Lucy Powell MP: speeches

Speeches

• 30 Jan 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  The beaches around my hon. Friend’s constituency do indeed sound beautiful, and I am sure he regularly gets his kit off to go for a swim in the sea there. He is right that it is unacceptable that sewage is still flowing into the waters and seas of Scotland and that we do not even know the extent of it. The Scottish Government, as he says, are responsible for Scottish water and should frankly get their act together. We have brought forward legislation that will start to take action on this matter, and the Scottish Government should follow suit.

• 30 Jan 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  I am delighted that, after 60 years of closure, the Northumberland line was finally reopened last December. I would have loved to have been a passenger on that train, and to have heard how the conversation between my hon. Friend and the Brazilians flowed—or not, as the case might be. He is absolutely right that vital transport infrastructure, especially in our regions and in constituencies like his, is the bedrock of ensuring economic growth, prosperity, rising wages and good jobs for his constituents. I am delighted to support his call for that today.

• 30 Jan 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is right to raise tax evasion, tax avoidance and, in some cases, illegal tax avoidance—industrial-scale tax avoidance such as in the case he raised. Obviously, I will not get into individual cases, but the gap is still too wide. Just a few years ago, the tax gap between what was being avoided and what was being collected was a staggering £36 billion. We are recruiting 5,000 new HMRC compliance officers and aim to close the tax gap over the coming years.

• 30 Jan 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for raising that important issue for her constituents. It gets raised with me many times in business questions, because access to cash and making sure we have banking hubs in all our communities, which this Government are committed to doing, is critical to thriving market towns and high streets such as those in her constituency. We have already opened more than a hundred banking hubs, and I will ensure that she is updated, including on the banking hub in her constituency.

• 30 Jan 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  I thank the right hon. Gentleman for welcoming the Government’s commitment to alleviating passenger congestion in the south-east, and for his local airport’s commitment to doing that, which I am sure we all welcome. He raises some serious matters, which were mentioned at Prime Minister’s questions yesterday, about the Drax organisation and whether public funds have been used appropriately. This Government take such reports incredibly seriously, and I will ensure that the House is updated in due course.

• 30 Jan 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  The right hon. Gentleman will know that this Government are committed to free speech and to making sure that everybody has the ability to express themselves freely and without recourse. He might want to join my neighbour, my hon. Friend the Member for Blackley and Middleton South (Graham Stringer), to apply for a Backbench Business slot. We have had a number of urgent questions and statements to the House on those matters, but I will ensure that we are updated. On the lower Thames crossing, the right hon. Gentleman will know that the Chancellor gave her commitment to that project in her speech yesterday. There is, as always with such matters, the quasi-judicial process that has to be gone through, which is a matter for the Secretary of State for Transport, but I will ensure that he is kept updated on that.

• 30 Jan 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  It is a source of national shame that youth funding decreased by three quarters under the previous Government—one of the deepest cuts made to any public services. There was no real strategy for young people, and we are seeing the consequences of that. The Government are determined to turn that around, and we will work with my hon. Friend to do that in Stoke-on-Trent.

• 30 Jan 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  I am sure the whole House will join my hon. Friend in putting on record our thanks for those involved with the Photographic Reconnaissance Unit and its important work. As she will be aware, we have funding for a huge number of activities to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the second world war. The Minister responsible will make a statement shortly about how that funding will be allocated and what activities will be involved. I will ensure that the Minister hears my hon. Friend’s pleas for commemoration of the Photographic Reconnaissance Unit to be part of those activities.

• 30 Jan 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  As my hon. Friend says, that treatment is free to patients and the NHS under the early access programme, but whether local trusts can cover the cost of administering it is a matter for them. I know that the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence aims to publish guidance on the use of Givinostat in the NHS shortly, and we will update the House as soon as possible.

• 30 Jan 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  I join my hon. Friend in congratulating Greenhill primary school for its achievements in that regard. He is absolutely right that schools could do more to provide sustainable energy for themselves through Solar for Schools—a school in my constituency has embarked on that. The Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero is keen on that issue, and I will ensure that he is updated.

• 30 Jan 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Banking hubs are critical to communities such as that of my hon. Friend in West Dunbartonshire. The Government are committed to rolling out our 350 banking hubs—more than 100 are already open. I think that would be an extremely popular topic for a debate.

• 30 Jan 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  I join the hon. Member in congratulating the hon. Member for Cheadle (Mr Morrison) on the birth of his daughter Poppy last week, and I thank her for stepping in to do some cover for him. I am very familiar with Stepping Hill hospital and can appreciate the state of disrepair it is in and how much it is in need of capital investment. The hon. Member will know that this Government inherited a hospital building and capital investment programme that was, frankly, a work of fiction: it had no money backing it up and deadlines that were never ever going to be delivered. We have now turned it into an actual plan of action for those hospitals, but I will ensure that she gets an update on Stepping Hill hospital and what more can be done.

• 30 Jan 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  I thank the Chair of the Backbench Business Committee for informing the House of the important debates that his Committee has allocated for the coming weeks. I think we have been very generous in allocating Backbench Business time in recent weeks, and we will continue to be so. We have been doing our best to announce business as far in advance as possible—sometimes three weeks in advance—which is unprecedented in recent times. I will ensure that he is made aware of when the estimates day debates are likely to be. The hon. Gentleman raises important issues about Pakistan. As he will know from his very good attendance at business questions, the subject is regularly raised with me and other Ministers. The Minister for the middle east, my hon. Friend the Member for Lincoln (Mr Falconer), has recently raised a number of these matters with the Government of Pakistan, and I think it would make a good topic for an update statement to the House. I will ensure that Ministers have heard that call today.

• 30 Jan 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  The hon. Lady is absolutely right to raise that issue, because people are still suffering, as are the families of those affected by MND. We need more research. We have some great campaigners, such as Kevin Sinfield, who have raised a huge amount of money. The hon. Lady is right that access to trials and research is critical. I will ensure that she gets a ministerial update on what the Government are doing.

• 28 Jan 2025 · Water (Special Measures) Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  Further to that point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. May I gently refute what the hon. Member for Broadland and Fakenham (Jerome Mayhew) just said? Two important statements were made today. It is for the Chair to decide on urgent questions, of which there were two today, with both running for a considerable time. It was not the Government’s intention at all for this debate, which is on a matter of great importance to many people across the House, to be curtailed. I will certainly take on board what he says, and there will potentially be further opportunities with the Bill. [ Interruption. ] There will be statements tomorrow, and there were statements earlier this week; there are lots of important matters. We take great care to ensure that important Government announcements are made to the House through oral statements, and we are criticised when we do not do that.

• 23 Jan 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Receiving that email from Gareth Stewart about his son’s place at the Royal School for the Deaf is an early reminder for my hon. Friend of how fulfilling the job of being a Member of Parliament can be; it does not happen all that often, but hopefully it will happen often in his case. He and his constituent are right to raise the chronic challenges faced by our special educational needs system, which a recent National Audit Office report found was at the point of crisis. Costs and demand are rising, yet outcomes continue to fall. This really is a broken system, and the Government are committed to addressing that. As an initial step, we put an extra £1 billion into SEND in the recent Budget. There have already been seven debates in this Session on SEND, which reflects the great importance of these matters to the House. I will ensure that the House is constantly updated on our plans.

• 23 Jan 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is absolutely right: the Government have introduced, through the Employment Rights Bill, a huge boost to workers’ rights in such situations. The Bill will shortly come back to the Chamber on Report, when we can discuss at great length the action that we want to take against fire and rehire and to support workers in the difficult circumstances that he describes.

• 23 Jan 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  I am sure that the thoughts of the whole House and the country will again be with the families of Bebe, Elsie and Alice, the two teachers, the neighbour and all the children who attended the Taylor Swift dance class in Southport, after the horrific attack and murders last summer. What they faced is truly unimaginable. This tragedy is made all the worse by the fact that it could have been prevented, as the Home Secretary said this week. The House will be aware that the Government are pursuing a number of actions in response: an independent public inquiry that will leave no stone unturned, an end-to-end review of Prevent, stronger measures to tackle online knife sales and knife crime, and a quicker piece of work on the limitations of the current definition of terrorism. I will ensure that the House is kept up to date on those and related matters. The right hon. Gentleman raised issues of standards in public life. As I gently reminded him last week, he may not want to draw on the record of the Conservative Government and compare it with ours. But he raised some important questions, which have just been answered in the urgent question. As he will know, the Cabinet Secretary replied to the shadow Justice Secretary that the Attorney General has properly declared his interest from his previous role as a senior barrister. As a barrister with a wide-ranging legal practice, the Attorney General will have represented many clients. According to Bar association rules, barristers do not choose their clients, nor do they associate themselves with their clients’ opinions or behaviour by virtue of representing them. The Cabinet Secretary has explained that as well as the declarations process for all Ministers, the Attorney General’s Office has a rigorous system in place to ensure that a Law Officer would not be consulted on any matter that could give rise to a potential conflict of interest. The right hon. Gentleman will know that these arrangements are long-standing and have been practised in successive Administrations. I am not sure whether he is arguing that we should no longer have an Attorney General who has been recently involved in private practice at the highest level —perhaps he will let us know. Today is actually a very special day—perhaps a historic day—because it is the last day that the former Prime Minister could have called a general election. Oh, how different things could have been. The Conservatives would have still been on this side of the House, with three times as many Members as they have now. The right hon. Gentleman would still be enjoying himself on the Back Benches, and the House would not have the delightful presence of the hon. Members for Clacton (Nigel Farage) and for Boston and Skegness (Richard Tice). Instead, we are six months into a Labour Government. I am sure the Conservatives regret calling the general election early, but I am afraid the country does not. Let us imagine for a moment what the country would be facing today: doctors still on strike, making the NHS winter crisis even worse; public services facing huge cuts due to the Conservatives’ economic plans; waiting lists ever growing, leaving people sick and out of work; the hospital building programme still on the never-never; the asylum backlog rising with no plan to get it down; more and more councils going bust; more trains being cancelled than run; and the black hole in the public finances still going. Let us not even imagine what would be happening with our prisons. The country would be on its knees, with living standards falling, Britain an embarrassment around the world and politics in the doldrums. Thankfully, the former Prime Minister made a big misjudgment for the Tory party but a good decision for the country. He called the election early because he wanted out. We have not been able to put everything right immediately—the problems run too deep—but we have made a lot of progress. We have ended the doctors strike and put record investment into the NHS. We have reset our international relationships, restoring Britain as a global leader. We have tackled the asylum backlog and achieved record numbers of returns. We are giving workers security and dignity. We are turbocharging house building, with new, ambitious targets. We are working towards energy security with lower bills and GB Energy. Trains are now running in the interests of passengers. The right hon. Gentleman might be sorry that he is now sitting on the Opposition Benches, his party still licking its wounds, but the country is getting the change it voted for.

• 23 Jan 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend greatly for raising the issue of those who have been exposed to asbestos and those suffering from mesothelioma, which is now coming through strongly. In previous Parliaments we had a number of hon. Members who strongly led on those issues. They are no longer in the House, so I encourage my hon. Friend to become a parliamentarian leader in order to get the debates and continue to raise those issues, as I will now do on his behalf with Ministers, to ensure that we get further action.

• 23 Jan 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member is right that the further education sector does an immense job in ensuring that this country’s young people have the skills, the ambition and the pathways to get into the great jobs of both the future and today. Historically, further education has often been seen as a Cinderella sector, but that is not this Government’s view, which is why we gave a record settlement to the FE sector in the recent Budget. We have Education questions coming up at the end of January, but I am sure this would also make a good topic for a debate.

• 23 Jan 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  The hon. Lady is right that I take these issues incredibly seriously. The House and its Members have a right to timely, proper and full replies to parliamentary questions. I regularly remind members of the Cabinet about their duties in this regard, and I wrote to them recently. The hon. Lady will know that the Procedure Committee also takes seriously its responsibility for monitoring the timeliness of replies to parliamentary questions. We have seen a dramatic increase in the number of written parliamentary questions tabled since the general election, but that is no excuse for what she describes. I encourage her and any other Member to let me know when they receive a particularly poor or late reply to a parliamentary question.

• 23 Jan 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  I am really sorry to hear of what happened to John Cross and all that his family must be going through subsequently, as well as their challenge in getting the compensation they deserve. I will certainly arrange for a ministerial response and a ministerial meeting with the family.

• 23 Jan 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  The business for the week commencing 27 January includes: Monday 27 January—General debate on the creative industries. Tuesday 28 January—Remaining stages of the Water (Special Measures) Bill [ Lords ]. Wednesday 29 January—Second Reading of the Arbitration Bill [ Lords ], followed by motions relating to the charter for budget responsibility and the welfare cap. Thursday 30 January—General debate on proportional representation for general elections, followed by a general debate on the future of local post office services. The subjects for these debates were determined by the Backbench Business Committee. Friday 31 January—The House will not be sitting. The provisional business for the week commencing 3 February will include: Monday 3 February—Second Reading of the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill. Tuesday 4 February—Motions to approve the draft Social Security Benefits Up-rating Order 2025 and the draft Guaranteed Minimum Pensions Increase Order 2025. Wednesday 5 February—Motions relating to the police grant and local government finance reports. Thursday 6 February—Business to be determined by the Backbench Business Committee. Friday 7 February—The House will not be sitting.

• 23 Jan 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Absolutely. This is an important issue, and the Government want autistic people to succeed in all aspects of their lives. The Government provided £4.3 million this financial year to improve services for autistic children, but clearly much more needs to be done, and done better and faster. I think that it would make an extremely good topic for a debate.

• 23 Jan 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Local pubs play an absolutely vital role in local communities as a social hub, gathering place, centre point and focal point for community get-togethers. This Government support our local pubs. That is one of the reasons why we reduced alcohol duty on draught products in the recent Budget, and it is also why we are committed to the regeneration and support of our town centres and high streets. That would make an extremely good topic for a debate, and I look forward to her raising it.