Alistair Strathern MP: speeches

Speeches

• 18 Mar 2026 · Student Loans · Hansard source

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  I will not claim that the apprenticeship system that the previous Government inherited was perfect, but he is right that at its best it was about getting hard-to-reach young people into skilled jobs that they would not otherwise be able to reach. Countless young people and employers in my constituency, as well as the fantastic charity Amazing Apprenticeships, constantly cite standards as a barrier, not an enabler.

• 18 Mar 2026 · Student Loans · Hansard source

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  Will the hon. Gentleman give way on that point?

• 18 Mar 2026 · Student Loans · Hansard source

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  Will the hon. Member give way?

• 16 Mar 2026 · Heating Oil Support · Hansard source

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  Having grown up in a household that relied on heating oil, I know how overlooked off-grid rural communities can feel. They were overlooked by the previous Government, who did not include them in energy price support for 200 days, and they have been overlooked by a regulatory framework that does not give them the same protections offered to other homeowners. I welcome this announcement of support, in which the Government have acknowledged that those households deserve far better. However, I have seen quite exploitative practices from oil companies in my constituency recently, so can we ensure that we are not shying away from the regulatory reforms that are needed for the longer term?

• 16 Mar 2026 · GP Contract · Hansard source

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  The welcome funding, alongside the contract, to hire 16,000 more GPs will be really encouraging news for my community. However, in high-growth areas such as mine, all too often it is physical space rather than funding for GPs that constrains practices. I am really glad that, after getting involved, we have been able to help move forward crucial expansion projects at Shefford health centre and Lower Stondon GP surgery in my constituency, but we should not need the MP to get involved in such situations to help our GPs. Will the Minister meet me to decide how we can work with our ICBs better to ensure that, where we have areas of significant housing growth, we will automatically see growth in the number of GP surgeries in the future?

• 2 Mar 2026 · Service Children · Hansard source

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  I am really proud to represent so many service families, but many of those I have been working with are at the sharp end of failures in the SEND system. Regular moves between postings can exacerbate long waits for assessments and leave them particularly exposed to the postcode lottery in SEND provision. As we drive forward long-overdue reforms in this space, how can we make sure that we are centring the experiences of service families so that we can finally do right by those who do so much for all of us?

• 10 Feb 2026 · Decarbonisation Schemes: GP Access · Hansard source

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  It was fantastic to see GB Energy invest in new, clean, bill-saving technology for the Bedford Road health centre in my constituency last week. That comes on top of the investments already seen at Lister hospital and Bedford hospital, which serve my constituency. Solar is good for the NHS and for the planet, so how can we get it on to more public sector rooftops right across the country? Crucially, I have some fantastic examples in Hitchin where we would love to see further action.

• 10 Feb 2026 · Young Children’s Screen Time · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend not just for securing this debate, but for speaking powerfully as a parent about why this is so important. We must be honest: guidance is great, but it can often miss the mark when it comes to answering the questions that parents are actually asking. I am holding a forum later in February to speak to local parents about exactly what they are looking for from the guidance. Does my hon. Friend agree that it is important that the guidance, when we deliver it, is not only evidence-based, but grounded in the questions and experiences of parents right across Britain today?

• 3 Feb 2026 · Educational Outcomes: Disadvantaged Boys and Young Men · Hansard source

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  I completely agree. I know that my hon. Friend is a big champion of some of these issues, for the benefit of Redditch and well beyond. Some of the important steps that he has highlighted are fundamental to tackling some of the challenges that we are looking to address here today. It is clear that there is a case for action, but what should we be doing? It is regrettable that although the Education Committee intended to set up an inquiry into this issue in the last Parliament, that has yet to be picked back up in this Parliament. I think a renewed focus by the Select Committee on this topic would be especially welcome, particularly if it explored where the compounding impact of socioeconomic factors, along with gender, is further holding back young men and boys across education. But we should not need to wait for any such inquiry to act. Given the wealth of evidence that we have been talking about today and that other Members have thought to highlight, it is important that the Government set out their own plan and strategy to treat this priority with the urgency that it deserves.

• 3 Feb 2026 · Educational Outcomes: Disadvantaged Boys and Young Men · Hansard source

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  I beg to move, That this House has considered educational outcomes for disadvantaged boys and young men. It is a pleasure as always to serve under your chairship, Sir John. I am pleased to have secured a debate on this important topic today. Last week, I had the pleasure of joining some truly inspiring parliamentary colleagues to launch the Labour group for men and boys. The group is based on one simple premise: for too long, the Labour party—and progressives more widely—have not been confident enough to speak directly about some of the specific challenges faced by men and boys growing up in Britain today, and it is time to put that right. The Labour party is rightly proud of its deep traditions in championing equalities causes, and has made great progress in everything from the barriers women have faced in the workplace to accessing the right and appropriate healthcare—and there is far more to do on both of those. However, at times, that agenda has led to a shyness on our part about being equally confident in speaking up about some of the challenges that men and boys—and particularly disadvantaged men and boys—can face throughout this country. That is simply wrong-headed. It not only does a deep disservice to the men and boys across Britain who are held back by some of those barriers, but leaves the field open to far more toxic voices that seek to pit women’s equality and male advancement in opposition to each other, rather than recognising that they are two sides of the same coin and are deeply progressive causes that, together, any progressive should be comfortable championing. Within all that, the topic for today’s debate, the achievement of young men—and particularly disadvantaged young men—in education settings across the country, is an important cause. The statistics could not be more stark: the Centre for Social Justice highlighted that across early years settings, when we look at the Government’s target of readiness for school, boys constitute the entirety of the gap to where we would like to be based on their progress. At GCSE level, men achieve on average half a grade lower than their female counterparts, while at A-level, across their best three grades, men will again often achieve a grade and a half lower on average.

• 3 Feb 2026 · Educational Outcomes: Disadvantaged Boys and Young Men · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member is spot on in drawing attention to the fact that a lot of these problems have early roots, and that our interventions must be as focused as the challenges that we are seeking to address. Boys’ Impact found that when looking at early years settings, only 30% of boys on average seem to be making a good level of progress, compared with 88% of girls who are not eligible for free school meals. When it came to GCSEs and getting grades 5 to 9 in English and maths, Boys’ Impact found that men, particularly from disadvantaged backgrounds and eligible for free school meals, were achieving half the level of those who were not eligible for free school meals.

• 3 Feb 2026 · Educational Outcomes: Disadvantaged Boys and Young Men · Hansard source

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  Absolutely. My hon. Friend makes a really important point. It was a real pleasure to meet Chris, his constituent, at an event as part of the Lost Boys Taskforce work earlier in the year. They are doing really inspiring things. I hope that together we can better showcase those and build on some of the successes we have already seen in relation to the Government’s youth strategy, which recognises the importance of trusted adults at its heart.

• 3 Feb 2026 · Educational Outcomes: Disadvantaged Boys and Young Men · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member is absolutely spot on. She highlighted a number of important themes that I hope to touch on later in my remarks.

• 3 Feb 2026 · Educational Outcomes: Disadvantaged Boys and Young Men · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member puts the point incredibly well, and I hope to be able to touch later on some of the powerful schemes available to already deliver some of these role models. They do not always have to be parents; that is not always going to be available for every child we seek to support. When we consider these vulnerable young men, it is sometimes little wonder that they feel mistrustful and alienated from the system. They have reasons for that. All too often, media and social discourse can paint them sometimes as problems or, even worse, as abusers in waiting rather than recognising the real strength and assets they could be and often are to our communities. Indeed, research by Boys’ Impact found that those narratives can be incredibly pervasive in media commentary about young men’s achievements and, worse still, are believed by a significant minority of teaching staff, too, with all the impact we would then expect in terms of how comfortable young people feel in those classrooms, and their sense of belonging and willingness to engage. We have to put this right. We need to put a strength-based relational model connecting with young men across the education system back at the heart of our work. There have been some really good examples of delivering that already, not just those already mentioned by hon. Members. It has been a real privilege to work with groups such as Football Beyond Borders and Beyond Equality to see at first hand the inspiring work they are already doing in schools across the country to demonstrate the impact that relational practice can have, giving young men space to define and talk through on their own terms what it is to be a man in Britain today, and what their aspirations for a good, progressive life could look like. It is little wonder, seeing the incredibly moving and powerful impact that these interventions can have, that they have been held by so many school leaders, but the really important thing to note is that these interventions are scalable. Boys’ Impact has shown through its 16 hubs across the country, working with hundreds of educational leaders and organisations, that by rolling out strength-based relational approaches to working with disaffected and disadvantaged young boys, we can have really powerful impacts, improving attainment, attendance and a sense of belonging. We should consider and learn from that as part of our wider approach to curriculum reform and the schools White Paper. It should not just be the mindset that we need to change. We also need to learn from specific interventions that can have a meaningful impact. Other Members have rightly highlighted the importance of role models. When working with disaffected young men, we know that family figures, father figures and community figures can have powerful impacts in transforming their life chances for the better. That is why we should look to learn from models like Australia’s powerful dads’ clubs, which convened dads across 250 schools in Australia to provide greater support, greater engagement in their child’s learning and activities such as read-along clubs and after-school sessions, which help support fathers to take a more active role in their child’s development, with all the powerful impacts based on the Fatherhood Institute’s work that we would expect for that young person’s attainment, achievement and sense of self. It is important to recognise that not every young person will have a father figure available to them, but the encouraging thing is that it should not matter when it comes to establishing positive male role models. Lads Need Dads is already doing inspiring mentoring work in schools across the country to show the value of bringing in volunteers to work as peer mentors for young men, particularly with a focus on literacy. At a time when we know that reading for pleasure is far less common among young men than it is among women, and literacy is so important for underpinning so much of success in early years and beyond, those types of interventions have shown that it can be a powerful tool in driving up literacy and engagement with reading among young men, and also improving young men’s own sense of self and belonging by providing them with that important male role model as an effective peer mentor. The Government’s wider work to encourage more male role models in early years settings and primary settings is to be encouraged. We know the gender disparity in workforces has been allowed to fly under the radar for far too long, so I am glad to see it achieving a central role in the new workforce strategy, but we need to build on that. We also need to recognise that there are a wider range of factors that can sometimes hold back boys’ success. As Richard Reeves put it, sometimes when dealing with young people, particularly at an early age, rather than seeking to address their needs we can simply see them as “malfunctioning girls”. The Institute for the Science of Early Years rightly points out that when young people, particularly very young people, lack access to the exercise and activities they sometimes need to burn off steam as young men, it can lead to their misbehaving in ways that are too often construed as misbehaviour, rather than actually just simple failures to self-regulate. Again, there are lots of interventions in early years and primary settings that are leading the way in showing how we can address this. Greater use of outdoor active learning and daily miles have been shown in primary and earlier settings to help improve boys’ sense of belonging, behaviour and engagement. As we think further about how we can forensically break down these barriers for young boys’ achievement, I would like to make sure we consider those tools, too, as part of our work in early years and primary settings to make sure we really are setting up every young man to succeed. I could go on for far longer than I have time for today, talking about examples of great practice. It has been inspiring to hear so many examples from colleagues in the room. There is a wealth of evidence out there. It is deeply compelling about the need to act, so we have simply no excuse not to. I hope I have left the Chamber today in no doubt about the urgency of the issue and the need to address it, but also no doubt about the fact that it is a deeply progressive cause that Labour colleagues should feel a real strength in championing. It is central to our mission to break down barriers for disadvantaged young people who would otherwise be set up to succeed, which is the underlying reason why I am a Labour politician. We have a great chance to put things right. Inspiring colleagues from across the House are looking to support us, and I look forward to working with the Minister to make sure we succeed.

• 3 Feb 2026 · Educational Outcomes: Disadvantaged Boys and Young Men · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member is right to draw attention to the particular challenge faced by disadvantaged young men. While there has rightly been a lot of focus on challenges holding back all boys and men across education—the Education Committee was due to hold an inquiry into that during the previous Parliament—the compounding impacts of socioeconomic inequality and gender are often less explored.

• 3 Feb 2026 · Educational Outcomes: Disadvantaged Boys and Young Men · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member is spot on in highlighting the fact that, particularly when we are talking about boys’ lack of achievement, ensuring that we identify the full suite of needs they have early and put in place appropriate interventions is vital. It is an often overlooked fact that 70% of young people with education, health and care plans across the country are boys. The gendered aspect to some of the special educational needs and disabilities challenges faced right across the education system will be fundamental to ensuring that we get our reform agenda right. The heartening thing for the Government should be that there is lots of good practice to build on. When I look back to my own time in teaching, which I assure you, Sir John, was not a catalogue of universal great practice to be learned from, and think about some of the young men where I was able to have the impact I wanted, it came down fundamentally to one thing—the quality of the relationship I was able to build with them. That observation might seem so simple as to be banal, but in Westminster discourse and in policy making, we can often overlook this simple fact. When dealing with vulnerable and isolated young men, who often feel quite alienated, relationships are everything.

• 2 Feb 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T7. When visiting UK service personnel overseas at a NATO airbase, I was appalled to learn that many had been penalised by their home insurers by virtue of being posted abroad, despite the fact that these companies have signed up to the armed forces covenant. That goes against the very principle of the covenant, so I was glad that, after writing to many home insurance companies, a few, including Aviva and Hastings, have changed that policy. Does the Minister agree that, if insurers are going to sign up to the covenant, they need to make sure that they are living up to every single part of its important principles?

• 27 Jan 2026 · Digital Exploitation of Women and Girls · Hansard source

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  The recent horrific stories about Grok and other AI-enabled abuse have highlighted a trend with which far too many women are very familiar. The online world, for all its benefits, has also brought new opportunities for them to experience exactly the same degrading abuse that they are all too familiar with in day-to-day life. There are three really important lessons for us all to take from the Grok case. First, given the platform's consistent inability to act on its own before being pushed, we need to continue to be proactive in taking on tech firms. Secondly, the fact that we were able to deliver such fantastic action so quickly teaches us that when tools can be delivered robustly and with confidence, change is possible. Thanks to the brave testimony of many women, many of whom knew that in speaking up they would be making themselves targets for abuse, we were able to drive robust action from Ofcom and get X to back down. Thirdly, if we are to continue to keep pace with developing risk factors, we need to find quicker ways to legislate. The Online Safety Act 2023, for all its strengths, took far too long. We have to get comfortable with more principles-based legislation or secondary legislation options to ensure finally that we can do far better to keep women and children safe online. Across Government, we need to make sure that our own services cannot be used to enable people to perpetuate abuse. I have been working with one woman who, having escaped domestic abuse and relocated to my constituency, now finds herself unable to reject a simple planning application because, in doing so, the local authority requires her to be comfortable publishing her full name and address online. This important democratic right cannot be denied to women fleeing domestic abuse, of all people. I welcome the chance to talk further with the Minister, after this debate, about what wider work we can do across Government to put this right and to ensure that none of our services, online or offline, are enabling women to be anything other than safe in their homes and thriving in their lives.

• 27 Jan 2026 · Medical Training (Prioritisation) Bill · Hansard source

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  I wonder if the Secretary of State shares my residents’ utter disbelief that the last Government created a system where thousands of UK medical graduates, educated at the cost of billions to the UK taxpayer, were suddenly forced to compete with overseas students, pushing many abroad for their careers and losing a big talent pool that should be powering our NHS and getting it back on its feet.

• 27 Jan 2026 · Commonhold and Leasehold Reform · Hansard source

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  This is an historic day for leaseholders, many of whom were let down by a lack of action from the previous Government, which left them on the hook for exploitative levels of ground rent. One 90-year-old constituent of mine was hit with a 9,000% increase in his ground rent—that cannot be right. I am really glad that the Minister has shown such leadership to ensure that we put that right today. I know he agree that we need to go further on unadopted estates, too, so will he meet me to ensure that we bring those protections forward as swiftly and effectively as possible?

• 14 Jan 2026 · Offshore Wind · Hansard source

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  I thank the Energy Secretary for the leadership he has shown with this record-breaking step forward for renewable power, which underlines our commitment to delivering the clean, secure energy our country is crying out for. It is important to note that the scale of energy secured—at a 40% lower cost than new gas—was only possible because of reforms to the auction market design. We did not tolerate the mechanisms that failed under the previous Government; we innovated to deliver better value. Will the Energy Secretary ensure that we do not rest on our laurels, but continue to innovate in auction design to ensure that we get the best possible value for money and the biggest possible capacity outcomes from future auctions, too?

• 12 Jan 2026 · Call for General Election · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Edward. It is now just over two years since I was first elected to represent the community I live in. There is really no greater privilege than getting to be here and stand up for our constituents’ concerns, particularly at a time when the stakes feel so high. In that spirit, I want to start by thanking everyone who engaged with the petition and brought the debate to the House of Commons today. As my hon. Friend the Member for Cannock Chase (Josh Newbury) pointed out, petitions are an incredibly valuable way of ensuring that the public can continue setting the agenda in this place. Although I am sure I might disagree with some of the signatories on a great many things about politics and policy, fundamentally we probably share a concern that, for a long time and under successive parties, people have begun to worry that politicians have not always done a good enough job of serving them and their priorities, and have not shown themselves to be sufficiently capable of delivering the change they are looking to see. Not a single Member in this House should feel comfortable with the trend we have been seeing, over decades, in public attitudes to politicians as a force for good and disillusionment with politics generally. The general election of over 18 months ago was not the first general election campaign I took part in. It was not even the first election in which I stood to be an MP, given that I had the opportunity a little bit earlier thanks to Nadine Dorries standing down during the previous Parliament. It was probably the one where the stakes felt highest and where the urgency of people’s concerns about the challenges they were facing across our communities and their growing disillusionment about politicians’ ability to affect them felt most acute. I spoke to constituents whose health had deteriorated far too poorly because of a long wait to see the NHS; to families who were fighting to access affordable childcare or the right support for their child at school under a broken settlement, both at early years and in education; and to people whose lives had been narrowed far too much by cost of living and growing interest rate pressures. Those pressures were not down to any failings of their own; it was not about a lack of hard work on their part, but about successive failures of the previous Government to drive down the cost of things that really impacted their lives. It got to the point where, even on the very basics—whether that was secure borders or the ability to keep the roads in a fit state—my constituents were losing faith in the ability of politics to deliver on the things that touched their lives. None of us should be comfortable with that and, as the party now in government, we must feel the responsibility of putting it right particularly acutely. It is right that, at moments such as this, both the public and Opposition parties represented in the Chamber today have the chance to hold us to account for how we have dealt with the many challenges we inherited. There is no getting away from the scale of some of the challenges that we have had to grapple with. The NHS, which was already on its knees, was looking at cutting appointments further just at the time they needed to be put back up, as was revealed to the Health Secretary just weeks into office. Our prisons were about to spill over; that fact was known to the previous Government but not revealed to the public at the last general election, if we are talking about transparency going into elections. The public finances were in an even tighter space than had been shared previously, as validated by the feedback from the Office for Budget Responsibility. Those are all incredibly difficult circumstances to inherit. They make me very angry, and it makes the public understandably frustrated to hear about them, and I hear that frustration. I do not want to spend my time talking about challenges; I want to spend my time talking about solutions. If we are serious about putting right so many of the failings we inherited as a Government, we have to start by being frank with the public about the mess we inherited, and face up to the big and difficult choices needed to put right many of the challenges that the previous Government ducked for far too long—right up to calling the general election. Only the last Prime Minister will know why he chose to go the country early, but I do not think that anyone in this room can credibly claim that it was because he believed that things were only going to get better in his remaining time in office. That is a damning indictment of the trajectory of the country that we inherited. Faced with all of that, we have had to start doing things that go beyond what we originally intended in our last manifesto. That is not an easy thing to have to do as a politician, but it is the right and brave thing to do when the circumstances dictate big and difficult choices to step up and meet the needs of those moments. We could not shy away from the fact that, if we were not going to find ways to invest billions more into the NHS, a situation that was already too difficult for too many of my constituents was only going to get worse. We needed to invest in the things that were starting to show people right across my constituency that the state was not working, whether that meant putting more money into special educational needs and disabilities provision, investing to fix crumbling schools or offering a record settlement for repairing roads. We have started to fix, thread by thread, the fabric of the broken Britain that we inherited. Hopefully, between now and the next general election, we can start to demonstrate to people that politics can be a force for good yet again. I am incredibly proud of many individual things that we have delivered over the last year. We invested in my local hospital to create new and expanded GP surgery places, meaning that we can deliver more appointments and deliver some of the fastest falls in waiting lists across the country. In my area, I know that we are making a real difference to the people who have already been seen. We are investing in extra nursery provision and free breakfast provision, and making sure that we invest in the expanded SEND places that my community needs. Families’ lives have already been touched for the better by the changes that this Government have introduced, from the record investment that we are putting into fixing some of our broken roads, to the greater devolved transport powers over buses that we have given to Hertfordshire county council. Too many constituents have had issues with transport, public transport and driving for too long now. We are starting to invest in things that will show them over time that politics can be a force for good for their priorities again. I do not want to pretend for one second that any of those choices or individual changes have touched the lives of everyone in my constituency yet. They will not have completely delivered the scale of change that we need to show by the next general election, but they are down payments on the promise we made at the last election and on the causes that I, on behalf of my constituents, will continue to campaign on every day that I am lucky enough to serve in this place. I do not know when the next general election might be, but I am pretty confident that it is unlikely to be this year. Although I cannot promise that I agree with the petitioners on that urgent ask, I can promise them that, along with all my colleagues, I will work to tackle not only those individual issues but the wider cause of disillusionment that caused them to sign this petition every day that I am lucky enough to serve here. I will not get everything right, and I am sure that I alone will make plenty more mistakes, however many years I have left in this place, but I will always look to deliver on the intent of restoring faith in politics and the public services that my constituents rely on, and show them that this Labour Government will deliver the change that they voted for and take decisions every day that will make a tangible difference to their lives over the years to come. Together, we can start to turn the tide on the managed decline and broken political settlement that we have tolerated for far too long in this country.

• 12 Jan 2026 · Call for General Election · Hansard source

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  If I heard the hon. Gentleman right, he criticised us for the £280 tax burden that basic rate taxpayers face because of the threshold freeze that is in effect this year. He knows, of course, that that threshold freeze was in his Government’s manifesto going into the general election and part of their last Budget settlement. Did he criticise it at the time?

• 6 Jan 2026 · Therapeutic Play and Children’s Healthcare · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Leyton and Wanstead (Mr Bailey) not just for securing the debate, but for continuing to live up to his true legend status by being so generous with interventions and speaking time. Therapeutic play can all too often be seen as a nice-to-have in children’s healthcare, rather than as a fundamental part of doing paediatric care well. I had the privilege recently of joining fantastic play therapists such as Christina at my local hospital and seeing the transformative impact that therapeutic play, done well, can have on outcomes for young people. I spoke to young people who had had trauma eased that could easily have lasted far longer than the condition they were being treated for; to parents who, at some of the most difficult and traumatic moments of their child’s early life, were still able to find moments of joy and solace in the smiles they saw in the play area working with those fantastic therapists; and to wider health professionals who were able to deliver far more effective and often more cost-effective care because of the fantastic collaborative work they had with the therapeutic play provision team who are well embedded into the Lister hospital. Those parents and families are really lucky. Working with Starlight, I know many other families across the country have got to be equally lucky, but far too often families face a postcode lottery in provision. It is fantastic to see the toolkit coming into effect. We now need to make it a reality for every family and every child with healthcare needs right across the country.

• 6 Jan 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I am delighted that we are investing in more rooftop solar. GB Energy supports the deployment of rooftop solar on schools and hospitals in my constituency, and the Government are taking up my proposal that it be a requirement to have it on all new housing, but how can we make sure that we are not missing out on the opportunity to use other rooftops, from those on car parks to those on commercial warehouses?