Keir Starmer MP: speeches

Speeches

• 30 Oct 2024 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  I am really pleased that, under this Government, Britain has already secured £63 billion-worth of investment, which will be measured in tens of thousands of jobs. Our No. 1 mission is growth, and my hon. Friend will be hearing a lot more about that in a few minutes’ time.

• 30 Oct 2024 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Yes, is the answer to that question. That point is a really important one. We celebrate cricket and it does bring communities together, but it is also really important for children and young people to enjoy lots of different sports. It gives them a confidence that they might not otherwise have and the ability to work in a team, and it teaches them about skills like leadership, so I am fully supportive.

• 30 Oct 2024 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Yes, and that is a really important point. Last year, the Leader of the Opposition held a summit on AI, which was very important. We have been bringing together the leaders in AI. We have a huge advantage in this country, being ranked in the top three in the world. AI will have huge potential for our growth and our public services, and I think that the whole House should be fully supportive of it.

• 30 Oct 2024 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  I welcome my hon. Friend to his place. Talking of predecessors, no one did more damage to rural constituencies than his nearby predecessor, whose disastrous mini-Budget crashed the economy and hurt his constituents. I note that she has been tweeting her approval of the shadow Chancellor’s attacks on the independent Office for Budget Responsibility, showing that the Conservative party has learned absolutely nothing. More than 12,000 farmers have been forced out of business due to Tory neglect, but we will turn that around. My hon. Friend will hear more about that in the Budget in just a minute.

• 30 Oct 2024 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  I am very worried and concerned about the decision that has just been taken by the Parliament in relation to UNRWA. There is a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, and that decision will only make it much worse, which is why I have expressed my concern about it already, before today, and will continue to do so. It needs to be reversed very quickly indeed. I have never described what is going on in Gaza as genocide, but I do agree that all sides should comply with international law.

• 30 Oct 2024 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Homelessness levels are far too high in this country, and we are developing a long-term strategy, working with mayors and local leaders, to end homelessness once and for all. We are taking action to tackle the root causes, which is delivering the biggest increase in social and affordable house building in a generation, and we have picked up where the Conservatives failed by abolishing no-fault evictions, preventing many renters from ending up homeless.

• 30 Oct 2024 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for her question. I am sorry to hear about the delays affecting her constituents. The party opposite oversaw years of mismanagement and chaos, and the impact on the Scottish NHS is evident. This Labour Government are committed to delivering for the Scottish people, including making sure that we have an NHS fit for the future. The Chancellor will set out the details in just a few moments.

• 30 Oct 2024 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  I welcome my hon. Friend to her place. She is the first female and first Labour MP for Aldershot, and she is doing a superb job for her constituents. Rushmoor borough council was left with a shortfall of over £19 million over the last four years. The running down of local services has been one of the most painful features of the last 14 years. We will work hand in hand with councils, including on multi-year funding settlements, and with local leaders to develop and make sure the services that are needed are there.

• 30 Oct 2024 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  I thank the right hon. Member for raising this tragic case, and I join him in paying tribute to Greg’s parents. Their tireless work to raise awareness of spiking, to support victims and to call for changes in the law is inspiring, given what they have been through. This Government will act. We will make spiking a specific criminal offence to better protect victims and support the police in tackling these crimes.

• 30 Oct 2024 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  I thank the right hon. Gentleman for raising this, because it is an important issue and I do not think we discuss it enough in this House. We continue to see mounting evidence of appalling atrocities against civilians and unacceptable restrictions on humanit-arian access. Working with international partners— including as penholder at the UN Security Council, as he knows—to end the violence, secure humanitarian access and ensure the protection of civilians is a major priority.

• 30 Oct 2024 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for raising this issue. We are all grateful to our veterans for their service in protecting our country. I understand the value of the Veterans’ Orthopaedic Service and the support it provides for veterans. We are committed to ensuring that veterans receive the employment, mental health and housing support they need. The upcoming Budget will set out the changes we will be making.

• 30 Oct 2024 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  I am not.

• 30 Oct 2024 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Yes. Again, that is a very important point, and it is one that matters to me personally. I worked for five years in Northern Ireland on some of the proposals under the Good Friday agreement, in particular the transformation of the Royal Ulster Constabulary into the Police Service of Northern Ireland. I worked with both communities there for those five years. That was very important to me and it had a huge impact on me, so I care deeply about Northern Ireland. I absolutely agree that the institutions of government need to be up and running, and I want to give all the support I can to further development in Northern Ireland.

• 30 Oct 2024 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  We will seize that initiative. We have reset on the international stage, and climate is one of the biggest challenges that we face. I will be going to the conference this year, just as I went last year as Leader of the Opposition, to continue those discussions about how we reach the very important targets that we must reach.

• 30 Oct 2024 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for raising this issue. It is a source of national shame that there are just under 1.3 million households on a social housing waiting list, including, I think, 8,000 in Hackney. The best way to tackle overcrowding and meet housing need is to build the homes this country needs, and that is why we will deliver 1.5 million homes over this Parliament. The Chancellor will set out further details in just a moment.

• 16 Oct 2024 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Yes, and you will have observed, Mr Speaker, that on Monday we had a very successful investment summit, with £63 billion coming into this country, jobs in every part of the UK, and a clear message from businesses that they are prepared to invest now under this new Labour Government. Part of that was a £22 billion commitment to carbon capture, usage and storage, creating the first clusters in the world including, as my hon. Friend points out, in various parts of the country. We will support those jobs and investment. We will grow our economy and rebuild our country.

• 16 Oct 2024 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  We are looking at that, because those are obviously abhorrent comments, as the right hon. Gentleman rightly says, along with other really concerning activity in the west bank and across the region. The humanitarian situation in Gaza is dire: the death toll has surpassed 42,000 and access to basic services is becoming much harder. Israel must take all possible steps to avoid civilian casualties, to allow aid into Gaza in much greater volume, and to provide the UN and humanitarian partners the ability to operate effectively. Along with France, the UK will convene an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council to address that.

• 16 Oct 2024 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  I welcome Tom to the House. It is encouraging to see young people engaging in democracy. County lines is a real problem, and all of us will have experienced its effect and impact in our constituencies. Our county lines programme focuses on preventing young people from being exploited and lured into criminal gangs, which is far too common, and we are committed to introducing a new offence of child criminal exploitation—that is long overdue. We will also create a network of Young Futures hubs, staffed with professional youth workers, mental health support workers and career advisers, to provide focused support for young people, helping them to fulfil their ambitions and preventing them from being drawn into crime.

• 16 Oct 2024 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend makes a good point. The Conservative party wants to get rid of maternity pay, but keep hereditary peers. It is the same old Tories. This is an important issue that she has raised. The letters are honest, powerful and important, and I think they hold up a mirror to our country. We will deliver a Budget that drives economic growth, improves the lives of working people, fixes our public services and rebuilds our country with a decade of national renewal.

• 16 Oct 2024 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  I really do not think that party political points on security and intelligence— [ Interruption . ] Throughout the last Parliament, we stood with the Government on all questions of security and intelligence, because it was important to the outside world that we did so. I worked with the security and intelligence services for five years prosecuting cases. I know at first hand, as a lawyer, the work that they do. I have known at first hand, as the Prime Minister, the work that they do. We support them in everything that we do, and the right hon. Gentleman knows that.

• 16 Oct 2024 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for her question, because years of underfunding have left councils facing huge budget pressures— [ Interruption. ] Opposition Members yawn; they do not know the impact that it has on working people up and down the country, who rely on public services. What has happened in Thurrock is shocking. We are committed to resetting the relationship, and helping those under intervention to recover and reform. Fourteen years is a long time of destroying local services, and it is clear that it will take time to fix them. We will get councils back on their feet by providing multi-year funding settlements, but ultimately we have to grow our economy. I am surprised that the Leader of the Opposition did not welcome the £63 billion of investment that we were able to announce on Monday.

• 16 Oct 2024 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for raising the question of SEND, because it is a really important issue—I think this is the fourth time in two Prime Minister’s Question Times that it has been raised, by Members on both sides of the House. I quibble with his suggestion that it is both parties, since his party was in power for 14 years, but the spirit in which he proposes that this work should be cross-party is something that we should take up, because SEND is such an important issue. It affects so many children and parents, so notwithstanding that quibble, I am very happy to work across the House on an issue as important as SEND.

• 16 Oct 2024 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to the hon. Member for raising that. I do believe in transferring power out of Westminster and into the hands of leaders who know their communities best. Those with skin in the game know what is best for their communities. We are already making steps in the south-west by signing the devolution agreement for Devon and Torbay, and I encourage local authorities to work with their neighbours to pursue deeper and wider devolution for their area. I will ensure that the hon. Member has the meeting that he is asking for.

• 16 Oct 2024 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  I thank the right hon. Gentleman for raising that really important issue, which is affecting a number of people. We have launched an independent review into the carer’s allowance overpayments, to look at the circumstances of the overpayments and see what went wrong and what can be done to put it right, because carers must get the support that they deserve. I am grateful to him for raising it and I am glad that we have been able to take this action today to go forward on that really important issue.

• 16 Oct 2024 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Yes—we speak with one voice. The right hon. Gentleman speaks about the record of the last Government. That record was 14 years of failure. Six years of austerity, three years of Brexit logjam, then Johnson, Truss and the present Leader of the Opposition—utter failure. This Government were elected to do things differently, make fairer choices, and most importantly, give Britain its future back. We will fix the foundations, with a long-term plan to grow our economy, protect working people and rebuild our country.