Richard Holden MP: speeches 2025

Speeches

• 24 Mar 2025 · Planning and Infrastructure Bill · Hansard source

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  That raises a broader point. At the moment, councils in parts of the country such as my constituency are being abolished by this Government, so there will be no democratic accountability down the line, and there will be no democratic accountability at council level through planning committees, either. They are removing layer after layer of protection for local communities such as mine, with huge amounts of green-belt land suddenly redesignated as grey-belt land, despite recently being high-grade agricultural land. Can my hon. Friend understand the concerns in communities such as mine about what these proposals are doing? They want to see more housing, but not at the expense of London seeing a housing target—

• 17 Mar 2025 · Sentencing Council Guidelines · Hansard source

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  The Minister complains about having to explain the Government’s position, but why can he not just explain to us why the Secretary of State has not fixed this issue yet? It seems that there has been a meeting, but she has not even written a letter in the last three weeks explaining what she wants to happen. That is why I thank you very much indeed, Mr Speaker, for granting this urgent question again. The Minister has not actually fixed the problem that we are all talking about.

• 17 Mar 2025 · Unemployment Trends · Hansard source

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  10. What assessment she has made of recent trends in levels of unemployment.

• 17 Mar 2025 · Unemployment Trends · Hansard source

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  Compared with this time last year, almost 500 more people are on the claimant count in Basildon and Billericay. Almost 100 of those are under 25. How many more will have to be made unemployed before Labour Ministers listen to charities, GPs, supermarkets, manufacturers and care providers? They visited me in my constituency and said that Labour needs to think again about its catastrophic national insurance rise which, before it even hits in April, is already costing the jobs of my constituents.

• 13 Mar 2025 · Victory in Europe and Japan: 80th Anniversaries · Hansard source

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  Our local Noak Bridge and Billericay councils have already signed up to the beacon lighting for VE Day. Will the Minister encourage all local councils across the country, including district, county and parish councils, as well as community groups to come together and do everything they can to make these celebrations something for their whole community? As I have been listening to other hon. Members, I have also been reflecting on our recent Commonwealth Parliamentary Association visit to Singapore and Malaysia, during which we visited the Commonwealth war graves there. Perhaps the Minister could write to those organising all the international visits that Parliament is undertaking to ensure that parliamentarians visit war graves around the world as part of the celebrations, particularly this year.

• 10 Mar 2025 · Crime and Policing Bill · Hansard source

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  There are a lot of really good things in this Bill that my right hon. Friend has not mentioned, particularly around tackling violence against women and girls, with the legislation on stalking. Some of that work was carried out cross-party over the past few years, such as on increasing the age of consent for marriage from 16 to 18, and tackling forced marriage issues, hymenoplasty and virginity testing, which I helped put through in the last Parliament. Does my right hon. Friend agree that we should try to convince the Government to introduce legislation around first cousin marriage—a very serious issue—and include in this legislation some of the sexual offences that relate to that?

• 10 Mar 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Great teaching and great policies saw children in England soar up the international league tables under the last Government to become the best in the western world. I think that the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill risks that progress. If the Secretary of State disagrees, will she put her money where her mouth is and resign if England falls down the international league tables?

• 6 Mar 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  I declare my interest as vice-chair of the all-party parliamentary media group and chair of the all-party parliamentary group on freedom of speech. Last month I found myself in somewhat rare agreement with the Chancellor when she challenged Britain’s regulators to create a regulatory environment that unlocks innovation and investment. Our media is one the sectors in which we have seen really good growth over the past few years, with huge diversification right across the sector, but there is a concern about the attitude of regulators, which might undermine that growth potential. I think specifically of cases highlighted recently in an opinion piece by my hon. Friend the Member for Windsor (Jack Rankin), in which Ofcom fined GB News 10 times more for doing a question time event with the Conservative party leader than it fined another channel for broadcasting antisemitic tropes. I worry that that attitude towards policing the media, which seems to focus more on politics than prejudice, may act as a barrier to others coming into the sector. Will the Leader of the House schedule a debate on the media sector, the role of regulation and freedom in our sector?

• 6 Mar 2025 · Cyber-security · Hansard source

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  ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok, is required as a Chinese company to have an in-house Chinese Communist party committee. We all know that attacks from China on our national infrastructure as well as on our cyber-networks are becoming increasingly common, and it is clear that elements of the Chinese Government are behind them. Yet, astonishingly, the Government are still failing to fully declare ministerial meetings with TikTok representatives. Will the Minister ensure that meetings with TikTok executives are declared by Government Ministers alongside other senior media executive registrations, given TikTok’s huge presence in the media space, the massive public influence it has and the known cyber-risks posed by this Chinese platform?

• 5 Mar 2025 · Points of Order · Hansard source

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  On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. There is real concern in Basildon and Billericay about the closure of the South Green surgery. I have raised the matter in Parliament a couple of times, including at oral questions, where the Health Secretary told me it would be a matter for my integrated care board and that he would be happy to make some introductions. However, in response to a written question, the Minister for Care, the hon. Member for Aberafan Maesteg (Stephen Kinnock), told me that new powers under the Health and Care Act 2022 meant that the Secretary of State could intervene under new powers introduced on 31 January 2024. This has caused real confusion among my constituents, particularly the 3,500 who signed a petition led by Justine Norris and Vivienne Conway, and my excellent local councillors, who have been doing all they can to raise the issue. What can Mr Speaker do to ensure that Ministers do not give my constituents accidentally misleading answers and that they correct the record when they make mistakes?

• 5 Mar 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Marriage between first cousins carries significant health issues for their children, many of which are not knowable until post-birth. When practised generation after generation, there is a significant multiplier effect. In addition, the real impacts on the openness of our society and women’s rights in our country are significant. After all, there are significant dynamics in sharing the same set of grandparents. On Friday, this Government have the choice to let my Bill to ban first cousin marriage go through to Committee stage. Will the Prime Minister think again before instructing his Whips to block this legislation?

• 4 Mar 2025 · Affordable Housing: Supply · Hansard source

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  To what extent is the Chancellor concerned about multiple potential breaches by His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs of its charter since it issued Spotlight 63, which impacts rental housing supply and is causing real concerns among my constituents—both landlords and tenants? Will the Minister meet me urgently to discuss this matter?

• 4 Mar 2025 · Hong Kong Democracy Activists · Hansard source

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  Government and Opposition Members have asked the Minister several times whether the Chinese ambassador has been summoned to be held to account for these actions. This House deserves an answer from the Minister. A lot of these people face kidnap plots. What investigations are being undertaken into those?

• 3 Mar 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  The planning proposals for Laindon Road and Mountnessing Road in Billericay and for Noak Bridge were previously rejected because of the green belt aspect but are now being reconsidered under grey belt. Will the Minister urgently meet me, the Billericay Action Group and some of the local councillors to look at the issues around where grey belt is perhaps not being used in the way the Government originally intended?

• 26 Feb 2025 · British Indian Ocean Territory · Hansard source

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  My right hon. Friend makes an incredibly important point about how the Government are giving this away, but we only know that because of what Mauritius is saying to the public. We in this House have been constantly left in the dark—so much so that even when I was recently on “Politics Live” with the Leader of the House, she refused point blank and totally lost the plot when I started to question her about what this Government are doing. Is transparency not absolutely at the core of what we need to hear from the Government?

• 25 Feb 2025 · Palestinians in Gaza: US Policy · Hansard source

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  I have just been out in the middle east with the Conservative Friends of Israel—I put that on the record before I ask my question. Given Emily Damari’s personal testimony to the Prime Minister that she was held at United Nations Relief and Works Agency facilities in Gaza during the conflict, and that her captors refused her access to medical treatment, does the Foreign Secretary stand by the Government’s decision to restart sending UK taxpayers’ money to UNRWA when Hamas terrorists were holding British hostages at its facilities, and when it has been crystal clear for months that UNRWA had many members of Hamas in its ranks, including people involved in the 7 October terrorist attacks, who have held hostages ever since?

• 25 Feb 2025 · Warm Home Discount · Hansard source

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  It was interesting to hear the Minister say how humble we on the Conservative Benches should be. Clearly, the Secretary of State for Energy, Security and Net Zero is so humble that he has not even bothered to turn up for this supposedly important statement. It is no more than a smokescreen, as we are seeing energy bills go up yet again. When will my constituents see the £300 energy cut that was promised by the Government? The Minister talked about international markets. Why on earth are this Government not looking again at drilling in the North sea? It is vital that we do so today; then, rather than just helping out a little bit with means-tested benefits, they could perhaps afford to do more for my constituents who are on £12,000 or £13,000 a year, and for pensioners who are losing their winter fuel payments this very year. Why will they not take a look at that?

• 6 Feb 2025 · Attorney General's Office: Transparency and Conflicts of Interest · Hansard source

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  Does the Solicitor General agree with the recent Policy Exchange research paper “Conflicts of Interest and the Law Officers’ Convention” authored by Dr Conor Casey, a senior lecturer at Surrey law school, and supported by three former Ministers who are all KCs, that invoking the Law Officers’ convention on questions about the potential conflict of interest relating to the work of the Attorney General would be an error, as such questions do not fall within the scope of the convention?

• 6 Feb 2025 · Attorney General's Office: Transparency and Conflicts of Interest · Hansard source

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  6. What steps she is taking to manage conflicts of interest in the Attorney General’s Office.

• 5 Feb 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Does the Minister consider incredibly high rates of first-cousin marriage in certain communities, which are up to a hundred times that found in the general population, an equalities issue? What discussions has she had with the Ministry of Justice about that?

• 5 Feb 2025 · Draft Procurement Act 2023 (Consequential and Other Amendments) Regulations 2025 · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Mundell. It is also a delight to be with the Minister who is losing her DL plates today—[Hon. Members: “Oh!”] I thought that was pretty good with two minutes’ notice. We will not be opposing the draft instrument. The core Procurement Act was introduced under the Conservative Government to consolidate and simplify existing procurement legislation, improve efficiencies throughout the process and improve transparency throughout the procurement pipeline. There remain a number of big challenges with public procurement, which represents hundreds of billions of pounds of public body expenditure every year. I hope that the legislation coming into force in February will help to tackle those challenges. Of course, I regret the fact that the Government have delayed the implementation of the measures contained within the Procurement Act, and I hope that their new national procurement policy statement will not interfere with its core efficiency and cost improvement measures. I want to ask the Minister when exactly we can expect the updated NPPS. I also want to briefly raise a couple of concerns about the measures that the Government have previously indicated will be in the updated statement. The Labour party’s make work pay plan, which sets out the most exact information we have as to the content of the updated NPPS, suggests that the new principle of procurement will be based on learning from the Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Act 2023. As the TUC has pointed out, that Act means that public bodies must consult and work with unions and: “Attempts to shirk this duty, or lock unions out from decision-making can no longer be done without consequence” securing the “place of trade unions as essential partners in public policymaking.” Is it the Government’s view that the NPPS, implemented through the Procurement Act, will ensure that trade unions cannot be locked out of decision making without consequence? We also know that the Government have set out their intention for a social value council, as in Wales. I would appreciate some further clarity on the expected make-up of the council. As the Minister will know, public procurement involves not just large businesses that have the capacity to maintain a stringent Government social value and trade union requirement but lots of small businesses that can offer fitting and cost-effective services and products but that might not have the broader capabilities to uphold some of those tight requirements. Previously, the Minister appeared to confirm to me that small enterprises would be exempt from those requirements and I would appreciate her confirmation of that, as well as her understanding of how exactly that will fit in to the cost-saving and efficiency measures set out by the Act, in which small and medium-sized businesses can play a central role. Anything in that regard would be appreciated. We can all appreciate the need for public procurement reform and the fact that the Government are taking forward this work, which was initially set out by the previous Conservative Government. However, the Government should offer a little more certainty and clarity about the extent of trade union involvement in the public procurement pipeline and the extent to which they will preserve the potential for small and medium-sized businesses to have a fair go at the bidding process and involvement in that pipeline. If the Minister will write to me on those points, I will be happy not to oppose the regulations.

• 30 Jan 2025 · Local Post Offices · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member makes an excellent point, and I think the nub of his speech is that post offices are not just a banking facility or just a post office; they are a real community hub. I think about the ones in my constituency that I have visited recently—in Ramsden Bellhouse, on Whitmore Way in Basildon or the brand new one on Billericay high street. That is exactly what they are: places where the entire community comes together.

• 30 Jan 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Yesterday, I re-established the all-party parliamentary group on freedom of speech. I am sure Members on the Government Front Bench will welcome that, given their recent slight changes of opinion on free speech in higher education. Will the Leader of the House find space in Government time for a broader debate on freedom of speech, given that her neighbour, the hon. Member for Blackley and Middleton South (Graham Stringer), is the deputy chairman of the APPG? In addition, will she clarify what she said at the start of business questions about the lower Thames crossing getting the go-ahead? My understanding is that the development consent order has not yet been passed; in fact, it has been delayed twice. That clarity will be important for people in constituencies like mine, who are eagerly awaiting the Government’s actions in that area.

• 30 Jan 2025 · Proportional Representation: General Elections · Hansard source

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  Does not the hon. Gentleman’s presence in this House demonstrate that the system does work, and can deliver change in individual seats?

• 30 Jan 2025 · Proportional Representation: General Elections · Hansard source

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  The Minister makes a broader important point about the mandate that individual MPs feel when they are elected to this place. Does she agree that that individual mandate—our names are on the ballot paper—is strengthened under the first-past-the-post system? Does she also agree that that means that our electorate can single out MPs, which could not happen under a party-list system, in order to remove them?