Louise Sandher-Jones MP: speeches

Speeches

• 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?

• 27 Mar 2025 · Crime and Policing Bill (Second sitting) · Hansard source

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  Q Farmers in my constituency of North East Derbyshire tell me that they have a frustrating issue with off-road bikes often being used across their land. Do you think the Bill goes far enough with the new powers to seize those vehicles? Sam Durham: I think it does. That power to seize vehicles that are being used in an antisocial manner is key. We think of farming in rural areas, but the urban fringe area is key to where vehicles—bikes, quad bikes or even off-road vehicles—are used in an antisocial manner. Many farmers flag it to me that those people are out there, and the measures in the Bill look positive on that side.

• 27 Mar 2025 · Crime and Policing Bill (Second sitting) · Hansard source

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  Q In my constituency of North East Derbyshire, we have real issues with car theft, and in this Bill we have a couple of clauses affecting signal jammers. I am interested to hear your thoughts on how that will have a practical impact on preventing car theft. Roger Hirst: Car theft has been growing across the country, but it has been particularly spectacular in Essex. Last year, in one area of our county, it rose by 80%, which is dreadful. Jammers are undoubtedly a help. The technology is available to stop the passive entry system, but the criminals are very inventive, and are currently buying in quite expensive bits of kit from Poland, which they can bring in legally. As Mr Barber said earlier, we really need to have the legislation to mean that owning those things is a crime. They are good only for one purpose, but at the moment buying them is perfectly legal. Using them is a crime; having them should be illegal as well. I have been to see and talk to Jaguar Land Rover, because it was one of the companies particularly hard hit by theft in our area—I think Essex has a good reputation for being good buyers of Range Rovers. It responded very well, and committed to retrofitting security to its vehicles to change the risks of passive vehicle entry, which is basically where you have a key that you do not have to press a button on, and there is a dialogue and signal between your vehicle and your key. That is possible for a criminal to read very easily, because there is no single instance where you are pressing the button. Jaguar Land Rover has made that much more difficult to intercept. To ban the equipment that could do that would be really helpful. At the moment you have to pay for it, but it is readily available over the internet. It is possible for the car manufacturers to make that more difficult—I think they are always working on it, but they will, however, always have to run ahead of the inventiveness of the criminal. Whatever can be done about the ownership of the bits of equipment that criminals need to be able to break into vehicles that easily would be extremely helpful. Matthew Barber: What will be key here is the secondary legislation—from memory, I think it is clause 78 or 79 that allows the Secretary of State to make additional secondary legislation. That will be critical in years to come. As Mr Hirst said, that technology is constantly changing. A definition in legislation now around signal jammers will no doubt be out of date—possibly even before the Bill gets Royal Assent. It will be critical for the Home Office to keep that list of prohibited equipment under review.

• 26 Mar 2025 · Spring Statement · Hansard source

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  As the Chancellor will know, the east midlands is often at the bottom of investment league tables and we suffer through a lack of transport planning. Will the Chancellor outline how the extra public investment and the national wealth fund will change that and deliver for people in North East Derbyshire?

• 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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  I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his opinion and remind him that this is the largest increase in defence spending for a long while. I am sure he is aware of the considerable damage done to the armed forces over the last 15 years, which I and others who served saw at first hand. We are talking about the Chagos islands again when we could have been discussing antisocial behaviour and other crime in my constituency. In Dronfield we struggle with car theft, gangs exploiting county lines and issues with off-road bikes, as well as mobile phone theft.

• 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.

• 16 Oct 2024 · City and Town Centres: Regeneration · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend has spoken about the negative impact that empty shops have; I welcome her calls for a strategy. Does she agree that any strategy must take into account the importance of public transport so that those who wish to make use of our high streets have access to transport that is regular, reliable and affordable?