Middle East Update
I am going to get all Members in, but I urge short questions.
Showing every spoken contribution, including 5,804 under 12 words. Hide short remarks
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Point of Order
I am grateful to the hon. Member for giving notice of his point of order. It is not a matter for the Chair, but as Members on both sides of the House will know, downloading and sharing clips of proceedings in the Chamber is subject to conditions of use, and clips should not be manipulated in such a way as to be misleading. May I suggest that the hon. Member raise the matter with the director of parliamentary audio and video as a matter of urgency?
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Victory in Europe and Victory over Japan: 80th Anniversary
I call the shadow Minister.
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Victory in Europe and Victory over Japan: 80th Anniversary
Members will be able to see how many have risen to speak in this evening’s debate, so there will be a four-minute time limit after the contributions from the Front Bench.
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Victory in Europe and Victory over Japan: 80th Anniversary
I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.
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Victory in Europe and Victory over Japan: 80th Anniversary
Order. I remind Members that there is a time limit on speeches.
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Victory in Europe and Victory over Japan: 80th Anniversary
Order. My apologies for not noticing the time; I was being disturbed by the Whip.
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Victory in Europe and Victory over Japan: 80th Anniversary
Order. If Members are going to get in during this debate, interventions need to be interventions and not mini-speeches.
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Victory in Europe and Victory over Japan: 80th Anniversary
This is a particularly poignant debate for me to attend today, because this morning I attended the funeral of Betty Webb, a 101-year-old former Bletchley Park codebreaker who epitomised the very best of this great generation. Will the Minister join me in paying tribute to and thanking Betty, as we lay her to rest, for the sacrifice and commitment she provided to the war effort?
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Topical Questions
T4. One of the great frustrations for medical professionals and patients alike is when patients have appointments but do not turn up. What action will the Secretary of State take to ensure that the system penalises people who miss appointments, so that patients can get the treatment they need when they need it?
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English Devolution: Integrated Care Boards
5. Whether he has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government on the interaction between mayors and integrated care boards, in the context of the English devolution White Paper.
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English Devolution: Integrated Care Boards
Funding and delivery of a GP surgery for Wixams in my constituency continues to fall between the cracks of developers, local councils and the local ICB. Does the Minister agree that to break those deadlocks and build the infrastructure that our communities require, new mayors should have the power to direct ICBs, making locally elected politicians responsible rather than unelected quangos?
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Topical Questions
T5. Residents in Mid Bedfordshire are concerned about the standards of maintenance at our two local hospitals. What action are the Government taking to support our hospitals in Luton and Bedford to catch up on maintenance backlogs?
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Victory in Europe and Victory over Japan: 80th Anniversary
Like many of my generation, I have a grandfather who served in the second world war. Though I was never old enough to ask him about it before he passed away, I was always very proud to have a relative who had taken part. I was proud that he had served in the Desert Rats during the north African campaign, and I was honoured to follow in his footsteps when I served in the 7th Armoured Brigade, the Desert Rats, during operations in Iraq 65 years later. The second world war left an indelible mark on our nation. Its impact ripples throughout so much of our culture, heritage and identity. I am certain that it had a huge influence on my interest in the military, which led to my own desire to serve. My former regiment, the Duke of Wellington’s, saw action in France, Tunisia, Italy, India and Burma, and battle honours at Anzio in the Italian campaign and at Sittang bridge in Burma, operating as Chindits behind Japanese lines at Imphal and Kohima. These campaigns played a crucial role in securing victory over Nazi Germany and imperial Japan. My Huntingdon constituency played a key role throughout the war. RAF Molesworth opened in 1941, with the royal Australian air force’s 460 Squadron operating Wellington bombers. After 460 departed, the United States army air force soon arrived and is most closely linked with the 303rd Bomb Group, popularly known as “Hell’s Angels”, arriving with B-17s in September 1942. It launched the first US army air force bombing raid over Nazi-occupied Europe later that year. The US air force remains at RAF Molesworth to this day and is still embedded in the local community across Huntingdon. RAF Wyton was also a key player as the home of the Pathfinder Force from 1942. The Pathfinder Force was an elite unit, tasked with leading RAF Bomber Command’s night-time raids deep into the skies over Germany and locating the target at a time when night-time bombing was suffering from poor results, with targets being missed. That role was not without risk. From 1942 to 1945, the Pathfinder Force flew a total of 50,490 sorties against some 3,440 targets, and at least 3,727 members were killed on operations. The activity at RAF Molesworth and RAF Wyton is a significant reminder of the vital role the RAF played but also of the sacrifice and work of our allies and US personnel throughout the war. To conclude, I pay tribute to all those who did so much so that we can live freely. They were normal people asked to do things that nobody should have to —make incredible sacrifices, endure terrible suffering and experience tragic losses. The second world war was a defining moment in our nation’s history, more so than any event in living memory. As those who experienced it pass and the first-hand memories are lost, it is easy to forget what was done by so many, but we must never forget, and we will remember them.
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Trade Negotiations
Today’s news of a free trade agreement between the United Kingdom and India is wonderful—some of us have argued for greater free trade arrangements with Commonwealth countries for many years. Mr Modi, the Prime Minister of India, should be commended for adopting a free-market system that has brought wealth and prosperity to India, eliminating poverty and enabling India to work with countries like the United Kingdom. Will the Minister accept that none of this would have been possible had we not been sovereign and able to negotiate our own free trade agreements following our departure from the European Union? Was Brexit not the right thing to do?
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Prisoners of Conscience
I welcome the tone in which this debate is being conducted. Given that the Minister will not make the special envoy’s role statutory, will she state very clearly that she will not make something else statutory—that she will not reintroduce a blasphemy law in the United Kingdom? She will recognise that the abolition of the blasphemy laws in the 1980s and 1990s meant that people could express whatever belief they happened to hold in a completely free way. That ended a level of oppression that had been possible, although not exercised for many years. Will the Minister make absolutely clear that in no way will this Government support a blasphemy law, and that they will not allow police to introduce one through the back door by criminalising acts that would otherwise be covered by freedom of expression? Will she make absolutely clear that His Majesty’s Government stand for freedom of religion and non-belief, not just belief, and that that means the freedom to change one’s religion, to reject a previous religion, and to criticise any religion? Does she agree with that?
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Hadlow College
I am sorry to see the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) running off. I was very much looking forward to his intervention a little later, but maybe he will be back. Who knows? Lucky me. Hadlow College is Kent’s only land-based rural college. It is unique in our county for the offer that it provides. Its huge range of courses are designed to provide the skills needed to maintain Kent’s place as the garden of England. Having been campaigning for fantastic Conservative councillors earlier today in the beautiful sunshine, I can assure the House that it remains that wonderful garden. The college is a regional powerhouse and an important part of the local Tonbridge community. Speak to any of our key rural businesses, and they will say how the skills offered at Hadlow College help maintain our agricultural capacity in Kent. For those reasons, we should have always been celebrating what Hadlow College does for the local area, but I must be honest: there was a period when we could not. In 2019, Hadlow College became the first further education institution in the country to enter educational administration. During this debate, I will explore how the process affects Hadlow and the community today and ask the Minister to consider how it could be improved. Before I do that, I pay tribute to all staff and students who were at the college and all the linked institutions during this challenging time. They made sure courses kept running and that most were unaffected. I will name just a few of those people: Graham Morley, the first interim principal after educational administration in 2019; Lindsay Pamphilon; Jim Mawby at the Tonbridge site; and now David Gleed and Chris Lydon from North Kent College. That is not to forget Paul Boxall and his team at Hadlow rural community school, to whom I will refer later. The reality is that they had a much harder job because of the process the college went through in 2019. In May 2019, Hadlow College became the first further education facility in the country to enter educational administration after an Education and Skills Funding Agency investigation. This followed updates to the statutory college insolvency regime in January 2019 that affected further education and sixth-form colleges. It meant that Hadlow College kept its doors open. But it was not just Hadlow College that needed to be rescued; also included were Hadlow rural community school, West Kent College in Tonbridge, Betteshanger colliery in Dover, Ashford College, Princess Christian’s Farm in Hildenborough, animal management sites in Canterbury and Mottingham, and a further site in Greenwich. The question is simple: how did so many further education institutions end up insolvent? The expansion happened quickly in the years preceding 2019. It was about not just the acquisition of further sites, but the subsequent investment. Let us take the example of Betteshanger colliery; after Hadlow College’s interest started, it spent £1.2 million on changing plans for a visitor centre, and then lost £4 million on the collapsed sale of a business park. It very quickly became clear that the college had been reckless with its finances. Its expansion was getting further away from its core purpose: to provide land-based education in west Kent. Following the ESFA investigation, I wrote to the then Minister of State for Apprenticeships and Skills at the Department for Education, Anne Milton, on 10 May 2019. On Betteshanger colliery, the letter said: “I would be concerned if further investment is made here in light of the financial situation should courses be cut, with students left unable to gain their qualifications.” Put simply, money was either being used for peripheral projects that did not exist, or being transferred out of students’ education. At this point, I wish to touch on the concept of the Hadlow Group. I have a copy of a letter I received on 1 October 2018 from the so-called Hadlow Group, which informed me of a proposal to merge West Kent and Ashford College with Hadlow College. In the interests of time, I shall not go into the background of the merger, which starts with the collapse of K College nearly 15 years ago; I merely want to point out that the Hadlow Group was seeking to merge colleges at the time. As the ESFA, the Further Education Commissioner, the administrators and the Department have rightly recognised, the Hadlow Group had no legal structure—it was essentially a marketing term to provide credibility to the ever-expanding portfolio of sites—which gives us an indication as to where things started to go wrong. In the years leading up to 2019, I met representatives of the college many times, and often I was asked to help secure significant amounts of money for them. In December 2016, I was informed of two immediate funding issues: the repayment of £888,000 from the 2014-15 financial year, which arose from the K College acquisition, and the £929,935 that was needed at West Kent and Ashford Colleges for 2016-17. I asked the Department for this funding on the basis that it was used to support further education provision in west Kent, but was it? We now know that Hadlow College applied for £20 million from the ESFA’s transactions unit, but the application failed. The ESFA demanded that its funding be returned, and Hadlow College consequently asked for what was essentially a Government bail-out. I include all that history so that the Minister and the House can understand the complexity of the situation and to make it clear what was happening. Money was being requested on a huge scale, supposedly for further education provision, but that is not where it was going. As subsequent investigations have found, there was financial mismanagement on a scale never seen before, which led to Hadlow College entering educational administration. There must be some accountability for the people who made those decisions, and it is therefore disappointing to many that those responsible for the expenditure—primarily the principal and the finance director at the time—have not had their investigations conducted in the public domain. We learned in November 2023 that Paul Hannan, the then principal, will be fined £250,000 if he ever works in education again. We also know from the administrators’ reports that a deal was made with the deputy principal, Mark Lumsdon-Taylor, whereby he agreed to pay a four-figure sum as part of a confidentiality agreement. I find this part of the process extremely unsatisfactory. Tens of millions of pounds of public money has been poured into the educational administration process because of the reckless actions of the two senior leaders of Hadlow College at the time. Given the scale and profile of this issue, I do not think that a confidentiality agreement is appropriate, and I urge the Department to bring forward amendments to future legislation that increase the level of transparency and accountability in such matters. This view is widely held in the community because, sadly, the offer at Hadlow College has deteriorated since the educational administration process. The Hadlow College farm shop is no more and the Broadview tearooms have closed. Its landholding has decreased. All of this had enabled Hadlow College to be a sustainable provider prior to the reckless expansion plans pursued in the last decade. That is all now gone because of the need to pay back for failed business ventures. Put simply, what has happened here is a gamble with students’ education to expand beyond the core purpose of Hadlow College. I want to build on this point further, and I would appreciate answers from the Minister about how we can strengthen the educational administration process to future-proof education land. Why do I focus on land? Because that is what Hadlow College is fundamentally about. It is a land-based college. It needs land to train the next generation of rural entrepreneurs. The more land it has, the more it can contribute to the rural economy. The same applies to Hadlow rural community school. In 2022, a number of parcels of land around Hadlow were marketed for sale by Knight Frank on behalf of the administrators, and the proceeds were used to pay back creditors. I understand that rationale from a financial perspective, but this is not an administration process. It is called an “educational administration”, and education provision has successfully continued throughout this turmoil. There is broad agreement from all those now responsible for delivering further education at Hadlow, including North Kent College and Hadlow rural community school, that the sale of parcels of land has impacted the student offer. This is deeply regrettable. I would therefore like to ask the Minister how we may be able to adapt the educational administration process to ensure that land sales are not the default, especially for land-based educational establishments with this specialism. From the perspective of North Kent College, having just taken over Hadlow College, the speed of this process meant it could not accurately make arguments to safeguard some land earmarked for sale. This has meant repurposing its provision on a smaller footprint. This has a big impact on the village. Indeed, having to repurpose means a much-desired footpath and cycle way between Tonbridge and Hadlow is extremely unlikely to be delivered. The impact on Hadlow rural community school is even more severe. I am afraid I am deeply concerned about the approach the Department is currently taking towards its governance. The school has done extremely well to survive the process. It was designed for a land-based specialism, which the educational administration process rightly safeguarded. The separation of the college and the school was inevitable, but not necessarily detrimental to either. However, the loss of land in Hadlow affects them both. I refer the Minister to my letter of 10 April 2025 to the Secretary of State. The Department is now articulating—based on a letter to the school from the Department, dated 3 April—that the plots of land at Court Lane, which could be used for educational provision, are sold. Frankly, it was this letter that motivated me to apply for this debate. The reasons given for that suggestion are interesting. It is claimed in this letter that Ministers have determined that “capital investment options do not offer good value for money”. This is the same Department that has rightly invested tens of millions of pounds in securing the future of education in Hadlow, both for the school and the college. The education provision needs to be appropriate in a competitive market. Tonbridge has some of the highest-performing secondary schools and further education facilities in the country, and many people move to our community for our schools. Hadlow rural community school is an important part of this network, and one that has a clear specialism. The Department needs to support this first and foremost. In addition, I was extremely disappointed to see a passing reference, at the end of the same letter, to the school “engaging with North Kent College” in a “long-term solution”. May I please remind the Minister that the long-term solution was found when separation occurred? I encourage the Minister to speak to officials who can remind her of the considerable correspondence we had back in 2023 to secure the appropriate lease for the school to access the college’s land. Returning to the nub of the issue, Hadlow rural community school must thrive and succeed. To do so, it must have land available to retain its land-based specialism. It can do this under the current governance model, not as part of North Kent College’s delivery of services at Hadlow College. This works best for both parties, otherwise we run the risk of repeating all the governance failures that contributed to educational administration in the first place. The history I referred to earlier—of murky governance processes, expansion without clear justification and, frankly, some pretty outrageous scrutiny of public finances by the two individuals I named—must be avoided. This is where I want to end. Education administration is an extremely difficult process. It is expensive and, since the incorporations legislation in 1992, I doubt whether there have been many other transactions where two interconnecting colleges were broken up, with one split into two parts and then transferred to three receiving colleges. Today, many parts of the complex further education web at Hadlow, and in Kent more broadly, are thriving. I pay huge tribute to those in further education colleges who give so many opportunities to so many. As I said at the start, staff, management and students must take huge credit and huge pride for what they achieved during those difficult days. It is now the responsibility of the Department to safeguard that under the current governance model. I will continue to be happy to work very closely with the Minister and her officials to achieve that, so we do not allow any historical actions of the kind I have listed to happen again.
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Topical Questions
If the Secretary of State is not going to visit Farnham, can I tempt him to visit Fountain Beauty Therapy in Hurtmore, a much-loved business in my constituency? The owner, Clare Porter, talks about the extreme pressure caused by the Employment Rights Bill, the hike in employers’ national insurance and the withdrawal of business rates relief, leading to a crisis in the hair and beauty sector. What measures is the Secretary of State planning to alleviate pressure on this very important sector?
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Parkinson’s Awareness Month
The hon. Gentleman must be congratulated on bringing forward this most important debate. The charity Parkinson’s UK organises voluntary support groups across the country—the nearest ones to Gainsborough are in Doncaster, Brigg and Scunthorpe. Does he think that the Government and local authorities can do more to encourage people to volunteer? Voluntary action across the country is quite uneven, so that might be one step forward.
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Topical Questions
Arrangements at the border are disadvantaging companies on both sides of the channel, so there are mutual advantages to be had in negotiations without feeling the need to make any major concessions, aren’t there?
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Energy Prices: Energy-intensive Industries
A vital ingredient of any net zero policy is an understanding of the word “net”. Ultimately, we are going to have to grapple with technology that we have had for over a century to remove carbon directly from the air, aren’t we?
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Business of the House
May we have a statement next week from the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in which he can set out his compelling reasons for proceeding with the Henry VIII power of a remedial order to amend the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023 when the Government have already made it clear that they plan to repeal and replace the Act?
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Prisoners of Conscience
It is an enormous privilege to follow the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon), who is a tremendous advocate for the voiceless. May I begin by reiterating the importance of the questions that he has raised and by asking the Minister to address in her winding up the question of what action has followed the telephone call between the Prime Minister and President al-Sisi on the question of pursuing the release of Alaa Abd el-Fattah? Is there any plan for securing the release of Jimmy Lai? We have had many prisoners of conscience of our own. At random, off the top of my head, I could name Thomas More, Dr Barnes, Latimer and Ridley, Cranmer, Archbishop Laud, and even John Bunyan in Bedford jail. A free Parliament that had the will to do so could have campaigned for their release, and history might have been significantly different. The problem for us now is that the prisoners of conscience are well beyond our jurisdiction, so when we raise cases with Ministers, often enough we have no leverage whatsoever with the jurisdictions that have imprisoned them. We can no longer simply deploy the Royal Navy, as we might have done in the past, and as indeed we did when we deployed it to eradicate the scandal of the international slave trade. Even in those jurisdictions where we do have alliances, shared national interests and good diplomatic relations, often enough Governments have bigger fish to fry with respect to regional security and stability, and international trade, so when we raise cases with Ministers, we are told, “These were raised at the highest level”—indeed, when I was a Minister, I raised them at the highest level —but not much action follows. Are we wasting our breath? Are we wasting the House’s time? This is not a counsel of despair. It is essential that we continue to do as the hon. Member for Strangford has done: to persevere. We have to try—we have to try to lift the odd starfish, as he says. At the very least, we will have sent a powerful message to those prisoners, their relatives and their friends that they are not forgotten, that we do campaign for them and, indeed, that we pray for them. We are reminded in chapter 12 of the Acts of the Apostles that St Peter, guarded by four squads and chained between two soldiers, is sprung by an angel. In chapter 16, Paul and Silas are sprung in an earthquake and end up evangelising the prison governor. Until those miraculous days return, however, we are confined to continuing to raise matters with Ministers. Accordingly, I raise the case of Ali Minaei, a young man in Iran who has been in prison for the last year. He was sentenced for having attended a church service in somebody’s home. He also has a severe heart condition. He is denied medical treatment in prison, and has been subject to beatings, including blows to his chest. It is not untypical for Christians in Iran to be sentenced for crimes against state security, to be given long sentences, to have prolonged interrogation, sexual harassment, and beatings, or to be denied privileges that other prisoners have access to. I see young Ali as an architype for all those prisoners of conscience that my hon. Friend the Member for Strangford mentioned, be they imprisoned for advocating for human rights, for their insistence on freedom of expression, or because of their adherence to a minority faith, and whether they be imprisoned in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, North Korea, Afghanistan, Turkey, Egypt, Venezuela or wheresoever. I share a belief with my hon. Friend that there will be a day of liberation, when the prisoners will be freed. But that day of rapture will also be a day of wrath and judgment for their oppressors. We ought all to shrink from that judgment, because we share in the guilt of their tormentors through our inaction and by our silence.
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Energy Prices: Energy-intensive Industries
Why is it better, according to the Government, to import gas from Norway instead of developing our own North sea gas fields?
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Exports: Small Businesses
The Minister will know that Meriden and Solihull East is proud to be the home of Jaguar Land Rover. JLR, the supply chain and the small businesses in it are crucial, not just for the constituency, but in exporting. I have written to the Secretary of State asking for a meeting, and I am very willing to work with the Government on this. I recently visited Washington and spoke to Congress people about the damage that tariffs can do. What is the Minister doing to help not just JLR, but those small businesses, and how we can work together?
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Parkinson’s Awareness Month
I thank the hon. Member for Dunfermline and Dollar (Graeme Downie) for securing this debate and the Backbench Business Committee for allowing it, and I also thank him for the eloquent way he addressed the issue. I do not think I disagreed with him on a single thing. At the risk of repeating some of what he said, I will try to explain why I am standing here today. To be honest, because I had seen the stories of Michael J. Fox and Muhammad Ali, I was previously of the opinion that a huge amount of progress had been made in dealing with Parkinson’s disease. I was recently invited to meet people at the Parkinson’s Café in Balsall common in my constituency, where I had a moment of clarity—as Members of this House, we all go through such moments—and understood that there is a huge gap. There were about 30 carers and people suffering from Parkinson’s, who spoke about their conditions eloquently and bravely. This is a really timely debate on a day when many of us will have demands on our time, given the local elections, and it is a great privilege to speak. As the hon. Member said, Parkinson’s is a hugely debilitating disease. Although a disproportionate number of people get diagnosed in their later years, there is no minimum age threshold, as we saw in the case of Michael J. Fox—in fact, I think he was diagnosed at the age of 29. Parkinson’s can lead to sensory issues, voice changes, facial masking and, of course, movement issues. It really is a significant, life-altering condition, which obviously affects not just the individual but the people around them. I have been astonished to see the lack of care and support for people with Parkinson’s, for which there a number of reasons. The Parky charter has some reasonable and legitimate requests, to which I certainly lend my support. I will work with the Government and support their endeavours in this area, because there are about 153,000 people in the UK who suffer from Parkinson’s. We have a significant number across the borough of Solihull. I had the pleasure of meeting Jane Lindsay, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2019, and a lot of the things that she told me relate directly to the requests in the Parky charter. After receiving a diagnosis and leaving hospital with her husband, Jane did not know anything about the disease. She said to me, “I just wasn’t sure where this will all lead me.” There was a significant lack of support and information, so Jane, who had been in the teaching profession for almost 40 years and spent 17 years as a headteacher, decided that she was going to do something about it. With the help of local GP Sally Frank, she set up the Balsall Common Parkinson’s café in 2022—the date will not be lost on people, as it was at the height of covid. She found that being in touch with other sufferers of Parkinson’s was a “lifeline” because, as the hon. Member for Dunfermline and Dollar said when he recited a poem, she knew people who walked in the same shoes and who shared the same experiences and concerns. Initially, there were only six members of the group, but it has now expanded to at least 30. They are very lucky, because they meet regularly in the church hall, where they get the facilities for free. I commend the church for offering that support. Jane, her husband and GP Sally Frank, along with friends and family, have done an immense amount of work to raise awareness and funds. They have done charity walks, golf days, sponsored half-marathons, afternoon teas, balls, comedy nights, quizzes and croquet games. They have raised over £230,000, which is really valuable. However, only four of the 30 people at the Balsall Common meeting that I attended had the support of a Parkinson’s nurse, which shows the sheer need for the specialist care that is required. The chair of the Solihull branch of Parkinson’s UK, Martin Sewell, said: “This is a great opportunity for us to reach more people affected by the condition in the Solihull area with information and support”. He specifically thanked the people of that Solihull village, who are able to meet in such a marvellous location at the heart of the community. I turn to the Parky charter. The hon. Member for Dunfermline and Dollar mentioned the workforce, which is clearly a really acute issue. That is demonstrated by the fact that only four of the 30 people at the meeting had access to a relevant nurse. I would really welcome the Minister’s reflections on how the NHS long-term workforce plan, which the Conservatives instigated when we were in government, will help to give more support to sufferers of Parkinson’s. As the hon. Member mentioned, there is a significant lack of data on Parkinson’s. I tried to get the figures for how many people in my constituency suffer from Parkinson’s from the House of Commons Library. We were given the waiting lists for neurology departments, but the number of Parkinson’s sufferers was not reported or published anywhere. That is a fundamental issue that I would encourage the Government to look at, and it should certainly be addressed at the very first instance. Some 55% of those waiting for neurological referrals wait more than 18 weeks, so a significant number of people have to wait for a very long time. Those who, like Jane, have very little information are in effect left to their own devices to figure out the next step. I greatly support the Parkinson’s passport, which the Parky charter calls for, not least because it would provide instant access to a blue badge and to free prescriptions. This seems to me to be a logistical or operational need, so if a doctor is able to assess someone and say that they have Parkinson’s, that should set the individual down a neurological pathway that allows this stuff to happen almost instantly. It is something that people with Parkinson’s should not have to worry about. We know how debilitating the disease is, how people will deteriorate and that there is no cure—such individuals are set down that path—so we should look to alleviate some of their concerns. The hon. Member for Dunfermline and Dollar mentioned PIP, and one of the things raised with me at the café was the issue of reassessments and of having to go through all that again. If the reassessments are to see how the individual has deteriorated and what further support needs to be given, that is different from having to go through the rigorous PIP reassessment to see if they are still entitled to it, which is really stressful for people who are already in a very stressful situation. I would greatly support anything that can be done about that, because PIP, certainly in this instance, is a basic lifeline to maintain a level of wellness. I would be interested to hear the Government’s thinking, because while there has been a lot of talk about PIP encouraging people into work, we know that these people are only going to deteriorate, so what support can be given? The real question here is about research and development. I know that the Government have committed £20 billion to R&D funding, but I would be interested to know what their thinking is about supporting the treatment of Parkinson’s. The hon. Member mentioned this, and I join his call for more funding in this field. I did not realise that a lot of the treatments were developed 50 or 60 years ago and that there has been very little progress since, so I would very much support any increase in funding. My remarks have been limited because the hon. Member went through the issues comprehensively, and I thank him for doing so. To steal one of his lines, the Parky charter is really a manifesto for dignity. Probably all of us across the House would agree that we do this job to help the most vulnerable, so if we can make changes to give these individuals dignity, I will certainly support them.
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Business of the House
May I please ask the Leader of the House to outline the forthcoming business?
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Business of the House
I am delighted that the Leader of the House has given time for a general debate on VE Day. It is vital that we remember the sacrifice that each and every one of our communities made through the loss of servicemen for the liberties won for each and every one of us. We will never forget them. If I may, I want to pay tribute to the parliamentary security and policing teams. On Monday evening a friend and I, while on the Terrace, saw a man enter the water outside from Westminster bridge. We ran to report it to a police officer, who took us very seriously and immediately reported it in. Five minutes later, emergency services located the person and evacuated them. I thank the emergency services and that police officer, whose name I did not get, for acting in a timely way. We wish the affected person well, as he was taken to hospital. I am grateful to the Leader of the House for outlining the forthcoming business. She will, I know, be looking forward to the FA cup final on 17 May and will be cheering Manchester City on to victory against Crystal Palace almost as loudly as she heckles Opposition politicians here. I look forward to my team, Southampton, meeting her team later on that month, although from our record I am not sure it will go too well. On the subject of own goals, I am sure Members on both sides of the House will be looking on with some confusion at the chaos in the Government’s ranks following the former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s suggestion that the Government’s plan to phase out fossil fuels in the short term are doomed to fail. That election-winning machine, at whose name many on the Labour Benches now groan at the simple mention of, has spoken sense. Of course, it can be frustrating when former leaders weigh in on debates with contrary views to the parties they once led. Believe me, I know how the Leader of the House and the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero feel—we have had more than our fair share—but the Government know that the former Prime Minister has a point. We know that the Government are dreading the local elections today, the first real test of their performance in the nine months since they took power. What will we see? An ideological kamikaze dive towards net zero carbon emissions that tonight will deliver gains of net zero seats. I pay tribute to candidates of all parties who have taken the step to put their heads above the parapet and who are willing to charge into the political fray. Without them, our democracy would wither. Of course, I would like to wish those standing as Conservative candidates all the best, and I hope the House will understand why I have done that. As voters go to the polls, they will be asking themselves what sort of council they want to represent them and provide vital public services for them and their families. Do they want the high-tax, highly bureaucratic, debt-laden local authorities of Labour, or do they want efficient, effective and accountable local guardians, which they have under the Conservatives? Let us not forget that Conservative councils deliver better services with lower council taxes. We do not have to look any further than Labour-controlled Birmingham, where bin bags have piled up on the streets, to get an idea of the monumental failures of this Labour Government so far. That is to say nothing of the rats, which not only represent a terrible health and safety threat to residents but terrorise the neighbourhoods they infest. They will not be jumping from any sinking ships, but the Government’s past voters certainly are. Why is the Government’s ship sinking? We need only look over at the Labour Benches to see who is to blame. After nine months of Labour Government, the promise of change has ended up in the over-filling bins of the council they control. I will not argue that there have been some changes. The Prime Minister has changed his donor-funded Armani suits many times, while the pensioners that they have made poorer buy their clothes from the charity shops that this Government are taxing to the hilt. Talking of donors, a Labour donor is now becoming the independent football regulator. What a bargain for half a million pounds. Most important are not the changes the Government have made, but the fact that the public have changed their minds about Labour —and how can we blame them? The Office for Budget Responsibility has halved its estimate for growth this year. With the Government’s continued campaign against the elderly, farmers, the self-employed and small business owners, it is no wonder that the Government are so unpopular. They have run out of people to target. There is a saying that actions have consequences. Can the Leader of the House find time to schedule a debate to discuss the consequences of her Government’s economic failures and the woeful actions of their Chancellor? Growth is at all-time low. Taxes and debt are at an all-time high. Businesses and charities are alarmed at how they will keep going. Can we have a debate on that mission for growth and how it is going? I suspect the answer will be no. I want to raise one final topic with the Leader of the House, which I and other colleagues have touched on previously: the long timeframes and poor-quality responses to written correspondence and written questions from Members. As I am sure all Members and the Leader of the House will agree, it is vital that we, as parliamentarians, are able to make representations to the Government and receive responses to our queries in a timely manner, with a reply that takes full account of the questions made. Too many times now, Members have had to raise in this Chamber the response times, or lack of response to their constituency inquiries. The number of written questions being answered by this Government is down, and I have to say that the quality of response is deteriorating. I do hope she will take this up with her Cabinet colleagues. As we go away for our bank holiday, I wish the Leader of the House and all Members a restful weekend, with a chance to spend time with loved ones and, perhaps, put a call in to their Chief Whip. We will return on Tuesday, when we will continue to hold this Government to account for the people of this great country.
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Exports: Small Businesses
Last year our trade deficit was £32 billion and, apart from during the pandemic, we have run a deficit every year since 1998. Does the Minister agree that the trade deficit brings severe economic consequences, and is it Government policy to reduce it over the course of this Parliament?
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Topical Questions
According to reports in The Guardian, Government sources have said that issues around visas have been resolved as part of the Government’s free trade agreement negotiations with India. Will the Secretary of State rule out visa liberalisation as part of those negotiations?
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Prisoners of Conscience
I declare my interest as an unpaid trustee of the Index on Censorship. Thinking specifically about regimes such as that in Russia, and the importance of allowing journalists, activists and others to achieve a level of freedom of expression in those very repressive regimes, what would the hon. Gentleman say about the support given via different Government agencies for people in those sorts of situations?
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Prisoners of Conscience
I was pleased by the Minister’s answer to my right hon. Friend the Member for Tonbridge (Tom Tugendhat). If we are talking about freedom of expression internationally, we have to be incredibly careful about freedom of expression in our own country. While Ministers often say that they oppose blasphemy laws, we have seen section 4 of the Public Order Act 1986 used to prosecute people for acts of protest, including damaging the Koran. Is this not, in reality, the development of a back-door blasphemy law?
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Business of the House
I call Jim Shannon to ask the final question.
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Business of the House
If the Leader of the House will oblige, there is one more final question.
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Point of Order
The hon. Member has put his point on the record. I cannot ensure that the appropriate Minister will visit his constituency, but the whole House is now invited, no doubt on the same day, so I wish him well.
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Parkinson’s Awareness Month
We now come to the Front Benchers. I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.
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Parkinson’s Awareness Month
I call the shadow Minister.
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Energy Prices: Energy-intensive Industries
On net zero, I think there is a national consensus on making the environment better, creating green jobs and improving energy security, but will the Minister recognise that for many people, consumers and companies out there—particularly small businesses, by the way; it is not all about large ones—there is too much happening, too soon and too fast? Rather than having regressive and punitive taxes on industry and small businesses, there should be more education and more incentives to change consumer and company behaviour.
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Business of the House
Thankfully, there is mostly consensus across the House on a two-state solution, but I am not sure that that consensus applies in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. There appears to be a slight emerging difference between the Minister for the middle east, the hon. Member for Lincoln (Mr Falconer), and the Foreign Secretary on the timing of the recognition of the Palestinian state. The Minister said a few days ago that the recognition needed to consider practical things on the ground such as legal, governance and security, while the Foreign Secretary has suggested over the past 24 hours that recognition should come before a settlement on a two-state solution, so there seems to be some confusion. Given the importance of the Palestinian people having a stable and secure future without Hamas, may we have an urgent debate about the two-state solution, and will the Leader of the House assure us that, when recognition of a Palestinian state comes, we will have a full debate as well as a vote?
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Business of the House
Earlier in the week, Mr Speaker, you granted an urgent question on the very serious issue of a music band who had allegedly told their supporters, “The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.” That is now quite rightly under police investigation. However, as of today, they remain on the bill for Glastonbury this year. Will the Leader of the House reassure us that if the band remain on the bill, she will not attend, and that she will also discourage all her Cabinet colleagues from attending ?