Middle East: UK Military Deployments

Debate between Grant Shapps and Martin Vickers

Tuesday 5th December 2023 Commons Chamber

[Grant Shapps]

As the hon. Gentleman can imagine—and this was included in my conversations in the States last week—there is a huge amount of international work about what happens afterwards and how it will be structured. It is rather too soon, I am afraid, to predict exactly how it will look, but I do not think he is too far off the mark to think that this needs to be a truly global response. It will need to involve Arab partners. We will do whatever we can to support that, but I see no circumstances in which British troops would be on the ground.

[Martin Vickers (Cleethorpes) (Con)]

Can my right hon. Friend elaborate on the efforts the Government are making to de-escalate the conflict, in the hope that this would reduce civilian casualties?

[Grant Shapps]

Of course, the single biggest thing that could happen to escalate this conflict would be for it to turn into a regional conflict. I am thinking, in particular, of Hezbollah on the northern border with Lebanon, as well as what could happen from Syria, from Iranian-backed terrorists in Iraq and, of course, from the Houthis. This could get worse in a variety of places, which is why sending ships and military for deterrent purposes has been so vital and has been our primary approach to preventing this conflict from turning into a bigger regional conflict.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Grant Shapps and Martin Vickers

Tuesday 18th April 2023 Commons Chamber

[Grant Shapps]

Just to correct the record, Ofgem is in charge. The measures it put out today, with industry agreement, will help to protect people. When a person’s payments are in deficit, they have to find a way out. The hon. Lady appears to favour a system in which, rather than installing a prepayment meter, people are immediately taken to court, which I do not think is a good solution. We will carry on working with Ofgem to make sure we put the best solutions in place.

[Martin Vickers (Cleethorpes) (Con)]

Ministers will be aware that the Humber region has attracted £15 billion of private sector investment in carbon capture projects. Needless to say, there was widespread disappointment when none of those projects was included in track 1. Is the Minister able to give the clarity that the private sector needs?

[Grant Shapps]

My hon. Friend is right about the possibilities for CCUS. The £20 billion fund was competitive, and others, including HyNet on the east coast, won. When it comes to the Humber cluster, both the track 1 expansion and track 2 will happen later this year.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Grant Shapps and Martin Vickers

Tuesday 28th February 2023 Commons Chamber

[Grant Shapps]

It is absolutely right that our businesses need to compete globally. Again, Putin is the reason for these high energy costs. We have stepped in to support families. The money has to come from somewhere; our answer has been the oil and gas companies, but of course we need to make sure that the balance is right with the taxpayer as well. The hon. Gentleman can be assured that we are working on it with the Chancellor all the time.

[Martin Vickers (Cleethorpes) (Con)]

Knauf, a major manufacturer based in Immingham, seeks to build a hydrogen-ready combined heat and power plant to reduce its emissions. The project may stall, however, because Northern Powergrid has told Knauf that it cannot provide a connection until 2031. Could the Minister intervene and try to overcome the problem?

Industrial Action on the Railway

Debate between Grant Shapps and Martin Vickers

Monday 20th June 2022 Commons Chamber

[Grant Shapps]

My hon. Friend makes an interesting point.

[Martin Vickers (Cleethorpes) (Con)]

In generations past, the railway industry played a major part in developing seaside resorts such as Cleethorpes. Does my right hon. Friend agree that, were these damaging strikes to continue, all they would succeed in doing is damaging many small businesses in communities such as mine? Will he do all that he can to ensure that working people can get to work on the trains?

[Grant Shapps]

This is the great irony: the people whom the strike will hurt the most are not the white-collar workers who will sit behind their computers using Zoom and Microsoft Teams but the people trying to support tourist industries in places such as Cleethorpes—people trying to run bed and breakfasts—and people trying to get to work to do their jobs, and often they can least afford to lose a day’s work. However, they will lose not one day’s but at least three days’ work, and there will be chaos on the other days of this week. It is a disgrace, and the Opposition cannot find their way to condemning it, which is disgraceful, too.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Grant Shapps and Martin Vickers

Thursday 16th December 2021 Commons Chamber

[Grant Shapps]

The hon. Lady is right to be concerned about the backlogs that built up, but she is wrong to suggest that that still applies to HGV drivers. Those licences are now being turned around in five days for medical applications. There are considerably more applications than before the pandemic and that has led, alongside our 32-point plan, to more HGV drivers coming on to the road now. I have to stress that the unnecessary and lengthy strike at the DVLA came at the worst possible moment and it hurt vulnerable people. I am pleased to say that that strike has now collapsed, which is enabling the DVLA to get on top of the rest of the list.

[Martin Vickers (Cleethorpes) (Con)]

I note what my right hon. Friend says, but my constituency is a major centre of the logistics industry and HGV drivers are certainly still experiencing problems. This problem has continued for years now. Can I urge him to redouble his efforts to ensure an improvement to the service?

[Grant Shapps]

As I mentioned, at its height, there were 56,000 applications. The last figure I saw last week showed that that was down to 9,000. There is a regular flow; it will never be zero because, of course, applications come and go. Medical applications are processed within five days and the only time that is not the case is when additional medical information is required. Those medical applications—the D4 forms—require checks from the DVLA to make sure that the information is correct, so the turnaround will never be faster than five days. If any Member has an issue with occupational DVLA applications, please let me know, because I will personally look into it.

Integrated Rail Plan: North and Midlands

Debate between Grant Shapps and Martin Vickers

Thursday 18th November 2021 Commons Chamber

[Grant Shapps]

As the hon. Member knows, the Treasury is going to Darlington and the DFT has actually gone to Leeds and Birmingham. We already have 70 staff up at our Leeds office, and they will be delighted to be able to travel around much faster as a result of this plan today.

I should mention that the plan involves £12.8 billion of upgrade of the eastern core. This is upgrading the east coast main line, digital signalling and the like. We are not near capacity on those routes yet. The £12.8 billion will help with the journey up the east coast. Of course, the plan today also confirms the west coast update—the HS2 part of it rather—meaning that journeys to Scotland will be a great deal faster as a result. There are lots of benefits, when it comes to Scotland, from bringing these journey times way down as a result of this investment in HS2, and this plan today delivers on that.

[Martin Vickers (Cleethorpes) (Con)]

I welcome the Secretary of State’s statement, which I think is a good balance between what was hoped for and what can actually be achieved. I am sure it was an oversight that he did not mention Cleethorpes in his statement. Can he assure me that the restored direct link between Cleethorpes and King’s Cross, which is in the London North Eastern Railway draft timetable, will indeed begin, I hope next year, but certainly by 2023? Can he also assure me that the east-west freight corridor from the Humber ports is still a priority?

[Grant Shapps]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I missed that out in my foreword and I apologise—Cleethorpes should certainly get a mention. I am working with my hon. Friend the Minister of State (Chris Heaton-Harris) on a potential direct service from Cleethorpes to London. Just a week or two ago I visited the ports, and I know the importance of connectivity with those ports.

Transport Decarbonisation

Debate between Grant Shapps and Martin Vickers

Wednesday 14th July 2021 Commons Chamber

[Grant Shapps]

The hon. Lady will be pleased to hear that, if anything, we are ahead of schedule on the bus target, with 900 already on their way—in production—so I hope that we can go even further.[Official Report, 20 July 2021, Vol. 699, c. 5MC.] Our £3 billion bus strategy is by far and away the largest for generations, and I look forward to it helping her constituents. I will certainly mention her point about junction 33 of the A6 to the Roads Minister and ask her to come back to the hon. Lady.

[Martin Vickers (Cleethorpes) (Con) [V]]

I welcome my right hon. Friend’s statement. Decarbonising our roads will be greatly assisted if we transfer more freight to rail. What progress is being made on delivering an east-west rail freight corridor from the Humber ports across to Liverpool and the west coast ports? As well as being a boost to the economy of my constituency, that would result in a massive reduction in HGV movements on the M62, resulting in less congestion and the accompanying pollution.

[Grant Shapps]

I am very excited about the opportunities to take traffic from ports and put it on to rail. It is known as intermodal, because it requires the delivery of gauge capacity enhancements in order to make that flow. We are spending a lot of time on getting containers, biomass and the like to operate on the trans-Pennine routes, principally between the west and east coast ports of Liverpool, Immingham and Hull, and Tees inland terminal. We are working very hard on exactly my hon. Friend’s suggestion, as we recognise that it can take a lot of traffic off the roads.

Britain’s Railways

Debate between Grant Shapps and Martin Vickers

Thursday 20th May 2021 Commons Chamber

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Rosie Winterton)]

I call Angela Crawley. Not here, so I call Martin Vickers.

[Martin Vickers (Cleethorpes) (Con) [V]]

Unlike Labour Members, I welcome the Secretary of State’s focus on what works rather than just on ownership, but we should not lose sight of the fact that competition is a spur to improved services. Open access operators have provided services to towns that were not included in franchises. Can my right hon. Friend assure me that these services will continue? Paragraph 25 of the White Paper states:

“New open access services will also be explored where spare capacity exists.”

Can we be assured that the default position will be to do everything possible to ensure that we do not reduce existing services and that we extend and improve services? As chairman of the all-party rail group, I can tell my right hon. Friend that an invitation to address the group is already winging its way to him, and I hope he will be able to do so in the next few weeks.

[Grant Shapps]

Yes, absolutely—open access is something we really think is an important part of the structure. It provides the competition. It keeps everybody on their toes. These are often extremely popular services. As my hon. Friend rightly points out, we absolutely back them in paragraph 25 of the White Paper. Having visited the National Rail Museum in York on Tuesday this week, I cannot wait to bring my stories of looking round that museum to his group.

HS2

Debate between Grant Shapps and Martin Vickers

Thursday 5th September 2019 Commons Chamber

[Grant Shapps]

Yes.

[Martin Vickers (Cleethorpes) (Con)]

There is a north-south divide when it comes to transport spending. Can the Secretary of State give an assurance that he will consider the benefits to the northern economy when he reaches his decision?

[Grant Shapps]

Absolutely.

Housing Reform

Debate between Grant Shapps and Martin Vickers

Monday 21st November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Grant Shapps]

I am sure that my hon. Friend will be delighted with the indemnity scheme—or perhaps he has missed the boat already. The public sector land disposal programme has, I think, identified 83,500 potential plots, and I should add that that comes from only five different Departments. We still have arm’s length bodies, there are still the other Departments and plots with fewer than about 40 homes have not been taken into account at all, so we are confident of being able to go a lot further. My hon. Friend asks about the receipts. The simple answer is that if these pieces of land are not being used and are unlikely to get used under the current programme, things such as the build now, pay later scheme can unlock the land and improve the profile of receipts to the Treasury and taxpayer rather than worsen them.

[Martin Vickers (Cleethorpes) (Con)]

The Minister will be aware that as a result of changing shopping patterns, many of our towns have boarded-up empty shop properties, many of which are substantial buildings that could easily be brought back into housing use. Will he explain what plans he has to do that? In the case of my constituency, this would provide a better and more attractive environment for the town and attract more visitors, which would boost the tourist trade.

[Grant Shapps]

I appreciate that there might be times when the mix is wrong. Having said that, we want to ensure that we do not destroy vibrant potential business areas. I confirm that we are looking at use class orders, for example, and we will have more to say about that shortly.