Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Barry Sheerman and John Bercow

Thursday 27th April 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

Will the Minister stop reading his brief and speak from the heart? I have two sets of workers in Huddersfield. Many people work in financial services for Lloyds, and their jobs are in peril. I also have a large number of people who work in the national health service, and the Government are doing nothing to stop the cruel closure of the Huddersfield infirmary. Will the Minister do something about my financial sector workers and my health workers, with the EU catastrophe arriving soon?

[Mr Speaker]

My counsel would be to stick to the financial services industry.

Points of Order

Debate between Barry Sheerman and John Bercow

Thursday 27th April 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

rose—

[Mr Speaker]

A specialist delicacy must be kept until a bit later.

[Mr Speaker]

I am grateful to the hon. Lady for her point of order. If when she says, “What can he do,” she means me, I must be honest with her and say that I can do absolutely nothing to assist her in the course of the election campaign, for the simple reason—this is an inescapable fact and always has been—that when the House has been dissolved, the House does not meet. When the House does not meet, there is no Speaker in the Chair and there are no exchanges on these green Benches. However, the documents to which she refers are, or when they are published will be, public documents, so she will be able to study them carefully, marshal her arguments and write to Ministers. If she wishes to expatiate on these important matters in her constituency, it is perfectly open to her to do so—and I have a feeling she probably will.

[Mr Sheerman]

rose—

[Seema Malhotra (Feltham and Heston) (Lab/Co-op)]

rose—

[Mr Speaker]

I think that I must take the hon. Gentleman now, as he is looking pained.

[Mr Sheerman]

I am actually very happy. On a point of order, Mr Speaker. In all my years in this House, I have never heard of a case of bullying in this House of one Member by another, but I have just heard of such a case. The House will not be sitting for some time now, but you will be here, and I am sure that you would not approve of one Member acting in a bullying way toward another in the environs of this House. This case is shameful. I am not going to name names, but it involves a male Government Member and an Opposition female Member. I do not want an inquiry on it, but I do want a set of rules that state that verbal or any other sort of bullying of one Member by another is not allowed in this House or anywhere in its environs.

[Mr Speaker]

There is a code of conduct, which binds all Members. I manifestly cannot comment on a particular case, not least because the hon. Gentleman has not given and would not give me—and I would not ask him to give me—the details. But the principle that the code of conduct must be observed is sacrosanct, and if he does know—I am sure he does, by definition—of the personalities involved, it may be that, as he is extremely experienced, he can remind Members of that code of conduct.

[Mr Sheerman]

Further to that point of order, Mr Speaker. This was so serious that Whips on both sides of the House were involved, so I am sure you could make the inquiries to find out the facts of the matter.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Barry Sheerman and John Bercow

Thursday 20th April 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I rather thought that the hon. Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed (Mrs Trevelyan) was posing a supplementary to Question 1, which was the basis upon which I called her. Never mind; it is not a great sin.

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

rose—

[Mr Speaker]

I have a feeling that the hon. Member for Huddersfield (Mr Sheerman) has an insatiable appetite, and there is no change there.

[Mr Sheerman]

Thank you for that compliment, Mr Speaker.

Is the hon. Member for Gainsborough (Sir Edward Leigh) aware of the real challenge, which has been brought to my attention by the excellent team at Huddersfield royal infirmary, that it is rare cancers that are the problem because they are very expensive to develop drugs for? There is a special case to be made for the treatment of and supply of drugs for these rare cancers. Is the hon. Gentleman aware of that minority group?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Barry Sheerman and John Bercow

Monday 13th March 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

May I push the Secretary of State to tell the House what the Americans are saying about what size NATO should be? That is about not just the percentage of GDP, but how big NATO should be, how that compares with the strength of the Russians, and what we would do if the Russians invaded across some of the countries of Europe.

[Mr Speaker]

There were three questions, to be responded to with the legendary pithiness of the Secretary of State.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Barry Sheerman and John Bercow

Thursday 2nd March 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I hope the Hansard text of the right hon. Lady’s reply to the hon. Gentleman will be posted on the church door. That would seem only fitting.

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

Will the right hon. Lady also bear in mind not only exhibitions, but new music? Will she look at a work performed at Peterborough cathedral only a few days ago, “Even You Song”, with a wonderful new libretto by someone called Dr Lucy Sheerman?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Barry Sheerman and John Bercow

Tuesday 21st February 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I think the Foreign Secretary’s brother probably told him that.

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

Could we have a note of honesty in terms of an assessment of the nasty little hard Brexit campaign? Will the Foreign Secretary, instead of insulting the former Prime Minister, Tony Blair, as he did last week, take seriously the danger to this country of a hard Brexit? The people of this country did not sign a blank cheque, and they want a real vote on how good the deal is with Europe as we leave it.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Barry Sheerman and John Bercow

Tuesday 7th February 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

Has the Secretary of State actually been recently to a clinical commissioning group like ours in Huddersfield, where one more duty would really break the camel’s back? We have just heard that the CCG is changing its constitution, excluding GPs and totally changing the nature of the CCG. Like most of them, our CCG is under-resourced and under stress, and asking it to do something else like this, which will be complex, difficult and perhaps impossible, will kill the poor bloody animal.

[Mr Speaker]

With reference to foreign nationals, and including a question mark at the end of the hon. Gentleman’s observations.

Housing White Paper

Debate between Barry Sheerman and John Bercow

Tuesday 7th February 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. On my reckoning, at least 60 colleagues are still seeking to catch my eye. It will be almost impossible to accommodate them all, but I will be helped if people can confine themselves to asking one-sentence questions without preamble, and if the Secretary of State can continue to make his pithy replies. On the matter of simple, one-sentence questions, I call Mr Barry Sheerman.

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

The big lie at the heart of our housing policy is that we can create new houses on brownfield land. All the research shows that the brownfield land that is good for building has already been used. The fact is that we have to build on greenfield land to give people the chance of having a decent home. Why does the Secretary of State not have the courage to build on greenfield land?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Barry Sheerman and John Bercow

Tuesday 31st January 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

The Minister surely knows that all kinds of alternative energy, including tidal power, need good recruits; they need trainees and, indeed, apprentices. Is he not hanging his head in shame this morning because of the report of the highly respected Institute for Fiscal Studies which says that this Government’s apprenticeship programme is a disaster and should be ripped up and started again? When is he going to get real?

[Mr Speaker]

But purely in relation to tidal lagoons; we are not talking about apprenticeships more widely or seeking to shoehorn a personal interest into a question to which it does not ordinarily apply. But the Minister is a philosopher and dextrous to a fault, so I am sure he will cope.

Business of the House

Debate between Barry Sheerman and John Bercow

Thursday 19th January 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I gently make the point that the Emirates is a very, very, very special place in London.

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

It seems appropriate, Mr Speaker, that today we have not only an amazing exhibition of photographs in the Attlee Room on Syria and Aleppo by William Wintercross, a brilliant photographer—I hope people will be able to see it—but a debate on Holocaust Memorial Day. May we also, on this special day, think about having a debate on a report that came out, I believe, in July 2008—it was called the Bercow report—on children and young people? Owing to cuts to local government up and down this country, young people are in dreadful danger, because child protection is becoming very difficult to maintain. May we have a debate on the Bercow report so that we can see what progress has been made since those good recommendations?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Barry Sheerman and John Bercow

Tuesday 17th January 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Oh, we had better get the fellow in; otherwise he will be very unhappy. I do not like to see the hon. Gentleman unhappy. I call Mr Barry Sheerman.

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

As someone who chairs a national charity based in Peterborough, and also as the Member of Parliament for Huddersfield, may I back the people who have been saying not only that we need a more diverse housing market and better provision, but that the future must be lower-cost housing and off-site construction, and to a highly sustainable standard?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Barry Sheerman and John Bercow

Tuesday 20th December 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

We are all in favour of evidence-based medicine. We are also in favour of decent resources for the national health service but, in the case of Huddersfield and Calderdale hospitals, what we want is good, high-quality management, rather than GPs being promoted to a managerial position that they cannot handle.

[Mr Speaker]

In relation to evidence-based medicine.

Points of Order

Debate between Barry Sheerman and John Bercow

Tuesday 8th November 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his point of order. The short answer to him is that if a Minister wished to make an oral statement to the House, I would have received notification of that intention by now. Therefore, there is no reason to suppose that a Minister is looking to make a statement to the House today. I am familiar with the issue to which the hon. Gentleman alludes. It would not be proper for me to enter into a debate about it. I note the particular facts that he places on the record, but I am aware of counter arguments to which Ministers subscribe. It is only fair to point out that this matter has been the subject of discussion over a considerable period; in other words, it has not suddenly arisen now. It does not seem likely that it will be treated of today by anyone other than the hon. Gentleman, but he has used the parliamentary mechanism open to him to register his concern. Doubtless, given that he is a tenacious terrier, he will return to the subject after he has rested himself.

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

He could get another signature.

[Mr Speaker]

He may, indeed, attract further signatures in the process, as the hon. Gentleman helpfully observes from a sedentary position.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Barry Sheerman and John Bercow

Thursday 3rd November 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

What a fortunate and apparently prosperous fellow the hon. Member for Isle of Wight (Mr Turner) is! We are always pleased to get a bit of additional information.

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

The “Lonely Planet” guide must be in a galaxy far, far away if it does not mention Yorkshire. We in Yorkshire demand a greater share of all the people who come here. Too many tourists come to London but do not go beyond it. When are we going to get the balance right?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Barry Sheerman and John Bercow

Monday 31st October 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I must say to the Minister, who is a very forgiving soul, that gratitude to the hon. Member for Bassetlaw is not always a commodity in plentiful supply.

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

14. What steps she is taking to ensure that vulnerable people are given adequate protection when facing extradition orders.

Points of Order

Debate between Barry Sheerman and John Bercow

Monday 17th October 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I am grateful to the hon. Lady for giving me notice of her point of order. Moreover, I understand her concern if the veracity of what she volunteered in good faith to the House has subsequently been called into question. Specifically, she asks me what recourse she has in these circumstances. In response, I make a number of points. First, if anybody was seeking to intimidate the hon. Lady as she goes about her parliamentary business, any such attempt has manifestly failed. Moreover, on the basis of my knowing her for the past 17 months, it seems entirely obvious that any such attempt would be doomed to fail. The sooner that point becomes clear to everyone outside the Chamber as well as within it, the better.

Secondly, I think that the hon. Lady has found her own salvation in that she has taken this opportunity to raise a point of order with me on the Floor of the Chamber in which she has registered her discontent as well as putting the record straight in terms that appear to brook no contradiction. If she thinks that any further clarification or airing of the issue is required, various parliamentary avenues are open to her, and I do not doubt that she will pursue them with that combination of forensic precision and terrier-like tenacity for which she has become renowned in all parts of the House.

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

Let’s get Richard Branson in here.

[Mr Speaker]

I am grateful to the hon. Member for Huddersfield (Mr Sheerman) for his sedentary contribution to our proceedings, helpful as it was.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Barry Sheerman and John Bercow

Tuesday 13th September 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

Will the Minister help the leading manufacturer of laser pens, which is situated in my constituency? The company is—or was—a great supporter of the northern powerhouse and will be attending Thursday’s big conference in Yorkshire on innovation and creativity, supported by the all-party parliamentary group on Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire. It wants to know why Lord O’Neill was suddenly pulled as a speaker with no substitute offered. We hear that the Government will have nothing to do with elected mayors or the northern powerhouse. What is the situation now?

[Mr Speaker]

In relation to laser pens, rather than the speaking engagements or otherwise of Lord O’Neill.

[Mr Sheerman]

I mentioned laser pens.

Point of Order

Debate between Barry Sheerman and John Bercow

Tuesday 13th September 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. I have been contacted by leading business people up and down the country regarding the efficiency and effectiveness of Members of this House. There are informal ratings of how hard parliamentarians work, but there is no official kitemark. I wonder whether you could investigate whether we could look at which Members are fat or lazy and which ones are hard-working and innovative. Is it not about time we looked at Members—some of them in the leafy suburbs and leafy parts of Britain—who do not have much casework? They do not do very much—of course, we know that. Those in the towns and cities work much harder. Could we have an evaluation of who works hard in this House and a kitemark showing that to our constituents?

[Mr Speaker]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his suggestion through the device of a point of order. I ought, first of all, to say that there is nothing wrong with being fat—at any rate, it is certainly not for the Chair to pass judgment on these matters, and I would get into hot water, and very properly so, if I were to start casting aspersions on body shape. I will simply say, although I am sure the hon. Gentleman was not seeking my approbation, and he has no need of it, that he himself is slim, assiduous and endlessly energetic, as his continued re-election by the people of Huddersfield for the last 37 years, I think, readily testifies. At any rate, he appears to enjoy their enthusiastic approval. We will leave it there for now.

Bill Presented

Laser Pens (Regulation of Sale, Ownership and Usage) Bill

Presentation and First Reading (Standing Order No. 57)

Rehman Chishti, supported by Maggie Throup, Mr Nigel Dodds and Martin Vickers, presented a Bill to make the sale, ownership and use of portable laser emitting devices with output power of more than 1 milliwatt unlawful in certain circumstances; and for connected purposes.

Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 2 December, and to be printed (Bill 64).

Points of Order

Debate between Barry Sheerman and John Bercow

Tuesday 28th June 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. I was led to believe that the Labour Front-Bench team was requesting a statement on this morning’s further chaos around HS2—both its preparedness and the resources it is sucking up from our economy. Did you receive any application for a statement on HS2? We have the Business Secretary here today. Does he not realise that British industry, which is in chaos and reeling from Brexit, wants to see HS2 stopped now before it sucks up all those resources?

[Mr Speaker]

I certainly would not discuss on the Floor of the House applications for urgent questions—as colleagues will understand, it is a long-standing convention that those matters are not the subject of exchanges on the Floor—but I can say to the hon. Gentleman that I have received no indication from any Minister of an intention to make a statement on HS2. He will know that I am very conscious of requests from Ministers to make statements, and never would I be more likely to be aware of such an intention than in relation to HS2, but there has been no such notification of intent to my office to date.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Barry Sheerman and John Bercow

Tuesday 7th June 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

Is the Minister aware that Huddersfield and Yorkshire are already a northern powerhouse in terms of manufacturing and the quality of partnership with universities? Is she aware that my universities in Yorkshire and the manufacturing sector are terrified that we will leave the European Union? It will bankrupt the universities and the manufacturing sector.

[Mr Speaker]

Did we get a reference to exports? I am sure that the hon. Gentleman meant to mention it.

[Mr Sheerman]

We have great exporters as well.

[Mr Speaker]

Well done.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Barry Sheerman and John Bercow

Monday 6th June 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

That is slightly misleading, because only 7% of local authorities think the new starter homes initiative is any good and 60% think it will be useless in their area. Is that not a fact? Look at this all-male, middle-aged group on the Government Front Bench who are saying to young people in our country, “There’s no hope of a home—not in their lifetime.”

[Mr Speaker]

I am sure the hon. Gentleman intended to insert the word “inadvertently” before the word “misleading”.

[Mr Sheerman]

indicated assent.

Removal of Foreign National Offenders and EU Prisoners

Debate between Barry Sheerman and John Bercow

Monday 6th June 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

That was a bit cheeky of the hon. Gentleman. He will have an opportunity to dilate in due course, but in the first instance, he should stick to the terms of the question—and the puckish grin on his face shows that he knows he has gone a bit beyond the boundary.

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

Lock him up. [Laughter.]

[Mr Speaker]

He certainly should not be locked up!

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Barry Sheerman and John Bercow

Tuesday 19th April 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. No! The hon. Gentleman is very, very wide of the question. I have great respect for him. He has put his thoughts on the record, but they have absolutely nothing to do with the question on the Order Paper, to which the Chief Secretary will not therefore reply.

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

May I press the Minister? He cannot just hide behind what he claims to be happening in all advanced economies. We are performing worse than most, particularly France. Is the reason for that not to do with the lack of skills of our workers and the lack of good education in our country? Will the Chancellor’s silly policy on forced academisation help or hinder?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Barry Sheerman and John Bercow

Thursday 4th February 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

The Secretary of State has made the hon. Gentleman’s day, possibly his month and conceivably his year.

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

To hit a more serious note, after that interesting and humorous exchange, may I say to the Secretary of State that to produce great British food, we need great British technology? The news yesterday that Syngenta, our leading European food innovator, which produces wonderful technology and innovation and has a large plant in my constituency, is to be taken over by ChemChina means that overnight the European capacity for innovation in food technology and much else will be wiped out. Should the House not debate that very seriously before it goes through?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Barry Sheerman and John Bercow

Tuesday 2nd February 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

The east midlands have also been accommodated, as colleagues will have noticed.

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

12. What steps he is taking to support start-up manufacturing businesses.

NHS Trusts: Finances

Debate between Barry Sheerman and John Bercow

Monday 1st February 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I say to the Minister in all friendliness that I hope the region is aware of his upcoming tour. It sounds a most exciting prospect.

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

Will the Minister think carefully about what has happened up and down the country? Health trusts such as mine in Calderdale and Huddersfield have run successfully for many years, but recently—I think this is something to do with the destabilisation of clinical commissioning groups—many problems have entered into the general life of those trusts. In Huddersfield we do not want the closure of A&E in our hospital, or the closure of the main hospital and its replacement by a much smaller one. Will the Minister look carefully and forensically at what has happened in the Huddersfield and Calderdale area? It is not just the whipping boy of the unfortunate independent financial arrangement that was negotiated under John Major but signed under Tony Blair.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Barry Sheerman and John Bercow

Thursday 28th January 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

Mr Speaker, may I quickly associate myself with the generous tribute you paid to those great servants of the House, but point out that you seemed to omit the time and date of the lavish retirement party you are putting on for them?

May I say to the rail Ministers that they have challenged us to speak to the facts? According to the BBC, the facts are that the trans-Pennine electrification is in severe doubt because of what is happening in the south, where electrification is four years late. New trains are arriving before the rails are ready and they are parking them up in sidings.

[Mr Speaker]

I am not sure the hon. Gentleman will be on the party invitation list with a question that length.

Points of Order

Debate between Barry Sheerman and John Bercow

Tuesday 26th January 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his point of order and for giving me notice of it. It appears that he has received a most unsatisfactory response from the Government to his written question and to his correspondence on a matter which is clearly of urgent interest to his constituents. Although it is for the Government to decide which Department has lead responsibility for a matter, it is clearly important to parliamentary scrutiny and to public accountability that the Government are clear and consistent on where responsibility lies. What the hon. Gentleman said will have been heard on the Treasury Bench and will, I trust, be conveyed to the relevant Ministers. If he wishes to pursue the specific matter of the unsatisfactory response to his parliamentary question, he may wish to write to the Chair of the Procedure Committee, the hon. Member for Broxbourne (Mr Walker), because his Committee monitors these important matters. I hope that that will serve the hon. Gentleman for now and be a useful guide to Members across the House.

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. This is a point of order about the rights of Back Benchers to be heard in this Chamber. You will know that some of us are very good attenders at business questions on Thursdays. Last Thursday, contributions from the Front Benches took 25 minutes. I know you are very generous and we carry on with our questions, but the predominance of all three Front Benches went on for a very long time, which squeezes the genuine Back Bencher. On the Labour Benches, we genuine Back Benchers are fighting for space all the time against the Front Benchers who are also Back Benchers part-time. Perhaps you could have a word. Also, I have never known such nasty, acrimonious jousting as there was between the two Front Benches last Thursday. It was not funny and it was not nice.

[Mr Speaker]

I note what the hon. Gentleman says about never having witnessed such unpleasantness in exchanges. I have never witnessed, in nearly 19 years in the House, the hon. Gentleman being squeezed by anybody; he almost invariably gets in. However, I take on board the very serious point he makes. Although I do not think that in the end Members are squeezed if they have the time to stay, because the record shows that I almost invariably let business questions run until everybody has had a chance to contribute, which was not always the practice in the past, I do accept that Members have time constraints and might have to go elsewhere to attend to other duties, including, of course, constituency and parliamentary duties. It is therefore important that they should not have to wait an excessive period of time.

My own view is similar to that of the hon. Gentleman. I think that the exchanges between the Front Benches do take too long, and they have recently started to take longer, not only on account of the involvement of the Scottish National party, which is a very legitimate and proper involvement, but because the exchanges between the Government and the official Opposition Front Benches are taking too long. Front Benchers have now been duly chided, and not just from the Chair, but, very importantly, by an hon. Member who will in May have had 37 years’ uninterrupted service in the House—namely, the hon. Gentleman. I hope that message will be duly heeded, starting this Thursday. I will have the point in mind as I hear the shadow Leader of the House and the Leader of the House. I hope that is helpful.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Barry Sheerman and John Bercow

Tuesday 19th January 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Of course, as colleagues know, the fact that a question has been asked does not stop others asking the same question. Repetition is not a novel phenomenon in the House of Commons.

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

Will the Chancellor ponder the fact that we still have not tackled productivity? May I guide him and ask him and his Department to look at the way in which we further invest in manufacturing skills? Surely he will agree that what we want in this country are high skilled, high paid jobs, which are to be found in manufacturing.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Barry Sheerman and John Bercow

Thursday 10th December 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

rose—

[Mr Speaker]

Huddersfield is a long way from the south-east, but the hon. Gentleman will ask a question that I know will be exclusively focused, like a laser, on the south-east.

[Mr Sheerman]

A bit like many Members of Parliament, when I am here in London and the south-east, I use Southern rail, and I will be very pleased if it is to be improved. None of us begrudges that investment, but we do put it into perspective, which is that we are not getting enough infrastructure investment in the north, linking the big towns and cities. It must be north first and south second.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Barry Sheerman and John Bercow

Monday 7th December 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

On the whole, because the hon. Member for Wellingborough (Mr Bone) is dextrous, he was just about within order, but I counsel colleagues that they should take great care, as a general principle, not to shoehorn their personal preoccupations into questions to which they do not obviously relate.

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

That’s the only thing he does!

[Mr Speaker]

No, no; he is a very versatile fellow in all manner of means.

School Expansion

Debate between Barry Sheerman and John Bercow

Monday 19th October 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

I do not want to get into the tribal politics we always get into as soon as grammar schools are mentioned. [Interruption.] No, I am not going to get into it. I have a new declaration of interest to make, because I am now chair of the advisory committee of the Sutton Trust, and I will take that responsibility very seriously. I must say, however, that our education policy is a rag, tag and bobtail mess, because different Governments under different parties have made it a fragmented mess. Is it not time we got back to the spirit of the Education Act 1944 and asked, cross-party, “What are the great challenges in our country?” The great challenge is not the brightest kids but the poorest kids, who, especially in Kent, do not have a fair crack at using their talents to the full and getting good qualifications and a good job.

[Mr Speaker]

The hon. Gentleman should apply for an Adjournment debate, but then, on reflection, I think he has already had it.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Barry Sheerman and John Bercow

Thursday 15th October 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I have missed the hon. Member for Huddersfield (Mr Sheerman). It is good to have him back.

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

Thank you, Mr Speaker.

A constituent of mine who is a very competent manager recently did jury service. He said the court system was medieval and it was about time someone came in and organised it better, managed it better and gave a real return to the taxpayer, with better justice delivered quickly.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Barry Sheerman and John Bercow

Tuesday 7th July 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Last but not least, Mr Barry Sheerman.

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

When will the Minister do more for parents whose children are on the autism scale?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Barry Sheerman and John Bercow

Thursday 2nd July 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Splendid fellow!

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

The Solicitor General may know of my long-term interest in this matter. We all want a Serious Fraud Office that is fit for purpose; this Serious Fraud Office is not. We go back to the catastrophe that was the daft prosecution and dawn arrest of the Tchenguiz brothers. As he knows, if we have a weak SFO, it relies on accountants, such as Grant Thornton. That is not a healthy relationship for the SFO.

Points of Order

Debate between Barry Sheerman and John Bercow

Tuesday 30th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. It concerns yesterday’s business. Some of us were very concerned about the mixed nature of the Prime Minister’s statement. Many of us thought that two separate statements would have been more appropriate. Did you take that into consideration, Mr Speaker, when the Prime Minister made his request to make a statement? Some of us found it very awkward that a tragedy—a deeply felt tragedy—was mixed up with a report from a European meeting that the Prime Minister had attended. They did not seem to us to sit well together.

[Mr Speaker]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman, who is a very experienced Member of the House. The short answer is that it was entirely a matter for the Prime Minister. Let me add—just to put the matter in context, and so that the hon. Gentleman is not misled—that it would always be a matter for the Minister in question, whether that Minister be the Prime Minister or any other Minister. I note what the hon. Gentleman has said, and it should be heard on the Treasury Bench, but it is still a matter for Ministers to decide.

In the circumstances—and I think that the Prime Minister had very good intentions in seeking to address the House on both subjects, even if the hon. Gentleman did not think it was the right way to go about things—I thought that my role was to try to maximise the number of contributors, bearing in mind that some Members would want to raise the atrocious events in Tunisia, while others would be more focused on the matters appertaining to the European Union.

The hon. Gentleman is very experienced, and I think he will testify that exchanges on statements nowadays tend to last somewhat longer. My own view is that the interests of the House, rather than the convenience of a Minister, should come first. I know that that does not altogether meet the hon. Gentleman’s concerns, but he has put them on the record, so let us see how matters progress. He may find that, as he is somewhat of a sage, his counsel will be heeded in future.

I think that the point of order appetite has been satisfied. The Clerk will now proceed to read the Orders of the Day.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Barry Sheerman and John Bercow

Monday 29th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call Mr Graham Jones—not here. I call Richard Burden—not here.

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

rose—

[Mr Speaker]

But Mr Sheerman, you are here.

[Mr Sheerman]

And I have been here since prayers, Mr Speaker, so I have been very patient.

The Secretary of State knows from the migration figures that more and more people want to come and live in this wonderful country, and he knows that more and more people want affordable homes. Will he do something dramatic about building houses and will he stop his plan to sell off housing association stock, or does he want to turn our cities into ghettos, as the French have done with theirs?

Point of Order

Debate between Barry Sheerman and John Bercow

Thursday 18th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I fear that the hon. Gentleman invests me with powers that I do not possess. I am not in the frogmarching business. There are procedures for bringing Ministers to the House with which the hon. Gentleman, as an experienced hand, is well familiar, and he can seek to deploy them if he thinks it appropriate. Whether a Minister makes a statement in the House today on the matter in question is a matter for the Minister. I heard the exchanges, and if the hon. Gentleman, who is a dextrous and versatile operator in this House, remains dissatisfied, he well knows that there are means by which he can continue to raise the matter on the Floor of the House.

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

Further to that point of order, Mr Speaker. Were you astonished, as I certainly was, when last week the Minister for Skills made an important statement about changing policy on apprenticeships in The Sun—not to this House, not in this Chamber? It was a real innovation in policy, but it was announced in The Sun. Is that right?

[Mr Speaker]

Very few things astonish me. I am not sighted on the matter and I want to let the hon. Gentleman down gently, but I am not invariably in the business of reading The Sun, so I have not seen the material so covered. If a Minister has erred, I hope that the Minister will make amends. If the hon. Gentleman, on the strength of his 36 years’ service in this House, continues next week to be dissatisfied, I have a feeling that both the Minister and the House will not be unaware of the fact. We will leave it there for now.

The Economy

Debate between Barry Sheerman and John Bercow

Thursday 4th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Sheerman]

Can I ask the Chancellor about—

[Mr Speaker]

Order. The hon. Gentleman has been here for 36 years, and he ought to know that you do not pose the question before permission to make the intervention has been granted. I think the Chancellor has acceded to the intervention; let us now hear what it is.

[Mr Sheerman]

The right hon. Gentleman knows that I try to play fair in these things, but on his question about my right hon. Friend the Member for Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford (Yvette Cooper), I think a sense of humility is needed in this Chamber today. The Tory party has just got 30% of the popular vote; the Labour party got 31%. A hell of a lot of people in this country did not vote Conservative and did not vote Labour, and if we are not looking at why we do not enthuse the people, we are not doing our job.