David Mundell
Main Page: David Mundell (Conservative - Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale)Department Debates - View all David Mundell's debates with the Leader of the House
(2 days ago)
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Lucy Powell
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Tackling violence against women and girls is a national emergency, which is why this Government have a really ambitious mission to halve the levels of violence against women and girls within a decade. That will take a huge effort. We have already taken a number of steps, such as banning sexually explicit deepfakes and taking action on stalking and spiking. We are introducing many other measures in forthcoming Bills, and I look forward to debating them with him.
David Mundell (Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale) (Con)
My condolences to the shadow Leader of the House. I have spent many happy hours looking for lost Polly Pocket pieces.
The Leader of the House has had many invitations to the Scottish Borders, and I extend an invitation for her to come to the Langholm Common Riding, which is a fantastic event where the cornet leads a cavalcade of horses to check the town’s boundaries. But if she were to come to Langholm right now, she would find that people are very unhappy about a proposed cull of feral goats on the moorland surrounding the town. A company called Oxygen Conservation took over a large part of that moor for the purpose of rewilding, but local people are dismayed that its first action was to propose a cull of goats. Whatever the merits or otherwise of such a scheme, does the Leader of the House agree that it is important that organisations such as Oxygen consult local people and do not just ride roughshod over their views?
Lucy Powell
Absolutely, and I thank the right hon. Gentleman for the invitation to his constituency. I have had many invitations to the region, and I hope to come good on them one day.
This has become a very big issue in his constituency. I understand that a petition about this matter has garnered much support, and he is absolutely right: rewilding or nature preservation organisations really ought to work with local people to ensure that their wishes are considered.