Sureena Brackenridge MP: speeches

Speeches

• 25 Jun 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Under the old guard of the Conservatives, families had to earn less than £7,400, often in low-paid and insecure work, to qualify for free school meals. Under this Labour Government, thousands more children in Wolverhampton North East and 500,000 more across the country will benefit from free school meals. Will the Deputy Prime Minister outline how Labour’s plans will put more money in parents’ pockets?

• 24 Jun 2025 · Department for Education · Hansard source

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  Although I cannot speak to the hon. Member’s local issues, I welcome the curriculum and assessment review, which will certainly look to change the one-size-fits-all model. I welcome several commitments in this year’s main estimates, particularly the announcement that households receiving universal credit will be eligible for free school meals from September 2026. Over 500,000 children will benefit, and 100,000 will be lifted out of poverty. For a constituency like mine, that could be life-changing, provided that the roll-out is well funded and properly delivered. I also welcome the £2.3 billion uplift in core schools funding for 2025-26, but this money must flow to where it is needed most. It cannot simply reinforce the status quo, and it must be targeted if it is to level the playing field for disadvantaged children. Of that money, £1 billion is earmarked for high needs and special educational needs and disabilities provision, with local authorities set to receive 7% to 10% more per head. Funding increases are helpful, but they must be matched with delivery reforms and accountability. I want to highlight the £370 million investment in school-based nurseries and early education. In constituencies like mine, too many children are starting school already too far behind. Finally, I want to stress the importance of skills and further education. With a high proportion of local parents working in insecure or low-paid roles, we must ensure that the £1.2 billion annual further education and skills investment helps people to retrain, upskill and access better opportunities. These estimates contain important and necessary commitments, but the measure of their success will be how effectively they address inequality, and whether funding truly follows need. I urge the Government to ensure that every element of this year’s education spending reaches the children, the families and the communities who are most in need.

• 24 Jun 2025 · Department for Education · Hansard source

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  I start by paying tribute to all those who work with our children and young people, be it in our nurseries, schools, colleges or universities. As the Member for Wolverhampton North East, a member of the Education Committee and a former deputy headteacher, I want to speak frankly about the urgent need for education spending to be tailored to local need, because that need is undeniable in constituencies like mine. Maintaining the system as it stands is not an option. We must build an ambitious education system that actively identifies challenges and intervenes early on, and it is not enough to focus only on academic outcomes. Our education system must also equip young people with the skills, confidence and resilience that they need to be prepared for the grit of life and the world of work. Around 40% of children in Wolverhampton and Willenhall grow up in poverty, and there has been a stark increase in the last decade. These realities hit education hard. In 2024, just 46% of disadvantaged pupils in England met the expected standards at key stage 2, compared with 67% of their peers. At GCSE, the gap is stark: fewer than one in four students on free school meals in Wolverhampton achieve a strong pass in both English and maths.

• 19 Jun 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  I attended the New Park Village end-of-season football awards—a fantastic celebration of local talent with hundreds of girls, boys and young people. Will the Leader of the House join me in thanking Joe Jackson, who for over 28 years has led community football and truly transformed lives, and everyone who supports the NPV family? Will she make time for a debate on how the recent spending review will support community grassroots sports initiatives like this one?

• 19 Jun 2025 · Water Safety Education · Hansard source

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  Austerity hit access to swimming lessons, as evidenced by the fact that 35% of children from low-income families are able to swim 25 metres unaided compared with 82% from affluent families. Does my hon. Friend agree with me that mandatory requirements for swimming and water safety should be in the national curriculum for all primary schools?

• 19 Jun 2025 · Social Mobility: Careers Education · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Lewell. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Wrexham (Andrew Ranger) for securing this important debate. I have seen at first hand the decimation of good careers, education, work experience and guidance in our schools. The link between strong careers, education and social mobility is undeniable. The latest Social Mobility Commission report shows that Wolverhampton North East has real potential, with strong prospects, growing industries and young people determined to succeed despite the odds. But it is on the fourth factor, conditions of childhood, where Wolverhampton falls into the red zone. This measure looks at child poverty, parental education and occupation, all of which shape a child’s life chances. The picture in Wolverhampton and Willenhall is stark. Around 40% of children are growing up in poverty, which is one of the highest rates in the west midlands. Fewer than a quarter of pupils on free school meals achieve a strong pass in both English and maths at GCSE. Many parents are working in insecure or low-paid jobs, with little access to training or upskilling. Those realities too often dictate how children in Wolverhampton and Willenhall grow up and, crucially, what they believe is possible for themselves. That is why good careers education is so vital. I have seen the work experience requests from students who grow up not knowing a lawyer, engineer or scientist. Their aspirations are often limited not by their talent, but by exposure. I have worked with students who have lacked connections and the confidence and opportunity to try something new. Good careers education shows young people what is actually out there, tailored to the local labour market and what they are capable of. We need a careers system that starts early, in primary schools through to post 16 and beyond, embedded in the curriculum, delivered by trained professionals and connected to local sectors, whether that is advanced manufacturing, green technology, digital, defence or aerospace. In Wolverhampton and Willenhall we have fantastic schools, colleges and employers and an ambitious university, but too often the bridge between them is missing, so a dedicated careers adviser in every school should be that bridge. If we are serious about social mobility, careers education has got to be a priority in the curriculum and assessment review—not an afterthought, but a vital tool to raise aspirations, widen horizons and open doors.

• 18 Jun 2025 · Post-industrial Towns · Hansard source

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  Does my hon. Friend agree that a targeted industrial strategy for post-industrial towns and cities such as ours will lead to more highly skilled jobs to lift the ceiling of average earnings in our constituencies, so that they have real opportunities for secure, good and well-paid jobs and apprenticeships?

• 17 Jun 2025 · Crime and Policing Bill · Hansard source

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  The increased orders in the Crime and Policing Bill, such as respect orders, will help to tackle antisocial behaviour. Does my hon. Friend think that they could be a vehicle—sorry, poor choice of word—to address the gatherings that she has described?

• 16 Jun 2025 · Windrush Day 2025 · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friends for their speeches and stories from their constituents. They have been incredibly insightful as well as heartbreaking, but that is exactly why we are here. I am sincerely grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Dulwich and West Norwood (Helen Hayes) for giving us the opportunity to bring the House together to honour the Windrush generation, and those whose courage, resilience, and extraordinary contribution helped rebuild post-war Britain. Let us be clear: they answered a call. They worked hard and grafted, and they helped to shape the very fabric of the country we know today. We see examples of that generation’s legacy in Wolverhampton, embodied in the life and work of so many people, like Professor Mel Chevannes—an inspirational role model who, when elected in 1981 as the city’s first African-Caribbean councillor, went on to chair the social services committee and later became the first African-Caribbean chair of the Royal Wolverhampton NHS trust. Her leadership, her service, and her example not only opened doors but shattered glass ceilings. This weekend, Wolverhampton will pay a lasting tribute to Professor Chevannes with the unveiling of a bronze bust—a permanent reminder of the power of representation and the enduring contribution of the Windrush generation to our public life. Today is not only about celebration; it is also about justice, because for too many the Windrush story includes real pain. The Windrush scandal inflicted deep harm on people who had every right to live here—people who built their lives here and served our communities, but were betrayed by a system that refused to see their humanity. We saw that pain in the story of the late Paulette Wilson—a Wolverhampton resident, and a cook who once worked in Parliament, in this very House. Paulette came to Britain as a child and spent more than 50 years here, but in 2015 she received a letter declaring her an illegal immigrant. She was made homeless, her benefits were stopped, and in 2017 she was detained and sent to Heathrow for deportation to a country she had not seen in half a century. With the swift action of my predecessor, my hon. Friend the Member for Wycombe (Emma Reynolds), who was Paulette’s MP at that time, working alongside the Refugee and Migrant Centre in Wolverhampton, and with Paulette’s strong determination, she fought back and she won. She was granted leave to remain. But more than that: she chose to speak out, becoming a voice for so many others who had suffered in silence. Her courage helped expose the systematic injustice at the heart of the Windrush scandal and force change. In 2021, a plaque was proudly placed at the Wolverhampton Heritage Centre, once the office where Enoch Powell wrote his divisive “rivers of blood” speech but now a thriving symbol of African-Caribbean heritage and real community spirit. I welcome the fact that this Labour Government are forging ahead to deliver justice, launching a £1.5 million advocacy fund, re-establishing the Windrush unit, significantly reducing the time taken to allocate claims, and beginning the recruitment of a Windrush commissioner to ensure victims’ voices remain at the heart of Government policy. Windrush should not just be a chapter in our history; it has to be a call for action to challenge us to build a country grounded in fairness, shaped by justice and defined by a true sense of belonging for all. I commend the courage and resilience of Paulette and all our Windrush generation—the thousands of others who faced this rogue injustice—and hope that such atrocities can never happen again.

• 11 Jun 2025 · Sustainable Aviation Fuel Bill · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for giving way right at the end. Just like him, I welcome the announcement. As we hear from across the aviation sector, there is much to be championed in the transition to sustainable aviation fuel that will be enabled by the Bill. Although Collins Aerospace in my constituency does not produce SAF, it does develop the components and systems that mean that 100% SAF flight is a reality. Does my hon. Friend agree that that backs both the green transition and the industrial future for places such as our regions and Wolverhampton and Willenhall?

• 10 Jun 2025 · Warm Home Discount: Extension · Hansard source

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  A very happy birthday to you, Mr Speaker. I welcome the extension of the warm home discount to all households on means-tested benefits from this winter. Many low-income households were excluded because their homes were not classed as having a high cost to heat. In Wolverhampton North East, only 18% of households benefited from the discount in 2023-24. Can the Minister confirm that the new scheme is simple, fair and focused on those who are most in need?

• 10 Jun 2025 · Warm Home Discount: Extension · Hansard source

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  6. What assessment he has made of the potential impact of extending the warm home discount to all households in receipt of means-tested benefits on people receiving those benefits.

• 5 Jun 2025 · Free School Meals · Hansard source

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  In July, I came from the classroom to this Chamber. I have seen the harm that poverty does to children, particularly those from families on universal credit who were not able to claim free school meals, probably because their parents were grafting in low-paid jobs or in insecure work. Does the Minister agree that having 500,000 more children fully entitled to a nutritious school dinner will boost school attendance and help narrow the education gap that widened under the Tories?

• 5 Jun 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  I am delighted to have championed additional funding of more than £10 million for the Royal Wolverhampton NHS trust and over £1 million for Walsall Manor hospital for essential work and upgrades. Let us contrast that to the Tories, who oversaw a backlog of maintenance and crumbling hospitals. Will the Leader of the House meet me to continue championing safe, modern, future-fit facilities for patients and hard-working staff in Wolverhampton North East?

• 5 Jun 2025 · Police Presence on High Streets · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Furniss. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham Erdington (Paulette Hamilton), whose tenacity in tackling this issue—with the ear of Simon Foster, our police and crime commissioner, and of the chief constable, Craig Guildford—has been outstanding. I have been watching the progress of Operation Fearless, and I thank and congratulate her for the work that she is doing. I will take any opportunity to champion my local shops in Wednesfield high street—the village. It is a real source of pride, really community spirited and a welcoming place, but, like on high streets across the country, we have seen an alarming rise in shoplifting and antisocial behaviour. After more than a decade of police cuts, all this has become too common and far too normalised. From larger chain stores to the small, often family-run businesses across Wolverhampton North East, the message is the same: shopkeepers are fed up with thieves who show no respect for them or the law and who steal in broad daylight, sometimes swiping shelves clean to make a quick buck. Time and again, residents ask, “Why has this been allowed to spiral?” Well, after 14 years of cuts, our brilliant local officers and PCSOs—I would love to name them individually but I do not have the time—have been overstretched and under-resourced. People want and deserve to feel safe. They need someone to finally listen to them, and under this Labour Government, that is exactly what is happening. I will continue to use my voice to speak for my community. A year ago, at the general election, we had 700 fewer officers and 500 fewer PCSOs in the west midlands than in 2010. That is being turned around thanks to the Home Secretary and the Government, with 150 new neighbourhood officers and 20 additional PCSOs. Much more needs to be done, but it has started. After meeting Chief Superintendent Jenny Skyrme, I am pleased to announce that each of our eight wards in Wolverhampton North East will have a dedicated neighbourhood officer—a named officer, contactable by residents and ringfenced for that ward alone—with an additional role for Wednesfield high street. That will not solve everything overnight, but it is a start to restoring the bobby on the beat and a better focus on crime prevention.

• 4 Jun 2025 · Disadvantaged Communities · Hansard source

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  I absolutely agree. I signpost hon. Members to yesterday’s meeting of the Education Committee, where we heard from a representative from the National Union of Students about the clear link with the barriers that certain young people face to get to college or school. I beg hon. Members to look at that. What makes those communities special? As I said, they have borne the brunt of 14 years of austerity. They saw Sure Start snatched away, cuts to neighbourhood policing, record NHS waiting lists, the decimation of youth services, a crisis in special educational needs and too much more. But our communities are full of potential; they are close knit and packed with people who graft and work hard.

• 4 Jun 2025 · Disadvantaged Communities · Hansard source

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  I agree. Hon. Members will hear more about ICON’s work in my speech, because it paints a picture of our communities. This is a project of national renewal that is designed to work with communities, to rebuild from the ground up and to restore hope and dignity to our places. It is a strategy about the huge importance of cultural capital and social infrastructure for social connections. What makes those communities special? They are resilient, largely because they have had to be. They have felt the brunt of 14 years of austerity. They have been disproportionately affected because they disproportionately rely on good public services, which were stretched to breaking point under the last Government.

• 4 Jun 2025 · Disadvantaged Communities · Hansard source

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  I thank every Member who attended the debate. I am sure the Minister will heed our voices, because we speak for and serve our communities. It is really disappointing that not one Conservative Back Bencher attended the debate. I will not get drawn into the denial that I heard from the shadow Minister. We have heard powerful voices from post-industrial towns, proud coastal communities and struggling rural communities. They are full of pride but desperately in need of targeted intervention. That is why I am calling for a project of neighbourhood renewal. Motion lapsed (Standing Order No. 10(6)).

• 4 Jun 2025 · Disadvantaged Communities · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend. I speak from personal experience, and I will always champion the excellent work that Sure Start centres did. They were there for me, my neighbours and my community. We must learn lessons from the past. We need strategic, neighbourhood-based investment, not competitive bidding pots that lead to the most disadvantaged areas often losing out due to a lack of capacity. So how do we respond? The Government’s recently announced £1.5 billion plan for neighbourhoods is a welcome step. In the words of Baroness Armstrong, “This is a good first step in the right direction”, but it must not be the last step. That is why I am calling today for a £1 billion neighbourhood renewal fund in this Parliament. It should be strategic, long term and locally led. We must have no more fragmented, competitive pots that pit community against community, and no more centralised decision making that misses the mark. People in my constituency know their neighbourhoods and what they need. We need to trust them, back them and invest in them. This is a defining moment. The public are asking not for favours but for fairness. They want clean, safe streets, decent, safe homes, good schools, secure jobs and pride in the places they call home. We must turn neighbourhood renewal from a slogan into a mission. I call on the Minister to take the evidence from ICON as a road map for delivery. I call on the Government to give every community, no matter its postcode, the respect, resources and responsibility that it deserves.

• 4 Jun 2025 · Disadvantaged Communities · Hansard source

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  I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend, who is clearly a champion for families and children in her constituency. Our communities are burdened with deep-rooted barriers—obstacles caused by poverty, economic inactivity, inequality, educational disadvantages, poor access to healthcare and years of systematic under-investment. The scale of the challenge is clear: Wolverhampton North East ranked 73rd out of 543 constituencies in England in the index of multiple deprivation. One in three people in my constituency lives in one of the highest need neighbourhoods in the country, and they are not alone. Across England, 345 of 543 constituencies contain at least one neighbourhood in the most deprived 10% nationally. Those left-behind places are not isolated pockets; they are widespread.

• 4 Jun 2025 · Disadvantaged Communities · Hansard source

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  I will.

• 4 Jun 2025 · Disadvantaged Communities · Hansard source

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  Investment has to go where it is most needed. Hon. Members feel strongly about that, which is why we see such representation in this debate. Child poverty in Wolverhampton North East tells a clear story. In 2014-15, 22% of children were living in absolute poverty. That figure now stands at 31%, which should shame us. More than that, however, it must galvanise us. Nationally, the situation is no better. In 2023-24, 18% of people in the UK were in absolute poverty after housing costs. According to the Resolution Foundation, another 1.5 million people, including 400,000 children, will fall into poverty by 2030 unless bold action is taken. Those are not just statistics on a spreadsheet; they are real lives. They are children going to school tired and hungry. They are young people who are poorer now than their parents’ generation, with less hope of buying their own house. They are families stuck in insecure housing or waiting years for mental health support. They are opportunities lost and represent an injustice at the heart of our society. That is why the work of the Independent Commission on Neighbourhoods—ICON—has been so vital. Under the leadership of Baroness Armstrong, ICON has helped to shine a light on what is really happening in the most disadvantaged areas of our country: mission-critical neighbourhoods. It reveals what people are facing, how they feel about Government and what can be done differently. Its recent polling in partnership with Public First is a wake-up call. Just 5% of adults in England believe that the Government care about “neighbourhoods like mine”: a damning verdict on decades of decisions made too far from the people they affect. It is not just a question of neglect; it is a fact of inequality. Nearly seven in 10 people believe that the Government care about some neighbourhoods more than others: the wealthier ones, the connected ones, the places where voices carry weight. They have lower crime, higher economic activity, higher intergenerational wealth and higher life expectancy.

• 4 Jun 2025 · Disadvantaged Communities · Hansard source

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  I certainly agree. Communities like ours have borne the brunt of these cuts, and we see this playing out on our streets, in our schools and, unfortunately, in the criminal justice system. This should never have happened. It cannot continue, and it must never happen again. That is why I am calling for a project of national renewal for our neighbourhoods, designed to work with communities.

• 4 Jun 2025 · Disadvantaged Communities · Hansard source

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  I beg to move, That this House has considered Government support for disadvantaged communities. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Roger. I thank the Minister for taking the time to come and listen to us, and we can see by the attendance today that this issue truly resonates in all our communities across the country. It is a tremendous honour to lead this important debate on a subject that resonates deeply with many of us here who represent places that have faced long-term social and economic challenges, including my constituency of Wolverhampton North East. Whether we live in Low Hill or Bushbury, Heath Town or Park Village, New Invention or Short Heath, these stories will be familiar, but let me be clear from the start: I am fiercely proud of where I come from. I have said it time and again: I am not just a Wolverhampton girl; I am an Ashmore girl. I grew up in a community on the Ashmore Park estate, and I started my own family in Park Village—the very kind of neighbourhoods that we are here to discuss. Too many of our neighbourhoods—not just those in Wolverhampton, New Invention and Short Heath, but around the whole country—have been left behind and left to decline, as communities that are no longer a Government priority, where children and young people have nowhere to go, and there is rising antisocial behaviour, theft and burglaries, while the number of good, secure jobs has declined.

• 4 Jun 2025 · Disadvantaged Communities · Hansard source

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  I absolutely agree. If I drive 10 minutes in my constituency, the life expectancy increases by more than seven years, which is shocking. This is not the politics of envy; it is the reality after the politics of inequality. This is about restoring people’s chances to participate in Government, making it something that is done with them rather than to them. There is cause for hope. In January, I had the pleasure of welcoming Baroness Armstrong to the Scotlands Estate in the Fallings Park ward of my constituency. We visited the Big Venture Centre, an anchoring institution in the neighbourhood. It is an inspiring community-focused project that is changing people’s lives every single day. From the pink ladies—and men—who volunteer there to the WV10 community chefs who support healthy eating education, to the community shop helping with the cost of living, that is what every neighbourhood deserves. It was a chance to see how the findings and principles behind ICON’s work can be implemented in practice and, with the right support, that those places can thrive. We have the insight and the evidence; action is what we now need. What we have had has clearly not worked. Let us look at education. In 2024, only 46% of disadvantaged pupils met the expected standard at key stage 2, compared with 67% of their peers. A growing divide that has set in by year 6 continues to widen in year 11 at GCSE. After school, it gets worse. Disadvantaged young people are 65% more likely to be NEET—not in education, employment or training. If they leave school with fewer than five GCSEs they are 131% more likely to be NEET. Meanwhile, nearly three quarters of people in destitution are in receipt of social security. That tells us everything we need to know about how broken the safety net has become.