Matt Turmaine MP: speeches 2025

Speeches

• 16 Dec 2025 · Magistrates · Hansard source

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  14. What steps his Department is taking to support magistrates.

• 16 Dec 2025 · Magistrates · Hansard source

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  I thank the Minister for her answer. I recently had the opportunity to visit the county and family court in Watford, and while there I talked to them about the challenge of finding sufficient staff. Does my hon. and learned Friend agree that staffing is what makes magistrates courts and family courts work, and will she outline further what support the Government are offering to them?

• 26 Nov 2025 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Keighley and Ilkley (Robbie Moore). I thank and congratulate my right hon. Friend the Chancellor, on behalf of my fellow residents in Watford and Bushey North. The Chancellor has made the tough decisions needed to get Britain’s future back, just as we promised we would during the general election campaign last year. The scale of the task of dealing with the toxic legacy left to us by the Conservatives is truly enormous: from the black hole at the heart of the nation’s finances, running on fumes, to a decade and a half of failed productivity and pitiful investment in public services. Last year, my right hon. Friend put the country on a firmer footing by fixing the foundations and reversing our seemingly terminal decline. In Watford, private enterprise and public sector employers are both significant for our local economy. People commute to Watford as well as to London and the surrounding areas. We all know that our efforts are paying off: a succession of interest rate cuts, the highest growth in the G7 earlier this year and wages up more in 10 months under her stewardship than in 10 years of the Tories, as well as massive investment in capital projects and huge investments in the NHS. This has directly benefited my constituency, and therefore my fellow residents and I are grateful for that. Watford’s population skews young compared with similar towns in the UK, so the Chancellor’s announcement that young people on the national minimum wage will receive an 8.1% pay rise is welcome indeed. It will make a big difference to people in Watford, especially on the back of the previous increase. All of this has been achieved against a backdrop that has been phenomenally challenging, but let us not forget that modern economic history did not begin with the Conservative Government in 2015. Oh, no, no—it was in 2010, under the Conservative coalition Government with the Liberal Democrats that the rot truly set in with austerity, the bedroom tax, the slicing and dicing of the public services we all rely on, and the severing and casting aside of opportunity for almost everyone. I welcome the Budget’s commitments to stand by the Government’s investment in the NHS and capital infrastructure, as it was under the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition that Labour’s previous plans to rebuild Watford hospital were ripped up under the austerity programme. My home town has been waiting for that hospital ever since. Now we will finally get the change we were promised. I cannot tell you, Madam Deputy Speaker, how ecstatic we are to have a proper commitment backed up by actual funding from a Labour Government to rebuild our hospital finally. I thank my right hon. Friend the Chancellor—the first female Chancellor in our nation’s history—who has once again taken the tough decisions that will right our economy and put us on the path to prosperity once more. Ordered, That the debate be now adjourned. —(Imogen Walker.) Debate to be resumed tomorrow.

• 20 Nov 2025 · International Men’s Day · Hansard source

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  First, I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Cannock Chase (Josh Newbury) for giving an incredibly moving introduction to this debate. International Men’s Day, which is held on 19 November but which we debate today, is a wonderful chance to celebrate all that is good about men and boys and to commit to ensuring that we as legislators do all we can to support that agenda. My hon. Friend the Member for York Outer (Mr Charters) made a very emotional contribution in Prime Minister’s questions yesterday. I thank him for his moving question, which touched everyone on the Government Benches and I suspect those across the House. I also want to acknowledge the Prime Minister’s social media post, “A letter to my son.” What a moving piece that was. Whether we have sons or daughters, nephews or nieces, the emotion with which my right hon. Friend spoke was truly heart-touching. As a participant in today’s debate, and having worked with the Dad Shift on raising awareness on paternity pay and other issues, I am obliged to deliver to the House a dad joke: “I went shopping and someone threw a block of cheese at me. I said, ‘That’s not very mature!’” I’ll get my coat at the end of the debate. Things have moved on since I was a lad, but I recognise the frustrations that some men and boys feel upon emerging from education into an adult world that is not very caring. When I finished my education and started work, I struggled. Flush with the sense that hard work and dedication would see me through to success, it was alarming to discover that that was not necessarily the case. The assumption that I needed only to work hard to get on was revealed to me, in the midst of a brutal economic recession, to be a lie. It has been said by the economist Gary Stevenson that if we just tell young men that all they need to do to succeed is work hard, we should not be surprised when their reaction is not positive. The challenges that men feel are often focused on employment, family and identity. It is the structures of the society around us, which we ourselves have created, that result in the frustrations and challenges that people feel. As the documentary maker Adam Curtis has said, we could just as easily create a world in which those frustrations and challenges, and reasons that people despair, do not exist. We have, as Members of this place and members of society, simply to decide that that is what we want to do. Will we rise to the challenge, I wonder? Let us consider as an example social media and its potential for toxicity. I am of a vintage that means I was present not just at the birth of that media but at its conception. I cannot tell the House how optimistic everyone was for the future—optimistic to meet like-minded friends in virtual spaces and discuss ideas; to discover hitherto unexplored aspects of oneself; to revolutionise work; and perhaps, at its most pleasurable, to play games with people for fun and engagement. What a contrast with the world in which we now live, where many young people—and, arguably, many others—wish that they could just switch the internet off to get some respite. It has been said that, at its core, the British dream extends to having a family and providing for them. We all know how difficult that is under the circumstances we are debating today. Conversation is required. What stops men and boys feeling that they can have conversations about their fears in an environment that is open and supportive, rather than a pathway to despair? We all know the reasons men and boys do not have those conversations: fear and repression, and their perception of how society regards them. It does not have to be this way. Others may make this point too, but 90% of paternity leave, and 95% of shared parental leave, is taken by people in the top half of earners. This cannot be the world that we wanted to create. The issues affecting men and boys are serious. This International Men’s Day, let us determine to come together and resolve them.

• 19 Nov 2025 · UK-EU Agreement on Trade from Northern Ireland · Hansard source

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  Does the Secretary of State agree that aligning safety standards and cutting red tape—checks and paperwork—is precisely the kind of support for growth and trade that this Government promised to deliver for business when they were elected last year?

• 19 Nov 2025 · UK-EU Agreement on Trade from Northern Ireland · Hansard source

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  5. What assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the recent UK-EU agreement on trade from Northern Ireland.

• 3 Nov 2025 · Video Games: Consumer Law · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend the Member for South Norfolk (Ben Goldsborough) for securing this important debate. As we are all making declarations, I should say I am a self-confessed fan of survival horror games. Does my hon. Friend agree that the evolution of video games over the years to include an online component has created a cultural product that is unfamiliar to us in other territories, which therefore presents potential problems in terms of the longevity of the online component as opposed to a game’s stand-alone playability? For example, would one expect to be able to revisit a concert 10 years after it had taken place, rather than simply playing the album of that music again?

• 3 Nov 2025 · Care Leavers · Hansard source

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  Leaving care can be extremely challenging. In Watford, Hertfordshire’s local authority provides support with housing, finance, education and training, health and relationships, and wellbeing, but does my hon. Friend agree that all these services have to work really well not just independently but harmoniously together to ensure that care leavers can take steps into adulthood in a properly supported way?

• 23 Oct 2025 · Black History Month · Hansard source

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  I congratulate my hon. Friend the Minister for Equalities, and the Mother of the House, my right hon. Friend the Member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington (Ms Abbott), on their excellent speeches, as well as my hon. Friends the Members for Brent East (Dawn Butler), for Clapham and Brixton Hill (Bell Ribeiro-Addy), for Leyton and Wanstead (Mr Bailey) and many others. Rather like my hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth East (Tom Hayes), I sometimes wonder about the appropriateness of speaking in a debate like this, but I am delighted that our comments are being accepted in the spirit of allyship, which is absolutely how they are intended. I want to celebrate this year’s Black History Month. It is very relevant in my constituency of Watford, where there is an active and engaged black community. I particularly pay tribute to the Watford African Caribbean Association, which was founded by Sam Lusack, Randolph Henry and Althea McLean in 1976, making it one of the oldest such associations in the country. In fact, there is a lovely quote from Althea on the WACA website, which I will read, because it is quite inspirational: “Let us resolve to keep going regardless of the many challenges, each one of us can do something and together we can achieve.” The association is now led by Clive Saunders and it does amazing work for the community in the constituency, including providing activities for the over-50s, a lot of support around sickle cell, which my hon. Friend the Member for Chelsea and Fulham (Ben Coleman) spoke about, and community help, advice and engagement. During covid, it did great work as well. We know that black and minority ethnic people were disproportionately impacted by covid. Clive is a typical representative of an excellent community organisation in that he is always delighted to see me, but he is jolly well going to hold me to account when he does, and we love him dearly for that. I should also like to pay tribute to the chair of Watford borough council, Favour Ezeifedi, who was a fellow councillor of mine for many years. She has overcome adversity and persevered to achieve many great things locally, and does tremendous work to support young people especially through her church. This year is the 65th anniversary of Nigerian independence, and I recently had the pleasure of attending one of several celebrations held in my constituency. The generosity of the event organisers was remarkable, and I was really surprised to find one of my caseworkers there with her father. I had not expected her to be present, but she and her father had taken their car to the garage opposite the venue for repairs, and while they were hanging around, the organisers asked whether they would like to join them in their celebration. That was tremendous—an A+ for diary management for my caseworker. I would also like to put on the record my support for One Vision in my constituency, which is led by Enoch Kanagaraj. It has just won a national award for its incredible health work with faith communities. It has deep links in the community. As was touched on by my hon. Friend the Member for Chelsea and Fulham, many people are intimidated by going to an NHS setting to receive testing and treatment and so on, but often they will go to their church. One Vision has done tremendous work in bringing health and faith together to enable people to be tested for diabetes, for example. I also thank Eva Mbiru, a community activist who hosts Spiced in Watford, which supports women in the constituency. We must also celebrate the legend that is Luther Blissett from Watford football club. Having already given so much to Watford over the years, he and his partner Lauren do incredible work to support the veteran community in my constituency.

• 22 Oct 2025 · Financial Inclusion · Hansard source

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  I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this important debate. Does he agree that the publication of the Government’s financial inclusion strategy is welcome, given the urgency of the circumstances that many people face? For example, 37,000 people are affected in my constituency of Watford, and we are higher than the national average in three major metrics of need for this vulnerability.

• 10 Sept 2025 · Online Safety Act 2023: Effectiveness · Hansard source

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  It is so gratifying to see a Watfordian at the Dispatch Box. In my constituency of Watford, parents and families are rightly pleased with the protections being afforded to children and vulnerable people through the Online Safety Act 2023. We would not allow a child to get into a car and drive down the road, to go into an off-licence and buy tobacco or alcohol products, or to go into an adult entertainment establishment, so does the Secretary of State agree that children and vulnerable people need protections in the virtual world, just as they do in the physical one?

• 10 Sept 2025 · Online Safety Act 2023: Effectiveness · Hansard source

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  2. What assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Online Safety Act 2023 in reducing children’s exposure to harmful online content.

• 4 Sept 2025 · Future of Terrestrial Television · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Twigg. I thank the right hon. Member for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale (David Mundell) for securing this important debate. Early in my career, prior to my election here, I spent 15 years working at the BBC, so I remember well the UK digital-terrestrial switchover campaign that the right hon. Member for Maldon (Sir John Whittingdale) referenced. I want to make a couple of points about terrestrial television. It is not just about broadcast infrastructure, but much more. Terrestrial TV is about the scheduling of programming, content curation and providing a service that opens audiences to new experiences. It offers choices and access to material that viewers otherwise might not see. That can be much harder to achieve with streaming services because of the way the algorithm works, which encourages people to binge watch content similar to what they had been watching before. We can see some efforts by the public service broadcasters—PSBs—in their online offering to try to address and match the similarity of terrestrial television and its experience. In conclusion, the future of terrestrial television is about much more than the delivery mechanism. It is important that we remember that.

• 2 Sept 2025 · Gaza: Ceasefire · Hansard source

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  8. What steps he is taking to support a ceasefire in Gaza.

• 2 Sept 2025 · Gaza: Ceasefire · Hansard source

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  My constituency of Watford is a richly ethnically diverse community. When I speak to residents there about the conflict in Gaza, the overwhelming desire is for the killing to stop, for the hostages to be released and for the people of Gaza to be able to live in peace. Will the Secretary of State further outline what steps the Government are taking to aid international efforts to broker the ceasefire and what is frustrating it?

• 15 Jul 2025 · Net Zero Policies · Hansard source

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  I thank the Minister for her answer. Energy security is important not just to help bring bills down now. Does the Minister agree that it is also vital for the future and for protecting future generations, including in my constituency of eminently lovable Watford, because those young people are the ones who will face the climate change consequences in the years to come?

• 15 Jul 2025 · Net Zero Policies · Hansard source

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  14. What steps he is taking to ensure scientific evidence is used to support his net zero policies.

• 4 Jul 2025 · Licensing Hours Extensions Bill · Hansard source

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  My remarks were entirely oriented around the suggestion that those wishing to celebrate would be able to do so. No compulsion to do so was intended.

• 4 Jul 2025 · Licensing Hours Extensions Bill · Hansard source

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  I beg to move, That the Bill be now read the Third time. The Licensing Hours Extensions Bill, proposed by my hon. Friend the Member for Wrexham (Andrew Ranger), is about cutting red tape and unnecessary and time-consuming bureaucracy for the hospitality industry and local authorities when they simply want to open earlier or stay open later on occasions of special importance. The Bill will amend the Licensing Act 2003 to allow licensing extensions to be made more quickly and simply. Furthermore, it will make it possible to extend licensing hours for noteworthy events at short notice, even when Parliament is not sitting. Such decisions will be considered on a case-by-case basis, and extensions will be used as and when is deemed appropriate by the Government, with the criteria for making such an extension remaining unchanged, and the power resting with the Home Secretary. The Bill will make a very simple alteration to the Licensing Act 2003, so that the negative procedure is used and the requirement for debate is removed, though Members can still pray against an extension if they wish. That will allow extensions to licensing hours to be processed without using up valuable parliamentary time—something I am certain you would approve of, Madam Deputy Speaker. It is extremely welcome that there has been broad support and consensus across the House for this measure. Whether that says something about parliamentarians and pints, I could not possibly say. The negative procedure also has the benefit of allowing licensing extensions to be made in the rare event that they are needed during parliamentary recess or at short notice. Following the affirmative procedure is problematic when an order needs to be made at short notice, as we have seen in the past—for example, at the time of the women’s world cup in 2023.

• 4 Jul 2025 · Licensing Hours Extensions Bill · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is absolutely correct: this is vital legislation. It is wholly appropriate to make this alteration in order to permit swift changes to licensing hours as necessary. This move will ensure that there will be no such limitations in the future, and that any hospitality venue will have the option of taking advantage of an extension issued by the Home Secretary. Special occasions such as world cups, European championships and royal weddings live long in all our memories, even if we are enjoying the hospitality so enabled. It is only right that our pubs and hospitality venues are given the opportunity to be a part of the experience on those occasions. My hon. Friend the Member for Wrexham and I hope that the Bill will pass today, and will do exactly what it says on the tin, especially on this day of celebration, one year on from the general election.

• 4 Jul 2025 · Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for bringing forward this very important Bill. The point about very young animals is really pertinent. In my family, we have two kittens. They were brought into our house at an appropriate age, and we can see the importance of their first relationships after birth. One of my constituents owns ferrets, and I met both those ferrets at civic events in my constituency of Watford. They clearly have personalities, and it is really important that this Bill seeks to protect them.

• 4 Jul 2025 · Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill · Hansard source

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  On my hon. Friend’s point about social media, does he have a view on the importance of having a dog in your social media during a general election campaign? It seemed to be an almost compulsory element of many of the campaigns I was involved in, including mine. Surely the Bill is critical to ensuring the good nature of the animals appearing in those social media posts?

• 3 Jul 2025 · NHS 10-Year Plan · Hansard source

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  I welcome the 10-year plan, and I thank the Secretary of State for giving my constituents in Watford the opportunity to feed into it through the consultation. Does he agree that the Tories accepted decline in the NHS as inevitable, but it takes a Labour Government to get the NHS back on its feet?

• 30 Jun 2025 · Armed Forces Family Housing · Hansard source

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  I meet servicemen, servicewomen and veterans in my constituency at events such as Remembrance Day and the recent VE commemorations. We all know the challenges that servicemen and women have had with housing and its quality in recent years. Does my right hon. Friend agree that it is this Labour Government who are finally making them proud?

• 30 Jun 2025 · Armed Forces Family Housing · Hansard source

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  1. What steps he is taking to improve housing for armed forces families.