Jobs and Business

Jim Fitzpatrick Excerpts

Friday 10th May 2013 Commons Chamber

[Vince Cable]

I am sure that the trade unions play a part in bringing this matter to the attention of the authorities. Every complaint is investigated. Some come from the trade unions and I welcome the role that they play.

[Jim Fitzpatrick (Poplar and Limehouse) (Lab)]

Further to the point that most activity surrounding non-payment of the minimum wage is conducted in the civil, rather than the criminal, courts, has the right hon. Gentleman’s Department made that information publicly available? If not, will he do that so that people can see, and a message can be sent, that the Government will not tolerate people trying to undermine the national minimum wage?

[Vince Cable]

The hon. Gentleman makes the same point I was making. The Government are pursuing that matter through the civil courts and there are substantial penalties. It is an HMRC task, but I take the point that we should perhaps make the message more easily available. Employers should not get away with the idea that they should ignore this.

Let me say a bit about a difficult area of policy in which issues of unemployment and low pay intersect: migration, which is one of the most important reforms that the Government will introduce. I was hesitant about raising the subject because it is essentially covered by the Home Office, but substantial economic issues are also involved and it is important to refer to them. I was provoked into feeling that we should debate the issue in this context because a couple of days ago I was on the radio on the “Jeremy Vine” programme. I was following a female voice that was ranting on about millions of illegal immigrants and the negligence of the Government in letting them all in and not deporting enough people. I thought at the time that it was some fringe party that regarded Mr Nigel Farage as a sort of soggy, left-wing liberal, but I then realised it was the Labour shadow Home Secretary, and I tried to understand where she was coming from. It says quite a lot about the Labour party’s current values that it feels it necessary to apologise for letting in foreigners, but is still reluctant to apologise for wrecking the economy.

I vividly recall a conversation I had with a constituent, shortly before the last general election. She was taking me to task for what she said were millions of illegal immigrants in the country and, rather recklessly perhaps, I decided to debate the subject with her. I asked, “How do you know?”, and she said, “Well, I see them in the high street the whole time.” I said, “Okay, but how do you know they are illegal?” She looked at me and said, “Mr Cable, why are you being so difficult? You know exactly what I mean”, and pointed up the road to the Hounslow mosque. Unfortunately, beneath a lot of the arguments about numbers, that is the prejudice we are trying to confront. We must, I think, make the case—I certainly intend to make it—for managed immigration that has a positive impact on the country, while at the same time providing the necessary level of reassurance.

--- Later in debate ---

[Jim Fitzpatrick (Poplar and Limehouse) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Tamworth (Christopher Pincher), and I am pleased he had more time than his usual three minutes. Given that he agrees with the Opposition policy on national insurance contributions for small and medium-sized enterprises, perhaps he should be allowed to speak for longer more often. I also agree with him about shale gas. He made some excellent points, and it is good that the Government are moving on that. I would take him to task on his points about immigration, however. From my understanding of yesterday’s debate, of the five proposals in the immigration Bill, three are already law and two are going to be put out to consultation. I assure him that we will look very closely at the immigration Bill.

I join the hon. Gentleman in commending my hon. Friend the shadow Business Secretary for his trademark cool, thoughtful and constructive contribution. It was a perfect counter to the misplaced quiet optimism of the Secretary of State; I commend him on his quiet optimism, but I do not think there is evidence to support the idea that the proposals in the Gracious Speech will bear fruit.

Like the hon. Member for Tamworth, I hope not to detain the House for too long. I am grateful for being called to speak, particularly as I was not present for the Queen’s Speech itself, and nor was I here in the afternoon for the speeches that addressed it, as I had a health appointment in the morning and then attended one of the inaugural events for the commemoration of the battle of the Atlantic in the afternoon. As a former Vice-Chamberlain of Her Majesty’s Household, however, in years past it was part of my duty to the House not to be here for Her Majesty’s speech. It is therefore not unusual for me to be absent when Her Majesty turns up. I should tell the House that my experience of being held hostage in Buckingham palace—on behalf of Members, and in order to protect the safety of the sovereign—was slightly unnerving. When I discussed that with the head of the armed forces at the time, Sir Mike Jackson, and expressed the anxiety I had felt about the experience, he said to me, “Jim, you shouldn’t have worried.” I said, “Shouldn’t I have, Mike?” He said, “No, no; if anything had happened to Her Majesty, we would have made it quick—we would have just shot you.” That was not the most reassuring message I have had from Her Majesty’s armed forces, but I am sure he was being entirely serious and would have faithfully carried out those actions.

I missed yesterday’s debate as I was on an Industry and Parliament Trust visit to the ports of the great river Humber. I visited Hull, Immingham and the other Humber ports and heard about the plans for them. There is a planning application with the Secretary of State and I wish them well with that, because Green Port Hull is a very important piece of our shipping infrastructure, and is important for the development of wind farms in the North sea. It will be extremely important, and it is one of the projects that we want to see progressing as quickly as possible.

To try to catch up on what had been happening during my absences, I naturally turned to The Daily Telegraph, which is my usual paper of choice, of course—as we all know, we have great newspapers in the UK, but the Telegraph is my paper of choice. I was somewhat shocked when I read the column by the deputy political editor, Mr James Kirkup, which said this of the Gracious Speech:

“If politics is the art of the possible, then the Queen’s Speech makes clear just how little is possible for a coalition Government entering its fourth year”.

The article concluded:

“This low-key Queen’s Speech is a taste of things to come. The Coalition’s high noon moment has passed: the sun is now setting on this Government.”

I wish that were so, but sadly we have at least another two years of them to come.

Mr Kirkup was not outdone, although Louise Armistead reported in the “Business” section of The Daily Telegraph that the Prime Minister

“was accused of squandering his ‘last chance’ to unleash growth measures…The Institute of Directors (IoD) said the Queen’s Speech was a ‘missed opportunity’ for the Coalition to kick-start the economy”.

Especially from The Daily Telegraph and the IoD, who one would have thought would be cheerleaders for the Government, those are not the most complimentary comments.

I am very pleased to be here to raise some constituency issues and to support Labour’s alternative Queen’s Speech. For Poplar and Limehouse, the three big issues are employment, housing and the cost of living—which are very close to three of the six measures in our alternative Queen’s Speech, along with our plans for finance, banking and immigration, all of which were covered so ably by my hon. Friend the shadow Business Secretary.

On jobs, in my constituency there are 1,320 young people under 25 years of age claiming jobseeker’s allowance. The recent rise in long-term youth unemployment saw an extra 40 people out of work for more than a year in Tower Hamlets. In total, that is 275 local families who are concerned about their son or daughter being on benefits and not in work. My hon. Friend outlined the measures that would be in the jobs Bill we want to introduce, with a compulsory jobs guarantee paid for by a bank bonus tax. That could help 275 young people in Poplar who have been out of work for more than two years. As has been said from our Front Bench on a number of occasions, people would have to take up those jobs or lose benefits.

On housing, Tower Hamlets has more than 23,000 people on its waiting lists. It is one of the most overcrowded boroughs in the country. I was at an event this morning organised by Curtin and Co. at which Professor Tony Travers from the London School of Economics delivered a speech on London’s housing economy. Curiously, the event was held at the Savoy, somewhat in contrast to the topic under discussion. Professor Travers said the private rented sector is in need of “pretty significant regulation”. I have dealt with casework in Poplar and Limehouse about landlords who have withheld deposits, rented accommodation that has been far below standards and tenants who have been caught in financial difficulty due to hidden fees. That is one aspect of housing. More importantly, using housing and house building to kick-start the economy would provide jobs and address the real needs in my constituency and across the country.

Another problem that we have—unsurprisingly it is not exclusive to Poplar and Limehouse—concerns consumer issues. High energy costs and rail fares are two issues that affect people across the country. Our consumer Bill, outlined by my hon. Friend the Member for Streatham (Mr Umunna), would create a tough new regulator, abolishing Ofgem, and would require the energy companies to pool power, to open up the market and put downward pressure on prices. It would force energy companies to put all over-75s on their cheapest tariff, helping those who benefited to save up to £200 a year. It would introduce a new legal right for passengers to get the cheapest ticket for their journey and introduce strict caps on fare rises on every route. Those are basic protections for the consumer that are long overdue.

Like other right hon. and hon. Members across the House, I have received countless e-mails from constituents over many months on issues that did not appear in the Queen’s Speech, such as the plain packaging of cigarettes. The Under-Secretary of State for Health, the hon. Member for Broxtowe (Anna Soubry),was in her place at the beginning of the debate. She has championed that measure and strongly supported it whenever it has been debated, and many of us wish her success in trying to persuade the Government to introduce plain packaging for cigarettes, as that would undoubtedly save lives, as it has elsewhere in the world.

On international development, the absence of any legal status for the figure of 0.7% of GDP as aid is disappointing. UK taxpayers are very generous, but they want transparency, accountability and the targeting of aid.

[Ms Abbott]

Does my hon. Friend agree that that it is a touch suspicious that Lynton Crosby becomes the Prime Minister’s chief political adviser, Lynton Crosby’s consultancy firm was on a retainer from British American Tobacco to fight plain packaging, and plain packaging, which the Minister responsible for public health supports, disappears from the Queen’s Speech?

[Jim Fitzpatrick]

I have read the reports referred to by my hon. Friend about the connections of the Prime Minister’s adviser. My hon. Friend is very experienced at being attacked in the media, and I am glad that she has decided to have a go at the Government’s attack dog, because he will perhaps focus on the fact that she raised the issue and I did not. She makes a very good point, however, and I am sure that it has not been lost on many people out there that there might be a connection, although No. 10 says that that is a load of nonsense.

I was talking about international development aid and the expectation that the coalition might have enshrined in law spending 0.7% of GDP as our aid budget. I commend the coalition for sticking to the target. Many of us, perhaps unfairly, were surprised, but this is one of the coalition’s big successes, and I commend the coalition for it. I also commend the Government for the fact that we are trying to focus and target the aid and to use UK non-governmental organisations. We have some fantastic NGOs in the UK, including War on Want, Oxfam, Christian Aid, Muslim Aid and others, that we can use to ensure that the aid gets to where we want it to go and reaches people in need, rather than Governments who might want to spend it on other projects. The coalition is on the right track, but we would have liked the 0.7% figure to be enshrined in law.

Let me mention two other minor issues, which are perhaps less significant but are none the less constitutionally important. A register for lobbyists is missing from the Queen’s Speech, but it has been promised by the Government for some time. The public want to see greater transparency and accountability in this House and there is some disappointment that that measure has not been introduced.

Finally, a measure on the recall of MPs has been promised by the Government on a number of occasions. Such a measure would be supported on both sides of the House and would reassure the public that they have greater control over their elected representatives. I do not think that we have anything to fear from that, but the one or two Members who cross the line ought to have something to fear. Such a measure would easily get cross-party support and would not be difficult to pass into law.

I shall draw my remarks to a close; I said that I did not want to retain the House for too long, and I do not want this to be another broken political promise. As I said at the beginning, The Daily Telegraph and the Institute of Directors said that this was a missed opportunity—it is another missed opportunity. As my hon. Friend the Member for Streatham said, the economy is flatlining. Growth is much slower than is needed, borrowing is way up and, with the greatest of respect to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, the welfare bill is still rising.

This will be a lost decade without a change. We need a new direction, we need new policies and, in reality, we need a new Government.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Jones]

Indeed. It is even worse because those who are graduating now are burdened with the debt of student loans, which the Deputy Prime Minister, when he was fighting the general election, said he would not bring in. I worry about those individuals. In the north-east of England, after the destruction of heavy industry under the previous Conservative Government, I saw how whole communities were written off. My fear is that we are writing off a whole generation of young people to long-term unemployment amid low levels of economic growth.

In the Queen’s Speech, as in much that the Government are doing, one has to look at the detail of the proposals. A lot of that is presented for the headlines, but it is worth looking at some proposals which do not have a great deal of substance to them. I shall refer first to the Mesothelioma Bill. Before I was elected to the House, I was a full-time trade union official and legal officer for the GMB. I dealt daily with people who were suffering from the effects of exposure to asbestos. It is heartbreaking to speak not only to the individuals who know there is a death sentence hanging over them, but to the families that they leave behind. Some of the victims are older, but many are young. It is a terrible disease. Some people can be exposed to quite high levels of asbestos and not have long-term health effects, but others are affected.

This country’s approach to asbestos-related issues has been a national scandal. After the second world war the Government wrote to employers organisations saying that exposure to asbestos was dangerous to health. Was anything done? No. We continued for many decades to deny that there would be any health effects. Successive Governments’ response to the issue is a shame and a scar. If the disease had affected middle-class communities in leafy Surrey, for example, it would be a front-page headline in every paper—it would be a national scandal. But because it is concentrated in the north-east and other poor communities who do not have the strong voice that other communities have, the victims have been overlooked.

The Bill builds on what the previous Government intended. We proposed setting up the employers liability bureau and a tax on insurance companies to pay for the individuals who developed asbestos-related disease and who could not trace the insurance companies of now-defunct employers. The Bill was trumpeted as a great step forward. Even a great journal such as The Shields Gazette announced:

“Asbestos victims across South Tyneside are set to share in a £355m compensation bonanza.”

Well, I just wish that local papers would write stories the old-fashioned way by having a journalist who actually understands the issue, rather than, as seems to be so common now, simply responding to press releases.

If we look at what is proposed, we see that it is nothing of the sort. First, it covers only those individuals who developed mesothelioma after 24 July 2012, so a whole group of mesothelioma victims and their families will get no compensation at all. Secondly, it does not cover other asbestos-related diseases like lung cancers, asbestosis and pleural plaques, so there is a group of individuals who, even after that date, will get no compensation at all. Even for the victims who will qualify for the scheme, there will only be a flat fee of 70% of the average compensation payout.

Also, the scheme will take no account of an individual’s circumstances. One of the youngest victims I dealt with as the union’s legal officer was 46 years old and had three young children. Under the scheme, if he could not prove who the insurance companies were, that would not be taken into consideration. That needs to be amended as the Bill goes through. It is important to remember that it is the trade unions that have fought over many years to ensure that those individuals get the compensation they are entitled to.

One wonders whether this scheme does not represent a very good deal for the insurance companies—I think that it does. The Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians has worked to expose the fact that, simply by coincidence, from October 2010 to September 2012 Lord Freud, the Minister responsible for the scheme, met the Association of British Insurers, Aviva, Royal Sun Alliance and Zurich on no fewer than 14 occasions. That shows how effective their lobbying has been in limiting their exposure to the scheme, and that needs to be changed.

[Jim Fitzpatrick]

My hon. Friend makes an important point. As a former asbestos worker, from my time in the London fire brigade, I know a number of former colleagues who have died as a result of this disease. The medical evidence on asbestos has been known since 1928. I am very disappointed by what he is saying, because I did not realise that there has been some attempt to manipulate the story. When I read the headline about a compensation Bill, I thought that it was good news, but he is suggesting that it might not be as good as it is being presented in the media. We will have to look at that very carefully.

[Mr Jones]

Like a lot of the things the Government do, we have to take the shiny wrapping off carefully and look at the contents. In so many areas we find that there is either very little in it, or a stinking mess of incompetence, which is now becoming a trademark of the Government.