Easter Adjournment

Gen Kitchen Excerpts

Tuesday 8th April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Gen Kitchen (Wellingborough and Rushden) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to close the debate. I will try to do so very swiftly, Madam Deputy Speaker, and I wish you and all those listening a very happy Easter.

Let me begin by paying tribute to the hon. Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman), and thanking him and all the members of the Backbench Business Committee for the work that they do in bringing so many important issues to the notice of the House. Let me also pay tribute to the late Sir David Amess, whose plaque on the wall behind me is a reminder of his years of service to his Southend constituency, the House, and the traditions of this debate. While my time in the House did not coincide with his, my esteemed colleagues often share stories of his campaigns, and I have great admiration for the work that he did on animal welfare.

I thank all 20 of the Members who have spoken this afternoon about a range of subjects close to their hearts. I will do my best not to butcher the names of their constituencies, and to summarise their arguments. I thank the hon. Member for Harrow East for his good-natured Easter puns, his busy parliamentary and constituency work, and his campaign for step-free access for Stanmore, his local underground station. Let me also say that we strongly support a sustained ceasefire and a two-state solution. I wish the hon. Gentleman well personally for Passover.

I wish my hon. Friend the Member for Newton Aycliffe and Spennymoor (Alan Strickland) a happy birthday. I thank him for telling us all about Spennymoor Town football club, and congratulate the team on its win and on being a top team for community work. His local community village hall is clearly something to which we should all aspire. I also congratulate the Friends of the Stockton & Darlington Railway on their bicentennial anniversary.

I was sorry to hear from the hon. Member for Reigate (Rebecca Paul) about the antisocial behaviour in Redhill. She and the Surrey police force are clearly doing a cracking job in cracking down on such behaviour, and she is also a champion for Safer Redhill and for the partnership work that she highlighted. My hon. Friend the Member for Brent East (Dawn Butler) spoke about gambling and its effects on families. Representatives of the organisation Gambling with Lives came to see me in my constituency of Wellingborough and Rushden to talk about the suicide of one of my constituents, so I know how hard families and others can take this.

The hon. Member for Mid Dorset and North Poole (Vikki Slade) paid tribute to the fire crews who have worked tirelessly to tackle the blazes in her constituency. I was heartened to hear about the wildlife recovery organisations. I am glad to say that responsibility for the fire service has moved from the Home Office to the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government, and I am sure that the hon. Lady will be doing a great deal more to question the Ministry about that. I was sad to hear from my hon. Friend the Member for Stockport (Navendu Mishra) that people will be denied access to cash as a result of the NatWest closure. I know that, as a local champion, he will be campaigning actively. However, I was delighted to hear about the schools that he has visited.

I am sure that the hon. Member for Honiton and Sidmouth (Richard Foord) is as delighted as I was to hear that the Water (Special Measures) Bill has received Royal Assent and is now an Act. As bills go up, Labour has legislated to ringfence investment in infrastructure, and when money is not spent we will force companies to give it back to customers. As for my hon. Friend the Member for Carlisle (Ms Minns), “yarn bombing” is not a term that I expected to hear in the Chamber today, but, like Carlisle, a town in my constituency called Irthlingborough has some of the best scenes and little models. My hon. Friend is welcome to visit it at any time so that we can compare them, but I am sad to say that I cannot crochet myself.

The hon. Member for Ynys Môn (Llinos Medi) is right to champion clean power and nuclear power. We have a clear clean power mission, and national infrastructure projects will be covered by the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, which I hope she will scrutinise keenly. Like my hon. Friend the Member for Cannock Chase (Josh Newbury), I welcome the £1.5 billion and 32% increase for the mineworkers’ pension scheme. I also pay tribute to those in the British Coal staff superannuation scheme who have passed away.

I can say to the hon. Member for South Devon (Caroline Voaden) and the hon. Member for Taunton and Wellington (Gideon Amos)—who is my brother’s MP—that I too live in a dental desert, and I understand that rural communities are at a particular disadvantage. I will chase the Minister for Care, my hon. Friend the Member for Aberafan Maesteg (Stephen Kinnock) for a response.

My hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme (Lee Pitcher)—I hope I have said that correctly—spoke so fast that I was not able to write down all the clubs he mentioned, but I congratulate the 100-year-old rugby club and Vera Owen, who is definitely a community champion. I am sure that his support for the Planning and Infrastructure Bill will help those in housing crisis.

I was shocked to hear from my hon. Friend the Member for Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard (Alex Mayer) that one in five hens are still in cages, but I welcome the £22 million from DEFRA to improve hen welfare. The hon. Member for Keighley and Ilkley (Robbie Moore) mentioned the Joze School of Dance, which I congratulate on its 20th anniversary. I also congratulate Maisie Swann and Blythe Dale. The business awards that the hon. Member spoke of—like my own, the NNBN—do wonders for independent businesses and small businesses, and I hope that his sister Becky has a bright future and a safe recovery.

I agree wholeheartedly with the impassioned speech by my hon. Friend the Member for High Peak (Jon Pearce) about local government. Wellingborough and Rushden shares many of the woes he described under a Tory unitary authority. I agree with the hon. Member for Brigg and Immingham (Martin Vickers) that steel is critical to secure the economy, and to a secure economy. We have committed £2.5 billion in our plan for steel, and the relevant Minister was at the Dispatch Box yesterday.

My hon. Friend the Member for Erewash (Adam Thompson) spoke about Owen, Roy and Harrison’s male friendship, and I pay tribute to them for their recent viral sensation. I also pay tribute to his friend Tomas Shackson. Friends like Dan and Joe are role models for young men everywhere, and I congratulate Joe on his achievement of becoming a consultant hand surgeon. I agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Dunfermline and Dollar (Graeme Downie) about growing the skills agenda, particularly for Fife College, and about the SNP’s abject failure on this issue.

My hon. Friend the Member for Portsmouth North (Amanda Martin) represents the city that I was born in. It is impressive to hear how she has helped over 2,000 people in Portsmouth. I have touched on water previously, but I am sure that she welcomes the Water (Special Measures) Bill. I will give a special mention to Archie Whitfield for his fundraising efforts for the Brain Charity. I say to the hon. Member for Guildford (Zöe Franklin) that I will definitely chase the Secretary of State on her behalf.

As the hon. Member for Kingswinford and South Staffordshire (Mike Wood) knows, given that he is a fellow Whip, this is the first time I have spoken in the Chamber since last May, when I asked the right hon. Member for Richmond and Northallerton (Rishi Sunak) about dentistry, an issue consistently raised in Wellingborough and Rushden. I had been elected only three months prior, and then I found myself out door-knocking again. A lot has changed since then, including the Members on this side of the Chamber, and the country has changed in the nine months that this Labour Government have been in power. Due to brevity, I will skip a lot of mentions of Wellingborough and Rushden, but I will try to get one or two more in.

A great Labour leader said:

“There is nothing in life which is inevitable. It’s about the change you choose.”

Last year, the country chose to reject the narrative of inevitable decline and put its faith in Labour. There is still much more to be done, but we are delivering that change.

I express my gratitude to House staff, including the doorkeepers, cleaners, Clerks, catering, security, police, broadcasting, Hansard, visitor experience, our staff and constituency teams, and civil servants, who all come together to make this place function. Of course, my thanks go to you, Madam Deputy Speaker, and to Mr Speaker and the other Deputy Speakers. As we rise for Easter recess, I offer my best wishes to all here today and those listening at home. Have an enjoyable bank holiday weekend and—to those who celebrate—an egg-cellent Easter, and lots of chocolate for everyone else.