Tom Gordon MP: speeches 2025

Speeches

• 24 Jun 2025 · Speed Cameras: Installation Criteria · Hansard source

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  In North Yorkshire, we do not have any average or fixed speed cameras. We have a number of temporary mobile speed vans, but they do not act as a sufficient deterrent because they move around—that is obviously the purpose and nature of them. Instead, we have seen lots of community speed watch groups set up. Does the Minister agree with me on the importance of those community groups, who work so hard to highlight the dangers of speeding in rural communities like mine?

• 24 Jun 2025 · Speed Cameras: Installation Criteria · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for giving way and congratulate her on securing her first Adjournment debate. Many people in my constituency have written to me about this issue, particularly those in villages around the towns, such as Ferrensby. Does she agree that in rural areas like mine, there needs to be a proactive stance to ensure that where there are not footpaths and pavements, people are not at risk from speeding vehicles?

• 24 Jun 2025 · China Audit · Hansard source

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  The Foreign Secretary mentioned Hong Kong in his statement. Would he consider speaking to colleagues in the Home Office about rethinking the changes to indefinite leave to remain, to ensure BNO passport holders do not end up facing questions about their status?

• 23 Jun 2025 · UK Modern Industrial Strategy · Hansard source

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  I welcome the industrial strategy, but I want to push the Secretary of State on skills. Harrogate college often tells me that it struggles to access funding for technical and vocational training that meets the needs of local business. In the next academic year—in just a couple of months—it will face a £90,000 reduction in the devolved adult skills budget from the new Labour mayor. Will the Secretary of State clarify how the skills mission fund will work in practice for towns like mine, and whether it will be genuinely led by local economic need, not Westminster targets?

• 23 Jun 2025 · UK Military Base Protection · Hansard source

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  Let me associate myself with the remarks about Armed Forces Week from Members across the House and the condemnation of the escalation of the situation in the middle east. Is the Minister able to explain to me if there will be any additional security measures at the Army Foundation College in Harrogate, given the unique nature of what is happening there?

• 23 Jun 2025 · Pride Month · Hansard source

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  We have had a lovely, light-hearted debate for the most part. Does the hon. Lady agree that leaders of political parties have power through their words? Would she push for her party in particular to ensure that, when it comes to LGBT rights, we consider the humanity that we are talking about and do not whip up hate?

• 23 Jun 2025 · Pride Month · Hansard source

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  On the point the hon. Lady makes about her constituents, the length and breadth of this country is filled by people who do their bit and go above and beyond. Will the hon. Lady join me in congratulating the people in my constituency who do exactly that?

• 23 Jun 2025 · Pride Month · Hansard source

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  We are not in favour of it, no, but it does help to have the rugby boys on your side. One comment was made after I actually did come out in the last year of high school. I can remember someone chuntering from the back of the classroom, going, “Oh, Tom’s gay!” I turned around and went, “Yes, and?” That was the end of it, so even in an ex-mining town such as the one I am originally from, people are much more tolerant than you would perhaps expect. A disproportionate number of people who are LGBT are still impacted by hate crime, which is something that worries me in light of the hostility and, in particular, the rhetoric online. The most online abuse I have received has been when I have spoken up for trans constituents, which I am sure is an experience that many people across this House share. That is a damning reflection of how people seek to whip up hate and divide people, when we should be looking to come together. The final thing I wanted to do was to plug the charity of the constituent who came to me to speak about being a trans woman. I had not heard of it before, but it is called Nutshell, and it offers talking therapies and counselling—not for trans people themselves, but for the families of trans people, who can often feel particular frustrations with finding out that one of their loved ones is trans. It is a holistic approach, and I endorse what that charity does. I think I came out in this place in my maiden speech when I mentioned Eurovision. I will continue our campaign to make sure we get Eurovision back in Harrogate, and I hope the Minister will join me in that campaign.

• 23 Jun 2025 · Pride Month · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend makes an excellent point, and I completely agree with him. I am amazed that in this day and age, there are still places in which we dispute whether or not we should fly flags or have Pride celebrations. In my view, that is not British. I want to briefly mention that in the days following the Supreme Court ruling, I had a trans constituent come into my office. She impressed upon me that her situation had fundamentally changed: she was worried about her rights, about being challenged in toilets, and that the Supreme Court’s decision ushered in a new era of uncertainty for trans people. I put on the record my support for the trans community, as Members from across this House who are present in the Chamber today have already done. However, we are in uncertain times, and it is incumbent on us all to make sure we stand up for the entire LGBT community. While I, too, was disappointed that political parties were banned from attending Pride in many cities this year, I understand why organisers have come to that conclusion. It is incumbent on all political parties to do better, and if we are honest, all parties have issues when it comes to LGBT rights. We should all try to make sure that we do much better. As the Minister said, coming out is not a one-off event. I was fortunate enough that when I was at school, I never got bullied—my friend James might have punched anyone if they had taken issue with it.

• 23 Jun 2025 · Pride Month · Hansard source

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  I will be brief, given the time limit that has been set. I must say I was slightly disappointed that there were not more musical numbers and puns from the Minister in his speech at the start—I am sure we will get some later. I am really proud to represent Harrogate and Knaresborough. At the moment, Knaresborough High Street is adorned with flags celebrating Pride, and I know that our towns are incredibly tolerant and open places. Earlier this year, we had a particular incident with a candidate from the Conservatives standing in the local elections who posted really quite grim and disgusting tweets. I am really pleased that our towns rejected that at the ballot box. Harrogate used to have a Pride parade, but it stopped when the pandemic came along. I really hope that me and the Harrogate Pride organisation can get that up and running in due course.

• 23 Jun 2025 · Access to GPs · Hansard source

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  I thank the Minister for indulging me again. Will he join me in congratulating the many fantastic GPs in my constituency and throughout the country? It is not an easy job; we hear of the flak that they get from patients day in, day out when they are working to tight timeframes. One such GP in my area is Dr Viv Poskitt, who has been elected as a Liberal Democrat town councillor. Will the Minister share my thanks to Viv and to all the GPs across our country?

• 23 Jun 2025 · Access to GPs · Hansard source

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  I have been working with Lib Dem councillor Hannah Gostlow to tackle some of the issues that local health services and GP surgeries in Knaresborough are facing. I recently visited a surgery and was told that it had the staff that it wanted to get in place, but did not have the consulting rooms. The problem that surgery faces is that the money from the community infrastructure levy and other sources of funding will not come until further down the line, so it cannot take on those staff because the consulting rooms cannot be built. Does the Minister agree that we need to get funding into those GP services, so that we can provide the services that local people deserve and need?

• 19 Jun 2025 · UK Infrastructure: 10-year Strategy · Hansard source

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  Last week something amazing happened: I actually found myself in agreement with the Labour Mayor for York and North Yorkshire, when he said that spending review “announcements fall well short”, and that this “government had a real chance to show it was serious about rural…areas—but it missed it.” Does the Chief Secretary to the Treasury agree with me that one of the best ways to invest in new infrastructure would be by dualling and electrifying the line between Leeds and York via Harrogate in order to unlock growth in our part of Yorkshire?

• 19 Jun 2025 · Warm Home Discount · Hansard source

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  The Minister knows that I have a lot of time for her, and I welcome her announcement today, but it will be of little relief to those who are living with spray-foam insulation that was inadequately installed, and there has been no support from the Government to fix that. Putting that aside, I wondered what Government support is available for off-grid households in rural areas, to ensure that they do not miss out and are included in these plans?

• 17 Jun 2025 · Cancer Diagnoses · Hansard source

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  Every 17 minutes, someone in Yorkshire is told that they have cancer. Tomorrow, I will be launching a report for Yorkshire Cancer Research, which is based in my constituency, that will set out key recommendations. Will the Minister meet us to talk about how we can feed them into the national cancer plan?

• 17 Jun 2025 · Disabled People in Poverty · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member is talking about barriers to disabled people, particularly those in poverty. I am running a campaign calling on the Government to make sure that people with disabled bus passes can use them at any time of the day, rather than just after 9.30 am. Does he agree that that would be a great way to alleviate the poverty of disabled people?

• 17 Jun 2025 · Prostate Cancer Treatment · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Lady for securing this important Adjournment debate. We have heard from a number of Members who have constituents who are affected or have frustrations with the current system. I met a gentleman called David in the run-up to the general election who has metastatic prostate cancer and is not eligible for abiraterone. He asked me if we would push and do what we could in Parliament to ensure that people such as him could get the drug. He is fortunate and can afford to pay for it privately, but not everyone is in that situation. This is about ensuring that we have equality of access for everyone, regardless of their financial circumstances. Does the hon. Lady agree that we need to have another look at this issue?

• 17 Jun 2025 · Genocide Convention: UK Compliance · Hansard source

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  Recently, the Joint Committee on Human Rights published a report about accountability for Daesh crimes, including genocide. A number of recommendations in that report pertain to issues applicable to other situations that have been referred to today. I want to press the Minister on the issue of universal jurisdiction. Would he and the Government consider a change in the law to allow for the prosecution of genocide regardless of a perpetrator’s nationality?

• 13 Jun 2025 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  I rise to speak to amendment 3 in my name, which would do the exact opposite of the amendments of the hon. Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme (Adam Jogee)—in fact, it would see the commencement period reduced from four years to three years. As a member of the Bill Committee, when we had the initial conversation about increasing the commencement period from two years to four years, I was the only person to speak against it, and I pushed it to a vote. What frustrates me about the situation we are in is that, in effect, we are acknowledging that the reason we are here and debating this Bill is that the status quo is not acceptable. People are pushed to taking decisions that they should not be and having to go to foreign countries to have opportunities overseas. Those of us who support the Bill are broadly in agreement on those principles. A number of things frustrate me about the four-year period, principally that the people in office—the Government of the day—will not necessarily be here to implement it. I am really hesitant about supporting a Bill when we do not know who would see through those details. Amendment 3 would reduce the threshold back down to three years, which would still be more than most jurisdictions around the world. Countries have implemented assisted dying legislation after as short a time as six months, 12 months or 18 months, so three years would still be a substantial increase compared with other countries. We are not innovators or leaders in this field: there is no reason why we cannot take best practice and learn from and speak to colleagues around the world. I believe that this Bill has the strongest safeguards of any, which is why I think an implementation period of three years would more than meet the requirements.

• 13 Jun 2025 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  One of the key things that the Bill’s sponsor, the hon. Member for Spen Valley (Kim Leadbeater), has said throughout is that four years, in the Bill as it currently is, would be a backstop. Can that be the case if the Minister is talking about a requirement of four years and that it could not have been delivered sooner?

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

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  This weekend, with the team from my parliamentary office, I will be taking part in the Knaresborough bed race, a fantastic local community event, to raise money for Knaresborough Town AFC. Will the Leader of the House congratulate in advance all those who take part and hopefully finish, as well as the organisers of the event, and will she consider a debate in Government time on unique and culturally important sporting events?

• 12 Jun 2025 · Spending Review: Health and Social Care · Hansard source

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  I welcome the funding announced to repair hospitals with RAAC, which will hopefully include Harrogate district hospital in my constituency. It has already received some money to remove RAAC in one building, which has since been demolished, but it still has a £15 million business case waiting with the Department of Health and Social Care for the next round of RAAC repairs. Will the Minister set out a timetable for repairs to hospitals such as Harrogate’s and for when we should expect to know if we will receive some of that funding?

• 12 Jun 2025 · Long-term Medical Conditions · Hansard source

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  It is an honour to intervene on the hon. Gentleman. I am the chair of the all-party parliamentary group for diabetes and I want to emphasise the point about early detection. A family recently got in touch with me who tragically lost their daughter because she had not been identified as a type 1 diabetic and ended up in diabetic ketoacidosis. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that we need to do more to identify people and screen them for chronic, lifelong conditions?

• 10 Jun 2025 · Mass Transit: West Yorkshire · Hansard source

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  I commend the hon. Gentleman for his campaigning on that issue, but I return to the point that we need a comprehensive integrated transport network that links up everything. What we have seen previously is a piecemeal approach that has not necessarily thought through how we would go about something like this. While it is welcome that it is on the way to being resolved, it is a damning indictment of the situation up until now. The funding announced is exactly the same as that announced under the previous Conservative Government —to the penny, so I question whether it is new funding or just a repackaging and reallocation of existing funding. I am sure the Conservative spokesperson, the hon. Member for Broadland and Fakenham (Jerome Mayhew), will pick up on that point; he almost certainly will. Turning to the work of the combined authority and the West Yorkshire Mayor: back when I was a councillor in Wakefield, we voted on the agreement to enter that authority. In that consultation, the only local authority in West Yorkshire that did not want to enter a combined authority or have a regional mayor was Wakefield, principally because it had previously been asked if it wanted a mayor and had voted against it. There were also concerns about powers being sucked up from local authorities to a new combined authority. Speaking to local councillors across the piece, there is still scepticism about whether that is happening or whether the resulting transport decisions have been in the interests of everyone in all corners of West Yorkshire. The new mayor promised to fix the buses in her first term and she ran her re-election campaign based on that, so I think there are questions to be answered there. When we look further afield, we have issues with rail links out of Leeds into other places across county boundaries, such as Harrogate and Knaresborough, with that link between Harrogate and York. While it is welcome that funding has been announced for West Yorkshire, we did not get a single penny for North Yorkshire under the Labour mayor, David Skaith. Rounding up in the interests of time, we want to see a properly integrated transport plan with proper funding—a Transport for Yorkshire approach to make sure that no one is left behind.

• 10 Jun 2025 · Mass Transit: West Yorkshire · Hansard source

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  On that point, I had an interesting interaction with the Secretary of State for Transport. I asked her about the reallocation of that HS2 money, and she referred to it as “fantasy money”. What does the hon. Gentleman say to the point that it is a reallocation of money that the Secretary of State says did not exist?