Sir David Amess Summer Adjournment

Adam Jogee Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Josh Babarinde (Eastbourne) (LD)]

It is an honour to speak in this debate, named after the late Sir David Amess, to whom I wish to pay tribute. I also use this opportunity to pay tribute to the late Ian Gow, one of my predecessors as a hard-working Member of Parliament for Eastbourne, who was appallingly assassinated in 1990, and whose shield is on the door above the entrance to this Chamber. I thank all those involved in keeping MPs and our teams safe today, with special mention to PC Will Bayley, who has helped my team and me to manage some concerning threats to us.

It has been an action-packed first year as Eastbourne’s Member of Parliament. Working with incredible campaigners from across our town and beyond, we have: secured the reopening of Eastbourne district general hospital for births after months of closure; won our campaign for a direct train from Eastbourne to London Bridge and back; successfully led a national campaign to reform the law on domestic abuse; worked with campaigners to save Linden Court day centre for people with learning disabilities from closure; worked with local residents to protect the Sovereign Centre, where I learned to swim, from losing its pools; worked with Government and others to lock in £20 million in neighbourhood funding, which we thought we might lose after the election, to regenerate our town; and much, much more. However, one year in, after taking up more than 11,000 cases for residents, and more than 200 mentions of Eastbourne in the Chamber later, there is still much more to do.

We need to fix our temporary accommodation catastrophe, which has been triggered by a housing shortage that can be addressed only if we build more housing and properly regulate temporary accommodation. We have a particular shortage of three-bedroom homes in Eastbourne, which is causing a huge challenge.

As many other Members have said of their constituencies, we need to address the SEND crisis in our town, because families such as the Wilcocks and hundreds of others are left without the educational provision that they need.

We need Southern Water to get a grip of the foul stench its water treatment works have been emitting across our town in recent months, blighting the lives of residents in Langney Point and beyond. We need a fix to this problem now, not next year, as Southern Water has said. Frankly, the CEO should be denied his outrageous pay rise while this issue remains and until local residents have been properly compensated.

Beyond our shores, in response to the appalling situation in Israel and Gaza and on the west bank, the Government must continue to push for the release of all hostages, urge for aid to be let unobstructed into Gaza, ban arms sales to the Israeli Government, recognise a state of Palestine, and further sanction the Israeli Government when they infringe international law, and that includes sanctions on Netanyahu himself.

It is an honour to have been elected to represent the town that made me the person I am—the town whose teachers believed in me, whose scout leaders challenged me and whose local businesses took a punt on me by giving me my first job. I hope to be able to represent our town for many, many years to come.

As we draw to the end of our time before the summer recess, I would like to extend a very open invitation to Eastbourne to any hon. Member who has not yet booked their summer holiday. Eastbourne is officially the sunniest town in the UK. It has more hours of sunlight than anywhere else in the country—to the disdain of the hon. Member for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton (Alison Griffiths). I hope that Members will come and sample some of the best of Eastbourne delights.

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

rose—

[Josh Babarinde]

I will not take the hon. Member’s intervention, unless he is going to confirm my point. [Interruption.] Okay, I will take his intervention.

[Adam Jogee]

One of the highlights of my first year has been being confused with the hon. Gentleman on several occasions, including being left with his dinner receipt in the Members’ dining room. So, if I do go to Eastbourne, I hope that he will pick up the bill for once.

[Josh Babarinde]

I certainly owe the hon. Member one, but that is not quite as bad as when I was mistaken for another mixed race Member when I once forgot my pass and was granted a pass of somebody else—who may or may not be the hon. Member for Huntingdon (Ben Obese-Jecty). I did not settle the bill left with the hon. Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme (Adam Jogee), but I look forward to continuing to exchange stories about mistaken identity in the WhatsApp group—the DEI crew—that we have created. Currently, I think it is 11-5 to me in being mistaken more times than the hon. Member for Huntingdon, but I am sure that there will be many more adventures and shenanigans on that front as time goes on.

I will if I may return to my point in my last 30 seconds. I say to hon. Members that Eastbourne is open for business. It is open for their custom and it is open for their leisure. Our 94 individual beaches await.

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

I join colleagues in remembering Sir David Amess.

I want to acknowledge the death of my father-in-law last month. He was a wise, kind and decent man, and will be missed by us all. I am grateful to all colleagues for the kindness shown to me and my wife, although I do remain very, very cross that I was forced to travel back to this place to vote on the day that my father-in-law died. Members who have been accused of criminal behaviour can vote by proxy, but people with dying relatives cannot. That is off the mark. It is unacceptable, and it must change.

It has been a privilege to serve the good people of Newcastle-under-Lyme over the past year. Being the voice of our community in Parliament is the honour of my life, and I am conscious of that responsibility every single day. In my maiden speech, I made tackling Walley’s Quarry landfill site my No. 1 priority. We ran the cowboy operators out of town, secured the closure notice, and closed the place down. I am grateful to the Environment Agency for the work it has done in recent weeks to stabilise the situation. Our focus must now be on the safe and secure restoration of the site.

The special educational needs and disabilities crisis in Staffordshire has been firmly on my agenda since the election. I have stood with, and up for, the parents and carers who must navigate a broken system every day to get their children and young people the support they need and deserve.

Fixing our roads has also been a real priority. That is why I launched my great potholes survey, empowering local people to help me hold the county council to account. We have seen action on Lower Milehouse Lane in Cross Heath, Pepper Street in Silverdale and Dunkirk in the town centre, but we need much more. I hope that those on the county council, who seemingly watch lots of my speeches in the Chamber, will listen to my call to use the money that this Labour Government have given them to get on with the job.

The events in the middle east are unforgivable and inexplicable. The deaths of innocent women, men and children on our screens are beyond comprehension. I was raised to believe that actions have consequences, so I urge Ministers to do whatever they can to hold the Netanyahu regime to account, to ensure that this war ends and to recognise the state of Palestine. A two-state solution requires two states. It is a simple as that.

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend one of Keele university’s graduation ceremonies. I send big congratulations to all the graduates and their families and pay tribute to Professor Trevor McMillan, who is standing down as vice-chancellor. I wish him, his wife Chris and their family well.

I shall keep urging Ministers over the next year to give real support to the Coalfields Regeneration Trust. I have made this case before. The Government have got a lot right, so let us get this right, too. We need justice for members of the British Coal staff superannuation scheme as it is long, long overdue, and I urge my colleagues in Government to get this matter over the line.

We need more support for our ceramics industry in Newcastle-under-Lyme and Staffordshire more broadly. I know from meeting my constituents in local businesses such as Silverdale Bathrooms that there is much more that we need to do. I will keep fighting for local jobs. FedEx, which plans to cut 400 jobs, must change its mind. We cannot lose jobs in our industrial heartlands to affluent communities in the south.

I said to our farmers on Saturday that I have their backs and remain their champion. Happy recess, Madam Deputy Speaker.