English Football: Financial Sustainability and Governance

Julie Minns Excerpts

Thursday 6th March 2025 Westminster Hall

[Lizzi Collinge (Morecambe and Lunesdale) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Turner. In Morecombe, the Shrimps are an integral part of our community. They bring together people from all backgrounds who share in our love of the Shrimps. The Morecambe FC Community Foundation runs a range of programmes that support education, health, social inclusion and sports participation. I am not the only parent from Morecambe who has had a child come back chattering about the professional footballers who came to help out that day.

[Ms Julie Minns (Carlisle) (Lab)]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for giving way, not least because our respective teams are currently propping up the bottom of league two. She mentions the important community work that the Shrimps do, and that is vital. We are fortunate at Carlisle United to have very generous owners who have invested huge amounts of money over the last 18 months, but even I can see that community work can best be guaranteed by having a fairer distribution of revenues.

[Lizzi Collinge]

I wholeheartedly agree with my hon. Friend. In Morecambe, the football club is a community hub that we cannot afford to lose. We have the Shrimps Trust, which is a democratic and representative voice for the fans. The board of Morecambe really want us to survive and thrive and is doing everything it can to make that happen. It is passionate about our success.

The Shrimps have been under a lot of pressure in recent years due to a combination of ownership issues, financial instability and the threat of relegation. My hon. Friends have laid out coherently the challenges with financial flow, ownership and governance, so I will not go through them again. In my first speech in Parliament, I reiterated my promise to the Shrimps to deliver an independent football regulator, a stronger owners and directors test, better fan representation and much better measures on financial sustainability. I only hope that it does not come too late for Morecambe FC.

Market Towns: Cultural Heritage

Julie Minns Excerpts

Tuesday 4th March 2025 Westminster Hall

[Ms Julie Minns (Carlisle) (Lab)]

It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Jeremy. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Southend East and Rochford (Mr Alaba) for securing this debate.

I must start with a confession: Carlisle is a city, albeit a small one. However, its population size and look and feel, and indeed its charter, make it more closely resemble a market town than perhaps many cities.

However, my constituency includes two market towns to the north and north-east—Longtown and Brampton. Longtown lies on the English-Scottish border in an area known as the debatable lands, because for many centuries the kingdoms of England and Scotland could not quite agree on who had ownership and claim to Longtown and the debatable lands. Arthuret church on the outskirts of Longtown dates from 1150 and is said to be the resting place of the legendary King Arthur.

Not to be outdone on history and heritage, the original church of the market town of Brampton stands on the site of a Stanegate Roman fort built around 80 AD. During the Jacobite rising of 1745, Bonnie Prince Charlie, the Young Pretender, summoned the mayor of Carlisle to surrender the city. Those familiar with the rising will know that it did not end well, at least for the Jacobite soldiers who were hanged from the Capon tree in Brampton’s town centre. A memorial commemorating that act remains.

The great border city of Carlisle is the final resting place of a further 33 Jacobite soldiers who were hanged, drawn and quartered following the unsuccessful rebellion. We only have to look at the regal lion that sits atop Carlisle’s market cross to understand that Carlisle’s loyalty, and that of its citizens, has largely always been to the English Crown.

Carlisle received its charter in 1158, confirming its status as a trading hub for the north of England, and much of that trading happened in the Greenmarket in the city centre. However, in the late 19th century the market stalls were moved indoors, into Carlisle’s new market hall, which is one of the few Victorian market halls that people can still see. Its impressive ironwork was made by the local engineers Cowans and Sheldon.

In the following years, the market hall established itself not just as a market but as a venue and concert hall for some of the world’s greatest acts. However, like many places we have heard about today, the fortunes of our market have ebbed and flowed. The market hall’s future looks bright once again, and the former Greenmarket is undergoing a multimillion-pound transformation.

As I look forward to Cumbrian devolution and all that it promises for Carlisle and the surrounding area, including its two market towns, I look forward to reimagining and rejuvenating Carlisle city centre, so that it thrives for many years to come under the watchful eye of the regal lion atop the market cross.

Oral Answers to Questions

Julie Minns Excerpts

Thursday 17th October 2024 Commons Chamber

The hon. Member for Battersea, representing the Church Commissioners, was asked—

[Ms Julie Minns (Carlisle) (Lab)]

1. What steps the Church of England is taking to support parish life in small rural communities.

[The Second Church Estates Commissioner (Marsha De Cordova)]

With your indulgence, Mr Speaker, as this is my first time responding to questions, I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to my predecessor as Second Church Estates Commissioner, the former Member for South West Bedfordshire, Andrew Selous, for his work in the role. I certainly hope to do my best in it for parliamentarians and commissioners.

Turning to my hon. Friend’s question, the Church of England operates 16,000 parish churches, over half of which are in rural areas, along with Church schools. It provides the largest network of buildings in England that serve communities—buildings that are used for worship and education, as well as warm spaces and hubs for activities such as food banks, post offices, credit unions and other social and community initiatives.

[Ms Minns]

The parish of Bewcastle in the north-east corner of my constituency is perhaps best known as the home of the Bewcastle cross, probably the finest example of pre-Norman carving in England. Geographically, it is a very isolated community, but every single month, parishioners organise a vibrant community hub, which is critical in overcoming social isolation and loneliness. Next month will mark 1,350 years since the carving of the cross, so will my hon. Friend ask the Church Commissioners to consider additional funding for the parish to improve the village hall?

[Marsha De Cordova]

I congratulate all the volunteers in the parish of Bewcastle on their work to tackle social isolation and loneliness. I will look into the specific case that my hon. Friend mentions and see what advice can be given to support her. I also commend the work of the Good Shepherd multi-academy trust, which is in her constituency and supports children, families and communities to flourish.

Sport: Team GB and ParalympicsGB

Julie Minns Excerpts

Thursday 10th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Ms Julie Minns (Carlisle) (Lab)]

I warmly congratulate everyone on an excellent debate this afternoon. I particularly welcome the maiden speech of my hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth East (Tom Hayes). I am sure his family, watching at home in Salford, are extremely proud.

I echo the remarks of my hon. Friend the Member for Welwyn Hatfield (Andrew Lewin) in congratulating the England cricket team on their outstanding performance today. I congratulate Joe Root on overtaking Alastair Cook as England’s leading run scorer in test cricket yesterday, and his teammate Harry Brook on his triple century against Pakistan today, before he was cruelly caught on 317 when he was arguably just beginning to get his eye in.

I hung up my hockey stick and put down my squash racket several years ago, since when my enjoyment of sport has largely been as an enthusiastic spectator. It was therefore a genuine honour to meet the inspirational Olympians Rebecca Adlington and Tessa Sanderson at a Women in Sport event earlier this week. Women in Sport celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. Established in 1984, at the heart of Women in Sport lies a deep understanding of the sporting needs of women and girls and a passion to address the stubborn gender inequalities that still exist.

As we celebrate sport today, it is worth reminding ourselves that women’s right to compete and play at the highest levels of sport has often been hard-won, and all too recently won. It is just over 50 years since the FA lifted the ban on women playing football at official football grounds. It is only 40 years since women were allowed to compete in the Olympic marathon, and less than 30 years since the first professional boxing match between women was sanctioned in the UK. As we congratulate Women in Sport on its 40th birthday, I urge Members on both sides of the House to reassert our commitment to equality of opportunity in sport; to challenge messaging that young girls are fragile, weak and do not like competition; and instead to reinforce the expectation that girls can be courageous, powerful and fearless in their own way, and are expected to be, and can be, good at sport.

Last Sunday marked World Cerebral Palsy Day. I was privileged to be invited to join the students of William Howard secondary school in my constituency, not only to mark the day but to welcome back former pupil and Paralympian shot put star, Anna Nicholson. Anna was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at a young age and was first introduced to field events by William Howard’s former head of PE, Lenny Miller, who incidentally is the father of another great Cumbrian athlete, the hammer throwing star, Nick Miller. Anna, like Nick, began her athletics career at Carlisle’s Sheepmount athletics facility, home to the mighty Border Harriers and soon to be home to a new training ground for Carlisle United. What the Blues might currently lack in form on the pitch, we more than make up for with the enthusiasm of our fans, with home crowds regularly exceeding 7,000, a reminder of the unifying power of sport.

Having been encouraged at school, Anna began competing in 2011. She was one of the over 200-strong Team GB who competed in the Tokyo Paralympics, where she placed sixth, but this summer, in Paris, Anna went three places better, bringing home a bronze medal in the F35 shot put. Listening to Anna at William Howard school last week, I could not help but notice the huge impact her words had on disabled and non-disabled pupils alike, because Anna is not just the holder of a Paralympic bronze medal, she is also a chemical engineer and enjoys successful a career in the car production industry. It is absolutely right that Anna’s self-proclaimed superpower is to do anything she believes in. Anna is not the only former William Howard pupil to have competed at Olympic and Paralympic level. Having won badminton gold in the 2019 European games in Minsk, Lauren Smith went on to compete in Tokyo, before she was knocked out in the quarter finals.

The joy and success of sport transcend the winning of medals. They can be found in the walking netball, run at the brilliant Currock community centre in my constituency, which this week celebrated 90 years of community activity. From boxing to ladies that lift to keep fit with cake, Currock is a community centre that genuinely offers something for every member of our community. The joy of sport can also be found in the villages of north Cumbria, like Wetheral, where the village hall offers locals pilates, pickleball and swing-fit. And it is to be found in the Cumbria wheelchair sports club, where disabled people can play tennis, basketball and boccia.

As we rightly celebrate the performance of Team GB and ParalympicsGB this summer, let us also celebrate the school staff, amateur coaches, teachers, parents and volunteers who, week in and week out, give their time to support grassroots sport across all our constituencies.