Rachael Maskell MP: speeches

Speeches

• 8 Sept 2026 · Conflict in Sudan · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Dr Allin-Khan. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Gillingham and Rainham (Naushabah Khan) on securing such an important debate. As we think about the displacement and destitution, the hunger, the rape and the violence in everyday stories of this forgotten war in Sudan, which is destroying a nation, ripping it apart and fuelling the greatest humanitarian disaster on our planet, we know we have to step up our focus and our action in this place. Although I welcome all the contributions of hon. Members to this debate, the amount of attention that the House gives to this disaster is still insufficient. When we think about the fact that 33.7 million of the Sudanese population are in need of humanitarian assistance, 13 million have been displaced, 19.5 million are at levels of food insecurity and need urgent attention, and there are 8 million children who are not in the safety of school every day, getting their education, which will fuel challenges for the future too, it is so urgent that we find a path to move beyond these atrocities. Yet it feels like actors cannot see beyond the desire to gain ground, destroy lives and property, and kill any hope. The Sudan war is a proxy for external actors, and that is what demands our urgent attention. We must use all the leverage we have to stop fuelling the conflict, not least by addressing the behaviours of countries such as the UAE and, at times, Egypt too. The conflict is moving beyond traditional warfare; we are now seeing extensive drone use, mercenaries being brought from Colombia, and the exchange of money too. We also know that Russia has its own interests in weapons and gold. We must look at the minimal interest in Sudan and the developments in Port Sudan at this time. In fighting this proxy war, we need to ensure there is proper global accountability, which seems so lacking from our systems. In our tinderbox of geopolitical fragility, where domestic politics sucks our attention, we need to find the capacity in Government to provide the leadership that is necessary and the resolutions that are so urgent. We must match those with commitments to provide aid at scale and to use the political capital that we can bring. In recent years, we have witnessed new approaches. In the assault on El Fasher in particular, we saw the systematic raping of women, the burning of people and places, and the escalation in the next chapter of the civil war that has raged since April 2023. Last year in London, and this year in Berlin, the UK and other actors brought people together to break the deadlock, yet the fruit of those efforts has been so small. We need to look more widely at our infrastructure for addressing conflict. I welcome steps taken by the former Foreign Secretary, my right hon. Friend the Member for Pontefract, Castleford and Knottingley (Yvette Cooper), to address the issue of women in conflict, and particularly the investment for those who have experienced sexual harm as a result of the conflict. Will the Minister tell us what progress has been made in that area, how that money has been spent and its impact to date? As we see increasing brutalisation in war, we have to focus even more on how we use international law to hold actors to account, and on the pace of that process, because it takes forever and a day to bring people to account. We also need a different vision for how we build diplomacy, whether that is a focus on the post-conflict opportunity of trade, on reciprocity in co-operation, on security and stability, or on where we can use pragmatism and protection to build rules and rights. We must take the seeds of London and the shoots of Berlin so that they grow into a settlement that works for people on the ground in Sudan. Will the Minister also look at the role of civil society? Up to 2023, civil society played a major role in maintaining stability in Sudan. Being able to work with local leaders is crucial to increasing their opportunity to build the bridges that are necessary to de-escalate the risks we see. How are we not only investing but inspiring community organisations and actors to use their accountability and creative diplomacy, and how are we providing the necessary support that they need to build for the future?

• 7 Sept 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Will the Minister meet me and the leader of City of York council? The fair funding formula is not working for our city because it does not use the lower-tier data with regard to the indices of deprivation, meaning that we are the worst-funded local authority. Can we have that meeting?

• 3 Sept 2026 · Vaccination Rates: England · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Barker, and I thank the Health and Social Care Committee for its work. It is a real privilege to be able to access vaccine programmes. They are the most effective public health interventions, and there are 15 vaccine-preventable infections against which we can be inoculated. Just this week, the winter flu vaccination programme started; I urge all those watching to take up the opportunity to protect themselves and their community. In York, take-up is relatively high; however, we are not complacent. A particular challenge for us is the uptake of the second MMR vaccine. I would like to know what the Government are doing to support initiatives to improve that. York’s uptake is 86.2% against Yorkshire’s 85% and England’s average of 83.8%, but the World Health Organisation sets the ambition at 95% because that is the level for herd immunity, which will keep our communities safe. When will that target be reintroduced? It must be reintroduced, because we know that it is effective. There are lessons we can learn about how to deliver vaccinations more effectively. If we think back to covid, many people—communities, schools and faith and community groups—were involved in getting the message out. We need to be able to communicate better to our communities, in this day of information overload, the importance of vaccines. Vaccine delivery mechanisms also need to be expanded—we have heard many examples today, such as health visitors visiting family hubs for the early years, the schools programme, and the places where people connect, including workplaces and elsewhere. We need to ensure that we have a comprehensive system. I call on the Minister to look at the technology available to her to identify areas of low take-up. We know it is low in areas of deprivation and where ethnic minority groups, who are more hesitant to take up the vaccine, are concentrated. I ask that we have a proper, comprehensive vaccine passport that can be used by all clinicians who deliver the vaccine programme. I also ask the Minister to look at the issue of hesitancy in the round. We know that a small number of children, parents, carers and adults are hesitant about taking up vaccines. Sometimes that is about information, but sometimes it is simply a fear of needles. Can we look at different delivery mechanisms for vaccines so that people and communities are protected?

• 1 Sept 2026 · Direction of Government · Hansard source

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  I welcome my right hon. Friend to his role. Ten months ago, my constituents were promised a public inquiry into our mental health trust, after 10 years of campaigning for it. People have died in the interim, and it is simply unacceptable. In writing about unaccountable power over the summer, I have seen the weaknesses not only in the decision-making processes, but in the lines of scrutiny to ensure that we can deliver for our constituents. Will my right hon. Friend work with me and join me in the work I have been doing to ensure that we are talking about the devolution not just of power, but of scrutiny to hold such bodies to account?

• 14 Jul 2026 · Extreme Heat: Preparedness · Hansard source

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  It is always a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Sir Christopher. It was the 1976 New Forest fire in your own constituency that woke me up to the dangers of climate destruction. Just last weekend, on Sunday night, I heard about a fire raging in the area of Acomb, on the edge of my own constituency. A field of wheat had caught ablaze, causing fear to residents; I really thank the police and fire service for their rapid response, but the fire obviously came at great cost to not only the farmer, but the community, and it makes us all so alert to the challenges we face in our time. From discussions about the challenges that our city faces, it is clear that we are not climate resilient. We do not have the necessary strategies and plans to address the urgent needs of our time. The city has done well by focusing on flooding, but heat resilience is a new area to which we must now pay all our attention. Over the last month, schools have had to close, and many of the hospital’s wards have overheated. Across our city, we have felt a real and massively challenging swathe of heatwaves. We recognise that, if we are going to address the issue of flooding in our city, we have to get the hydrology right in the upper catchment area. That means that we have to make certain decisions: can we afford grouse moor shooting any longer, since it drains the land and as a result makes it more prone to catching light? There is much thought that needs to be given to the infrastructure needed, both in agriculture and across our buildings, our public services and so much more. I want to focus on a few points around health, that being my speciality, and to look at the scale of what we are talking about. We have heard already about the 2,700 deaths so far this year from the climate emergency due to heat alone. We think particularly of the most vulnerable—babies, children under the age of four and older people, whose bodies find it harder to regulate—and those who have cognitive dysfunction, who will find it difficult to make the necessary adaptations to keep themselves safe. Of course, we also know that the challenges bear down hardest on those in lower socioeconomic circumstances. As a result, we need to look at this in a way that ensures justice, equality and real fairness. Many people can go out and buy an air-con unit or a fan to keep themselves cool, but those without resources clearly do not have that advantage and their health is placed at even greater risk. We know about not only the distress that this causes—respiratory or cardiovascular distress—but the serious risk of kidney dysfunction and so much more we could name. We have heard about the pharma impact and the impact of exhaustion cramps—and then there are the risks of cancer; we have not heard about that in this debate, but greater UV exposure will increase those risks, too. We also have to think about the environments that people then go into. Our hospitals are just not equipped for this heat. York hospital, built in 1977, is just not heat resilient—it is a greenhouse, as has been highlighted. Anyone struggling to breathe will find it massively challenging in those environments. Therefore, the urgency with which we need to make our public buildings resilient cannot be overstated. I therefore call on the Minister—I appreciate that this goes way beyond her brief, but it is a cross-Government function—to look at how we build resilience across the board. What resources are we going to invest in our climate resilience? Will we have a single Minister, leading cross-departmentally, to ensure resilience? How will we ensure that we are not just looking in Westminster? We know that real change and impact happen on the ground in localities, so how are we empowering our local authorities with the resources and the plans to make a difference now, not just in the future? How are we ensuring that the people working in those facilities have the support they need to say, “Tools down, we can’t work any more”? Of course, that is very difficult when we are talking about health facilities—we think back to covid and the conditions in which people were working in extreme heat there—but we need plans to support workers who are at risk of many of the same health challenges. What I am really asking from the Minister is this. What are the resources and how will we ensure that devolution is part of that? How will we institute comprehensive planning, so that we do not continue to face the risks, the closures, the real discomfort and, tragically, the deaths that we have seen this year?

• 14 Jul 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Research shows that specialist palliative care can deliver palliative care in the community, saving the NHS 1.5 million bed days, as well as £817 million. It is important that funding accompanies the modern service framework, so that we have an invest-to-save model moving forward. Will the Minister meet me and Baroness Finlay, to consider the work we have been doing in this area, and see what more the Government can do to enable that?

• 9 Jul 2026 · Conflicts: Impact on Older People · Hansard source

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  I am really grateful to my hon. Friend for raising that point, as it is so important to make a catalogue of war crimes. Whether they are committed against the elderly, or they consist of any other form of violence, including sexual violence, it is crucial that we keep good records so that we can hold perpetrators to account when the opportunity arises. We know that if older people do not get the right nutrition, it has a massive impact on their ability to function. They can have greater episodes of confusion, making life much more challenging; they can become frailer; and they can rapidly lose their mobility, meaning that they have more complex needs. Good distribution of humanitarian aid is vital for the vulnerable, and we must always ensure that we factor in access to targeted support. It is not only about ensuring that people have the ability to reach that food; it must also be prepared for them in the right way. We have been talking about some of the challenges that we have seen in Sudan as of late. It is a horrendous and complex war, so I am glad that it was discussed at the NATO summit recently and remains at the forefront of our Government’s mind. It is very much a forgotten war in so many respects. Evidence has also shown that the elderly in Sudan have been in the direct line of violence. It is important that we do not forget that either. Older people—not least women—play a crucial role in the home and in the community, which often ripples out far beyond. Often, they are the ones who build the bridges, build the civil society, create the pathways to peace and organise communities at their most challenged. It is often the older women who can use their wisdom to bring co-ordination and build a way to the future. Indeed, I have been inspired by many older women leaders who have led the charge out of conflict, into a more resilient future. However, we must also recognise that there are significant challenges. First, what are the Government doing to provide better protections for older people and their rights? We in the all-party parliamentary group undertook an inquiry into the human rights of older people, which looked at the frameworks and mechanisms that we can deploy to enhance and protect those rights, and to ensure that people can uphold them. The work of the UN convention on the rights of older people has been inspiring, and it very much follows the lines along which other rights have been established, including the rights of the child or disabled people, to ensure that the protected characteristic of older people is upheld. Of course, it falls on the Foreign Office to advance that work and ensure that the UK plays a full role. We must bring our experience into that space so that older people’s identity can be seen, and so that their needs, in particular, can be supported. I ask the minister: what exactly are we doing to lead that work? Will the UK adopt the UN convention, once it has been established, to ensure that women, men and older people across the piece have their value recognised and their rights upheld? Having a rights-based framework will move the agenda; it will enable us to focus on that protected characteristic—for example, age-inclusive specialists can help to reprioritise the humanitarian response, particularly in health or care. We must also ensure that we have good data to accompany that work, so that we know exactly how to focus our humanitarian response. Of course, when it comes to healthcare insurance, we can then ensure that pharmaceuticals and equipment are available in conflict areas to meet the needs of the demographic that we are debating today. When only 0.1% of humanitarian funding databases mention older people, we know we have a problem. Can the Minister assure me that the Foreign Office will write older people into all its work, and will spread that good practice to agencies and other nations? Will the Government ensure that their humanitarian response is always age-inclusive, with an understanding of the risks that older people face when social infrastructure is destroyed by conflict? Will they also ensure that distribution is targeted to reach elderly people who have both chronic and acute health needs, wherever that focus is required? Will the Government promote opportunities for social protections, such as social security and pensions, among older people in conflict zones to ensure that they can access the resources that they need? Of course, it is important in many countries, as it is in this one, that people can use more traditional ways to access those services. Will the Government ensure that they crunch the numbers for conflict areas and use the data to design humanitarian responses, recognising the prevalence of older people and the focus that they need? Finally, I again make the point that the pivotal game changer for the issue is to have a UN convention on the rights of older people. That is about giving agency to older people in conflict zones, to better facilitate their participation in humanitarian planning, peace building, monitoring and decision taking. I look forward to hearing the Minister’s response, and to contributions from the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Fylde (Mr Snowden), and the Lib Dem spokesperson, the hon. Member for Horsham (John Milne). I trust that we can rebuild our humanitarian response with good data, programmes and rights to support older people in conflict zones.

• 9 Jul 2026 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  SPARK is York’s frontline incubator for the next generation of food, drink and creative businesses; it supports young entrepreneurs to establish their businesses with strong values and good practice. It has identified that VAT is the problem, and it is calling for the Government to support a 10% cut in VAT to enable its hospitality businesses to flourish. Can we have a statement from the Treasury on the impact of that, and on how we will enable community interest companies, such as SPARK, to support start-ups, so that they thrive?

• 8 Jul 2026 · National Youth Strategy · Hansard source

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  It is always a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Ms McVey. If we are going to make interventions that will have a real impact on lives and change opportunities and trajectories, we have to look at where we place those priorities. Of course, these transition points in life are those opportunities: the 1,001 critical days, the start of school and the transition between primary and secondary. Then there are youth services, and I believe we are at a juncture where we need to bring our services together around our young people. We are doing incredible work on people not in education, employment or training and in the criminal justice space; we have the national youth strategy; and we are looking at young people’s wellbeing and mental health. We need to bring those into one space, because ultimately they are about the relationships that young people build with trusted adults. They do not compartmentalise themselves, and these different areas are completely interwoven, so I urge more joining up of the different strategies as we move forward. As part of that, statutory youth services should be returned and local authorities should have the obligation but also the necessary funding. Often, we are talking about the same children who need that security as they go through their teenage years. I am bringing the organisations together in York. We have so many brilliant organisations, such as the Scouts, Guides, churches, Door 84 and the Island—I could spend a few minutes just talking about them—but, ultimately, they are working in siloes because we do not have that integration. I have the jobcentre, the local authority and the police coming, and we want to ensure that we are able to lead on having one integrated service for youth in our city. I look to the Minister at this point in the debate, recognising the way that these services were ripped of their funding in 2011 and lost so many youth workers across the board. We lost 60% of our workforce; we can rebuild that under her leadership, but we need to ensure that services are built and co-produced by the young people so that they can take a lead in determining their future and the outcomes they want to see. As we enter this conversation as a city—I will also be bringing it to the Minister’s door—I want to ensure that young people transition well from those years of exploration as teenagers into adulthood, with the securities that they need around them in every part of the system. That will take funding. I note the incredible £500 million, which will be transformative, but we must ensure that it is sufficient for the services that we need. Young people need opportunities and confidence as they grow into adults, and I want to ensure that our Government deliver that for them.