Max Wilkinson MP: speeches

Speeches

• 9 Oct 2024 · Film Industry · Hansard source

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  The Secretary of State mentioned my favourite film, and I promise that my contributions in the Chamber will always be in the spirit of Paddington Bear and not Mr Curry. As the Minister for Creative Industries, Arts and Tourism, the hon. Member for Rhondda and Ogmore (Chris Bryant), will know after our exchange on Twitter, “Paddington 2” is the best film. This is a positive statement. The Liberal Democrats welcome the announcement, as we did when it was announced in the Finance Bill earlier this year. It is good to see the Government following through on that. The creative industries are the heartbeat of British life and the film industry is a powerful tool for soft power and economic growth, too. This is a first step, but our view is that wider tax relief measures should be considered in future. We need to address the skills gap by reforming the apprenticeship levy, as has been mentioned—that is a positive thing. We should transform it into a training and skills levy. We need to address the barriers to finance suffered by so many in the creative industries. We hear about that regularly, particularly from smaller operations. We believe that creative enterprise zones will help to regenerate cultural output across our regions and nations, and we believe that this country should apply to join Creative Europe to boost the funding options available. I have three questions. In the light of Ireland’s announcement, is the Secretary of State satisfied that the measure announced today gives us enough of an advantage over our neighbours in Europe? On Europe, have the Government considered the merits of enabling full participation in Creative Europe? Finally, what steps are the Government taking to extend access to finance for the creative industries?

• 9 Oct 2024 · Maternity Services: Gloucestershire · Hansard source

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  I beg to move, That this House has considered maternity services in Gloucestershire. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Christopher. The hon. Member for North Cotswolds (Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown) sends his apologies; he was due to be here but he is counting the votes somewhere else at the moment in an important internal election. He wanted me to start by saying that he gives his full support to the comments that I and others will make in support of maternity services in Gloucestershire, so I hope Hansard reflects that. It is not controversial to say that NHS services across the country are struggling. One of the services that impacts all of us at least once in our lives is maternity care. This service is at the heart of women’s healthcare; it must be treated with the utmost seriousness. Pregnancy and childbirth is a special moment for families. It is a memory I cherish—obviously I was not pregnant myself. It is something to be cherished by all. But for pregnant women it can also be an extremely stressful experience. If there are failures in the system, the consequences can be dire. Some of those consequences were laid bare in the recent “Panorama” documentary on maternity services in Gloucestershire. In that documentary we heard too many harrowing stories. Brave whistleblowers from within the system and brave mothers told their stories—one brave father told a story too. Those stories were told in the most heartbreaking terms, and will stick with me for as long as I live. Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS foundation trust apologised for those failings. It has invested in increased staffing, worked to reduce staff turnover and has made changes to leadership in maternity care. But so much more needs to be done. The service at Gloucestershire Royal hospital was rated inadequate in 2022 and again in 2023. The findings of a further inspection earlier this year are still awaited, but a section 31 safety enforcement notice was served in May. Cheltenham’s midwife-led Aveta birth unit serves a large chunk of our county. It was closed for births in autumn 2022, some time before six of our county’s seven Members of Parliament were elected. The closure was due to a shortage of midwives. The reorganisation by the hospital’s trust was carried out to ensure that one-to-one care across Gloucestershire’s wider maternity services could be achieved. It is an entirely understandable response; nobody would want to put mothers and babies at risk. We were told, however, that the measures were temporary. Two years down the line they are still in place, and that is not an acceptable situation for people in our county. The NHS hospital trust suggests that the Cheltenham Aveta centre will not re-open for births before April 2025. Even then, nothing seems certain. The trust states that it is committed to reopening the centre when it is safe to do so. However, the byzantine way in which the NHS sometimes works means that it is difficult to work out who will be the ultimate decision maker. Sometimes decisions on resources are made by the integrated care board rather than hospital trust staff, and that collaborative process makes it difficult to work out who must be held to account for statements that have been made in the past.

• 9 Oct 2024 · Maternity Services: Gloucestershire · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend makes a strong point. Employee assistance schemes have a strong role to play here. I understand that in the NHS there is quite good support in general. However, it is a massive struggle when people are working so many extra hours to ensure that they get the support they need. In the case of midwifery, it is a stressful job—a life-and-death matter in many circumstances. There is a clear and obvious link between the extreme overwork identified in the RCN survey and the findings of the Care Quality Commission. Obviously, if staff are working so many extra hours, they will suffer. Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has identified staff turnover levels and low morale due to the workload as significant factors. The Darzi report also calls for a shift away from care in centralised hospital settings towards communities, and states that that is a likely route towards the recovery of our health services. That being the case, and with a Minister in the room, I say that there is a clear argument for restoring Cheltenham families’ access to a fully functioning birth unit in our town as soon as it is safe to do so. I have three questions for the Minister, if she would be so kind as to answer them. First, what is the Government’s position on seeking to reinstate maternity services in places such as Cheltenham and Stroud, which have been recently downgraded? Secondly, what will the Government do to address the ongoing recruitment and retention crisis in midwifery? Thirdly, in cases such as Gloucestershire’s, where a section 31 notice is exacerbating recruitment and retention issues, what can the Government do to help local trusts improve their staffing position? I understand that there are examples of trusts around the country being supported to pay high wages and salaries to ensure that midwives can be properly recruited and to overcome shortages.

• 9 Oct 2024 · Maternity Services: Gloucestershire · Hansard source

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  I would. The hon. Member makes a strong case, and I will come on to some of the evidence from the Royal College of Midwives later. It has done some important studies into the stress that midwives are put under in the system. I will move on to Stroud—the hon. Member for Stroud (Dr Opher) is in his place. In Stroud, six post-natal beds were closed around the same time as the closure to new births at the Cheltenham Aveta centre. The reason given by the trust was that the temporary closure would consolidate staffing across the county and provide a safer level of care for births across the whole of Gloucestershire. I am certain the hon. Member will have more to say on this if he is called to speak later, and I am pleased to see him here. In our county, the 6,000 families who rely on our maternity services each year view this as a significant downgrade in service, and it is a cause of worry for a large number of families. It is clear that these services can only reopen when staffing levels improve. At the moment, the trust says it is around 13% below the staffing level required to return to the previous level of service, with Cheltenham open and the beds reopened in Stroud. However, the nature of midwifery means that quite a lot of the midwives will be off on maternity leave themselves at any one time. Indeed, I will come on to talk about the stress that midwives are under and some of its causes, which have led to a larger proportion of midwives being off for a significant period of time each year than staff in the rest of the NHS. Research into what is driving the recruitment and retention crisis exposes the scale of the challenge we face in Gloucestershire and across the rest of the country. We are told that recruiting to a trust under a section 31 safety notice is even more challenging than it is elsewhere. Midwives who are already under significant pressure are subjected to additional strains in the form of monitoring and bureaucracy, and that can have an impact on staff morale. Of course, monitoring and bureaucracy are important when we are trying to get trusts out of safety notices; however, we cannot look past the fact that that makes it more difficult to overcome those recruitment challenges. If that were the only barrier, it would be somewhat simpler. The Royal College of Midwives conducted a randomised survey of weekly hours worked by midwives and maternity support workers. The findings were absolutely shocking. It found that the staff surveyed reported a collective total of nearly 120,000 unpaid hours that week. That is a stark illustration of the demands placed on frontline NHS staff, who go above and beyond in a system that appears to be falling apart at the seams. It is no wonder that the Darzi review reports that there is a high rate of sickness absence among midwives at 21.5 days a year per midwife. The most common reasons cited for absence were anxiety, stress or depression, or other psychiatric illnesses. Midwives go into the profession because of a commitment to the health of women and babies and to giving care at a critical moment, and to be part of a joyful moment in so many families’ lives. The fact that they are collectively suffering such high levels of stress tells us just how badly wrong the system has gone.

• 9 Oct 2024 · Maternity Services: Gloucestershire · Hansard source

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  Thank you, Sir Christopher. I thank the Minister for her long and detailed reply. I appreciate the time that she has taken. I also appreciate her background in the NHS; we have spoken elsewhere about how she worked in the NHS for a long time, and I know that she will bring a lot of expertise to her brief. I also appreciate the specific references to the constituency, and the work that she has done to ensure that she could give a detailed response about Gloucestershire’s services, rather than a more general response on the national picture. That has brought a lot to the debate. We have heard some powerful contributions, not least the contribution of my hon. Friend the Member for Thornbury and Yate (Claire Young), who told her personal story. We also had a contribution from a member of the public via my hon. Friend the Member for Winchester (Dr Chambers), as well as one from the hon. Member for Gloucester (Alex McIntyre), who had a harrowing few days, by the sounds of it, with a really good outcome. He referred to his son in his maiden speech the other day as well. That was joyful, so I thank him. The Gloucestershire example is not unusual, as the Minister and others have pointed out. However, we suffer in Gloucestershire from an outsized problem; our NHS trust is suffering from a deficit of midwives in a way that other NHS trusts are not, and we need to address that. The Minister referred to the good work already being done by the trust, and it is important that in our contributions we recognise that work is being done, under new leadership, to try to turn things around. In my regular meetings with the trust’s chief executive, that has come through. An open and transparent communications culture is something that we will welcome as new Members of Parliament. At its heart, this discussion must come back to the safety of women and babies, and to choice for mothers. Locally, we are suffering the symptoms of a widespread national issue, but it is not acceptable for people in Cheltenham and Gloucestershire to be denied that choice indefinitely. That is what we are dealing with. I urge the trust’s chief executive and others—who I know are listening to this debate, and who know that we are contributing in good faith—to keep members of the public and everyone else, particularly local MPs and councils, informed about what is happening next. We know that there will not be a decision before April 2025, but it is important that there are milestones, so that people get updates and there is regular open, transparent reporting. That helps to maintain confidence in the system as the good work of supporting the rights of mothers, babies and families goes on, and ensures that our midwives are better looked after in the system. If we can keep this debate happening in public, we are more likely to reach a situation in which Gloucestershire families get the service from the local NHS that we all deserve. Question put and agreed to. Resolved , That this House has considered maternity services in Gloucestershire.

• 9 Oct 2024 · Maternity Services: Gloucestershire · Hansard source

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  I am sure that I would agree with whatever my hon. Friend was about to say. He was making the point, I think, that it is easy to be down on our NHS and its staff. That is not the purpose of this debate at all; its purpose is to ensure that we give the support that is needed to our midwives, other NHS staff and, indeed, NHS managers, who are often maligned but, like other NHS staff, work long hours and are in it for the betterment of health services. On a personal note, I offer my wholehearted thanks to the staff at Gloucestershire hospitals, who were there for my wife and me when our daughter was born in Gloucestershire Royal hospital in 2022. It was an important day for my family and for the country when we went into the operating theatre for the C-section: this country had no Prime Minister, and when we came out we had my daughter, Elodie, and we had Liz Truss. That is a memory that will live long for me. I particularly thank Fiona Liddle, the midwife who gave us the most care during my wife’s pregnancy, as well as all the doctors, nurses and healthcare workers who helped to make the experience so joyful for us.

• 8 Oct 2024 · Edinburgh Festivals: Cultural and Economic Contribution · Hansard source

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  I appeal to the Government to make a small re-prioritisation: appoint a Minister for tourism and hospitality.

• 8 Oct 2024 · Edinburgh Festivals: Cultural and Economic Contribution · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure, Mr Efford, to serve under your chairmanship and I congratulate the hon. Member for Edinburgh East and Musselburgh (Chris Murray) on securing this important debate. We have heard many inspiring stories today about Edinburgh. I regret that my most recent cultural experience in Edinburgh was bellowing out Proclaimers songs in Fingers piano bar at my stag party. That was a great day out, but it does not match up to some of the other stories that we have heard—

• 8 Oct 2024 · Edinburgh Festivals: Cultural and Economic Contribution · Hansard source

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  It was a lovely evening out as well, Minister. Our challenge is that we must build a creative environment that showcases the best of British talent—bringing together British culture and creativity, and showcasing it for the world—and that we use that to foster a thriving and informed democracy. The impact of cultural festivals in achieving those aims is substantial. In the case of the Edinburgh festival, we have already heard that it benefits Edinburgh itself by more than £400 million; the wider impacts on the rest of Scotland and the UK are much, much bigger. The festival opens the door to tourism for the rest of our nation, which is a really important aspect that we must not miss out when speaking about cultural events. That is why it is very worrying to hear the concerns of festival organisers, which have been highlighted in recent news coverage. Regardless of funding pressures, it is our opinion that it is extremely important that the Scottish Government do what they can to meet their past funding pledges. For appropriate balance, I will add that such responsibility extends to other public funders of cultural activities across the rest of the UK, whether those are devolved nations or local government. Festivals, such as the festivals in Edinburgh that we are debating today or the Cheltenham festivals in my own constituency, play a key role in our cultural life. It is vital that they receive the support necessary to continue to flourish. This week, my constituency is celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Cheltenham Literature Festival, which continues to flourish. However, despite large ticket sales, reductions in funding and in-kind support mean that the organisers of the Cheltenham Literature Festival have had to make some really tough choices in the past few years. Nevertheless, they still engage youngsters in reading to the tune of around 23,000 children every year. Of course, reading for pleasure is one of the single biggest indicators of a child’s future success. At the launch event for the Cheltenham Literature Festival last Friday evening, supporters—including me—were reminded that the UK spends just 0.46% of its GDP on culture; that is based on the latest figures, which are from 2022. According to the University of Warwick’s “The State of the Arts” report, the UK is not alone in Europe in cutting its cultural budgets in recent years, but that does not make it right and we remain towards the bottom of the European league table, lagging behind our neighbours. If we are to remain a cultural superpower, that situation needs to be addressed. Cultural funding extends to local festivals, theatres, cinemas, museums, art galleries, music and dance venues, libraries and public spaces. These are all vital to communities the length and breadth of our country. They are spaces devoted to creative endeavour. They not only fuel local economies; they also stimulate community participation across a whole range of creative activities. In addition, we must not ignore the positive impact of the cultural sector on another great challenge facing our nation: deteriorating mental health. As we seek to reduce pressure on the NHS, we should look to the arts and culture as part of the non-medical therapy available. While few in the Chamber would dispute the difficult economic inheritance of this Government, we cannot look past the positive economic and social impact of investment in culture. It generates incomes and helps communities to thrive in non-monetary measures, too, as the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) pointed out. What can we do to help our cultural sector boost the economy and increase happiness and wellbeing? Central Government can make a difference in many ways, although at heart it often comes down to money. However, Westminster and devolved Governments can make other important contributions. The promise made by the new Government for the restoration of multi-year funding settlements for local government will provide an important route to that. The hon. Member for Mid Derbyshire (Jonathan Davies) mentioned creative subjects, and we agree on that. Planning reform offers another opportunity. Engaging the cultural sector in that will be important. We can beef up powers for local areas to protect cherished cultural venues. The cultural sector, too, would benefit from the abolition of business rates and the introduction of a commercial landowner levy. A more sensitive subject is freedom of expression in the cultural sector. We all need to remember that sometimes we will see and hear things that we do not agree with. If art is not there to stimulate debate, it is nothing. Finally, Chair—

• 5 Sept 2024 · Great British Energy Bill · Hansard source

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  Does my hon. Friend agree that we need the Bill to look at and include schemes like the Cheltenham green deal, run by Cheltenham borough council, through which local organisations that could not otherwise fund green schemes are able to access funding borrowed by the local council? Such schemes will then make money and provide a return for the taxpayer so that local areas can start producing more renewable energy for themselves—for example, through the investment in solar panels on the roof of Cheltenham Town football club.

• 5 Sept 2024 · SEND Provision · Hansard source

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  Will my hon. Friend give way on that point?

• 2 Sept 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Devolution is a positive thing, and we welcome it. Gloucestershire, which has my constituency of Cheltenham within it, has coterminous boundaries for the county council, a police force, a fire service, an economic development function and a health service, but there is fear that, in a devolution deal, it may be grouped with other areas to the north, or perhaps made part of an existing devolution deal to the south. Can the Secretary of State or another Minister confirm that that will not be the case?

• 2 Sept 2024 · Technology in Public Services · Hansard source

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  Interested as I am in this question of process and the discussions about cronyism, I turned up here to listen to a debate about tech and public services. I was wondering whether the hon. Gentleman had any opinions on that subject.

• 2 Sept 2024 · Technology in Public Services · Hansard source

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  This is obviously a positive debate, as there are so many benefits for us all. I could not remember 191 passcodes—I struggle to remember my own to log in every day in Parliament—but of course we have to underpin everything that we are talking about in terms of technology with cyber-security. In Cheltenham, we have a 4,900 member-strong community speaking for our industry in CyNam, and of course we have GCHQ, where thousands of people work every day; they do not ask for our thanks, but they deserve it in bucketloads. The Secretary of State may be aware of the golden valley development in Cheltenham, which I recently sent him a letter about and which would include the national cyber innovation centre. I wonder whether he might like to find out more about that by sending members of his team—or he could come himself—to have a chat with me about it.

• 25 Jul 2024 · Code of Conduct and Modernisation Committee · Hansard source

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  I am one of many newcomers to this Chamber. I first spent time in the Chamber on Friday afternoon, when some irregular things happened. Does the Leader of the House agree that it is the conduct of Members in this Chamber, as well as issues around second jobs and conduct outside, that has given politics and all of us here a bad reputation? If we are to solve these problems, we should recognise that when people turn on the television or watch Parliament live, they want to see people listening respectfully—not heckling, shouting out or calling names.

• 23 Jul 2024 · Immigration and Home Affairs · Hansard source

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  It is my honour to stand in this Chamber as the Member of Parliament for the beautiful town of Cheltenham, and it is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Alloa and Grangemouth (Brian Leishman). I heartily commend what he said about Alan Hansen, who I watched on television on many occasions as a young football fan. Since last summer, when my wife returned to work after maternity leave, I have been enjoying the unusual combined roles of wannabe Member of Parliament and stay-at-home dad. They tell me it is a job requiring endless patience, a great deal of tolerance, the ability to understand almost inhuman forms of communication and boundless enthusiasm for clearing up a never-ending supply of mess—and I hear a toddler can be tough, too. I want to start by giving thanks to some of the people and groups that have made the past year so joyful for me: Baby Bounce and Rhyme at Cheltenham library, and in particular Heather, who leads the singing; Andrea and Mary at Highbury church playgroup; and Sophie at Little Notes. My experiences over the past year have reinforced my views about the challenges I already knew so many parents face, and I have met many new parents in the corridors over the past couple of weeks. I will always speak up in this place for children, including my own offspring—so, Elodie, if you are at home watching me droning on, please tell Granny to put “The Wiggles” on instead. I offer my sincere thanks to the former Justice Secretary, Alex Chalk, the first Member of Parliament for Cheltenham to serve in Cabinet. Conservative Members should note his wise words on the prison population: that we should follow the evidence, not the dogma. But such praise for my predecessor is perhaps best communicated through the words of one member of House staff, who upon being introduced to me as Alex’s replacement, responded with a line that really hit home and will last with me forever: “Oh, that’s a shame. He was nice.” Luckily, I am not easily offended, and I will try to be nice too. I also thank two of my political mentors, Martin Horwood and Nigel Jones. Both are past MPs for Cheltenham who made an indelible impact on me and on our town. My predecessors knew what I know: that Cheltenham is full of big-hearted people whose community spirit and love of hospitality, the arts and culture make it a special place to be. We have so many festivals, including literature, horse racing, poetry, music, jazz, food, cricket and science—I could go on—that we are known as the festival town. We live in a food and drink paradise: we have excellent pubs, bars, cafes and restaurants, as well as the DEYA brewery and Dunkertons cider. We are the home of Holst, of Superdry and of the polar explorer Edward Wilson, but there is more. Local historians record that Cheltenham was the site of the first parachute descent. In 1838, John Hampton jumped out of a hot air balloon 9,000 feet above the town and glided to earth under an umbrella-like contraption. At this point, my right hon. Friend the Member for Kingston and Surbiton (Ed Davey) might be getting too excited, so I will leave it there. Cheltenham’s rich cultural tapestry is interwoven with generously proportioned parks and gardens, and is surrounded by beautiful Regency architecture and rolling hills. It truly is a feast for all the senses, and our schools are first-rate, too. Education is at the heart of our town’s values—it is on the town crest. I am so proud to have been elected for the town I love at the second attempt. That second-time success follows a trend in my relationship with Cheltenham. First impressions are clearly not my thing, and they could have led to a very different path in my life. In fact, my first job interview in Cheltenham—many years ago, when I had a full head of hair—was so bad that not only was I not offered the job, but when the boss called back weeks later, having apparently been turned down by all the other candidates, the starting salary had suffered a rapid cut of around 10%. Members will know that that is a spending power reduction that even the former Member for South West Norfolk would struggle to match in her most strident moments. I took the job anyway, of course, because you do not turn down the chance to move to Cheltenham. I am proud to have already kept my first promise as a Member of Parliament. I have joined the Robins Trust, which supports Cheltenham Town FC. They remain a division ahead of Forest Green Rovers, despite being relegated last season—with my apologies to the hon. Member for Stroud (Dr Opher). I have led campaigns already to invest in affordable housing in Cheltenham, to fight climate change and to support food banks, because we have them. It is a disgrace that a town as wealthy as Cheltenham has more than 700 people using food banks regularly. We have a unique scheme in Cheltenham where food bank users also get free access to the leisure centre. I would recommend that all Members try to roll that out in their area. However, if there is one priority I will pursue relentlessly, it will be undoing the harm caused to our local health services these past few years. Alongside the word “education”, our town crest also features the world “health”. I will defend our local hospital, and I will campaign on primary care, too. One matter of vital importance linking this place and Cheltenham is GCHQ. Their work is secret and they never ask for our thanks, but thousands of people in Cheltenham work hard for us every single day. If I may veer dangerously close to policy for a maiden speech, I was pleased to see that the cyber-security and resilience Bill will be coming before Parliament. This is a huge opportunity to update the UK’s cyber laws by reforming the Computer Misuse Act 1990, and that will help better defend our cyber-defenders who work so hard for us in Cheltenham. It was with those issues and more in mind that I was accosted at Paddington station the night before my first day here. I was lost in thought, and a tourist approached me and said, “Excuse me, Sir. How do you get to Westminster?” I was of course delighted to be recognised by a member of the public so early in my political career, so I decided to give him the full benefit of my political story. After about 15 minutes, I had been through all my best campaigns, my door-knocking technique, the best leaflets I have ever delivered, and I was just telling him about doing aqua aerobics with our leader, my right hon. Friend the Member for Kingston and Surbiton, in our iconic Sandford Park lido. Sadly, I had got it wrong. He interjected, “Sorry, friend; I just wanted to know which tube line to take.” That is a cautionary tale for all new Members: let us not get ahead of ourselves. We are here for our constituency first and foremost, and for me it will be Cheltenham first every time.