Middle East: Economic Response

Andrew Cooper Excerpts

Thursday 21st May 2026 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Reeves]

I would encourage bus companies to use this as an opportunity to increase the services they offer this summer as they cater for more young people on their buses. I am sure that many hon. and right hon. Members will have enjoyed days out at the aquarium in Scarborough and dinner at the Magpie in Whitby, which serves very good fish and chips.

[Andrew Cooper (Mid Cheshire) (Lab)]

Madam Deputy Speaker, you will of course be aware that the best summer attraction is the Northwich piña colada festival, which is enjoyed by boys and girls of all ages.

I thank the Chancellor for her statement. The relief she is providing to the chemicals industry will be welcomed by sector businesses in Mid Cheshire. Their expertise and innovation contribute significantly to both local employment and national resilience. I have previously spoken about the rising input costs and regulatory challenges that these businesses face, and I look forward to hearing more about how she will consult with the industry on eligibility for the funds. Does she agree that the forthcoming summit with the EU presents an opportunity to bear down on regulation further by seeking alignment and mutual recognition on the UK and EU REACH—registration, evaluation, authorisation and restriction of chemicals—regulations?

[Rachel Reeves]

I am slightly worried that someone will make a point of order about the age at which people are allowed to enjoy the Northwich piña colada festival.

Yes, we will be consulting on chemicals and ceramics to ensure that we give businesses the right support, but we do not want a long consultation to get in the way of actually getting the support to those businesses. My hon. Friend made an important point about our trading relationship with our nearest neighbours and trading partners. We are proud to be a Government who have done trade deals with the Republic of Korea, the United States, India and, yesterday, the Gulf countries. However, the biggest prize is a trade deal and improved trading relations with our nearest neighbours and trading partners in the EU, and I hope that we will make progress on that in the next few months.

High Speed 2: Impact on Communities

Andrew Cooper Excerpts

Tuesday 19th May 2026 Commons Chamber

[Joy Morrissey]

Communication can be very poor in certain regions, and they it may improve, but then it may become even worse. There will be isolated incidents when one constituent has been left out in the cold and is being forced into bankruptcy, and feels desperate. Until an MP gets involved, such people may feel that there is no hope, and that is a terrible feeling to have when we should be able to find a solution. This has also had a negative impact on green spaces and green corridors. In my patch, the Colne Valley Regional Park was opposed to the project because of the impact that the construction would have on wildlife, and on this sanctuary that constitutes a green corridor separating us from London.

[Andrew Cooper (Mid Cheshire) (Lab)]

I thank the hon. Lady for giving way; she is being very generous with her time. She talks about green spaces. My constituency is in a section of the route that has now been cancelled, and is in the process of being removed from the Bill. We still have planning safeguards in place, and uncapped boreholes from ground investigations. Our situation mirrors that of my hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme (Adam Jogee), in that we have void properties, as does the constituency of my neighbour, the right hon. Member for Tatton (Esther McVey). Ours have been void for a long time, and HS2 is not letting them; it is just leaving them empty. Does the hon. Lady agree that there needs to be a proper winding-up plan for the sections of the route where construction has not started and will never start because it has been cancelled?

[Joy Morrissey]

Absolutely. A winding-up contingency plan for areas where HS2 is not continuing needs to be put in place. Seeing properties just sitting there, when everyone knows that they will not be used, is maddening for the entire community. It also depletes property values and causes wildlife and conservation issues. These are ongoing problems, so residents need some reassurance, and I think that across the House we agree on that.

In Colne valley, for example, HS2 was building a 3.5 km concrete viaduct that will blight the natural beauty of my area and Hillingdon.

Middle East: Economic Update

Andrew Cooper Excerpts

Tuesday 24th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Cooper (Mid Cheshire) (Lab)]

My constituents are being exploited by unscrupulous petrol retailers who are not letting a crisis go to waste. At BP in Winsford unleaded is 10p more per litre than the cheapest price in the area, and at Shell in Middlewich it is 15p more per litre. Does the Competition and Markets Authority have the powers that it needs to clamp down on this unscrupulous behaviour?

[Rachel Reeves]

We have introduced the cheaper fuel finder to ensure that my hon. Friend and, most crucially, his constituents have that information. People in France can already see the different prices of petrol at different filling stations on a map via an app or their sat-nav. That is where we will be in just a few weeks’ time once we have the technology working with those companies. The previous Government had 14 years to introduce something like that, and other countries have already done so while we went without. Having the fuel finder tool means that all our constituents can fill up at the cheapest cost.

Covid-19: Financial Support

Andrew Cooper Excerpts

Thursday 15th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Cooper (Mid Cheshire) (Lab)]

I thank the hon. Member for Stratford-on-Avon (Manuela Perteghella) for securing this really important debate. When the covid-19 pandemic unfolded, it tested every part of our society. It pushed our health system, our communities and our economy to the brink. In that moment of crisis, emergency financial support was rightly created at unprecedented speed. Those measures protected millions, but despite the scale of that effort, far too many people were left behind. The ExcludedUK campaign emerged because an estimated 3.8 million individuals fell through the gaps in pandemic financial support. Those were freelancers, newly self-employed people, small business owners, PAYE short-term contractors and others whose circumstances simply did not fit the rigid eligibility rules. They were contributing members of society who paid taxes, built businesses and supported local economies, yet at the moment they needed help most, many found none.

That includes constituents in Mid Cheshire, many of whom contacted me ahead of the debate. They had done everything asked of them—they had built livelihoods and paid their taxes—but still found themselves excluded from support when the pandemic hit. People saw their livelihoods disappear overnight. Some were forced to drain life savings, sell belongings or take on unsustainable debt just to survive. They felt unheard, unseen and unvalued by the systems meant to protect them.

Tragically, for some, the emotional and financial devastation became unbearable. Each of those lives lost is a reminder that policy decisions are not abstract; they reach deeply into homes, families and futures. We must not only recognise and acknowledge the impact that exclusion had on those individuals but show renewed determination to ensure that such gaps never re-emerge. The pandemic has taught us something essential: economic resilience is public health resilience. There can be no effective emergency response if large groups of people are left without support. A society is only as strong as its most vulnerable moment.

As the UK continues to develop its preparedness planning for future pandemics and national emergencies, it is vital that support systems are designed with the flexibility to meet people where they actually are, not where policy assumes them to be. That means ensuring that any future emergency financial support schemes are properly stress-tested in advance against real-world employment patterns so that they reflect the diversity of modern working lives before they are ever deployed. No one contributing to the economy should face a crisis without a lifeline.

Mental health impacts must be treated as a central component of emergency planning, not an afterthought. Just as importantly, the voices of those previously excluded should be included in future policy discussions so that lived experience shapes the solutions of tomorrow. Preparedness must mean more than storing equipment or writing contingency documents; it must mean designing a compassionate, comprehensive safety net that recognises the full spectrum of working lives in the UK and ensures that the mistakes of the past are not repeated.

[Matt Turmaine]

Covid-19 clearly had an enormous impact on the economy of the world and the UK. In terms of preparing ourselves for any future threat under these circumstances, does my hon. Friend agree that the fraud and corruption facilitated by the previous Government was an absolute disgrace? It is up to this Labour Government to get our money back and solve those problems.

[Andrew Cooper]

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has done exactly the right thing by setting up the covid corruption commissioner. During the pandemic, there were those who saw it not as a moment of national emergency in which we should all get together, but as an opportunity to line their own pockets. The Chancellor is doing exactly the right thing by trying to root out those people and make sure that they suffer the consequences.

We cannot change what happened, but we can choose what happens next. Let us learn the lessons from past schemes that left too many people excluded, and move forward by building systems that protect everyone. Let us ensure that in any future crisis, we never again leave millions to face hardship alone. What specific steps will the Government take to ensure that any future emergency financial support schemes are designed with the flexibility, fairness and real-world applicability needed to prevent millions from ever again being excluded in their moment of greatest need?

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Caroline Nokes)]

There will now be a formal four-minute time limit.

Horse and Rider Road Safety

Andrew Cooper Excerpts

Wednesday 14th January 2026 Westminster Hall

[Mr Dillon]

I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention, and I ask him to pass on my best wishes to his constituent. That shows why the debate is so important, because this is a daily reality on our national highways.

Behind all the figures we talk about, there is a rider, a family and a community affected by trauma and loss. I was contacted by many people from across the country when they heard about this debate. Laura from Essex experienced a devastating accident while riding her horse, Angel. The pair were struck by a car travelling at 53 mph. Laura was extremely fortunate to survive, but tragically Angel, who was just three years old, did not. That incident starkly illustrates the life-threatening dangers that riders face when sharing the road with fast-moving vehicles, and the heartbreaking consequences that can follow.

[Andrew Cooper (Mid Cheshire) (Lab)]

Like the hon. Gentleman, a constituent contacted me ahead of this debate and told me that, although many motorists act responsibly, there is an increasing problem with drivers behaving more aggressively and passing horses at unsafe distances. Given that horses can react unpredictably when they think their lives are at risk, that puts everybody’s lives at risk. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that teaching equestrian safety as part of driver training would be an important way of tackling this issue?

[Mr Dillon]

I absolutely do, and I will come to that later in my speech and also highlight some of the good work happening in police forces across the country on driver awareness, once drivers have been caught going too close to a horse.

Turning to my own constituency, in Lambourn the horseracing industry contributes over £22 million to the local economy each year and supports approximately one in three jobs in the area. It is not just an emotional issue; it is a financial one, too. That concentration of equestrian activity also means there is a higher number of horse-related incidents in my constituency.

Unfortunately, Laura from Essex’s story is not an isolated one. Last May, I had the honour of joining the Project EDWARD—Every Day Without A Road Death—equestrian road safety awareness ride out from Lambourn to Windsor. It is held in memory of a racehorse named Knockalla, a two-year-old racehorse that was killed on a road in my constituency. Heavy rainfall caused flooding and standing water and a local driver who was familiar with the road was proceeding slowly down the centre of the carriageway to avoid aquaplaning. But horses are flight animals and as they approached from the opposite direction a splash of water startled Knockalla, causing her to move into the road. In that split second, Knockalla was struck and suffered injuries so severe that she had to be euthanised. Importantly, this case was not about speeding or reckless driving but was rather a tragic accident, and it demonstrates that even when motorists act cautiously, horses and riders remain extremely vulnerable, as horses are flight animals that can react unexpectedly.

Eighty-one per cent of incidents involving horses and vehicles occur because drivers pass too closely or too quickly. That is why I have consistently campaigned for stronger protections for horses and riders.

Road Safety Strategy

Andrew Cooper Excerpts

Thursday 8th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Lilian Greenwood]

I thank my hon. Friend for the work he has done to support his constituents, whom I had the pleasure of meeting at the Livia awards last year. I can confirm that we are taking the action he sets out to curb drug-driving and to ensure that those who act in such a reckless manner feel the full consequences of the law.

[Andrew Cooper (Mid Cheshire) (Lab)]

I commend the Minister for bringing forward the first road safety strategy in more than a decade, alongside specific and measurable targets for cutting the number of deaths on our roads. Evidently, one of the experiences we share across the House is the first time we meet the family of a child who has been killed on our roads. In my case, it was a child from Middlewich who was just cycling to school when he was hit by a young driver racing another car. What will stay with me—as it will stay with his friends, the school and our community for ever—is not just the sense of utter devastation, but the sense of determination from the parents that it cannot be allowed to happen to another family. The strategy sets out a broad range of measures that the Government want to bring in. Will the Minister commit to publishing a timetable for when each consultation and each measure is likely to come in, so that we can give reassurance to families that we are going to do this?