Rupa Huq MP: speeches 2025

Speeches

• 11 Jun 2025 · NHS Funding: South-west · Hansard source

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  Order. Given how many people wish to speak, we will start with a two and a half minute limit.

• 11 Jun 2025 · NHS Funding: South-west · Hansard source

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  Order. I am afraid that we will now move on to the Front Benchers, starting with the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

• 11 Jun 2025 · NHS Funding: South-west · Hansard source

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  The aim is to take the three Front Benchers from 5.09 pm, which means that the time limit is dropping down to two minutes each.

• 11 Jun 2025 · Child Poverty and No Recourse to Public Funds · Hansard source

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  Order. A number of Members are bobbing, so we will calculate how long everyone will get. To start, I call Kirsty Blackman.

• 11 Jun 2025 · Child Poverty and No Recourse to Public Funds · Hansard source

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  I call Keir Mather MP, who is making his Westminster Hall Dispatch Box debut as Minister for the day.

• 11 Jun 2025 · Child Poverty and No Recourse to Public Funds · Hansard source

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  Actual Minister!

• 11 Jun 2025 · Outdoor Education · Hansard source

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  I will call Tim Farron to move the motion. As is the convention with 30-minute debates, only interventions are permitted, not whole speeches, because we need to allow time for the Minister to reply, as well as for all those lovely interventions that are coming.

• 11 Jun 2025 · Outdoor Education · Hansard source

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  indicated dissent.

• 20 May 2025 · UK-EU Summit · Hansard source

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  It is brilliant that the Brexit logjam that has cast a long shadow over this House for so many years has been smashed by this Prime Minister. Could he indicate when we might hear a bit more about the youth experience scheme that has been so yearned for and so welcomed by the universities and the English language teaching sector, and also by my staff, team and son, who were born too late to have a say in any of the mess that the Tories left behind?

• 14 May 2025 · Gaza: UK Assessment · Hansard source

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  The Minister, who is a good man, recognises that the 70-day aid blockade has made starvation widespread in Gaza. During the recess, I was on a delegation with the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon). We were nearby in Egypt, and we heard real fears that annexation of both Gaza and the west bank is near-inevitable. The Minister has told us what steps he has taken up until now, but there has been a clear escalation, so can he please give us some hope that there are further levers that can be pulled? We do not want to be on the wrong side of history.

• 12 May 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T5. My constituent Charlie Vernon was happily benefiting from the Access to Work scheme until redundancy. He found a new job and did a fresh application last autumn, but since then, well beyond the 24-week timeframe, there has been nothing. Will my right hon. Friend look into these sorts of delays and have a more joined-up system, because assessors are apparently dealing with applications from August at the moment?

• 1 May 2025 · Parkinson’s Awareness Month · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is making a powerful speech about this very complex condition. He mentioned Rory Cellan-Jones, who is well known as a BBC technology correspondent and, as the person who houses Sophie from Romania, a famous dog lover. He is my constituent in Ealing. I totally agree with my hon. Friend; the “Movers and Shakers” podcast, which won the Broadcasting Press Guild’s best podcast of the year award, has shown with such humanity and warmth the ups and downs—a lot of downs—of this very sad condition, which is growing. I assure the 153,000 sufferers in this country and the 10 million worldwide that today’s attendance is a reflection not of the importance of this debate, but of electoral events outside this House. Does my hon. Friend agree that the Parky charter to encourage more research into this terrible condition that afflicts so many, which Rory lobbies me quite often about, deserves Government funding? I hope that my hon. Friend the Minister on the Treasury Bench is also listening.

• 1 May 2025 · Prisoners of Conscience · Hansard source

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  The hon. Gentleman, who always speaks with such compassion and conviction, is making a powerful case. One of the worst examples is the detention of Armenian prisoners of war by Azerbaijan. They have not broken any criminal code, as he says; they are public servants held for political purposes, with no clear legal redress or access, or even clear grounds as to why they are being held. Does he agree that international law should dictate here, not domestic politics, with Governments marking their own homework? I praise my constituent Annette Moskofian, who represents Armenians in the UK. The Minister can be assured that I will write to her with some of Annette’s demands after the debate.

• 22 Apr 2025 · Legal Aid · Hansard source

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  The Conservatives left legal aid in a mess, like so many other things, so I welcome the sums the Minister is announcing, but can she assure me that the money will reach Ealing? We have never even had a citizens advice bureau—not in the 10 years I have been the MP, and not in the 50 years I have been on the planet—to refer constituents to. Can she assure us that my constituents can get the access to justice they deserve?

• 22 Apr 2025 · Legal Aid · Hansard source

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  18. What steps she is taking to increase the provision of legal aid services.

• 22 Apr 2025 · Residential Estate Management Companies · Hansard source

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  Thank you, Mr Stuart. Residential estate management companies are middlemen who sort things out per the lease—or notorious scammers, as our constituents call them. A few weeks ago, residents in Western Circus in east Acton were left without running water—a basic human right—between Friday and Wednesday, so for nearly a week they could not flush the loo, change babies’ bottles, wash their hands or brush their chops. Who was the managing agent? The notorious FirstPort—a word that strikes fear into every MP’s heart. It did not contact residents for over 24 hours. The building is a new build—I remember going to the topping out ceremony in my hard hat and high-viz jacket. Those 329 flats with 400 residents were left without running water, and for 24 hours they were in complete limbo. When the company finally made contact, it was very half-arsed—sorry, that is not parliamentary language. I was on a Zoom call with residents, and it was very “Computer says no.” There was a reluctance to do anything about it, and I think that is shocking. People have talked about fleecehold. I have talked to many FirstPort victims: just the other day at my advice surgery, I spoke to a grieving father trying to sort out his son’s estate. He found all these unexpected charges, because FirstPort hoovers up ground rent and then springs all these nasties on people. Leasehold covers millions of dwellings and is particularly common in London. Reports from the CMA, the Resolution Foundation and Which? have found that people are disempowered and are charged unexpected, unfair fees. People are losing money hand over fist—for what? We do not know exactly. I think my 90 seconds will end any second, so let me just say that MPs and the Facebook group have been decisive, but it is not good enough. We need proper action, so I am glad the Government will introduce a new commonhold tenure to end the neo-feudal tenure of leasehold, which has been there too long. Western Circus is being run by clowns—it needs to stop.

• 8 Apr 2025 · New Homes: Affordability · Hansard source

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  4. What steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to increase the affordability of new homes.

• 8 Apr 2025 · New Homes: Affordability · Hansard source

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  I welcome the Chancellor’s “build, build, build” policy, but with temporary housing in London costing £4 million a day, soaring rents and a frozen local housing allowance, it is no wonder that London councils fear going bankrupt and having to rehouse people from outside the capital, where only 5% of homes are affordable. In the comprehensive spending review, will my right hon. Friend look into possibly uprating this stingy Tory legacy, so that Londoners are not forced out of London?

• 8 Apr 2025 · Persecution of Christians · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech. Was it not one of the most heartbreaking things that all of us in the House have seen when Christmas was cancelled in Jesus’s birthplace last year? We have seen the persecution in Palestine, and in Gaza what has happened to some of the most sacred sites in Christianity, with the third-oldest church reduced to rubble. At times it is heartbreaking. My hon. Friend listed things such as Marxism and Islamism; does she agree that the situation in Palestine should draw our attention to Christians persecuted there, too?

• 3 Apr 2025 · Access to Sport: PE in Schools · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend makes a brilliant case for access to sport. I could challenge him on his last claim, but he is such a doughty champion for Harlow, and I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Stafford (Leigh Ingham), who brought us together for the debate. Does he agree that sometimes school sport can fall off when we talk about elitism, elite athletes, the Olympics and all that? Will he champion the Culture, Media and Sport Committee report that we are working on? We took evidence the other day. It is on community and school sport and the challenges facing sports clubs and under-represented groups. Schools are central to that, and as an ex-teacher, I know he will agree.

• 3 Apr 2025 · Access to Sport: PE in Schools · Hansard source

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  You look too young!

• 2 Apr 2025 · Gaza: Israeli Military Operations · Hansard source

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  Since Hamas’s war crimes of 7 October, we have seen multiple flagrant breaches of the rules of the international order. This week, 15 Palestinian paramedic Red Crescent workers were found in a mass grave alongside their abandoned emergency vehicle. That comes on top of a four-week total aid blockade. What are our red lines about how this war without end, in which ceasefires and signed agreements can be tossed aside, is being conducted?

• 17 Mar 2025 · G7 · Hansard source

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  I welcome my right hon. Friend’s strong statement that blockading all aid into Gaza, including UK aid, is “appalling and unacceptable”. What discussions did he have with G7 colleagues about what can be done about this provocative action during Ramadan, and what consequences are there for what people are saying is a breach of international law?

• 13 Mar 2025 · High Street Businesses · Hansard source

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  4. What steps he is taking to support high street businesses.

• 13 Mar 2025 · High Street Businesses · Hansard source

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  From 5 am to 10 pm daily, the Patels’ newsagent, off licence and post office was an Acton staple—until Horizon slapped it with a £123,000 demand, and Mrs Patel had a series of mini-strokes. Will Ministers look into the fact that their compensation was rejected because Mr Patel was the postmaster, and show their love for high-street heroes everywhere by attending a tea organised by the all-party parliamentary group for ethnic minority business owners on 3 April? You are welcome too, Mr Speaker.