Business of the House

Adam Jogee Excerpts

Thursday 30th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Dawn Butler (Brent East) (Lab)]

Brent is known as the reggae capital of Europe. Bob Marley wrote some of his best hits there, and we have Janet Kay and Carroll Thompson, who celebrate their birthdays this week, too. Today, in the Jubilee Room, we will be honouring one of the lead singers of Boney M, Liz Mitchell. As people will know, the band’s hits include “Daddy Cool”, “Rasputin” and “Rivers of Babylon”.

[Adam Jogee (Newcastle-under-Lyme) (Lab)]

Sing it!

[Dawn Butler]

I would sing it, but my voice is a little bit croaky today.

Will the Leader of the House join me in congratulating Liz Mitchell? Maybe we should have a debate in Government time about music and how it can be a unifier and bring about community cohesion.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lucy Powell]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for welcoming the Government’s commitment to alleviating passenger congestion in the south-east, and for his local airport’s commitment to doing that, which I am sure we all welcome. He raises some serious matters, which were mentioned at Prime Minister’s questions yesterday, about the Drax organisation and whether public funds have been used appropriately. This Government take such reports incredibly seriously, and I will ensure that the House is updated in due course.

[Adam Jogee (Newcastle-under-Lyme) (Lab)]

I too wish the shadow Minister a happy birthday. In October 2024, people from across Newcastle-under-Lyme came together for the unveiling of a wonderful statue of Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in Queen’s Gardens. There has been much talk of Heathrow airport in recent days. As our nation will mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of the late Queen in April 2026, will the Leader of the House back my calls to rename Heathrow after Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II? What a wonderful tribute that would be to a lifetime of service to the country and the Commonwealth.

[Lucy Powell]

I thank my hon. Friend for raising that excellent idea with me. He is absolutely right that we need to appropriately mark the late Queen’s extraordinary 70-year reign in a very big way, given all that she contributed to our public life and national identity. He will be aware that the Queen Elizabeth Memorial Committee has been set up to consider how best we could do that, and I will ensure that his suggestion is fed into that committee.