Ending Homelessness

Jonathan Brash Excerpts

Tuesday 21st October 2025 Westminster Hall

[The Minister for Local Government and Homelessness (Alison McGovern)]

It is a pleasure to serve, as ever, under your chairship, Mr Efford. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool Wavertree (Paula Barker) and the hon. Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman) for their excellent co-chairing of the all-party group and for bringing this business to the House today. I hope it can be reported back to the Backbench Business Committee that 17 Back Benchers contributed, that hon. Members across the House care deeply about this issue, and that it would be good to have more parliamentary time dedicated to this important subject.

It is clear from this debate that there is appetite across the House to get this right. The APPG’s recent report provides excellent food for thought, as we complete the homelessness strategy, and I am grateful for it. I am going to get into serious trouble, but I have checked my diary for 1 o’clock on 11 November and, as far as I can tell, I am free—my diary manager can hate me later, but I think that is a date. I look forward to spending more time discussing the homelessness strategy with colleagues in the all-party group.

I never fail to feel lucky when I get home to Rock Ferry, where I live, and shut the front door. I have seen the consequences of homelessness on enough people in my life to know the fear it brings. Hon. Members in all parts of the House, as we have heard, care deeply that the Government have a plan to bring down levels of homelessness. I am hopeful that we can all work together on that. In opposition, it took me the best part of a decade to get a small number of new homes built in a derelict part of my constituency. That was not good enough. Things have to change. We can all see the number of people sleeping rough on our streets growing. The last annual count of people sleeping rough, which many have mentioned, was two and a half times higher than it was in 2010. It is not good enough. It has to change.

There is even more homelessness that we cannot see: the record number of people in temporary accommodation. It has been heartening recently to see a small amount of progress in our efforts to reduce the number of families and children in B&B accommodation, with the latest stats showing a drop—but I cannot say anything other than the facts: children living in B&B accommodation has to be brought to an end. Even if we have seen a small drop, it is not yet good enough.

That is why earlier this month the Government announced £84 million additional funding this year for homelessness and rough sleeping, bringing our total investment to record levels—more than £1 billion, and an increase of £316 million on the previous year. Our spending includes more than £644 million for the homelessness prevention grant, and more than £255 million for the rough sleeping prevention and recovery grant. That is a big investment, but, as Members have mentioned, we need a whole-of-Government approach. I will cover that in a moment. but I must also make the point that we will decriminalise rough sleeping by repealing the antiquated Vagrancy Act 1824.

[Mr Jonathan Brash (Hartlepool) (Lab)]

Throughout this debate the issue of community has been raised repeatedly. A challenge we face in my constituency is the fact that local authorities in other parts of the country often discharge their homelessness duty by packing families into taxis at short notice and moving them hundreds of miles to places where they have no connection with the community. That is bad for the individuals and bad for the communities such as Hartlepool. Does my hon. Friend agree with me that we have to end that practice in order to solve homelessness effectively?

[Alison McGovern]

That question was raised in the debate, as my hon. Friend rightly says. We are keeping the homelessness code of guidance under review, which includes the issue of out-of-area placements. I am particularly concerned about disruption to children’s education; if any Member wanted to give me specific examples that can feed into the homelessness strategy and demonstrate what is wrong, I would welcome that. I hope that also answers the questions raised about reviewing the guidance.

Separately from the funding that I just mentioned, we are also providing a huge investment in the local authority housing fund, which is there for councils to buy better accommodation and stop using expensive bed and breakfast hotels. That funding, we think, can get us up to 5,000 extra homes. Councils need funding certainty and flexibility to provide appropriate support to those who need it, which is why this Government are providing the first multi-year funding settlement in a decade. We are simplifying our approach to funding local government so that it can work flexibly to deliver on our shared priorities and make sure that people who need accommodation and support get it.

Numerous colleagues asked about multi-year funding. It is absolutely crucial, which is why we are providing it to councils, and I will work with organisations to make sure that we get more stability in the system. Those are the things that are happening already, but I know we have to go further. Later this year we will publish our long-term homelessness strategy.

My predecessor, my hon. Friend the Member for Bethnal Green and Stepney (Rushanara Ali), did a great amount of work, on which I will build. We have heard from colleagues that there is a deep understanding of the importance of prevention, so I want to get this done as quickly as possible. We need to get that strategy out of the door and into the action and delivery phase. I say to colleagues, “Work with me to make sure we can get it done as quickly as possible.”

A couple of colleagues asked about the inter-ministerial group. I have already spoken to some ministerial colleagues on that group. We will meet formally very shortly, and I am sure those meetings will keep going—as colleagues have said—under the chairship of the Secretary of State. There are areas, including the strategy to reduce violence against women and girls, the child poverty strategy and our house building goal, where that homelessness strategy will need to connect with the other bits of work that the Government are doing. I am very seized of that. Colleagues will know that I spent some significant time working on the child poverty strategy, so I feel able to hit the ground running and work with my colleagues, the Safeguarding Minister, the Housing Minister and Health Ministers, to make sure that we get this done in a good way and as quickly as possible.

Pride in Place

Jonathan Brash Excerpts

Wednesday 15th October 2025 Commons Chamber

[Miatta Fahnbulleh]

My hon. Friend is right to remind us that resources were deliberately taken away from some of our most deprived communities under the last Government, which is a shameful record. We are very clear that this is an opportunity to invest in our communities. We want local authorities to ensure that they are working alongside our communities and enabling them, and that the money and resources are going to the places that the communities believe need the investment.

[Mr Jonathan Brash (Hartlepool) (Lab)]

I warmly welcome the £21.5 million pride in place investment for Hartlepool, which will go directly into our neighbourhoods. It comes off the back of the biggest deal in Hartlepool’s history of £6 billion for new nuclear and 2,500 jobs, and a brilliant Labour council delivering £150 million of capital investment in our town. Does the Minister agree that after years of being left behind, this shows that the people of Hartlepool have a Government and an MP who are on their side?

[Miatta Fahnbulleh]

I 100% agree. That example shows the difference that a Labour Government working with a Labour council can make. We inherited a decade and a half of decline and neglect, and it is—[Interruption.] The hon. Member for Broadland and Fakenham (Jerome Mayhew) is sighing from the Conservative Front Bench. He should be far more ashamed about his Government’s record. It is our job to turn around their failure and neglect.

English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill

Jonathan Brash Excerpts

2nd reading
Tuesday 2nd September 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Jonathan Brash (Hartlepool) (Lab)]

English devolution is a mess. It is a postcode patchwork of opaque systems, varying powers and unclear lines of accountability. That is not just an historical failure, but profoundly dangerous, because when the public cannot navigate their democracy or do not know who holds the pen on planning, transport, housing or skills, they understandably disengage. Accountability is lost, and in that vacuum politicians can get away with anything.

I will give the House one clear example: in Hartlepool, the Tees Valley Mayor has imposed a mayoral development corporation with very little consultation—certainly not with the public. Planning powers were stripped from the council for large areas of the town, supposedly to be exercised by an appointed board. We fought hard to secure some form of democratic representation on that board, yet of its 14 members, only four hold elected office and only one is there because they have elected office. In any event, the mayor quickly outsourced the majority of those powers to a private company in Manchester, so people who have never walked our streets are now making the majority of the decisions shaping them.

[Andrew Cooper]

Does my hon. Friend agree that mayoral development corporations need to be brought under the remit of the new local audit offices that are proposed in the Bill, placing the power to audit them beyond reasonable doubt?

[Mr Brash]

I agree that far greater powers are required to hold mayoral development corporations to account, and that may be one way of doing it.

The changes are not just about planning powers: publicly owned assets are being transferred from the council and other public bodies. When Labour councillors demanded that those assets, which include Hartlepool’s civic centre, would be returned to public ownership if they were not developed or if the corporation was wound up, that demand was refused. When we asked whether the council could resist this change, the advice was stark: we could not, there was no veto and it could not be stopped by the council. When the council voted against a mayoral development corporation just down the road in Middlesbrough, it was imposed on the town anyway.

Let me be clear that I am not opposed to the principle of development corporations. I was willing to support the one in Hartlepool in the spirit of cross-party co-operation, but the outcome has become confused, with zero accountability and residents left unclear about who to turn to, especially as more and more houses in multiple occupation pop up across our town centre, put there by an unelected, unaccountable company. This is not power in the hands of the people.

Devolution was supposed to mean decisions made closer to communities, but too often the reality is the opposite: power hoarded and pushed further away from the very neighbourhoods that are supposed to be empowered. That is why I support the We’re Right Here campaign, which asks that power does not stop at the mayor’s office but flows to the people themselves. It is championed by Hartlepool’s own community leader, Sacha Bedding. It is a way forward and I hope that Ministers are listening. We must ensure that there is accountability for mayors. They can be the vehicle for delivering for the public, but the power itself can lie only in one place: with the people.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Caroline Nokes)]

That brings us to the Front-Bench spokespeople. I call David Simmonds.

Oral Answers to Questions

Jonathan Brash Excerpts

Monday 14th July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Matthew Pennycook]

I think that the hon. Lady—if I followed her argument—was speaking about objections lodged to an individual planning application. We are making no changes to that process. Residents all over the country will still be able to object to any planning application that comes forward. We are making sensible changes to improve the certainty and speed at which planning decisions will be taken, with a two-tier approach —a consultation is live at the moment to which she can offer input—but when it comes to local plans, which are a slightly separate issue, we are looking to encourage greater participation upstream. Local plans are the best means by which local communities can shape the development coming forward in their area.

[Mr Jonathan Brash (Hartlepool) (Lab)]

In Hartlepool, the Tees Valley Mayor’s development corporation has removed planning powers for large swathes of the town from all democratic control. In turn, much of the planning function has been outsourced to a private company with no connection to Hartlepool, which is ruling out any community involvement. Will the Minister look at curbing the powers of development corporations so that planning remains in the hands of democratically elected politicians?

[Matthew Pennycook]

I note my hon. Friend’s concerns in relation to the Tees Valley. In general, we are looking to streamline the powers given to development corporations—we took measures in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill to allow them, for example, to shape transport in areas—but if he wants to write to me or Ministers to raise more of the specifics of that case, we would be more than happy to take a look.

Oral Answers to Questions

Jonathan Brash Excerpts

Wednesday 18th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Bridget Phillipson]

I join my hon. Friend in congratulating Billy and his family. Right across sport, we want to make sure that no one is held back by outdated stereotypes, whether they relate to their sex, their race or their background. This Government are committed to ensuring that all young people have access to high-quality sport and other opportunities.

[Mr Jonathan Brash (Hartlepool) (Lab)]

As a former A-level teacher, one of my concerns—in addition to the disparities between boys and girls in educational outcomes—was the disparity in educational choice. Physics and maths classes were dominated by boys, and English literature and psychology classes were dominated by girls. Those are different subjects that develop different skills. Does the Secretary of State share my concern about that disparity, and does she have any plans to address it?

[Bridget Phillipson]

My hon. Friend brings real expertise, and I listened carefully to what he had to say. We will consider those issues through the schools White Paper later this autumn. The curriculum and assessment review is also under way, and it is considering all aspects of how we can make sure that young people have access to a broad and rich curriculum. In addition, we know that poverty is a real barrier for so many children, and that is why I am delighted that this Labour Government are expanding free school meals eligibility, lifting 100,000 children out of poverty.

Oral Answers to Questions

Jonathan Brash Excerpts

Monday 9th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Matthew Pennycook]

We are looking at how we might make household water use more efficient, as well as a range of other interventions in my hon. Friend’s part of the country to ensure that we make the best use of water and that the necessary infrastructure is put in place to accommodate housing growth.

[Mr Jonathan Brash (Hartlepool) (Lab)]

In Hartlepool, 24,000 existing homes have an energy performance certificate rating of D or below. That means too many homes are too cold and have bills that are too high. What can the Minister do to accelerate the improvement of those homes to ensure warm homes for Hartlepool constituents?

[Matthew Pennycook]

My hon. Friend tempts me into the responsibilities of another Department, but I will get the relevant Minister from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero to write to him to set out what measures are being put in place as part of the warm homes plan.

Council Tax Reform

Jonathan Brash Excerpts

Wednesday 19th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Jonathan Brash (Hartlepool) (Lab)]

Council Tax is, without doubt, the most unfair, regressive and punitive taxation system in this country. It is hammering towns such as Hartlepool. Places with high deprivation and low wages—the very areas that a fair tax system would support—are instead being squeezed to breaking point by a broken system that must be fixed. A Government that stand up for working people, promise change and have a mandate for that change cannot sit back while such fundamental unfairness continues.

The numbers speak for themselves. For a band A property in Westminster, it is £648 a year. In Hartlepool, it is £1,585. A Band H property in Hartlepool pays nearly £3,000 a year more than one in Westminster.

[Richard Foord (Honiton and Sidmouth) (LD)]

The hon. Member makes a good point in comparing his constituency with the situation here in London. To continue that point, on top of council tax, there is the settlement funding for councils, of which London boroughs have received roughly twice as much as shire counties. Does the hon. Member agree that that is also a problem with the current council tax regime?

[Mr Brash]

Certainly, the last 14 years—I note that none of the Conservatives are here—shifted the settlement away from areas of deprivation to more affluent areas. That has had an incredibly punitive effect.

Council tax in Hartlepool represents 9% of median gross pay. Here in Westminster, it is just 2%. Someone can live in a multimillion-pound property in London and still pay less council tax than someone in a terraced house in Hartlepool. It is not right. It is not fair. It must change. An outdated system based on 34-year-old property values can never deliver fairness and has widened regional inequalities.

[Sarah Dyke (Glastonbury and Somerton) (LD)]

Sixty-six per cent of Somerset council’s budget goes to fund social care. That budget is funded through the taxes raised on property based on prices from 1991, as the hon. Member has set out. Does he agree that that is archaic and unfair, and that we should enact real reform to the way we fund local authorities?

[Mr Brash]

I absolutely agree and I will come to social care later in my speech, so I will pick up that point then.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

May I commend the hon. Member for bringing forward the debate? He is getting himself a reputation in this House for being an assiduous constituency worker. I wish him well in continuing to do the good work that we all witness.

Does the hon. Member not agree that with the cost of living crisis, working families—that is what we are talking about here—need to know that every penny of tax is wisely spent? Confidence is clearly at an all-time low. Does he further agree that greater openness and transparency as to the use of tax funds can only be a good thing throughout this great United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland?

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Brash]

I absolutely agree. I should first say that it would not be an Adjournment debate without an intervention from the hon. Member. He is absolutely right: we need transparency in the system. One of the biggest problems with council tax is that it has broken the bond of trust between those who pay it and the services that they receive. I will come back to that point later in my speech.

[Grahame Morris (Easington) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend and neighbour makes some excellent points about the unfairness of the council tax system. My view is that it cannot be tinkered with and it is fundamentally flawed. For my constituents and my hon. Friend’s, it is nothing less than a regressive property tax. In Blackhall in my constituency, someone living in a modest band A home worth £35,000 pays almost the same in council tax as a band H property in Belgravia worth many millions of pounds. That is indefensible. Does my hon. Friend agree that if we are serious about tackling growth and improving living standards in constituencies such as mine and his, we need radical reform?

[Mr Brash]

I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend. The tinkering around the edges that has happened in some parts of the United Kingdom will not get the job done.

My hon. Friend mentioned property prices, and they are at the heart of the unfairness. In Hartlepool, 53% of the properties are in band A. Here in Westminster, that figure is 1.2%. In Hartlepool, only 3.7% of the properties are in bands F to H, yet in Westminster it is almost half of all properties. Such a skewed housing base makes it impossible to raise the money to deliver the services that people need. Furthermore, council tax is not a reliable source of income. Nationally, one in 10 people in the UK have been in council tax debt, and nearly 40% of those individuals have reported being threatened with legal action as a result. Outstanding council tax debt already stands at £6 billion.

This week I spoke to Caroline, a development officer in Hartlepool who supports many of the most vulnerable in our community. She told me of one working family for whom council tax, even with the reduction, is now the equivalent of more than a third of their mortgage payment. Dad works and mum is a full-time carer for their disabled son. They live in fear of not being able to pay. They do not understand where their money goes and they do not feel any benefit, only financial pain. How can we sustain such a system? How can we stand by while it punishes the very people we are supposed to represent?

At the heart of this broken system is social care, as has been mentioned already. Nearly 70% of Hartlepool’s budget is spent protecting the most vulnerable children and adults in our town, and that is mirrored in areas of need across the country. No one in their right mind would design a care system funded by a regressive tax levied on small, struggling communities, yet that is exactly what has happened and it has been getting worse. In Hartlepool, officers have made a rough estimate that if social care were removed, a typical band D property would see its bill drop from £2,400 to less than £1,000.

Elsewhere, the scandal in children’s social care is slowly bankrupting local authorities. Private providers, often owned by faceless hedge funds, are profiting on the backs of vulnerable children. The costs are staggering. In Hartlepool, the top four private providers charge an average of £12,000 per child per week. That is £624,000 a year for just one child. For Hartlepool, that is the equivalent of more than a 1% rise in council tax for one child’s care. Local councillors face the impossible choice: protect the most vulnerable or impose even more council tax pain on their residents.

The most pernicious thing about this regressive tax is the impact it has on trust. “No taxation without representation” is the saying, but as council tax bills go up, services are cut. Residents are no longer receiving the representation their money is supposed to deliver. Most people, thankfully, do not need social care, but they do need bin collections, clean streets, well-maintained parks, green spaces, museums, leisure centres and libraries —all things that make somewhere a place—yet these are repeatedly cut because of this failed system.

This is breaking the bond between councils and the public, and when people feel they are paying more but getting less, they stop believing in the system. When voters feel ignored and abandoned, they do not stop voting; they will vote for anyone with easy answers. Populist politicians with no real answers will step into this gap and exploit this frustration. I warn Ministers: fix council tax or face the electoral consequences.

There are alternatives. Andrew Dixon and the Fairer Share campaign have advocated for a proportional property tax that would ensure contributions were based on actual property values. Some 70% of households in the north-east would be better off. Nearly a third would save as much as £1,500 a year—money that could help struggling families put food on the table, heat their homes and buy their children the things that they need. Yes, some would lose out, but it would, and should, be the wealthy in our society shouldering that burden. If we are not prepared to make the wealthy pay so the poor can pay less, what exactly are we for?

[Jonathan Hinder (Pendle and Clitheroe) (Lab)]

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Hartlepool (Mr Brash) for securing this incredibly important debate, and I agree with every word he says. Does he agree that a reformed system would reduce the cost of living for ordinary people and, depending on how the Government wanted to reform it, actually increase revenues for the Government to spend on better public services?

[Mr Brash]

Absolutely. A properly balanced system could provide the services we need and put more money into the pot to ensure those services are delivered. That is partly the problem with this system: it is so broken that it punishes people in deprived areas, and it still does not deliver those services.

I know Ministers have said they are not looking to reform the council tax system in this Parliament, but even if an overhaul of the entire system is not possible, there are still ways to improve things, and I hope the Minister will advocate for them. The Casey review of social care should recommend taking social care out of local authorities. The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, by promoting regional co-operation, can create economies of scale to take the burden off council taxpayers. Under the English devolution proposals, financial devolution must be part of the discussion. If we are to have larger authorities that are more remote from the taxpayer, the residents must see the benefit in their pockets.

This Government promised change and to fix the foundations, but the public’s most direct contact with government is through local councils, whose foundations are crumbling. If Ministers ignore council tax reform, they do so at their peril. We can fix a broken system, ease the burden on working families, and restore trust in government at all levels. We have a moral duty to right a 34-year-old wrong, find a sustainable solution to this injustice, cut council tax bills and deliver real change for the people we represent.

English Devolution and Local Government

Jonathan Brash Excerpts

Wednesday 5th February 2025 Commons Chamber

[Angela Rayner]

Again, I acknowledge the situation in Surrey. We have said that we want to work with Surrey to deliver. That is why we are bringing this forward. As I say, it is a short-term delay; democracy comes to us all eventually.

[Mr Jonathan Brash (Hartlepool) (Lab)]

Mayors can make a huge difference to local communities. Indeed, we have seen that in Greater Manchester, where public control of bus services has made a massive difference to residents. I want public control of bus services in Hartlepool, where services are not good enough. Does my right hon. Friend share my disappointment that the Conservative Mayor of Tees Valley has ruled out public control of buses? When mayors do not use their powers, what can we do to force them to do so?

[Angela Rayner]

I welcome what Greater Manchester buses have delivered for my constituents in Tameside—better services all round. We want the same for Hartlepool. I gently encourage all Members from the Teesside area to work with the mayor to unleash all the powers I mentioned in my statement, in order to deliver better transport and connectivity. That is how we will unlock growth in all our regional areas, which is what we want to see across Hartlepool, Teesside and the whole of England.

Local Government Finance

Jonathan Brash Excerpts

Wednesday 5th February 2025 Commons Chamber

[Jim McMahon]

I thank my hon. Friend for that question and pay tribute to Salford for its leadership in the work it is doing in many areas of public sector reform in Salford and across Greater Manchester. In the end, if all we do is pay at the back end for a system that, frankly, is broken, we will be paying more and more every single year for a system that is delivering worse outcomes for service users. That is bad for service users and bad for taxpayers, so we must have a more fundamental response and we fully intend to do that.

The multi-year settlements are essential to ensure local leaders have the time and space to plan their budgets. But we will not stop there. We are introducing a fairer system to give councils the certainty and stability they need to go from costly crisis management to long-term prevention and the root-and-branch reform of local public services. Crucially, I can now confirm that core spending power for the sector will be more than £69 billion for 2025-26, a 6.8% cash terms increase on this year. I can confirm that, despite some very difficult choices—there have been choices and trade-offs to make, as there always are—this settlement will mean that no local authority will see a reduction in its core spending power.

[Mr Jonathan Brash (Hartlepool) (Lab)]

I welcome the settlement, which sees a reversal of the past 14 years for Hartlepool, where cumulatively we lost £235 million in a decade. This year, additional grant funding is going up by £10 million, which is hugely welcome. However, there remains the problem of the council tax system itself. In Hartlepool, if you are in a band H property you pay more than £3,000 more than you do if you are here in Westminster. Surely the Minister can agree with me that that is inherently unfair? Will he engage with me and the all-party parliamentary group on council tax reform, which I lead, to bring fairness to towns such as Hartlepool?

[Jim McMahon]

There are, understandably, many criticisms of council tax. It is accepted that it is a fairly regressive tax in terms of the relationship between the ability of a household to pay versus a property’s value, but in the end it is a reliable tax that is understood by the taxpaying public. The framework of council tax will be maintained, in the same way as business rates, but that does not mean that we cannot do more to make it fairer. The best way to make it fairer in this settlement is for the Government to play their part. What we have seen over the past 14 years is that, despite an acceleration in council tax increases, councils have still found themselves impoverished: they cannot raise enough money locally, whatever they do, to fund the demand for local public services. We clearly see the role of the Government as an equaliser to the system. Taking into account the ability to raise tax at a local level, by providing a top-up the Government can ensure that every area gets decent local public services, and we can begin to get some fairness into the system. I take my hon. Friend’s point entirely, however, and I look forward to the work of the all-party parliamentary group.

Community Engagement Principles and Extremism Definition

Jonathan Brash Excerpts

Tuesday 21st January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Alex Norris]

I agree with a lot of what the hon. Lady’s says about earlier interventions and tackling isolation at its root. As she says, local authorities are really important partners in that endeavour. That is why we will ensure that whatever comes out of our communities and recovery steering group leans into the partnership with local authorities and local law enforcement, where possible, to ensure that the right resources and support are in place.

The hon. Lady asks about engagement and ensuring that we have a contribution from those affected across our faith communities. My noble Friend from the other place, Lord Khan, the Faith Minister, has met representatives of all faiths and will continue to do so. The Government will keep having that important dialogue with different faith groups to ensure that the ideas that we bring forward will be effective and are rooted in real life, but we will also promote inter-faith work, which she mentioned. I know from my own community that when we have had challenges, the best thing we have had to lean on to tackle hate, wherever it might emerge, is the inter-faith relationship.

[Mr Jonathan Brash (Hartlepool) (Lab)]

There is real division in our communities, and extremism is changing at great speed. Although the vast majority of Members in this House treat such division as a tragedy and as something that needs to be solved calmly, there are some, sadly, who appear to view it as a political opportunity. Does the Minister agree that Members need to be calm in their dialogue on this issue, and that when they are not, they should be called out by all political parties?

[Alex Norris]

I have always felt that there were two types of politician. There are those who seek to move things forward politically by bringing people together, and those who seek to exploit division. It is up to individual hon. and right hon. Members to decide which is their personal approach. When there is divisive—or bordering on hateful—language in political parties, we would expect them to resolve that in their normal ways. With regard to leadership in this country, we are certainly the luckiest people in the country. We get to come here every day and tackle these issues head-on in the interests of our communities and our country. Almost exclusively, Members use that platform for good. We have important distinctions and differences, and that is great in a democracy, but we want to bring the country together and move it forward together. That is certainly the approach that I will be using.