Lucy Powell MP: speeches

Speeches

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

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  I share the frustration, concern and indeed anger in many parts about the huge use of asylum hotels, and now HMOs, in dealing with the asylum backlog, which was left by the hon. Gentleman’s party after it was in power. Indeed, I remember the shadow Home Secretary and the shadow Justice Secretary going round the country opening these hotels and allowing this to happen. They left us with a huge backlog. We need to take all necessary steps to bring down illegal migration, deal with these issues and close the hotels. That is what we want to do, but as the hon. Gentleman says, we cannot just make the problem dissipate into other parts of the community. That is why we are working to tackle it.

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

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  My hon. Friend is absolutely right to raise such issues. Fraud is increasingly prevalent across our country and economy. It is becoming increasingly sophisticated, especially given advances in technology such as AI. That is why the Government continue to focus on those issues. I think it would make a very good topic for a debate.

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

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  I thank my hon. Friend for raising that important issue. I am aware that that book is out today, but I have not had a chance to look at it. I am clear that Parliament needs to play its role in scrutinising those types of institutions, and any attempt to silence Members of Parliament is completely unacceptable. I look forward to working with her and other Members on taking that forward.

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

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  I am sorry to hear that the SL1 route was scrapped under the previous Government. My hon. Friend makes a very strong case for our buses Bill and all the actions that we are taking to ensure that buses serve their local community, and are affordable and reliable. When such powers are used, we see a massive increase in the use of buses.

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

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  Absolutely, and I thank my hon. Friend for raising that awful case today. As he says, the Government take hate crime incredibly seriously. No one should ever be a victim of hatred because of their race or religion. We need to combat and stand up to rhetoric and campaigns that can make people feel insecure in their communities, and I look forward to working with him to that end.

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

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  I welcome the hon. Member back from summer recess and look forward to continuing to work with her on the many Committees on which we both sit. I thank her for raising that very important issue. Let us be under no illusions: the situation in Gaza is unimaginably bleak. It is truly horrific, and the horrifying images and accounts we are seeing daily are seared on all our minds as we go about our business. On top of everything else, after so many civilian deaths and so much destruction, we are now seeing a man-made and wholly avoidable famine and widespread starvation. The Government are leading international efforts for a peace plan. That involves the release of hostages, a ceasefire and the huge humanitarian response needed to prevent further death and destruction. The recognition of Palestine as a state is an important step towards that, which is why the Prime Minister set out those plans as we approach the UNGA later this month. I have personally long supported the recognition of Palestine, including last time Parliament was asked to give a view on the matter. On Monday, in a two-hour statement to the House, the Foreign Secretary updated Members on the steps we are taking to recognise the state of Palestine and made clear that unless the Israeli Government take urgent steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza and commit to a long-term peace, we will make that assessment before the leaders meet at the UN in New York. We will, as ever, ensure that the House has a full opportunity to continue to discuss and scrutinise these very important decisions.

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

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  I welcome back the hon. Gentleman after the recess. He has not missed one of my business questions. I noticed that he has spoken the most in Parliament of any Member—apart from me, actually. I now have a new title, which is that I have spoken more than the hon. Member for Strangford—long may that continue. He raises an important issue around the treatment of women and girls in Afghanistan, and this Government continue to condemn the appalling actions there. We will do all we can to ensure that our views are heard.

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

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  I thank the hon. Lady for raising another important issue on behalf of her constituents. That Bill is currently on the Committee corridor; when it returns to this Chamber, she will be able to raise those important matters. In the meantime, I will ensure that she gets a ministerial response.

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

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  The hon. Gentleman is right to highlight the huge opportunity that AI and technology present, especially in terms of diagnostics and healthcare services. He is also right to highlight that the real challenge to that is adoption and diffusion through our health system. The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care is committed to delivering that by working across Government, and I am sure he will continue to keep the House updated.

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

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  There is an extremely high bar for proscribing any organisation, and that decision was not taken lightly. It was taken on very strong advice about the activities of Palestine Action. Those activities were increasingly severe and, with increasing frequency, incredibly damaging. That is not to say that people cannot peacefully protest in support of Palestine or in support of many other organisations that support the Palestinian cause. As I said earlier, I strongly support recognition of Palestine and support the Palestinian cause, but that is not to say that we should support organisations that seek to cause real problems in this country.

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

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  I thank the hon. Member once again for her bravery and her powerful testimony. I know many of us continue to be appalled by the experiences she has had over a number of years in the campaign brought by her abusive ex-husband and what he has tried to do in undermining her capacity to be an effective Member of Parliament, which she continues to be. I hear her calls today for the steps that need to be taken to ensure that this cannot happen again, and particularly that it cannot happen again to her. We have an elections Bill coming to the House soon, which will look at issues such as the suitability of candidates and their behaviour towards other candidates, and I am sure there will be ample opportunity for us all to support her in raising some of these issues during the passage of that Bill.

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

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  I am happy to help facilitate a conversation with the relevant Minister about trout farming.

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

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  I join my hon. Friend in saying that Bournemouth needs more football pitches. That is why we are investing more in grassroots sport and have given more money to local government. It is vital that those sorts of facilities are there for communities and young people to keep healthy and fit.

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

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  The rise in Islamophobia, which we have all seen in our constituencies—I know I have seen it in mine—is absolutely unacceptable. Hate crime itself is unacceptable, and we need to call it out and root it out. We have the independent working group, which is soon to advise Ministers on the definition of Islamophobia, and we have a wider action plan to tackle the issues. The hon. Member is right to say that we should all be mindful of the language we use and the impact it might have.

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

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  I am really pleased to hear that the police hub in Shrewsbury has reopened. That is exactly the kind of action we want to see. That is why we are investing so heavily in neighbourhood policing and we have our neighbourhood policing guarantee, and I look forward to hearing more about it in the future.

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

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  I join my hon. Friend in thanking all those who have come together to tackle the wildfires in Yorkshire that we have all been hearing about. As our climate changes every day, we will see more wildfires and more flooding. That is why we have set up the national resilience wildfire adviser and will take further steps on that. I look forward to working with my hon. Friend in the coming months.

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

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  That is how it is done! My hon. Friend was once the master of Doncaster airport, and he is now the master of business question puns. I absolutely join him in wishing the team the best of luck.

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

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  As ever, my hon. Friend raises the issue of connectivity and transport in his Rossendale and Darwen constituency. As a nearby MP, I know all too well the real need for a rail link between Rossendale, Darwen and Manchester, and I look forward to working with him to ensure that this Labour Government deliver on that.

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

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  My hon. Friend is a passionate and long-standing campaigner around those issues, and she has raised them with me many times. I thank her for all the work she does raising the issues around suicide and suicide prevention. It is often an uncomfortable and difficult issue to talk about, and she leads from the front in making sure that people feel that they can do so. I certainly join her in encouraging Members to participate.

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

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  The victims of this scandal, like Jean, have suffered terribly for many years, as my hon. Friend describes. I am sure he will agree that no amount of compensation can make up for that, but that is not to say we should not continue, as this Government have, to ensure compensation is delivered swiftly, fairly and substantively to people like Jean. He will be aware that the Minister for the Cabinet Office updated the House in July. He has been very forthcoming with his updates to the House, and I will make sure my hon. Friend and other colleagues are kept updated on this matter.

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

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  This is a truly shocking case, and my thoughts are with Cody, Zoe and the many others who have experienced truly appalling actions like this. My hon. Friend is absolutely right to raise the regulation of funeral directors; we have seen a number of shocking cases in recent months. I will ensure he gets a ministerial response, but I think this would make an incredibly important and powerful debate in this House.

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

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  Welcome back to you, Madam Deputy Speaker, and all the House staff. I join the shadow Leader of the House in wishing the Prime Minister a happy birthday for earlier this week. This summer has been marked by some happy personal events here in the House—no, I am not talking about Taylor Swift’s engagement to Travis Kelce, although I am sure we will all want to wish them a happy engagement. We have our very own power couples: my hon. Friends the Members for North East Derbyshire (Louise Sandher-Jones) and for Loughborough (Dr Sandher), who got married to each other over the summer recess. There are also my hon. Friend the Member for Leigh and Atherton (Jo Platt), who married her long-term partner Ian, and my hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff South and Penarth (Stephen Doughty), who married Kristiam this recess. The happy news does not stop there. My hon. Friend the Member for Southampton Test (Satvir Kaur) had her beautiful baby daughter. I am thrilled for her and also for my hon. Friend the Member for Leicester East (Shivani Raja) on the arrival of her new baby, too. There are new dads in the House as well: my hon. Friends the Members for Wirral West (Matthew Patrick) and for York Outer (Mr Charters), so that is dispatches for this week. We are very much more a family-friendly Parliament these days, and I am determined that modernisation will continue that trend. I join the shadow Leader of the House in welcoming the new shadow deputy Leader of the House, the hon. Member for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk (John Lamont), to his place. I hope that he will still on occasion ask me some questions and invite me to his constituency from the Back Benches, which I am always happy to accept as he knows. I am also pleased to announce that this first bumper Session of Parliament under the Labour Government will last until spring 2026. By any measure, our legislative programme in this first Session is highly ambitious, delivering on the promises that we made in our manifesto and shifting power and opportunity to working people. There are a few highlights, which I know that shadow Leader of the House is always happy to hear about. We are giving the biggest boost to workers’ rights in a generation, finally ending no-fault evictions, stopping water bosses’ bonuses, setting up Great British Energy to get bills down, bringing back rail into public ownership, saving British Steel jobs, seizing and crushing dangerous off-road vehicles, finally recriminalising shoplifting, ensuring that buses are affordable and serve their communities, and protecting our much-loved football clubs. We are taking on the vested interests that hold this country back, and we still have much more to do in the rest of this Session. In contrast, the Conservatives really have shown on whose side they stand in this Session: on the side of landlords against the Renters’ Rights Bill; on the side of criminal gangs in voting against our Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill; for the few, not the many, in education; and, as ever, dying in a ditch to save the hereditary peers in the other place. We know whose side they are on. The shadow Leader of the House chose to have another go on the issue of tax and property, which was, I noticed, the subject of one of the Conservatives’ Opposition Day debates yesterday. They could not muster enough speakers for that debate to go the full three hours, so he is having another go today. I repeat that the Deputy Prime Minister has given a full account of her family circumstances and living arrangements. She made it clear that she is now rectifying her mistake. She has referred herself to the independent adviser on ministerial standards, who is now looking into it. I will not say any more on that matter because he is looking into it. Suffice it to say that the Deputy Prime Minister is a huge, huge asset to this Government. She is an incredibly effective Minister and she has been delivering, whether on our record investment in social housing, the flagship Employment Rights Bill, the biggest settlement for local government in many years, major planning reforms to get more homes built, or the delivery of devolution and community empowerment, among much more. The Conservatives have a go at her because she is so bloody good at her job. Yet again, the shadow Leader of the House comes here and talks about the economy and the Budget, but another year has gone by and we have still had no apology from him or his Front-Bench colleagues for the state they left the country’s finances in. Let us just remind ourselves about that. They left a huge black hole in public spending, high levels of debt and borrowing, and living standards that had, for the first time in history, fallen during a Parliament. He is always very selective in his use of statistics; he did not mention that the British economy has grown faster than all other G7 countries in the first half of this year, or that mortgages are now at a five-year low. After a decade and a half of poor productivity because of a lack of investment, we are now powering up this country and investing in the new jobs of the future around the country, with jobs coming every day. The Chancellor will set out the Budget in the usual way, but she has made clear that most of the speculation is quite honestly damaging rubbish. Let us not forget that we are now coming up to the three-year anniversary of the disastrous Liz Truss mini-Budget. I think I remember that the shadow Leader of the House being the Financial Secretary to the Treasury at that Budget. When Governments lose confidence and take irresponsible decisions, the poorest in society pay the heaviest price when the economy crashes. We will take absolutely no lectures from the Conservatives. The shadow Leader of the House wanted to talk about the performance of the Government over the summer, but he did not. Let us be honest: the Leader of the Opposition does not need a reset but a full-blown resuscitation—her party spent most of the summer checking whether she had a pulse or not. The truth is that her leadership, like the future of the Conservative party, is, quite frankly, at death’s door.

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

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  We are determined to tackle all forms of hatred and division and to take action on hate crime. It has been a topic for much discussion in our Crime and Policing Bill, but I will ensure that the hon. Member gets a ministerial response about the timeliness of the new action plan.

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

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  Absolutely. We are taking steps in England to ensure that local communities have more of a say over their local area—we invest in our high streets and local communities—and I implore the Scottish Government to do the same in Scotland.

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

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  I join my hon. Friend in paying tribute to Touchstones and all its work for bereaved children and especially those who are bereaved due to domestic violence. Its work is vital in supporting children through probably the most difficult time of their lives and I thank him for raising that.