Matt Turmaine MP: speeches

Speeches

• 15 Jan 2026 · Covid-19: Financial Support · Hansard source

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  I worked in health and social care during the covid pandemic, so I did not experience furlough—in fact, we worked very hard indeed. Some of the excluded self-employed people that the hon. Member refers to are still suffering today. Does she agree that they are paying the price for the previous Government’s sheer incompetence in managing the process?

• 14 Jan 2026 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  The staff at West Hertfordshire teaching hospitals NHS trust, which operates Watford general hospital in my constituency, have been very busy bees. They recently won trust of the year and a performance recovery award at the 2025 Health Service Journal awards. Will the Prime Minister join me in congratulating the amazing team at Watford general, and thank them for all the hard work they have done to achieve this admirable accolade? Imagine what further achievements they will make when they have their new hospital and new facilities.

• 6 Jan 2026 · Cyber Security and Resilience (Network and Information Systems) Bill · Hansard source

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  On the attack on the NHS, I worked for 10 years in health and social care prior to being elected to this place, so I witnessed that attack taking place, and nothing could give a starker demonstration of the impact on productivity that cyber-attacks have on our country and our society. There was a meeting of senior clinical commissioning group and other health trust executives in Hertfordshire at the time, and one by one they were forced to leave the room like lights blinking out as the impact of the attack became clear. Does my hon. Friend agree that this Bill is essential to keep our legislation up to date with the new methods of attack that bad actors are using on our state and infrastructure as online technology evolves?

• 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.

• 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.