Phil Brickell MP: speeches

Speeches

• 4 Nov 2024 · Income Tax (Charge) · Hansard source

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  The Budget is a strong first step in delivering a better future for our country, for towns such as Westhoughton, Horwich, Blackrod and Bolton, and for restoring the trust that is so vital for our democratic system. After all, this is a Budget that will increase the national living wage—by £1,400 for a full-time worker—and invest £25.6 billion in the NHS so that my constituents can access health services when and where they need them instead of waiting hours on end, as well as cracking down on fraud, tax avoidance and waste so that every penny of taxpayers’ money is put to good use. Fully funding the electrification of the Bolton to Wigan train line will make a tremendous difference to the rail network for those travelling to work and to see loved ones in my constituency. I commend the Government for committing to investing in public infrastructure across the Bolton borough. Parents, teachers and school staff across my constituency have told me time and again that current funding for education is simply inadequate. That is why I am so pleased to see an extra £1 billion for special educational needs, the breakfast club budget tripled, and a £2.3 billion increase in the core schools budget. I particularly welcome the additional £1.4 billion allocated to rebuild 500 schools, noting that St Bernard’s Roman Catholic primary school in my constituency was found to contain aerated concrete. The Conservative party increased taxes to their highest rates for working people in more than 70 years, so I welcome the raising of much-needed cash for public services by putting up taxes on unearned wealth, but that does not mean that the Budget is anti-business—not at all. As someone who worked for over a decade in the private sector, I know that a strong, business-friendly economy is needed to deliver prosperity for working people and decent public services. The Government are making tough choices, but fair choices. I commend them to the House.

• 28 Oct 2024 · Middle East · Hansard source

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  The current situation in northern Gaza is dreadful. I welcome the leading role the Government have played in providing essential humanitarian relief to Gaza, including through support packages for UNRWA, UNICEF, the World Health Organisation and others. Following discussions I had last week with the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for Lincoln (Hamish Falconer), does the Foreign Secretary agree that Israeli restrictions on the flow of essential aid are completely unacceptable and should be lifted immediately?

• 28 Oct 2024 · International Engagement · Hansard source

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  I welcome the Minister's repeated references to tackling both the climate and the nature crises. In the context of the Prime Minister’s recent attendance at CHOGM, we know that many Commonwealth countries are among those most exposed to climate change, and that that has a particular impact on small island states such as Samoa. Will the Minister outline in more detail the work that the Government are doing to put climate at the heart of our foreign and development policy?

• 28 Oct 2024 · China: Human Rights and Sanctions · Hansard source

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  Does the Secretary of State agree that the sanctions imposed on democratically elected Members of this House are wholly unacceptable, and what discussions did he have with Chinese counterparts to that effect?

• 23 Oct 2024 · Independent Water Commission · Hansard source

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  As a whitewater kayaker, I spend countless hours on rivers and streams up and down the country, so I know that both the Environment Agency and Ofwat need to be properly resourced if we are to clear up the toxic legacy left in our waterways by the last Government. Can the Secretary of State reassure my constituents that the newly announced independent water commission will look at resourcing to ensure that the water firms responsible for polluting our waterways are held to account?

• 22 Oct 2024 · Ukraine · Hansard source

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  Will the Secretary of State join me in paying tribute to the UK armed forces who are providing vital support to our Ukrainian allies, and to the Ukrainian armed forces who are fighting valiantly against Putin’s unlawful invasion of Ukraine?

• 21 Oct 2024 · Fraud and Economic Crime · Hansard source

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  2. What steps her Department is taking to tackle fraud and economic crime.

• 21 Oct 2024 · Fraud and Economic Crime · Hansard source

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  We know that 39% of all reported crime is fraud, and many of those offences are carried out by serious organised crime gangs. The National Crime Agency is tasked with protecting my constituents from foreign origin fraud and serious organised crime, but a recent report from Spotlight on Corruption found that after 14 years of Conservative government the NCA was “on its knees”, spending millions of pounds on consultants and failing to retain investigators. What steps is the Minister taking to ensure that the NCA is able to protect my constituents from financial crime?

• 17 Oct 2024 · Hongkongers in the UK: Visas, Security and Services · Hansard source

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  The context of this debate is that since the Chinese Government’s national security law was imposed and since the 2019 Hong Kong protests in support of democracy and human rights, 10,000 people have been arrested and 2,300 charged, and 150,000 Hongkongers have fled to Britain under the British national overseas visa scheme. To be clear, the scheme allows individuals to come and live in the UK, but does not grant formal refugee status. That is a point that I will return to shortly. I want to pay tribute to the Hongkongers in my constituency of Bolton West, many of whom live in Westhoughton and in Horwich. In the most difficult of circumstances, they have moved thousands of miles away from their homeland in search of a better life. Yet all too often, Hongkongers tell me about their concerns for themselves and their families, loved ones, and friend —both those here in the UK and those still in Hong Kong. Let us not forget why we are having this debate today. With that in mind, I wish to touch on a couple of points raised by my constituents. First, the BNO visa scheme, which was expanded in November 2022, allows individuals born after the handover of Hong Kong on 1 July 1997 to apply for the scheme independently of their BNO passport-holding parents. What that expanded scheme failed to address, as my hon. Friend the Member for Altrincham and Sale West (Mr Rand) has already mentioned, was that Hongkongers under the age of 18 on the day of the handover were unable to apply for BNO status themselves. Therefore Hongkongers born between 1 July 1979 and 30 June 1997 are currently stuck in a loophole, neither old enough to have applied for BNO status before the 1997 handover nor young enough to qualify under the November 2022 visa scheme expansion. My view is clear: Hongkongers within that age bracket should be able to access the BNO scheme to allow them to flee political persecution and join family members here in the UK. I ask the Government to look afresh at the operation of the scheme. That takes me to my second point: many Hongkongers who hold BNO status are unable to access university education in the UK without student finance, because they are not eligible for home fee status. Some young Hongkongers find themselves in a position where they fled persecution but are having to pay up to £50,000 a year in university tuition fees. That not only prices them out of courses but denies them the opportunity to pursue professional careers. Whether that is because the BNO visa scheme does not grant refugee status is unclear to me, but I hope that the Government will be able to rectify the issue so that young Hongkongers who have fled persecution can proceed with their university studies. Finally, I want to touch on repression. British citizen Jimmy Lai has been in prison in Hong Kong for over 1,500 days in solitary confinement. I take comfort from the Prime Minister’s comments earlier this week that securing his release “is a priority”, and we must urgently see that release happen. Closer to home, I know from conversations with my own Hongkonger constituents that many continue to live in fear for their security, even here in the UK, and there has been a worrying pattern of behaviour over recent years. We have seen the Hong Kong national security police issue bounties for exiled Hongkongers now living in the UK, and we all remember the shocking and frankly unacceptable event in October 2022, when a BNO visa holder who was peacefully protesting outside the Chinese consulate in Manchester was assaulted by masked men, having been dragged into the grounds of the consulate. Those actions are unacceptable, constitute an assault on human rights and must be condemned in the strongest terms. I welcome the continued support that the Government provide to Hongkongers in the UK and thank my hon. Friend the Member for Altrincham and Sale West for securing this important debate.

• 15 Oct 2024 · House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill · Hansard source

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  This is a simple Bill with a simple objective, and I commend the Minister for bringing it to the House. I thank the hon. Member for Richmond Park (Sarah Olney) for her cross-party support for this Bill, as it is vital that measures of significant constitutional impact have support from across the House. I wish to make three main, largely straightforward, points, which will tackle head-on the amendments tabled by the right hon. Members for Aberdeen South (Stephen Flynn) and for Hertsmere (Sir Oliver Dowden). First, I will touch on the constitutional aspect of the Bill, then, secondly, the part it plays in rebuilding trust in our politics, and finally I will address the objections raised by Opposition Members, including the hon. Member for Perth and Kinross-shire (Pete Wishart). On the constitution, the continued existence of hereditary peers in the upper Chamber is an unsustainable anachronism in the year 2024 and a clear affront to modern democracy. We must remember that we are talking about 92 Members in the other place who, for life, are able to legislate, merely by accident of birth. They do not owe their role to their abilities, and they are unaccountable. That is not to denigrate the hard work of hereditary peers, but we must be clear: we have a farcical situation whereby the continued existence of the hereditaries leads to by-elections in the second Chamber that are possibly the only by-elections where the entire electorate can easily fit into the back of a taxi. Removing the last remaining peers was a clear manifesto commitment from this Government this year. This change will dramatically improve the way that Parliament reflects the country, and it will reform an upper Chamber that has grown out of all proportion to this place. Too much of the debate today has been about Burke, Bagehot and romantic Conservatism and not enough about democratic accountability, legitimacy and representation. I heard Tory radicals talk about their zealous ambition for reform of the upper Chamber, so it is astounding that there was no mention whatsoever in the Conservative party manifesto of House of Lords reform. That takes me on to my second point. It is vital that we rebuild trust in our politics by making sure that our parliamentarians are representative and accountable, and that transparency is at the forefront of our dealings. The continued existence of hereditary peers in the other place is in stark contrast to each of these values. On representation, there are 88 hereditary peers: 45 Conservatives, 33 Cross Benchers, four Labour, four Liberal Democrats and two non-affiliated. Their political composition in no way reflects the views of the country at large. The average age—I must stress that this is the average—of Members of the upper Chamber is 71. The average age of people in the country is 40. Indeed, 324 Members of the second Chamber will be aged age 80 or over on 1 June 2029. Let us be clear: there are no female hereditaries; not one. On their accountability, hereditaries are elected by their peers, which leads to the possibility of a by-election with an electorate of three, as my hon. Friend the Member for Telford (Shaun Davies) mentioned. That is three peers deciding who else has the opportunity to legislate in this Parliament for life. Speaking to the objections from those on the Opposition Benches, the amendment from the right hon. Member for Aberdeen South (Stephen Flynn) laments that the Bill does not abolish the other place in its entirety. We heard the hon. Member for Perth and Kinross-shire (Pete Wishart) mention that. Let me say to them that reform of the other place has always been piecemeal. To that end, I welcome this measure as a swift initial reform, and I take heart from the comments made by Lord Khan of Burnley, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, who confirmed on 23 July that the Government are committed to other reforms, including a mandatory retirement age, a participation requirement and, importantly, reform of the means by which peers are appointed, as well as an alternative second Chamber that is representative of the regions and nations. That is precisely the ambitious agenda for the other place that I wish to see. As a north-west MP, an anti-corruption specialist with more than a decade of experience and a member of the all-party parliamentary group on anti-corruption and responsible tax, I reassure the House that I firmly believe that all those welcome steps will not only modernise the upper Chamber but ensure that the means by which individuals are appointed to the other place are made more transparent. On the amendment tabled by the right hon. Member for Hertsmere (Sir Oliver Dowden), let me say that this Bill is not about avoiding scrutiny of the Government or the work of this House. I and many of my colleagues value the work done by our colleagues in the other place, and I remind him and Conservative Members that when the House of Lords Act 1999 passed through this place 25 years ago, the retention of the 92 hereditaries was “interim…until the second stage of House of Lords reform has taken place.” —[ Official Report, House of Lords, 30 March 1999; Vol. 599, c. 207.] Indeed, removing the hereditaries would have a minimal impact on the overall political composition of the upper Chamber. We have seen those on the Conservative Benches blowing hot and cold, demanding radical reform while at the same time asking for caution. Let us be clear: this Bill must be the first in a number of steps towards modernising our politics in this place. The Bill is a manifesto commitment for which there should be no unnecessary delay in moving it through the legislative process. I was astounded to hear the right hon. Member for South Holland and The Deepings (Sir John Hayes) mention that hereditary Members in the upper House do not form part of a privileged elite. That simply would not wash on the streets of Bolton West. We are talking about earls, viscounts, dukes and marquesses who are there to legislate for life simply by dint of their birth. This vital reform will ensure that workings across Parliament are dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century. I commend the Bill to the House.

• 14 Oct 2024 · Reporting Ministerial Gifts and Hospitality · Hansard source

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  Does the Minister agree that it is shameful that the Conservatives left the role of the Prime Minister’s UK anti-corruption champion vacant for two years?

• 9 Oct 2024 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Q12. Bolton Hospice provides vital services to individuals with life-limiting conditions yet, like hospices across the country, it faces a difficult financial future and is reliant on fundraising, including the kind donations I was able to raise when I climbed Mount Kilimanjaro last year and from the campaign run by The Bolton News . What steps is the Prime Minister taking to ensure hospices, like the one in Bolton, are put on a sustainable financial footing?

• 7 Oct 2024 · British Indian Ocean Territory: Negotiations · Hansard source

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  Does my right hon. Friend agree that this agreement has no bearing on the Government’s relationship with the other overseas territories and that the UK Government’s policy towards the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar and other territories remains unchanged, with support for their right to self-determination?

• 12 Sept 2024 · Sir David Amess Adjournment Debate · Hansard source

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  It is a privilege to serve my constituents as the first Labour Member of Parliament for Bolton West in almost a decade, and to speak in this debate under your chairship, Madam Deputy Speaker. It is an honour to speak in the Sir David Amess Adjournment debate. I extend my thanks to the right hon. Member for Rayleigh and Wickford (Mr Francois) for opening the debate and for his very kind words. As a new MP, I pay tribute to my predecessor, Chris Green, who always tried his best for the people of Bolton West. It is a great honour to be elected alongside my hon. Friends the Members for Bolton North East (Kirith Entwistle), and for Bolton South and Walkden (Yasmin Qureshi). It is the first time in nine years that Bolton has elected three Labour Members of Parliament. I look forward to working with them to realise my ambitions for a healthier, more prosperous constituency. Over the years, Bolton West has had a long tradition of pioneering Labour Members of Parliament. Baroness Ann Taylor served Bolton West from 1974 to 1983. In her maiden speech, she noted the vital role that Government can play in addressing regional inequalities, and she highlighted the need for civic pride in our towns—both themes that, 50 years later, continue to resonate with my constituents. Ann still serves in the other place. I am proud to call her a friend. She is a true inspiration and I pay tribute to her for her lifetime of public service. More recently, Ruth Kelly was first elected to represent Bolton West in 1997, before going on to serve in the Cabinet. Most recently, Julie Hilling served as the MP from 2010 to 2015. I am the first male Labour Member of Parliament for my constituency since the 1970s and, rest assured, I have big boots to fill. May I now enlighten the House about my background? Surprisingly, I am the first Brickell in this place, and I am proud to be Bolton born and bred. My parents served our country for many years. My father was a soldier in the Royal Artillery, stationed in Germany, Northern Ireland, Canada and Cyprus, before going on to work as a paramedic in Bolton and then as a carer on the minimum wage; and my mother worked in the women’s health department at the Royal Bolton hospital for more than 30 years. Indeed, my first job was at the Bolton hospital, before I went on to spend more than a decade tackling serious financial crime—bribery, corruption, money laundering and the facilitation of tax evasion. Let us not forget that four out of 10 victims of crime are victims of fraud, often online. The importance of public service was instilled in me from a young age by my parents, which is why I found myself wanting to stand for election to this place. I pay tribute to my family and my wife for their tireless support of my campaign to become a Member of Parliament and my ongoing work on behalf of my constituents. Bolton West is a misleading name for a constituency that is made up of towns with distinct local identities. There is the former mining town of Westhoughton, the historic locomotive town of Horwich, Blackrod, and the western fringes of Bolton. Straddling the M61 between Rivington Pike and Leigh, the towns of Bolton West have a rich history. Indeed, last week marked the 126th anniversary of the Winter Hill mass trespass, when working people walked up together from Bolton to the West Pennine moors in search of open countryside, fresh air and a right to roam. To this day, there remains work to be done to open up our countryside for all to enjoy in a responsible manner, and I will work throughout this Parliament to secure that goal. I know that Mr Speaker and I have a shared interest in following the ups and downs of Bolton Wanderers football club, who play their matches at the Toughsheet community stadium and provide vital support in the community for my constituents. Horwich has a long history of manufacturing, and more recently, the services economy, which is centred around the Middlebrook retail and business parks. It is home to Scan computers, a pioneering firm that remains family-owned to this day and that continues to invest in local talent across the borough. Elsewhere, MBDA, one of the UK’s largest defence firms, manufactures at the Logistics North site in my constituency. Cohens Chemist, which provides invaluable GP and pharmacy services, is headquartered in Lostock. Finally and importantly, the plastic recycling firm Toughsheet focuses on repurposing waste products for use in the building industry. There are fantastic organisations and charities working day in, day out to support my constituents. Bolton mountain rescue team, based in Ladybridge Hall, is made up of tireless volunteers who are called out every week to save lives. Pioneering charities such as The Hub in Westhoughton and Blackrod sports and community centre go above and beyond to ensure that local people have opportunities to thrive. Turning back to politics, the recent general election campaign spoke to many of my constituents’ concerns: the state of the local NHS; the reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete found in our local hospital and schools; the 8 am scramble each morning to obtain a GP appointment; spiralling housing costs; the need for better, well-paid jobs in the local area; better integrated transport that is both reliable and affordable; and effective policing that prevents individuals from falling into a life of crime, tackles repeat offending and ensures that local people feel safe in their neighbourhood. I will work as hard as I can to secure the improved public services my constituents urgently deserve. I also want to draw attention to what will be a key focus during my time here—standards in public life. We must always strive to be better if we are to retain public trust. We all know that politics has the potential to change lives immeasurably for the better, yet all too often, the public feel let down, and there is a perception that vested interests sometimes subsume those of constituents in need of support, but it does not have to be like this. That is why I am proud to see the Prime Minister stress the importance of public service. As we look ahead to the remainder of this Parliament, let us never forget why we are here and who we serve. Let us embrace the politics of unity, which recognises that we can achieve lasting progress for our constituents by working together across party divides. Let us turn our back on the dog-whistle politics that sows division. The truth is that politics is far more difficult, more nuanced and, yes, more fractious than many of us might like to admit. I end by drawing an analogy between this place and my favourite pastime. In my spare time, I am an avid white water kayaker, navigating our rivers from source to sea. The sport has taken me to far-flung destinations such as the Nepalese Himalayas, the White Nile in Uganda as it flows north out of Lake Victoria, and the upper reaches of the Alps. White water kayaking is an assumed-risk sport, and it is a team endeavour. There are many obstacles to navigate on the way downstream, blind corners that might belie a tree blocking the entire river, vicious recirculating features that can trap a kayaker whole, and huge hidden waterfalls can appear suddenly. That is before we get to the effluence being discharged into our waterways. The parallels to politics are striking, even for those uninitiated in the dark arts of navigating white water. Growing up, I had a poster on my wall quoting the Chinese philosopher Confucius. It read: “One’s greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time one falls.” That is an apt quote for politics, and one that we would all do well to bear in mind over the coming weeks and months. Together we have the power to make a lasting impact that will benefit our constituents. That is the privilege of being elected to this place, and it is one on which I intend to deliver during the coming years on behalf of the people of Bolton West.

• 30 Jul 2024 · Russian Sanctions Regime · Hansard source

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  The UK has sanctioned 2,000 individuals and entities since Russia’s unlawful full-scale invasion of Ukraine, yet since 2022 there has been just one instance of UK law enforcement securing sanctioned funds. What discussions is the Minister having with his counterparts across Government to ensure that those who evade sanctions are held to account and that money held unlawfully is secured for the public purse?

• 30 Jul 2024 · Russian Sanctions Regime · Hansard source

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  7. Whether he plans to review the sanctions regime against Russia.