and learn. The electorate saw that this Labour party was different, and voted us in. Perhaps the Conservatives should take a closer look—and here I include the hon. Member for Perth and Kinross-shire (Pete Wishart). Many of my colleagues are deeply rooted in their rural communities, and I myself come from a family of farmers. In fact, I spent most of my family Sunday lunch listening to an in-depth monologue on SFI technical details, which was of course very welcome. While the Conservatives are rushing to defend the wealthiest in society, we in Labour will be focusing on what matters to rural communities: access to rural health facilities, a record £5 billion for farmers, a new commissioner for tenant farmers—which is fantastic—a new rural crime strategy, and protecting farmers from bad trade deals. Coming from a family of farmers, I know a wolf in sheep’s clothing when I see one. However much the Conservatives bleat about standing up for farmers, their bushy tails and terrible record for farming over the past 14 years tell me otherwise. I will always fight for farmers, to improve farming incomes and to support farming communities. That is my priority, and it is the priority of this Government.