Sir David Amess Summer Adjournment

Alex Mayer Excerpts

Thursday 16th July 2026 Commons Chamber

[Alex Mayer (Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard) (Lab)]

First, I have to say to the Leader of the House that I have a complaint about this Labour Government: it has entirely messed up the pattern of my life! At the beginning of every year, I used to know what I was going to be doing: I would be standing outside a train station, complaining about Tory fare rises—but no more! This Labour Government have introduced the first fare freeze in 30 years, alongside bringing in Great British Railways.

Come Easter, I would be campaigning about hens and eggs, as we would all be thinking about them. I have always thought that it is unfair that it should be allowed for hens to be in cages no bigger than the size of an A4 piece of paper, with no ability to display their natural behaviours, flap around and do the things that hens should be doing. They are called enhanced cages; I always thought that the marketing people had really earned their stripes by calling them that, because they are absolutely confinement cages. But again, this Labour Government are sorting it out. They are ensuring that, as part of the biggest change to animal welfare in a generation, we are going to get rid of those cages. I even heard today that the Government are consulting on fireworks, so I have no idea what I will be campaigning about come November!

There is a summer campaign, though, that this Labour Government still need to sort out. In the first month that I came to this place, I asked about maximum working temperatures and was told by the Minister that they were going to work to bring forward discussions with the Health and Safety Executive. By 2025, I was told by Ministers that they had given approval for the HSE to look into it, and this year I was told that the HSE is looking into it and that there would be a consultation in due course. I would say that is slow and steady—perhaps a little too slow, because there is a climate emergency. I do not think many people would deny that, except perhaps for some on the opposition Benches

I have heard story after story from my constituents over the recent heatwaves of unsafe working temperatures in factories, shops, offices and classrooms. I was looking back at some of the previous debates on this subject, because Parliament has actually been talking about temperatures for workers for many years. The brilliant people in the Library actually showed me Hansard reports from the 1930s, which was the first time MPs were really talking about monitoring temperatures in workplaces and ensuring that there was a thermometer in every factory. It was at that time that the idea of minimum working temperatures was put into place.

Today we absolutely have to ensure that there is a maximum temperature in place as well. It is something that there is widespread support for. It is very similar to the minimum working temperature. Looking at the debates from the 1930s, we can see that workers were feeling unwell and were actually unproductive in temperatures that are not acceptable. Fast forward to our changed climate now, and the same is true today.

I think this is something we really must get our teeth into at speed. The climate has changed, and so must our laws.