Wendy Chamberlain MP: speeches

Speeches

• 15 Sept 2026 · Civil Service Pension Scheme · Hansard source

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  I congratulate the hon. Member for Liverpool West Derby (Ian Byrne) on securing the debate. Like everyone here, I have constituents who, after years of dedicated public service in our armed forces, prisons and vital public services, are now struggling to make ends meet because of failures by Capita. I raised those issues back in April, when the then Minister made a statement on this matter, but sadly it is now like a conveyor belt: just as we get one case resolved, another one appears from a constituent who cannot access the pension they have worked for and earned. The most important point I want to make today is that behind every delayed pension is a person whose life has been put on hold. One of my constituents is grieving the loss of her husband, who passed away in July. As if that were not already enough, she cannot access his civil service pension. She spoke with Capita last week and was told that her case was “progressing”—exactly the same update as she had a month earlier. I attended Cabinet Office questions last week, at which the Minister outlined the Government’s insourcing plans and the penalties that Capita is experiencing, but I want her to address two questions today. First, what are the timescales for insourcing? “Plans” do not help our constituents right now. Secondly, what criteria are being applied in relation to penalties for Capita? Constituents need answers and reassurance.

• 15 Sept 2026 · English Whisky: Single Malt Definition · Hansard source

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  (Urgent Question): To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if he will make a statement on the English whisky geographical indication definition of single malt.

• 15 Sept 2026 · English Whisky: Single Malt Definition · Hansard source

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  I declare an interest as chair of the Scotch whisky all-party parliamentary group, and I also hold a Chartered Institute of Brewers and Distillers general certificate in distilling. On Friday evening at 5 pm, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs announced that it had approved the English Whisky Guild’s application for English whisky to receive geographical indication status, despite objections from the Scotch, Welsh and Irish whisky associations. Let me be clear that my objection is not to English whisky obtaining geographical indication status. English whisky has a long and legitimate history in its own right. My concern is specifically about the definition of English single malt whisky that DEFRA has now approved. Under that definition, English single malt whisky requires only distillation at a single distillery, rather than for all the stages of production to take place at a single site. The term “single malt whisky” carries a long-established reputation and meaning for consumers. It risks disadvantaging Scotch producers, who have invested heavily to comply with the traditional single-site production model, including distilleries in my own constituency such as Kingsbarns, Eden Mill, Daftmill and Lindores. Scotch whisky is one of the UK’s most important export industries, supporting jobs, investment, tourism and economic growth across rural communities. Weakening an internationally recognised definition risks damaging consumer confidence and diluting brand value at a time when the Scotch whisky industry is not in the rude health that the Government mistakenly think it is. The new definition could also be misleading for consumers who reasonably understand a single malt whisky to be a product produced entirely at one distillery. I ask the Minister: why was this announcement made after the House had risen on a Friday evening, and why does the appeal period finish before the House returns from recess? I ask the Minister also to explain why a decision that undermines the integrity of the single malt definition—a decision that creates an uneven playing field across the UK and risks disadvantaging distilleries that have invested to uphold long-standing industry standards—was approved. Why did the then Chief Secretary to the Treasury tell the House in March last year that DEFRA would not be watering down the definition of single malt whisky? Because I can assure you, Madam Deputy Speaker, that that is exactly what the Government are doing now. Will the Minister also set out what discussions he has had with the Scotland and Wales Offices and what assessment has been made of the implications of this decision for the United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020 and how those implications were considered?

• 10 Sept 2026 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  I echo the comments made in relation to the anniversary of the September 11th attacks. Nearly 25 years ago, in the April after the attacks, my husband and I visited the site of the twin towers. We were both police officers at the time, and realising that we and our colleagues would have faced the same dangers that others had faced really brought home for us the scale of the sacrifice made. Having attended a debate on confidence in policing yesterday, I know how important trust in policing is. Reform UK’s disdain for British electoral law was broadcast to the nation last week in undercover footage involving the hon. Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage)—I have emailed him—and some of his closest advisers. The Metropolitan police were already investigating Reform UK, and they have now confirmed that they are broadening their inquiry to include foreign donations involving polling. I find it ironic that a party that stakes so much of its reputation on claims of patriotism spends far more time trying to get around British law than strengthening it. Will Reform MPs share with the country whether they and their campaigns have ever benefited from any foreign money? I also reiterate the calls I made over recess for Reform’s home affairs spokesperson to provide evidence for the damaging claims he made online against a business in my constituency. Several weeks on, that business and I are still waiting. We are living in an unstable world, where dodgy donations are routine and corruption is common. Bad actors such as Elon Musk, Vladimir Putin and Reform pin-up boy Donald Trump are dedicated to destroying our democracy. The Government and all parliamentarians should be standing up against those threats. Again, for a party so keen to ensure relationships with our nearest neighbours, Reform UK seems happy to jeopardise our sovereignty by encouraging foreign interference. However, the Representation of the People Bill that passed through the Commons last week did not include a donation cap and therefore failed to protect our political system from the corrupting influence of foreign money. Given that the Bill was debated before MPs were aware of these concerning allegations, will the Government find time to legislate to protect British democracy?

• 9 Sept 2026 · Public Confidence in the Police · Hansard source

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  I recognise the hon. Member’s police service; I myself served for 12 years in Lothian and Borders police. One of the challenges we now have is that there is a continual churn in police roles, which means that communities do not know their police officers and their police officers do not know them. Does the hon. Member agree that, culturally, that is something the police service needs to tackle?

• 9 Sept 2026 · Public Confidence in the Police · Hansard source

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  I am one of the co-chairs of the all-party parliamentary group for the survivors of Fayed and Harrods. In recent weeks, the APPG has met the Metropolitan police and the Independent Office for Police Conduct. There is absolutely no doubt that historical failures in investigations have damaged the survivor cohort’s trust in the police and the criminal justice sector more widely. My hon. Friend is talking about violence against women and girls now, but does he agree that historical legacies also play a part?

• 9 Sept 2026 · Public Confidence in the Police · Hansard source

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  When we talk about confidence in policing, it is important that we acknowledge that we have a role to play in that as elected representatives. Youth antisocial behaviour has been a problem in my North East Fife constituency over the summer, in places such as Crail and Elie, but when I engaged with local officers, I found they had good intelligence and had dealt with the events pretty robustly afterwards. The fact of the matter is that the community were not aware of that. Does my hon. Friend agree that we have a responsibility to tell the public about the work our local officers are doing?

• 1 Sept 2026 · Face-to-Face Banking: Rural Areas · Hansard source

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  One of the problems we have experienced with the Link criteria is that the town is classed as urban by the Office for National Statistics, but is actually servicing a rural community. That mismatch means that some hubs are being missed out.

• 1 Sept 2026 · Face-to-Face Banking: Rural Areas · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Wishart. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for South Devon (Caroline Voaden) on securing this debate. I am sure that many Members have had the same frustrating experiences I have had when I meet a bank that is planning to close a branch. It has all this data and statistics telling us about the number of people who use that branch, but never asks how many people would use it if they knew that they could get access to it. Link also cannot tell me why, despite the measures that are in place, the percentage of people with access to cash in my constituency continues to reduce. It is also important to remember that in many of our communities, the bank branches that do exist often have very reduced hours. Business customers in particular express real frustration to me about that. I do not want to repeat the things that have been said today, but I want to pick up on scams and vulnerable constituents. Rural poverty is real. We all deal with it. Citizens Advice locally and food banks are seeing an increase in people’s need for support. Banks have a responsibility to improve financial literacy. In addition, rural transport is non-existent, as many people have touched on. Over the summer, I went out with a constituent who used a wheelchair. We had to take two buses to make the journey and, to add to her distress, one of the bus’s lifts was not working and the whole bus had to decant while she was left on the pavement. We need to remember that it is not always easy for people to get to banks. I am very conscious that the party that talks about broken high streets and broken Britain is not represented in this debate, but if we think back to the past, the bank manager was someone we knew. I have a constituent who subject to a very distressing scam involving a significant amount of money. I am confident that if they had been going into their bank branch, the staff would have known them and asked the right questions to prevent the scam in the first place—it is not about the person asking for advice. The Government know what they need to do; I hope they get on and do it.

• 16 Jul 2026 · Sir David Amess Summer Adjournment · Hansard source

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  Madam Deputy Speaker, as we prepare for the longer summer recess and reflect on the past year, I want to extend my thanks to you and your team, and to Mr Speaker and his wider team for your and their work in making this place function as it does. I also put on record my thanks to all the amazing staff who work here in Parliament. I know that every single one of us is a doughty champion— I hear that phrase often at the Dispatch Box—but it is true of those who work in Parliament too, as well as of our staff who work out in the constituencies. On a global scale, I know that many of my constituents in North East Fife care deeply and, indeed, despair about the horrific events in the middle east. I was unable to be here for last week’s debate on trade with illegal settlements in the west bank due to the late running of prior business, and I want to reiterate the comments of my hon. Friends and other hon. Members who called for a ban on all trade in goods and services to those occupied territories. Guidance to UK business is simply not good enough, particularly when significant building contracts are going out to tender, and UK Government requests might not outweigh the demands of shareholders and private equity contracts. I also want to raise the worsening situation in the village of Umm al-Khair, which has been subject to multiple demolition orders from the Israeli civil administration. Just yesterday, I was at a meeting with Na’amod, a movement of Jews in the UK against occupation in the west bank, and those attending asked for urgent diplomatic intervention. I ask the Leader of the House to take note of that and feed it back to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. This Palestinian village is currently having its future decided by a military court, and we must use all our diplomatic levers to prevent it from being demolished entirely. Energy costs are high, and there has never been a more important time for us to retrofit households to make them as energy-efficient and green in their use as possible. However, when people’s homes are at stake, these retrofits must be done right, and several of my constituents have had their homes in effect trashed by workmen installing heat pumps funded through the Government’s energy company obligation 4 scheme. Ministers and officials in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero are well aware of this, as I have raised it both in this place and more generally. I had a meeting with some of my constituents and the Minister for Energy Consumers last year. That meeting was in December, and since then my team have written multiple times to follow up on the pledges made. I note a letter from the Minister to interested MPs today. Sadly, though, it is primarily focused on faulty solid wall insulation, and did not refer to the heat pump issues being experienced by my constituents and others. My constituents were promised audits of their properties for the purpose of remedial works, and although I am grateful to the Minister for his time, I do want to get something beyond my email update from last December. Some of the building problems that my constituents have experienced stem from a lack of training and oversight for refitting older rural properties. Life in a rural community has its benefits, but it also comes with its own unique set of policy challenges, which are too often ignored. I have been trying consistently to get a banking hub for Cupar in the centre of my constituency, and I was pleased to meet the Chief Secretary to the Treasury at her surgery on Monday to discuss the review of the rules governing banking access. It is vital that everyone who needs access to financial advice can get it. As part of my battle for banking, I have spent a few Fridays travelling the bus routes of North East Fife to understand how hard it is to access services that are further away. I would love to invite you, Madam Deputy Speaker, to visit North East Fife at any time—in fact, anybody is welcome. We look forward to the Largo and Pittenweem arts festivals this summer, and the Leven putting green is open every day, but I would never suggest that any hon. Members travelled across it by bus. I want to finish by briefly highlighting a challenge that the University of St Andrews is experiencing in relation to cuts to the Science and Technology Facilities Council budget, which will badly affect the astronomy department. Cutting research and development is never the right answer, particularly with the scale of the challenges before us. I do hope that this decision can be revisited.

• 13 Jul 2026 · Ukrainian Refugees · Hansard source

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  I echo my hon. Friend’s comments. If I may, I will approach this question from the other side. The lack of certainty is challenging for Ukrainians who are looking to return to Ukraine. My team are currently dealing with a situation where a family, who are looking to go back to Ukraine, are not being allowed to access their savings from their bank. Can we get support and guidance to help people who are thinking about going back?

• 13 Jul 2026 · Ukrainian Refugees · Hansard source

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  16. If she will take steps to provide Ukrainian refugees with a route to permanent settlement.

• 9 Jul 2026 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  I associate myself with your remarks, Mr Speaker, and the remarks by the Leader of the House and the shadow Leader of the House of both congratulations and condolences. On the business the Leader of the House has announced, I have to say that I am very disappointed that it means the Deputy Prime Minister’s remarks yesterday to my hon. Friend the Member for St Albans (Daisy Cooper) about the Hillsborough Bill were not accurate. I hope we will see it return after the summer recess. On the world cup, all I will say is that, like fellow Scots, I am probably looking for my Viking helmet at the moment. We all know that the former Member for Clacton’s resignation is nothing but a stunt designed to distract the country from the raft of allegations facing him and, it increasingly appears, his colleagues. Such allegations must be fully investigated, so that voters have all the facts about the candidates they are voting for, whether they be a bin or a politician who sees being a Member of Parliament as a part-time job. Now that the writ has been moved, does the Leader of the House share my regret that the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards investigation into the former Member for Clacton must pause? Does he agree that, in circumstances where the nature of an allegation is sufficiently serious, there is merit to it continuing, even if the Member is no longer an MP? Does he agree that it could and should continue regardless? Obviously, those of us on the Liberal Democrat Benches wish Count Binface well. It was interesting to read overnight that the right hon. Member for Makerfield (Andy Burnham) has plans for changing the culture and narrative of the Labour party. I am sure those on the Government Benches are looking forward to that new-found freedom. But for all the talk of collaboration and modernisation, we still do not know anything about the legislation that the new Labour Government are planning to bring to the House. We know more about the right hon. Member’s love of guitar and rugby league than we do about his plans for fixing the problems facing the country. The Liberal Democrats would welcome detail on his plans to fix social care, tackle the special educational needs and disabilities crisis and support the small businesses bearing the brunt of the Government’s jobs taxes. Will the Leader of the House commit to doubling the length of Prime Minister’s questions next week, and give the Prime Minister-in-waiting the opportunity to answer questions and outline his views on the issues that really matter?

• 6 Jul 2026 · Payment Scheme · Hansard source

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  The Minister is right to point out that although we—I think across the House—welcome his work and diligence, and that of the previous Government, on the scheme and recognise the work that needs to be done, there is absolutely no doubt there are still too few who have received compensation. As of 2 June, my understanding is that just over 3,000 out of a potential 30,000 victims had received compensation. Can he update us on what he is doing to ensure that more people get the money they need as soon as possible?