Business of the House

Judith Cummins Excerpts

Thursday 24th April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Lucy Powell]

I join my hon. Friend in congratulating Lucy, Penny and Dan, and all those involved in the Peer Action Collective, which sounds like a very good initiative. The Government take youth violence incredibly seriously. We have established the Young Futures programme, and we want to bring all those partners together to take these issues forward. It would make a very good topic for a debate.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Judith Cummins)]

I call the Chair of the Backbench Business Committee.

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)]

I join the shadow Leader of the House, my right hon. Friend the Member for Hereford and South Herefordshire (Jesse Norman), and the Leader of the House in expressing condolences to Catholics all over the world on the death of the Pope. His leadership of the Church will be sadly missed.

In terms of the business, I commend the Clerks who support our Committee on the work they have been doing to try to get colleagues to agree to having a debate next Thursday.

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[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

Members will see that there is a lot of interest in business questions today—about 80 wish to speak. I therefore ask any Members who have a long question to rewrite it. It should be no longer than two or three sentences.

[David Williams (Stoke-on-Trent North) (Lab)]

The good people of Kidsgrove were promised significant improvements to their town as part of the Kidsgrove town deal. However, Simon Tagg, the Conservative leader of Newcastle-under-Lyme borough council, alongside the former Conservative Member of Parliament, over-promised and under-delivered. They knew they did not have the funds available. They should now say sorry to the people of Kidsgrove. Will the Leader of the House make time for a debate on openness and transparency in public funding?

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[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Judith Cummins)]

Order. I want to get as many people in as possible, so please keep questions short.

[Greg Smith (Mid Buckinghamshire) (Con)]

Unitary council elections, county council elections and mayoral races are taking up a lot of the headlines at the moment, but in local government, there is an often regrettably forgotten subset of incredibly hard-working people who offer to serve on parish and town councils—people like Nic Brown, who, after 25 years, is standing down from Chearsley parish council in my village. The amount of work that people put in for no remuneration, just for love of a place, is extraordinary. In a lot of parish and town councils in my constituency, not only are the elections uncontested, but there will still be vacancies after next Thursday. Can we have a debate in Government time to thank everyone who puts themselves forward to serve on a town or parish council, and to discuss how we can encourage more people to come forward to serve their community through those councils?

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[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Judith Cummins)]

Order. We have around 15 to 20 minutes left for these questions, so please help each other out.

[Melanie Onn (Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes) (Lab)]

Will the Leader of the House join me in congratulating Labour’s brill and totally committed Greater Lincolnshire mayoral candidate, Jason Stockwood? He is truly putting Lincolnshire first, having just completed his countywide cycle tour, raising over £16,000 for charities across the area—and he is the only candidate to brave Lycra in public.

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[Lucy Powell]

I thought there was an invite to Antigua coming there, Madam Deputy Speaker, but alas no. I absolutely join my hon. Friend in congratulating and wishing well those four blokes—Rob, Kevin, Matthew and Tom—on their amazing charitable endeavours.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Judith Cummins)]

We need very short questions.

[Dr Jeevun Sandher (Loughborough) (Lab)]

Potholes are a blight across my constituency and cost us £500 each time they damage our cars, and the reason is that our roads have not been maintained by the Conservative-run county council. Does the Leader of the House believe that on 1 May my constituents should vote to fix our potholes and vote for all the brilliant Labour candidates across Loughborough, Shepshed and the villages?

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[Lucy Powell]

I absolutely join my hon. Friend in wishing all the young people in her constituency and across the House the very best of luck in all the exams they will be sitting over the coming weeks.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Judith Cummins)]

For the final question, I call Chris Vince.

[Chris Vince (Harlow) (Lab/Co-op)]

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker—and congratulations to you on that. Will the Leader of the House join me in congratulating the players, staff and volunteers of a team often known as the “non-league Man City”, Harlow Town football club, on its promotion from the Thurlow Nunn first division? And as I have time, will she also wish the club luck to do the double in two weeks’ time in the league cup final?