Martin Wrigley MP: speeches

Speeches

• 8 Dec 2025 · Digital ID · Hansard source

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  Is the hon. Member proposing that the police should have the right to demand access to the digital ID to prove right to work on the spot? [ Interruption . ]

• 3 Dec 2025 · Venezuela: US Military · Hansard source

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  I thank the Minister for his answers so far. I reiterate the question of the legality of the US bombing ships that are simply accused of carrying drugs. Is the Minister willing to actually say whether he thinks that is legal or not legal in international waters?

• 25 Nov 2025 · English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill · Hansard source

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  In addition to that very welcome general power of competence for the national park authorities, will the Minister consider tabling amendments to ensure that the new unitary authorities surrounding those park authorities do not dominate the membership of the board with a majority?

• 25 Nov 2025 · English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill · Hansard source

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  There is another aspect in which this Bill is lacking. In Devon, where we have a county and district system, the city of Exeter is ruled by a district council, which will be absorbed into the unitary council, leaving Exeter—unlike the rest of Devon—without a town or parish council. The same thing would happen in Torbay, should Torbay unitary be changed and moved to cover a wider area. That would leave Torquay and Paignton without town councils, while Brixham has one. Does my hon. Friend agree that my new clause 63, which would require re-parishing or the introduction of town or parish councils in those areas that lose them in this way, is a good thing that would prevent far-off unitary councils being overwhelmed by the minutiae and issues of an individual city?

• 24 Nov 2025 · Critical Minerals Strategy · Hansard source

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  I welcome the ambition and importance of this new strategy, and I congratulate the Minister on recognising that Devon is the source of more than just cream teas and tourism. The Devon minerals plan has more in it than the critical minerals: my constituency has an application for an extension to dig up Zitherixon ball clay, a substance found in the middle of the town of Kingsteignton and in the war zone in Ukraine. May I have the Minister’s assurance that, although we have a justified urge to get these minerals out, we will not abandon the environmental and residential concerns of our constituents in the areas impacted? Does he also acknowledge that transport is important and that Devon needs the Dawlish rail line to support these minerals?

• 24 Nov 2025 · English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill · Hansard source

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  Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker; it has been a long day. The previous Minister was talking about neighbourhood area committees, and yet I was surprised when I looked at the Bill that there is nothing in there about neighbourhood area committees. They are not mentioned in any way, shape or form. Devon is very big at saying, “We’re going to make these neighbourhood area committees, and it is going to really work for you,” but it is not. This is why I have tabled new clause 71, which sets forth the need and requirement for neighbourhood area committees and to make them a statutory consultee within unitary councils because they currently are not.

• 24 Nov 2025 · English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill · Hansard source

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  I agree that we should not be mandating those details. However, we were promised that these committees would perform that function. I say again that a simple duty to co-operate with towns and councils would actually take the place far better. The other issue in the Bill, again, relates to the larger unitaries not having that localism built in. Should we end up with, say, a single large unitary within Devon, we will end up with Dartmoor national park entirely surrounded by a single unitary council. People might say, “So what?” At the moment, the local authorities surrounding Dartmoor national park appoint 10 people to the authority board, and central Government appoints nine. Consequently, if it is surrounded by a single unitary council, that council will appoint a majority to that board, losing the distinct identity of that agency for managing the national park, with the danger of the unitary’s desires overturning those of the national park with nothing to stop them. Amendments 164 to 167 would address that issue and require attention to the national park governance in the process of creating the new unitaries.

• 24 Nov 2025 · English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill · Hansard source

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  It has been a long afternoon. I thank my Lib Dem colleagues in Committee who bravely stood up for towns and parishes and would like the role of town and parish councils to continue. I refer the House to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests as I am still a sitting district councillor. District councils play an interesting role when we have town and parish councils because they form the connection between the towns and parishes, the district and the county. Those three layers work together, and they pull in a similar direction when it is working well. I could regale the House with the achievements of Dawlish town council, Newton Abbot town council or Teignmouth town council, or of the various parish councils. They have done fantastic things for their communities, but they can only do that when they are part of the process and are able to talk and act with the higher councils as well. What is missing from this Bill is anything like a duty to co-operate between the unitary, the town and the parish councils. Were that in place, there would be a much better conversation. We have no set idea in Devon what the best layout of unitary councils would look like. There are six, or possibly 10, options coming up to the Government for consideration, which is clearly entirely unreasonable. One of the options is a single large unitary replacing the footprint of Devon county council. Something like that would take a localised idea of what was going on in the district councils, for example with five district councillors in Dawlish representing the people in that area, to a far distant control, where there could be two unitary councillors trying to deal with those issues. It would be difficult to persuade residents that that unitary council is working with their best interests at heart. That duty to co-operate is important. We went through all the process, and the former Secretary of State, or Under-Secretary—I am unsure of the best form of address.

• 24 Nov 2025 · English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill · Hansard source

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  No, the park authority looks after the park with the park’s interests at its heart, and it is not tied to any other overriding interest. For example, if the new unitary needs another road, it might think, “The easiest thing is just to go through the edge of the park,” or “We need some new housing. We’ll just put it in the park.” At the moment, the park is responsible for its own planning; it is responsible for its own destiny. That identity is so important, and that was supposed to be maintained in this local devolution Bill. I would have loved to have seen the new unitaries have a statutory duty to provide adequate public toilets, but that one was just too far out the way to even try to get it in. At this point, having taken up enough of your time, Madam Deputy Speaker, and having sat through a lot of interesting conversations—I will leave it at that—I will call it a day.

• 17 Nov 2025 · Asylum Policy · Hansard source

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  I thank the Home Secretary for sharing her experiences earlier and thoroughly condemn the sort of behaviour she described. It is unacceptable in any case. The Secretary of State described rapid decisions on appeals. Does she also believe, as I do, that rapid decision making on the initial application of asylum seekers should be promoted and highlighted? Will she consider putting a timescale target for decision—a matter of weeks, not years—in place in her Department? In her remarks over the weekend on our Ukrainians guests, she described them going home when peace breaks out. May I remind her that peace will not mean safety? Please can she assure the House that a more considered and considerate response may be found? Will she meet me and Ukrainian guests to resolve that issue?

• 12 Nov 2025 · Energy · Hansard source

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  The biggest issue in my inbox is the cost of living and the cost of energy in particular. In the south-west, we are a net contributor to renewable energy, and we could do even more with tidal power investment. Yet our energy bills are higher than the national average. In my Newton Abbot constituency, we have higher fuel poverty than the average, and 23% of households in the district are in off-gas-grid areas. Yet we face electricity bills based on the price of gas. That is because the electricity generation market is set up using so-called marginal cost pricing, which effectively increases the wholesale price of renewables to that of electricity generated by gas because gas power plants are flexible and used to top up the supply. Even though a significant and increasing proportion of the UK’s electricity is generated by sources with low marginal costs such as wind, solar and nuclear power, these generators also receive the higher marginal price set by gas. Under the marginal pricing system, the UK’s electricity market price is set by gas 98% of the time—the highest rate across Europe and well above the EU average of just 40%. All that is under the Government-controlled system of contract to energy generators, to provide a level of certainty in the productivity and supply. But we have to break the tie with gas and marginal cost pricing. The introduction of contracts for difference, used most significantly for offshore wind and introduced by my right hon. Friend the Member for Kingston and Surbiton (Ed Davey) in the Energy Act 2013, is a good step but it still relies on setting a strike price for energy, which is heavily influenced by the price of gas at the time of the deal. In the 12 months to September 2025, renewables accounted for 42% of the UK’s total energy mix, while figures for the second quarter of 2025 indicate that renewables made up a record 54% of electricity generation. The answer for cheaper bills, according to experts, is to intervene in the design of the market to stop the cost of gas plants from setting the price for the whole market, not to increase the reliance on fossil fuels that are choking the planet to death with carbon emissions.

• 5 Nov 2025 · Conflict in Sudan · Hansard source

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  I welcome the Minister’s acknowledgment that the need to stop the horror in Sudan is urgent, but while I hear much talk of continuing actions, nothing, other than an emergency meeting called today, seems to be happening urgently. What steps is he taking to change, to move forward, to try some new things, and to make something happen as a matter of urgency to stop this horrible conflict?

• 4 Nov 2025 · Draft Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure (Security Requirements for Relevant Connectable Products) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2025 · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Murrison. I welcome the move to recognise standards mutually between Japan, Singapore and the UK. It is a clear statement that alignment of specifications and standards can help industry to thrive and is essential in this high-tech world. For many years, I worked in telecoms, where increasing alignment of standards means that we now have a truly global industry with easy global connectivity. Twenty years ago, we saw the folly of having protectionist views and using different standards. In those days, the mobile world was divided, and we could not use mobile phones from the UK in the USA, or vice versa. Clearly, that cannot work in the age of the internet of things, especially considering the increased need for high security standards. Having multiple standards and certifications is wasted effort and cost for everyone concerned. Will the Minister consider further alignment, at scale, of technical standards with the EU, rather than the path we have been following? Although some have equated deviation from agreed standards with commercial advantage, the reality is commercial disaster.

• 4 Nov 2025 · Sudan: Government Support · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for bringing this really important topic. I suggest one additional thing he might feel that he needs to add: a sense of urgency to get this solution in place. Does he agree?

• 29 Oct 2025 · Vehicle Headlight Glare Standards · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Harris. I congratulate the hon. Member for Crawley (Peter Lamb) on securing this important debate. I have worked on this issue for some time, and I am really pleased that the Government are picking it up. I thank the Minister for engaging with it following my written questions in March and my early-day motion in April. I also thank Rod Dennis from the RAC and Denise Voon from the College of Optometrists for meeting with me around six months ago to discuss this in detail. Constituents have contacted me about the dazzling effect of modern car headlights and the disorientation and loss of confidence that causes when driving at night. That is particularly concerning in rural communities, such as those in Newton Abbot, where driving is essential for work, appointments and, as we have heard, social contact. Losing confidence behind the wheel can quickly lead to social isolation, especially among older residents—it is delightful to see such continuity and consistency on this across the House. LED headlights can be up to 10 times brighter than traditional halogen bulbs and that the glare they produce can lead to photostress with recovery times of up to 30 to 60 seconds. That is a long time to be effectively driving blind. Glare will always exist to some extent, but we can manage it by regulating brightness, colour, temperature and headlight height and angle. By working with drivers, manufacturers and medical experts, we can make real improvements. From my own experience as a former non-executive director at the Department for Transport’s Vehicle Certification Agency, I know how crucial type approvals and manufacturing standards are. Let us use that system to ensure new vehicles meet safe and consistent lighting standards. Of course, we must also use the MOT test to ensure that headlights are correctly aligned and comply with the regulations. Finally, the UK has the opportunity to show international leadership on this issue, contributing to the UN taskforce and helping to set a global example in road safety and driver wellbeing. Let us get this sorted, so that headlights help us see the road ahead, and not blind us to it.

• 28 Oct 2025 · Connected and Automated Vehicles · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Vaz. I congratulate the hon. Member for West Bromwich (Sarah Coombes) not only on securing this debate, but on her positive and optimistic vision of the future, which I really like. I think many of us have long had a vision of autonomous vehicles based on science fiction. Reality is not quite there yet, but it is moving fast towards it. We have seen the progress on autonomous cars, and the various pilot sites in the USA—and closer to home, as we have heard. Fully autonomous cars in Newton Abbot are, I suspect, quite some way off. Drivers who have not grown up with our Devon lanes find them hard enough, and we can only dream of having white lines on the edge of the road. In well-defined urban environments, it is quite another matter, largely dependent on the legal and insurance issues that we heard about earlier. We could easily see AVs soon beyond the trial stages that we have today. However, we have some issues in running trials of uncrewed maritime and air connected and autonomous vehicles. I recently met with a retired navy air traffic controller, who told me of his latest work using aerial drones to deliver test samples from Scottish islands to mainland hospital labs, Project CAELUS, which had excellent success. We could use that sort of technology to get samples between our hospitals in Devon, which would be good—it would avoid the summer traffic. However, it took eight months to get the flight path agreed and approved, and it required a special use airspace application for beyond visual line of sight uncrewed air system operations under civil air publication 1616. I ask the Minister, or perhaps his colleagues, to seek speed from the Civil Aviation Authority in reforming CAP1616, including a more proportionate approach to BVLOS airspace, to improve clarity, efficiency and transparency while maintaining safety. Additionally, a couple of weeks ago, as part of the armed forces parliamentary scheme, we visited the Royal Navy in Portsmouth and saw a connected uncrewed boat doing tests in the harbour. It was being controlled by a team on land—essentially, it is a standard 5-metre rigid inflatable boat with a remote skipper. Following it was a crewed Navy boat, which is required by maritime regulations to constantly escort uncrewed 5-metre RIBs. The Navy fleet of the future described in the strategic defence review is highly dependent on the use of uncrewed vessels to supplement and complement the existing Navy ships. We must be able to develop them and test them in a more effective way, as we are doing with cars on land. I urge the Minister, or perhaps his team, to see what exemptions and exceptions may be made. Marine guidance note 705(M) exemptions are limited to boats less than 4.5 metres and at 6 knots or slower. That does not cover what the Navy needs to do. Unless we can find a way to rapidly and safely regulate, and not prevent, tests of remote air and marine craft, we will struggle to get to where we need to be. The Chair of the Ukrainian Parliament, on his recent visit, stated that their drone technology lasted about three months, by which time they had developed a whole new set-up. We need to speed up.

• 27 Oct 2025 · Access to Work Scheme · Hansard source

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  On 20 May, I met the Minister to speak about Access to Work claims that were being denied, changed or reduced, all contrary to the guidelines. The Minister assured me that it was a communications issue, that the guidelines had not changed and that officials were going to fix the problems by speaking to the local jobcentre. The problems were not fixed. Since then, both Dawlish Gardens Trust and the No Limits café in Newton Abbot have ceased to provide Access to Work services because the system just is not working and, they said, every claim was being rejected. That assessment has been mirrored by the Access to Work Collective. Who changed the guidelines, and why? Are they simply being ignored to save money at the cost of vulnerable adults? If the Minister would like more information, I am happy to meet him again.

• 27 Oct 2025 · Access to Work Scheme · Hansard source

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  11. What changes have been made to the Access to Work scheme in this parliamentary Session.

• 21 Oct 2025 · Mandatory Digital ID · Hansard source

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  The Government say that digital ID will eradicate illegal workers in the UK. It will not. Mandatory digital ID will not stop any more unscrupulous employers than does the check for the right to work in the UK, which is already in place. It is a vanity project that will cost the taxpayer billions of pounds and will not achieve the desired outcomes.

• 21 Oct 2025 · Mandatory Digital ID · Hansard source

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  I agree. Many of my local residents are still digitally excluded. Lack of mobile signal and in many places no fast internet access means that digital-only solutions leave too many people out in the cold.

• 21 Oct 2025 · Mandatory Digital ID · Hansard source

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  Will the Minister give way?

• 21 Oct 2025 · Mandatory Digital ID · Hansard source

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  It is not much of a consultation if the Government have already said, very vocally, that they are going to do it. It is really a question of how hard they want to beat people.

• 21 Oct 2025 · Mandatory Digital ID · Hansard source

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  I agree with my hon. Friend’s point. The elderly, the disabled and those on low incomes are most likely to be adversely affected by this policy. The Government published a digital inclusion action plan in February 2025, but I hear from constituents that, seven months on, they have seen little or no improvement. It appears that digital ID will be required not just for accessing employment but as a proof of right to rent, which risks placing additional burdens on people already marginalised in society. Mandatory digital ID also brings a deep unease about the growing relationship between the Government and large tech companies such as Palantir, Apple and Google. As a member of the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, I have raised concerns about those relationships and have yet to receive satisfactory answers. Knowing that the Government are willing for those companies to hold and have access to such sensitive data is worrying. I will continue to push for answers and will oppose mandatory ID cards.

• 21 Oct 2025 · Social Housing: South Cotswolds · Hansard source

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  I thank the Minister for giving way; she is being very generous with her time. The numbers have doubled in my district of Teignbridge; 40% of Teignbridge is within Dartmoor national park, the rest of the area is constrained by the coast, and houses become more and more expensive to deliver as the numbers go up. Because of that expense, fewer and fewer affordable homes will be delivered. The standard method is not working to reduce house prices. Will the Minister reconsider how these numbers are determined, so that the standard method is no longer used to enforce a central number of homes, rather than the number of homes that the district actually needs?

• 21 Oct 2025 · Social Housing: South Cotswolds · Hansard source

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  On housing stock, I am proud to have been the leader of Teignbridge district council—I draw the House’s attention to the fact that I am still a member—which has built council houses for the first time in 30 years. There are a number of adjustments that can be made, including increasing the number of homes from 200 to 500 before needing a housing revenue account, and I had a meeting with the Housing Minister on making that easier. The Minister told me that he was going to announce that and make that happen, but I am not convinced that that has yet happened. Does my hon. Friend agree that that is one of several adjustments the Minister could easily make so that it is easier for councils to build more council houses?