Illegal Immigration

Kelly Tolhurst Excerpts

Tuesday 13th December 2022 Commons Chamber

[Kelly Tolhurst (Rochester and Strood) (Con)]

I thank my right hon. Friend for the measures he has outlined today, and I particularly thank him for his personal determination to find practical solutions to a very real problem. In my constituency the Home Office has, with Clearsprings, its contractor, identified a disused building for dispersal accommodation. While I greatly welcome the move from hotels to more permanent accommodation, will my right hon. Friend make sure the Home Office listens to the concerns and worries of the local authority, police and public health, and make sure we are deciding on locations that are appropriate and suitable?

[The Prime Minister]

I am really happy to hear from my hon. Friend, who has rightly long championed this issue. I know she has spoken to the Minister for Immigration about her concerns in her local area. I thank her for her constructive attitude in working with us, but she is absolutely right, and we will sit down and listen to her and her local authority about what is appropriate and deliver sensible solutions.

Tributes to Her Late Majesty the Queen

Kelly Tolhurst Excerpts

Saturday 10th September 2022 Commons Chamber

[Kelly Tolhurst (Rochester and Strood) (Con)]

I rise on behalf of my constituents in Rochester and Strood to extend my deepest condolences to the royal family. Her late Majesty’s death is a terrible loss for us all and has touched every corner of the world. She was a constant reassuring presence. The world is unrecognisable from the start of her reign but, despite those changes, she was a steadying figure who led this country from the aftermath of the second world war to being the country that we are today.

Like many in the House, I had only lived under the Queen’s reign. As a female born in 1978, I was lucky to be born into a unique era for this country and grow up under both a female Head of State and a female Prime Minister for the first time in history. We had those powerful female figures at the top of our country, so for me it was absolutely normal to see women leading.

The Queen was a remarkable figure and an inspiration to many, whose influence has shaped generations as the values that she embodied of a sense of duty, public service and quiet dignity epitomised her reign. She was a continuous figure, both in this country and around the world, who managed to exercise a calm and steadying influence over our country, even its toughest times.

Rochester and Strood was blessed by many visits from Her Majesty over the years. I am immensely proud of our royal history and the links we have with our late Queen. She made her first visit to Rochester with King George VI in 1938, when they visited the Short Brothers aircraft works. That was followed by a visit to the Historic Dockyard Chatham in 1942. I hope that I am right in saying that she liked what she saw in those early visits before her accession, inspiring many trips in the following years.

In her role as its Colonel-in-Chief, she inspected the Corps of Royal Engineers at Brompton barracks in 1968, during one of her many visits there. She also opened the Royal Engineers Museum in 1987. She made her final visit in 2016 to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the corps, and it was the greatest honour of my life to meet her on that occasion.

I felt nervous, like everyone else meeting the Queen for the first time, and after overcoming the first hurdle of getting my curtsy right, I moved on to the next step of meeting her: the handshake. There I was, just over a year into being an MP, standing in front of Her Majesty, who had just turned 90, worrying about the damage that I could cause her hand should I grip too hard. I could not have been more wrong: I had failed to appreciate how years of experience had left Her Majesty skilled in administering a handshake. With her great smile and the twinkle in her eye that so many have spoken about, she took my hand firmly, and released it before I could even take a moment.

The barracks were not the only place that the Queen had visited in Rochester. She went to Rochester cathedral, and she even took a trip to our great Isle of Grain oil refinery in 1955. Following her 1942 visit to the Historic Dockyard Chatham in 1942, she returned to the site in 1984, when she was able to see the redevelopment proposal for the closed Chatham dockyards on St Mary’s island.

Those are a few examples highlighting how committed and dedicated the Queen was to her people. She was totally devoted to the British people throughout her reign, and the hundreds of thousands of people who met her felt at ease. Her absence will be felt around the world. My thoughts and prayers are with her family. I know that King Charles III has the support of Rochester and all the good people to lead this country into a new era. God save the King.

Oral Answers to Questions

Kelly Tolhurst Excerpts

Wednesday 8th June 2022 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Actually, I can tell the hon. Gentleman that 91% of people are getting their passports within six weeks, and we are putting hundreds and hundreds more staff members into the Passport Office. The strength of demand, by the way, is a sign of the robustness of the economy, because everybody is wanting to go on holiday, and quite right too.

When it comes to travel chaos, may I ask whether we have yet heard any condemnation from the Opposition of the RMT and its reckless and wanton strike? What about that?

[Kelly Tolhurst (Rochester and Strood) (Con)]

Q14.   As my right hon. Friend knows, my constituency is facing unrealistic housing targets, which is putting pressure on the council to try to develop a local plan that would close a successful working docks and mean the loss of beloved open spaces such as Deangate Ridge, all in the name of meeting an arbitrary target. Can he reassure my constituents who are facing this level of over- development that there will be greater flexibility in respect of housing numbers, so that the council can produce a local plan that delivers appropriate housing while protecting important sites such as those?

[The Prime Minister]

I know that my hon. Friend speaks for colleagues up and down the country. We want to make sure that councils are able to build in the right place and sensitively to local needs. That is what we insist on, but I want to make it absolutely clear that part of the genius of levelling up is that it will encourage us to take some of the pressure and heat out of the south-east of England, which has been overburdened for decades, and we can do it.

Oral Answers to Questions

Kelly Tolhurst Excerpts

Wednesday 24th March 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I thank the hon. Lady for raising the case. My deepest sympathies are with Danielle and her family. I will make sure that the relevant Health Minister meets her to discuss the case as fast as possible.

[Kelly Tolhurst (Rochester and Strood) (Con) [V]]

Forty years on from my predecessor Dame Peggy Fenner’s opposition to the closure of Chatham dockyard, with the loss of thousands of jobs, I am now opposing the closure of what today is Chatham docks, with the loss of over 1,000 skilled jobs. Closing this regionally important asset, home to successful maritime and construction businesses—all growing, in spite of covid—to make way for flats represents short-term profit for the landowner at the expense of long-term economic and environmental benefit. Does my right hon. Friend agree with me, local councillors and the “Save Chatham Docks” campaign that coastal infrastructure plays a significant role in the growth of our local economies, creating jobs and clean maritime technology that contributes to our net zero ambition?

[The Prime Minister]

Yes. One of the reasons we put £24 billion into defence alone is that it drives 400,000 jobs around the country, including the building of new frigates and new ships of all kinds. I hope very much that Chatham will benefit from the £100 million funding we put in on 24 December to rejuvenate coastal towns. The planning issue my hon. Friend raises is a matter for the local council, but I do hope a solution can be found that gives the benefits that she describes for the local community.

Oral Answers to Questions

Kelly Tolhurst Excerpts

Wednesday 12th June 2019 Commons Chamber

[Mrs Maria Miller (Basingstoke) (Con)]

5. What steps the Government are taking to increase the rate of female employment.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Kelly Tolhurst)]

The female employment rate of 72% is a record high. The industrial strategy is transforming our economy, ensuring that everyone can access, and progress at, work. We have a range of parental and other leave entitlements, and we are working with businesses to promote flexible working. We will invest £3.5 billion in early education this year, making childcare more accessible.

[Mrs Miller]

We have record numbers of women in work, but more than 50,000 women a year feel they have no choice but to leave their jobs simply because they are pregnant. Will the Minister look carefully at my ten-minute rule Bill, which is a way to try to provide proper protection for pregnant women, so more of them can stay on in work when they are pregnant and continue to work when they have young children?

[Kelly Tolhurst]

I commend my right hon. Friend for her passion, and for her work as Chair of the Select Committee and her ten-minute rule Bill. As she will know, we recently conducted a consultation on maternity and pregnancy discrimination in the workplace, which finished at the beginning of April. We are currently reviewing more than 600 responses, and we hope to publish the results as soon as possible.

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op)]

11. I am very keen on women—[Laughter]—in good jobs, because I have a wife, three daughters and five granddaughters, but may I urge the Minister to pay more attention to getting women into management training? Women indisputably make better managers than men, so let us have more of them training as managers in order to reach the top levels of management in our country.

[Kelly Tolhurst]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for highlighting that issue. I am proud to be a Minister sitting on the Front Bench among many other females: that just shows that women can do it. One of our priorities has been getting women on boards, and we are on track to reach our target of 33%, but it is crucial that we feed into the pipeline and get women into those executive positions. Hopefully, some of us in the House will be good models for them.

[Dame Caroline Spelman (Meriden) (Con)]

The huge success of the Conservative approach to apprenticeships has enabled many women to secure well-paid jobs in manufacturing. Will my hon. Friend join me in commending the work of companies such as Jaguar Land Rover, which trains equal numbers of men and women as engineering apprentices, despite the challenges that they face?

[Kelly Tolhurst]

I strongly commend the work of organisations such as JLR. In my constituency, BAE Systems has high-level apprenticeships for women engineers, which is great. We need more women in higher executive roles, and an apprenticeship system is one of the great vehicles that we can use to achieve that.

[Ellie Reeves (Lewisham West and Penge) (Lab)]

As was pointed out by the right hon. Member for Basingstoke (Mrs Miller), 54,000 women lose their jobs each year because of maternity discrimination. The Women and Equalities Committee has long recommended an increase in the employment tribunal time limit for maternity discrimination claims from three to six months to break down some of the barriers. Why have the Government not implemented that?

[Kelly Tolhurst]

The hon. Lady will know that the consultation, which finished in April, dealt with that very issue. However, we also sought views on the position of parents who have been on adoption leave or shared parental leave and are returning to work. As I have said, we are looking through the 600 responses to the consultation and are keen to publish the results as soon as possible. Let me emphasise, however, that the law is clear: discrimination against pregnant women coming back from maternity leave is unlawful.

[Eddie Hughes (Walsall North) (Con)]

6. What steps the Government are taking to tackle period poverty (a) in the UK and (b) overseas.

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[Luke Hall (Thornbury and Yate) (Con)]

10. What steps the Government are taking to support women to access flexible working.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Kelly Tolhurst)]

All employees with 26 weeks of continuous service have the right to request flexible working; that accounts for over 90% of employees. We will consult on creating a duty for employers to consider whether a job can be done flexibly and to make that clear when advertising. We have also established a flexible working taskforce with business groups and employee representatives to promote wider understanding and the implementation of flexible working practices.

[Luke Hall]

Lots of women working in industries such as retail return from maternity leave to find that they are held back from progressing in their careers because their new caring responsibilities are interpreted as a lack of flexibility. What more can the Government do to challenge this short-sighted behaviour in a minority of employers?

[Kelly Tolhurst]

I note my hon. Friend’s expertise in the retail sector before being elected to this House. The retail sector gender pay gap is 9.1%, compared with 17.9% overall, but the Government are not complacent and the sector continues to take steps to tackle gender inequality, including through the British Retail Consortium’s “Better Retail Better World”. This has involved more than 30 leading businesses committing to reducing inequality as part of the sector’s contribution to the sustainable development goals.

[Shabana Mahmood (Birmingham, Ladywood) (Lab)]

12. What steps she is taking to reduce workplace discrimination against people from black and ethnic minority communities.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Kelly Tolhurst)]

The Equality Act 2010 makes it unlawful to discriminate against employees or people seeking work based on race. The Government are committed to a society where everyone can enter work and progress on merit, regardless of their background. That is why the Prime Minister has launched a consultation on mandatory ethnicity pay reporting alongside the new race charter.

[Shabana Mahmood]

I thank the Minister for her answer, but 35% of black and ethnic minority workers in the west midlands have been encouraged to adopt a western work name by their boss at least once in their career. That is a truly shocking and unacceptable state of affairs in 21st century Britain, so what is the Minister prepared to do to stamp out such discrimination in the workplace for BME workers?

[Kelly Tolhurst]

The hon. Lady is quite right. Let us be clear that discrimination of any kind in the workplace is not tolerated, and is unlawful in some cases. The Prime Minister has a strong commitment, which is why she introduced the mandatory ethnicity pay reporting consultation. I would also like to highlight to the hon. Lady that the business diversity and inclusion group, which I recently chaired, very much wants to ensure that no one in the workplace will be discriminated against because of their colour or gender.

[Martyn Day (Linlithgow and East Falkirk) (SNP)]

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

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[Helen Whately (Faversham and Mid Kent) (Con)]

The Government intend to require businesses to consider whether a job can be done flexibly, but will the Minister argue for flipping that question, so that jobs are flexible by default and that employers must make the case for any job not to be flexible?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Kelly Tolhurst)]

Flexible working is just as important to men as it is to women when they seek to strike a balance between family life and a career. I thank my hon. Friend for welcoming our intention to consult on the duty on employers to advertise jobs as flexible, where possible. The Government are not considering making all jobs flexible, but I spoke at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s festival of work this morning, and making flexible working the norm was very much the topic of conversation.

[Rachael Maskell (York Central) (Lab/Co-op)]

T2. Despite York being a human rights city, the gender pay gap has increased by a staggering 225% since 2010, with women predominantly in low-paid, part-time and insecure work. How will the Minister invest in an adequate number of jobs for women in our city?

European Council

Kelly Tolhurst Excerpts

Monday 18th December 2017 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

What I said in the statement was this: “there can never be a place for the threats of violence and intimidation against some Members that we have seen in recent days. Our politics must be better than that.” I stand by that. All political parties in this House must be aware of the need to ensure that our politics is conducted in the right way and there is no place for threats and intimidation.

[Kelly Tolhurst (Rochester and Strood) (Con)]

I congratulate the Prime Minister on the way that she has worked with the EU over the past few weeks and how she has moved things on to the next stage. Does she agree that during any implementation period, it is important and right that we do indeed negotiate trade deals with other parts of the world to make the most of these new opportunities, to benefit British business, our economy and, most importantly, the British people?

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Of course, the work on negotiating those trade deals—on looking to see what is possible—has already been started within the Department for International Trade by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State and the Ministers there. Only earlier last week, I was discussing with the President of Mexico that country’s desire to have a trade deal negotiated with us. It is one of the first countries to say that it wanted that. The point of the trade deals is exactly as my hon. Friend says: it is about bringing jobs, bringing prosperity and improving people’s lives.

Oral Answers to Questions

Kelly Tolhurst Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd November 2017 Commons Chamber

[Kelly Tolhurst (Rochester and Strood) (Con)]

Q6. Given that revised housing proposals would force unprecedented numbers of homes, equivalent to the size of a new town, to be built on what is left of Medway’s green belt, will the Prime Minister assure me and my constituents that the necessary large-scale investment will be made to boost the public service infrastructure, which will have to cope with up to 100,000 more people?

[The Prime Minister]

That is an important point for people not just in my hon. Friend’s constituency but elsewhere. We do want more homes to be built, because I want young people to have the prospect of the future that their parents and grandparents were able to have through owning their own homes. We will go further in building more homes, but she is absolutely right that, as we do that, we need to make sure that the infrastructure is in place. We are putting in billions of pounds from central Government for economic infrastructure in every year up to 2021. That includes transport projects and fibre broadband connections. We recognise the importance of making sure that homes are supported by the right infrastructure.

Debate on the Address

Kelly Tolhurst Excerpts

Wednesday 21st June 2017 Commons Chamber

[Jeremy Corbyn]

I am not sure the hon. Gentleman was listening very carefully to any of my many speeches in the general election campaign. I made it clear that we would negotiate sensibly and fairly with the European Union and bring the results of those negotiations back to this House.

It is in all our interests that we get a Brexit deal that puts jobs and the economy first. No deal is not better than a bad deal: it is a bad deal and not viable for this country. We need full access to the single market and a customs arrangement that provide Britain, as the Brexit Secretary has pledged, with the “exact same benefits” as now. Neither must arbitrary targets for immigration be prioritised over the jobs and living standards of the people of this country. Let us decide our immigration policy on the basis of the needs of our communities and our economy, not to the tune of the dog-whistle cynicism of Lynton Crosby or the hate campaigns of some sections of our press, whose idea of patriotism is to base themselves in an overseas tax haven.

[Kelly Tolhurst (Rochester and Strood) (Con)]

Will the right hon. Gentleman confirm the contradiction in his own plans? He plans not to reduce immigration numbers, but he also plans to stop employers recruiting overseas. Is it not the right hon. Gentleman who is a bit wobbly?

[Jeremy Corbyn]

Throughout the election campaign and before, we made it very clear that employers who unscrupulously recruit low-paid workers from overseas, exploit them in this country and run away with the profits, at the same time as creating community discord, are wrong; they are making money out of poverty and grossly exploiting very vulnerable people on both sides of the channel.

Oral Answers to Questions

Kelly Tolhurst Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd November 2016 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

We understand the challenges faced by the UK oil and gas industry and we take them very seriously. That is why we established the Oil and Gas Authority and why we have taken action, with the £2.3 billion package of measures in the last two Budgets, to make sure that the North sea continues to attract investment, and to safeguard the future of that vital national asset. We have taken a range of measures. We understand the concerns about the oil and gas industry, which is why the Government have already taken action.

[Kelly Tolhurst (Rochester and Strood) (Con)]

Q11. Rochester airport and Medway city industrial estate in my constituency are home to a growing number of successful science and tech SMEs that are doing wonders for innovation and our economy. Ahead of my right hon. Friend’s trade mission to India, I congratulate her on her decision to take with her a cohort of SMEs to help to increase trading relationships with emerging economies. Will her delegation continue to ensure that all parts of our economy are able to seize the opportunities that present themselves as we leave the EU?

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right about the importance of small and medium-sized businesses, particularly in the technology industry. That is why I am pleased that I will take leading small and medium-sized businesses from the life sciences and technology sectors with me on my forthcoming trip to India. It is important to enable them to forge trading links with India, and I assure my hon. Friend that, as we look at the arrangements for leaving the European Union, we will take the interests of all sectors into account.

Oral Answers to Questions

Kelly Tolhurst Excerpts

Wednesday 15th June 2016 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

The hon. Lady is right. It is always the poorest and those with the least who get hit hardest if an economy suffers a recession. There are two ways in which the cost of living could be impacted. She is absolutely right that if we leave the single market and go to World Trade Organisation rules, tariffs will be imposed on the goods we sell to Europe, which would make us suffer. Also, if the pound falls, as many independent experts forecast, the cost of living rises, the cost of the family shop rises and the cost of the family holiday rises. She is right that it is not worth the risk. We should not risk it—we should keep our country safe.

[Kelly Tolhurst (Rochester and Strood) (Con)]

Q9. Following the Chancellor’s welcome announcement about the launch of the new Thames estuary 2050 growth commission, will the Prime Minister outline his hopes for how the commission’s focus will deliver the much needed infrastructure and economic development that will allow north Kent to prosper, including in my wonderful constituency of Rochester and Strood?