Sam Rushworth MP: speeches

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Speeches

20 Nov 2025 · Bus Services · Hansard source
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I welcome the new powers relating to buses, and the new funding for them that the Government are giving, but the problem is that what this Labour Government are giving, our Reform local authority is taking. It has announced plans to cancel the 35A out of Coundon, and the 104, which connects Canney Hill with Binchester and Newfield, and to double concessionary fares before 9.30 am. Will the Minister join me in condemning that Reform council plan, and in calling on our county council to build up our bus services, not knock them down?
20 Nov 2025 · Bus Services · Hansard source
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20. What steps she is taking to help improve local bus services.
20 Nov 2025 · International Men’s Day · Hansard source
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I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Cannock Chase (Josh Newbury) for leading this debate and for his powerful and courageous speech. We have come a long way in 12 months. Twelve months ago, as the co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on men and boys’ issues, it was my privilege to lead the debate on International Men’s Day. At the time, people came up to me and said I was being whispered about and had better show my feminist credentials, so I am really grateful to those who have showed up today and for all the fabulous contributions from our female colleagues. I feel a bit for the Secretary of State, because one of the calls over the last 12 months has been for a men’s health strategy, and most of our speeches today have focused on a new call about paternity leave. I can only say that he has been a victim of his own success, because he has listened and delivered. I was so proud yesterday evening to join him and fellow Members of Parliament in Downing Street, where the Prime Minister announced the men’s health strategy. I was joined by somebody from my constituency who runs peer support groups for men with mental health struggles. The funding for many of these groups is under threat, and the strategy makes it clear that we need that intervention, so I am really grateful for that. My hon. Friend the Member for Ribble Valley (Maya Ellis) just stole my dad joke, so I will cross that one off the list. I’ve got a new pen that can write under water. It writes other words, too. I hope we can store all of these dad jokes in a “dadabase” somewhere. I would like to take a moment to address the importance of fatherhood, what it means to me and why the call for paid paternity leave is so important. Linking that to mental health, I want to say that in some of the darkest moments in my life—when, like a lot of people, I experienced depression, my self-worth was lacking and I felt that I was failing at everything I tried—it was my children, and picturing their faces and my responsibility as a dad, that pulled me through. Some of the happiest moments in my life were in those early days, holding a newborn child. I remember vividly holding in my arms my youngest daughter, looking into her face and feeling like I had been given this precious gift from heaven. All I knew about her at that time was that she was precious. I could not predict how she would turn out to be. She is now a 12-year-old, and she is going through all the emotions and stages that girls at that age go through. When she tries my patience, I still remember that moment, and I still say to my wife, “She is precious.” We absolutely adore her. My oldest daughter is the one whose birthday party I broke my leg at a few months ago when I was roller-skating with her around the disco to “Mr Brightside”. I remember being up in the night with her when she had colic. Those early weeks are so important, and far too often women are left alone to recover from their surgery while the fathers are missing and not having those moments to bond. A really important call coming from this debate is for fathers and their children to have that precious time together. I met this week with the Minister for School Standards, and we talked about the need for parenting classes. There is no shame in saying that sometimes we need skills to help us develop our children’s values. I am certainly a better dad today than I was 18 years ago when my son was born, so I hope we can take that up, too.
19 Nov 2025 · Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023 · Hansard source
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4. What assessment he has made of the adequacy of the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023.
19 Nov 2025 · Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023 · Hansard source
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I am proud to represent a community with a lot of veterans, many of whom served in Northern Ireland. Who is the Secretary of State engaging with to ensure that the protections for our veterans in the legislation are as strong and effective as possible?
12 Nov 2025 · Taxes · Hansard source
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Obviously, we are in a global economy. We have the fastest growth in the G7; I think that is well known— [ Interruption. ] I am going to make some progress, because it is important to set out why we need to be making investment in our public services and infrastructure. We have only to look at what austerity did to the NHS. The Conservatives inherited an NHS with the highest satisfaction levels and the lowest waiting times ever, and they reversed both of those two things. Look at the state of our town centres. In fact, look at the state of my own constituency of Bishop Auckland compared with 15 years ago. Look at the state of dentistry. In the year before the general election we lost two NHS dental surgeries but, worse than that, children in the existing practices were sent letters telling them they could no longer be provided with an NHS dentistry service. Look at the rising crime in many of our communities, which exactly mirrors the cuts to frontline police. Look at what the Conservatives did to our defence capabilities, which left us the smallest Army since the Napoleonic era.
12 Nov 2025 · Taxes · Hansard source
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I spoke to a business in my constituency that said it understands why the Chancellor made that decision. One of its biggest concerns is the number of days that it loses to sickness, and it understands the importance of improving public services and of having a better educated and healthier workforce.
12 Nov 2025 · Taxes · Hansard source
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The only vote we ever had on the issue was a vote for or against an Opposition day motion. I was always clear that the original threshold that the Government set was far too low. I do not think that millionaires and asset-rich, wealthy pensioners should receive the payment. The policy, as it now stands, and as it will be for pensioners in my community this winter, is as it should be.
12 Nov 2025 · Taxes · Hansard source
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I would also like to thank the Opposition for giving us this opportunity to set out two competing visions for Britain: growth, modernisation, new infrastructure and stronger public services under Labour; or a return to austerity, Government waste and decline under the Tories—of both their shades of blue. The Tories’ 14 years of power is a tale of two halves. First came— [ Interruption. ] They do not like to hear it. First came austerity, which broke our public services, leading to the social problems that have increased cost pressures on Government today, but in their final years they did away with austerity, and we saw astonishing levels of profligate waste, dodgy covid contracts, vanity projects and promises that were made to our constituents but never funded. The hon. Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage) described Liz Truss’s Kwamikaze Budget as “the best Conservative budget since 1986”, but I think most people in this place would agree that we have to live within our means. The Chancellor has inherited a difficult challenge because, on the one hand, she inherited an economy with a debt to GDP ratio of over 99%—the highest debt since the 1960s. On the other hand, she inherited a broken state.
12 Nov 2025 · Taxes · Hansard source
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I was distracted by the chuntering of the hon. Member for Wyre Forest (Mark Garnier) and thought that he may have wanted to make an intervention. I will finish as I started. For me, the choice is really this: do we return to the dark days of austerity, which created the challenges that scourge the community that I represent, or do we lift people out of poverty, give them hope and the public services that they need, and invest in the critical infrastructure that brings our economy and our country into the 21st century? I know where I stand on that. Do the Conservatives know where they stand?
12 Nov 2025 · Taxes · Hansard source
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I have confidence in the Chancellor to produce a Budget that will do the things that my constituents need it to. What my constituents are asking for, and what they voted for at the general election, is change. Look what the Conservatives did to our justice system: prisons are 99.9% full, and we have a court backlog that makes victims wait years for justice. We all know that our surgeries are crammed with these cases. Look at what they did to the asylum system, which has an enormous backlog. Whoever negotiated the contract on asylum hotels must have been the person who did the dodgy covid contracts, given the amount that they wasted. Millions a day were spent on hotels. Look at what the Conservatives did to childhood. Contrary to what was said earlier, child poverty in our country has increased. The Institute for Fiscal Studies said that both relative and absolute poverty have increased. The pattern between 1997-98 and 2022-23 can be described as a U-curve; poverty fell under the 13 years of the last Labour Government, and then relative and absolute child poverty increased. Look at what that means for the communities I represent: 16 Sure Start centres closed; primary school budgets are below their 2010 levels; transport for college students is expensive, and their education maintenance allowance was cut; youth services, boxing gyms and swimming pools have closed; and social infrastructure has disappeared from our communities over the last 15 years. These are real challenges, but the problem is not just with our public services. Because the Conservatives robbed the capital budget to pay for day-to-day spending, they left Britain in the slow lane. Cancelling Labour’s Building Schools for the Future project left our schools and public buildings infested with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete. Cancelling nuclear projects left us reliant on expensive fossil fuels, which led to 11% inflation at one point under the Conservatives. Cancelling High Speed 2 to secure a media headline on the eve of a conference has left us without the critical transport infrastructure we need. All these problems come with a higher social cost. When His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs staff are sacked, we get more tax avoidance and fraud. When people have to wait two years for a routine operation, businesses have a bigger sick bill. When prisons are not built and the police are cut, there is more crime. When civil servants were cut, the previous Government had to spend £3 billion on agency staff.
12 Nov 2025 · Taxes · Hansard source
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I have never supported the two-child cap. The Conservatives introduced a two-tier benefit system that penalised younger families in a way that it does not penalise older families. My genuine view is that this needs to be looked at creatively. I do not know what the Chancellor will do, but my view is that we need to do something about the problem; possibly we need a tapered system. I have a big family, and I know that my fifth child did not cost what my first child did. I have confidence that this Government, like the last Labour Government, will eradicate child poverty. I make the point again that child poverty is not just about benefits; it is about what we do to improve childhood. It is about giving children more access to the creative arts, as the Education Secretary this week announced we would. It is about getting youth hubs back; we are working on that. It is about free breakfast clubs, and the warm home discount being extended to more people.
12 Nov 2025 · Taxes · Hansard source
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That is not a vote before the House right now, but I have been pretty clear in my answer. I never agreed with the cap when the Conservatives introduced it. They did terrible things that put too many children in my community into poverty. The Government are addressing child poverty in multiple ways, including through the welfare system. However, children are not poor just because we do not have good enough benefits. In Bishop Auckland, people do not want better benefits; they want better jobs, a stronger local economy, better infrastructure, better education and a better health service. All that will require public spending. If I may say so— [ Interruption. ] Do you want to make an intervention?
12 Nov 2025 · Taxes · Hansard source
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I will refer to the hon. Gentleman’s comments about my contribution. Perhaps because our constituencies are different, his constituents do not face the same challenges as mine. The sorts of changes I am talking about are things like getting NHS dentists back, reopening Sure Start centres, fixing the problems on our high street, improving our schools and getting the waiting lists for child and adolescent mental health services down. These are the serious things that my constituents are looking to me to deliver. The hon. Gentleman and I know as much as each other does about what will be in the Budget, but I will be looking for a Budget that invests in the public services that we need, and in infrastructure, which has sadly been neglected for far too long.
12 Nov 2025 · Taxes · Hansard source
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What the hon. Gentleman says about healthcare is not quite credible. I appreciate that his researchers will have tried to find a statistic that works for his speech, but it is undeniable that we have delivered significantly more NHS appointments. Waiting times are coming down, and satisfaction levels are going back up again for the first time since the Conservatives broke the NHS.
12 Nov 2025 · Taxes · Hansard source
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I am not sure that I fully understood the hon. Gentleman’s question or what contradiction he sees, but I will go on to talk about why I feel that we need to see major investment in our public services and our infrastructure.
12 Nov 2025 · Taxes · Hansard source
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The point I am making is that spending for spending’s sake is not what any responsible Government should do. We should spend every tax pound well. These examples of waste are not things that we should continue. There was the £100,000 spent on a fake bell that only bonged 10 times during Big Ben’s maintenance. Truss spent £1.8 million on executive travel as Foreign Secretary, not to mention the £500,000 for her private jet for a single trip to Australia in 2022. Then again, she spent £3,000 on a lectern.
12 Nov 2025 · Taxes · Hansard source
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Was the hon. Member a Conservative in 2010, when George Osborne promised not to put up VAT, or in 2019, when Boris Johnson promised not to put up any taxes—both of them made promises that they went on to break because, they said, the circumstances of the country required it—or is he a recent convert to his position?
12 Nov 2025 · Taxes · Hansard source
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That is a fair question, and I will answer it. It is important that we do not return to the days when the Conservatives were in office and vanity projects wasted so much public money, because child poverty is the scourge of our time. We need a national mission to eradicate child poverty. Some of what we need to do will come through, for example, our looking at the two-child cap, but not all of it. I have argued in this place for us to extend free school meals, and I am pleased that the Government have listened to that and are extending them to more children. I have argued in this place for free breakfast clubs, and I am pleased that the Chancellor is listening and funding them. Unlike the Conservatives, she is funding free childcare, because these things matter, too. This is not just about benefits; it is about ensuring that we give children what they need to have a meaningful childhood.
12 Nov 2025 · Taxes · Hansard source
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I voted against a motion saying that the payment should be a universal benefit, because I do not think that it should be universal, and I argued for where I thought it should be. The Conservatives are right about one thing: we do need to control spending. We should not listen to those on the left who think that there is a magic money tree. There is not. Many of my colleagues on the Government Benches and I know how flippin’ difficult it is to get money out of the Chancellor, because she has this difficult job of having to control public spending. Let us talk about that for a minute. The Conservatives failed to invest in our public services, infrastructure and growth when they were in government, but let us also look at what they did on profligate waste. They spent £73,000 in 2019 topping up the Government’s wine cellar; £1.7 million painting Boris Johnson’s prime ministerial planes, including £800,000 on a Union Jack; £500,000 in a single year on chauffeuring ministerial red boxes around Whitehall; £11 million changing the colour of our passports; and £120 million on their festival of Brexit.
12 Nov 2025 · Taxes · Hansard source
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I think that the hon. Gentleman was in the Chamber when I read out a list of the billions of pounds of profligate spending by the Conservative party in government. I am pleased that this Government have stopped that and that he is a convert to our cause.
12 Nov 2025 · Taxes · Hansard source
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Child poverty increased enormously on the Conservatives’ watch. [ Interruption. ] Yes, it did. Where was their political will to deal with it?
11 Nov 2025 · Prisoner Releases in Error · Hansard source
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At the weekend, I was visited in my constituency surgery by one of the many hard-working prison officers from Durham—himself a victim of the chaos in the justice system that the previous Government left behind. Before he left, he wanted me to know just how bad it is and why people are being released early. As we all know, 800 prisoners were released early on the Conservatives’ watch, so bad was the chaos they created. [ Interruption. ] The shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Bexhill and Battle (Dr Mullan), says that it is getting worse. That is because of the chaos they created—it got worse every year on their watch, too. Will the Deputy Prime Minister assure me that, both for the victims of crime and for our hard-working prison officers, he will do what it takes to get to the bottom of this? He has referenced the paper-based system. Without pre-empting Dame Lynne Owens’s review, will we be moving away from that 1980s paper-based system?
4 Nov 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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People in Crook and Tow Law are excited by the £20 million that the Chancellor is investing in our area through the pride in place scheme. After years of decline under the previous Government, which failed to spend most of the levelling-up money that they promised our community, what assurance can she give me that this time it will be local people in the driving seat and that we can spend the funds?
16 Oct 2025 · Youth Services: Deprived Communities · Hansard source
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1. What steps her Department has taken to support the delivery of youth services in deprived communities.

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