Kevin McKenna MP: speeches

Speeches

• 10 Sept 2026 · Fathers and Positive Male Role Models · Hansard source

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  It is a real pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Hobhouse. Massive congratulations to my hon. Friend the Member for Bishop Auckland (Sam Rushworth) on securing this very timely debate on a topic that lights up the attention of many Members of this House. For me, the discussion about fatherhood and paternity leave has brought recollections—well, not really recollections, because I do not remember the first few weeks of my life, but my father died last year, and his death has put me in a particularly reflective cast of mind. He was so important in getting me through those first few weeks. I was born with a cleft palate, as about 700 children a year are in the United Kingdom. That was a big shock to my father and my mother, and it put additional strain on my parents, because I was unable to swallow and feeding was very difficult. I failed to thrive in the first couple of weeks as a baby. I was losing weight quite rapidly. The medical team was insisting on one particular mode of feeding implement to get me to take food in. My mum and dad knew that it was not working, but they could not get the help they needed. Thankfully, in the end, one of the nurses in the hospital sidled up to my dad and said, “Look, the doctors won’t tell you this, but this old-fashioned device works so much better.” It was just an implement that went on the top of the bottle, and my dad put his feet right to the floor to try to find it somewhere. He went all over London, all the way from Kent to the south-east London border, and eventually wound up at a pharmacist’s in Camden Town that had it in stock. That was a huge amount of support that he had to put in. It took him away from his work. We are talking about 1974; it is not like paternity leave was a thing back then, and the expectations on men were so different. That is just an example of how much so many fathers have to put in to support their families through those first few precious days of a child’s life. That is replicated across the country: dads are doing so much for their children and their partners—their wives and girlfriends and the mothers of their children—and it is something we have to facilitate. Not everyone will have that kind of situation, but every father, mother and parent of a new-born child will face big challenges. Particularly with the first child, it always feels like the biggest challenge you have faced in your life up to that point. That all really matters, because the inspiration and caring that my father showed then, which were reflected through his whole life, gave me the confidence to move into a caring profession as a nurse and to have a take on masculinity that is not so bound by the conventions of society and the manosphere problems we are talking about. I see versions of that all over. In my constituency, there is an inspirational boxing club, the Apex Boxing Academy in Sheerness. Absolutely, it is a boxing club; it is about young people learning how to channel their aggressive impulses into discipline. There are the dads who support it as volunteers, and it has also built in not just practical support around the boxing, but counselling and mental health support for the boys and girls learning to box. The club is really showing how masculinity, fatherhood or just being a man in the world do not have to fit into any preconceived box—whether that is this aggro, toxic masculinity or, indeed, some other form of masculinity that people may not feel so confident buying into—because it is a very complicated world that we live in. All of that is inspirational to me. It is why I strongly support this push for six fully paid weeks of paternity leave for fathers. The Women and Equalities Committee published a report pushing for that last year. I was lucky to go to Spain with the Committee this year to see how the policy is working in Spain. It is brilliant; from talking to people, it is clear that it has been transformational. If we followed the Spanish example in my constituency, 880 dads a year would absolutely take the offer up. That would be an incredible change for people in Sittingbourne and Sheppey. I strongly commend it to the Minister.

• 8 Sept 2026 · Falkland Islands: Sovereignty · Hansard source

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  This summer, along with other Members of this House and the other place, I got to escape the heatwave here and enjoy some blessed relief in the cold weather of the Falklands, where we enjoyed the incredibly warm welcome of the Falkland Islanders. Our troops and servicepeople down there are doing incredible work and are resolute in their defence of the Falkland Islands. It was clear to me how strongly the Falkland Islanders feel that they are British, and that matches the feeling of my constituents. Can the Minister assure me that she is having conversations with the MOD, our forces and the Falklands Islands Government, to ensure that we have the right level of defence and deterrence to face this new and escalating nonsense rhetoric from Argentina?

• 8 Sept 2026 · Online Safety · Hansard source

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  I strongly welcome the statement from the Secretary of State. It is long overdue and builds on great work by her predecessors. Unfortunately, we do not have full sovereign capability in developing our own tech in this country, and we are vulnerable to politics in other countries. Will the Secretary of State tell me what she is doing to work with people across Government to ensure that if there is pushback against these changes, particularly in the United States, and challenges from the tech companies, Britain will get what it wants—not what some people in certain other countries want?

• 7 Sept 2026 · Local Government Reorganisation · Hansard source

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  I very much welcome what the Secretary of State has said from the Dispatch Box today for two reasons. First, there is no question but that the two-tier system is very bad for people in Sittingbourne and Sheppey and across Kent, so I welcome her commitment to press ahead with local government reorganisation. Secondly, at the same time, the geographies announced by her predecessor just before the summer recess were terrible for the people of Sittingbourne and Sheppey. How can local councillors, local residents, businesses, other organisations locally and I feed into this review, which I am grateful will be happening?

• 7 Sept 2026 · Dover and Portsmouth: Protests · Hansard source

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  I commend the Minister for managing to handle two really difficult challenges that are facing the country at the moment. First, the small boats crossings are obviously very concerning to people in Sittingbourne and Sheppey, as they are to many people in Kent. It has not escaped my notice that the protest in Dover at the weekend happened at a time when the boat crossings are falling. The second challenge is the increasing far-right activity. We have had uniformed thugs on our streets who have been organising relentlessly behind the scenes and publicly on Facebook, and we have to come down hard on it. I would like to ask the Minister two things. First, we have seen this before—this is not the first time that the country and other countries have faced this. In the 1930s we banned uniformed political parties and uniformed political activists. Obviously we now wear slightly different clothing from what was worn back then, so has the Minister looked at how we can update the law to address these thugs and make sure that it is fit for purpose in the modern world? Secondly, the local independent news outlet Kent Current reports that these thugs were mustering in nearby villages the night before the incident in Dover. Local people picked this up and had been reporting it, but that seems to have been missed. Can the Minister look at that and make sure that intelligence from concerned people on the ground in Kent is also factored in?

• 16 Jul 2026 · Gibraltar: UK-EU Treaty · Hansard source

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  I congratulate the Minister and his counterparts in the Gibraltarian Government on getting this treaty over the line. Along with many Members across this House, I went on a visit to Gibraltar a few weeks ago, as part of the armed forces parliamentary scheme. It was incredible to see our British forces in Gibraltar and to see how many of them are actually Gibraltarians, and are not just from the mainland United Kingdom. I was really impressed by the Chief Minister and all his team; they were really looking forward to this moment. They are a very agile Government. We could learn some lessons from them—I suppose the population of Gibraltar being only the same size as the population of the Isle of Sheppey in my constituency probably helps slightly! Can the Minister confirm that there will be no diminishment in or deterioration of the capability and operational abilities of our forces and our base in Gibraltar? Are there things that this treaty enables us to do that will enhance our military capacity in Gibraltar?

• 16 Jul 2026 · Local Government Reorganisation · Hansard source

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  I am a strong proponent of unitaries, given that the root-cause of many of the problems in my constituency is the fact that we have districts and the county council. There is no perfect solution for anywhere, and everywhere is special, but Kent has a lot of elements that are particularly special. We have three coasts, links to the continent and the rest of the country and, in my constituency, two industrial towns that are completely outwith the rest of the county’s economy. There are challenges around the decision that was made, particularly where transport links and NHS boundaries do not line up. Also, because the constituency has been separated from the rest of the Thames estuary, we are missing out on huge economic potential. Will the Secretary of State outline what we will do to accelerate devolution powers to Kent and my constituency—particularly to ensure that we are creative so that we do not just follow the medieval boundaries but maybe bring in some emergency development corporations so that we can bridge the gap?