Naushabah Khan MP: speeches

Speeches

• 30 Jun 2026 · High Streets · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member is making a powerful speech. With reference to the change in the nature of our high street, he is absolutely right that online retail has taken over. Does that not mean that we need to look at a mixed-use offer that takes into account things like housing, the impact of health in the area more broadly and general disadvantage, which have an impact on how high streets look and feel for communities?

• 30 Jun 2026 · High Streets · Hansard source

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  The Minister is making a powerful point about community partnerships and how we work together. Does she agree that involving the community in decisions about the future of the high street, as we are doing in Gillingham, is really important? It will secure the future of high streets.

• 8 Jun 2026 · Unite the Kingdom Rally: Policing · Hansard source

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  Last week, I met one of my constituents who had faced horrible racist abuse on the train home from people who had been on the Unite the Kingdom rally. As someone of mixed white and middle eastern heritage, she told me that for the first time she felt scared in her own country. Does the Minister agree with me that we have a responsibility to tackle racial division across our country and not to ignite the situation, and that when the leader of Reform UK takes to the airwaves in the aftermath of heightened racial tensions to tell the public that they must react with “pure cold rage”, it is people such as my constituent who pay the price?

• 8 Jun 2026 · Digital Safety: Children · Hansard source

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  Unfortunately, I do not believe that the tech giants will do as they say and act in the right way on this issue. What consideration is the Minister giving to legislation, particularly to ensure that all platforms can meet the same standards, but also so that we can future-proof against new platforms?

• 18 Mar 2026 · Social Media: Children and Young People · Hansard source

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  Parents in Gillingham and Rainham strongly back this Government’s efforts to keep children safe online. Does the Secretary of State agree that repealing the Online Safety Act, as Reform has pledged to do, would recklessly expose our children to online predators and leave them without the protections they deserve, and that any party serious about families must have a credible plan for children’s online safety, not simply tear one up?

• 18 Mar 2026 · Social Media: Children and Young People · Hansard source

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  4. What steps her Department is taking to engage with children and young people on social media use.

• 17 Mar 2026 · Meningitis Outbreak · Hansard source

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  I thank the Secretary of State for his statement, and I particularly welcome his announcement that he is reviewing the ongoing use of the vaccine and considering expanding it to a wider cohort. Given that the University of Kent also has campuses in Medway, could he inform me what work he is doing with the university to ensure that the spread across other campuses is monitored on a regular basis, and that if there is any potential for this outbreak to spread further, it is being reviewed regularly?

• 3 Feb 2026 · Town and City Centre Safety · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure, Mr Dowd, to speak under your chairship. Our town centres are the heart of our communities. They give our towns identity and define how we interact with where we live. However, it is that very interaction that means people also need to feel safe, secure and welcome in town centres. That is certainly true in my constituency and in my home town of Gillingham, where the high street has become a visible sign of decline. Unfortunately, we are plagued by antisocial behaviour, graffiti, drug activity and knife crime. Our brilliant local police officers—Marcus, Matt and Issy—do a fantastic job in visibly patrolling our town centre, which shows the difference that community policing can make, but the fact remains that Gillingham town centre is in the top national decile for crime and residents just do not feel safe. That did not just happen overnight. It comes after chronic underinvestment by the former Conservative council and the damaging impacts of austerity under the former Government, which left Gillingham forgotten. My town centre is a reflection of how reduced civic investment has changed the character and feel of town centres. Despite that, I have hope for the future, because there are opportunities for change. The announcement of the Pride in Place scheme by the Government is a significant step in the right direction. Additionally, in partnership with Medway Council I have established a taskforce that adopts a multi-agency approach, working with the police, local councillors and other stakeholders to address the challenges that we face. Off the back of that work, we have launched the Love Gillingham initiative, convening a community panel of residents, stakeholders and businesses who have the same passion and vision for their town centre. I would argue such a holistic community-centred approach, which is also tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime, is needed, alongside national Government interventions, to truly ensure that our town centres across the country are safer and more vibrant.

• 2 Feb 2026 · Indefinite Leave to Remain · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend makes a powerful point. Does he agree that the change to this rule could also have an impact on children? We have to make sure that, whatever the changes are, they take into account those children who are growing up in this country and could be adversely impacted if we do not look at the proposal carefully.

• 28 Jan 2026 · Youth Unemployment · Hansard source

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  No, I will continue. Let us not forget the damage that the Conservatives caused by cutting youth services by 70% in real terms since 2010. A Government who presided over the rise in NEET numbers year after year cannot claim surprise at the consequences of hollowing out the skills system that once gave young people a route into meaningful work while more and more young people are falling out of the labour market due to ill health. The Leader of the Opposition said in a speech today, when referring to the hon. Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage), that Britain needed an engineer, not a used car salesman. That is quite funny, because 14 years of Conservative government have left a generation of young people who might not have the opportunity to be either. When the last Labour Government left office, they left a strong foundation of support for young people: a national careers guidance service, robust apprenticeships and a clear vocational pathway. Fourteen years later, those foundations lie in ruins. Connexions advisers are gone, opportunities for training have been slashed and, as I have said, nearly a million young people were left economically inactive.

• 28 Jan 2026 · Youth Unemployment · Hansard source

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  I completely agree that those routes offer young people an alternative. They offer them a space where they have an opportunity to thrive in a way they might not have been able to thrive in a traditional academic setting. I recognise the need for us to ensure that all those opportunities are protected in whichever way possible, and I recognise the work that the hon. Member is doing in her constituency to promote that. I know that many of my young constituents in Gillingham and Rainham will welcome this Government’s approach. Jack, a 19-year-old constituent of mine, wrote to me to say: “I am trying hard to build a future for myself, but without anyone giving me a chance it feels impossible to get started. I want to work, to contribute and become independent, but at the moment, I feel stuck and unsupported.” My heart broke when I read that. I know that we have a lot of work to do as a Government to get this right, but Conservative Members should recognise their part in creating a legacy that has left thousands of young people living with despair or hopelessness. We cannot have a generation stuck in limbo, truly struggling not because of their lack of talent or drive, but because the system has been deliberately dismantled. When I was 19, and living a few streets away from where Jack lives today, my future did not feel to me as his does to him. We must recreate a sense of hope and opportunity in this country. I am glad that, through my office and the actions of this Government, we may be able to give Jack the help that he needs, but is a moral stain on our country that we have allowed young people to reach the point of putting those words to paper because that feels like a reality to them. I hope that we get to the heart of this issue. I will back the Government in what they are doing to tackle youth unemployment as a matter of urgency.

• 28 Jan 2026 · Youth Unemployment · Hansard source

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  I will not give way at this point. We are now left to rebuild what should never have been dismantled. It is promising to see that that is exactly what this Labour Government are doing. I welcome our youth guarantee that will create 350,000 new training and workplace opportunities, supported by 360 youth hubs across the country, and the investment of £750 million in apprenticeships that will equip 50,000 more young people with skills for the future. We also recognise that the traditional path that allowed me to succeed—going to university—is not necessarily the right path for everyone. With a growing skills shortage, particularly in sectors such as house building that we need for building the infrastructure of the future, it is vital that we go further in encouraging young people to use their talents and feel confident that such career paths are valued and given the respect they deserve. I have made many visits to MidKent College—which serves my constituency—where young people are learning trades and are really passionate about what they do. They have skills in bricklaying, carpentry, welding, hairdressing and woodwork. Those are skills that my university degree could never have given me, and we must ensure that these avenues are fully supported so that young people can contribute meaningfully to our country’s future.

• 28 Jan 2026 · Youth Unemployment · Hansard source

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  This debate lays bare the sheer hypocrisy of the Conservative party. Although I certainly do not welcome the numbers we are seeing on youth unemployment and recognise the challenge, this is not an issue that was created today. It was overseen by 14 years of their Government, as young people were steadily pushed into the margins. After leaving nearly a million young people not in education, employment or training on their watch, it is convenient for them to come to the House to point fingers at those who are tasked with fixing the damage they caused.

• 17 Dec 2025 · Local Government Finance · Hansard source

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  After 14 years, the Tories should be ashamed of their legacy in local government. I know that my council, Medway, will welcome the Minister’s announcement about linking deprivation to funding, but we still face other challenges. Will she set out what the changes mean for my local area, and will she agree to come to Medway to meet us and discuss how we can take on some of those other issues?

• 2 Dec 2025 · Homelessness: Funding · Hansard source

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  It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Vickers. Before coming to this place, I worked on the frontline of homelessness policy at the charity St Mungo’s and also in the housing industry for over 15 years, as well as being cabinet member for housing at Medway council. Those experiences taught me how quickly people can fall into crisis when systems fail, and how powerful the right interventions can be when they are properly funded and sustained. It also highlighted how complex the homelessness landscape is, and how important it is that we have an integrated Housing First approach, driven by evidence. Under the Tories, we saw rough sleeping more than double between 2010 and its peak, while local authorities faced a significant real terms reduction in core spending power—the very budgets that funded homelessness prevention. As a result, the system has become crisis-led, reactive and structurally incapable of meeting demand. Most strikingly, the Everyone In scheme demonstrated what is possible when homelessness is treated with the urgency it deserves, with over 37,000 people brought in off the streets overnight. It also highlighted the clear truth that rough sleeping is not an unsolvable issue, but a resource one. When we talk about homelessness, we are not only talking about those who are rough sleeping. We are also talking about those who are sofa surfing, hidden homelessness, and thousands of families who are placed in temporary accommodation, often miles from their schools, support networks and places of work. For example, many London councils are placing people in my constituency, driving up prices locally but also putting a real pressure on an already overstretched local authority. The scale of this crisis has got to the point where temporary accommodation has become a parallel housing system in its own right. Unfortunately it is no longer a safety net. Instead it is a symptom of a system under acute strain, and represents one of the clearest arguments for long-term, sustainable funding for homelessness prevention. The Government’s commitment to significantly expand the supply of genuinely affordable and social homes will help to ease the relentless pressure on temporary accommodation, as more families can access stable, long-term housing, rather than being trapped in the cycle of emergency placements. However, we must be honest about these structural issues and we cannot shy away from addressing them at their root. I therefore urge the Minister, whose work I really respect in this area, to look closely at the local housing allowance and ensure it is set at a level that reflects real rental markets. It will be one of the most effective levers we have to preventing homelessness at scale, and it must be a part of any credible long-term strategy. Finally, our approach to ending homelessness has been discussed for many years. The solutions that can work are ready and available. Now is the time for action.

• 1 Dec 2025 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source

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  I begin by expressing my gratitude to the Chancellor for her clear commitment to transforming the lives of my constituents. Over the past few days, she has set out a plan for investment in major infrastructure and to rebuild our public services. For the people outside the Chamber, the real significance of this Budget is far more personal; it represents a long-awaited acknowledgment of their struggles with the relentless cost of living. After 14 years of austerity and Tory-manufactured poverty, they finally see a Government who are willing to repair the damage that has been done. The people I meet every day do not live in £5 million homes. Particularly in the Gillingham part of my constituency, their reality is starkly different: they have energy bills they cannot hope to meet, school uniforms they struggle to afford and the constant challenge of trying to provide a decent life for their families on a shoestring budget. One in three children in Gillingham lives in poverty and one in 10 households struggles with fuel poverty. According to the most recent indices of multiple deprivation, my constituents live in neighbourhoods ranked in the bottom 10% most deprived nationally. When the Leader of the Opposition stands in the Chamber and dismisses vital cost of living support for hard-working families as a Budget for “Benefits Street”, the families I represent are not surprised. It is exactly that kind of disdain for the most vulnerable that shaped our fiscal landscape for 14 years, leaving ordinary people in desperate circumstances. It is this Labour Government who are finally taking them out of that cycle and restoring fairness and dignity. I welcome that the Government are making essential transport more affordable and more reliable. The freeze on regulated rail fares is not simply a headline. For middle-income commuters travelling from Gillingham or Rainham, it means keeping hundreds of pounds a year in their pockets. Combined with targeted infrastructure upgrades, this Budget begins to reverse the chronic under-investment that left many towns disconnected and disadvantaged. When I go knocking on doors over the coming weeks, I can tell my constituents that we are cutting their energy bills by hundreds of pounds, freezing rail fares and prescription charges, and keeping fuel duty low. I can tell them that we are raising the national living wage, increasing pensions and taking their children out of poverty. The Conservatives may think that this is a Budget for “Benefits Street”, but I say that it is a Budget for many working families who have carried the burden of austerity for over a decade. It is a Budget for the 2,860 children in my constituency whose quality of life is about to drastically improve. It is clear to me that this Budget is about more than short-term relief; it is about laying the foundations for long-term stability and fairness. That that is why I will be backing it.

• 5 Nov 2025 · Employment Rights Bill · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is making a powerful point. Does she agree that exploitative zero-hours contracts are a huge problem for workers and that banning them is a big step, so we should oppose any steps to try to water down the legislation?

• 5 Nov 2025 · Employment Rights Bill · Hansard source

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  Does my hon. Friend agree that the Bill not only provides vital protections to the workforce, but gives businesses the certainty they need to grow our economy?

• 4 Nov 2025 · Houses in Multiple Occupation: Planning Consent · Hansard source

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  It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Dowd, and I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Mansfield (Steve Yemm) for securing this debate. In my constituency, the rise of HMOs has been nothing short of dramatic. In particular, streets in Gillingham that were once lined with family homes are now dominated by houses in multiple occupancy, which have often been converted at speed and without proper oversight. Permitted development rights have enabled this trend, coupled with relatively low-cost housing and a limited licensing regime. In fact, my town was rather scrupulously promoted by one website as being among “the four hottest HMO investment areas.” I understand that behind each of those conversions lies a simple market logic. However, I also fear a quiet erosion of the social balance, which will change the shape of our communities. Like other Members, I do not oppose in principle the existence of shared housing, or HMOs—we need them. The demand for HMOs exists among students, key workers and professionals, who are often priced out of traditional tenures. However, the problem is that when such conversions happen en masse in one area, and when the planning system is unable to manage that pace or even to track the number of HMOs, the cumulative impact is the fury that we all see at our surgeries and in our inboxes. Members will be aware that the root of this issue is structural. Conversions can take place under permitted development rights and therefore they can bypass planning consent altogether. Once councils such as mine, Medway council, have a mountain of evidence to support them, they can issue an article 4 direction, a licensing scheme and supplementary planning documents. However, by that time half the street has already been converted. We all know that saturating an area with one housing tenure type is never a good idea; it can create not only social challenges, but problems in the local housing market. That is why now is the time for a strategic approach. We must empower our councils to act.

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

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  This week, Reform-led Kent county council reneged on the £500,000 agreement it made with my local authority, Medway council, to maintain operations at key tourism and investment organisations, demanding a 100% increase in the contribution from Medway. Does the Leader of the House agree that competent leadership in local government is vital and that Reform is clearly not able to govern or deliver for residents?

• 21 Oct 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T4. A Channel 4 “Dispatches” documentary recently went undercover at an ambulance centre in my constituency of Gillingham and Rainham. It showed exhausted staff working under difficult circumstances—the result of years of Tory neglect and mismanagement of our NHS. Does my right hon. Friend agree that after the chaos under the last Government, this Administration will put staff and patients first? Will the relevant Minister come to my constituency to meet healthcare providers and discuss our local challenges?

• 15 Oct 2025 · Jhoots Pharmacy · Hansard source

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  I thank the Minister for the context and the responses he has provided so far. Jhoots in my constituency of Gillingham and Rainham has provided an incredibly poor service, not paying staff, not dispensing vital medicine and often not opening on time. However, any replacement pharmacy or provider cannot come in, because the local pharmaceutical needs assessment suggests that there is functioning provision. Will the Minister consider a review of the criteria surrounding PNAs so that they not only list those pharmacies that are available, but also look at failures, such as the ones we are seeing with Jhoots? By recognising that, other providers can take their place, if needs be.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  I thank the Secretary of State for everything he is doing to transform water companies across our country. My residents in Gillingham and Rainham have suffered astronomical hikes in their bills and have been exposed to pollution and sewage dumps in our water, yet the chief executive of Southern Water thinks that he deserves a bonus of approximately £700,000 on top of his salary. Does the Secretary of State agree that that is an absolute disgrace? Will he ensure that any loophole used to bring forward those bonuses is shut down under his reforms?