Business of the House

Gareth Thomas Excerpts

Thursday 16th June 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mark Spencer]

I am shocked to hear that 18% of buses might be cut. I think the previous Mayor of London was an enthusiastic supporter of buses and of making sure that the transport links within London worked. That is because the Conservative party recognises that getting people to work is very important. That is why we support transport to make sure that people can get to and from work and that the economy can continue to boom.

[Gareth Thomas (Harrow West) (Lab/Co-op)]

Large numbers of people who had flights cancelled over the holiday period have not had compensation, and consumer experts fear that many who had to purchase extra flights and extra hotel nights and incur other costs will not get compensation. Could we have a debate in Government time on the legal loopholes preventing such compensation and on what might be done to prevent a repeat of that?

[Mark Spencer]

The hon. Gentleman is right to highlight that; I too have had constituents affected in this negative way. I will make sure that the Department for Transport is aware of his comments. Trying to communicate what rights consumers have is the right thing to do, and I will encourage the Department to give that advice and make sure that it is made as widely available as possible so that constituents such as his and mine know their rights in those circumstances.

Business of the House

Gareth Thomas Excerpts

Thursday 13th January 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend and I thank Mary Gallagher for the work she has done. “On time and under budget” is not a phrase that one often hears in relation to projects in the public sector, let alone within the House of Commons, so this is absolutely terrific news. As we come to debate in due course the rumours that we hear of a potential 20-year decant, and enormous sums of money for restoration and renewal, we will have to think about how well the roofs programme was done. It is an indication of the historic nature of this building that the roof has a very unusual form, and it has been very carefully repaired—within budget, as my hon. Friend says. Keeping careful control of taxpayers’ money should be our watchword.

[Gareth Thomas (Harrow West) (Lab/Co-op)]

I am delighted to say that the unsuccessful attempt by the board of Liverpool Victoria to demutualise and sell up to the controversial American private equity giant Bain Capital just before Christmas was unsuccessful, but it revealed a series of legislative and regulatory weaknesses in the rules governing mutuals. Almost 90% of the owners of Liverpool Victoria rejected the board’s dismal deal, but will the Leader of the House nevertheless find time for a debate about how to strengthen the mutual sector and its rules?

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for raising that. Historically, mutuals have been a good way of providing financial services and pooling risk—and, indeed, pooling profits for investors. Sometimes mutuals have been demutualised with very significant profits for the mutual owners, which has been quite welcome to them, but of course it is always important that people should be treated fairly and that boards observe their fiduciary duty. The hon. Gentleman is sitting next to the Chair of the Backbench Business Committee; I suggest that he has a quiet word to seek a debate.

Business of the House

Gareth Thomas Excerpts

Wednesday 25th March 2020 Commons Chamber

[Gareth Thomas (Harrow West) (Lab/Co-op)]

I share the concerns of others in the House about the inability to table questions over the recess, and more generally the reservations expressed by my hon. Friend the Member for Ilford North (Wes Streeting). I will give one example to illustrate those concerns. The excellent trade union Community has many members working in online retail. The Government have made the decision that they should continue to work, because they are a critical sector, yet it is not clear what protections and guidance on social distancing and its enforcement are available to employers and trade unions working in that sector. The ability to ask a question about that would hopefully get a clear answer from the Minister and enable the sector to move forward in a positive way.

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

The hon. Gentleman has now asked that question, and I will ensure that it is passed to the relevant Minister for answer.

Business of the House

Gareth Thomas Excerpts

Thursday 3rd October 2019 Commons Chamber

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

The hon. Lady raises an important point. The situation is one that many of us have seen in our constituency surgeries, and I know that the Department for Work and Pensions is working to ensure that it is put right. I cannot promise a statement in the time available.

[Gareth Thomas (Harrow West) (Lab/Co-op)]

On Sunday, a vigil will take place outside Downing Street in memory of children who lost their life or disappeared at the end of the conflict in Sri Lanka in May 2009. Could we have a statement from the Foreign Office on whether it will ever apply serious pressure on the Sri Lankan Government to allow an international investigation into the very serious allegations of war crimes and grotesque human rights abuses that have dogged Sri Lanka ever since the end of that conflict?

[Mr Rees-Mogg]

I am in the happy position of being the ventriloquist’s dummy, because my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary is sitting next to me, and I was able to ask him briefly for his view. Of course, the Foreign Office will take this incredibly seriously and will look into it.

Business of the House

Gareth Thomas Excerpts

Thursday 14th March 2019 Commons Chamber

[Andrea Leadsom]

I pay tribute to all the fantastic work done by children’s hospices across the United Kingdom. The Department of Health and Social Care is very aware of the issue of funding for children’s hospices. Questions to that Department are on Tuesday 26 March and I encourage the hon. Lady to raise the issue directly then.

[Gareth Thomas (Harrow West) (Lab/Co-op)]

The Co-op party’s food justice campaign is highlighting the extraordinary situation here in the UK, the sixth-largest economy in the world, where some 8 million people still struggle to put food on the table and 500,000 people are using food banks. When might the Government find time for a debate on ending hunger in this country?

[Andrea Leadsom]

I am incredibly sympathetic to the hon. Gentleman’s point. Of course, it is the Government’s clear goal to ensure that nobody needs to go hungry. He will appreciate that there are now 1 million fewer people in absolute poverty, which is a record low. It is the Government’s policy to help more and more people into work, so they have the security of a pay packet to help them and their family to feed and take care of themselves. We now have 300,000 fewer children in absolute poverty and we have taken 4 million of the lowest paid out of paying any income tax altogether, all of which is helping people to meet their own needs and to be independent.

Business of the House

Gareth Thomas Excerpts

Thursday 11th October 2018 Commons Chamber

[Andrea Leadsom]

I congratulate SpecialEffect—what a fantastic achievement. I also congratulate my hon. Friend, who I know has been a long-term supporter of this great charity. He is right to point out that small local charities make a huge contribution to communities across the country, and the Government are committed to supporting their independence and sustainability. I wish SpecialEffect the very best success in the future.

[Gareth Thomas (Harrow West) (Lab/Co-op)]

It is almost 100 years since the first Co-op party MP, Alf Waterson, was elected to this House. Notwithstanding the very strong support that Labour colleagues and others in the House show for much of the Co-op party’s political agenda, as we are the third largest political grouping in the House, is it not time that we were allocated an extra dedicated Opposition day debate?

[Andrea Leadsom]

I will look into that.

Business of the House

Gareth Thomas Excerpts

Thursday 14th April 2016 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

There are a number of ways in which the hon. Lady can bring an important issue to the Chamber. I have just described one way; another is the Adjournment debate system. If she feels strongly, I encourage her to request such a debate and you, Mr Speaker, or the Backbench Business Committee might select the topic for debate.

[Mr Gareth Thomas (Harrow West) (Lab/Co-op)]

The one exam board that offers GCSE and A-level exams in Gujarati and other so-called minority languages has confirmed its intention to stop doing so in the summer of 2018, despite Ministers’ promises last year that those exams would continue. May we have a debate on what action we as the House of Commons can take to stop the language of Mahatma Gandhi, of Prime Minister Modi and, crucially, of many of my constituents being downgraded?

[Chris Grayling]

I understand the concern that the hon. Gentleman raises. The Secretary of State for Education will be here on Monday week and he will have the opportunity to raise that issue then. We want to make sure that we have a good range of international languages—given the ties that we are building, have built and will continue to build with India, that is important—but we also want to make sure that the quality of education across the piece is right for those in migrant communities as they meet the employment challenges of adult life in this country.

Business of the House

Gareth Thomas Excerpts

Thursday 3rd March 2016 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

Business Ministers will be here on Tuesday week. I do not know where the funding came from—whether it was national or local—because I do not know enough details of the individual case. However, I can tell the hon. Gentleman that unemployment in the north of this country, and business in the north of this country, are moving in the right direction, not the wrong one.

[Mr Gareth Thomas (Harrow West) (Lab/Co-op)]

Services at popular walk-in clinics in Harrow are being put out to tender under the direction of the NHS procurement authority, including services at the Alexandra Avenue clinic, which is used by many of my constituents. May we have a debate in Government time so that we can discuss the role of the procurement authority, and, in particular, explore the question of why local GPs who are currently running walk-in clinics continue to be granted a stake in the long-running provision of such crucial services?

[Chris Grayling]

Local GPs are able to have a stake in the future of those services. Local GPs are, typically, private organisations providing services for the NHS, and if those services are put out to tender, GPs are perfectly able to demonstrate that they are best placed to do the work.

Christmas Adjournment

Gareth Thomas Excerpts

Thursday 18th December 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gareth Thomas (Harrow West) (Lab/Co-op)]

I will do my best, Madam Deputy Speaker.

Transport for London is London’s biggest and arguably least accountable quango. Bossed by the Mayor, in practice it is answerable to no one in London apart from him. Londoners have virtually no say in what it does. Fares go up with Londoners having no chance to stop them, never mind reduce them, while vanity projects such as a plan for an estuary airport, on which a royal ransom has been spent, and a cable car that carries few passengers, are funded and no one can stop them. That needs to change.

Londoners need to be given more control over TfL, in the same way that patients were given the right to become members of their local hospital so that they have to be listened to and consulted on the trust’s strategy and non-executive director appointments. Surely it is time that Londoners were allowed some power to shape what TfL does, affect the decisions it makes and have a voice when its spending and fares plans are put together.

London’s fares have gone up by some 60% in the past six years, with outer-London residents, including those in my constituency, being hit very hard. TfL’s most senior staff member recently said that he fears riots if the cost of London travel keeps rising. There has been little discussion with Londoners about the decision to shut virtually every ticket office despite the current Mayor’s pledge to keep them open, and there has been even less public debate about how TfL’s property might be used to address London’s housing crisis.

There is the fiction of mayoral and London assembly accountability: every four years, if people do not like what the Mayor has done with public transport in London, they can vote for change, and there are regular London assembly transport question times, when the likes of Val Shawcross, Navin Shah and other assembly members do a great job within huge constraints, but there is no real input from ordinary Londoners. The first that anyone on the 8 am train from Harrow on the Hill or East Croydon hears of the next year’s fare increases is when they read about them in the Evening Standard, and only once the Mayor’s spin doctors have carefully packaged the announcement so that the worst rises are not discovered for a couple of days.

If Londoners are to be given the chance to have a say on the big decisions that are needed on the future of London’s transport, they must surely be part of TfL’s decision making. They should be able to challenge the Mayor’s proposals on significant issues such as above-inflation fare rises, big projects or significant shifts such as privatising services or the use of TfL land.

How could Londoners be given a greater say? The simplest way would be to create a right for all those paying council tax in London to join TfL if they want to do so. Membership of TfL would entitle London’s residents to attend annual meetings and to listen to, question and approve TfL bosses’ plans. Such a system already exists in foundation hospitals, and to a lesser extent in Welsh Water. The Mayor would still have the right of initiative, but crucially he would have to face a far more vigorous system of public scrutiny and approval. I gently suggest to the House that TfL needs to be reformed and that a more engaged and democratic TfL needs to emerge.

Secondly, I wish to mention the huge cuts in funding that my local authority faces—some £25 million this year. That will put facilities such as Harrow arts centre and Harrow museum at risk, although they appear to have been saved at least for this year. Other cuts that the council envisages include those to North Harrow library and Rayners Lane library, both of which are popular facilities. North Harrow library in particular is a crucial community facility in an area that has lost a number of other services and commercial firms of late. Harrow faces some £50 million of further cuts in future years, so there will be difficult choices. I nevertheless hope that there might be a way to save North Harrow library in particular.

Thirdly, I want to raise the example of Desjardins, the biggest financial services player in Quebec, in Canada. It is basically a credit union, but an unusual one. It is essentially a federation of 480 individual credit unions, which co-operate to present a unified back-office service and a unified front-facing offer. The individual credit unions share back-office services, cross-guarantee each other’s financial decisions and share the same brand name, making marketing of their services far easier.

Desjardins is owned by its members and backed by the Church in Quebec, and its branches have become almost as prolific in Quebec as churches. It offers the full range of individual and business financial services, helping individuals to manage their future and helping small businesses to grow into larger ones. It makes a profit, which is shared by members across the credit unions.

In the UK, the challenge remains how to take credit unions to scale. Part of the Desjardins model is being considered in the UK under the credit union modernisation project that the Department for Work and Pensions has funded. What has not yet been created is a similar front-facing offer—a common brand with an extensive common marketing offer and agreement on common products. Co-operatives are often fiercely independent, but I wonder whether it is time for an attempt to be made to bring credit unions together, at least on a regional basis, to fund for a number of years the common front-facing offer that is needed. Clearly, flexibility would be needed so that individual credit unions did not lose their identity or power. Why could not the Mayor of London, perhaps working with the Church of England, consider such an operation to help London’s credit unions grow in membership and number?

The last point that I want to raise is about London Welsh rugby club. I have recently written to Alex Chisholm, the chief executive of the Competition and Markets Authority, about the fact that London Welsh, newly promoted to the premiership this year, get just £1.5 million in subsidy whereas other premiership rugby clubs get more than £4 million. Inevitably, the premiership is a rigged market as a result, always making it harder for newly promoted clubs to compete with more established clubs on an equal basis.

Talks are in progress between London Welsh and Premiership Rugby, but I hope that Mr Chisholm from the CMA might be willing to use his good offices, following the letter that I have written to him, to which I hope the shadow Deputy Leader of the House might encourage a quick response, to encourage Premiership Rugby to see sense and sort out the huge imbalance in funding.

Oral Answers to Questions

Gareth Thomas Excerpts

Wednesday 10th September 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hague]

Absolutely. This is an extremely important continuation of the developing, immense and proud sporting history that we have in this country. We are now established again as one of the great sporting nations of the world, and we are also a country that thinks deeply about the welfare of service veterans. His Royal Highness Prince Harry has been one of the great champions of that, and we wish him, and everyone involved in the games, very well.

[Mr Gareth Thomas (Harrow West) (Lab/Co-op)]

Q6. In 2012, the Prime Minister said that he wanted to see economic growth that would mean rising living standards for all. Can the Leader of the House tell us, then, why Britain has seen one of the largest falls in real wages among the European Union countries, beaten only by Cyprus, Portugal and Greece?

[Mr Hague]

The hon. Gentleman may remember that there was a debt-fuelled, deep recession, which came about under the last Government. That, of course, has to be paid for, but now, after four years of the disciplined policies of my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer, we have the fastest growth among the G7 economies, we have employment nearing a record high, and we have nearly 2 million new apprenticeships which have been started during this time. That is a remarkable economic turnaround from the catastrophic situation that we were left.