Jim Shannon
The right hon. Gentleman is most kind. I am giving just a slight reminder of what Christmas is about. I think we all realise that, but sometimes it is good to remind ourselves of it. The example of Christ is one of humility, coming to the earth as a vulnerable baby, and of purpose, as we see the gold given that symbolises royalty, the frankincense to highlight his deity and myrrh to symbolise his purposeful death to redeem us all.
I am a strong advocate in this House for freedom of religion or belief, as the Leader of the House knows. She is always very kind; every week, when I suggest something that should be highlighted, she always takes those things back to the Ministers responsible. I appreciate that very much, as do others in this House. I am proud to be associated with that wonderful cause, and as long as God spares me I will speak for the downtrodden of my own faith and others. I speak for all faiths, because that is who I am, and so do others in this House with the same belief.
At the same time, however, like Her late Majesty, I am proud to be a follower of Christ. At this time of year I simply want the House to know the hope that can be found in Christ, not simply at Christmas, but for a lifetime. The babe of Bethlehem was Christ on the cross and our redeemer at the resurrection, and that gives me hope and offers hope for those who accept him and it.
From the bottom of my heart, Mr Deputy Speaker, I thank you in particular, since you have presided over this speech and the past few hours. I thank Mr Speaker and all the other Deputy Speakers, with all the things that are happening to them, the Clerks and every staff member in this place for the tremendous job they do and the graceful spirit in which everything has been carried out in the last year. I thank right hon. and hon. Members, who are friends all—I say that honestly to everyone.
I thank my long-suffering wife, who is definitely long-suffering, and my mum—
The Leader of the House of Commons (Penny Mordaunt)
The hon. Gentleman has often summed up how people feel, particularly at this time of year. I know he has had losses over the past few years, and he always manages to sum up the feeling of this House. Many Members in this debate have spoken about constituents or family they have lost, and we appreciate his bringing up these issues, as I appreciate all Members’ doing so. There will be some people thinking about spending Christmas apart from family they are not able to see, or having suffered those losses. I thank him and we are all willing him strength as he continues his speech.
Jim Shannon
I thank the Leader of the House for that. I mentioned my long-suffering wife; we have been married 34 years, so she is very long-suffering, and that is probably a good thing, because we are still together. My mum is 91 years old and I suspect she is sitting watching the Parliament channel right now to see what her eldest son is up to and what he is saying, so again that is something.
I also thank my staff members. I told one of my Opposition colleagues last week that I live in a woman’s world, because I have six girls in my office who look after me and make sure I am right. The hon. Members for Bosworth (Dr Evans) and for Cardiff West (Kevin Brennan) referred to AI, but I must say I am not converted to it. I am not even sure what it is, to be perfectly honest. However, I know one thing: when it comes to writing speeches, Naomi writes the speeches for me and she does it extremely well, and I will maintain that human touch as long as I can.
Lastly, I thank my Strangford constituents, who have stuck by me as a councillor, as a Member of the Legislative Assembly and as a Member of Parliament in this House. This is my 30th year of service in local government and elsewhere. They have been tremendously kind to me and I appreciate them. I want to put on record what a privilege it is to serve them in this House and to do my best for them.
I wish everyone a happy Christmas, and may everyone have a prosperous, peaceful and blessed new year, as we take the example of Christ and act with humility and purpose in this place to effect the change that we all want and that is so needed in our nation—this great United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, always better together.
The Leader of the House of Commons (Penny Mordaunt)
I thank all hon. Members who have spoken in today’s debate. When we think of Adjournment debates, as many hon. Members have said, we think of our dear late colleague Sir David Amess. As the debate developed today and we spoke about AI, I wondered what would happen if we asked the relevant apps to write an pre-recess Adjournment debate speech in the style of Sir David. Many hon. Members spoke about lots of different issues and carefully crafted their speeches by weaving those issues into a central theme or linking them, but Sir David proved that that was totally unnecessary. We certainly miss him, and we miss his contributions.
I know that Sir David would be incredibly proud of the success of the Music Man project—a choir and orchestra of people with learning disabilities who have already played the London Palladium and the Royal Albert Hall and who now have a hit single out that went to No. 10 in the iTunes chart last week. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Southend West (Anna Firth) for encouraging anyone who has not already bought it to please buy it, because it would be fantastic if it was the Christmas No. 1. That is just one of the many fantastic cultural organisations in Southend West. If she is having difficulty encouraging her local council to be as ambitious as the Music Man project, she might wish to play the single in the council chamber at its next meeting.
The speech of my hon. Friend the Member for Bosworth (Dr Evans) was a parliamentary first, and in using AI he gave me ideas about how I will handle my next meeting with the Standards Committee. He reminds us that we must pick up the pace and move with the speed that business and science needs us to. I thank him for his thoughtful speech. Similarly, the hon. Member for Cardiff West (Kevin Brennan)—henceforth known as KI—spoke about AI and the music industry. I hope that we can look forward to the standard of speeches in this place being considerably raised in the new year.
I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman) for opening the debate and I congratulate his local council on the reinvigoration of the high street. He mentioned the security fund for places of worship, which of course covers Hindu temples and has been bolstered. I also thank him for mentioning the trade negotiations with India, with which we already have a £30 billion trading relationship. It will be the third largest economy in the world by 2050, so it is vital that we can access it.
I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Darlington (Peter Gibson) on securing £620 million for his constituency since 2019, on his playgrounds project and on commemorating Pilot Officer William McMullen of 428 Squadron, who perished because he remained at the controls and saved enormous numbers of lives. In a similar vein, my right hon. Friend the Member for Beckenham (Bob Stewart) spoke movingly about the Ballykelly bombing; we thank him for placing on the record the names of all those who were killed. We will never forget.
The hon. Members for Batley and Spen (Kim Leadbeater) and for Reading East (Matt Rodda) spoke about the Online Safety Bill. As the hon. Member for Batley and Spen will know, that is returning on 16 January. Although it is not exactly where she wants it to be, I thank her for recognising that it is an important step forward. I will pass on to the Health Secretary her request for a meeting with Solving Kids’ Cancer. I also thank her for raising the importance of voluntary and social organisations, especially at this time of year. We would all echo her thanks to emergency services and key workers at this time.
My hon. Friend the Member for Wantage (David Johnston) spoke movingly about his constituent Hasnath; we are sorry to hear of his passing. It sounds like he lived an incredible life and has left a very important legacy for the constituency.
I turn to the speech made by the hon. Member for Nottingham South (Lilian Greenwood). Like many others today, she spoke about a tragic event, and I put on the record my sympathies and condolences to her constituents. She gave us a Dickens-themed speech and I would like to reply in a similar vein. If we were visited by the ghost of Christmas past, we would remember that in the time it took us to put up council tax by 36%, Labour put it up by 110%, and in the time it took us to reduce fuel duty by 7.5%, Labour put it up by 42%—we would be paying £1,000 extra in council tax a year and £40 extra to fill up our cars. The defence budget is in balance now; when we came to office, it was £71 billion in deficit.
The ghost of Christmas present would look at the work we have been doing to assist people through this difficult period in the wake of the pandemic and because of the Ukraine war. There is a package of £26 billion in the next financial year to support people, the maintenance of the triple lock and the introduction of the largest ever increase in the national living wage for 2 million workers. I hope that the hon. Member for Lewisham East (Janet Daby) is able to appreciate the modernisation of the welfare system that universal credit has brought. Without it, I think legacy systems would have collapsed during the pandemic.
The wishes of the hon. Member for Nottingham South—that the ghost of Christmas future would bring a Labour Government—were echoed by the hon. Member for Rhondda (Chris Bryant). I would not share those wishes, having seen how Labour operates in Wales, where waiting lists are five times longer than in England and teacher numbers are down by 10%.
The hon. Member for Rhondda raised a number of important consumer issues, including energy companies; that theme was also echoed by my right hon. Friend the Member for Rayleigh and Wickford (Mr Francois). I am sorry to hear about the issues my right hon. Friend has been having with regard to King Edmund School and about the lift issues in his local block. The hon. Member for Rhondda also mentioned home insulation. The new £1 billion scheme, which is in addition to the £6.6 billion help to heat scheme, is helping improve the efficiency rating of homes. When we took office, 13% of homes had ratings of C or above; the figure is now 46% and we are on target to raise that to include every home.
The hon. Member for Stockport (Navendu Mishra) also spoke about consumer-related issues, particularly in respect of his local authority. He is right to hold his local authority to account on debt collection, which is incredibly important. I encourage him to take up the services offered by the Department for International Trade with regard to opening up opportunities, particularly when it comes to the trade deal with India.
I am glad to hear that my hon. Friend the Member for Congleton (Fiona Bruce) is pleased at the energy efficiency funds recently released for schools and that she is making progress on her football pitches. She raised a couple of questions, and she should talk to the district or borough monitoring officers about holding parish councils to account. I shall ensure that the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has heard her concerns, as well as the development issues she raises. I have heard her suggestions on SMEs and, like many Members, she raised the quality of rail services.
My hon. Friend the Member for Cleethorpes (Martin Vickers) also mentioned rail services, and particularly the franchise governing the TransPennine Express. He gave us his Christmas list, which includes a Cleethorpes to Kings Cross via Grimsby line, his campaign for Humber port, and to ensure that he gets a devolution deal for his county and unitary authorities. The hon. Member for Luton South (Rachel Hopkins) rightly thanked family and friends—we sometimes do not do that in this place—and raised the issue of the menopause campaign, which is something that Members across the House have worked on together and enabled good things to happen. More is needed, but good progress has been made this year. I put on record my sympathies for her friend Michelle, and thank her for raising the importance of screening.
My hon. Friend the Member for Gloucester (Richard Graham) raised the sad loss of his brother Jeremy, and my thoughts are with him and his sister-in-law, Sophie. He rightly raised the importance of innovation in healthcare, and often it is healthcare professionals who come up with the most innovative ideas. I agree completely with what he said about the importance of alcohol screening and getting bespoke services for people. I also thank him for raising the importance of CPTPP, a £9 trillion market that—critically—will also increase the number of high-wage jobs in this country.
My hon. Friend the Member for Buckingham (Greg Smith) also gave us his Christmas wish list, which includes a banking hub and road funding—I shall ensure that the Department for Transport has heard about the latter. The hon. Member for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney (Gerald Jones) spoke about a tragedy in his constituency, as did my hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent Central (Jo Gideon) who mentioned the tragedy that has led to her button batteries campaign. I say to both colleagues that my door is always open to assist them with advice on legislation that they want to bring forward.
The hon. Members for Twickenham (Munira Wilson), for Bath (Wera Hobhouse), and for York Central (Rachael Maskell) understandably focused on healthcare. Dental care is not just about funding—at the start of this year we had a massive increase in dental funding—but it is about workforce issues, and flexibility in commissioning. I know that the Minister is gripping that issue. Over the past 12 months there have been substantial changes and there will be more to follow. Patient care is at the heart of this. We have spoken a lot, understandably, about the strike situation, but our focus needs to be on patient care.
We had a huge catch-up job to do following the pandemic. It is the biggest and most ambitious catch- up job in the NHS’s entire history, and just in the past 12 months immense progress has been made to reduce the backlog, through elective recovery—the first target in the elective recovery plan has been met—through taskforces, and through eliminating waits of over two years for treatment, as well as reducing the number of people waiting 18 months for treatment by almost 60% this year. As many colleagues have done, we must pay a huge tribute to our healthcare professionals and those who support them in that. I could mention many other things we have done, including new diagnostic centres. A lot of the waiting list is because of diagnostic care, and it is vital that we crack through that.
My hon. Friends the Members for Don Valley (Nick Fletcher) and for Warrington South (Andy Carter) also gave us their wish list. My hon. Friend the Member for Don Valley wished for a second university technical college and he is a diligent campaigner for his airport. He wants a new school and a health centre. The hon. Member for Warrington South is rightly celebrating his success in securing a new MRI scanner and the £42 million that he has for his local transport services.
The hon. Member for Reading East (Matt Rodda), joined by my right hon. Friend the Member for Reading West (Alok Sharma), has been campaigning to save and preserve the jail, which I know well—not because I lived there; I lived in Reading for a time. I wish him good luck with that. I will certainly write to the MOD with regard to Gurkha pensions.
Many hon. Members have mentioned international issues, including Afghanistan, Iran—we will debate Iran on 12 January—the humanitarian situation in Armenia and, of course, Ukraine. I thank the hon. Member for Tiverton and Honiton (Richard Foord) for highlighting the campaign for us to switch off our Christmas lights for an hour.
The right hon. Member for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn) and the SNP spokesman, the hon. Member for Glasgow South West (Chris Stephens), made traditionally consistent speeches in both the views and topics they raised, as praised by my hon. Friend the Member for Cleethorpes. The hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) should never have to apologise for mentioning Christ in this place—especially at Christmas. We are in a place where the architecture is designed to turn our faces to God. I thank him for his Christmas message.
We have had quotes from the Bible, the Sugababes, Grace Jones, Dickens, AI and the Pimlico tube board. I want to close by giving some other quotes. As we await the King’s first Christmas speech, it is most appropriate to give hon. Members, in my last minute, a precis of Her late Majesty’s messages to us at Christmas, because they chimed with me as the debate was going on. In 1957, she said:
“It has always been easy to hate and destroy. To build and to cherish is much more difficult.”
In 1991, she said:
“None of us has a monopoly on wisdom…we must always be ready to listen and respect other points of view.”
In 2018 she said that “faith, family and friends” are our constant. In 1974, she said:
“We may hold different points of view but it is in times of stress and difficulty that we…have much more in common than there is dividing us.”
That particularly chimes with us today. Finally, in 2008, she said:
“When life seems hard, the courageous do not lie down and accept defeat; instead, they are all the more determined to struggle for a better future.”
That has run through many of the themes of the debate. My thanks also go to all the House staff, the Doorkeepers, cleaners, Clerks, catering, police and security staff, broadcasters, Hansard and, of course, our constituency staff and civil servants, who all come together to make this place function. Of course, our thanks go to Mr Speaker and his team. I wish you all a very merry and, hopefully, peaceful Christmas.
Hon. Members