Matthew Patrick MP: speeches

Speeches

• 18 Nov 2025 · Northern Ireland Troubles Bill · Hansard source

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  It is a real pleasure to close this Second Reading debate for the Government, and I thank all right hon. and hon. Members who have contributed. I wish to declare an interest. Members should be aware of my declaration in the “List of Ministers’ Interests”, where I have flagged that two family members work for the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery. Today’s debate has been powerful to listen to, and many right hon. and hon. Members have raised important points and asked important questions. In the time available, I will try to address as many of those points as I can, and I will write to Members on any specific points that I am unable to address in time. I will start my remarks with enormous thanks to the veterans who served us in Operation Banner, serving in intolerable conditions, and standing in harm’s way to protect life, as other Members have powerfully described. Quite simply, our armed forces are the best of us. I wish to thank those who served in the police—a job of enormous difficulty that brave men and women set out to do with distinction. We owe a particular duty of care to those who served our nation, and there will never be equivalence between our armed forces and police service, and the terrorists who set out to cause death and destruction. As the Secretary of State has set out, this Bill is about helping people to get answers. I cannot begin to understand the pain of not knowing what happened to a loved one who was killed or disappeared. I can only imagine that the need for an answer, to know what really happened, never fades.

• 18 Nov 2025 · Northern Ireland Troubles Bill · Hansard source

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  I will not take interventions, as I am very short of time. The right hon. Member for Tonbridge (Tom Tugendhat) said that this legislation will be “reopening wounds”, but I believe they never closed. I have sat with families who simply want to know what happened to their loved one. More than 3,500 people were killed during the troubles. The Good Friday agreement recognised that it was essential to address and acknowledge the suffering of victims and survivors, and it is our collective duty to deliver on that remaining Good Friday agreement commitment. If through this process, those relatives can be supported to get answers, then we will have met that duty. There are many things that the last Labour Government achieved of which I am proud. As the hon. Member for Runcorn and Helsby (Sarah Pochin) noted, the Good Friday agreement rightly sits among their very finest achievements. I recently had a conversation with a veteran in my constituency who told me how important it is to deal in facts, so let us set some of those out. It is a long-standing principle in this country that decisions to prosecute are independent. Judicial independence has served our country very well for over 300 years. That is why when people read about recent cases, such as the trial of Soldier F, it is not relevant that the decision to prosecute was taken while the Conservative Government were in power, because the decision was independent. Equally, it is not relevant that soldier F was acquitted under a Labour Government, because that decision too is independent. Since 2012 there have been 25 prosecutions relating to the troubles. Of those, the majority were for republican terrorists. There are nine live prosecutions relating to the troubles, and one ongoing prosecution relates to the conduct of the British Army. Again, the decision to prosecute was taken under the Conservative Government —under, not by, because they are rightly independent decisions. I urge the House to reject the reasoned amendment. Among other things, the amendment suggests that removing conditional immunity will lead to veterans being dragged before the courts. That is not true. The Conservatives’ failed immunity scheme, which would also have applied to IRA terrorists, was never commenced. All it did was offer a false promise that could never be delivered. Because this amendment is based on such a fundamental misunderstanding about the Bill and the way in which our prosecution system works, I urge the House to reject it. Veterans were raised by a number of hon. Members. The Government’s commitment to honour Operation Banner veterans is unshakeable. We must not forget that over 1,000 armed forces families lost loved ones during the troubles, and that over 200 investigations into the deaths of armed forces personnel and veterans were shut down by the last Government’s failed legacy Act. In search for answers, those families, as much as any families, deserve a fair, proportionate and transparent system. They would not want for the terrorists who took the lives of brave soldiers to have any form of immunity. Members talked about our protections. I reiterate that our Bill puts in place strong and important protections that were not included in the failed Tory legacy Act. I thank the Minister for the Armed Forces, my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham Selly Oak (Al Carns), who is himself a veteran of Northern Ireland, for his close work and attention to put in place these important protections. We have published our fact sheet that details where the protections sit throughout the Bill, so I will not rehearse them all now, given the time I have available. The hon. Member for Brentwood and Ongar (Alex Burghart) asked how we can continue with the remedial order. The Government abandoned their appeal and therefore have the ability to continue with the order. For those, including the right hon. Member for Tonbridge, who talked about morale, I am proud of the protections in the Bill. I am also proud more broadly that this Government have given an important pay rise to our armed forces, and I believe that morale was harmed by the actions of the last Government.

• 18 Nov 2025 · Northern Ireland Troubles Bill · Hansard source

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  I do not have time. I now turn to the issue of inquests, which has been raised by hon. Members. As the Government have long committed to, clause 84 makes it clear that a small number of inquests that have been halted by the legacy Act will be able to proceed. Inquests that had not commenced hearings before the legacy Act will be subject to an assessment by the Solicitor General, based on statutory criteria, to determine whether they will be most effectively progressed in the Legacy Commission or in the coronial system. This position reflects the significant role that a reformed Legacy Commission can play in achieving outcomes for families, particularly given its far greater capacity to handle sensitive information when compared with an inquest.

• 18 Nov 2025 · Northern Ireland Troubles Bill · Hansard source

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  As I have stated, I have a very short amount of time, and I want to address as many of the points that have been made as I am able. A number of Members, including the hon. Member for Brentwood and Ongar and the right hon. Member for Belfast East, raised the commitments made by the Irish Government and the role that they will play. The clear commitment of the Irish Government to provide the fullest possible co-operation with the Legacy Commission will help provide many more families with an opportunity to obtain information they have long sought. This partnership represents two Governments coming together, each making sovereign commitments and promising to carry them out in their own jurisdictions. I believe that the Irish Government will honour the promises they have made—the agreement has been signed in good faith, and we are each committed to do what we promised to do independently in our Parliaments. In the interests of time, I will conclude my remarks. I am grateful to all right hon. and hon. Members who have contributed to this debate—a debate that I know we will continue as the Bill progresses. As we do, I know that we will hold at the forefront of our minds who this is all for: for victims and their families right across the United Kingdom; for all those who bravely served us in intolerable conditions; and for Northern Ireland and its future. I commend the Bill to the House. Question put, That the amendment be made.

• 15 Oct 2025 · Defence Industrial Strategy · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Gentleman for his warm words. He is right that we need to work across Northern Ireland to ensure that the life-changing investment he mentions is felt throughout, and I will make sure that happens.

• 15 Oct 2025 · Defence Industrial Strategy · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is right to highlight the rich expertise in Northern Ireland’s defence sector, which brings benefits right across the UK, including to Stevenage. I assure him that the Secretary of State and I will work across Government and with the Executive to ensure a joined-up approach that benefits Northern Ireland.

• 15 Oct 2025 · Defence Industrial Strategy · Hansard source

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  In this role, I am committed to supporting all people across Northern Ireland. From its businesses to its community groups, there is much to champion. I will do all that I can to build on the excellent work of my predecessor, my hon. Friend the Member for Putney (Fleur Anderson). The defence industrial strategy is great news for Northern Ireland. We are committed to economic growth that people can feel in their pocket, and the £250 million allocated to five defence growth deals, including one in Northern Ireland, will see its booming defence sector thrive.

• 15 Oct 2025 · Defence Industrial Strategy · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is right. I warmly welcome this investment and I know he is rightly proud of the defence expertise in his constituency. Backed by this Labour Government increasing defence spending to 2.5%, Harland & Wolff is building the next generation of support ships for our Royal Navy. We are safeguarding jobs, skills and our future security.

• 15 Oct 2025 · Defence Industrial Strategy · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Gentleman for his warm words. I will meet Executive Ministers in Northern Ireland next week to discuss this and other matters. I will ensure that we remove any blockages that we can, and that we do so by working together.

• 21 Jul 2025 · Middle East · Hansard source

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  Last week I heard from Keith and Aviva Siegel, who had been held hostage by Hamas. It was a powerful reminder that until all hostages are released, no hostage is released. That is true for Avinatan Or and his family and Gali and Ziv Berman and their family—in fact, it is the families of hostages who are some of the loudest voices calling for an end to this war. Will the Secretary of State outline what steps he is taking to ensure that the next ceasefire is permanent and will see hostages get out of Gaza and aid get in?

• 3 Jul 2025 · NHS 10-Year Plan · Hansard source

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  I thank the Secretary of State, because with this NHS plan, ambition is back. That ambition matters to my constituents, who for too many years have seen a health service in decline. I brought many of those constituents to a community meeting so that their experience and expertise could be shared and fed straight into this plan. Could the Secretary of State set out how this plan gives power to patients and puts them back in the driving seat?

• 1 Jul 2025 · Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill · Hansard source

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  At the heart of any progressive society is a simple test: how do we support people when they are most in need? The test is simple, but the answer is anything but, because need is not uniform. The duty of the Government is to create a safety net—one that is wide enough to break people’s fall, but not so wide that they can never escape it. We have a consensus in this House that the system is failing, and people are right to ask how we can fix it, but before we answer that, it is important to know where we are now and how we got here. Where are we now? We should look at the situation when Labour came into power less than a year ago: NHS waiting lists were at record highs; 3 million people were shut out of work through ill health; universal credit allowance was at a 40-year low; young people were written off, with one in eight not in work, education or training; and we had a mental health crisis, with over 1 million people in desperate need of support. The Conservative party is responsible for that situation, and we are responsible for fixing it. The Conservatives failed with their welfare reforms. For those who are disabled and want to work, the status quo puts up too many barriers. A disability employment gap of 28% is far too high, and behind that statistic are individuals who are being failed by the system—people who, with some adjustments, could get all the benefits that good work brings, but who are denied that opportunity. It is a dead-end system that counts people out more than it helps them up. As more people come into the system, they are locked into the same damaging status quo. Every day, we see 1,000 new people claiming PIP. As a constituent in Wirral West said to me last week, many on PIP are in work. She is right, and it is important to point that out, but it is also the case that over 80% of people on PIP are not in work. Some of those people will never be able to work—they have an irreversible health condition that would not allow it—and they have been reassessed endlessly, which is unnecessary and cruel. But others are telling this Government that they want to work, and we have a duty to give them equal choices and equal chances, which they have been denied for far too long. Doing nothing is not an option. We have been doing that since 2019 and, at the current rate, the number of PIP claimants will more than double by the end of the decade, from 2 million to more than 4 million. How did we get here? The statistics I have mentioned are not just data points; they tell a wider story about the path of decline that the Tories took our country down. It is a story familiar to many of us: local councils were cut to the bone, austerity left public services failing people across the board, health and social care services were stripped out, and we had a cost of living crisis that pushed families to breaking point. That is just the backdrop. The Conservatives presided over multiple failed welfare changes and scrapped the Work and Health programme, which helped unlock support to get people into work. They shut down Work Choice, thereby closing avenues to help disabled people to get on at work, and they left Access to Work in backlog chaos, meaning that many people have missed out on vital funds. The safety net was torn to shreds by neglect, and the system was stacked against those it should empower. Given that legacy, is it any wonder that people worry when they hear about reforms? I do not blame them, but we need to fix the situation. We need deep and lasting change for our country, with direct support alongside wider reforms, and that is the journey we started when people voted us into government last year. We are delivering an extra £29 billion each year for our NHS to bring down waiting times, with a 10-year plan on the way. We will provide mental health services in every school, breakfast clubs and free school lunches so that we can help future generations. Employers are part of the solution too, and our Employment Rights Bill will give people confidence that they will be supported into good work. We will build more and better-quality homes, and nearly 3 million more households will qualify for the warm home discount next year. However, those steps alone will not secure our safety net. We cannot allow misinformation to enter this debate. That would serve only to scare those who are most in need, so let us be clear: these reforms have never been about taking support away from those who are most in need. In fact, those people will never again suffer the indignity and anxiety of needless reassessments. The Government are taking action to support disabled people with targeted help, including by increasing the disabled facilities grant by £172 million.

• 1 Jul 2025 · Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is totally right, and the SNP record is worse. One in eight young people are not in employment, education or training here, but in Scotland the figure is one in six, and the SNP should be ashamed of its record for the Scottish people. The Bill will introduce a right to try, so that people who receive support but have a job offer know they can take that opportunity with both hands and with no fear, because if for whatever reason it does not work out, the same support will be there for them. This removes an important barrier for many. We are also increasing the standard rate of universal credit and committing £1 billion in pathways to work funding. We aim to restore dignity to a system that has become a burden to those it should serve. This is a moment to rebuild trust in the safety net, to protect those who cannot work and empower those who can, and to restore dignity to everyone.

• 30 Jun 2025 · Welfare Reform · Hansard source

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  The Conservative party presided over multiple reforms of welfare, and the results were a disaster. Perhaps cruellest of all was the fact that adults who had an irreversible health condition, and who could never work, were forced to go through reassessment after reassessment, and to jump through hoops. Can my right hon. Friend please confirm that, with these Labour reforms, that cruel legacy will be ended once and for all?

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

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  I will not take interventions. The hon. Member for Twickenham (Munira Wilson) tabled an important amendment about palliative care that has opened a door to an important conversation, and I thank her for that. If our NHS is not able to deliver the highest quality of care at the end of a person’s life now, would assisted dying improve that, or could it end up creating a one-sided choice? I know that hon. Members will be concerned that there will never be a good time for the NHS to introduce this—that it will never quite be ready for assisted dying. I hear that, but I sincerely do not believe that it is ready to bear the weight of the system we are voting on today. I am not settled on the issue of coercion either. We have heard from experts across the House; my hon. Friend the Member for Bexleyheath and Crayford (Daniel Francis) and the hon. Member for Richmond Park (Sarah Olney) have spoken about mental health issues and learning disabilities, and my hon. Friend the Member for Lowestoft (Jess Asato) talked about issues of domestic abuse and how they could intersect with this. My hon. Friend the Member for Vauxhall and Camberwell Green (Florence Eshalomi), my right hon. Friend the Member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington (Ms Abbott) and the right hon. Member for Braintree (Sir James Cleverly) spoke about how ethnic minority communities could be impacted by the Bill, and about the trust in the health system and the dynamics that could lead to someone taking their life. I worry about the quiet, imperceptible and unspoken coercion that could emerge if we go ahead with this system. I worry about vulnerable people who would feel a duty to die, and I am not satisfied that the Bill has enough safeguards against that. For that reason, I am voting against the Bill, and I call on others to do the same. I say to those watching at home that I hope they share my confidence that whichever Lobby colleagues walk through today, they have reached their decision with great care and consideration. To weigh up the consequences—good and bad—of this vote is the burden of duty that such a Bill brings. I share that burden with others today.

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

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  Today we are faced with a defining choice. We have debated assisted dying for months, and in some ways we could never have enough time for this. I wish there had been more opportunity to debate the amendments, but I can also say, based on my time in these debates, that hon. Members have approached these issues with great dignity and care. My hon. Friend the Member for Spen Valley (Kim Leadbeater), who is a friend of mine and who I am very proud of, has led this debate with characteristic humanity, decency and honour. I am sure all of us have found that whenever we have approached her with our concerns or those of others, she has had a willing ear and an open heart. I pay tribute to her. Opponents of the Bill have also worked tirelessly to understand and voice people’s concerns, and like my hon. Friend the Member for Spen Valley, they brought that expertise so that all voices could be heard today. My office has been approached more than 1,000 times by people in Wirral West regarding this issue, and that has shown that people are guided by all faiths and none. As others have said, that deserves great respect. I think back to a meeting I held to discuss this matter in Melrose Hall in Hoylake with more than 50 constituents. With candour and respect, people shared their personal stories. They disagreed wholeheartedly, but they did so with compassion and dignity. They are the best of us. Standing here, I recognise that however today ends up, we will let people down—whether the Bill passes and people who would otherwise not choose to have an assisted death go through with one, or whether the Bill falls and people who I believe should have the choice to end their illness on their own terms are denied that opportunity. I am conscious of that, yet the vote before us is not on the harrowing stories we have heard but on a system, and it is that system that I worry about, as it would have implications that go beyond individual cases. The consequences of getting this wrong are severe, and the risks of getting it wrong with an NHS still in recovery are too high.

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

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  For many people in Wirral West, their church is a hub where they can practise their faith and put their values into action. That was evident to me at a recent meeting with representatives of St Luke’s church in Hoylake, West Kirby Methodist church, Wirral’s Methodist churches, West Kirby United Reformed church and Saints Catherine and Martina Roman Catholic church. Can the Leader of the House set out when we might have a debate to celebrate the work of churches across our communities?

• 16 Jun 2025 · Iran-Israel Conflict · Hansard source

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  When the UN’s nuclear watchdog says that Iran is closing in on the ability to develop up to nine nuclear weapons, I worry. Does the Foreign Secretary agree that it is in our national interests that Iran never acquires those nuclear weapons?

• 11 Jun 2025 · Spending Review 2025 · Hansard source

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  I wonder whether the Chancellor can help me. I want to write a letter to my constituents, and I do not know which story I should lead with—whether it is the rapid investment in our NHS to get more doctors’ appointments, the money for our police to get more police on the streets, the transport investment to build new train stations, or the money to give hungry children in my constituency free school meals. Could she help me out? I only have one page. What should I start with?

• 9 Jun 2025 · Support for High Streets · Hansard source

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  Heswall in my Wirral West constituency is a brilliant place to live and deserves a thriving high street, but unfortunately for too many years now beloved shops have closed and decline has felt inevitable. The people of Heswall deserve better. I appreciate the Minister’s answer, but will he go further in explaining exactly how my constituents can take back control of their high street, so that it can thrive once again and deliver growth and opportunities for them?

• 9 Jun 2025 · Support for High Streets · Hansard source

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  4. What steps she is taking to support high streets.

• 5 Jun 2025 · Infected Blood Compensation Scheme · Hansard source

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  14. What recent progress he has made on establishing an infected blood compensation scheme.

• 5 Jun 2025 · Infected Blood Compensation Scheme · Hansard source

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  In Wirral West, my constituent became a victim of this scandal over 50 years ago when she was a child, and it has affected her life ever since. In her own words, victims have gone through horrible levels of distress, and now they wait for compensation. That wait is not just for financial security; it is for closure. Could the Minister please give me and my constituent assurances that the speed at which the payments will be made will be ramped up?

• 3 Jun 2025 · Football Governance Bill [ Lords ] (First sitting) · Hansard source

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  I refer the Committee to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests.

• 20 May 2025 · UK-EU Summit · Hansard source

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  The energy industry is central to our mission for growth, but it is also important to our tackling of the generational challenge that is climate change. This is a sentiment felt in my constituency, which is proud to be a regional hub of carbon capture and hydrogen storage. Will the Prime Minister explain how the deal supports the energy industry so that we can pursue the growth, bring down energy bills and tackle climate change?