Matt Turmaine MP: speeches

Speeches

• 24 Jun 2026 · Media Green Paper · Hansard source

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  As a former employee of the BBC for 15 years, I know the importance of those Reithian principles to educate, inform and entertain, which are at the core everything the organisation does. Dissemination of fake news and misinformation online is a genuine risk to our democracy. Does the Secretary of State agree that even if people are going to trusted sites and sources online, such as the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, there is a real risk of the mix of slop around it polluting people’s ability to see accurate information, and that this demonstrates the absolute need for trusted news sources online?

• 4 Mar 2026 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Q14. Last week, in my constituency of Watford, several amazing charities held their annual sleep-out to raise awareness of homelessness. People sign up to sleep outside at Watford football ground. More than 120 people raised over £15,000 of vital funding and more than 200 attended including the volunteers. Watford FC Community Sports & Education Trust, New Hope, Herts Young Homeless Group, One YMCA, DENS and Hand on Heart did a fantastic job. Britain’s Got Talent semi-finalist Electric Umbrella was on hand to give a performance to participants. Will my right hon. Friend congratulate them on their efforts and outline what the Government are doing to end the scourge of homelessness?

• 25 Feb 2026 · UK-German Relations · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to speak under your chairmanship, Mr Twigg. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Preston (Sir Mark Hendrick) for securing this important debate. I want to make a few comments about the relationship between Watford and Mainz, Germany. There was a twinning relationship between our town and Mainz for many years, which had a successful history, with parties going to visit Germany from the UK and vice versa and all the benefits of that cultural and political exchange. Sadly, that relationship died when the local authority abandoned the twinning relationship some years ago, which was a great tragedy. Not content with that situation, however, dedicated people within my local Labour party and our sister party in Mainz, the SPD, fostered relations and restarted the exchange, with visits taking place between our two towns again. That has had great effect: we have received delegations from the SPD in Mainz many times now, and we have exchanged culture and experience. We have taken them to the football and the capital, and we have explained to them in great detail the history of the brewing industry in Watford, which has been convivially enjoyed. There have been reciprocal visits to Mainz, which were incredible. It was great to learn about the history of that city and what happened, for example, during its experience of bombing in the second world war and the incredible job that was done to rebuild it as it looked before. We are lucky enough to have a representative from there in the Public Gallery today—welcome; it is great to see you. I have personal experience of the exchange. I particularly enjoyed a trip through a vineyard on a tractor-drawn cart, where I had a bit of the wares created on that particular farm—that is, if my memory serves me correctly, which it probably does not. At Christmas we had the pleasure of hosting the MP for Mainz from the Bundestag, Daniel Baldy. We were able to show him how Parliament works and give him a tour, which was extremely beneficial. Why do we do all that? The benefits are clear. Lots of Members have mentioned the trade, industry and scientific benefits that have been derived from the relationship, but there are human benefits as well. They include empathy, understanding, friendship and lessons learned—not just in industry and the economy, but in education around how we can improve our education system, and in politics around how we campaign politically and govern differently; hopefully they can bring benefits to all of us. I hope to make a return visit to Mainz in the near future.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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 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?