Improving Public Transport
Judith Cummins Excerpts(2 weeks, 4 days ago)
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Sarah Dyke
The point is that if prices go up any further, patronage on buses will go down, and in rural areas we travel further and longer. It is difficult to incentivise people to use buses in rural areas, so we need to get this right, and increasing fares will not encourage more people to get out of their cars and on to public transport.
Local authorities have a duty to outline routes that cannot run commercially but are vital to improving social outcomes or supporting economic activity, but there is no duty on them to fund those routes. After the general election, there were suggestions that the Government would create safeguards to make it harder for routes to be cut, and the better bus Bill is the perfect opportunity to deliver that. The previous Government committed to delivering guidance on the meaning and role of socially necessary services, expanding the category to include economically necessary services. But unsurprisingly, they failed to provide it, leaving much-needed bus routes in danger. I hope the Minister will take this up and provide some guidance.
Improving public transport is essential. The Government have stated their intention to improve it but so much remains unclear, especially for rural areas, which see poor services and high costs. Unfortunately, without investment and smart choices, that will continue to be the reality. The reversal of these trends is crucial, and I look forward to hearing the Minister’s response.
Natasha Irons
There you go. As a Londoner who grew up with a well-integrated, well-run and efficient public transport system, I know when I raise issues around under-investment from the Government into our services, there will be colleagues who represent constituencies such as the one my husband grew up in who have to wait an hour for a bus to the nearest town and who will have little sympathy for this whinging Londoner.
However, fourteen years of failure from the previous Government have left public transport in every part of our country failing to keep pace with the needs of the people who rely on it. On their watch, cancelled train journeys rose to a record high; passengers have had to navigate 55 million different types of ticket options; and buses are driving 300 million fewer miles per year compared with 2010. For our corner of south London, the previous Government’s mismanagement led to cancelled schemes, failed projects and accessibility for passengers being ignored.
Croydon is London’s most populated borough with a projected population growth of 7.9% by 2041. In my constituency last year, East Croydon station had over 20 million journeys passing through its gates, making it the 21st most used station in Great Britain. For my constituents, using East Croydon station means dealing with congestion, antisocial behaviour and a failed footbridge project that is now known locally as “the bridge to nowhere.” The project, originally designed to improve accessibility to the station, has been beset by delays and caused endless frustration for residents. After a decade of inaction and local taxpayers’ money going into the project, Network Rail has now downgraded its plans and removed direct access to platforms, which has caused more frustration for passengers and more congestion at the station, adding insult to injury for my community.
Under the previous Government, the Croydon area remodelling scheme—a scheme designed to address congestion on the Brighton main line and upgrade Croydon’s train stations—was shelved. As that scheme is no longer going ahead, Norwood Junction station in my constituency, which is the 79th busiest station in Britain, will not get the investment that it desperately needs—no improvement to platforms, no improvement to services and no improvement to accessibility—and the addition of a new lift has been deemed too complicated by Network Rail without the scheme’s wider improvements.
I welcome the Government’s commitment to improving public transport across every part of our country, to putting passengers first, and to working with our regional mayors, not against them. Not only does that mean more regions of our country will benefit from public control of bus networks and from train services with fewer delays, but for my constituency it means a Labour Government working with a Labour mayor to finally give us the trams that we so desperately need. Yes, I am fortunate to be a Londoner who has had access to all the public transport that I could possibly need, but with a Government who invest in every region, we can do so much more.
Taxi Licensing: Deregulation Act 2015
Judith Cummins Excerpts(2 months ago)
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Amanda Hack (North West Leicestershire) (Lab)
Taxi licensing enforcement is funded by licence fees. However, with the ongoing race to the bottom for licence issuing standards, local authorities are unable to enforce externally issued licences. Any measure to allow local authorities to enforce would simply stretch enforcement budgets beyond sustainability. Does my hon. Friend agree that the solution has to be guided by the principle that drivers should operate in the areas in which they are licensed?
Madam Deputy Speaker (Judith Cummins)
Order. I remind Members that interventions should be short.
Transport
Judith Cummins Excerpts(3 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Mr Lee Dillon (Newbury) (LD)
I congratulate the hon. Member for Exeter (Steve Race) on his maiden speech. My hometown of Thatcham was recorded in “The Guinness Book of Records” in 1990 as the country’s oldest continuously inhabited settlement, dating back some 3,000 years, although it is not quite a parliamentary seat. I pay my respects and tribute to his sister. I will also reference my sister and her reliance on the NHS.
I have been in the Chamber for many maiden speeches, and I have been impressed by them all. I congratulate them on sharing their passions and their local knowledge.
Newbury has returned a Member of Parliament since 1835 but, following the recent boundary changes, the constituency has lost the south bank of the Thames at Streatley and villages including Compton, West Ilsley and, pertinent to me, Hampstead Norris, the village of my grandparents, but I know they are safe in the stewardship of the hon. Member for Reading West and Mid Berkshire (Olivia Bailey). However, we have retained our market towns of Newbury, Thatcham and Hungerford, alongside our beautiful villages of Lambourn, Peasemore, Inkpen, Hermitage, Chieveley and Cold Ash, where I went to primary school, to name but a few.
My constituency has a proud racing heritage, with Lambourn training some of the world’s best racehorses and Newbury hosting one of the most prestigious horse races in the calendar. In Hungerford you can spend the afternoon antique shopping, and in Thatcham you can visit one the largest inland reed beds in southern England, home to internationally important species.
We are also home to Vodafone, one of the global leaders in telecommunications. Xtrac in Thatcham supplies Formula 1 components, and Stryker is one of the world’s leading medical technology companies. Away from cutting-edge technology, we also have: traditional craftsmanship at companies like Benchmark in Kintbury, which has been building and designing furniture for over 40 years; delightful country homes like Welford Park, which is home to “The Great British Bake Off”; and one of the most unique and beautiful theatres in the country, the Watermill at Bagnor.
And, of course, we are supported by many great charities: Greenham Common Trust, the Community Furniture Project, Eight Bells for Mental Health, local alms houses and, sadly, West Berkshire food bank and Newbury soup kitchen, which are needed to help a growing number of local residents. We also enjoy being surrounded by the area of outstanding natural beauty and 200 of the most precious chalk streams in the country.
In giving our maiden speeches, we all like to claim the beauty of our own area, but the author Bill Bryson has it spot on and may be able to stop future disagreements in the Chamber. In “The Road to Little Dribbling” he writes:
“There isn’t a landscape in the world that is more artfully worked, more lovely to behold, more comfortable to be in than the countryside of Great Britain. It is the world’s largest park, its most perfect accidental garden… All we have to do is look after it.”
As a member of a political party with a proud heritage of standing up for the environment, I can assure hon. Members and my constituents that I will do my bit in this place to make sure that we do look after it. The decision that I believe will conclude this debate, given the cross-party support, will contribute to that ideal. I welcome the proposed changes.
As the Member for Newbury, I will uphold our traditions and protect our environment, because without them the Newbury constituency would not be what it is—a balance between our environment, our traditions and our ability to innovate. These were also supported by my predecessors.
My immediate predecessor Laura Farris—strangely, I saw her in Central Lobby just before coming to the Chamber—delivered meaningful change in this House on sexual abuse and violence against women. She secured new laws on sexual violence in the Domestic Abuse Act 2021 and campaigned for tougher sentences for fatal domestic abuse. It is a further credit to her that the handover to me was as smooth as one could have hoped for. I wish Laura and her family all the best for the future, and I am sure she will continue to make a difference.
Richard Benyon, now Lord Benyon, served Newbury from 2005 to 2019 and has always been open and approachable, offering me some early advice when I was first elected. The Liberal Democrat David Rendel held the seat following a then record-breaking by-election—my party is rather good at those—from 1993 to 2005, and I ran with him in my home ward back in 2007, starting my electoral journey in West Berkshire.
All three predecessor cared deeply about Newbury and West Berkshire, as I do, too, but in new times there are new challenges. The Royal Berkshire hospital in Reading is in great need of replacement, and I look forward to a swift review of the new hospitals programme. The West Berkshire community hospital in Newbury is willing to do more so that diagnostic services can be provided locally. Without the NHS, my sister, Michelle, would not be here today. We need to cherish it, fund it and modernise it.
Despite our apparent wealth, we have pockets of poverty in Newbury. As I alluded to earlier, we are seeing an increase in the use of food banks and soup kitchens, the cost of living is still hurting and the proposed removal of the winter fuel allowance will compound that problem even more, despite our best efforts to get those who are entitled on to pension credits. House prices have soared and are now over 10 times the average salary, increasing demand for rented homes and adding pressure to housing waiting lists. The ability to have a warm and secure home is the foundation of a settled life. Children learn better, crime is lower and community cohesion is stronger when people have a settled community. I have worked in the social housing sector for the last 14 years. We must do more to deliver much needed homes for social rent.
I wish to conclude my speech by giving a small round of thanks. First, I thank my constituents for entrusting me with the honour of representing us here, and my local team for engaging in so many positive conversations on the door steps. I will endeavour to pay back their support with my deeds in the House. To my wife, Gemma, and my children, Oliver, James and Eleanor, I say thank you for your constant support and love that has allowed me to fulfil my dream of being the Member of Parliament for my home.
As a 16-year-old, I arranged a visit to Parliament. As we were being shown around the Chamber, we came past the Opposition Front Bench and a school friend cheekily sat down. I will not use parliamentary privilege to name him but he encouraged me to do the same. You will be pleased to hear that I declined, Madam Deputy Speaker. However, I said that I would sit there if I ever got elected. Well, 25 years later, I can now rightly take my place on the famous green Benches, so some dreams do come true.
As the son of a trade union official, I suspect I was always going to end up in a role where I could speak truth to power. I thank my father, Raymond, for instilling in me a sense of fairness and a belief that we can make change happen. My mother, Geraldine, and step-father, Colin, have supported me in every election I have stood in—I thank them for being there for me, keeping me honest and reminding me that it is nice to be important, but it is more important to be nice.
Madam Deputy Speaker (Judith Cummins)
I call James McMurdock to make his maiden speech.
James McMurdock
To my wife, the mother of my children, who in a crowd of powerful women stands as the most glorious of all, you are my strength, my light and I love you with all my heart. To my father, brother and late grandfather, who fought for this land and spent his last years in peace in the constituency I now represent, and to the rest of my big, wonderful, eclectic family, thank you for mocking me so ruthlessly that my feet will never leave the ground.
If hon. Members will forgive me, I will now fulfil a dream nearly a quarter of a century in the making and end by misquoting the immortal words of Ali G —“R-E-S-P-E-C-T.”
Mike Kane
I thank the hon. Member for his intervention, but I am grateful for small mercies; the Liberal Democrats are supporting this move. I thank the former Minister, the right hon. Member for Basildon and Billericay (Mr Holden) for his time in the Department and in this role.
To my hon. Friend the Member for Exeter (Steve Race), I say very well done. What an excellent and considered maiden speech he made. The personal testimony about his mother and his sister was really poignant. That speech will stand him in good stead. I was, however, a bit perturbed to hear about the former Member for Exeter, who was a passionate advocate of sustainable aviation in this place, whistling the tune to “The Great Escape” while out canvassing. A day probably does not go by in this place without one of us whistling “The Great Escape”. I was once taught by a sage old Whip that most MPs spend their whole life trying to get here and then the rest of the week trying to get away. I say to my hon. Friend the Member for Exeter again that that was a really great, well-considered maiden speech, and I wish him all the very best for his years ahead on these Benches.
That speech was followed by another very well-considered maiden speech from the hon. Member for Newbury (Mr Dillon). I do not think that anyone can beat the fact that he has the home of “The Great British Bake Off” in his constituency. That is amazing and no Member can beat that. When it comes to our beautiful chalk streams such as the ones in Newbury, or to our skies, it is our sacred mission to protect our environment for future generations. That is why we must keep talking about decarbonisation, which is what we are doing here tonight. I say very well done to the hon. Member and I wish him well for the future.
Finally, let me come to the hon. Member for South Basildon and East Thurrock (James McMurdock). I, too, pay tribute to his predecessor, Stephen Metcalfe. My first speech in a Bill Committee up in a dusty corridor was terrible and he wrote me a note saying, “Really well done, Mike”, and I still have that note on my wall today. What a lovely, lovely man he is. I congratulate the hon. Member, who raised the subject of childbirth and early maternal care, which we should come back to a lot more in this House in the future; there is still a lot more to do in that area. He may be a latter-day Wat Tyler, with the peasants’ revolt quote, but on a personal level I hope that there is not a great rising of Reform. However, I wish the hon. Member the best for his career in this place.
I thank Members again for their consideration. For those questions where it has not been possible for me to provide a response today, I ask Members please to let me know and I will write to them. SAF presents a key opportunity to decarbonise UK aviation and secure a long-term future for the sector. These draft regulations demonstrate how we can capitalise on this opportunity. Mandating the use of SAF has the potential to generate significant greenhouse gas savings, and ultimately play a pivotal role in achieving net zero. I commend this order to the house.
Question put and agreed to.
Resolved,
That the draft Renewable Transport Fuel Obligations (Sustainable Aviation Fuel) Order 2024, which was laid before this House on 24 July, be approved.
Madam Deputy Speaker (Judith Cummins)
We now come to the next item of business. I call the Minister to move the motion.
Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill
Judith Cummins ExcerptsTuesday 3rd September 2024
(3 months, 2 weeks ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Act 2024 View all Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Act 2024 Debates Read Hansard Text Watch Debate Read Debate Ministerial Extracts Amendment Paper: Committee of the whole House Amendments as at 3 September 2024 - (3 Sep 2024)
Siân Berry (Brighton Pavilion) (Green)
The Greens are not agnostic on privatisation. We very much support the principle of the Bill and look forward to its progress. I want to make a short speech on amendments 2 to 5, which I tabled. They are very simple and common sense; their goal is to leave open the opportunity for elected devolved bodies to set up companies that they own, in order to bid to run railway services under the overall guidance and wing of Great British Railways. The Bill, which restricts the definition of a public sector company to those owned by Ministers, either here or in Wales or Scotland, does not allow for that. That seems to clash with the direction of travel towards more public sector devolution, with which my party and I agree.
It would improve and future-proof the Bill if we amended proposed new section 30C of the Railways Act 1993 so that Ministers could in future choose a company set up or owned by combined authorities, or by groups of unitary, county, district or borough councils who decided to co-operate, ahead of further devolution, on improving their railways. Any decisions on the award of franchises, on the suitability of a body to run and own local railways, and on where investment should go would remain fully with Ministers. I tabled the amendments in a constructive spirit, and I hope that they will start a constructive conversation that will continue here and in the other place as the Bill progresses.
Abtisam Mohamed (Sheffield Central) (Lab)
Thank you, Ms Cummins, for giving me the opportunity to speak. It is a real privilege to deliver my maiden speech in this debate on the Bill, which will see the biggest overhaul to transportation in a generation. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Easington (Grahame Morris) on making excellent points about placing passengers at the heart of decisions, rather than unthinkable profits for shareholders.
I deliver my maiden speech with a sense of profound honour and humility. Representing the vibrant and diverse community of Sheffield Central is a responsibility that I do not take lightly. I would like to start by saying a few words about my predecessor, Paul Blomfield. A Labour MP for the last 14 years, Paul turned a majority of 165 to a majority of a whopping 27,000. He achieved this electoral popularity because he made politics accessible and was a great constituency MP. He listened to people and made their concerns his priority. He fought for the people of Sheffield Central tirelessly and consistently. He is everything we should look for in the character of elected Members: humble, honest and extremely hard working. He has received many awards in recognition of that. On a personal level, Paul has been my mentor. His guidance and support during my campaign have been invaluable, and for that I am deeply grateful. If he is watching, I would like to thank him for all the support that he has given me, and for everything that he has done for the people of Sheffield Central.
Sheffield Central is a microcosm of all that is Sheffield and all that is modern Britain. It is characterised by its rich cultural diversity, beautiful green spaces and a thriving independent economic dynamism. From the beautiful Bole hill views to the new Pound’s Park in the city centre, the small independent shops in Sharrow Vale and the up-and-coming Neepsend and Kelham, we have an unwavering sense of community spirit that genuinely makes every area feel like home. That is because it is home to remarkable individuals and organisations that work tirelessly to make our city a better place. It is a place where tradition meets innovation; we have seen the recent excavation and regeneration of a 12th century castle, and have new thriving business hubs, such as Leah’s Yard, which was the place of old toolmakers and is now the city’s new exciting independent home for makers and creatives. Sheffield has earned its stripes as the undisputed start-up capital of the UK. We also have a very large student population. Sheffield Central is home to two brilliant, world-class universities that enrich the fabric of our community. I am fortunate to have been a student at both of these excellent institutions at various points in my life.
With vibrant museums and the largest theatre complex outside London, we are a city that recognises people’s creativity, knowledge, identity, traditions and passions. Our theatres have been home to the world snooker championship since 1977 and, more recently, the multi-award-winning musical, “Standing at the Sky’s Edge”. Sheffield has no desire to copy; we desire to celebrate and embody our uniqueness. We storm ahead in our ability to bring people together, to think, to create and to celebrate.
Wendy Morton (Aldridge-Brownhills) (Con)
It was a real privilege to listen to the hon. Member for Sheffield Central (Abtisam Mohamed). Her passion for the constituency that she has been elected to represent shone through in her speech, and I congratulate her on being the first British Arab woman to be elected to Parliament. I really enjoyed listening to what I would best describe as a picture portrait, in her words, of her constituency. I will reflect on that next time I drive up or down the M1—while also concentrating on my driving, of course.
Let me now turn to the Bill. I rise to support the Opposition amendments, particularly amendments 10, 12, 15 and 17. As others have said, this is a short Bill, but I believe that its aims are radical and ideological. It will completely change our rail system, removing the presumption in favour of private sector operation of passenger services and allowing the Government to bring those operators into public ownership when a franchise ends. In short, I see this move as nationalisation and, indeed, ideologicalisation.
Although the Bill introduces such fundamental change, it is also being rushed through this place with limited scrutiny, for just four hours for Committee consideration. Smaller Bills have sat in Bill Committees for many more sessions. In fact, I think that a private Member’s Bill of mine spent more time in Committee than this. I am disappointed because there seems to be scant regard for what these changes will cost. I am also disappointed because I think the Bill should be considered alongside the railways Bill, which is yet to be published, and from my perspective that makes the scrutiny of the Bill, particularly at this stage, even more important.
I agree that the current model is not working. I am a former Rail Minister, and when we were in government we acknowledged the need to change and made the case for rail reform. However, that reform was about simplification, not nationalisation. It was about bringing the track closer to the trains and putting the passenger first.
Let me begin with amendments 10 and 12. I do not think we should underestimate the need for strict scrutiny, accountability and transparency. At the end of the day, that is what we on the Opposition side of the Chamber are here to provide. Without the additional measures proposed in the amendments, it seems very unclear how the shift from franchise to public ownership will work, and how its impact will be assessed. How will the costs be monitored, and where will investment in future rolling stock come from?
Another problem with the Bill in its current form is the arbitrary transfer of franchises to public ownership, based not on performance but simply on chronological franchise date. I raised that on Second Reading. West Midlands Trains, for example, is one of the better performers, but its contract expires this month. Contrast that with Avanti West Coast. As many Members have probably experienced when travelling to this place, it is currently one of the worst operators, yet its contract expires in 2026.
My reason for supporting the amendments is to ensure that, through stricter reporting and oversight of the new operators, we will see targets that are linked to performance and innovation. It is important that they are also linked to managerial pay, and it is all about keeping the passenger at the heart of what we are doing. It is also important to look closely at how the operator of last resort will manage the many more train services that will fall under its remit. I am not quite sure whether the OLR will have more resource to do that—hence the need to have accounts and monitor what is happening.
It is also important to understand how and where decisions about infrastructure and investment are being made. I will cite the example of the midlands rail hub, which the last Conservative Government committed to. It is absolutely critical to growth and improvements in services, and not just in Birmingham but across the west midlands and other regions. I would like to understand how some of the investments will be progressed under the new model, and how they will be held to account.
Amendment 15 seeks to address the issue of open access operators. Again, I raised this issue at Second Reading and, to be fair, the Rail Minister wrote to me and confirmed that there will remain a role for open access services, alongside publicly owned services. I welcome that, not least because it gives me a reason to continue to bang on about the need for the Government to support the bid for open access for services from Wales to London Euston via Aldridge. However, we need a train station in order for the train to stop in Aldridge, and we want it to be built by 2027 and not pushed into the sidings by the new Labour mayor. So forgive me, Madam Chairman, but I will keep talking about that until we see it delivered, not least because residents are expecting it to happen.
Amendment 15 seeks to carve out the space for open access operators and ensure that there is fairness in the awarding of contracts, which will be critical moving forward. I genuinely believe that there is a place for both the current system of providing train services and open access operators. Generally speaking, a lot of them have proved their value to the passenger and the taxpayer.
I will touch briefly on amendment 17, which is about reforming terms and conditions. I welcome the breakthrough in the pay talks, which is very positive, but it is really disappointing that it has done nothing to address the urgent need for reform of some of the terms and conditions. I see that as being crucial for the future stability of rail passenger services and for having the passenger-focused, seven-days-a-week service that the fare-paying passenger expects. Without the tools to scrutinise the ideologically driven changes, there is a real risk that the Bill fails not just the taxpayer, but fare-paying passengers, as many Members have highlighted this afternoon.
Finally, for constituents to be able to enjoy any benefits of rail travel, they need access to a local station. I will close my remarks by referring to Aldridge, because it is just one of a handful of constituencies that have a track but no train station. I urge the Minister to join me in pushing his colleagues in the Treasury and the West Midlands combined authority to help me deliver a train station for Aldridge on time.
The First Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means (Judith Cummins)
I call Julia Buckley to make her maiden speech.
Julia Buckley (Shrewsbury) (Lab)
Thank you very much, Madam Chair, for allowing me to make my maiden speech. What a privilege it is to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield Central (Abtisam Mohamed) and her moving story of her family overcoming racism and her personal passion for change.
I am delighted to contribute to this afternoon’s debate on our plans to introduce Great British Railways and bring trains back into public ownership. Nowhere will these benefits be felt more keenly than in my constituency of Shrewsbury, where services are thin on the ground, lacking carriages and frequent and reliable services. Most residents and visitors to Shrewsbury would very quickly conclude that our town is a beauty spot with so much potential but cut off from the wider economic region by a lack of robust public transport. This is mirrored by our inadequate bus services, with over 5,000 routes cut since 2010. Shrewsbury is dreaming of a Sunday service or a bus after 6 pm to support our young people and our night-time economy. Public bus franchises will make a huge impact on so many lives. We also have high hopes for Midlands Connect’s plans to electrify the train route between Shrewsbury and Wolverhampton to boost our capacity.
The First Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means (Judith Cummins)
I call Sorcha Eastwood to make her maiden speech.
Sorcha Eastwood (Lagan Valley) (Alliance)
I congratulate everyone who has made their maiden speech today, and I have to speak from the heart and say that it was incredibly moving to hear the hon. Member for Shrewsbury (Julia Buckley) talk about her friend Jo Cox, who was a former colleague of so many in this House. Jo’s philosophy, that we have more in common than that which divides us, certainly inspired me. We have a lot to learn from that in my part of the world in Northern Ireland.
It is an honour to be here today as the new MP for Lagan Valley. Like many others, I am the first woman MP for my home constituency. I would not be standing here today without the people of Lagan Valley, who have given me the privilege of representing them on Lisburn and Castlereagh council, in the Northern Ireland Assembly and now at Westminster.
I want to take a wee moment to thank Team Lagan Valley Alliance, my colleague David Honeyford MLA and my successor Michelle Guy MLA. I also want briefly to pay tribute to my dear friend and colleague Stephen Farry, who served in this House for five years representing the constituency of North Down. I am delighted that Alliance is continuing the legacy of Stephen’s contributions in this House.
There is a saying back home, “It’s far from here that you were reared,” and it certainly is far from here that I was reared. There was absolutely no expectation that I, as the daughter of Brigid McKeown, who was born on the side of Blaris Road in Lisburn, would wind up as the MP for Lagan Valley. My journey in politics began around our family table. Where I grew up, people did not really take an active interest in politics unless it took an active interest in them. I learned around our family table about public service in housing, education, policing, nursing or whatever it may be—that it was about what we can give back to our community.
My mum used to ask me every Sunday, “Do you want to do a wee general knowledge quiz?” and I would be like, “Yeah, who doesn’t like a quiz?” She used to take me into our back room and say, “Who is the Prime Minister?” and “What’s the capital of Spain?” What I did not really understand was that my mum, who left school with no qualifications and worked damned hard as a domiciliary care worker, wanted her daughter to have a better life, and education was the key to that. No, it was certainly far from here that I was reared, but that makes my presence today even more important.
But this is not about me or my life or my family; this is about the tens of thousands of people across Lagan Valley who grew up the exact same way. In fact, just today, while sitting on these Benches, somebody sent me a wee private message to ask, “Can you help me with this? Oh and here, by the way, it’s good to see that one of us got in there.” They did not mean “one of us” in the Northern Irish sense of the past; they meant somebody who grew up in the same street as them, who had the same social problems and knew what it was like to work a minimum wage job: strong, dignified people; people who want better, voted for change and for the first woman MP for Lagan Valley, but more importantly who voted for the first united community MP for Lagan Valley.
Our job here is to speak truth to power. Frankly, the people of Lagan Valley would not let me away with anything less. The system is broken. The social contract is shattered. It is not working. We have played this tape through to the end. We know how it ends. It so often ends with the most vulnerable in society crushed by a system that is sometimes overwhelmingly stacked against them. The system is harming people. Austerity is a political choice, and not one that my constituents—or frankly anybody in the UK—should be forced to bear.
Nearly 40% of people who are working are in receipt of universal credit. Young people are priced out of the housing market, we are not building enough social or affordable homes and renters are being exploited. We have full-time workers across health, education and hospitality dipping in and out of food banks. When did food banks become normalised? I do not want a single one of us ever to regard food banks as a part of our social architecture. We should be ashamed and disgusted and spending every minute in this place to eradicate their need. People who are working full time and in a households where both are often earning well above the median wage are having to shell that money out again through childcare costs, and many times it is the woman who has to give up her job.
Some politicians need focus groups to tell them what people feel about certain issues, while others create divisive culture wars to distract us from what really matters. But it should be as clear as day that people do not want more of the same. They do not need to be told that it is going to be painful, because they have been in pain for a long, long time. The message needs to be one of hope, ambition, vision and inspiration. From listening to the speeches, not just today but over the past few days and weeks in the House, I know that that is not something we are short of.
People know that underfunded and unfunded promises were made, and nowhere has that been felt more than in Northern Ireland and in my constituency, Lagan Valley. Alliance proudly went out before the election and campaigned primarily on two things—first, reform of the institutions and ending the veto, which so often has led to having no Government for the guts of 10 years where I am from. That is not acceptable. We also campaigned strongly for a fair funding package for Northern Ireland. That is not just a political opinion of mine; the Fiscal Commission for Northern Ireland said that Northern Ireland is not funded based on need. I will certainly be making no bones about fighting for that in this House.
It is one thing to say that we need reform of the institutions and for the UK Government to say that we have won the intellectual argument. Well, guess what? We have also won the argument at the ballot box time and time again. That is not something I will shy away from championing in my time in this House.
I sat around in Ballymacash estate on Friday and talked to people there about a number of things they are doing in that area that are absolutely fantastic. That community has gone on from years of social exclusion and isolation to develop so much. We talked about funding streams, and one we mentioned was the UK shared prosperity fund. They said to me, “That’s your job to go and fight for that.” Do you know what? It is. I met women from Tonagh estate. They rang me and said, “We are desperately worried about our winter fuel payments.” They are not the people with broad shoulders.
People say that politics is personal. It is absolutely personal to me—I make no bones about that. One in two of us will get cancer in our lifetime. I know personally five of my constituents who last year were diagnosed in our accident and emergency department. Just two of those people are alive today, and that is within one year. One of those people diagnosed in A&E was my husband, who has a rare form of blood cancer. Through that time, coping with that diagnosis, we have met hundreds of families right across the UK and Ireland who have been impacted by this. Every second we are in this place, somebody in this country will get a diagnosis of cancer.
The First Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means (Judith Cummins)
I call Paul Waugh to make his maiden speech.
Paul Waugh (Rochdale) (Lab/Co-op)
Thank you, Madam Chair. It is an honour to make my maiden speech during the passage of such a landmark piece of legislation and one that is very much long overdue. It delivers on our promise at the election of real change, and every one of us here is proud to represent it.
It is also an honour to follow my hon. Friends the Members for Sheffield Central (Abtisam Mohamed) and for Shrewsbury (Julia Buckley) and the hon. Member for Lagan Valley (Sorcha Eastwood), who made such moving and powerful speeches. They are a real tribute to this historic 2024 intake. They show up the excellence and diversity of our intake.
In a maiden speech, it is customary to pay tribute to one’s predecessors. I sincerely thank George Galloway for his career of public service. I wish to pay tribute to the late Sir Tony Lloyd, a man who commanded respect across this Chamber and whose decency, internationalism and compassion are an example to each one of us. As Tony once advised his staffer, now my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool South (Chris Webb):
“If it is not about making people’s lives better, don’t be a politician.
Rochdale certainly has a long history of making people’s lives better and of strong links to this Palace of Westminster. Indeed, it was a Rochdale lass, 15-year-old Emily Kelsall, who, in 1843, laid the foundation stone of the Elizabeth Tower that houses Big Ben. The Kelsalls were close friends of another of my predecessors, the great parliamentarian Richard Cobden and his ally, John Bright, who famously described England as the mother of Parliaments.
Cobden and Bright, one a Rochdalian by adoption and one a Rochdalian by birth, were two Rochdale radicals who campaigned as vigorously against slavery as they did for cheaper food through the abolition of the corn laws and for a wider franchise. Another Rochdalian who was friends with Cobden and Bright was the Lancashire dialect poet Edwin Waugh, after whom my youngest son, Eddie, who is in the Gallery, is named. Waugh captured the beauty of the
“hill and hillock, knoll and dell”,
and the moors and brooks of my Pennine constituency. From Blackstone Edge to Hollingworth lake, from Healey Dell to the landscaped gardens of our magnificent town hall, there is greenery and beauty throughout our town and its villages of Littleborough, Wardle, Milnrow and Newhey.
The Pennine way cuts through my seat, yet our Pennine way is more than just the well-loved footpath; it is a way of doing things, too. Our Pennine way is one of community, co-operation, self-help and resilience. Ever since the Rochdale Pioneers set up shop in 1844 to sell affordable basics like butter, sugar and flour, we have been proud to be the birthplace of a global co-operative moment, and I am proud to be the first Labour and Co-operative MP in our town’s history.
That sense of co-operation and community has been enhanced by the currents of migration that have flowed through our town as steadily as the River Roch itself. Scots, like my own Waugh clan, the Irish, Italians, Ukrainians, Poles, Pakistanis, Kashmiris, Bangladeshis, Nigerians—we even welcome the occasional Yorkshireman —have all staffed our factories and our NHS and created new family businesses. All are proud Rochdalians. Just as our town has shown real resilience in the face of economic downturns and Government cuts, our community cohesion has proved resilient, too—despite the provocations of extremists on all sides.
As well as radicalism and resilience, our town’s story is a story of renewal. Many of our mills have closed, but there is still a strong sense of industry, of hard work, of grafters, of entrepreneurs, of people who put something back into the town that raised them. There are people like Richard Tang, whose Zen Internet started as a small, home-based business, but is now a major network provider and our biggest private sector employer. There are people like Sir Peter Ogden, who founded Computacenter and this year invested millions into my beloved Rochdale AFC—up the Dale—in recognition of its role as a hub of our community.
From the brass bands of Milnrow to the rock and folk music of Feel Good festival, our arts are thriving too. Rochdale sixth-form college is one of the highest achieving in the country. Our armed forces veterans support groups are superb. Springhill hospice is a beacon of excellence, and the Oasis ward at Rochdale infirmary is a national model in dementia care.
My own journey from Rochdale to this place was made possible only by an enabling state: a fantastic teacher, John Williams, who spotted the potential in me and my twin brother, Mark; a council house that gave me the stability and affordability that many families sadly lack today; and free school meals that meant we could focus on learning, not earning. As a former chairman of the Lobby, it would be remiss of me not to also mention the role that my parliamentary journalism has played in propelling me on to these Benches—and I would like to dispel the vicious rumour that the main reason I stood for Parliament was to guarantee five more years of jerk chicken.
The phrase “Westminster village” is often used as an insult, but this place really is a village, in the best sense of the word: a community of more than 3,000 people from all walks of life, making sure that this is an open and accessible people’s House, not the preserve of an elite. For 26 years, I have had the pleasure of working in this building, with its fabulous canteen staff like Betty, Rita, Daphne, Terry and Godfrey, the Doorkeepers like Adrian, the security staff like Saeed, the many Clerks and officials, and of course, the police. I will never forget the day when we lost our own “village policeman”, PC Keith Palmer, in the terror attack of 2017. It has been my pleasure to work with my Lobby colleagues and with MPs of all parties, and I would like to reassure all the Tory leadership contenders: don’t worry, your secrets are safe with me.
Politicians and journalists have more in common than either would like to admit. At their best, both are honourable trades—and they are trades; they are not professions—but the big difference between us is the difference between criticism and action, between commentary and doing. In the end, I could no longer just write about the appalling state of our public services; I wanted to do something about it. I wanted to do something about the NHS workers like my wife, who came home every night exhausted by a sheer lack of staff. I wanted to do something about all those working-class kids like me whose destinies are still too often determined by their postcode, not by their potential.
I also wanted to do something about this misinformation age that we live in, and to combat the rise of extremism that disfigures too much of our discourse. It was Stanley Baldwin who denounced the newspaper barons for wanting power without responsibility; today, too many social media companies have exactly that. This summer’s spread of online hate and falsehood is a challenge to which this Government will have to rise, just as they rose to the challenge of cracking down on the thugs who attacked our communities and our brave police officers. Tackling online publishers—that is what they are: publishers, not platforms—may sound radical, but in reality radicalism is often just common sense ahead of its time, a reminder that all our rights are hard won. What could be more commonsensical than demanding that the vote be given to the working classes and to women, more than 100 years ago? What could be more commonsensical than this railways Bill, giving the public control over the services that spend billions of pounds of their own money? What could be more commonsensical than tackling climate change or giving towns like Rochdale more control over their own future—towns that do not want a handout, but deserve a fairer share of the national resource?
The Pennines are famously the backbone of England, but the people of Rochdale are the backbone of England too. Common-sense radicalism, resilience and renewal—those are the watchwords of my home town, of this country and of this Government, and I will do my utmost to live up to them.
The First Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means (Judith Cummins)
I call Charlie Dewhirst to make his maiden speech.
Charlie Dewhirst (Bridlington and The Wolds) (Con)
Thank you, Madam Chair, for allowing me to catch your eye during this very important debate. I congratulate the hon. Member for Rochdale (Paul Waugh) on a really excellent maiden speech, and I hope that I can match the very high bar that has been set by hon. Members in all parts of the House so far today.
I start by paying tribute to my predecessor, Sir Greg Knight. I am very fortunate to be following him; he was a very well-liked and respected Member of this House. His parliamentary career spanned five decades, and he served as a Minister in the Governments of Thatcher, Major and Cameron. He was first the Member for Derby North, from 1983 to 1997, and excelled in the roles of deputy Chief Whip and Minister for Industry. He then returned to this place in 2001 for the then constituency of East Yorkshire, which has now become Bridlington and The Wolds, and was re-elected on five separate occasions until his retirement this year.
Sir Greg served for a second stint in the Whips Office during the coalition years and worked tirelessly behind the scenes on many of Parliament’s less fashionable Committees. I will always aspire to match his dedication and integrity in public life, but there is one area in which I will never be able to compete with him—that is, of course, the election campaign jingle. For any hon. Members who are unaware of his unique impact in this area, I wholeheartedly recommend a quick internet search after today’s debate. More seriously, Sir Greg was rightly rewarded with a knighthood for his service to this place, and I place on record my thanks for his support and friendship in recent months. I wish both him and Lady Janet a very happy and well-deserved retirement.
I now have the unbelievable privilege of representing my home constituency of Bridlington and The Wolds, and it is truly the greatest honour of my life. I am sure you will agree, Madam Chair, that there is no finer county than Yorkshire, and nowhere showcases it better than the East Riding—from the stunning cliffs and world-famous seabird colony at Bempton and Flamborough Head to the golden, sandy beaches stretching from Bridlington to Hornsea and the rolling hills and picture-book villages of the Wolds.
Each of the four towns in the constituency has its own unique appeal. Bridlington is the largest shellfish landing port in the UK and the lobster capital of Europe. It attracts millions of visitors every year and is home to many thousands of people who have retired to the area, and I will always fiercely defend our local pensioners. Driffield, my home town, is the capital of the Wolds—or capital of the world, as I thought it said on the road sign as a child—and home to one of the largest one-day agricultural shows in the country. Hornsea boasts not only a beautiful coastline but the largest freshwater lake in Yorkshire, and Market Weighton was once home to William Bradley, who is believed to be the tallest person ever to have lived in this country at 7 foot 9 inches tall, and to whom the town pays tribute every year on Giant Bradley Day. I do not wish to test your patience, Madam Chair, by singing the praises of all the many villages and hamlets across my constituency, but it would be remiss of me not to mention Nafferton, where I grew up, and Wansford, where I now live. Both are home to excellent local pubs; if you do find yourself in the area, I would be delighted to buy you a drink.
I hope to repay the faith placed in me by the electorate with hard work and diligence. I want to improve access to local health services, increase transport links, ensure access to high-speed broadband for all and address the historical funding formula in education that disadvantages children in rural local authority areas. I am one of the few Members who can claim to represent more pigs than people. Agriculture, fishing and tourism are the foundations of our local economy. If I can make our beautiful corner of Yorkshire a better place to live and work before I depart this place, I will, I hope, have done some good.
Paul Davies (Colne Valley) (Lab)
I express my gratitude to you, Ms Cummins, for the chance to address the House for the first time. I congratulate all hon. Members who have delivered their maiden speech in recent days. Their eloquence serves as testament to the remarkable talent in this House, and I am honoured to be counted among them. I eagerly anticipate their contributions to future debates in the years ahead. I also pay tribute to my immediate predecessor, Jason McCartney, who has demonstrated over the past four and a half years a real passion for improving the lives of many people in the constituency.
Today, we discuss the Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill. For my constituents, the change cannot come soon enough. The Bill will be a cornerstone, kick-starting economic growth, unlocking opportunities across the country—especially in Colne Valley—and accelerating us towards net zero.
We are all shaped in many ways by our upbringing. My commitment to community was deeply influenced by growing up in south Wales. My parents quietly volunteered to drive stroke survivors to the aptly named stroke club, which provided essential respite. For them, it was not charity; it was just something you did. Working in the mines taught me the value of collective support. Miners watched out for each other; their safety depended on it. That sense of community cohesion contributed to proud and resilient communities that shaped our nation’s success. We must reignite those bonds through community wealth-building initiatives, and by retaining wealth in local communities. That transformation, inspired by the co-operative movement, is pivotal. Born in Wales and shaped by the Labour movement, I found purpose through education and global experiences during my professional career. Now, just a few years later, I stand before the Committee as the newly elected Member for Colne Valley. It is an immense honour, and I am genuinely humbled that the people of Colne Valley and Lindley have placed their trust in me.
The Colne Valley constituency embodies the community values instilled in me during my Welsh upbringing, values that are evident in its vibrant villages and urban centres—Meltham, Lindley, Linthwaite, Slaithwaite, Marsden, Golcar, Honley and Holmfirth—where community ecosystems thrive and people look out for each other through various community groups. There are festivals and shows, such as the Holmfirth arts festival, the Honley show, Lindley street festival, Marsden jazz festival and Golcar lily day, and everybody is welcome to contribute, participate, or simply enjoy themselves. There are sports clubs, such as Honley cricket club, Wooldale Wanderers football club and Holmfirth bowling club, that are woven into the fabric of our constituency. Of course, there are the local businesses that serve and employ our community members, including the Picturedrome in Holmfirth, Coopers Yard, Beauty and the Barista, Read, Trojan plastics, and many others. We should not forget the community support groups, such as Crossroads in Meltham and the Holmfirth food bank.
Much of the above only came about due to individual sacrifices and an unwavering belief in our communities. Developing a strong community spirit is an ongoing effort. It is not something that you simply bottle. It is a living, often delicate entity that requires nurturing and protection. External support is crucial to put in place the foundational elements. For example, we need to empower people through safe, secure, affordable homes and decent jobs. Those foundations allow individuals to contribute more broadly to their communities. In Colne Valley and Lindley, a palpable community spirit thrives—a spirit you can almost touch. That vitality is evident through numerous community groups, from EcoHolmes, which focuses on building affordable homes, to Holmfirth Tech, which provides community spaces, as well as the Full Life food bank and various faith-based organisations. That is why, 15 years ago, Leah and our two daughters chose to make this area our home. It is why, every single day, we appreciate how lucky we are to live in such an amazing place with such amazing people. Of course, I have to mention the excellent beer, which does help.
However, as I suggested earlier, focusing beyond our immediate needs can be challenging when we are tired, lonely, hungry, distracted, or simply busy. Too many of our people are in that position; they find it impossible to get off the treadmill of looking to make ends meet. As the Member for Colne Valley, I aspire to be a voice for those who struggle to be heard amid the pressures of the cost of living challenges they face. I aim to be a calm, consistent advocate for all, emphasising the strength that comes from unity, and a voice that celebrates the selflessness of those whose altruism forms the bedrock of a healthy society. However, I also recognise the importance of being a strong, resilient voice, one that calls for better and more effective ways of building and retaining wealth in our communities to benefit everyone. My values stem from the collective, and my unwavering commitment lies with my community. Those are the values and principles I will carry with me every day as I go to work in this place for the people of Colne Valley.
Calum Miller (Bicester and Woodstock) (LD)
It is an honour to be called to give my maiden speech, Ms Cummins. I start by thanking the hon. Member for Colne Valley (Paul Davies) for his speech. He spoke about a spirit in his community that you could touch; he has a pride in his community that we can feel, and can almost touch as well. He spoke about the selflessness of service to the community, a point echoed in excellent speeches given today by the hon. Members for Sheffield Central (Abtisam Mohamed), for Shrewsbury (Julia Buckley), for Lagan Valley (Sorcha Eastwood), for Rochdale (Paul Waugh), and for Bridlington and The Wolds (Charlie Dewhirst). It is my honour to speak in their company.
Convention requires that I say a few words about my predecessor, and I have been advised that, despite political differences, these should be complimentary and civil. I have tried, but the best that I can say is that the views of the last MP for Woodstock belong to a different time—which is quite understandable, since Lord Randolph Churchill held it until the parliamentary borough of Woodstock was abolished in 1885. For over a century, Woodstock disappeared from the constituency names in this House. Meanwhile, the town of Bicester has never previously been named in a constituency. Bicester and Woodstock is a fusion of four previous constituencies. I therefore have no immediate predecessor to refer to, but I want to thank Robert Courts, John Howell, my hon. Friend the Member for Oxford West and Abingdon (Layla Moran) and Victoria Prentis for their service to the communities in my constituency. Like any new Member, I am eager to learn from how others have done things, so I am grateful to have such a diversity of approaches to draw on.
I was fortunate to be called on to ask a question in the first Prime Minister’s Question Time of this Parliament. I spoke then about the River Evenlode, but I could equally have referred to the Rivers Cherwell, Dorn, Glyme or Ray. Each cuts a path through my constituency and each has to carry its unfair share of pollutants from Thames Water’s sewage spills. Tackling the pollution of our rivers and waterways was a common concern among my constituents during the election campaign, and I welcome the Prime Minister’s undertaking to work across parties to address this scandal.
Alongside our waterways, the railways are significant features of my constituency. We have no fewer than seven stations. To address the subject of this afternoon’s debate, at each you will find passengers keen to see improvements. The travellers through Bicester North bemoan the age of the rolling stock, which breaks down far too often, and the shortened trains with their inadequate seating. Constituents near Bicester Village are deeply concerned about the future closure of the London Road level crossing, which would cut off those living in south-east Bicester from the rest of the town. I hope the Rail Minister, to whom I have written, will respond positively to my request to ensure that East West Rail brings forward sufficient funding for alternative crossings for all users.
Another feature of my constituency is the rapid proposed growth of towns and villages, under plans adopted by the last Government and supported by Conservative local councils in 2017. Bicester has already seen tremendous growth. A similar scale of development is planned for Eynsham and the wider Kidlington area, including Begbrooke and Yarnton. As this Government prepare for an increase in housing provision, the lessons from areas like those in my constituency must be learned.
My constituents understand the need for more homes for local residents, and especially for those who cannot access social housing, but they want to know that sufficient infrastructure will accompany new homes. I am talking about not just improvements to the hard engineering for travel, grid connections, sewage and other utilities, but also the social infrastructure of schools, GP surgeries, dispensing chemists and NHS dentists, as well as community, youth and sports centres. We must make sure that these services are funded and delivered before new homes are released.
I have lived in the constituency for over 12 years, and my wife and I have raised our four children there. They attend local schools and are active in local sports clubs. Long before I ran for this election, they ensured that I knew the future constituency well by dragging me to most of the sports grounds and sports halls that it contains. I owe my place to the many voters who put me here, but I would not be here without the steadfast support of my family, and I am so pleased that they are here today. For some, that support has come with encouragement; for others, it comes with occasional embarrassment about my endeavours. But from all, it has come with love, affection, and a willingness to keep me grounded through the occasional well-deserved put-down. I am truly grateful to them and hope that they know how much I appreciate their support.
My constituency contains a vibrant mix of communities beyond its two towns. Famously, Kidlington contends to be the largest village in England, with its population of over 13,000. When the parish council suggested in 1987 that it was a town, irate residents forced it to back down and reinstate village status. That does not, however, explain why groups of Chinese Harry Potter fans were spotted taking photos outside suburban homes in the village in 2016. Despite extensive searches, I never found the Dursleys of Privet Drive on the electoral roll.
One of the greatest pleasures of representing this area is travelling across its stunning countryside and discovering the passion for history, environment and community that burns in each town and village. I cannot do justice to that diversity today, but I say thank you to the thousands of constituents who contribute to their communities as town and parish councillors, school governors, village fête organisers, wildlife champions, Royal British Legion fundraisers, youth sports coaches, or food bank collectors, and in many other roles besides. Every week, as I visit organisations in the constituency, I am inspired by the selfless actions of those who put community first and build stronger relationships, one freely given hour at a time.
It is that sense of community and of what we can do for each other that brought me here today. From volunteering as a school governor, I came to see how both the setting and implementation of national policy had deep local impacts. I became a county councillor in 2021 and saw up close how local government has been hollowed out by national funding decisions that respected neither the role that local authorities play in delivering critical services, nor the unique insights they hold at local level about the needs of their residents. Those experiences put me on the path towards standing for election, and it is a huge honour now to be a Member of this House. I hope that during my time here I can serve my community with the same selflessness and energy shown by so many of my constituents.
The First Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means (Judith Cummins)
I call Graeme Downie to make his maiden speech.
Graeme Downie (Dunfermline and Dollar) (Lab)
Thank you, Madam Chair. I am delighted to make my maiden speech today as the first MP for the new constituency of Dunfermline and Dollar. It is a privilege to follow the hon. Member for Bicester and Woodstock (Calum Miller), and I would like to congratulate all MPs who have made such fantastic and powerful maiden speeches this afternoon. With such a high turnover of MPs, the calibre of the speeches I have heard since the election should give everyone a sense of optimism about the future and what this Parliament can achieve.
I believe I must start my speech with a particular tribute, and so I shall. They are known for being colourful and preening, strutting around like they own the place, and expecting to be waited on hand and foot by a fantastic team of underpaid and overworked staff. They demand honours, and they disappear without permission whenever the mood takes them. In the past century, their names have included Andrew, Malcolm and Angus, and I am even told that some individuals have been found in bushes in a horrible state. No, these are not my honourable predecessors. They are not even Members of the other place. Instead, they are the names of just some of the peacocks that reside in the beautiful surroundings of the Pittencrieff Park in Dunfermline, and that only last week were awarded the freedom of the city.
I am sure that my immediate predecessors for the seats that now make up the constituency of Dunfermline and Dollar will not object to being upstaged by the peacocks, but I would like to place on record my thanks to both Douglas Chapman, the Member for Dunfermline and West Fife from 2015 until retiring prior to the election, and John Nicolson, the Member for Ochil and South Perthshire. Douglas and John worked hard on behalf of their constituents in the best and truest tradition of public service, and I wish them well.
I would also like to thank my immediate predecessor from the Labour party, Thomas Docherty. Thomas is still known by many in this House, and we should remain grateful to him for first proposing the idea of recalling MPs, although I suspect that gratitude is perhaps felt by me and some of my colleagues rather than by some of the Members opposite.
My “Aww, Dad” sense of humour is something I was accused of having long before I had children, and where better than a debate on railways to put some of that reputation to the test. So I will steam ahead with my remarks and do my utmost to stay on track, hoping to reach my destination on time and not come up against the buffers of your patience, Madam Chair.
I have never served in the armed forces, but I was raised in a family that did. Much of the sense of public service that I hope to bring to my contribution to this House is rooted in the values of the members of my family who have done so. My grandma, Margaret Delworth, was a plotter for the RAF during the battle of Britain, with the air raid sirens next to her playing a part in the deafness she suffered later in life. My grandpa served in the Royal Signals in campaigns in north Africa, Italy, including at Monte Cassino, and later with the UN in Korea. My parents, Jim and Cathy, were both members of the Royal Observer Corps—indeed, that was where they met—and I am very proud that they are in the Public Gallery today.
When I was six, my parents took what I now realise must have been an incredibly brave decision: to move our family to Berlin, where we lived on RAF Gatow for three and a half years. Many of my early memories are from there, and it has shaped the rest of my life: I played football with FC Westend, a German club based nearby; the death of Rudolf Hess was historic but meant I got a day off school; and the defection of a Soviet general saw my sister locked in the cellar of an air traffic control tower for hours—Helen has always been a very supportive older sister, but I would be lying if I said that there have not been times when I wished she had been left there just a little longer.
But it was an early November morning in 1989 that truly shaped my politics. I was woken at 2 am by my dad, who sat me down in front of a German TV channel and proclaimed, “This is history.” I watched as tens of thousands of people scaled the Berlin wall, heralding the beginning of the end of the cold war and moves towards a united Germany. The events of 1989 taught me that oppression is not, cannot and never will be either acceptable or effective, and neither should it be tolerated.
I want to take this opportunity to add to the sentiment across this House that the UK will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes to fight the aggression of Vladimir Putin. He might hold the honorific of “president”, but a dictator is a dictator, as many before have warned from these Benches.
It is that history—that privilege of observing good triumphing—that makes me immensely proud to be serving the constituency of Dunfermline and Dollar. The area has a proud military history and, with the Royal Navy base HMS Caledonia, that continues to this day. The firth of Forth was a regular home to the grand fleet, and throughout the 20th and 21st centuries the ships and sailors that protected us then and continue today have called that part of west Fife their home.
This allows me to mention Rachel Squire, who some might remember was the Member of Parliament for Dunfermline and West Fife before her sad death in 2006. She led the successful battle to save the dockyard at Rosyth, which remains a vital and major asset to the local economy and our community. I visited the dockyard just last week to see the progress on the construction of the first two Type 31 frigates and was impressed by the talented and dedicated workforce who build and maintain the warships that keep our country safe. As the world continues to look to Britain for leadership and security, we must never forget the communities and workers who are the backbone of a deterrent and strength that so many depend on.
I am afraid I will now return to the bad puns as we ride the rails again from Rosyth to Dunfermline, Scotland’s ancient capital. Close to Pittencrieff Park and the preening peacocks we find Dunfermline abbey, the resting place of Scotland’s king and queens, including Robert the Bruce, and the birthplace of Charles I. Close by is the birthplace of Andrew Carnegie, the great Scottish businessman and philanthropist, who valued and promoted industry, innovation and education with a global view of Scotland and the UK. His legacy of libraries and education is strongly felt in Dunfermline and around the world, and nowhere more so than in the United States, in institutions such as Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. However, a local historian told me that after Andrew’s death his widow employed a certain Mary Anne MacLeod as a domestic servant in her home in New York—answers on a red baseball cap for why I might not want to dwell on that connection too much.
As I continue my journey, poor rural transport sadly means that a replacement bus service is required as I take us to Dollar, a beautiful village at the foot of the Ochil hills. I held an excellent surgery there this weekend and I am very tempted to return this weekend for the village’s annual beer festival—I note that beer has been a theme in many of the maiden speeches we have heard since the election. Dollar is most famous for Dollar academy, and despite cordial disagreements over certain aspects of the Labour party manifesto, I am very grateful for the excellent work it does with the local community and schools in the area to share its learning and experience.
Travelling back towards Dunfermline, we will find the railway tracks once again. These tracks transported coal from the mines in nearby villages such as Oakley, Comrie, Valleyfield, Saline and Steelend, and were more recently used by the former Longannet coal power station near Kincardine. As the Member for a constituency with a proud history of mining, I was delighted to stand on a manifesto that will end the injustice of the mineworkers’ pension scheme.
At this point, I will mention just one more of my predecessors, Gordon Brown, who was elected as the Member for Dunfermline East in 1983. In preparing my speech today, I read his incredible first contribution to this House. I urge others to do the same, as it was a powerful speech focused on the need to tackle unemployment. With this new Labour Government investing in green jobs, manufacturing and infrastructure, we will have the opportunity to make the constituency of Dunfermline and Dollar and sites such as Longannet drivers of the Fife, Scottish and UK economies once again, tackling unemployment by establishing new industries and expertise that will help the global fight against climate change.
I began this speech by talking about the contribution of family and my optimism for the future, and I will begin winding up in the same vein. First, I want to take a moment to thank my wife, Jen. It is very simple: without her love and support, I would not be standing here today. We have heard about the importance of family in maiden speeches from Members from all parts of the House. All Members of this House will be aiming to make even the smallest contribution to creating a better community, a better country and a better world for our own families and future generations. I want my two daughters, Hannah and Eilidh, and all children, regardless of where and how they started their life, to be able to grow up in a world where the opportunity exists for their own aspirations and ambitions to be met, nurtured, supported and fulfilled. That is something we have heard powerfully in speeches this afternoon. As the Dunfermline-born author Iain Banks wrote,
“the future remains malleable and retains the possibility of change”.
Those are wise words that I will try to remember as I work across the House to create that better future.
The First Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means (Judith Cummins)
I call Rebecca Smith to make her maiden speech.
Rebecca Smith (South West Devon) (Con)
It is a pleasure to follow the maiden speech of the hon. Member for Dunfermline and Dollar (Graeme Downie). I was especially interested in his recollections of the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, which is also one of my early political memories, although I am obviously on the other side of the House as a result. I was interested in his reference to Monte Cassino, which might make sense later on in my speech.
I am incredibly grateful to the people of South West Devon, who put their trust in me on 4 July, electing me to serve them here in Parliament. Starting out in this place just a few short weeks ago, it was almost a quarter of a century to the day since I first set foot in Parliament. Forgive the cliché, but if someone had told the 18-year-old me, who was spending a week’s work experience with the MP for South West Devon, Sir Gary Streeter, that one day I would follow in his actual footsteps, I would not have believed them. Everybody I have met since entering this place who knew my predecessor tells me that I have big shoes to fill. For some, that might seem daunting. After all, he is a size 10 and I am a mere size 4. However, knowing Sir Gary as I do—in fact, having known him since we first met at a Kylie Minogue concert in 1991, where we both enjoyed her rendition of “The Loco-Motion”—I am honoured to follow in his footsteps and the legacy he has left.
After 32 years as a Member of Parliament, Sir Gary’s legacy is one of kindness, integrity and a deep commitment to the people of South West Devon. I know that there are Members on both sides of the House, past and present, who appreciated his wisdom over the years. It is something that he will tell you comes from his deep Christian faith. I am grateful that I still have access to that wisdom, given that he is now one of my constituents and that I also share his faith.
Unsurprisingly, although Sir Gary achieved a huge amount for our constituents, there are issues affecting South West Devon today; long-term battles that he fought and that remain in need of a victory. One such issue relates to our Great Western Railway line through Devon. Today’s debate therefore provides the perfect opportunity to commit myself to the fight for a better railway service to the far reaches of Devon and the south-west.
Following the devastating floods at Dawlish in 2014, the previous Government did much to safeguard the line through Devon. The sight of a railway track suspended in mid-air with nothing between it and the sea is not easily forgotten. I will therefore be campaigning cross-party alongside colleagues to see the new Government commit to completing the remedial works at Dawlish. They must also ensure that forthcoming HS2 works at Old Oak Common in London do not hamper the progress made on our journey times between London and the south-west. The main line through Devon does not just take holidaymakers to our beautiful counties; it is vital for those who live and work there too.
The west side of Plymouth is served effectively by several small stations, but to the east, in my constituency, there are very few options for train travel between Plymouth and Totnes, some 30 minutes away. Indeed, the current level of service makes a mockery of the existing “Park and ride by train” that is advertised as people drive down the A38. I will therefore continue to fight for CrossCountry trains—not just Great Western Railway services—to call at Ivybridge station. As the population of that town and of nearby Sherford grows, having adequate access to mainline train services closer than Plymouth, Totnes—or, in some cases, Tiverton Parkway—is essential.
To see the full economic benefits of the Plymouth and south Devon freeport, with its key sites at Langage and Sherford, we must see the delivery of a metro railway linking Plymouth with Tavistock and Ivybridge, including a stop in Plympton. That would also enhance connectivity for the Dartmoor villages, which are now a welcome part of South West Devon following the recent parliamentary boundary changes. The previous Government’s plan to reopen the line between Plymouth and Tavistock is critical to delivering that metro service. I therefore call on the new Government to push forward with that proposal and enable us to get the metro scheme off the ground.
Jen Craft (Thurrock) (Lab)
Thank you, Madam Chair. It is the honour of my life to address this House as the Member of Parliament for Thurrock, my home, and to speak in this important debate on the future of our railways. I congratulate the hon. Member for South West Devon (Rebecca Smith) on her passionate speech, which was infused with pride for the community she serves and a strong commitment to her new role, particularly to help the people of Dawlish to rebuild after the flooding and to speak up for those who have experienced the care system. I also congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Dunfermline and Dollar (Graeme Downie) on such a brilliant speech, which was infused with peacocks and train puns, which I will not try to outdo. I will steam ahead, get back on track and diesel-power on with the main body of my speech!
I would like to begin by talking a little about my predecessor, Jackie Doyle-Price. Although our politics are different, she served our community for 14 years and was a vocal campaigner against violence towards women and girls, both in this country and internationally. She highlighted the role that rape and sexual violence play as a weapon of war, and the lifelong impact that these appalling crimes have on women and girls here in the UK. She was a strong supporter of SERICC, the groundbreaking rape and abuse service based in my constituency, which found her a listening ear and a vocal advocate for its work. I will ensure that I will carry on that relationship and continue that work.
I would also like to thank the former Member of Parliament for Barking, Margaret Hodge, who gave me my first job in politics and taught a newly graduated, idealistic young woman that politics is more often than not about who gets the potholes filled, the grass verges cut and people’s individual problems solved than the big issues of the day. Moreover, she taught me that being a visible, vocal advocate for one’s constituents is the fundamental job of being an MP. In doing so, she defeated the extremists of the British National party by demonstrating that politics can be a force for good—work that I was extremely proud to play a part in at the time, and something that I will continue to take forward, to counter the threats from extremism and populism that our communities face today. She has also shown kindness and support as I, like many others who are new in this House, struggle to navigate the early days of this unique role.
It is an incredible privilege to have the honour of representing my home in this place. Thurrock has had representation from across this House since its creation in 1945, but this is the first time that someone born there has addressed the House as its Member of Parliament. I am that much unfairly maligned of creatures—a true Essex girl. I prefer Dr. Martens to white stilettos, but I am extremely proud of the county of my birth and the history of our community and the people who live there.
Thurrock has a fighting spirit, having played an important role in the decoy operations prior to the Normandy landings in the second world war. It provided a muster and departure point for those leaving to take part in the D-day operations. Several hundred years earlier, Tilbury is where Queen Elizabeth I rallied her troops before fighting the Spanish armada, famously declaring:
“I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too”.
The Empire Windrush landed at Tilbury docks in 1948, bringing those who answered the call to help restore and rebuild our country after the second world war. A permanent exhibition, “Tilbury bridge walkway of memories”, is a moving testimony to those who came. Unfortunately, it is currently closed as a side effect of the Tilbury to Gravesend ferry ceasing to operate for the first time in nearly 600 years, something my hon. Friend the Member for Gravesham (Dr Sullivan) and I are determined to rectify.
Further down the river, we can find the Purfleet heritage centre which, among its extensive collection of local military memorabilia, also hosts an exhibition honouring the contribution of the Gurkha regiments to our armed forces, reflecting the significant Gurkha and Nepalese community who have chosen to make Thurrock their home. The museum is well worth a visit, although I would take with a pinch of salt anything one of the volunteer guides says about the etymology of Purfleet and its deriving from an exclamation of Elizabeth I, “My poor fleet”.
The towns of Tilbury and Purfleet are just two of the many that make up Thurrock. Aveley, Ockendon, Stifford Clays and Chafford Hundred all have their stories to tell. One reason I am so pleased to be making my maiden speech today as part of the debate on the Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill is that one of the uniting factors of all of these towns is the role they play as key commuter locations for jobs in the City of London and the docklands—journeys that are primarily made using the rail network. The public ownership of our railways, delivering a better service and better value for taxpayers’ money, will make a daily difference to the lives of many of my constituents, and, indeed, to many of my friends and family.
I would not be here without the support of many people, but in particular my family: my children, my mum and dad, my husband Ali—a stronger or kinder partner you would struggle to find—and my in-laws Mike and Sue. It really does take a village.
I would like to share my own personal story about my motivation for being here, beyond the love of my community and my desire to serve. Almost seven years ago, I found out that the baby I was carrying had Down’s syndrome—a rug-pulling, life-altering moment which I did not realise, but wish I had, would be the making of my family and the start of a truly incredible journey. As the actress Sally Phillips says, the special educational needs and disabilities parent club is the one no one wants to be in, but once you are there you realise that all the best people are there. However, the world does not work for families like mine. It does not work for children like mine, and it does not work for people like me and my daughter. When I received her diagnosis, I made her a promise that I would do everything I could to make her life easier. Little did I realise that it would lead me here.
I am here to serve my community, to speak up for the home that I love and the people who live there. If by being here I can make a difference to the lives of children and families such as mine, I will consider it a job well done, however long my constituents may opt to keep me.
Jonathan Hinder (Pendle and Clitheroe) (Lab)
I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock (Jen Craft) on her maiden speech. I am not sure I can compete with one that ranged from Essex girls to Elizabeth I, but I will do my best.
It is an incredible honour to stand here today as the newly elected Member of Parliament for Pendle and Clitheroe, where I grew up; the place that made me. As the Member for a significantly redrawn constituency, I want to begin by paying tribute to both my predecessors, Andrew Stephenson on the Pendle side and Nigel Evans on the Clitheroe side. Andrew Stephenson, most recently a Health Minister following a number of other Government roles, was a widely respected constituency MP who worked hard for Pendle for 14 years. Nigel Evans was a parliamentarian for 32 years who loved working in this place. He served as its Deputy Speaker in two spells, and brought great distinction to his role. I wish them both well for the future.
I also want to pay tribute to two of my Labour predecessors, Gordon Prentice and Sydney Silverman. Gordon was the Labour MP for Pendle from 1992 to 2010; he was a principled, independent-minded MP, whose work on “right to roam” legislation improved access to our countryside for all. Sydney Silverman, MP for the predecessor seat of Nelson and Colne for 33 years, stands as a true giant of parliamentary history for his leadership in the campaign to abolish capital punishment. It is an honour to follow in the footsteps of two men who fought so passionately for justice and human dignity.
Pendle and Clitheroe is an area that has a rich history, stunning natural beauty, and a strong sense of community spirit. From Barnoldswick, Barrowford, Clitheroe, Colne, Earby, Nelson, and Whalley to our villages that stretch to the edges of the Ribble Valley, the Pennines and the Yorkshire Dales, every part of the constituency has its own unique identity. At its centre stands Pendle Hill, a landmark that unites us, dominating the landscape on both sides of this new constituency. Pendle Hill is not just famous for its witch trials, though they often steal the spotlight. It has also been a source of inspiration for radicals and non-conformists who have left their mark on history. It was on Pendle Hill that George Fox experienced the vision that led to the founding of the Quakers.
We can also claim Katharine Bruce Glasier, a formidable Christian socialist and founding member of the Independent Labour party, who lived in Earby and championed the rights of working people. Then there is Selina Cooper, a hero of the suffrage movement, who emerged from working in the mills from the age of 12 to lead the charge for women’s rights.
Pendle was a powerhouse of the industrial revolution, driven by its iconic cotton mills, and the same grit and ingenuity that saw our mills thrive continues today in world-class engineering firms such as Hope Technology. Its track bikes, designed and manufactured in Barnoldswick, were ridden by Team GB to break a world record three times and secure a gold medal at this year’s Olympic games.
But while we celebrate our past and present achievements, we must face the challenges of today. Pendle has the highest rate of child poverty in the entire country, so I will be focused on the material needs of ordinary people in my constituency: reducing the cost of living, rebuilding our public services, revitalising our high streets and supporting our local businesses to create good, meaningful jobs. I will champion our local farmers so that we can boost food security and sustain the rural economy that forms an important part of my constituency.
I want to touch on my background as a former police inspector. We saw the best of British policing just a few weeks ago. In the face of violent disorder aimed directly at them, our officers showed great courage, professionalism and restraint. They worked long, hot shifts in full riot gear—many on their cancelled days off—with thousands of other officers redeployed at a moment’s notice to plug the gaps in day-to-day policing. I want to express my deepest gratitude to Lancashire police, and to thousands of my former colleagues nationwide, for their service to our country. Where others seem intent on undermining our police, I look forward to being an outspoken advocate for policing in Parliament.
The demands on policing have grown dramatically in recent decades, with increased reporting of domestic abuse, sexual offences and fraud, while policing has also felt the strain of other public services that have been run down and are not fit for purpose: the criminal justice system, mental health services and children’s care. As we rebuild our public services—and we will—we need to simplify the policing mission, which has become blurred and, frankly, too broad. Let us decide what we really want from our police, which means deciding what we do not want our police to do, and where policing stops and other public services are better placed to step in. If we can provide that clarity of purpose for our officers, we can create a better police service that is more focused on preventing and investigating crime.
I am delighted to be making my maiden speech during a debate on taking the railways into public ownership, and I commend my right hon. Friend the Transport Secretary for the speed with which she has set to work in her new office. But on the subject of speed, in my constituency, the Clitheroe to Manchester train takes an hour and 20 minutes to travel a mere 30 miles. The Colne to Preston train takes an hour and 15 minutes to travel just 25 miles. Both offer one diesel train per hour, and they are totally unreliable.
While public ownership is by no means a cure-all, this Bill is a crucial first step in creating a reliable, well-integrated railway that serves every part of our country. Regional inequality in our country is stark, and we need serious investment in infrastructure, such as by reinstating the short rail link between Colne in Lancashire and Skipton in Yorkshire, if we are to see small towns in the north of England thrive and prosper. I believe that public services should be in public ownership, and the railways are no different, so I am delighted to support this Bill.
In conclusion, let me finish by saying to every one of my constituents in Pendle and Clitheroe: whether you voted for me or not, I will be your champion. I will fight for you. It is my privilege to serve you.
The First Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means (Judith Cummins)
I call David Smith to make his maiden speech.
David Smith (North Northumberland) (Lab)
Thank you, Madam Chair. It is a real honour and privilege to be able to make my maiden speech today, as the House debates the role of our railways. Before I continue, I must give credit to all those who have given their maiden speeches today. It is quite a daunting prospect to follow them all. I must comment on a few of the amazing journeys that have brought people here. I think of my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield Central (Abtisam Mohamed) and the hon. Member for Lagan Valley (Sorcha Eastwood); it was quite inspiring to hear their stories. I must also comment on the speech of the hon. Member for South West Devon (Rebecca Smith), as we are mutual friends of Sir Gary Streeter. It must have been quite a sight to see him do the loco-motion all those years ago.
It is of special importance to me to talk in the debate today on the role of our railways. The east coast main line goes right through my constituency. In fact, I think about half of it does, because we are the third largest constituency in England, with stations in Morpeth, Alnmouth and Berwick. Today we are debating the Government’s plans, over time, to put the railways back into public ownership, or as some might say, into public service. That is really what I want to address today—the idea and ideals of public service. All of us are here to serve the public, but we can only serve here because of the people who have gone before us, the people who support us, and of course the people who vote for us. So first, my thanks must go to the people of North Northumberland, including those who voted Labour for the first time. Indeed, whether they voted for me or not, I will serve them to the best of my ability.
My thanks also go to my family—first and foremost my wife, daughter and son, who are my bedrock and whose patience with me is frankly astonishing, but also to the generations that have gone before. When I think about public service, I think of my grandparents’ world war two generation. We have already heard about Monte Cassino a couple of times. Well, my grandfather fought at Monte Cassino, El Alamein and elsewhere, and it would have been beyond his wildest dreams that his grandson would one day be standing here.
Speaking of those who have gone before in public service, I must recognise the great work of my predecessors as Members of Parliament for what is now North Northumberland. First, those two political peas in a pod, the right hon. former Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, and my hon. Friend the former Member for Wansbeck, now the Member for Blyth and Ashington (Ian Lavery). As a former miner and engineer, my hon. Friend will have a great interest in the success of the railways, and he has also served his constituents with great distinction and tenacity for many years now. Anne-Marie Trevelyan’s public service included many significant roles in government, including Secretary of State for Transport, and I would like to thank her for her graciousness in the handover of the constituency casework. I must also mention Lord Beith. Although he retired from this place in 2015, he is still held in very high regard in Northumberland for his nearly 42 years of service. If I can earn just a small portion of the respect that he garnered, I will consider myself fortunate.
So now I pick up the baton, and I confess that one of the first things I checked, with a name as distinctive as my own, was whether I was the only David Smith MP elected on 4 July. Imagine my surprise and disappointment, then, when on the following day I received a congratulatory email from a Labour Member of Parliament called David Smith. Thankfully, that particular David Smith MP is a member of the Australian Parliament. I am, for now at least, the only David Smith in this place.
It is a convention for Members to try and mention every settlement in their constituency when giving their maiden speech. I have mentioned that mine is the third largest in England, so that may be a challenge. It is also traditional for Members of this place to make competing claims about how theirs is the most beautiful constituency in the land, so I am pleased to be able to put that debate to bed. Surely it is a certainty that the land of Bamburgh and Warkworth castles, of Druridge bay and Holy Island, of Rothbury, Wooler and the Cheviot hills and of the historic county towns of Berwick, Alnwick and Morpeth is the most beautiful in England. The number of Members who have holidayed in my constituency seems to confirm my conclusion. I am sure that those who have travelled on the east coast main line through my constituency, along our magnificent coastline, will do so again.
Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Bill
Judith Cummins ExcerptsMonday 29th July 2024
(4 months, 3 weeks ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Act 2024 View all Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Act 2024 Debates Read Hansard Text Watch Debate Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Mr Gideon Amos (Taunton and Wellington) (LD)
I rise to give my maiden speech. I congratulate you, Mr Speaker, on your position and the Transport Secretary and the Front-Bench team on their positions.
It is a privilege and a pleasure to follow the maiden speeches that we have just heard, including by the hon. Member for Hertford and Stortford (Josh Dean), who, along with my hon. Friend the Member for Eastbourne (Josh Babarinde), significantly increases the Josh quotient in the House. If I contribute nothing else, I clearly increase the Gideon quotient by the massive number of one new Member of Parliament. I also thank the hon. Member for South Ribble (Mr Foster), whose public service has been enduring. He has had my congratulations on that already. Their speeches will be a hard act to follow, but I have the advantage of representing Taunton and Wellington, so it should not be too much of a problem.
I give credit to the former Conservative Member for Taunton Deane, Rebecca Pow, who will, I am sure, continue her enthusiasm for gardening and wildlife. She was, of course, a Minister with responsibility for water and for our rivers. I am partial to a dip in the river from time to time, so I was pleased to successfully apply for bathing water status for a stretch of the Tone in Taunton to get the improvement in water quality that we desperately need in our rivers down in Taunton. The River Tone is the silver thread that joins Wellington to Taunton to the levels, close to where the famous cakes were burned near the King Alfred Inn at Burrowbridge.
I also pay tribute to the former Liberal Democrat MP Jeremy Browne, the Member of Parliament for Taunton Deane from 2005 to 2015. He served as a Home Office and a Foreign Office Minister, and remains incredibly well liked in the constituency. He was the first Member to propose a new railway station for Wellington, and I am delighted to have had the Chancellor’s assurance in the previous debate that that project will go ahead. I am the eighth Liberal to represent Taunton in Parliament since some guy named Disraeli was defeated by the first one in the 1835 general election. Of course, nothing further was heard of him—at least not in Taunton.
Taunton’s parliamentary tradition is very deep-rooted. As a county town with a castle, which today proudly houses the Castle hotel and the superb Museum of Somerset supported by our dynamic town council, its parliamentarians held out in siege after siege. Today, the hard work of so many people in Taunton at the Brewhouse theatre, the Southern Sinfonia, the Bluebirds Theatre Company, the Tacchi-Morris, the Willows and Wetlands visitor centre, the Creative Innovation Centre, Arts Taunton, GoCreate Taunton, groups such as Amici and Voce, and the Bradford Players—I have many more—the Taunton Thespians and the @2K Theatre; and in Wellington at the Arts Centre, the Wellesley Theatre, the operatic society, and the Gaumont theatre, which once played host to the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and is now home to the bingo, all comes together to mean that not only do we have a Mecca, but our area is a cultural mecca to which people come from far and wide.
Then, of course, there is the magnificent Somerset county ground, graced by the towers of St James and the minster, where I married Caroline just 28 short years ago. I thank her and our children, Emily, Fraser and Fenner and Felix, from the bottom of my heart for their support. Our schools from North Town and Minerva to Bishop Fox’s, Court Fields, Castle, Pyrland, Selworthy and Monkton Wood feed into our nationally renowned Richard Huish College, Bridgwater & Taunton College and University Centre Somerset, which now offers degrees like nursing, in support of the superb staff at Musgrove Park hospital. Funding is urgently needed for the hospital’s new maternity unit, because buckets are currently used to catch the rain in the corridors of a building built for the US army—as a temporary building—in 1940.
Similarly, King’s and Queen’s, Taunton and Wellington’s independent schools, make a massive contribution to our area’s local economy. We also have a successful home education community that inspires an innovative generation of young people. To all our area’s children, I say: “Be yourself. If your name is Gideon, for example, there’s no need to change it to get elected to Parliament.” That is something I once tried to discuss with the former Member for Tatton. I confess that it has taken me a little time to get to this Chamber—if I had not had to deliver all those bibles to hotels, I would have got here a lot quicker.
All those institutions, together with the UK Hydrographic Office, make Taunton the ideal location for new research and innovation entrepreneurs. It is only 104 minutes from Paddington, so they should all come and enjoy the amazing quality of life that we offer. When they come to Taunton, they will find a ticket office at the station that is still working. I was amazed to hear the right hon. Member for Aldridge-Brownhills (Wendy Morton) apparently still advocating the closure of ticket offices—a policy about which I can say only “good luck”. To encourage people to come to Wellington, I look forward to working hard on the Wellington station project that I mentioned earlier.
I invite the right hon. Lady the Transport Secretary, and the Under-Secretary of State for Transport, the hon. Member for Wakefield and Rothwell (Simon Lightwood), to visit the project. On their visit, I hope that they will enjoy a glass of famous Sheppy’s or Taunton cider—or, to pronounce it correctly for Hansard, zyder—at the Ring of Bells, the Green Dragon or the Pump House in Tonedale, in a Rocket and Bird glass with some Somerdale cheese and perhaps some Bumblee’s relish, followed by a meal at Guddi and Gikki, Maliha and Taj, the Little Wine Shop or Augustus. They are ideal for planning visits to key organisations in the constituency, like WPA, Pritex or indeed the 40 Commando Royal Marines at Norton Manor camp.
I was delighted to support the Royal Marines, with the help of former Royal Marine Paddy Ashdown—raising an ultimately successful petition to gain a U-turn on the previous Government’s shocking proposal to close down the entire facility. In his maiden speech the other day, my hon. Friend the Member for Tewkesbury (Cameron Thomas), drew attention to the huge sacrifice that previous generations made so that we are all free to sit in this Chamber today. My service in the Territorial Army was pretty minimal, but my father, FJC “Jim” Amos CBE, and my mother, Geraldine Amos MBE, both served in world war two, following their fathers who served in the trenches. I remember discussing it with them all.
When I was growing up, hon. Members will not be surprised to hear that the atmosphere and the memories of war loomed large in discussions around meal tables. Is it not that generation’s courage and bravery, not only in rebuilding Britain but in defeating fascism in the first place, that demand our respect? They demand that we do everything we can to defend the liberal and democratic values that make this country so great. Their bravery surely also demands that all hon. Members, on both sides of the House, always say no to those who would stir up division, despair and hatred for nothing more than votes, because they have nothing positive to offer people.
It is the greatest privilege of my life to serve the residents of Taunton and Wellington—from Hatch Beauchamp, Helland and North Curry in the east to Whiteball, West Buckland, and Sampfords Moor and Arundel in the west; and from Bishopswood, Churchinford and Stoke St Mary in the south to Pickney, West Monckton and Kingston St Mary in the north—in this House. I am here to do one thing: work for them and stand up for them to those in power whenever that is the right thing to do. I thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for the opportunity to begin that duty today.
Siân Berry (Brighton Pavilion) (Green)
I thank all the Members who have given their maiden speeches. It was moving to hear all of them, particularly the hon. Member for Hertford and Stortford (Josh Dean). I am making a note of everybody who mentions youth services, and he did some very good advocacy: he is on my list.
It is great to be speaking on my first Bill in the House, and that it is a Bill that brings passenger railway services back into public hands. The fact that this measure made it through the dramatic sift of Labour policy that took place before the election, and is among the first and most urgent pieces of new legislation we are looking at, is I believe in no small way due to the Secretary of State’s own commitments to this policy and her dedicated internal advocacy for it. I wish that more of her colleagues had been so willing and determined to push for similar Bills to bring other privatised services such as water and the big six energy companies into public hands, but that does not diminish my delight this evening. I recently mentioned to her how much I was looking forward to scrutinising and where necessary helping to improve other upcoming Bills under her remit, including the buses Bill and the more detailed railways Bill. This is all great work.
As far as this Bill’s key principle is concerned, the Secretary of State will have noticed that public ownership is popular with me and is popular with the people. In 2024, that principle is supported for the railways by 76% of the public. That support has risen steadily for the past decade; it was even backed before the election by 60% of those intending to vote Conservative.
Bringing the railways back into public hands has been in my party’s programme for as long as I can remember. It is also close to the hearts of my constituents in Brighton Pavilion, for whom the legacy of the failed policy of privatisation is one of poor services, inefficiencies and very high costs for passengers. An annual season ticket between Brighton and London currently costs my constituents the best part of £6,000. That cost has risen by approximately 40% in the past 10 years—far more than wages in Brighton have risen. In the face of service cuts and failure to invest, passengers have had to form local pressure groups such as the Preston Park Train Campaign to save services. In so many stations, understaffing and disabled access remain dreadful, creating appalling discrimination against passengers—and don’t get me started on toilet provision.
I am not just here to praise the Bill or celebrate its principle. I do have some questions and comments—all to be constructively taken, I hope. The Bill is very short and very simple, and I wonder whether it could benefit from some additional detail and a wider scope. I will keep my comments brief at this stage, but on each point I would welcome more detail from the Secretary of State on her thinking. I also request a meeting with her to discuss the issues before Committee of the whole House.
First, I want to talk about the exceptions from the Bill. From the information I have, it appears that the Bill will not bring into public ownership the regional services currently let by concession contracts, including the Elizabeth line, Mersey Rail and the London Overground, or any of the services on open-access routes, including Eurostar, Grand Central, Heathrow Express, Hull Trains and Lumo. For passengers, hearing the Government promise to bring private operators into public hands, but then hearing that a service they use will be excluded, will be a disappointment. I hope we will hear more soon about how those gaps will be filled.
Also out of scope, as the Bill’s title indicates, are rail freight services. The public might have expected those private operators to be among the first for action, especially as getting freight off the roads and on to rail has so many benefits in addressing road danger, congestion and climate emissions.
Another exception from this Bill to bring passenger railways back into public hands is the rolling stock companies. Quite honestly, most members of the public do not have much awareness of it, but the rolling stock in which we travel is another public asset that is worthy of public investment and should not be held merely for private rent and profit by companies that add no real value to the service. At the very least, the Bill could have included a prohibition on new arrangements of that kind.
Finally, I feel that there is a potential gap in the Government’s plans around rail devolution. The Bill’s definition of “public sector company” will allow franchises to pass only to companies wholly owned by the Secretary of State or her counterparts in Wales and Scotland, not to those owned by other elected bodies whose remit includes, or might in future include, managing transport in an integrated way within an area of the country. I am very interested in further exploring the Secretary of State’s thinking on that, because a Green principle close to my heart is subsidiarity: making sure that ownership and power are devolved to the lowest and most practical level.
In the case of integrated, multimodal transport planning and investment, particularly for day-to-day travel, the best level is often a regional or sub-regional travel-to-work area. At that level of planning, sustainable travel across different modes can be linked up in a responsive network with convenient interchanges, rational timetables and shared ticketing across modes. Profitable commuter routes on a railway might also directly help to cut car dependency in isolated villages by subsidising essential connectivity by bus, for example.
This kind of transport planning is best done alongside and in tandem with planning for new homes and businesses, for which the right scale is also a regional or sub-regional area, working with the involvement of local authorities, people and workplaces. Like many people, I am slightly concerned about the centralising tendency that we can detect in a range of recent actions from the leadership of our new Government; I hope that it will not dominate transport and planning policies in this House. If the Secretary of State agrees to meet me as requested, I will be very interested to hear more about how she expects the upcoming devolution Bill to interact with this Bill and with the future railways Bill in respect of her plans for how centralised the future planning, management and ownership of transport as a whole will be.
Admittedly, the places in England where this kind of devolution applies, and where rail franchises might sensibly pass to companies owned by cities and regions in the near future, are currently very few. However, when we have franchises serving nearby metro mayor areas, such as TransPennine Express and Northern, which are already under the wing of the Department for Transport; when the Mayor of London already has his sights firmly set on taking over specific services; and when there might, as I hope, be greater devolution of powers to combined authorities and areas in the south-east region and Sussex, where I now represent many people dependent on rail services, it does seem strange to introduce a Bill that appears to need amendment to rule in such an exciting prospect. When the Government are about to give more powers to local authorities to run buses, it also seems strange not to help them to work together to run suitable railways. Will the Secretary of State explain what plans there are to better link up railways and bus services? Will she discuss them with me before Committee?
Those are all my comments and questions. I am very much looking forward to the future, and I am looking to help build the best future we can from this new and refreshing approach of public ownership. I reiterate how pleased I am to be making such a speech, rather than one bitterly complaining about a Government who have completely the wrong idea; I hope that my questions and cautions will be taken in that spirit.
Jon Pearce (High Peak) (Lab)
Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, and congratulations on your elevation. I congratulate all today’s maiden speakers, and particularly my hon. Friend the Member for Stevenage (Kevin Bonavia). Stevenage is very lucky to have such a fine advocate. He is an impossible act to follow—perhaps I am like Kula Shaker coming on after Oasis in 1996—but I will do my best.
I assure you that I will be brief, Madam Deputy Speaker. The best advice I had in prepping for this was from a good friend who said, “No matter how good a speech is, no one has ever said, ‘I wish that had been longer.’” [Hon. Members: “More!”] Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to make my maiden speech on a Bill that is so important for my constituents in High Peak, for the country and for me personally.
When I was young, my father worked on British Rail as a storeman. The stores were vast warehouses teeming with workers in train manufacturing and maintenance. The privatisation of Britain’s railways by John Major’s Government resulted in thousands of job losses. Between 1990 and 1997, the number of rail workers in this country decreased from a quarter of a million to 130,000. Those are not just numbers; they are real lives, like those of my dad’s friends and workmates. The fear that my dad would be next, and about what that would mean for my family, was an unwelcome guest that lingered far too long in our house. Childhood experiences like that never leave you.
The dignity and opportunity of a secure, well-paid job must be the foundation on which we deliver the economic growth that High Peak and Britain need. I look forward to using my experience as an employment lawyer to help us to deliver a new deal for working people.
Were the pain and the sacrifices made by the families affected by the privatisation of our railways worth it? Did privatisation deliver the competition, the greater efficiencies and the better railway services that it promised? The commuters in Glossop, New Mills, Whaley Bridge, Chapel and Buxton will tell you with barely a dissenting voice, “No.” Frequent delays, cancellations and overcrowding have become the norm, while rail fares have increased by more than 40% in real terms, meaning that passengers in Britain face some of the highest fares in Europe. Rail privatisation means pay more, get less.
Research suggests that every pound invested in public transport generates £4 in economic benefits. Since privatisation, too many of those pounds have been going into shareholder pockets and not into improving services for passengers. In 2022-23 alone, the rolling stock companies paid out more than £400 million to their shareholders. That injustice is not fair on my constituents in High Peak, and it is holding back our economy.
High Peak should be the best place to live in the country. We have: strong communities; a rich history of tourism dating back 2,000 years to when the Romans developed the first spa around the warm water spring that still bubbles under Buxton to this day; a rich history in the arts, being home to both Vivienne Westwood and Hilary Mantel; and a rich history in delivering access to nature, being the setting for the mass trespass and Britain’s first national park, the Peak District.
High Peak is the most beautiful constituency in the country. [Interruption.] I am sensing maybe a few murmurings. I have read my brief, and I respect the importance of being accurate, so while writing this speech, I put down my pen and took a moment to gaze out of my window. With the vista of Hope valley in the foreground and the majesty of the tors beyond, I feel comfortable in reaffirming that High Peak is truly without equal.
Sadly, despite our beauty—that is High Peak’s, not my own—we are all too often overlooked. At the northernmost point of Derbyshire, not quite in Greater Manchester, and just on the edge of South Yorkshire, we have been no one’s priority for too long. No more. It is high time that High Peak got its fair share—our fair share of economic growth, our fair share of better public services and our fair share of investment. Integrated transport through Great British Railways, taking back control of our buses and building the Mottram bypass—the latter of which I commend my predecessor Robert Largan on championing—have the potential to be the catalyst, moving High Peak from the edge of everywhere to the economic centre, connecting the two core northern cities of Manchester and Sheffield. That is how we will deliver High Peak its future back, attract business investment, encourage tourism and restore pride in our towns again. That future starts where my story began, with the railways back in public ownership.
Claire Young (Thornbury and Yate) (LD)
Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for this opportunity to make my maiden speech. May I congratulate you on your recent election? I also congratulate all those who have made maiden speeches today, particularly the hon. Member for High Peak (Jon Pearce), who spoke so passionately about the beauty of his constituency and the childhood experiences that he brings to this House.
I am honoured to have been elected by the people of Thornbury and Yate to be their voice and champion here in Parliament. Ours is a beautiful and hugely varied rural constituency, with the towns of Thornbury, Yate and Chipping Sodbury and many villages, stretching from Hill, Falfield and Charfield in the north to Bridge Yate, Siston and Wick in the south. To the east is the Cotswold escarpment, part of a designated national landscape. To the west is the Severn estuary, a Ramsar wetland of international importance and formerly home to the Aust ferry, made famous by Bob Dylan.
There is much worth visiting locally, from historic attractions such as Dyrham Park and Acton Court, to the more modern. Bristol Zoo Project carries out important international conservation work, while not far away—I hesitate to mention this, when my leader, my right hon. Friend the Member for Kingston and Surbiton (Ed Davey) might be listening—there is an artificial inland surfing lake called the Wave.
There is a real history of innovation locally, although sadly my own parish of Frampton Cotterell’s claim to the invention of the Stetson hat appears to be little more than an urban legend. However, we can be proud that the pioneer of vaccination, Edward Jenner, started his medical training in Chipping Sodbury. Nowadays, many of my constituents work in cutting-edge industries in our region, such as aerospace. With a background in maths and software engineering, I take a keen interest in seeing those industries flourish, and I want to ensure that our young people can benefit from the opportunities they bring.
My constituency is of course more than its landscape and history; it is the people who live there and their fantastic community spirit. I saw that in my own village during the pandemic, when hundreds of volunteers rallied to help others. Whether it is the big lunch in Chipping Sodbury, the Yate Ageing Better festival, Thornbury carnival or any myriad other events and groups, they all contribute to making the constituency a wonderful place to live.
I thank my predecessor Luke Hall, who served Thornbury and Yate for nine years, during which time he championed neonatal care leave and held posts in the Department for Education and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. I wish him and his family all the best for the future. I also thank his predecessor, the former Pensions Minister Sir Steve Webb, who has been a great source of wisdom for me and is fondly remembered by many constituents. He set a very high bar for all his successors, and I will do my best to meet it. While I am thanking people, I put on record my gratitude to Councillor Maggie Tyrrell, who has recently succeeded me as the leader of South Gloucestershire council. I know that the council is in safe hands as I bring that experience to this place.
I am grateful for the opportunity to make this speech in this important debate, because if we are to tackle the climate crisis and cut congestion on our roads, we must get rail services back on track to give people genuine alternatives to get around effectively. There are currently three railway stations in my constituency. Yate station was reopened in the 1980s, and we desperately need the proposed redevelopment. I will also be seeking to ensure that the funding for half-hourly services is extended beyond the current end date of 2026. That will benefit not only Yate, but provide an hourly train for the new station planned at Charfield.
The station at Pilning is a parliamentary station, with just one train running a week to avoid formally closing it. Its location, near the growing industrial location of Severnside, means that if properly reopened, it is prime placed to help the many workers who travel from south Wales to make the trip without a car. The third station is Severn Beach. Once a seaside resort, the line now serves commuters. However, commuters can be left disappointed by flooding on the line, as well as the fact that the service is not more frequent. Rail campaigners are also keen to see other stations reopened, such as Coalpit Heath and Thornbury, but for that to be possible, we need national investment in Westerleigh junction to increase capacity and unlock this potential. I hope that the Secretary of State will commit to making that part of the integrated infrastructure review that was referenced earlier.
As my hon. Friend the Member for Bath (Wera Hobhouse) said, ultimately passengers are not interested in who runs the trains; they simply want them to run on time and for the tickets to be affordable. Given the continued squeeze on people’s finances, we need an immediate freeze on rail fares and our fragmented ticketing system needs simplifying to cut costs for commuters. We also need to think about integration with other forms of public transport. In my constituency, we have seen serious cuts to local bus services, with many villages left with no regular buses at all. My aim in this place will be to champion the rights of people to have affordable and green methods of transport, whether they live in rural or urban areas.
In conclusion, I promise to work tirelessly for my constituents, not only on fixing our railways, but on other issues too, such as the fact that our schools are among the lowest funded in the country and that it is almost impossible to register with an NHS dentist locally. I look forward to working constructively with right hon. and hon. Members across the House to address these problems and ensure that the people of Thornbury and Yate get the fair deal they deserve.
Madam Deputy Speaker (Judith Cummins)
I call Gurinder Josan to make his maiden speech.
Olly Glover (Didcot and Wantage) (LD)
I congratulate you on your election to the Chair, Madam Deputy Speaker. I also congratulate the Secretary of State for Transport and her colleagues on their appointments, and I wish them all the best.
I will start by giving the House a commitment that I will not make any laboured or tedious comments about curly British Rail sandwiches. I welcome the fact that the new Government are giving legislative time to transport at this early stage, given that it is a vital policy area that is often neglected—some might even consider it a Cinderella topic for this House. It is a positive contrast to the previous Conservative Government, who presided over industrial relations chaos, utterly incomprehensible contract extensions for failing train operators such as Avanti West Coast—which many Members have been plagued by—and CrossCountry, and a lack of any meaningful fares or industry reform.
I am one of few Members of this House to arrive here following a career on the railways. I pay tribute to the hon. Member for Smethwick (Gurinder Josan), and I commend him for his excellent speech praising the diversity of his seat. I have had the privilege of visiting Soho train maintenance depot during my career on the railways in the west midlands. I would like to give some insights from my professional experience working both for state-owned Network Rail and private sector train operating companies.
It is important for everyone in this debate to remember that nearly all the infrastructure and the operation of a third of all daily train services are already publicly owned. The previous Labour Government rightly took action following the safety and financial failures of private sector Railtrack by creating Network Rail in 2002, which was quickly able to tackle safety and performance issues. However, my experience of two stints working at Network Rail for a total of 10 years is that, as a very large, publicly owned organisation, at times, silo working and bureaucracy can be barriers to achieving results.
Some of the issues facing Network Rail either in or near my constituency include infrastructure reliability problems on the great western main line, severely overrunning engineering works affecting the Botley Road and many local residents in Oxford, and a very long construction processing for Reading Green Park station. It is important to note that being in the public sector does not inherently make everything better. In the privatised train operating companies that I worked for, some of the main barriers to progress were the result not so much of them being private sector, but the lack of incentive to invest due to short franchise or contract terms, and micromanagement by the Department for Transport and the Treasury.
In September 2013, I joined London Midland—a train operator that notionally was in the last year of its franchise. That meant that key investment decisions were deferred, such as on-train wi-fi, timetable improvements and car park enhancements. It felt as if I was caught in a “Star Trek”-style temporal paradox, since when I left London Midland in May 2017 it was still in the last year of its franchise, as no decisions had been made about the franchising process. That is an example of how the potential private sector benefit to the railway has often not been realised because of the flawed approach to franchising, rather than the nature of the private sector.
There are examples of positive private sector contributions, perhaps the most significant of which is the benefit of Chiltern Railways’ 20-year franchise, which saw investment in new stations at Warwick Parkway and the Evergreen upgrade of the Chiltern main line, both of which delivered significant passenger benefits and were genuinely heavily funded by the private sector. Had we had more long-term franchises like that, things might be very different today.
The Bill will not tackle the issue of trains being owned privately and leased back, often increasing the whole cost to operators. The current leasing arrangements can also create perverse incentives on rolling stock retention as a result of cliff edges imposed by lease durations and renewal dates. This has created shortages of capacity on a number of parts of the network in recent years, as short-term financial decisions have been taken to avoid rolling stock lease extensions—for example, on Southern with class 455 trains and Great Northern with class 365 trains.
Government plans to leave freight and open access operators in private hands may indicate inconsistency with the view that the private sector cannot deliver good services. Most seriously, the state versus private sector debate does nothing to tackle the lack of clear vision for what the Government want the railway to achieve or deliver. As other Members have said, fares continue to be complicated and often expensive. There is a lack of integrated timetables within the railway and with other transport modes, and the role of the Office of Rail and Road regulator needs examination.
I am therefore pleased that the new Government have further plans that I hope will address those points. I implore them to move beyond the public versus private debate and focus on what current and prospective rail users need. Doing so will be crucial to achieving a real focus on customer service, which is needed to grow patronage and achieve modal shift, so that the railway can thrive as part of a wider, sustainable and efficient transport system.
Madam Deputy Speaker (Judith Cummins)
I call Laurence Turner to make his maiden speech.
Laurence Turner (Birmingham Northfield) (Lab)
Congratulations on your election, Madam Deputy Speaker. It is a privilege to follow so many excellent maiden speeches this evening, including from my hon. Friends the Members for Hertford and Stortford (Josh Dean), for South Ribble (Mr Foster), for Stevenage (Kevin Bonavia), for Smethwick (Gurinder Josan) and for High Peak (Jon Pearce), and the hon. Members for Thornbury and Yate (Claire Young), for Taunton and Wellington (Mr Amos) and for Brighton Pavilion (Siân Berry). I apologise if I have missed any. They were a tribute to the wealth of talent and experience in this Parliament.
I am grateful for the opportunity to make my first speech in support of this Bill, which will hopefully lay the permanent way to better value for taxpayers and better passenger services. Transport has sometimes been seen in this place as an unfashionable Department—a stopping-off point for ambitious politicians on the way up, and occasionally on the way down—but it is clear that this attitude is not held by this Front Bench team or this new Government. There is, however, some historical basis for that view. When Barbara Castle was appointed Transport Minister, Harold Wilson told her:
“Your job is to produce the integrated transport policy we promised in our manifesto. I could work something out myself given half an hour.”
When Nicholas Ridley told Margaret Thatcher that he wanted to privatise the railways, she responded:
“Railway privatisation will be the Waterloo of this government. Never mention the railways to me again.”
Down the years, hon. Members on the Conservative Benches must have privately wished that Mrs Thatcher’s view had been taken to heart by those who came after. In fact, given the previous Government’s record of reclassifying Network Rail into the public sector, abandoning the traditional franchising model and nationalising a quarter of passenger services, I half expected to see Conservative Members joining Labour tonight in support of the Bill.
It was a privilege to work as staff in the shadow Transport team during some of those long years in opposition. May I take this opportunity to say how welcome it is to see the Under-Secretary of State for Transport, my hon. Friend the Member for Nottingham South (Lilian Greenwood) in her place? She brings real expertise to the role from her time as Chair of the Transport Committee and in the shadow Transport team. She will be an outstanding Minister, and I am grateful for her support and guidance down the years.
Another Shadow Transport Minister in that team was Richard Burden, my Labour predecessor for Birmingham Northfield. Richard ably represented Northfield for 27 years. He is well remembered in this House for his boundless enthusiasm for the motor industry, and for his steadfast commitment to social justice, which has continued into what cannot be called a retirement, through his activism in pursuit of better local health services and support for the humanitarian cause in Palestine. His support meant a lot to me during the campaign, and I am sure his friends on both sides of the House extend their good wishes to him.
I also want to pay tribute to my immediate predecessor. In the space of just one Parliament, Gary Sambrook became well known locally and, through the 1922 Committee, in the Conservative party nationally. He and other candidates fought a campaign that was untouched by the disgraceful tactic of intimidation that was witnessed elsewhere in Birmingham and which must have no place in our public life. I am certain that this is not the end for Gary in Birmingham politics, and I wish him well.
To talk about Birmingham is to tell a tale of two cities. That is as true of the Northfield constituency as it is elsewhere. Pockets of relative affluence sit cheek by jowl with deprivation. The historic village centres of Kings Norton and Northfield lie a short distance from the new estates, like Weoley Castle, that were built to serve the needs of Birmingham’s growing economy. The fortunes of the constituency rise and fall with Birmingham, but the seat is also defined by its outer estates—New Frankley, Rubery and Allens Cross—which are distant and distinct from the city centre. All these communities face common challenges, including crime and antisocial behaviour, and the decline of the traditional high street. They have been hit hard by cuts to neighbourhood policing and by the decision last year to not proceed with the regeneration of Northfield’s high street. There is much to do.
For most of the constituency’s history it was best known for the Longbridge car plant, which also drew in workers from the surrounding areas of West Heath, Rednal and beyond. For 100 years, Longbridge paid handsomely into the national purse, and it was essential to our defence in times of crisis. During the second world war, Longbridge and its shadow factories produced many of the armaments and aircraft that kept our nation free. If the House will excuse a diversion, I am reminded at this point of my grandad’s story, often repeated with pride to us as children, about his time stationed at the air defences at Billeseley Common, when he—almost—fired a rocket at an encroaching German plane.
The site that began as the Austin works was an important part of our national life. At its peak, it employed some 25,000 people. Models from the Austin 7 to the Metro became part of our shared culture. It is hard to believe that next year will mark the 20th anniversary of Longbridge’s closure. That occasion must be marked appropriately in Birmingham and in Parliament. The site is now home to an ambitious redevelopment project and, importantly, some manufacturing jobs are returning, but travel just a short distance and the scars of that closure are still plain to see. The male employment rate remains a staggering 10 points lower than in Birmingham as a whole. Shamefully, average monthly wages are £300 lower in the constituency than they were in 2010, after inflation. The scourge of in-work poverty is never far away.
Today, my constituents are most likely to be employed in public services. I am proud to be the son of two teachers even if, sadly, the headquarters of the NASUWT, the Teachers’ Union, which my parents were members of for many years, is just over the border in the neighbouring constituency of Bromsgrove. There will be more to say—much more—in this Parliament about the funding and delivery of services in Birmingham. It is enough to say today that after 14 years of severe cuts, the second city is bleeding, and I welcome the statements that the new Government have made about the importance of putting local government funding on a sustainable footing.
The new Government’s plans to establish a fair pay agreement for adult social care, and to reinstate the school support staff negotiating body, will also make a real, material and long overdue difference to thousands of low-paid workers in the Northfield constituency, most of them women, who I was proud to help represent as an officer of the GMB union, and whose skills and professionalism have been undervalued for too long.
If I could achieve one thing in the time I have in this place, it would be to secure improvements to special educational needs and disabilities provision. It is a cause that is close to my heart: I was one of those children. I know what it means to have to fight to avoid being defined by other people’s low expectations. I know the stigma that is the mark of attitudes that are still common and from words that I will not repeat in this place. I wish that I could say otherwise, but it never leaves you. I know, too, that a child’s life can turn on access to an identification or a single decision about adjustments and resources—or even for the want of a few encouraging words. So if I speak for a moment in anger, it is because too many children and families in Birmingham and beyond face barriers that are higher now than they were 25 years ago, in breach of the promise that life for each generation will be better than the last. It is not enough to fight for people within a failing system; we have to change it. That is one of the causes I came to Parliament to advocate for, and I welcome the commitments on SEND made by the Education Secretary and the Prime Minister in the early days of this Parliament.
I would like to end by talking about family. Before me came generations of factory workers, electricians and shopkeepers, painters and polishers, cleaners and coachbuilders, jewellery makers and japanners—some escaping famine’s shadow—who were born in Birmingham or who came to call the city their home. In the last few weeks, I have thought about those I knew and those I did not, and what they might have said if they could have seen this day, just as the hard accumulated years of millions of working lives form the prologue to the new deal for working people and the history that this Labour Government will make. I have thought, too, about public service—about the challenge of proving to be equal to the task ahead and to the hopes of the people who trusted us to represent them in this place; Madam Deputy Speaker, I hope to be.
Graham Leadbitter (Moray West, Nairn and Strathspey) (SNP)
First, I will cover some of the maiden speeches that have been made by various new Members. I had the pleasure of doing mine in the King’s Speech debate, and I think we have had nine so far this evening—well done to everyone. I found it quite nerve-racking, and it is a bit easier speaking a second time. I will not mention all the names of Members’ constituencies—other people have done that—but the issues covered struck a chord with me. We heard from a former council leader, and I am a former council leader. National parks were mentioned, and I have a national park in my constituency. New stations were also mentioned, and I have one of them as well. Many things were covered in the maiden speeches—Bob Dylan and Knebworth particularly took my fancy, as I am a bit of a rocker.
To return to the subject at hand, two of the maiden speeches mentioned water quality. With a nationalised water company in Scotland, we have some of the best water quality in the UK and among the lowest number of leaks. It is also one of the lowest-cost water companies in the UK, which ties in neatly with rail nationalisation. I am sure that those on the Government Benches will be pleased to hear the SNP supports that, as we are proud of introducing it in Scotland two years ago. I am pleased to see a Government in place who want to go down that route, which is very positive.
In the past two years, we have seen punctuality and reliability improve. ScotRail is now fourth out of the 24 franchises on performance, with a significant reduction in serious delays and cancellations. I do not really understand the argument that has been given by some of those on the Conservative Benches, who say that nationalisation—as opposed to privatisation and private profits—is not the answer and might not deliver lower prices. One big benefit as a result of nationalisation is that we have been able to run a pilot on removing all peak fares across Scotland, which has been so successful that it has now been extended. I hope that we will be in a position to make that a permanent feature. It has been very well received and is a demonstration of how we can drive down fares in a public ownership model.
As I have said, I certainly welcome Labour’s following suit. My understanding from colleagues in the Scottish Government is that there has been really good communication between the two Governments, which is very welcome. I cannot imagine that the experience would have been perfect for colleagues in the Scottish Government—it had not been done before—but I hope that sharing what happened two years ago and in the interim will be helpful and that we can find common ground.
I hope that other proposed legislation will address one area that I have concerns about. At the moment, the Bill applies only to train operating companies, but the most profitable part of the system is the rolling stock leasing companies, which a couple of Members mentioned. They generate hundreds of millions of pounds of profit for the private sector and lead to soaring leasing costs, private investment and high prices. The rewards have been privatised but the risks have been put on the public purse. Some £1 billion was paid out in dividends during covid, with the bulk going to jurisdictions such as Luxembourg and Jersey.
That brings me to the point that the Chancellor made about tax avoidance and trying to increase the amount taken by His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. I have given an example of companies taking huge amounts of money out of the private sector and paying out those dividends in other jurisdictions. I would like to see that tackled, and I hope that the Minister will cover that in summing up.
I will say a final thing about public investment. We have managed to open up three new lines in Scotland: the Borders railway, the Levenmouth railway and the Alloa railway. We have opened numerous new stations and there is a huge amount of enthusiasm, as many Members will know. Few bodies are as enthusiastic as those involved in rail. I have two historic railways in my constituency. Many historic railways offer public services and would like to continue—or grow into—doing so in future. There is an opportunity to harness that enthusiasm and energy, but we need to shift the dial on capital investment in public infrastructure. I hope that is something the Government will tackle rapidly, because we need capital to make progress.
Apsana Begum (Poplar and Limehouse) (Ind)
I congratulate you on your election, Madam Deputy Speaker, and hon. Members on delivering their maiden speeches today. I thank you for calling me to speak in this important debate on the Bill, which is widely welcomed by rail trade unions and will ensure that train services will be brought under public ownership as private companies’ existing contracts expire.
Many of us have long campaigned for the renationalisation of our railways, so today marks a hopeful turning point for our transport system. Time and again, privatisation has proven to be a failed imposition that has resulted in fare increases, falling real wages, a declining quality of service, and crisis after crisis in timetabling. At the crux of the privatisation problem has been the pursuit of profit at the expense of the taxpayer, railway workers and passengers. The negative impact of privatisation is far-reaching, as non-profitable railway lines are discounted, fares are raised above affordability or service quality is compromised. It is no wonder that distrust of the railway industry is rife, and that there has been consistent, long-term consensus for an integrated, publicly owned railway.
Compared with privatised railways, a publicly owned railway does not need to be driven to maximise profits through cuts or price hikes. Instead, a publicly owned railway enables transparent costing and sustainable funding. It means public investment in rail services, and properly staffed trains and stations. It means investing in green transport, and creating green jobs that are both socially and economically sustainable. It also means—I say this as somebody who campaigned alongside the RMT against ticket office closures—ensuring accessibility and reflecting the needs of a diversity of rail users, including disabled people. And, yes, public rail investment will aid much-needed economic growth.
People are absolutely desperate for material change. This Government promised to deliver investment, public ownership and employment rights, and the Bill before the House today is a positive first step towards a fully integrated, publicly owned railway. Our railways exist to support us, and people, not profiteering, should be at the heart of our railways.
Matt Turmaine (Watford) (Lab)
Thank you very much, Madam Speaker, and congratulations on your election. I also thank my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Transport and her ministerial team for the opportunity to make my maiden speech as we debate this important Bill. I would also like to thank the hon. Member for Melksham and Devizes (Brian Mathew) for his maiden speech, which was informative and entertaining. I did once find myself in Devizes under very unfortunate circumstances—perhaps I can share that in the Tea Room at a later date.
Watford is fortunate enough to be served by three train routes into London. I have still to develop a model of which one is the right one to use, because whichever one you end up on, you should have picked the other one to go into town as a result of delays. My agent once told me that there is only one thing certain about train routes and bus services, which is that they get cut, so it is fantastic to be here with a team on the Front Bench who are going to make a massive difference and turn that state of affairs around.
I rise to make my maiden speech to the House. Watford is a town located in Hertfordshire, just within the M25. Watford skews quite young, with 69% of the population under 50 years of age. It is also much more diverse than other parts of the eastern region in which it is located, or indeed the rest of the UK. We love our diversity; it makes Watford a fantastic, culturally diverse place to live. Politically, Watford is a marginal bellwether seat, which was absolutely fantastic for me at this election. Of course, it was probably absolutely fantastic for the Conservative candidate in 2019, but we shall not dwell on that. It is also an archetypal definition of a two-horse race, and I clearly have an interest in making it much less marginal if I can.
Watford’s political status goes back through time, and observing it is like watching the coming and going of political epochs. The last time the bellwether trend was confounded was over half a century ago, in 1970, when Mr Heath waltzed into Downing Street with his piano while Mr Raphael Tuck, a popular constituency MP, held on to the seat of Watford for Labour, but only by 76 votes. So the trend was clearly visible at the time. In 1951, Mr John Freeman also kept the seat for Labour while the Conservatives went into government. He had been a war hero whose wife had to deliver his candidate selection speech because he was busy in mainland Europe as part of the second world war effort.
I would like to pay tribute to my predecessor, Mr Dean Russell. Mr Russell introduced a private Member’s Bill, which is due to come into law later this year. His tips Bill was not—as I, a newly elected MP, might have hoped—a set of hints and advice on how to get from one side of the parliamentary estate to the other. Nor was it a recommendation on where to go for the best cup of tea or on how to get a space on a Bench in here during a particularly busy debate, much to my disappointment. In fact, Mr Russell’s private Member’s Bill will ensure that people working in hospitality who may be in receipt of a tip from a paying customer are entitled to keep it, so it is actually a very good private Member’s Bill indeed. It would certainly have been welcomed by me when, many years ago, I worked in hospitality, a sector in which many workers in my constituency earn their living.
Mr Russell was preceded as the Member of Parliament for Watford by Richard Harrington, who served as Minister for State for refugees, helping to set up a settlement programme for Ukrainian refugees in the UK. Prior to Lord Harrington, Ms Claire Ward was the Labour MP from 1997 to 2010, holding several roles including in the Whips Office. I should note that, having previously been content with just one parliamentary constituency, Ms Ward now has responsibility for 22 of them to keep on top of, in her role as Mayor of the East Midlands, to which she was elected in May this year.
I have mentioned Watford’s cultural diversity. Watford’s Interfaith Association brings people of many faiths and none together for an annual pilgrimage. Watford has many churches. There are too many of them to mention here, but I will visit them as part of my work as the town’s MP. I would note the famous St Mary’s church near the High Street, adjacent to the citizens advice bureau, from which the Remembrance service march to the peace memorial begins each November. The construction of St Mary’s church began in the 12th century—significantly prior to the reign of Henry VIII, a monarch famous for having fewer wives than we have had Chancellors of the Exchequer under the Conservative Government since 2010.
Just beyond the constituency boundary is St James’s church in Hertsmere, where the vigil was held, led by Father David, for the recent tragic events in Bushey, which is within my constituency. Those heartbreaking and appalling circumstances demonstrate why this Government’s determination to tackle violence against women and girls is so important. There is also the Beechen Grove Baptist church, at which many constituency Labour party meetings have fought, fought and fought again to defend the motion amendment that they love. The odd fish and chip quiz has been held there as well to raise money. Watford has three mosques, two in the town centre and one in the north. It is home to a Sikh gurdwara, which kindly hosted the parliamentary candidates as part of the general election campaign and fed us very well. Watford also has a synagogue, which also hosted a general election hustings event during the campaign.
Watford is home to several excellent theatres. The Palace theatre has an historic tradition, and it has an excellent annual pantomime—[Hon. Members: “Oh no it doesn’t!”] Oh yes it does! The Pump House theatre provides venues for smaller works, experimental theatre and festivals. The Watford Colosseum is currently undergoing a renovation project. In its new form it will not, as far as I know, offer entertainment akin to its historic namesake in Rome, although in a different guise it used to host wrestling competitions—and not even as an alternative to first past the post. The BBC symphony orchestra has office and practice space there, and I am fondly reminded of the days I spent working for the Beeb prior to working in health and social care.
Watford Deaf Club, which hosted a hustings event during the election, has shown in no uncertain terms how much work we all have to do to make the public sector properly inclusive. Watford Blind Centre, Disability Watford and Watford Workshop all do amazing work.
The fortunes of Watford football club have led many a Watfordian to experience the full panoply of emotion from joy to despair. Former prominent Watford FC footballer Luther Blissett is still associated with the town, and Elton John was chairman of the club. In fact, he played some of his farewell tours there. Truly, Watford is a magical place. It should be. If you get off the train in Watford Junction, it is quite likely that you are then going to hop on to a bus to visit the Harry Potter studios in Leavesden, in neighbouring South West Hertfordshire, but the power of Potter requires whomping through Watford.
However, Watford residents have experienced the same challenges and difficulties that people across the country have. Watford’s food bank has too many visitors. Watford’s hospital is still in need of rebuilding, decades after it was recognised that dilapidated buildings do not help deliver the best care. New Hope does amazing work transforming the lives of people suffering homelessness, and the YMCA also has an iconic presence in Watford. Small Acts of Kindness and Hand on Heart deliver goods to those in need, and One Vision undertakes valuable charitable work and supports people’s health, through engagement via faith-based organisations, who might not otherwise access those services. Impactful Governance does great work supporting the LGBT community in and around Watford, and the Watford African Caribbean Association provides help, advice and a cultural focal point to residents in the community.
The Labour Government, who have swept to power on a tide of desire for change, have core missions at their heart. This Government will make a difference to the community in which I live. They will offer it hope once more, where fear and despair currently reside. I am also confident that the Government will restore growth and wealth to the economy, liberating people from fear and timidity.
Finally, I am a part of the community that I now represent. I sprang from a maternal heritage of Welsh schoolteachers and coal miners and a paternal one of Huguenots fleeing persecution and making their home here. I want to thank the voters of Watford for sending me to this place. It is a source of wonder and amazement to me that, as a child of a hot metal printer and a dressmaker, I can be on these Benches helping to make this change happen.