Tony Vaughan MP: speeches

Speeches

• 14 Jan 2025 · UK-China Economic and Financial Dialogue · Hansard source

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  I congratulate the Chancellor on unlocking £1 billion of value for the UK economy that would not have been unlocked if she had not gone to China. However, does she agree that the Government’s much-needed decision to thaw UK-China relations is now reaping dividends while also allowing us to press China on difficult issues, including human rights and labour standards?

• 27 Nov 2024 · Violence against Women and Girls · Hansard source

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  It is a privilege to speak under your chairship, Sir Mark. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Poplar and Limehouse (Apsana Begum) on securing this incredibly important debate. I am ashamed that, on average, one woman is killed by an abusive male partner or ex-partner every five days in England and Wales. This violence has to stop and we must all play our part—especially men. I want to think about this issue in relation to the attitudes of young men, as my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes Central (Emily Darlington) has just done. I am the father of two boys and I am deeply concerned by the social media influencers and YouTubers who promote misogynistic attitudes and behaviours towards women. Algorithms push this vile material on to impressionable young minds and, as my hon. Friend just said, notions of consent to sex have been entirely distorted. Obviously, we need to understand better the causes of misogyny but, in my view, the concept of masculinity needs to be rescued from the toxic clutches of self-interested and corrupt influencers such as Andrew Tate. The popular idea of masculinity must include the qualities of compassion, empathy, solidarity and co-operation. All too often there is a chain reaction where isolated young men become manipulated by influencers. I also want to raise the question of women who lack the right kind of immigration status, or who do not have any status. The system currently makes it much harder for those women to leave an abusive situation, because the policy, the migrant victims of domestic abuse concession, excludes many domestic violence survivors from its protection based on immigration status. I pay tribute to the Southall Black Sisters, who have tirelessly campaigned on this issue and with whom I have worked on it. I thank the Minister for her many years of work on this issue and ask her what the Government intend to do to level the playing field for that group of women, as well as what steps the Government are taking to educate young men about the causes and consequences of misogyny and to call it out.

• 25 Nov 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T3. The National Audit Office recently raised serious concerns about the previous Government’s decision to buy poor-quality, expensive and contaminated asylum accommodation at Northeye. What steps is the Department taking to ensure that asylum accommodation is fit for purpose and represents value for money?

• 21 Nov 2024 · G20 and COP29 Summits · Hansard source

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  May I associate myself with the Prime Minister’s remarks about the late Lord Prescott? Now that the Prime Minister has met the Chinese President, does he believe that we are in a better position to advance UK interests, and to challenge China on important issues such as human rights, than we were in the last six years, in which no UK Prime Minister could even have those conversations, because they did not go to China?

• 20 Nov 2024 · Frontier AI Safety · Hansard source

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  6. If he will take steps to support the creation of a global network of scientific research on frontier artificial intelligence safety.

• 20 Nov 2024 · Frontier AI Safety · Hansard source

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  The UK is a global leader in AI development, which brings many opportunities, but we know that the risks associated with AI can be managed only by global co-operation. What steps is the Department taking to ensure that the UK works with other main leaders in AI development, including the US and China, to ensure that the most advanced frontier AI models are safe for global consumers?

• 19 Nov 2024 · Occupied Palestinian Territories: Humanitarian Situation · Hansard source

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  It is always a privilege to serve under your chairship, Sir Roger. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow West (Patricia Ferguson) for securing this timely debate. The attack on innocent Israelis on 7 October was horrific, and the hostages who were taken must be released unconditionally. Israel unquestionably has the right to defend itself against such an atrocity. However, more than a year on, the situation in Gaza is grave. I cannot add to the statistics and harrowing testimonies described by other hon. Members. It is indeed an “unrelenting dystopian horror”, as my hon. Friend the Member for Coatbridge and Bellshill (Frank McNally) said. I want to make a few remarks about the International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion of July this year, which the hon. Member for Dewsbury and Batley (Iqbal Mohamed) described. As I understand it, the UK Government are formulating their response. One important element of the ICJ’s advisory opinion was the finding, in paragraph 279, that “all the States parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention have the obligation, while respecting the Charter of the United Nations and international law, to ensure compliance by Israel with international humanitarian law as embodied in that Convention.” The Court was therefore clear that ensuring that international humanitarian law is respected by Israel is a legal requirement on parties to the fourth Geneva convention, which include the UK. As I understand it, the UK’s position is that it has no obligation to ensure respect by other states in conflicts to which the UK is not a party. In the light of the ICJ advisory opinion and in the context of the Israel-Palestine conflict, that notion is not, or is no longer, a legally sustainable position in international law, nor is it right more broadly. There are many reasons why that ought already to have been clear, but the ICJ advisory opinion puts the issue beyond reasonable dispute. The UK should consider that we have an obligation to ensure compliance by Israel with international law. As a lawyer, I respectfully suggest that is the correct interpretation of the international rules and that, taking this approach, the UK would have to demand more of Israel to give effect to the advisory opinion, specifically with regard to the timing and details of Israel’s withdrawal from the Occupied Palestinian Territories, as well as in relation to recognition by the UK of a Palestinian state. I therefore urge the UK Government to publish their response to the ICJ’s advisory opinion as soon as possible, and ask the Minister to confirm the timing for that. I also urge them to adopt the internationally accepted approach to their obligations, which I have outlined, if they have not already done so.

• 18 Nov 2024 · Indefinite Leave to Remain: Healthcare Workers · Hansard source

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  The debate has underlined that the UK desperately needs care workers from abroad. As I said earlier, about 33% of our care workers come from abroad, yet they are leaving in their thousands, as other hon. Members have pointed out. They are also being exploited because the system does not currently enforce labour rights. All the while, there is a recruitment crisis in health and social care. I would like to declare an interest: my mother worked as a care worker for decades before she retired two years ago. She came from the Philippines in the 1970s and worked as a carer in the NHS and in nursing homes, and I know from her experiences that the work was hard. I also know that that is not the chosen career for many younger people, and I thank and congratulate everybody who works in the care sector to provide that vital public service. I completely agree with other Members about the need to encourage apprenticeships, improve conditions and not treat immigration as an alternative to training. The reality at the moment is that we need the 33% of care workers who come from abroad, and a lot of work needs to be done to make sure that the care profession is seen as attractive to those not already working in it. I welcome the acknowledgment from the Government of the need to prioritise tackling exploitation. I also welcome the actions to enforce labour standards that the Minister outlined, but I wonder whether there is another way of doing that. Ongoing contact between the Home Office and employers would ensure that employer non-compliance was addressed before breaches become so serious that revoking the sponsor licence is the only option. It would avoid other employees being left out in the cold and losing their jobs. I would hope that the fair work agency will provide the powers, resourcing and enforcement officers to ensure that there is ongoing contact, so that the extreme step of revoking sponsor licences is not the only tool in the box. I note the point made by the Opposition spokesman, the hon. Member for Rutland and Stamford (Alicia Kearns), about the 20-hour period. My understanding is that if someone is in a situation of exploitation and they lose their job, either by termination or resignation, the immigration rules are clear that they are not allowed to work at all in the 20-hour period. That barrier to leaving an exploitative situation is very real. I finish by thanking everyone for their contributions to the debate. I also give particular thanks to Thomas for putting himself out there and starting this petition. The number of signatories shows that this is an issue of concern for many people, and I hope this debate has given Thomas some reassurance that our system has considered it carefully. I encourage everyone to continue to use the petitions system, which is a great way of participating in our democracy. Question put and agreed to. Resolved, That this House has considered e-petition 631412 relating to indefinite leave to remain for healthcare workers.

• 18 Nov 2024 · Indefinite Leave to Remain: Healthcare Workers · Hansard source

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  I beg to move, That this House has considered e-petition 631412 relating to indefinite leave to remain for healthcare workers. It is always a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Edward. The petition we are debating today was created by Thomas Thulani Mthetho, and this is what it says: “Healthcare workers are meant to have lived in the UK for at least five years before they can apply for indefinite leave to remain. With the work they do and the demand for their skills worldwide, they deserve to get residency status much quicker. Most healthcare workers are working under extreme pressure in the UK. Many countries offer immediate residency status for occupations that are in high demand or extremely short. The UK has been a destination for most foreign nurses and doctors, and it is time for the Government to show they care and also appreciate the workers by making some of the restrictions in terms of residency more favourable. This could also reduce the number of care workers leaving the country for other countries that offer better conditions.” The petition has attracted 52,962 signatures nationally. Before the election, the Petitions Committee decided that Thomas’s petition would be debated, which has led to the debate taking place today. I am leading the debate as a member of the new Petitions Committee. Before I get into the issues raised by Thomas’s petition, I want to tell Members a little bit about his experiences and what led him to make the petition. I have changed a few aspects of his story. Thomas is a qualified nurse. While living in South Africa, Thomas approached a recruitment agency seeking healthcare staff in the UK. He had to sit English exams and, if he passed them, he would be able to enter the UK to work in the private healthcare sector. The contract was for three years. If he left before that, he would have to pay back the exam fees and the flight to the UK, which he understood would have been about £1,500. Thomas passed his exams and came to the UK on the health and care worker visa to work in a private nursing home. He worked mainly as a carer, and his contractual hours were 38 hours a week on minimum wage. He was sending money back to his family in South Africa, who depended on that money. After starting work, he found that his employer required him to work 20 hours over his contractual hours, and regularly worked 60 hours a week. He would work five 12-hour shifts, five days in a row. He asked his employer if he could work less, but it refused. He approached the Royal College of Nursing, which told him that he had the right to refuse to do extra hours, but he felt that he was in an impossible situation. If he insisted that he do fewer hours, he was jeopardising his job, and so he did not feel able to seek legal advice about his situation. After 11 months, he decided to leave, but his employer told him that he could not, and that if he did, he would be reported to the Nursing and Midwifery Council. It also said that he would have to pay £6,000, even though according to the original agreement, it was only £1,500 if he left before three years. He said he would not pay, it said it did not care, and that he would pay anyway. When he eventually left, it managed to deduct the £6,000 from his new wage packet. Thomas knows of scores of people who have had an experience like his. All of them accepted breaches of their contract and employment rights for fear of jeopardising their job. Some had allegations fabricated against them by their employer to justify an abusive dismissal when they refused to accept breaches of their rights. Thomas believes that employers all over the country are abusing the Home Office system for sponsoring workers and are subjecting their employees to modern slavery, and doing so with impunity. Thomas’s petition is about the qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain. He believes that if a qualifying period for healthcare workers was two years instead of five, the window in which the employee is locked in with their employer, and in which the potential for abuse is the highest, would be reduced. Thomas’s solution to the problem of which he has been the victim deserves careful thought, and I ask the Government first to review the qualifying period for those in his position. Thomas’s awful experiences show that there are gaping holes in the enforcement of employment rights standards in this country, especially in sectors such as healthcare. In a report published this month, the Work Rights Centre found that migrants working in adult social care, who constitute as much as 32% of care workers in the UK, face unsustainable working hours, low levels of pay and persistent breaches of employment rights. They fear that if they report their employers to the authorities, they risk having their visa curtailed, as some employers use the threat of curtailment to silence grievances. The report also found that non-compliance by visa sponsors—employers—is widespread. The most common employment rights breach is unfair dismissal, followed by unauthorised deduction from wages and discrimination, so it is clear that proper enforcement of labour standards is needed urgently. I was encouraged to see that part 5 of the Employment Rights Bill, which the new Labour Government recently laid before Parliament, deals with the enforcement of labour market legislation. Under the Government’s plans, an agency will be set up to enforce employment rights, including on the national minimum wage, holiday pay, gangmasters licensing and modern slavery. The agency will consolidate enforcement bodies, such as His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs minimum wage enforcement team, into a single agency with greater powers, including powers to require that information be given, and powers to enter employers’ premises and require undertakings backed by criminal penalties. The Government hope that the agency will be a recognisable single brand so that individuals know where to go for help, as that would lead to a more effective use of resources. It will be critical for the agency to take a preventive approach and address workers’ rights violations before they deteriorate to the level of slavery. Workers need to be able to trust it and come forward, so secure reporting needs to be embedded into it. It makes complete sense for employment rights to be enforced across the board, including alongside modern slavery, so my second question is: will the Government confirm that the new agency will police employment standards for those subject to immigration control, including those working in the UK health system under the UK health and care worker visa? When I spoke to Thomas before this debate, he said that one of the things about the health and care worker visa he was most concerned about was being locked in with his employer because, putting the fees issue aside, his visa would be at risk if he left. At the moment, somebody in Thomas’s position who leaves their employment has a 60-day grace period to find a new employer. After that, they are illegally present in the UK. There appears to be no published policy that says that if somebody has faced exploitation or fraud by their sponsor, they are given a longer period to find a new job. Other countries have a bridging arrangement. For example, Australia has a migrant worker justice visa, so if somebody finds themselves in a position of exploitation or fraud, the Government can support them to leave it. In the UK, if somebody does not find a new employer after 60 days and becomes illegally present, there is no way back into the immigration system. That, in turn, creates pressure to go into the already overloaded national referral mechanism where that may not be necessary. There is another barrier to leaving an exploitative healthcare workplace. If the worker leaves their main sponsoring employer or is unfairly dismissed, they are not allowed to work in a temporary job while they look for a new sponsor. There is a right to work for up to 20 hours a week in supplementary employment, but not if somebody leaves the main sponsor employer or is dismissed. The right to work up to 20 hours may apply where the employer loses their licence, but that is not enough to pay bills in the meantime while a new sponsor is found. A migrant justice visa that dropped the requirement to work only for the sponsoring employer in an exploitation situation would remove that barrier to leaving the exploitive situation, so my third question to the Government is: can any consideration be given to providing greater clarity and flexibility on the bridging arrangements when a worker on the health and care worker visa finds themselves in an exploitive situation? We want all workers to be treated fairly, with rights and protections, so everybody can contribute fully to society without extra hurdles and financial pressures. We want people to be able to contribute in the long term. It goes without saying that all workers should be free from fear of exploitation. Thomas’s petition proposes one way in which those objectives might be addressed, and I have asked the Minister about others. There are many other sides to this debate and there is much more to be said, but I have set the scene and look forward to hearing other Members’ contributions.

• 13 Nov 2024 · Educational Opportunities · Hansard source

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  I thank the Minister for her response and everyone present for their contributions to this important debate. Members have highlighted an inheritance of widening inequality, increasing child poverty, narrowing opportunities and an education system crying out for change. They have also highlighted that the Government’s proposals for reform give us cause for optimism: the curriculum review, Skills England, reform of the apprenticeship levy, improved teacher training on SEND, free breakfast clubs in primary schools and a properly funded education system. There are of course particular barriers to opportunity. We heard, for example, from my hon. Friend the Member for Hyndburn (Sarah Smith) on SEND; my hon. Friend the Member for Harlow (Chris Vince) on young carers; my hon. Friend the Member for Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes (Melanie Onn) on kinship carers; and my hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent South (Dr Gardner) on poor school buildings. There is a long way to go. To respond to the points made by Opposition Members, after the apprenticeship levy was introduced in 2017, there was a 31% fall in apprenticeship starts. That fact cannot be denied; it is a fact that is being responded to by this Government, and it is part of the inheritance that we are actively addressing. I am proud to be a Labour MP supporting a Labour Government. We are the party that introduced Sure Start, the single most effective measure for reducing child poverty. The measures we are taking will help ensure that every child, regardless of background, has access to the opportunities that they deserve. Question put and agreed to . Resolved , That this House has considered the matter of tackling barriers to educational opportunities.

• 13 Nov 2024 · Educational Opportunities · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member is absolutely right, and that is exactly what Skills England is going to do. It is about the collaboration between all the different stakeholders in society, not just businesses and colleges, to enable us to get to a point where the skills need is being facilitated by education providers. A high quality vocational education system will improve social mobility, and be one of the best ways to tackle the precarity of the low skill, low productivity and low pay economies that have been built over the last 14 years. I look forward to working with the Government to break down the barriers to opportunity for the 64% of young people who do not go to university, and to build a vocational training system that we can all be proud of.

• 13 Nov 2024 · Educational Opportunities · Hansard source

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  I beg to move, That this House has considered the matter of tackling barriers to educational opportunities. It is a privilege to serve under your chairship, Mr Pritchard. In the UK today, most 18-year-olds—around 64%—do not go to university. I want to focus on the barriers facing the 64% of young people in accessing the education and training that they need to lead fulfilling working lives. I do not believe that they have benefited from the same educational opportunities as the minority of young people who leave school for university, and that makes no moral, social or economic sense. In my view, our system of vocational education and training is not working for the 64%, or for our country. My constituency of Folkestone and Hythe has incredible potential for a thriving vocational education and training system. It has strengths in the creative industries, independent retail, tourism and hospitality, as well as green energy and nuclear decommissioning. We are home to the Little Cheyne Court wind farm and the former Dungeness nuclear power station. However, the potential for a technical education system to supply those industries, and others, with skilled workers in both Folkestone and Hythe and the UK as a whole remains untapped. In 2022-23, there were 677 apprenticeship starts in Folkestone and Hythe, but only five in the leisure, tourism and travel sector, despite the size of that sector. And despite the significant number of regeneration projects in Folkestone and Hythe, the number of apprenticeship starts in construction, planning and the built environment fell by 49% in 2022-23 compared with the previous year. Our country has some incredible further education colleges; I commend the work of East Kent college in Folkestone. When I visited during the general election campaign, I was shown workshops, kitchens and classrooms where, among many other vocations, the builders, electricians, carpenters, programmers, chefs and healthcare workers of the future are being educated. The college, which was judged to be “outstanding” by Ofsted in 2023, offers an incredible range of qualifications, including BTecs and T-levels. It offers adult education and there is also a junior college, with a two-year creative curriculum for learners aged 14 and over who want to specialise in arts or business studies. I thank its staff and students for their hard work, and for the grilling that they gave me and the other candidates at a hustings event hosted by the college before the election. Unfortunately, in many colleges like East Kent college, not all students who complete courses in specialist areas actually go on to work in those fields. That is not always down to students changing their minds; it is also because of the lack of jobs and apprenticeships available in the labour market. Under 14 years of Conservative Governments, apprenticeships starts plummeted, the apprenticeship levy was exposed as inadequate and further education was starved of vital funds. In 2015-16, the total number of apprenticeship starts was 509,000; by 2022-23, that number had fallen to 337,000. Between 2017 and 2024, the number of engineering apprenticeship starts fell by 42%. It was encouraging to see that apprenticeship starts grew by 3% in the month Labour took office, demonstrating employers’ optimism following the change of Government. I am afraid to say that the Conservatives’ reforms, such as the apprenticeship levy and T-levels, were ineffective. There was not enough flexibility built into the apprenticeship levy and not enough investment in apprenticeships for younger learners. As the chief executive officer of Make UK, Stephen Phipson, has said, successive Governments have provided inadequate funding for engineering apprenticeships, rendering them uneconomical for FE colleges and private providers to deliver. Neither have we had proper alignment between our industrial and our vocational education strategies. As a result, our skills policy has not been supporting the sectors of our economy we most need to grow. Sectors such as battery technology, electrical vehicle production and renewable technology manufacturing do not receive the funding for apprenticeships that they need, and in turn do not benefit from a steady supply of skilled workers. We need to end the mismatch between what is taught and the skills needed by the labour market. I warmly welcome the Government’s agenda for skills and vocational education and the Budget announcement of an additional £300 million funding boost for further education next year. But we know that in this policy area, as in so many others, funding is not enough—ambitious reform is what we need. I will touch on three aspects of the Government skills policy: Skills England, devolution and reform of the apprenticeship levy. I support the creation of Skills England, which will end the fractured skills landscape and bring together combined authorities, businesses, workers, trade unions and colleges so that there is co-ordination to meet local economies’ skills needs. It is incredibly important that Skills England will be a strategic body so that it can make sure that our industrial strategy, Invest 2035, and the vocational educational strategy work as one. Only then will sectors such as advanced manufacturing, which is rightly a focus of our Invest 2035 plan, benefit from a predictable supply of skilled labour. I also support the fact that part of Skills England’s mandate will be to collaborate with the Migration Advisory Committee so that we ensure that our own young talent is trained up and joins our labour market before we reach out to recruit from abroad. We have an abundance of young talent. This is about ensuring that our skills policy makes the most of the talent, work ethic and creativity of our young people while having an immigration system that welcomes the workers we need to get our economy growing and our public services working again. The Migration Advisory Committee has for far too long looked at labour market shortages in a vacuum without thinking about how our skills policy can address those shortages in the long term. I also believe that it is important for more powers over skills and technical education to be devolved, because the UK still has variation in our regional economies. For example, the creative industries are very important in Folkestone and Hythe, and nationally that sector contributed £124 billion to the UK economy in ’22. In the west midlands, the automotive sector is important. On Teesside, there is a resilient chemical sector, and there is still a proud steel industry in Scunthorpe and Port Talbot. Different regional economies will demand different focuses and priorities for policymakers, so I endorse the Government’s plan to ensure that there are local skills improvement plans and that adult skills funding will be devolved to combined authorities. Reform of the apprenticeship levy is long overdue. The levy is a tax on employers with a wage bill of over £3 million a year that funds apprenticeships. The problem is that the funds levied can be spent only on very specific types of training. For example, businesses cannot use the money to fund any courses shorter than one year. The new growth and skills levy will be critical, because it will mean that businesses will be able to pay for a greater range of training options, apprentices will have more choice and apprenticeships can be shorter than a year. It is very important that employers will be required to fund more of their level 7—that is, master’s degree-level—apprenticeships. The money saved there will be reinvested into foundation apprenticeships, which will give younger workers more opportunity and flexibility. I know that the road ahead is challenging. Between 2017 and 2022, the number of skills shortages in the UK doubled to more than half a million, and by 2022 skills shortages accounted for 36% of job vacancies. Training expenditure is also at its lowest level since records began in 2011. Yet if we get skills policy right, the opportunities are huge. Total revenue from the apprenticeship levy is forecast to grow from £3.9 billion to £4.6 billion by 2029 due to rising wages. A broader skills base will mean more productive jobs, higher labour productivity, stronger wage growth and rising living standards for all workers, not just university-educated professionals. That will benefit young people, many of whom feel demotivated and disenfranchised and believe that the 21st century economy does not serve them. In places where they have been given a pound shop instead of a workshop, they may be right. On future policy development, can the Minister provide more detail on the timeline for when we can expect the different phases of development of Skills England? I would also be grateful to know how the Government plan to align Invest 2035 with their post-16 education strategy. Both those strategies require prioritisation, so what sectors do the Government plan to focus on to drive up the number of apprenticeship starts? Are there any other areas of education and skills policy that the Government would like to devolve to local economies rather than combined authorities? For example, there is no combined authority in Kent. What plans do the Government have to ensure more apprenticeship starts in the industries of the future, such as artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, green energy and new nuclear?

• 6 Nov 2024 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source

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  One thing that people in Folkestone and Hythe said on the doorstep during the general election was that public services, particularly the NHS, do not work any more. I am proud that the first Labour Budget in 14 years has answered those calls: billions of pounds will be invested in the UK’s public services. That will be the start of a long process of rebuilding those services, which were left flat on their face after 14 years of Tory neglect. It was interesting that in the minutes after the Budget, Folkestone and Hythe Conservatives were tweeting at me on social media, complaining about higher taxes and higher borrowing. That sounds to me like the arsonists criticising the fire service. The Chancellor was very open about what was required to start fixing the foundations of our country, and the question that the Conservatives cannot answer is what taxes they would have increased instead. If they would have borrowed less, what public services would they have cut? The truth is that after another five years of Tory rule, we would have seen more austerity, leaving our public services to rot—more hardship and literally more pain for the working people who have borne the brunt of 14 years of austerity, covid restrictions and the rising cost of living. I am proud to be a Labour MP supporting a Labour Government who chose not to go down that road. I fully accept that this Budget involved hard choices, but they were hard choices that were ducked by the Conservative party for years and years. In addition to the headlines from the Budget, which I warmly welcome—such as the £22 billion for the NHS and raising the national minimum wage—this Budget has given hope to the hundreds of constituents writing to me about a whole range of matters, including children with special educational needs and disabilities. In Kent, the Tory-run county council’s SEND provision is on its knees; thanks to Labour’s Budget, there will now be £1.3 billion of extra help to build an education system that can cater for every child’s needs. For people in rural areas of my constituency, such as Romney Marsh, who have no, or no proper access to, broadband, £500 million will be allocated to help improve such services. The Budget’s increase in carer’s allowance will be welcomed by the over 2,000 carers in my constituency receiving that allowance, and the extra £600 million in grant funding to local authorities for social care is especially urgent in areas such as mine, where the population is older and more vulnerable. I also warmly welcome the £100 billion of infrastructure investment over the next five years, and will continue to make the case for investment in upgrading the rail freight infrastructure in Kent, particularly to maximise the use of the channel tunnel’s rail freight capacity.

• 31 Oct 2024 · Cancer Strategy for England · Hansard source

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  It is always a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Betts. I thank the hon. Member for Wokingham (Clive Jones) for securing this important debate. I will start by talking about a constituent who emailed me last week. She is a cancer patient, and when she was discharged from hospital she was informed that there is no specialist cancer rehabilitation and recovery support in Folkestone—a town of 52,000 people. She was told that the nearest support could be accessed only in the neighbouring constituency of Dover or in New Romney, which is 14 miles away. However, she does not have a car, and the effects of the cancer treatment make it challenging for her to move around. Folkestone has been allocated a single cancer support nurse, but they are expected to cover the patients at eight GP surgeries in the area of Folkestone and Dover—a town with a population of 116,000. We obviously do not need to be maths geniuses to work out that the ratio of nurses to the population is unacceptable. Cancer is the UK’s biggest killer, and as we speak more than 3 million people are living with it. Lord Darzi’s recent report highlighted in stark terms that cancer patients are waiting far too long to be diagnosed and treated, and when they leave hospital there is inadequate support for recovery and rehabilitation. The lack of a national cancer plan correlates with, and is likely to be one of the causes of, the geographical inequalities in access to cancer care and rehabilitation, which affect my constituency. I appreciate that the NHS long-term plan includes important commitments for cancer services, but it does not provide the comprehensive transformation needed across all areas of control, including research and prevention. A critical question for the Government is: what can we do to ensure that a national cancer strategy generates additional capacity in cancer care and rehabilitative support? The statistics are shocking and a national disgrace. According to Macmillan Cancer Support, in 2023 almost 90,000 people with cancer across the UK waited more than two months from either urgent referral or when the cancer was first suspected to start treatment. The most recent cancer care waiting times for England, to July 2024, showed that only 68% of people received a cancer diagnosis and started treatment within 62 days of an urgent referral. As the hon. Member for Wokingham reminded us, the 85% target has not been met since 2015. The situation is not inevitable. I agree that we need to start with a comprehensive plan for cancer of the kind that many of our European partners have. When the 10-year NHS plan is published in spring 2025, it should contain a national plan for cancer that focuses especially on how waiting times for diagnoses and treatment can be reduced and on how geographical variations in the quality of cancer treatment and care can be tackled. The plan should focus on how we as a nation can recruit and retain cancer care and rehabilitation specialists; how we can use new technologies and medicines to improve treatment outcomes and increase survival rates; and how we can use our thriving life sciences sector, to which my hon. Friend the Member for York Central (Rachael Maskell) referred, to reduce diagnosis and treatment waiting times. I fully appreciate the state of the NHS that the Labour Government have inherited—it struggles to recruit and retain, it has been starved of capital investment, and its workforce have had their morale beaten down by successive Conservative Governments—but we can do better. It falls to the Labour Government to lead the way forward so that we have an NHS that can effectively treat, rehabilitate and support patients, and prevent this terrible disease. I pay tribute to charities such as Macmillan, which do a brilliant job of providing cancer care to patients. We must never forget their compassion, empathy and service; that should inspire us every day in this House.

• 31 Oct 2024 · Small Businesses: Scaling Up · Hansard source

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  I welcome the Minister’s answer. One way that we can support small businesses to scale up is through infrastructure investment, so that businesses can get their goods to market more quickly. Will the Department support my campaign to shift more freight from trucks to trains, starting with the channel tunnel in my constituency, where only 10% of its freight capacity is being used at present?

• 31 Oct 2024 · Small Businesses: Scaling Up · Hansard source

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  7. What steps he is taking to help support small businesses to scale up.

• 28 Oct 2024 · China: Human Rights and Sanctions · Hansard source

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  I welcome the Foreign Secretary’s confirmation that he will meet the family of Jimmy Lai, but does he agree that as China is the world’s largest emitter, we need to engage with China pragmatically as we work to tackle the climate crisis?

• 10 Oct 2024 · Gaza and Humanitarian Aid · Hansard source

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  It is always a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Vaz, and I thank the hon. Member for Birmingham Perry Barr (Ayoub Khan) for securing the debate. The situation in Gaza is horrific and tragic. The British Red Cross has stated that more than 41,000 people have been killed in Gaza, and many more have been injured and displaced. Hostages are still being held and survivors are traumatised. The meetings that I have attended with ambassadors from the region have searingly impressed upon me how desperate and urgent the situation now is in Gaza and the west bank. Making sure that enough aid enters and is properly distributed to the people in Gaza is a moral imperative. It is also a legal imperative. In January, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to take measures to prevent genocide, in order to ensure that humanitarian aid reaches Palestinians, but that order is not yet being complied with. As hon. Friends have said, aid is still being blocked. It is of particular concern that the Israeli military are forcing hospitals—which are full of displaced civilians, medical staff and sick patients, all of whom are protected under international law—to shut down. The health system in Gaza must not be allowed to collapse. I thank the Minister for all his work on this issue. Will he confirm that the UK is taking urgent action to stop Israel forcibly displacing Palestinians from the north; to ensure that adequate aid reaches those who need it; to ensure that civilians, including those in hospitals and in their homes, are protected at all times; and, ultimately, to secure an urgent ceasefire? Respect for the international rule of law requires this.

• 10 Oct 2024 · Mental Health Support · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Dowd. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Ashford (Sojan Joseph) not only for securing this debate but for his tireless, dedicated work as a mental health nurse in the NHS. I thank him for his service. His analysis of the problems and solutions was masterful, and Parliament is all the stronger for having his expertise and experience in this place. The issue of mental health support is a policy challenge that goes beyond party political lines. Any civilised society is judged on how it treats its most vulnerable. The state of people’s mental health in our nations is incredibly concerning. As a former trustee of South Kent Mind in my constituency of Folkestone and Hythe, I have seen a downward trajectory in people’s mental health outcomes, particularly in deprived areas, and how mental health services are increasingly under strain. I also pay tribute to the incredible work done by South Kent Mind, which provides invaluable advice and well-run and well-attended classes, such as cookery and exercise classes, which provide local people with a sense of community, togetherness and support. Statistics from Mind have laid bare the reality. Each year, one in four people in England will experience a mental health problem of some kind, and one in six people report experiencing a common mental health problem, such as anxiety and depression. The number of people reporting self-harm went up by 62% between 2000 and 2014, and the number of people reporting suicidal thoughts in the past year went up by 30% between 2000 and 2014. The mental health of people in this country is undoubtedly deteriorating, and we know that some groups are more likely than others to be impacted by mental health problems, such as the LGBTQIA+ community, black British people and women aged 16 to 24. There are several reasons behind the steep increase in suffering, such as the giant evils of inequality and austerity that have ripped the heart out of our communities. Unemployment and poor housing still plague people’s mental health, just as they did in the age of the Victorian workhouse. There are in addition recent phenomena, such as the rise of social media, creating unprecedented pressures on young people to look a certain way, and the decline in physical health in our communities, especially in de-industrialised areas. As a society we say that one suicide is too many, and that we want to remove the stigma around mental health. But as we know, the stigma festers in too many houses, homes, offices and sports clubs, particularly with men and boys, for whom talking about feelings or being seen to be vulnerable can be perceived as weak or embarrassing. I sense that I am out of time, so I will sit down.

• 24 Jul 2024 · Education and Opportunity · Hansard source

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  Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for allowing me to make my maiden speech today. May I congratulate you on your election? It is a privilege to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Derby South (Baggy Shanker). He spoke about his constituency with eloquence and passion, and I congratulate him on his speech. I pay tribute to my predecessor, Damian Collins, who served as the Member of Parliament for Folkestone and Hythe for the last 14 years. He worked tirelessly here in Parliament, most notably as the Chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, which he led for several years up to 2019. He spearheaded several significant inquiries into pressing issues, including doping in sports, football governance, combating homophobia in sports, tackling online disinformation and examining addictive technologies. As a father of two boys, I am well aware of the parenting challenges that are posed by online gaming and social media, so I know that the work Damian did to hold tech companies to account performed a vital public service, for which we are all grateful. Recognising his expertise and contribution in this area, Damian was appointed the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for tech and the digital economy in 2022, and that appointment followed two Parliamentary Private Secretary roles in the Northern Ireland Office and the Foreign Office. I am sure the whole House will join me in wishing Damian all the best for his future endeavours. I would also like to acknowledge my second predecessor, Michael Howard—Lord Howard—who represented the constituency for some 27 years. He remains a much respected figure locally, and many voters talked of him fondly on the doorsteps during the short campaign. It is the honour of my life to be elected as Folkestone and Hythe’s Member of Parliament. I thank the members and volunteers of Folkestone and Hythe Labour party who moved heaven and earth to get me elected. Without their efforts, I simply would not be here. I also want to thank my wife and my family, who have been behind me all the way. I have the privilege of being the first Labour MP ever to have represented the constituency since its creation in 1950. Before that, the constituency covering its approximate area, Hythe, had returned Conservative MPs continuously since 1895. As a further piece of history, such was the strategic importance of Hythe and the town of New Romney—two ports that were among the original Cinque ports on the south coast—that they have been represented continuously ever since the Simon de Montfort Parliament of 1265, which is usually regarded as the first Parliament in England. I first visited Folkestone and Hythe in 2007 as a baby barrister sent to Folkestone magistrates court, apparently drawing the short straw. The fee was not much more than the train fare to get there, and the two-hour journey down was bumpy and slow. The upside was that I got fish and chips for lunch, a sea view and a breath of sea air. By the time I moved to Folkestone in 2014, the high-speed line HS1 had cut the journey time to 53 minutes, and as hon. Members can imagine, the dream of seaside living was no longer a distant thought for many. Folkestone and Hythe today is a cultural hub. We have arts festivals, comedy, theatre, open studios, open gardens, the Folkestone Music Town initiative and live music to suit every taste. The Royal Gurkha regiment is based in the constituency, and we have one of the largest Nepalese communities in the UK. It is hard to beat a Nepalese curry from Folkstone. The constituency has around 20 miles of beautiful coastline, from the border with Dover down to the Kent-Sussex border near Camber. It is little wonder that Folkstone and Hythe is a tourist hotspot, a creative and digital magnet, and a place to find solitude and peace. We also have a large windfarm in Romney Marsh, which was opened by the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, my right hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster North (Ed Miliband), in 2009. It was a privilege to visit it with him earlier this month, following his announcement about dropping the ban on onshore wind. What I love most about Folkstone and Hythe is the strong community spirit, and the drive of so many to make the area the best that it can be. There is Romney Marsh community hub, where the elderly can socialise and access services, and Hythe youth centre supports young people in the area. The New Folkestone Society and the Sandgate Society are safeguarding the heritage of the area, and Napier Friends welcomes, integrates and assimilates refugees who come to our area from all over the world. Sadly, however, far too many people in Folkstone and Hythe are being left behind. Some of the most deprived areas in Kent are in my constituency, and the system has been holding communities back. Opportunities are spread unevenly, sewage pollutes our seas, unaffordable mortgage rates and rents are faced by everyone, and public services just do not work as they are supposed to. Having lived on Folkstone and Hythe’s coastline, like many residents I have seen overloaded small boats arriving on our shores—boats organised by organised criminal networks that trade and commodify human beings. On too many occasions than I care to remember, I have joined local residents to remember lives lost in the channel. Indeed, as the Home Secretary reminded us, 90 lives have been lost so far this year. I am proud to be a Labour MP supporting this transformative Labour Government who will pass the laws we need to turn Britain around and break down barriers to opportunity. The 35 Bills in the King’s Speech are just the start of that. As a barrister of 17 years’ standing, I particularly welcome the Government’s reinstatement of the rule of law, which is the foundation of our constitution and democracy. The Government’s decision to treat human smuggling and trafficking as a national security issue is long overdue. I have represented many victims of those criminal gangs, and I know that such are their sophistication and resources, that nothing short of the full force of our national security expertise will do. We must never forget that the victims themselves need justice. I am the son of one of the first Filipinos who migrated to the UK. My mum came here in the 1970s and worked in the NHS, which I think makes me the first person of Filipino heritage to stand in this Chamber. I understand how easy it is for vulnerable people to be exploited by powerful others—Filipinos around the world know that all too well—and we can, and must, break the business model of these sophisticated criminals. For a corner of east Kent that often feels left out and a long way from Westminster, Labour’s devolution plans represent a rare opportunity. Coastal communities, including those all along the south coast, face similar challenges. East Kent has the second highest level of economic output of Kent’s five regions, and devolution would open the door to greater powers, and with them a strategy for regional economic growth and solutions to the problems that my constituents face every day with housing, buses, health, skills and work. The strength of Folkestone and Hythe lies in its people. Every person I spoke to during the general election campaign reinforced my belief that there is so much untapped talent and so much that people have to give, and that with an extra helping hand from the Government the potential of every person can finally be realised. To everyone in Folkstone and Hythe, I say this: I stand here ready to help you, whether you voted for me or not, and I promise to use all the energy, expertise and dedication to be your advocate and your voice, wherever it is needed. My parents’ values of compassion and public service run through everything I do, and those are the values that will today, and every day, guide my actions, my decisions and my work in and across this House.

• 18 Jul 2024 · Clean Energy Superpower Mission · Hansard source

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  I congratulate the Secretary of State and his team on their recent appointment and thank them for their recent visit to Cheyne Court wind farm in my constituency, which was opened by the Secretary of State in 2009. Dungeness A and Dungeness B in my constituency are former nuclear power stations that are in the process of being decommissioned. Dungeness has the land, infrastructure, grid connections and local expertise that make it well placed for new nuclear. Will the Secretary of State be willing to meet me to discuss how we can harness Dungeness’s potential for the local area and the regional community?