Christmas Adjournment

Fleur Anderson Excerpts

Thursday 16th December 2021 Commons Chamber

[Fleur Anderson (Putney) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Eastleigh (Paul Holmes), and to find out so much about his lovely constituency. I, too, feel happy to be part of this debate. I am delighted to not have the clock, but sad that Sir David Amess is not with us. He was such a formidable part of these debates, and I really enjoyed hearing from him. He took a deep breath at the beginning of his speech, and rattled off about 50 points. It was always a pleasure to hear. We mourn him. We miss him.

[Bob Stewart]

One of the reasons why I miss Sir David Amess is that he reminds us all of what an assiduous Member of Parliament should do. I was always in awe of that. I felt totally inadequate when he gave his speeches and I heard about everything he had done. Does the hon. Lady agree with me?

[Fleur Anderson]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for that intervention. As a new Member of Parliament, I have a lot to learn, and I have learned from Members on both sides of the House. I learned from Sir David Amess.

This week was my two-year anniversary of being elected. It is an absolute honour every day to represent the people of Putney, Southfields and Roehampton, and a huge responsibility that I do not take for granted for a single second. The end of the year is a good time for us all to reflect on that.

I thank all the volunteers and NHS staff who are stepping up their work to deliver the booster as we speak. I also thank the volunteers in other organisations such as The Scrubbery in Putney, which has made 30,000 surgical scrubs since it was set up before the start of covid—they saw it coming. They have just made Christmas bags for all Age UK Wandsworth day centre clients. They do an amazing job. I also thank the Roehampton community box project, who since the start of covid have delivered tens of thousands of boxes to local families in need. When they started, they thought it would be for just a few weeks—maybe six weeks—but it went on, and they are still delivering those boxes every Wednesday, week in, week out. It is amazing.

I also thank all the Roehampton Response Network community organisations, which have come together through covid and provided strength in our community in Roehampton. They are doing an amazing job. I also thank Regenerate-RISE, an amazing older people’s centre that does an amazing job to stem and curb loneliness for older people, which is an issue across my constituency, as it is across the country. It had a great Christmas lunch this week, which unfortunately I was not able to attend. I could go on, but I wanted to pay tribute to some of our amazing volunteers at this time of year—I know that they will step up again in the next couple of weeks.

I want to give an update on wet wipes. As colleagues know, I am officially the MP for banning plastic for wet wipes as well as the MP for Putney. It was an honour to introduce a ten-minute rule Bill earlier this year, and I thank the many hon. Members in the House who have supported my campaign so far. It is the campaign that no one disagrees with. I welcome the constructive discussions and meeting that I have had with the Minister. I also welcome the recent call for evidence on commonly littered single-use plastics, which was launched following my Bill. I agree that it does not have the most snappy title, but in that call for evidence, there is an opportunity for everyone—every Member, everyone working in the industry producing wet wipes, all retailers and all members of the public—to get involved and have their say in a Government consultation. It closes on 12 February. I will contribute to it, and I encourage other Members to do so, and to say, “There shouldn’t be any plastic in wet wipes.”

I hope that the outcome of the call for evidence will be firm and tough action. The industry is already going in the right direction, but banning plastic in wet wipes would push it to go further and faster. That is what we need, given the number of wet wipes bought and used in the UK every year—and that number went up considerably because of covid. We need a date for the phasing-out of plastic in wet wipes, clarity on which wet wipes would be exempt due to medical and clinical need, and agreement on the principle that the consumer—and, importantly, the NHS, which is a main user of wet wipes—will not pay extra. We also need the Government to adopt labelling measures contained in the EU single-use plastics directive. The change in labelling is an easy win that could be made very quickly. It has already been done across the EU, where the industry has already changed the labelling on its plastic packaging. If any hon. Member —or you, Madam Deputy Speaker—goes to a supermarket, they will see that some labels have a sad turtle on them, or say, “Don’t flush.” That could easily be adopted for our labelling of packaging. It would really help consumers to know what is in wet wipes and what they should do with them. In short, the answer is: do not flush.

I was glad to hear the speech by the right hon. Member for Beckenham (Bob Stewart), because Bosnia is another serious issue for me. Bosnia is close to my heart, because I lived there during and following the war as an aid worker. I rebuilt villages and worked with the wonderful people of Bosnia, who looked the pain and suffering of the war in the face and decided that they wanted to build peace. They have done that—precariously—for 26 years. However, I agree with the right hon. Member that there are serious concerns about a slide once again into conflict. There is growing nationalism and tension, and moves towards conflict, in Republika Srpska under its leader, Milorad Dodik. There is hate speech and genocide denial, and the Dayton agreement is under threat.

I add my support for the territorial integrity of Bosnia as it is, and for the need for the UK to take the lead in diplomatic action now. It would break my heart to be standing here in the future saying, “We knew what was happening, but we didn’t take enough action, so now we Members of Parliament must work out what to do, in terms of military intervention.” We do not need to do that. It is diplomatic action and action with community organisations in Republika Srpska and across Bosnia and Herzegovina that will make a difference. Long-lasting peace can come only when the population wants peace. We saw that for ourselves in Northern Ireland. What made the difference was when women’s organisations, community groups and schoolchildren said, “We will not have conflict any more”. Such action does not give political legitimacy to leaders who might want to move towards conflict, so it is really important to be working with community groups on the ground. I have urged the Foreign Secretary to do that, and I encourage other Members to do so as well. I ask those on the Front Bench to take that away with them from this debate.

The Afghan citizens resettlement scheme, or the lack thereof, has already been mentioned in this debate, but I would like to add my concerns. There is huge anxiety among so many people writing to me who have relatives in danger in Afghanistan. What is happening with the Afghan citizens resettlement scheme? The fact that this has not been announced is a symptom of the chaos in Government. As far as I can tell, it has been passed between Ministers for months. There has been no clarity on what will be in the scheme and what its terms will be. In short, where is it? My plea is for the Afghan citizens resettlement scheme to be agreed, announced and to be made very clear so that people know that they can start coming and have the support that they need during these terrible times in Afghanistan.

A big issue for many residents in my constituency is the persecution of the Ahmadiyya Muslim population in Pakistan. I have a large Ahmadiyya community in Southfields, and an absolutely beautiful mosque—the first in London. Recently, I was able to hold the first MP surgery in the first mosque in London. It was a wonderful experience. Many people came to my surgery and I was able to speak with them. I know very well the concerns that so many have about discrimination, not being able to vote for the Ahmadiyyas in Pakistan—if they cannot vote they cannot stand for office, and if they cannot stand for office, they do not have a political say in the country—forced detentions, summary detentions, and discrimination throughout education, work and life. The Ahmadiyya people must worship in hidden mosques and they cannot live their life as they do here. I stand in solidarity with them. I was glad that, this year, I was able to ask the Home Office to recognise the Ahmadiyya marriage certificate in immigration applications, and that rule has now been changed and the Ahmadiyya marriage certificate is now recognised.

Let me move on to a very different issue. The Transport for London settlement is a major concern in Putney. We are now two days away from a weeks-long extension on the funding of the whole of Transport for London, and yet there seems to be a deadlock. I urge the Transport Secretary to meet the Mayor of London today—as soon as possible—so that we can clear this funding deadlock. We need our public transport to be as wide as it is now, and we need to make sure that people who are over 60 will still have access to free transport—I have had many people writing to me about this in the past couple of days.

I cannot miss the opportunity to mention Hammersmith bridge. I have raised this issue 15 times in Parliament now. The bridge has been closed to traffic since April 2019—it is a major traffic route in our capital city and it is still closed to traffic. It is causing chaos in Putney, as all the traffic comes down our roads, causing congestion and pollution and making cycling more dangerous. The council cannot afford to pay for it. At £160 million, it is way beyond its annual budget. TfL can no longer afford to pay for it, because it has had a huge loss of income, as we know, and, with fewer people travelling because of the omicron variant, that loss will only increase. Only the Government can fund the rebuilding of Hammersmith bridge and open it again. I raise the matter on behalf of all residents of Putney, Southfields and Roehampton who cannot get on a bus and go over the river to work, to the hospital, or to meet up with family, because of the closure of the bridge.

With the two-year anniversary of the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020 now close, last week I asked a perfectly reasonable question of the Leader of the House about Brexit: whether the Government would let us debate the impact that Brexit is having on our economy, society and daily lives so far, and whether the Government would commission a region-by-region report. His response contained the following words:

“Brexit prayer…the Brexit song, beginning, “Gloria in excelsis Deo”… happy fish”.—[Official Report, 9 December 2021; Vol. 705, c. 591.]

It was not a serious response to a very serious request. In the absence of a grown-up debate in the House, will the Government at the very least mark their own homework and publish an impact assessment of Brexit?

Housing is a subject that has been raised in this debate before and it is a very big issue in Putney. On homelessness, the Everyone In programme showed that if there is political will, action can be taken. All those who were homeless in my area of south-west London were housed very quickly. I pay tribute to the Putney hotel, which switched overnight from being a hotel to being a homeless hostel, as it still is. Its staff are fantastic and I was able to meet them recently to thank them for all they have done. They do not yet know how long the funding for that will continue, but every person in that hotel should be assessed and a place in suitable accommodation should be found for all of them as soon as possible.

The other issue that we face is damp and shoddy housing stock; so many families write to me about damp issues, as they live in houses where the spores are so thick that you can smell them. I have doctors’ letters about the impact that has on their children as well. In this day and age, we should not be facing that in our country. Councils are not tackling it adequately. Wandsworth Council is certainly not tackling the amount of houses and homes that are suffering from damp, where children and whole families are suffering ill health as a result. That issue needs to be taken far more seriously.

Finally, on housing, I come to the issue of children in temporary accommodation. Shockingly, the number rises every year, but this Christmas 3,300 Wandsworth children are in temporary accommodation, often far from their schools, with their parents having to get up early, in the darkness, and take several buses to get them back to the school that they went to. Their family life suffers immensely. Temporary accommodation should be close to schools, but there should not be so many people and families in temporary accommodation—it is an absolute housing failure. I know that the Mayor of London is building more affordable homes, and they cannot be built quickly enough, because this is a major issue for my constituency.

Also connected with housing is the cladding crisis. I have been campaigning on the issue for nearly two years, yet thousands of leaseholders in Putney, Southfields and Roehampton are still trapped in, to quote the new Secretary of State, “an invidious vice” of unsafe homes, life-destroying safety costs and ever-increasing insurance costs. The Building Safety Bill still does nothing to protect leaseholders, which is extremely disappointing to constituents. Will the new Secretary of State work with us and ensure that the Bill delivers for victims of the cladding crisis on Report? Labour members of the Public Bill Committee have tabled many amendments that would have strengthened and improved that Bill, but they have been rejected. At the last housing oral questions, the Secretary of State said that he would shortly be updating the House on a “series of measures” that he hopes will “help bring some relief” to leaseholders facing costs. He said that he will do that before Christmas. Does that mean it will be today or are we to expect it within the next 10 days? We are holding our breath. We are waiting for those, as the victims of the cladding crisis across the country have heard that and are expecting these measures, and I want to know what will be in them.

Let me finish by thanking my staff team; people in Putney may not know how hard they work. They are an amazing team of people who are working day in, day out to support local constituents. They absolutely care as much as I do for every single person who contacts me, be it by coming to my surgery or emailing me, or when they bump into me in the street or in the shops and at all the Christmas events I go to. I want to say a huge thank you to them, to all the Speakers and to all the House staff, who support us so admirably day in, day out, so that we are able to stand up here. As I have said, I am the only Putney resident who is allowed to come in here to speak on behalf of Putney residents, and I do that with a huge sense of responsibility, honour and enjoyment.