Stamp Duty Land Tax

Debate between Gideon Amos and Adam Jogee

Tuesday 28th October 2025 Commons Chamber

[Gideon Amos]

I understand why Conservative Members keep asking us to look forward not backwards: their own Government’s experience with the Truss Budget is one that they do not want to remember and would like to forget, but unfortunately its effects were long, far-reaching and serious for all of our constituents.

[Adam Jogee (Newcastle-under-Lyme) (Lab)]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for giving way. I followed him when I gave my maiden speech and it is good to see him in his place. Does it not say everything that Conservative Members are now defending the Truss Budget and all the damage that it did to communities like mine and his?

[Gideon Amos]

Absolutely. They have no recollection of the past, they are blind to the experience of their own Government, and they are only asking, urging and pleading us to look forward, not back at their own record.

In Taunton and Wellington, there are countless examples of folk who are unable to afford a home of their own. Rosanna, a qualified solicitor, has been living with her parents for over six years because she is unable to afford a new home. What is needed is a far bigger focus on building the council and social rent homes that are needed by our country. The Liberal Democrats propose to raise the number from the Government’s target of 20,000 per year to 150,000 per year. There should be less reliance on a few big house builder developers, whose interest, perfectly reasonably, is in increasing profits and the value of their land, rather than in making their products cheaper—why would they?—or in necessarily increasing the amount of housing supply.

Less reliance on the big developers and more council and social rent homes delivered by public funding would mean that there would be no need for the Government to cut the affordable housing requirements in London, as they did last week. Our manifesto provided £6 billion a year over five years to begin to achieve not just the 90,000 social rent homes that Shelter and the National Housing Federation say that we need, but our manifesto target of 150,000 homes. A decent home should not be for just the most vulnerable and excluded; all working people should be able to have a home with a decent rent. Coupled with that, we need new routes to be available for people to get on to the home ownership ladder and a new generation of rent-to-own homes, where renters can gain ownership over 30 years.

Victory over Japan: 80th Anniversary

Debate between Gideon Amos and Adam Jogee

Monday 21st July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Gideon Amos (Taunton and Wellington) (LD)]

I rise quite simply to honour all those who served in the Pacific campaign and in Asia during world war two. That included my own father—a very young Captain Amos at the time—who served at the end of the second world war after being redeployed from Europe. We also remember those who died on all sides, including thousands of civilians, and how strongly those events at the end of the second world war send the message that war is what happens when politics and diplomacy fail. Let us never forget that, along with the terrible consequences for those living with war right now.

Others who served in the Pacific campaign include many unsung heroes of the RAF’s photographic reconnaissance unit—I congratulate the hon. Member for Carlisle (Ms Minns) on securing a recent Westminster Hall debate on that—whose courage and skill gathered intelligence, shortened conflicts and saved lives. That intelligence was as vital in the eastern theatre as it was in the western European theatre.

I will take a moment to acknowledge those from my constituency who served in the PRU, whose bravery was as extraordinary as their sacrifice. Flying Officer Eric Durston from Wellington flew solo reconnaissance missions, capturing images critical to allied planning. He was lost over the Netherlands in 1942. His gravestone at Bergen bears the inscription:

“He died and never knew;

England, he died for you.”

It is signed simply, “Mother”—a mother whose heartache at the loss of her son at only 22 I can only imagine.

On Christmas eve 1944, Flying Officer Priddle from Taunton died when his Spitfire was shot down over Utrecht. More happily, Eric Hill—also of Taunton—flew Mosquitos across the Arctic, on the eastern front and over Germany on dangerous missions. One such mission—to photograph Tirpitz—was over 3,000 miles long and lasted more than 10 hours. It is thought to be the longest reconnaissance operation of the entire war. He survived and went on to fulfil the dream of playing, and later commentating on, cricket for Somerset. He is commemorated in the press box at the county ground a few hundred yards from my own home.

Those stories remind us that everyday folk get caught up in war and do extraordinarily courageous things. We owe it to those who serve to stand with veterans, to remember them and their sacrifice. It was therefore a privilege last week to take part in the debate on our Northern Ireland veterans. No veteran should ever be subjected to double jeopardy and pursued for doing no more than their duty.

I wish to bring to the Minister’s attention a veteran who desperately needs help—[Interruption.] I will write to the Minister about that veteran, who has only weeks to live.

[Adam Jogee]

I would be really interested in the hon. Member explaining a bit more about the veteran to whom he just referred.

[Gideon Amos]

I am extremely grateful to the hon. Member. Dr X served 25 years in the Royal Army Medical Corps and transferred to the NHS less than two years ago. He has been given the prognosis that he has only weeks to live, and because he has been in his transferred position with the NHS for less than two years he will lose his death benefits. I have written to the Secretary of State for Defence today and sent the letter to his office. I hope that Ministers will be able to look urgently at his case.

Those who served in world war two, including the pilots of the PRU who flew in silence, were part of the greatest generation. Their voices may increasingly be silent, but their legacy speaks volumes.