Business of the House

Jesse Norman Excerpts

Thursday 20th November 2025 Commons Chamber

[Jesse Norman (Hereford and South Herefordshire) (Con)]

Will the Leader of the House give us the forthcoming business?

[The Leader of the House of Commons (Sir Alan Campbell)]

The business for the week commencing 24 November will include:

Monday 24 November—Remaining stages of the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (day one).

Tuesday 25 November—Remaining stages of the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (day two).

Wednesday 26 November—My right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer will deliver her Budget statement.

Thursday 27 November—Continuation of the Budget debate.

Friday 28 November—The House will not be sitting.

The provisional business for the week commencing 1 December includes:

Monday 1 December—Continuation of the Budget debate.

Tuesday 2 December—Conclusion of the Budget debate.

Wednesday 3 December—Remaining stages of the Pension Schemes Bill.

Thursday 4 December—Debate on a motion on the war in Ukraine, followed by a general debate on St Andrew’s day. The subjects for these debates were determined by the Backbench Business Committee.

Friday 5 December—The House will not be sitting.

[Jesse Norman]

May I start by recording my thanks to the Leader of the House for agreeing to the request to have the Ukraine debate on 4 December? I think we all feel warmly about that decision.

Politics at the present moment may not be enormously pretty, but it has been a week of triumph in the sporting world. We have had the joyous mayhem of Scotland reaching their first world cup for 28 years, but let us not forget the extraordinary thumping that the England rugby team dealt out to the All Blacks at the weekend or the perfect world cup qualification record of our English footballers. In that spirit, I hope many Members—if perhaps not all—will join me in sending our best wishes to the England cricket team as they prepare for the opening test in Perth tomorrow.

This has been another week in which the headlines have not been kind to the Government and their allies. They have reported that the Prime Minister has spent a sixth of his time in office abroad. That is two and a half months to date spent outside the UK since the last election. Half of all UK jobs lost since the Government came to power are among the under-25s. That is 80,000 more young people out of work since July 2024. Agency staff brought into work during Birmingham’s eight-month-long bin strike by members of Unite have now themselves decided to go on strike. The former Deputy Prime Minister, the right hon. Member for Ashton-under-Lyne (Angela Rayner), is reported to be planning a leadership bid, following last week’s speculation about the Health Secretary and last month’s unfortunate foray by the Mayor of Manchester. Since Labour took office, the energy price cap has not fallen but risen by £187 to £1,755.

I often wonder if the Government have forgotten that there is a world outside London and our biggest cities. In that spirit, I hope I may raise a couple of important issues on which I would be grateful for the assistance of the Leader of the House. The first is local. Last weekend, the village of Ewyas Harold in my constituency was devastated by flooding as a result of Storm Claudia. The village was inundated after record levels of rainfall flooded the Dulas brook, with water levels rising to the highest ever recorded by the monitoring station. The emergency services were called out to help vulnerable residents and houses, and local pubs and other businesses were severely damaged. Many local people have been involved in clearing up the mess—in particular the brilliant young farmers club—but it will take months for the village to fully get back on its feet.

The House was given time to discuss the severe flooding in nearby Monmouthshire in Wales yesterday, so may I ask the Leader of the House if he will encourage both the Environment Agency and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to take the swiftest and most comprehensive action to protect Ewyas Harold and other flood-hit areas across England in order to prevent this from happening again?

The second issue is a national one. The listed places of worship grant scheme helps thousands of churches, synagogues, mosques, temples and other places of worship to reclaim or get grants to cover the VAT paid on repair and maintenance work. It is a small but very useful and cost-effective institution that has quietly worked away over more than two decades to preserve the historic fabric of our nation. Unfortunately, since the last election the size of the scheme has been cut in half and a new cap has been imposed on the level of individual grants. It is a feature of these repairs that if they are not made, the damage often leads to enormous further costs. The Government seem determined to maintain or increase public spending in other areas, so given that and the relatively very small sums involved, could the Leader of the House pick this matter up with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and see whether this scheme can be quickly restored to its previous glory?

[Sir Alan Campbell]

I thank the shadow Leader of the House for his questions. Can I first, through you, Madam Deputy Speaker, thank Mr Speaker for his timely reminder this week of our responsibilities in this House regarding national security? As the House will know, the Security Service issued an espionage alert to Parliament, highlighting targeted outreach by the Chinese Ministry of State Security to individuals in our community. This is a serious matter that the Government take very seriously, and I know that Mr Speaker does too. I urge all MPs to heed the advice and to report any suspicious activity immediately.

Next week is Parliament Week, when we encourage young people and the public to engage with the UK’s democratic systems and institutions. In that spirit, I was delighted yesterday to meet children from East Hunsbury primary school, after my hon. Friend the Member for Northampton South (Mike Reader) mentioned them during a business questions earlier this year. The school has won the kind school award, and it was a great pleasure to meet the children. They are a credit to their school, to their parents and, most of all, to themselves. They are a reminder to us all of the importance of being kind. You will be pleased to know, Madam Deputy Speaker, that I have been made an honorary kindness ambassador—[Laughter.] I have to say, that is an honour that I never received during my time as Chief Whip.

I was pleased to announce in this week’s business that the Backbench Business Committee has chosen Ukraine as the subject for its debate on 4 December. I thank the shadow Leader of the House, the Liberal Democrat spokesperson the hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington (Bobby Dean), and the hon. Member for Harwich and North Essex (Sir Bernard Jenkin) for their representation to help secure the debate.

Members will welcome the publication of the men’s health strategy this week. It is an important topic that has been raised frequently during business questions. The strategy will address the stark inequality in men’s health to create a society where men and boys are supported to live healthier and happier lives. I encourage Members to contribute in the debate later, on International Men’s Day.

As the shadow Leader of the House said, it has been a good week for sport. I want to congratulate Scotland on qualifying for the world cup for the first time since 1998, and I remind the House that the only time a home nation has won the world cup was under a Labour Government.

The shadow Leader of the House complains about the amount of time that the Prime Minister has spent abroad. That reflects two things above all. One is the uncertainty of the international situation. The second is the fact that he has spent a great deal of time addressing the issue of trade and bringing investment into this country. On the issue of jobs, he surely must realise that getting good trade deals—which his Government were not prepared or able to do—will not only bring investment to our country but, hopefully, turn into jobs across our nation.

The shadow Leader of the House quite rightly raises the issue of flooding. I will draw to the attention of DEFRA and the Environment Agency the urgency of ensuring that preparations are made as far as possible, but I also gently encourage him to urge some of his colleagues to start recognising the effect of climate change.

As a constituency MP, the shadow Leader of the House has every right to raise the listed places of worship grant scheme. I have to say that his constituency and neighbouring constituencies have some fantastic churches, many of which are in need of repair. I will not comment on matters of VAT or possible tax changes, as we have only a few days before the Budget, but I will draw his concerns to the attention of not only DCMS but the Treasury.