Lord Mandelson

Andy McDonald Excerpts

Wednesday 4th February 2026 Commons Chamber

[Simon Hoare (North Dorset) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Forest of Dean (Matt Bishop). I will return in a moment to a point that he was just making.

I have the great privilege of being the father of three wonderful teenage daughters. Any parent or relative will feel their stomach turn and churn at the thought of vulnerable young women being trafficked and used as playthings for the sexual gratification of warped and twisted minds who thought they were above the law, to whom the rules did not apply, and who thought they could get away with it because of who they were.

I suppose the surprise as it relates to Peter Mandelson is that we are surprised. He was a man who seemed magnetised to money like a moth to a flame, and who had caused considerable and significant embarrassment and discomfort to previous leaders of his party. The current Prime Minister decided that, in some way or another, it was only the extent of the relationship that should be the determining factor, whereas the existence of the relationship at all should have precluded Peter Mandelson from an appointment to be our ambassador in Washington.

I want to pick up on a point raised by the hon. Member for Forest of Dean, and to which I believe my hon. Friend the Member for Rutland and Stamford (Alicia Kearns) was also referring. My conscience—I do not say this particularly smugly—is a bit clearer than my hon. Friend’s, if she is referring to the same vote, because there was a vote in this place. Those on the Treasury Bench need to remember this, because there are certain votes and motions in Parliament that become a Thing, with a capital T. They become an event. They set the scene that makes the atmosphere for the coming months and weeks of a Government. I think that this issue, and how the Treasury Bench responds later, is one such Thing.

Owen Paterson was and is a friend of mine, as well as a former parliamentary colleague. We were asked to vote for something which effectively would have got him off a very painful hook. I, along with 12 other Conservative MPs, against a lot of whipping, voted against the then Government amendment to effectively, de facto, exonerate him. It was the most difficult vote I ever cast, as he was a friend both political and personal, but it was a vote that I have never regretted, because it was the right thing to do. When all the party allegiances, the to-ing and fro-ing and the whipping and everything else is over, at the end of the day—I hope this does not sound too folksy, Mr Speaker—we all need to be able to look in the mirror, and at our families, our friends and our constituents, and say, “I always tried to do the right thing. I may not always have done so, but I always tried.”

I think the right thing for the Government to do is to withdraw their amendment. The mood of the House is incredibly clear. We heard wise advice from my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Kenilworth and Southam (Sir Jeremy Wright), a former Attorney General and a member of the Intelligence and Security Committee; I do not think anyone could refer to him as a partial politician in this place. His integrity speaks for itself—as does that of the Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office, the right hon. Member for Torfaen (Nick Thomas-Symonds).

Anybody with a partial hearing of political interpretation will have gleaned the mood of the House: while respecting national security and other issues, which is a perfectly legitimate concern of the Government, this House vests in the Intelligence and Security Committee, to be discharged by senior Members of this House and the other place—Privy Counsellors all—the duties that those of us who are not Privy Counsellors or on that Committee cannot do for potential security reasons. We vest our faith and trust in that Committee, and it has never leaked. The Government can therefore follow that path in good faith and with trust. I hope that a manuscript amendment will be both forthcoming and accepted by you, Mr Speaker.

The hon. Member for Forest of Dean mentioned party politicking on this issue, and I am afraid I disagree with him on that; I do not think there has been any. I agree far more with my right hon. Friend the Member for Skipton and Ripon (Sir Julian Smith). Take away the party tags, the labels and the rosettes, and this is something that, for the vast majority of our fellow citizens, speaks to the operation of the state, the effectiveness of this place and the reliance our fellow citizens can put upon us in this place to do the right thing in difficult times, even when it is difficult to do so. Members on the Government Benches should talk to their Whips, use the usual channels and ask the Government to withdraw their amendment.

[Andy McDonald (Middlesbrough and Thornaby East) (Lab)]

Given what the hon. Gentleman has said, does he agree that the amendment as drawn would, in effect, just throw a cloak over the very issues that many right hon. and hon. Members of this House want to see dealt with, and that the way to resolve those sensitive issues is simply to engage the Intelligence and Security Committee? Is that not the best way forward?

[Simon Hoare]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. Why else would we have an Intelligence and Security Committee with that remit? It is not as if we are retrospectively trying to establish a Committee of the House to do a specific job. It exists to do this sort of job, among other things. I hope that those on the Treasury Bench have listened.

On Monday, in response to my question on his statement, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster told the House that it would be much better to deal with the removal of Lord Mandelson’s title via the procedures and Standing Orders of the House of Lords than by legislation. He also told the House—in complete and utter sincerity at the time, I am sure—that it would require a complex hybrid Bill, which was not an analysis I shared. My understanding is that a simple Bill to amend section 1(2) of the Life Peerages Act 1958 to apply a cessation date to the honour of a life peerage would be all that was required. We have passed important legislation for Northern Ireland and other issues in a day’s sitting before when the mood of the House was clear.

I think the Prime Minister indicated today at Prime Minister’s questions that he had tasked his team—his officials—with drafting legislation. There is an appetite for urgency in this place, and allowing this issue to suppurate and drip will not be the answer. I ask the Minister in his summing up—or, if he wishes to intervene on me now—to give us a timetable as to when this House will see the Bill and to confirm that Government time will be found to take it through in a single day. That would be very helpful.

US Department of Justice Release of Files

Andy McDonald Excerpts

Monday 2nd February 2026 Commons Chamber

[Darren Jones]

It would not be appropriate for me to entertain that hypothetical question at the Dispatch Box. We obviously hope that that is not the case, but, as I say, I am not here to speak for Peter Mandelson.

[Andy McDonald (Middlesbrough and Thornaby East) (Lab)]

This is a disaster, and against the backdrop of the incredible abuse of young women for such a long time, it fills the House will horror.

I must agree with the hon. Member for North Dorset (Simon Hoare); this House would be minded to bring forward legislation and to do so quickly. It would appear that Gordon Brown was very concerned in September 2025 that there had been a disclosure of information by Mandelson to Epstein that may have been used for commercial gain. He turns out to have been right. How is it that such an error could occur within government and that the information was not known? Can the Minister assure the House that those matters will be given full attention in any inquiry and that, from this day on, there will be full engagement with the criminal authorities, because, as many Members have said already, the time has come for criminal prosecution?

[Darren Jones]

My hon. Friend is right to raise those concerns. As I confirmed to the shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, the Cabinet Secretary did respond to Gordon Brown’s request to search for documents in the Government archive in relation to the sale of RBS assets to JP Morgan at the time. The review concluded that those documents did not exist in the Government archive. It is now evident from the release of documents by the US Department of Justice that the emails we have all seen account for what took place at the time. That is why the Cabinet Secretary is reviewing the archive again, not just in respect of that particular question but in the round during the time that Peter Mandelson was a Labour Minister. The Cabinet Secretary will report to the Prime Minister as soon as he has been able to do that.

Oral Answers to Questions

Andy McDonald Excerpts

Thursday 22nd January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Chris Ward]

My understanding is that that has been dealt with by way of a reply to a written question that we have already put in the public domain.

[Andy McDonald (Middlesbrough and Thornaby East) (Lab)]

The Minister will be aware that too many retired civil servants are waiting too long to be paid their pensions and lump sums. Seventy thousand people are still caught up waiting for past discrimination to be addressed under the McCloud remedy, and there are already concerns about Capita’s management very early in its new contract period. Does the Minister share my concern that this is completely unacceptable and that urgent action, as called for by the Public and Commercial Services Union, is required? Can he provide the House with a full statement on Capita’s performance in administering the civil service pension scheme at the earliest opportunity?

[Chris Ward]

I know that this issue is affecting a lot of constituents who are former civil servants. I have had a lot of letters on it; I am sure everyone else has as well. The Minister for the Cabinet Office met PCS about the issue recently. He has also, I believe, met the chief executive of Capita. We are committed to holding Capita to account. We will do so, and if it is okay with my hon. Friend, the Minister for the Cabinet Office will write back to him with a fuller statement.

Oral Answers to Questions

Andy McDonald Excerpts

Wednesday 17th December 2025 Commons Chamber

The Secretary of State was asked—

[Andy McDonald (Middlesbrough and Thornaby East) (Lab)]

1. What steps she is taking to support sectors identified in the UK’s modern industrial strategy 2025.

[Adam Thompson (Erewash) (Lab)]

5. What steps she is taking to support sectors identified in the UK’s modern industrial strategy 2025.

[The Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology (Liz Kendall)]

Happy Christmas to one and all here, and to all our constituents and loved ones.

I am very proud that this Labour Government are putting the biggest ever investment into research and development, including a record £38.6 billion for UK Research and Innovation. Alongside continuing to support curiosity-led research, the funding will for the first time focus on key Government priorities, including the eight sectors of our modern industrial strategy. We back our brilliant scientists, researchers, innovators and manufacturers to boost jobs and growth in every part of the country.

[Andy McDonald]

I thank the Secretary of State for her answer. Can I take this opportunity to welcome the passage of the Employment Rights Bill through the Lords? It will deliver the greatest uplift in workers’ rights in a generation.

Less than two weeks ago, I took part in a steel signing ceremony at the new NETA engineering training centre in Thornaby in my constituency, following the opening of Middlesbrough college’s new TTE centre, and all dovetailing with Teesside University’s Net Zero Industry Innovation Centre. With all those new facilities, does the Secretary of State agree that Middlesbrough and Thornaby East is helping to lead the delivery of the UK’s modern industrial strategy, and will she take the opportunity to visit some of our fantastic new industrial and digital facilities on Teesside?

[Liz Kendall]

I absolutely agree that Middlesbrough and Thornaby East is leading the way in delivering our modern industrial strategy, creating more good jobs that pay a decent wage and building the future economy that our country needs. I would be delighted to see more of that excellent work, and I believe that my office has already been in contact with my hon. Friend’s office to arrange it. This Government are backing manufacturers, including by putting in £800 million for advanced technical education to equip young people with engineering and manufacturing skills in clean energy, artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing.

Public Office (Accountability) Bill

Andy McDonald Excerpts

2nd reading
Monday 3rd November 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Obviously, a lot of thought has been given to the particular issue of the security and intelligence services. The Bill is clear that the duty applies, but has a different way of applying it. I think that gets the balance right, and obviously there are various national and public interests to protect in so doing.

[Andy McDonald (Middlesbrough and Thornaby East) (Lab)]

I congratulate the Prime Minister and thank him for bringing forward this Bill, which represents an epic struggle by the Hillsborough families, who are to be much admired and praised, but this will extend beyond Hillsborough, as the Prime Minister has said. I thank him on behalf of the families of Christie Harnett, Nadia Sharif and Emily Moore, who suffered great loss under the auspices of the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS foundation trust, which lacked a duty of candour when those terrible tragedies struck. I hope that he can give consideration to a full, judge-led public inquiry, because the families are in search of truth, justice and accountability.

[The Prime Minister]

To reassure my hon. Friend, the House, the families and all others affected by such scandals, these are clauses in a Bill that will soon be sections in a piece of legislation, but they are more than that: they change the nature of the relationship between the state and its duties to its people. That is so important. Yes, this Bill is the legal architecture, but something much bigger than this has to be put in place.

Oral Answers to Questions

Andy McDonald Excerpts

Thursday 23rd October 2025 Commons Chamber

[Anna Turley]

We have full confidence in the Cabinet Secretary and we condemn all leaks and breaches. We undertake to look into how any leaks from Government take place.

[Andy McDonald (Middlesbrough and Thornaby East) (Lab)]

8. What steps he is taking to increase employment opportunities through public procurement.

[Euan Stainbank (Falkirk) (Lab)]

13. What steps he is taking to increase employment opportunities through public procurement.

[The Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office (Nick Thomas-Symonds)]

I will answer on behalf of the Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office, my hon. Friend the Member for Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven (Chris Ward), who, with your permission, Mr Speaker, is at an event with the Prime Minister in his constituency today. This Government’s new social value model includes fair working skills criteria, so that authorities can reward suppliers providing good-quality jobs, supporting people into work and providing their employees with additional development opportunities. We are consulting on further reforms to public procurement and will update the House in due course.

[Andy McDonald]

With the Government’s welcome commitment to improving terms, conditions and career progression in adult social care, as demonstrated through the planned fair pay agreement and the care workforce pathway, will the Minister confirm that the Government’s response to the public procurement consultation will deliver a public interest test that accelerates insourcing and requires providers to recognise trades unions, as well as more sustainable careers and long-term employment opportunities?

Middle East

Andy McDonald Excerpts

Tuesday 14th October 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I thank the right hon. Member for that suggestion. I also want to acknowledge his role in Northern Ireland. He was rightly held in high respect in Northern Ireland and across this House and continues to be, because of what he did and the way in which he went about it; that should be a model for so many more of us in this House. The idea of reaching into the expertise we have across different parties and different Governments is one that I will take up, so I thank him for that suggestion.

[Andy McDonald (Middlesbrough and Thornaby East) (Lab)]

I very much welcome the Prime Minister’s statement, and we all achingly welcome the longed-for ceasefire in Gaza and the safe return of prisoners and hostages, but does the Prime Minister share my concern that the 20-point plan is without Palestinian input? Will he acknowledge the need for Palestinian self-determination and their consent for any governance or stabilisation arrangements? Will he ensure the continued pursuit of war criminals, and will he work to achieve an end to Israel’s illegal occupation of all Palestinian territories and the full engagement of a sovereign Palestinian state?

Oral Answers to Questions

Andy McDonald Excerpts

Wednesday 12th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for raising the question of special constables, who play a very important role in our communities in keeping us safe. The number of special constables dropped under the last Government. We support the existing employer-supported policing scheme, and we will support our special constables, but the number dropped under the last Government.

[Andy McDonald (Middlesbrough and Thornaby East) (Lab)]

Q8.   I recently visited Middlesbrough’s James Cook university hospital, and learned of the brilliant work in the neurosciences department for the survivors of stroke, brain and spinal injuries, and many other conditions. It has only 18 rehabilitation beds to serve a population of some 1.4 million people, whereas the guidelines say it needs 80 beds, meaning that patients in the Tees valley do not get the rehabilitation they need. Will the Government remedy the position by ensuring that resources are allocated for meeting the ambition of developing a world-class neuro-rehabilitation centre, serving the Tees valley and beyond?

[The Prime Minister]

I thank my hon. Friend for his question; it is important to hear about the important work that the James Cook hospital is doing in his constituency. We are investing £350,000 in research on interventions that support people with functional neurological disorders, in order to rehabilitate them within the community. Of course, our plan for change invested £25 billion to cut waiting lists, speed up treatment and shift more care into the community. In relation to the hospital, I will make sure that he gets a meeting with the Minister to see what further can be done.

Outsourcing: Government Departments

Andy McDonald Excerpts

Wednesday 29th January 2025 Westminster Hall

[Andy McDonald (Middlesbrough and Thornaby East) (Lab)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered outsourcing by Government departments.

It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Sir Jeremy. I am pleased to have secured this debate on outsourcing in Government Departments, in which I also intend to discuss the outsourcing of public services more widely, some of the negative consequences of outsourcing and the opportunities of a new wave of insourcing, and to acknowledge that the Government are putting together their national procurement policy, which the Chancellor said last week will be published shortly; I am sure the Minister will have a lot more to say on that.

I wish to draw attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests and the support I have received from a number of trade unions that have their own published policies on outsourcing of public services, some of which provided briefings for today’s debate.

First, I wish to set out the background to the outsourcing of public services and its growth in recent decades, before setting out some of the steps I hope the Government will take in the coming days and weeks to begin a new wave of insourcing. I believe there is a prevailing view on the Government Benches that essential public services should be run for the public, not to make a profit for shareholders. An emphasis on competition and markets has undermined the public service ethos associated with public services and has too often worked against the public interest.

[Imran Hussain (Bradford East) (Ind)]

I thank my hon. Friend for his years of work in this area; he has been instrumental in shaping the Government’s policy. All too often, particularly in the public sector, outsourcing is disguised in many shapes and forms, but the reality remains that it is back-door privatisation that leads to lower standards and higher costs. Most importantly, workers are treated as second-class citizens, and it has a disproportionate impact on black, Asian and minority ethnic communities. Does he agree that the central question is the one that was in the new deal: is it in the public interest? The answer is that it never is.

[Andy McDonald]

I thank my hon. Friend for his kind words and wholeheartedly agree with his comments. The whole premise of outsourcing has been to reduce costs, and that is visited on the workforce in terms of pay and other terms and conditions, with the disproportionate impact that he describes, which I will come on to shortly.

All too often, wider social, environmental and economic implications have been eclipsed by the pursuit of narrow short-term cost savings, with an insufficient assessment of the overall costs and longer-term impacts. Since 1979, under the Conservatives, starting with compulsory competitive tendering, there has been a huge growth of private business involvement in public service delivery and its scale. That has resulted in more fragmented, poorer-quality services run by companies seeking to renegotiate contract terms, with staff—often women and minority ethnic employees, as my hon. Friend described—the subject of squeezed terms and salaries.

The last Labour Government invested in public services but did not slow the growth of outsourcing. That allowed the coalition to expand it further, with austerity encouraging public bodies to turn to outsourcing as a means of reducing costs, while ideologically driving it through a White Paper, “Open Public Services”, which argued that few services should be exempt from outsourcing. That is where we were in the run-up to the recent general election, before which Labour set out a clear message on outsourcing.

In February 2021, at the height of the covid pandemic, the now Chancellor set out her concerns about outsourcing. Spend on outsourcing was worth £249 billion in 2014-15, and by 2019-20 had reached £296 billion—a significant sum that dwarfs the NHS budget. She said:

“Outsourced services are not integrated into the fabric of our communities. Unlike our public services and providers, like charities, many of which offer vital frontline services, outsourced companies have not built up trust over time and lack the vital local knowledge and flexibility required.”

Furthermore, she added:

“A shadow state has emerged and it is unaccountable to the people. Even before the pandemic, the government spent an extraordinary £292bn on outsourcing over a third of all public spending and that level is rising year on year. The public pays for these contracts yet so often it cannot adequately scrutinise many of them. This secrecy must stop.”

To set out the case for insourcing, I want to highlight the experience of outsourced workers represented by a number of unions. In the civil service, the Public and Commercial Services Union states that the two-tier gap between directly employed and outsourced workers is widening as pay and terms and conditions for the latter erode, with civil servants reliant on universal credit and workplace food banks. Departments’ budgets are stretched as they deal with the inefficiency of picking up the cost of tendering and awarding contacts, which have to deliver a profit for the contractors.

[Kim Johnson (Liverpool Riverside) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend for securing this important debate. PCS workers in my constituency who work for the Disclosure and Barring Service are currently in dispute because of inadequate contracts, which put additional burden and stress on them. PCS has continually called for the insourcing of those contracts. Does my hon. Friend agree that the Government need to commit to their policy of insourcing? It is not only workers who are suffering, but children and other adults, because of the outsourcing of local authority services. That needs to change immediately.

[Andy McDonald]

My hon. Friend is entirely right. That is yet another example of the tension and conflict between delivering high-quality public services and driving down costs, which leaves the people who deliver the services in poverty. That has to be addressed.

Similarly, in the railways, the RMT says that outsourced workers struggle to make ends meet, and it directly attributes that to outsourcing firms profiting from low pay. Many outsourced workers’ wages are anchored to the minimum wage, and they do not have the right to occupational sick pay and decent pay schemes. The RMT argues that insourcing would not only lift living standards by putting money into people’s pockets, but raise workers’ productivity, tackle structural inequality and even achieve greater efficiency in public spending. It is time to start a wave of insourcing now.

In the civil service, the Government have come into office with numerous disputes having recently taken place, or currently taking place, between outsourced service contractors and their employees, including various instances of industrial action. That is disruptive and costly to the civil service, and it is a result of those service providers holding down the pay of their staff, particularly in facilities maintenance areas such as cleaning, catering and security.

PCS, the union representing those workers, wrote to the Prime Minister in mid-July to discuss matters faced by workers across the UK civil service, including those working in contracted out and devolved areas. I know that the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster met with the FDA, Prospect and PCS in June, at the earliest opportunity after taking office, but the number of civil service disputes in contracts inherited from the Government’s predecessors requires action. There are multiple disputes involving PCS members employed as cleaners, post room staff, porters, catering and reception staff in several Government Departments, and they are not limited to one outsourced employer, but concern G4S, ISS and OCS.

[Imran Hussain]

My hon. Friend is making a powerful case. In Bradford, there was an attempt at outsourced back-door privatisation, which was successfully fought off by me alongside trade unions. Does he agree that trade unions play a crucial role and that it is shameful that, in the disputes he talks of, many of the organisations that hold public contracts have refused even to recognise trade unions?

[Andy McDonald]

We are giving a lot of attention to the recognition of trade unions. As the Employment Rights Bill progresses, we will want to ensure that that gets proper attention. The people we are talking about are the ones who kept the country going through the covid pandemic. We have come out of that but they are still in dire straits.

I want to mention the dispute involving G4S, as it has resulted in Department for Work and Pensions buildings, including jobcentres, closing for several days. The DWP has been asked to intervene in the dispute and to set out the sanctions it has issued to G4S for failing to deliver its contractual responsibilities. Not many months ago, I was on a picket line outside our jobcentre in Middlesbrough with G4S security guards who were expected to put food on the table at £11.40 per hour—their employer was not the DWP but G4S. We have to ask whether that is a legitimate and moral way to organise our public services.

There are other disputes between the PCS and G4S, ISS and OCS in the Department for Business and Trade, the Department for Education, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and the Cabinet Office. The Government should intervene and ensure that the Government Property Agency meets PCS to help reach a conclusion with the outsourced firms.

We need a hard stop to new outsourcing, because not only have the Government inherited poorly performing outsourced contracts, but there is concern that they might be about to re-let to private providers that have already failed in His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service. In the halcyon days when I was a member of Select Committees, we made trips to other jurisdictions and we were met with horror by other parliamentarians who found it anathema that prisons were in private hands. They thought that it was contradictory and unacceptable for anybody other than the state to be involved in incarceration. There is a fundamental question we need to ask ourselves.

The Government have the opportunity to put this right by insourcing facilities and estates management, rather than increasing the profits of private companies. If prisoners are living in squalor, those union members are working in squalor. Just as unions have argued that it is not too late to invite in-house tenders, it is now time to invest in existing prisons—not just new prisons—by ensuring that the Prison Service runs its own maintenance and facilities management.

Prison maintenance in England and Wales was fully privatised in 2015, with Amey winning the contract for the north and Carillion the one for the south, later replaced by Gov Facilities Services Ltd—GFSL—which took over its contracts. A race to the bottom continued, and 10 years later there is widespread prison squalor and an estimated maintenance backlog of almost £2 billion.

Amey and GFSL’s contracts were extended in 2020 and are up for renewal over the coming months. The prison unions are calling for maintenance to be brought back in-house—not with GFSL, but with a return to full works departments in every establishment. However, the Government have previously stated that the public sector will not be invited to bid for the new contracts, after a 2023 assessment apparently determined that a privatised solution was the preferred option for meeting prison maintenance service needs.

It was welcome that the Prisons Minister, Lord Timpson, recently promised:

“As future prison maintenance contracts approach expiry, we will conduct detailed assessments to inform decisions about whether to continue to outsource services”.—[Official Report, House of Lords, 23 January 2025; Vol. 842, c. 1804.]

I was pleased to hear the Prisons Minister tell the House yesterday that the Government still have an open mind on maintenance contracts. The private sector has completely failed to deliver on its promises around prison maintenance, with staff, inmates and the taxpayer all paying the price. Will the Minister explain why the Government seem to be following the last Government’s privatisation plans, despite the obvious failure of running key prison services for profit?

The Minister set out to the House last autumn how the new national procurement policy framework would be a legal framework to deliver greater value for money and improve social value, which the previous policy statement did not do. Will the Minister give some indication as to whether the framework might be founded upon such a review?

The task before the Government is twofold. First, in the civil service, the Government must intervene in industrial disputes and ensure that public services are not disrupted by contractors prioritising profit over public service and at the expense of public servants’ livelihoods. Secondly, I encourage the Government not to enter into any further outsourced contract arrangements in the civil service or elsewhere before a review into the costs and impact of the outsourcing is complete, and before a new strategy setting out the case for a new wave of insourcing has been published. I agree with the PCS proposal to

“seek an agreement on a programme of civil service insourcing and rights for contractor staff. Whilst services remain outsourced”

the PCS

“seek an agreement on union recognition for all facilities management workers and selected outsourced staff. A key element of that agreement would be parity for private sector workers with civil servants in respect of pay and terms and conditions of employment.”

Similarly, Unison has set out its concern:

“Any decisions by public bodies to outsource any services should have to pass a key public interest test.”

That test should consider: the quality of the service that would be delivered; value for money; the effects on workers’ job conditions, such as pay and holiday entitlements; the implications for other public services and their budgets; the impact on the local economy and its job market; and the ability of the contractor to meet climate targets and equality considerations. Unison has also said that

“the test should be applied to contracts coming up for renewal whilst providing services in-house should become the default position.”

I wholeheartedly agree with that notion.

In her speech in 2021, the Chancellor said that

“under Keir Starmer’s Labour government we will see the biggest wave of insourcing of public services for a generation.”

It is now time to deliver just that.

[Several hon. Members rose—]

Speaker’s Statement

Andy McDonald Excerpts

Monday 25th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[David Davis (Goole and Pocklington) (Con)]

Further to that point of order, Mr Speaker. When I first arrived in the House, it was common in the Conservative party—the Thatcherite Conservative party, I say to my right hon. Friend the Member for Gainsborough (Sir Edward Leigh)—to view John Prescott as public enemy No. 1. It was an act that he loved playing into, in public at least. That being said, outside the studio or the Chamber, he was friendly and helpful, certainly to me. Indeed, he was almost the best possible constituency neighbour one could want.

John Prescott was quintessentially a working-class hero—an identity that I suspect the current Deputy Prime Minister also adopts. Of course, he was a brilliant constituency ally and a forceful defender of the interests of the people of Hull, with the emphasis on force. However, he was also a necessary champion of the new Labour party. The Prime Minister referred implicitly to the fact that John Prescott delivered one man, one vote. We should remember that it was an act of huge courage for him to take on his own union allies, I think at about one hour’s notice, and persuade them to support the neophyte Tony Blair.

Frankly, despite the snobbery of the London establishment about John Prescott’s education, it was a very unwise person who underestimated his intellect. He was a formidable and brilliant innovator on—I am looking at the Environment Secretary—the environment, on Europe, on devolution and on a whole range of things. He was what we would all hope to be: not a creature of history, but a changer of history. For that, we should always admire him.

To put to one side all those grand things, he was also greatly, greatly loved by his family. On that basis, I offer my condolences to Pauline and the rest of the family.

[Andy McDonald (Middlesbrough and Thornaby East) (Lab)]

Further to that point of order, Mr Speaker. I want to add my own few words to the tributes that have been made, and especially to welcome the comments from my hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull East (Karl Turner), which were so warm and personal.

John Prescott’s great many achievements—his commitment to climate change and other matters—have already been spoken of. He was a truly authentic working-class hero, and somebody who always attracted a crowd wherever he went. He persevered with his famous battle bus through good times and poorer ones. What may sometimes be missed is his commitment to devolution, and the great efforts he made in the north-east of England, where he committed to the campaign for a north-eastern assembly. We were not successful on that occasion—the referendum was not won—but, ultimately, John’s legacy prevails in the devolved institutions and authorities that we have seen ever since.

On a personal note, I want to put on record my thanks to John for his personal support to me. I found myself propelled on to the shadow Front Bench a little bit prematurely and unexpectedly, but he was of great support to me in discharging the transport brief. He retained such immense knowledge, and on every single occasion he offered encouragement, for which I will be eternally grateful. He was a true giant of the Labour movement. We will miss him enormously, but his legacy remains. I, too, pass on my sincere condolences to Pauline and to all his family.

[Pete Wishart (Perth and Kinross-shire) (SNP)]

Further to that point of order, Mr Speaker. On behalf of the Scottish National party, I pass on our sincerest condolences to Pauline, to John’s family and to his many friends, colleagues and comrades right across the Labour movement. You have lost a colossus of a man, and an inspiration to working-class people right across the United Kingdom who were encouraged by his example to go into politics.

I remember coming down here as a new MP in 2001 and observing the Labour Front Bench—titans, all of them, and all known to the UK public, but dominant among them was John Prescott, and it was John Prescott the public wanted to hear from. When he appeared on the TV screens, the public paid attention and listened to what he had to say. He resonated with the British public, who held him in a curious affection. If what he had could have been bottled, I am sure we would all take a little sup of it today.



I will never forget where I was, as a candidate in 2001, when that famous incident came in that the hon. Member for Newport East (Jessica Morden) referred to—who could? I think we all know where we were. I was with a bunch of sixth-formers at a hustings at Brechin high school, and one of the senior pupils said to me, “If it’s like that every day in your political life, I want a bit of that.” There’s inspiration for you, Mr Speaker.

John was a huge music fan and a great supporter of our music act, MP4. We could never quite master the jazz that he seemed to favour—although maybe as a tribute to him we will get round to doing one of those numbers—but it was something he completely loved.

Everyone has talked about John’s commitment to climate change, but there was also his commitment to devolution, which a few colleagues have mentioned. John Prescott was the engine who drove that path towards a Scottish Parliament and the regional assemblies which will be happening as a matter of course with this new Labour Government.

John was part of a generation that we are sadly beginning to lose, but he will stand out as one of the true great parliamentarians in this House of the past few decades and we will all miss him dearly.