Oral Answers to Questions

Josh Fenton-Glynn Excerpts

Thursday 10th September 2026 Commons Chamber

[Dan Jarvis]

The hon. Lady makes an entirely reasonable point. I hope that she would acknowledge that we look very carefully when an alert has been issued and seek to learn lessons from that. I can tell her that all emergency alerts are sent in conjunction with local partners, and that in Wales the alert was sent first in Welsh, and then in English, in order to fulfil our legal responsibilities under the Welsh Language Act 1993. I will look carefully at what she has said, and I assure her that we will seek to learn lessons from the way in which the alert was issued.

[Josh Fenton-Glynn (Calder Valley) (Lab)]

21. What steps she is taking to help ensure small businesses have improved access to Government contracts.

[The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Mark Ferguson)]

All Departments have set ambitious small and medium-sized enterprise spends, and we have strengthened late payment policy and are now making it easier for SMEs to bid by raising the threshold for when social value should be taken into account. This Government are determined to use public procurement to back small and medium-sized enterprises. I was pleased that the Federation of Small Businesses welcomed our social value changes over the summer.

[Josh Fenton-Glynn]

I welcome the Government’s commitment to helping SMEs to access public contracts. In Calder Valley—or valve valley, as we often call it— small manufacturing firms contribute to nationally significant projects through supply chains, but are often left out of the conversation about national procurement. How can we ensure that these smaller manufacturers have the opportunities created by Governments to create a new generation of skilled manufacturing jobs?

[Mark Ferguson]

My hon. Friend is a fantastic campaigner on behalf of businesses in his local community. In his community, like mine, small and medium-sized industries play an absolutely critical role, not just in our industrial past but in our industrial future. I would be more than happy to meet him to discuss how, as we develop this agenda, we can make it work for communities like ours.

Direction of Government

Josh Fenton-Glynn Excerpts

Tuesday 1st September 2026 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I have said to the Transport Secretary, and she agrees, that the performance of the railways over the summer we have just had has been nowhere near good enough. On a very hot day, passengers on a train from Edinburgh to London had no working toilets on the entire train, and coming back from Cornwall and Devon, the train that I was on was abandoned at Taunton—I think we have all had those kinds of experiences. The railways need to improve and public ownership of them needs to drive that improvement. I will be convening a rail summit soon to discuss the summer just gone—I would be happy for the hon. Gentleman to write to me with details of the service he mentioned—because we need to see significant improvement on our railways.

[Josh Fenton-Glynn (Calder Valley) (Lab)]

I welcome the Prime Minister’s commitment to grasp the nettle of social care reform. At Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS foundation trust, which is a well-performing trust, about 20% of beds are filled with people who should be getting better at home, but with a 10% vacancy rate in social care, we cannot fix the problem without having high-quality jobs and progression in social care. Will the Prime Minister direct Louise Casey to look at that area of social care so that we can build a national care service that people want to work in?

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is exactly right. The first stage of any social care reform should be workforce reform to create the foundation on which to build a new approach and a more preventive, higher quality service that actually keeps people out of hospital. I think it starts with people’s pay, terms and conditions, their prospects for progression and their ability to move towards the NHS. I have always favoured seeing this as a single approach across all care. I am happy to work with him on that, because from my point of view, he has articulated perfectly the first stage of social care reform.

Civil Service Pensions

Josh Fenton-Glynn Excerpts

Monday 6th July 2026 Commons Chamber

[Nick Thomas-Symonds]

The only way to restore confidence is quite simply to get this service to the level it should be at—to the level that her constituent deserves.

[Josh Fenton-Glynn (Calder Valley) (Lab)]

I have been contacted about this issue by 14 constituents and have raised their cases. Only three of them have been resolved; the unresolved ones include bereavement cases, which we were told would be prioritised. I went to the drop-in for MPs, but I sat there for 40 minutes and then left because nothing had happened. It beggars belief that this company has ridden roughshod over people who have been public servants for years. Can the Minister say what will it take for us to take the contract off Capita?

[Nick Thomas-Symonds]

My hon. Friend makes a very good point about the drop-in for MPs. Again, that is why I felt I had to intervene directly, because even that was causing a problem. On his second point, he can rest assured that wherever contractual performance falls below the level required, I will take action—and I have. As I say, in the context of our policy on insourcing, we are also looking at this contract being a prime candidate.

Middle East

Josh Fenton-Glynn Excerpts

Monday 13th April 2026 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I thank the right hon. Member. Iran’s nuclear capability and the development thereof, and its proxies, are of course a threat that has to be dealt with; the question is how. I have made my decisions based on the twin questions of whether any action that we take has a lawful basis and a viable, thought-through plan. Those are the principles that have guided me, but that does not take away from the fact that those threats are there, and we have to deal with them in the most effective way possible. Of course, we need to look at the support that we can put in for businesses and individuals who are impacted by this conflict.

[Josh Fenton-Glynn (Calder Valley) (Lab)]

I commend our ongoing refusal to be drawn into this conflict. May I ask the Prime Minister what steps we are taking to ensure that UK bases are not used for offensive operations, and furthermore that they will not be used for any ill-advised US blockade of the strait of Hormuz, which would be economically ruinous?

[The Prime Minister]

The bases are strictly for defensive purposes, and we monitor that in order to make sure that that is and remains the case.

Middle East

Josh Fenton-Glynn Excerpts

Monday 2nd March 2026 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

We are using British personnel to defend Cyprus at this very moment.

[Josh Fenton-Glynn (Calder Valley) (Lab)]

No one should shed a tear for the Iranian leadership; this was a brutal and oppressive regime. However, there are other brutal and repressive regimes in the world. A brutal and oppressive regime is never, in and of itself, a reason to attack a country. Can the Prime Minister please assure me that any involvement of British troops or assets in this conflict will be purely defensive?

[The Prime Minister]

I have set out the principles on which I will act. I thank my hon. Friend for his question. Any action will have to have a lawful basis, and a viable case for it.

Oral Answers to Questions

Josh Fenton-Glynn Excerpts

Wednesday 12th November 2025 Commons Chamber

[Kanishka Narayan]

That is a very easy yes, combining my interest in agriculture and technology. I will take the right hon. Member up on his offer.

[Josh Fenton-Glynn (Calder Valley) (Lab)]

T1. If she will make a statement on her departmental responsibilities.

[The Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology (Liz Kendall)]

The Government are determined to seize the opportunities that new technology brings, but to do that we must protect our children online and protect our critical national infrastructure from technological threats, too. That is why, today, we are tabling an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill, so that we can crack down on the use of AI to depict child abuse, and why we are introducing our new cyber-security and resilience Bill to modernise the law and keep vital services safe.

[Josh Fenton-Glynn]

On 20 October, a phone mast serving thousands of people in Hebden Bridge and Mytholmroyd was removed without warning, cutting O₂, Vodafone and Three coverage. Residents were told that they would be disconnected until April. It was only through the intervention of Baroness Lloyd and I that a temporary fix was found—after three weeks. Given the essential role of mobile services in our communities, this removal impacted businesses, GPs, safeguarding and many more areas. Our mobile phones have become a utility and they are regulated—

[Mr Speaker]

Order. These are topical questions. You have finished.

Middle East

Josh Fenton-Glynn Excerpts

Tuesday 14th October 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

The board is an important part of the architecture. It is for others to decide what its membership will be, but I can give the commitment that we will report to the House on any developments in that regard.

[Josh Fenton-Glynn (Calder Valley) (Lab)]

It is a huge relief to all of us that the hostages are sleeping at home with their families, where they belong, after two years of unimaginable horror. However, this plan and the recognition of Palestine must only be the start of peace and accountability. Children are dying from a man-made famine, so can the Prime Minister please assure us that we will flood Gaza with aid and continue to respect the judgments and decisions of international courts and tribunals?

[The Prime Minister]

I can give my hon. Friend our assurance on both those issues.

UK-EU Summit

Josh Fenton-Glynn Excerpts

Tuesday 20th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

The scheme will be time-limited, visa-led and capped. It is a good scheme for young people in this country to go to Europe, and it will have those features, which we negotiated because we had a red line about freedom of movement.

[Josh Fenton-Glynn (Calder Valley) (Lab)]

Calder Valley is home to many of the small and medium-sized enterprises that simply stopped trading with Europe because of the disastrous deal agreed by the Conservatives. Can the Prime Minister assure me that he will not stop here with this deal, but will continue to work to open more of our borders to more of our businesses?

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend raises a really important point. The Federation of Small Businesses has come out strongly in favour of this deal because it knows the impact it will have on small and medium-sized businesses.

Oral Answers to Questions

Josh Fenton-Glynn Excerpts

Thursday 6th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Pat McFadden]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to point not just to specific resilience measures but the most fundamental thing for national resilience: the underlying strength of the country and its services. Nowhere is that more true that in the national health service. We are investing in the national health service and are already seeing the early results of that, with the first fall in NHS waiting lists for years. It is a good start; it is not enough, and we want to build on that progress to treat patients more quickly and, indeed, build our resilience in the process.

[Josh Fenton-Glynn (Calder Valley) (Lab)]

18. What assessment he has made of the effectiveness of Government advertising through social media.

[The Minister without Portfolio (Ellie Reeves)]

The Government regularly evaluate the effectiveness of all communication channels, including social media, to ensure that they are delivering and providing value for money for taxpayers, and that Government messaging appears in appropriate environments.

[Josh Fenton-Glynn]

Since Elon Musk purchased X three years ago, Departments have continued to spend money on subscriptions and ads on the site, and one Department has recorded a spend of more than �400,000 since 2022. Given the lack of adequate content moderation, and an increase in the peddling of conspiracy theories, misogyny and racism on the site, often actively encouraged by its owner, does the Minister think it right to review Government spending on X?

[Ellie Reeves]

I know that my hon. Friend takes a keen interest in these matters. In 2023, the previous Government suspended paid advertising on X while reviewing alignment with our safe guidelines. That suspension remains in place. We continue to post content, without paid promotion, to communicate important Government information.

Ukraine

Josh Fenton-Glynn Excerpts

Monday 3rd March 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

We will be undertaking a strategic review of our capability, gauging it against our challenge, and, obviously, I will put the results before the House in due course. I would just caution against the suggestion in the second part of the hon. Lady’s question—if I have got it right—that somehow we should take this as a moment to go it alone without the US. I fundamentally disagree; I think that would be wrong. We have never chosen that course in our history, and we should not choose it now.

[Josh Fenton-Glynn (Calder Valley) (Lab)]

I thank the Prime Minister for today’s statement, and for his diplomatic efforts to restore our international reputation since taking office. Will my right hon. Friend confirm the basic principle that no decision can be made about the future of Ukraine without including its elected leadership in the negotiations, and that any ceasefire must be adhered to by Russian aggressors and not just the Ukrainians?

[The Prime Minister]

I agree on both propositions. Ukraine needs to be at the table. There have to be security guarantees, because we know from history that Putin does not honour agreements that do not have security guarantees. That is precisely why we need one.