P&O Ferries and Employment Rights

Angela Eagle Excerpts

Monday 21st March 2022 Commons Chamber

[Louise Haigh]

I thank my hon. Friend; I know that her colleagues in Hull who are in the Chamber today have campaigned long and hard for the maritime industry in this country. She is absolutely right that this is an assault not just on those workers, but on the entire industry in this country.

[Dame Angela Eagle (Wallasey) (Lab)]

The maritime industry, which exists in Liverpool as well as Hull, is precious and we have to fight for its future. The company paid out £270 million in dividends before taking this action. Does my hon. Friend think that the Government must now do all they can to end any association with the freeports and other contracts that P&O has, until it puts this monstrous injustice right?

[Louise Haigh]

I absolutely agree. The Government have significant leverage, both over P&O and over DP World, and they must use it. I will come on to the detail of that point shortly.

--- Later in debate ---

[Grant Shapps]

I want to make a little progress. Those plans will mean that passengers and freight traffic will be as little affected as possible.

While I welcome P&O’s plan to resume ferry operations this week, to the point of the right hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr Carmichael), the safety of shipping remains a top priority. Staff must be experienced and trained to uphold the highest possible standards, as his intervention suggested. I have now instructed the Maritime and Coastguard Agency to inspect all P&O Ferries vessels prior to their re-entering service, including the operational drills to ensure that the proposed new crews are safe and properly trained. If they are not, these ships will not sail. I expect many customers—passengers and freight—will quite frankly vote with their feet and, where possible, choose another operator. On that subject, for the purpose of fairness, I point out that P&O Cruises, although it shares the P&O name, is nothing to do with P&O Ferries and should not be tarnished with the same brush.

[Dame Angela Eagle]

Why does the Secretary of State seem pleased that P&O is to recommence its routes when, as we have heard, some of the crew will be on as little as £1.80 an hour?

[Grant Shapps]

I do not have details of how the ships will be recrewed. The hon. Lady will be aware that we are still putting maximum pressure on the company to sit down around the table with the workers and unions to make sure that this is not where this sad story ends. Ultimately, to provide the supply chain, which Northern Ireland Members have been raising, it is important that we have the resilience needed to ensure that goods flow, but that cannot be done using crews who are not properly trained to do the job to the highest standards.

I implore P&O Ferries to reconsider its decision. It is not too late to acknowledge its mistakes. I hope that the reaction to that now infamous video—in the House, the media and across the country—tells the company that this approach is quite simply unacceptable.

Trans-Pennine Railway

Angela Eagle Excerpts

Wednesday 30th June 2021 Westminster Hall

[Dame Angela Eagle (in the Chair)]

I remind hon. Members that there have been changes to normal practice in order to support the new hybrid arrangements. I must also remind Members participating virtually that they must leave their cameras on for the duration of the debate and that they will be visible at all times—both to each other and to us in the Boothroyd Room.

[Judith Cummins (Bradford South) (Lab) [V]]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered the trans-Pennine route upgrade and Northern Powerhouse.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dame Angela. I am sorry that I am unable to attend this important debate in person, but I am self-isolating.

The trans-Pennine route upgrade and Northern Powerhouse Rail are two crucial transport infrastructure projects for the north of England. The latter is vital to the economic prosperity of Bradford and my constituents in Bradford South, as well as the wider region and the nation as a whole. I raise these matters today amid fears that that important high-speed rail project is set to be cut back, bypassing Bradford altogether, but the work for a diluted version of Northern Powerhouse Rail is being prepared by the Government under the guise of the trans-Pennine route upgrade and the smokescreen of the National Infrastructure Commission.

A report seen by the Yorkshire Post newspaper revealed the Government’s thinking. Documents for the trans-Pennine route upgrade setting out development and capacity improvements for NPR between Ravensbourne and Dewsbury are among the key elements of that scheme. I am not arguing against the trans-Pennine route upgrade—far from it: the modernisation of the existing cross-Pennine rail route is long overdue and desperately needed. It has been on and off the Government’s agenda—upgraded, downgraded, paused and rethought at regular intervals—and I am pleased that it might at last get the green light to go ahead. But that must be as well as, not instead of, Northern Powerhouse Rail.

I suppose I should not be surprised by the revealing of the Government’s intentions; after all, this has become an all too familiar pattern when it comes to investment in transport infrastructure spending outside London and the south-east. I am, however, outraged and, frankly, incredulous—outraged that yet again the Government plan to short-change the north and think they can get away with it, and incredulous at such short-sightedness.

The transport infrastructure of the north has endured decades of under-investment and generations of unfulfilled economic opportunity as a consequence, and yet the potential of the north of England to deliver not just for itself but to provide a national uplift is unparalleled. The north is home to seven of the UK’s 20 largest cities, and Bradford is one of them. Despite the short distances between them, the economic interaction of those cities has been restricted. With £343 billion in economic output, eight of the UK’s top research institutions and 27 universities, the potential of the north is right there for all to see.

Time and again in this House I have raised the north-south economic imbalance in our country. Time and again I have had acknowledgment of the problems that Bradford and the north face. I have had promises, but no action. Time and again, I have asked Ministers to confirm that the Northern Powerhouse Rail would get the go-ahead and that it would include Bradford, not pass it by. Time and again Ministers have responded with warm words, but nothing concrete. Let us have no more shallow promises.

We need action more than ever before. Instead of the commitment required to address the inequality at hand and reap the benefits of investment to change it, we have seen prevarication, fudge and delay. Earlier this year, the Department for Transport told Transport for the North that it must delay submission of its strategic outline case for Northern Powerhouse Rail until after the Government had published their integrated rail plan. This kicking of the can down the road, coming after the National Infrastructure Commission raised questions about what can and cannot be afforded in the current national rail budget, does little to engender either confidence or trust. First expected by the end of 2020, the integrated rail plan remains a mystery.

As details of the DfT’s thinking about the trans-Pennine route upgrade now emerge, there is clear cause for concern that the Government are contemplating not a levelling up, but a levelling down of rail infrastructure investment in the north. Today, we must have the truth about the Government’s obligation to tackle the imbalance of this nation’s north-south economic inequality and their commitment to Northern Powerhouse Rail, because the two are inextricably linked.

Northern Powerhouse Rail is the very essence of levelling up. It is not about trains: it is about people. It is about unlocking potential, attracting investment and creating jobs. It is a catalyst for a regional and national economic boost: integration, rather than fragmentation, of the great cities and economic powerhouses of the north. To put it bluntly, upgrading existing lines will not fulfil the manifesto promises that the Government made or provide the transformational improvement that the north needs and which our nation needs the north to make, too.

Transport for the North, England’s first sub-national transport body, said that its preferred Northern Powerhouse Rail network will

“deliver close to £5bn in economic benefit, by helping the North operate as a single economic unit, and £14.4bn in gross value added (GVA) by 2060. It will create a net gain of 74,000 new jobs in the North, and over 57,000 new jobs across the UK as a whole.”

The preferred route for Northern Powerhouse Rail—the one that delivers the greatest economic boost to the region, as set out by Transport for the North with the backing of northern leaders and both the West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire metro Mayors—includes a city centre stop in Bradford, which is currently the largest UK city without a main line station. Bradford is the UK’s youngest city, and its fifth biggest. It is home to more than half a million people and 17,000 businesses, and has £10.5 billion in its economy. It was PwC’s most improved city in 2019, and was listed among The Sunday Times’s best places to do business. It has a strong manufacturing base, especially in my constituency of Bradford South. It has high business start-up rates, and it is among the UK’s top exporters. However, its capacity for growth is constrained by poor connectivity. Analysis by Transport for the North of a Bradford city centre stop on Northern Powerhouse Rail points to additional gross value added across the Bradford district of £2.9 billion per year in today’s money by 2060. That is equivalent to increasing the size of the local economy by a third.

The reduction in journey times between Bradford and key cities in the north and the UK would be transformational, enabling a journey from Bradford to Leeds to take seven minutes. Currently, that journey takes 20 minutes, between two cities that are about eight miles apart as the crow flies. It would be possible to get from Bradford to Manchester in 22 minutes—it currently takes an hour—and from Bradford to Liverpool in 50 minutes; it currently takes two hours.

Across the wider regions, the proposal would put around 10 million people and more than a quarter of a million businesses within 90 minutes of four or more northern cities. Northern Powerhouse Rail will also support carbon-free and sustainable travel, contributing to the net zero carbon goals of not just northern cities, but the whole of the UK. One of the largest city-to-city journey to work flows in the country is between Bradford and Leeds, mostly by car. At scale, Northern Powerhouse Rail supports a 400% increase in rail travel and takes 64,000 car trips per day off the road.

Done properly, Northern Powerhouse Rail will create an integrated urban area larger than Birmingham, linking Bradford and Leeds to form a coherent economic unit, with a labour market of more than 1.3 million people, and more than 600,000 jobs. Done poorly and half-heartedly or—as increasingly seems to be the Government’s aim—on the cheap, with the very least they can get away with, it would fail to support the economic and societal advances we require.

Northern Powerhouse Rail is a game-changer for the north and Bradford: a key part of rebalancing the economy and the country. A watered-down version would expose the reality of the Government’s real commitment to levelling up. Put simply, it is not acceptable. In west Yorkshire on Monday, when asked about Northern Powerhouse Rail, the Prime Minister said that he could not give

“chapter and verse on exactly where the stops are going to be”.

That response from a Prime Minister who famously does not do detail, though he does do populism, suggests that a decision has been reached and it is not going to be popular. The Prime Minister told the reporter that he would have to get back to her. I ask the Minister, who has responsibility for Northern Powerhouse Rail and the trans-Pennine route upgrade, to give our Parliament today the detail that the Prime Minister this week committed to provide to a journalist. It is time for the Government to level with the people and the cities of the north. They are either going to deliver in full on Northern Powerhouse Rail or they are not. Which is it to be, Minister?

Passenger Boats and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency

Angela Eagle Excerpts

Wednesday 17th March 2021 Westminster Hall

[Dame Angela Eagle (in the Chair)]

I remind hon. Members that there have been some changes to normal practice in order to support the new hybrid arrangements. Timings of debates have been amended to allow technical arrangements to be made for the next debate. There will be suspensions between debates. I remind Members participating physically and virtually that they must arrive at the start of the debate in Westminster Hall, and Members are expected to remain for the entire debate. I remind Members participating virtually that they are visible at all times, both to one another and to us in the Boothroyd Room. If Members attending virtually have any technical problems, they should email the Westminster Hall Clerks’ email address. Members attending physically should clean their spaces before they use them and before they leave the room. I call Andrew Rosindell to move the motion—and happy birthday.

Flybe

Angela Eagle Excerpts

Thursday 5th March 2020 Commons Chamber

[Kelly Tolhurst]

I thank my hon. Friend, and I understand his particular concern about Exeter airport. It truly is sad for employees in his constituency, and just to reiterate, we do stand ready to do what we can for those individuals. We are working very hard in my Department, as we have been since the early hours of this morning, with the airlines to make sure that we can fill as many of the routes as possible. Those in the airline sector have been great in coming together and working with us in a very constructive way to deliver on that. I give him my assurances that I will be looking at this in the next days and weeks to make sure that we are able to continue our connectivity.

[Ms Angela Eagle (Wallasey) (Lab)]

Giving evidence to the Treasury Committee yesterday, the Governor of the Bank of England said that the effect of coronavirus was likely to be “large”, but “temporary”. Does the Minister agree that if, at this very difficult time, infrastructure that might have survived without the problems caused by coronavirus is actually allowed to go to the wall by the Government, the effect of coronavirus will not be as temporary as the Governor thought?

[Kelly Tolhurst]

I thank the hon. Lady, but I would disagree with her: we have not let Flybe go to the wall. However, we are assessing—and, as a responsible Government, we are continuing the preparation for—the wider economic impact of coronavirus. It is a moving picture, and as she would imagine, we are keeping things under close review. The Chancellor has said that if action needs to be taken, he stands ready to do so. We must remember that this was a commercial decision taken by an investor that has been affected by the coronavirus. We understand and are looking at the challenges, and we will continue to work to make sure that the economic prosperity of this country survives.

Seaborne Freight

Angela Eagle Excerpts

Monday 11th February 2019 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

My right hon. Friend makes an important point. I have said that the Labour party does not like business any more, but it does not understand business any more. Many Labour Members will go on holiday this summer using airlines that own no planes, because that is how business works, but they lost any understanding of how business works long ago, and I see no sign of that changing.

[Ms Angela Eagle (Wallasey) (Lab)]

Last month, the Secretary of State came to the House waxing lyrical about his support for start-up businesses, meaning Seaborne Freight. Is he not even remotely embarrassed that the project has fallen to pieces despite Government support? Will he not at least say sorry to the House for the mess that he has made?

[Chris Grayling]

This is a start-up business that did not succeed because its principal backer changed its mind. That is to be regretted and it is a great shame but, as a Minister, I will never make an apology for the Government trying to work with new small businesses. Again, the Labour party does not like small business and does not want us to work with small business. When we do, it shouts and screams. Well, I think the Government should do more for small business, and I am going to carry on doing so.

Oral Answers to Questions

Angela Eagle Excerpts

Thursday 10th July 2014 Commons Chamber

[Tom Brake]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question. Clearly it is a complex matter that he has serious concerns about. If he would like to write to me with the specifics, I am happy to follow it up with the Home Secretary.

[Ms Angela Eagle (Wallasey) (Lab)]

The failure to implement universal credit and personal independence payments has left the Department for Work and Pensions in complete chaos, so is the Deputy Leader of the House surprised that two out of every three of its answers to written questions are judged by the public not to have answered the question? What does he intend to do to get DWP to improve that sorry state of affairs?

[Tom Brake]

I do not recognise what the hon. Lady says about universal credit, which I think will be a success. As I understand it, it is something that she and her party support. With regard to concerns about whether questions are accurate and satisfactory, I suspect that many of the respondents will have got a perfectly factual response, but perhaps not the one they wanted to hear.

Oral Answers to Questions

Angela Eagle Excerpts

Thursday 6th February 2014 Commons Chamber

[Tom Brake]

I thank my hon. Friend for that question. It is slightly off the mark, in relation to handling responses to written parliamentary questions, but I am sure that his concern will have been noted in the appropriate places.

[Ms Angela Eagle (Wallasey) (Lab)]

If it is to do its job of scrutinising the Executive efficiently, Parliament must be able to rely on timely answers from Government Departments. After the Procedure Committee highlighted last year’s atrocious performance, the Leader of the House committed the Government to establishing a new electronic system for Departments across Whitehall to improve responses. Can the Deputy Leader of the House tell us whether that is now in place and whether we can expect to see an improvement in response times when the Procedure Committee publishes an update next week? Will he set out what he will do if there are Departments that have failed to improve their performance and if some have deteriorated?

[Tom Brake]

I thank the hon. Lady for that question. She might not be aware that over the past Session there has been an improvement: more Departments have been improving their responses than have been deteriorating. I certainly agree that the electronic system will ensure that Members get a better response and that there will be much less dependence on paperwork circulating throughout the system. I have just seen the progress that has been made in that system and am confident that when it is implemented Members will be very pleased with it and that it will save substantial sums of money.

Oral Answers to Questions

Angela Eagle Excerpts

Thursday 29th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his solicitude for my future. When I was talking about constructive discussions, I was including the discussions that I have had with him, and with many others across the House, to ensure that we add value to the way in which the House manages its business. That is what I am looking to do.

[Ms Angela Eagle (Wallasey) (Lab)]

We know that there is no greater champion of the House business committee than the Government Chief Whip, who said two years ago that

“we must not lose sight of the progress that we want to see made in the third year of this Parliament on a House business committee”.—[Official Report, 15 June 2010; Vol. 511, c. 782.]

Given that we are halfway through that third year, when will the Leader of the House sit down with me to discuss how he intends to turn the Chief Whip’s vision into reality?

[Mr Lansley]

I share with the shadow Leader of the House admiration for what the former Leader of the House, now the Patronage Secretary, has achieved. In the context of the establishment of the Backbench Business Committee and the clear progress consequent upon it, I want to make sure that we follow up constructively on the progress already made.

Cost of Living

Angela Eagle Excerpts

Wednesday 16th May 2012 Commons Chamber

[The Minister of State, Department for Transport (Mrs Theresa Villiers)]

The point I was making is that if the hon. Lady has such a problem with fares basket flexibility, why are her Labour colleagues in Cardiff still applying it in Wales?

[Ms Eagle]

There is devolution in Wales, where they make the choices on the basis of the budgets assigned to them by this Government. We have been very clear that we abandoned flex and stopped it, and Lord Adonis made it clear that, because times were so tough, we were not going back to it. The current Government have reintroduced it, while pretending that they are cutting fares, which they are not. It is simply not true, as Ministers claim, that this is just an additional cost to the taxpayer. As the National Audit Office has said,

“there is a risk that the benefit of the resulting increase in passenger revenues will not be passed on to taxpayers fully, but will also result in increased Train Operating Company profits.”

This is a Government who are not just out of touch with the impact of these fare rises, but unwilling to stand up to the train companies and enforce even the cap they claim to have set. This is indeed a Government who are in hock to the TOCs.

The pressure on commuters is set to spiral over the next two years because Ministers have decided that next year’s fare rises are to be even higher—up to nearly 12% on the current rate of the retail prices index. That is nearly 12% in both 2013 and 2014, and the tender documents for the new franchises reveal even more pain on the way. Bidders are promised even more freedoms on fares, including the right to introduce a new super-peak fare at even higher prices, hitting hard-pressed commuters still further. Franchise bidders are promised that they can cut daily services by up to 10%. They are no longer required to improve performance over the life of the franchise and no longer required to maintain the same level of CCTV on trains.

As we exposed last month, a programme of ticket office closures has already been signed off by Ministers, but staffed ticket offices are not a waste or an inefficiency that can be cut out with no resulting impact on service. The impact will be passengers cheated out of the cheapest fares, which are not always clearly advertised or available at ticket machines. Those without access to the internet, often those seeking work or older people, are unable to get the better deals and are left to pay over the odds for their train tickets.

Ministers continue to deny that they have signed off these closures. At the last Transport questions, the Minister of State assured the House that “they are not happening”. That is what she said, yet we have seen the e-mail from the Department’s own rail fares and ticketing review, warning the Department’s press office not to deny that ticket office closures have been given the green light because

“the Minister has already decided to approve some ticket office closures…it’s just not been announced yet.”

I have a further leaked document with me. This is from London Midland, the company set to be the first to implement a closure programme—for the first of the 675 ticket offices across the country that we know have been earmarked for closure. This leaked document reveals that London Midland will save £1.25 million a year by closing 86 ticket offices—profits before passengers. It also refers to a payment of £200,000 from the Department for Transport. Perhaps the Secretary of State—or the Minister of State—can confirm when she closes the debate whether the Department for Transport is actually paying companies to push through these closures? A reference in this document suggests that that might be the case. The Minister of State can tell me now if she would like to intervene. She does not want to, so perhaps the Secretary of State will address the issue at the end of the debate. The future of rail under this Government will be higher fares, more overcrowding, less CCTV and fewer ticket offices.

If Ministers are out of the loop when it comes to what is happening to rail fares and ticket office closures, they are even more delusional when it comes to bus services. Last month the Under-Secretary of State for Transport, the hon. Member for Lewes, told the House that what had been said about bus cuts was “entirely untrue”, and claimed that

“there have not been the cuts that the Opposition are so keen to talk up.”—[Official Report, 19 April 2012; Vol. 543, c. 485.]

It is not the Opposition who are talking up bus cuts, but the major operators. Arriva told my hon. Friend the Member for Nottingham South (Lilian Greenwood) that

“with the 20% reduction in BSOG, the ongoing cuts to the concessionary fare scheme, and a reduction in tenders across the UK, this has put enormous pressure not only on Arriva, but the bus industry as a whole.”

These are real cuts. Evening and Sunday services have been withdrawn on Route 32 in Wycombe. The Saturday service has been withdrawn on Service 84 in Maidstone. Route 1 in Watford, Route X9 in Milton Keynes and Service 50 in Guildford have all been cut. In fact, one in five of all supported services have been lost, and fares are spiralling. The Under-Secretary of State should stop coming to the House and claiming, as he did during last week’s Transport questions, that there have not been any bus cuts, because there have.

The Government need to understand that not just buses but lifelines are being cut: lifelines connecting young people with colleges, parents with child care, and older people with shops and services. The loss of a bus service can have a devastating impact on those without cars, and on those in rural areas in particular. It can have a devastating impact on their lives, their chances, and their capacity to get out and about.

Like the train fare rises, the bus cuts are a direct consequence of the Government’s decision to cut the councils’ funds for local transport by 28%, and their decision to remove any requirement for what is left of that money actually to be spent on transport. At the same time, the Government have cut the subsidies given directly to bus companies by a fifth. The result is that not only are there additional pressures on family budgets, but young people are simply unable to reach their full potential.

Ministers need not take my word for that. They can listen to the Association of Colleges, which has warned of a drop in further education enrolment. They can listen to the 60% of colleges that report a drop in transport spending by their local authorities. They can listen to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, which has revealed that 40% of young people say that their decisions on post-16 education were influenced by transport, not by courses. When students travel, on average, between nine and 35 miles to get to college, and when 72% of them rely on the bus to get them there, it is no wonder that the loss of bus services will hit them and their life chances hard.

The hon. Member for Lewes told the House that he had held discussions with bus companies about the costs of travel for young people. No doubt they delivered the same message to him as they have delivered to me when I have raised our own proposals for a concessionary fares scheme for 16 to 19-year-olds in education or training. I believe that the bus companies want to be helpful, but Brian Souter of Stagecoach told me—

[Mr MacNeil]

A good man.