Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lindsay Hoyle and Mike Amesbury

Monday 22nd April 2024 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Mike Amesbury (Weaver Vale) (Lab)]

As well as trying to criminalise rough sleepers, put them in jail and give them a hefty fine, it is crystal clear that the Government will not meet their target to end rough sleeping by the end of 2024. Rough sleeping is all too plain to see—as we walk into this place or go to any city or town, we see the tragic consequences of Government policies. Is it not now time for Ministers to do the right thing: end section 21 no-fault evictions for good—no ifs, no buts; no excuses and narratives about the courts—and build the homes for social rent at the scale the country needs? If they do not do that, we will.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lindsay Hoyle and Mike Amesbury

Monday 22nd January 2024 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Mike Amesbury (Weaver Vale) (Lab)]

Rather than levying fines of £2,500 on the most vulnerable people sleeping rough, as is proposed in the Criminal Justice Bill, will the Minister commit to building a new generation of social housing? The current levels are pitiful and are an embarrassment, are they not, Secretary of State?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lindsay Hoyle and Mike Amesbury

Monday 18th December 2023 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I hate to say it, but I have a lot of people to get in.

[Mike Amesbury (Weaver Vale) (Lab)]

In 2010 there were 117,000 16 to 24-year-olds on long-term sickness and health benefits. That figure now stands at a massive 235,000. Why is that, and what are the Government doing about those appalling figures?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lindsay Hoyle and Mike Amesbury

Monday 11th December 2023 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Please work with me to enable everybody to get in.

[Mike Amesbury (Weaver Vale) (Lab)]

Despite my private Member’s Bill on statutory guidance to reduce the cost of school uniforms—the Education (Guidance about Costs of School Uniforms) Act 2021—far too many schools require a plethora of logos and branded items. When can we expect more robust intervention from Ministers to deal with this issue?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lindsay Hoyle and Mike Amesbury

Monday 16th October 2023 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Mike Amesbury (Weaver Vale) (Lab)]

More than six years on from the Grenfell disaster, where 72 people lost their lives, Sam, a disabled resident in a Galliard Homes building, is one of the hundreds of thousands of people still trapped in buildings that have not been remediated. Is this the new “do nothing” approach from the Department to building safety that was highlighted in The Guardian today, an approach that forced the resignation of a senior civil servant from the Department?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lindsay Hoyle and Mike Amesbury

Tuesday 28th March 2023 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

You could always reopen the court at Chorley to help.

[Mike Amesbury (Weaver Vale) (Lab)]

Victims of crime are having to wait up to four and a half years for their day in court. Since 2010, 50% of magistrates courts have been closed. Do the Secretary of State and the Minister believe that is a coincidence?

[Mike Freer]

In terms of the efficiency of the courts estate, I can reassure the hon. Gentleman that I am less hung up about the availability of buildings in every town and city and more hung up about whether we have sitting days and judges to ensure that our criminal justice system is swift and fair.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lindsay Hoyle and Mike Amesbury

Monday 4th July 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. Did the hon. Member for Weaver Vale (Mike Amesbury) hear the answer?

[Mike Amesbury]

No.

[Mr Speaker]

Will the Minister repeat the answer? I could not hear it for the cheering when the Prime Minister came into the Chamber.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lindsay Hoyle and Mike Amesbury

Monday 16th May 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Mike Amesbury (Weaver Vale) (Lab)]

Ministers cannot escape the fact that according to the National Audit Office, 50% of central Government grant funding has been cut from the budgets of local authorities up and down the land since 2010. Ministers are living in a parallel universe where less is more. Millions have been taken out of the shared prosperity fund. The consequences are all too plain. We even have Sir Rod Stewart doing DIY, filling in potholes in Essex—a county with which the Minister will be familiar—and a third of libraries are closing. Those are real consequences.

At what stage will the Minister grasp the bull by the horns and provide fair funding for local authorities, based on genuine need? This should not be about competition or jumping through unnecessary hoops; we should be providing first-class public services for all.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lindsay Hoyle and Mike Amesbury

Wednesday 27th April 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I am sure the hon. Gentleman may now have got himself put on that list.

[Mike Amesbury (Weaver Vale) (Lab)]

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. The Prime Minister and the hon. Member for Kensington (Felicity Buchan) incorrectly claimed that council tax is lower in Conservative councils; according to the Government’s own live figures, the average council tax bill for a Conservative council is £1,642 while the average for a Labour council is £1,313. So, Conservative council tax bills—this is a fact—are £329 higher than Labour council tax bills. May I seek your advice, Mr Speaker, on how to ensure those facts are put on record?

[Mr Speaker]

We are not going to continue a debate from an earlier question, and the hon. Gentleman has answered his own question, but I do hope he let the hon. Member for Kensington (Felicity Buchan) know he was going to mention her in the Chamber; if not, I am sure he will drop her a line.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lindsay Hoyle and Mike Amesbury

Monday 7th March 2022 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister, Mike Amesbury.

[Mike Amesbury (Weaver Vale) (Lab)]

Members on both sides of the Chamber have said that any levelling up will ultimately be delivered by local authorities improving lives in their communities, but councils have faced and continue to face, despite the spin, serious shortfalls thanks to draconian Government cuts, including a 2% real-terms cut this year. Can the Minister explain how taking away £88 million from Burnley Borough Council in Lancashire over the last 10 years, even after taking into account the levelling-up funding, is fair? How is that levelling up? How will a £102 million shortfall over the next three years for Essex County Council—the Minister’s own county council—level up adult social care? Is it not time for Ministers to cut the spin, cut the claptrap and provide some substance and genuine levelling up for our hard-pressed councils?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lindsay Hoyle and Mike Amesbury

Monday 29th November 2021 Commons Chamber

[Mike Amesbury (Weaver Vale) (Lab)]

On a point of order, Mr Speaker.

[Mr Speaker]

Is it related to these questions?

[Mike Amesbury]

It is. The right hon. Member for Tatton (Esther McVey) referred to a priority levelling-up bid for Winnington bridge in my constituency, and too right, as this is much needed. How do I get it on the record that this is a joint bid, Mr Speaker? I am looking for your advice.

[Mr Speaker]

The best is answer is: what you have just done. It is on the record, and I think it was more a point of clarification than of order.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lindsay Hoyle and Mike Amesbury

Tuesday 28th April 2020 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I think that unfortunately I am not going to ask the Secretary of State to comment on that.

[Mike Amesbury (Weaver Vale) (Lab) [V]]

As we get close to the third anniversary of Grenfell, when 72 people tragically lost their lives, hundreds of thousands of tenants and leaseholders are still living in unsafe buildings. This is, as the Secretary of State will know, a double whammy for people in the lockdown, trapped in buildings cladded with flammable materials, with some out of work or out of business and having to pay expensive waking watch fees. I understand that the Secretary of State said in a call with the M9 Mayors that he would look into financial support from the Government for the cost of waking watch and other interim fire safety measures. Has that been done, and what was the outcome?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lindsay Hoyle and Mike Amesbury

Wednesday 22nd January 2020 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call Mike Amesbury.

[Mike Amesbury (Weaver Vale) (Lab)]

According to the international fact-checking agency, First Draft News, almost 90% of ads posted on Facebook by the Minister’s party in the first few days of December were misleading. Does she agree with the Information Commissioner—

[Mr Speaker]

Order—Question No. 5, and then we will come back to you.

[Mike Amesbury (Weaver Vale) (Lab)]

5. What assessment he has made of the level of accuracy of political advertising in the 2019 general election.