Rupa Huq MP: speeches

Speeches

• 14 Oct 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T3. First, we had the VW scandal and now we have Dieselgate 2, with multiple manufacturers accused of faking it and emissions up to 30 times the legal limit. Can Ministers update us on the Department for Transport’s inquiry and promise swift action when it is out?

• 15 Sept 2025 · Children with SEND: Assessments and Support · Hansard source

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  Order. I think the hon. Member means “many hon. Members”, not “many of you”.

• 15 Sept 2025 · Children with SEND: Assessments and Support · Hansard source

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  Order. I would usually ask Members to stand and bob so that I know they want to speak, but not everyone has a seat. I think people are already doing this, but once Members have spoken, could they vacate their seat so that someone else can speak, because they have to be on the mic for the broadcast? I will try to get everyone in by setting a formal time limit. The clock will count backwards from two and a half minutes.

• 15 Sept 2025 · Children with SEND: Assessments and Support · Hansard source

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  Order. The word “you” keeps creeping in. A lot of people have said it during this debate, but “you” means me, and I certainly have not done any of those things. Can we refer to each other as hon. Members or hon. Friends? The next speaker, who will be exemplary in this, is Greg Stafford.

• 10 Sept 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Q14. I am sure that the Prime Minister recalls visiting the Ukrainian community in Acton with me soon after Putin’s illegal invasion. They still remember it fondly. They want me to ask him whether, next week at Trump’s state visit, he will harness to the max his unique role—with influence in the US and the coalition of the willing in Europe—and redouble all efforts to find a just peace, with security guarantees for them and war crimes punished, so that we can end this war, which has gone on far too long?

• 8 Sept 2025 · Indefinite Leave to Remain · Hansard source

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  We have heard some brilliant points. I want to concentrate on our universities. Imperial College’s White City campus and the University of West London in my seat in Ealing are genuinely world-beating UK universities that generate billions of exports. They are central to UK soft power and global relationships, but almost everyone faces financial challenges, so they have had to diversify income streams to cross-subsidise their work. Attracting globally excellent researchers and international student fee income has helped them to just about manage. Ex-colleagues of mine are closing down degrees reluctantly. Whole institutions face going bust. With competitiveness and growth at the heart of the Government’s missions, if the UK makes it too onerous, our universities will lose talent and market share to Canada, Australia and the US. Settled status is five years in most of the rest of Europe, so unwittingly we are advantaging our rivals. At Imperial College’s White City innovation incubator, I saw many international postgrads pioneering scientific and technological advances, some on the two-year post-study work visa, which is also being cut. The UK higher education sector’s teaching, research and innovation activities benefit our economy to the tune of £265 billion, but after 14 years of chronic underfunding there is now potentially another blow impacting our constituents, students, staff and those from lower-income backgrounds, who are typically more debt averse and will be put off entering HE at all. PwC found that UK universities expect to increasingly rely on international student fees, and they are vulnerable to reductions in numbers. That is pre White Paper. In fact, this is not just hypothetical; in many cases we are already seeing the UK’s declining attractiveness. In 2024, Home Office figures showed a 19% decline in student visas from the year before, because of the rules to stop students bringing family. Universities have a vital part to play in growth and productivity across the UK, but we could be sleepwalking into a perfect storm, with straitened circumstances, decreasing international competitiveness and increasing expenditure putting universities under more and more pressure. We need to be honest about the trade-offs involved in reducing immigration, and about culture wars. What I am talking about is a million miles away from illegal boat migrants living it up in hotels and sapping resources from locals. A skilled talent pathway Hong Kong BNO person from Ealing who contacted me says of her circle: “We have paid Visa application…fees…Health Surcharge…Income Tax”— and national insurance roughly amounting to— “£60,000 per person over five years. Additional spending in the UK economy…rent, council tax, consumer purchases, education and childcare…payments…made in good faith—under a policy we trusted would remain consistent for those already on the pathway.” Much of what is proposed in the White Paper is welcome and sensible, but we should not move the goalposts for those already in the system and trash solemn promises that we made to them. Along with considerations of immigration and universities, we must consider work, vocational education, further education provision, what universities are for and their role in levelling up, and all those sorts of things. We need a realistic strategy for their long-term financial sustainability, and their role in regeneration and growth. It is a graphic equaliser. This was only a White Paper, so I hope that Ministers can take our points into account. Let us keep to our word, and let us keep the British higher education sector the envy of the world.

• 3 Sept 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T5. A constituent and mum has got in touch because she has lost her entitlement to the 30 hours of childcare this Government so brilliantly rolled out, as well as the student finance version, because she is doing law as a mature student. Can the Minister look into closing that loophole so that women who retrain mid-career are not penalised?

• 2 Sept 2025 · English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill · Hansard source

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  We are in London, the greatest city in the world—some would say anyway—and we have all just come back from holiday, have we not? Our Mayor Sadiq Khan has ambitious plans for an overnight accommodation levy that would put us on a par with Paris and New York and would harness our growth. Those funds could help regenerate the tourism sector and improve the visitor experience. I wonder whether the Secretary of State would be open to using this devolution Bill to give mayors everywhere the power to make decisions about those kind of things.

• 1 Sept 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

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  It is truly momentous that this Government look set to put long-standing UK policy into practice and recognise Palestine this month, but it feels like time is running out for a two-state solution, as the Foreign Secretary has acknowledged. We have now witnessed man-made famine, the bombing of hospitals and hostages, and the denigration of the UN—I think the PLO delegation is banned from the General Assembly—going against all international norms, so would he agree with my constituents that on trade, sanctions and settlements, it is time to step up a gear in this ever-worsening situation and put the full force of action behind his very strong statements?

• 22 Jul 2025 · UK Internal Market · Hansard source

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  Order. We now adjourn until September.

• 22 Jul 2025 · UK Internal Market · Hansard source

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  I call the shadow Minister in His Majesty’s loyal Opposition, Andrew Griffith.

• 22 Jul 2025 · UK Internal Market · Hansard source

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  We will now divide up the time left. If Members keep their speeches to within four minutes, everyone will get in. I call Jim Allister.

• 22 Jul 2025 · UK Internal Market · Hansard source

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  Order. We will move on to the first Front Bencher, Liberal Democrat spokesperson Clive Jones, at 5.8 pm, so the time limit is now three and a half minutes.

• 22 Jul 2025 · UK Internal Market · Hansard source

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  We are going to leave a couple of minutes at the end for the Member in charge to conclude.

• 22 Jul 2025 · Housing Provision in Stafford · Hansard source

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  Reciprocated all round, I think. Question put and agreed to.

• 22 Jul 2025 · Humanitarian Situation in Sudan · Hansard source

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  Leaving time for Harpreet Uppal to conclude, I call the Minister.

• 22 Jul 2025 · Humanitarian Situation in Sudan · Hansard source

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  We are going to set the clock for speech duration. Everyone has to remain within 4 minutes and 30 seconds so that everyone can get in.

• 22 Jul 2025 · Humanitarian Situation in Sudan · Hansard source

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  Order. I need to calculate how long everyone will get to speak. Is everyone standing who wishes to speak? Okay. In that case, I call Jim Shannon.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

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  We rightly re-funded UNRWA, but since then aid has become a daily death trap and starvation is widespread. Our calls for a ceasefire only saw the last one get broken. Now, as my right hon. Friend has pointed out, the chilling order to forcibly displace an entire population of 2 million people has been condemned by ex-Israeli PM Ehud Barak. What more concrete actions are we taking to stop the man-made destruction of Gaza—35 hospitals, as well as hostages, soldiers and civilians—before our very eyes? History will not judge this well, and words are not working.

• 14 Jul 2025 · Homelessness Prevention · Hansard source

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  7. What steps her Department is taking with local councils to prevent homelessness.

• 14 Jul 2025 · Homelessness Prevention · Hansard source

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  London boroughs now spend £4 million a day on temporary accommodation. While costs and rough sleeping have soared, central Government subsidy has been frozen for 14 years, pushing councils to the brink of bankruptcy. Do my hon. Friends on the Front Bench agree that it is time to lift the 2011 Tory cap, so that London councils can get the support they need to make homelessness history?

• 9 Jul 2025 · Clarion Housing management services · Hansard source

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  I rise to convey the anger of the Du Cane Road Residents Association, which covers a cluster of different blocks including the very handsome Pankhurst House, which was in the Ideal Home exhibition in 1928. It was built for working women but has seen better days, and this is all because of Clarion Housing. The petition highlights repairs issues, such as a broken window that has been in that state for years, the ever-increasing and opaque service charges that nobody is really clear about, and the allocations policy. Once it was working women living there, but it now seems to be undesirables of both genders. I am all for equality, but it seems to have turned into a bit of a dumping ground. Following is the full text of the petition: [T he petition of the residents of the constituency of Ealing Central and Acton, Declares that numerous constituents residing in homes which are managed by the housing association Clarion including Pankhurst House and neighbouring blocks are seriously concerned with the poor level of service and delayed responses they have been provided regarding repairs, for example, a broken window for years on end; further declares that residents are unsatisfied with transparency around how service charges are calculated; further declares that residents are displeased with the allocations policy by which residents are assigned which they fear is leading to it becoming a “dumping ground” for undesirables when the original nucleus of the estate was women’s keyworker accommodation. The petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urge the Government to work with the Council to compel Clarion to ensure that; concerns are listened to and actioned in a timely manner, that more transparency is enacted with service charges, to commit to working with the council for improvements in the system of allocating residents so that existing tenants have a say in who their neighbours are, to provide a better balance of tenant and reverse the current system which is cumulative and having a detrimental effect on the community. And the petitioners remain, etc. ] [P003084]

• 7 Jul 2025 · Actions of Iranian Regime: UK Response · Hansard source

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  An Iranian-origin woman who lives in Acton came to see me the other day. Although she is relieved that her 90-something grandparents are not among the civilian casualties from Netanyahu’s US-backed bombings the other day, she reports that the hated hard-line regime in Iran is cracking down even further on its beleaguered population. I urge my hon. Friend—I think he hinted at this—to proceed with caution. It is a very delicate situation and the consequences are manifold, including Iranian refugees washing up on our shores in dinghies, which did not use to be widespread. There is a temptation to go in all guns blazing, but I urge my hon. Friend to do all he can to get a diplomatic solution. We all want to stop Iran’s nuclear ambitions, but to do so in the right way.

• 18 Jun 2025 · HS2 Reset · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for her honesty as she set out this latest reset, necessitated by the mess that the Tories left. Old Oak Common is part of my constituency, and this week eight associations across two boroughs have banded together to create the Old Oak Alliance, with the purpose of fighting for compensation and mitigation in the current circumstances. They will be bitterly disappointed by the news of even more prolonged disruption. Will my right hon. Friend meet me—or, better still, come on a site visit to meet them and see what they are putting up with? We are dealing with a company whose idea of engagement is jam tomorrow and death by PowerPoint.

• 17 Jun 2025 · Prostate Cancer Treatment · Hansard source

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  The hon. Gentleman makes a powerful point. We are seeing a theme of uneven application. The rule of law means that the law applies to everyone, so it looks like something has gone wrong here.