Business of the House

Liz McInnes Excerpts

Thursday 9th July 2015 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

My hon. Friend makes an interesting point. That is not an idea that I have heard before, but it is an intriguing request. She is absolutely right to say that those who serve our country do us all an enormous service. They are heroic in what they do and in the sacrifices that they sometimes make. There will be Defence questions on Monday, and I suggest that if she puts her point to Ministers at that time, they will be interested to hear it.

[Liz McInnes (Heywood and Middleton) (Lab)]

May we have a debate on the attempt to impose night working on tube workers, to discuss the need to enter into proper negotiations and reach agreement with the trade unions on proper and safe staffing levels and working arrangements?

[Chris Grayling]

I am glad that the hon. Gentleman has raised this issue—

Oral Answers to Questions

Liz McInnes Excerpts

Thursday 9th July 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Vaizey]

Our Taking Part survey shows that since 2008-09, participation by children aged between five and 10 has increased, the number of children going to our museums has increased, the number of pupils taking arts GCSEs has increased—and so on and so forth. I do not share the hon. Lady’s view.

[Liz McInnes (Heywood and Middleton) (Lab)]

Does the Culture Secretary agree with the Education Secretary that studying arts subjects holds children back for the rest of their lives?

[Mr Vaizey]

No, he does not, because that is not the Education Secretary’s view. Labour Members seem to take the view that if we talk up science, we are somehow talking down the arts. My right hon. Friend was not doing that at all. I suggest the hon. Lady reads the speech.

Business of the House

Liz McInnes Excerpts

Thursday 25th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Liz McInnes (Heywood and Middleton) (Lab)]

May we have a statement on why the Ministry of Justice is still paying G4S and Serco millions of pounds every month to supply electronic tagging equipment more than a year after both companies were barred from running the contract?

[Chris Grayling]

G4S and Serco do not run the contracts— Capita does.

Business of the House

Liz McInnes Excerpts

Thursday 28th May 2015 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

In the latter part of his question, the hon. Gentleman makes an interesting and broader point. Although I extend a welcome to all the new SNP MPs in this House, they will of course have to decide about the rights and wrongs of voting on matter in our constituencies where we have no ability to vote on the same matters in their constituencies. On foxhunting, there is a clear commitment from this Government that the matter will be voted on. We will bring forward our plans in due course. The hon. Gentleman will have to wait to see exactly what is proposed, but that will happen.

[Liz McInnes (Heywood and Middleton) (Lab)]

Carcraft of Rochdale, a second-hand car dealership, which has its headquarters in my constituency, recently, suddenly and unexpectedly announced its closure, with the loss of more than 100 jobs in Heywood and Middleton and more than 500 in its outlets in the north and the midlands. Will the Leader of the House launch an investigation into the business practices of Carcraft of Rochdale?

[Chris Grayling]

I extend our sympathy and support to those who have lost their job. It is never welcome news for any of us when we lose a significant local employer in our constituency—it has a really challenging effect on those involved. At least they are facing the challenge of finding a new job in a labour market that is improving rather than one that is getting worse, where the opportunities are better than they were. The hon. Lady can use a number of the means at her disposal, such as Adjournment debates and oral questions, to raise issues related to her constituency. I know she will take the opportunity to do so, and this is one such opportunity.

Members’ Paid Directorships and Consultancies

Liz McInnes Excerpts

Wednesday 25th February 2015 Commons Chamber

[Liz McInnes (Heywood and Middleton) (Lab)]

I speak as a new Member of Parliament and a proud trade unionist. I also went to a school that did not have a debating society, so I have no idea what the standard of debate is compared with the standard of the debating society at whatever school the right hon. Member for Rutland and Melton (Sir Alan Duncan) went to.

One thing that has surprised me since I became an MP is the number of people back home who have asked me “Are you still working in the NHS?” I used to work as a health care scientist in the national health service before I was elected. There is a real perception out there that being an MP is not a full-time job, which is why people are asking me that question. The practice among some MPs of taking paid directorships and consultant roles exacerbates the belief that being an MP is something that someone can do in their spare time when they are not flitting around doing their other well-paid part-time jobs. I no longer work in the national health service. There is absolutely no way that I could hold down a responsible job, with people’s lives and health depending on what I did, and fulfil the responsibilities of my new role as an MP. To be perfectly honest, I do not understand how anyone finds the time to do anything outside their role as an MP, although I am prepared to accept that that may reflect the fact that I am new and have a lot to learn, and that a general election is looming.

People in my constituency are baffled by recent assertions that £67,000 a year is not enough for an MP to live on. Figures were recently published showing my constituency was the second-worst constituency in the north-west for the payment of the living wage. The worst area is Blackpool North and Cleveleys, where 42.1% of workers are paid less than the living wage. In my constituency, 39.8% of local workers are paid less than the living wage, with women faring particularly badly. Over half of them—53.9%—are paid less than the living wage, which is £7.85 an hour, which amounts to £314 a week for a 40-hour week, or £16,328 a year before tax. I am sure that the 39.8% of people in Heywood and Middleton who receive less than that—and, indeed, all those people existing on the average wage in the UK—will be absolutely baffled as to why MPs on £67,000 a year need to have a second paid job.

We owe it to our constituents, and to the people who elected us, to do our job as an MP properly and effectively, to make it our only employment, and to concentrate fully on it—not to be distracted by paid roles as consultants and directors, which feeds the impression that being an MP is a part-time job—[Interruption.]

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Dawn Primarolo)]

Order. Will the hon. Lady sit down for a moment? I will stop the clock. I am getting a bit fed up with Members, including Whips, shouting across the Dispatch Box at Members who are speaking.

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

Actually, Mr Wishart, I told them off at that point as well, and made them stop, so you could conclude your speech. I was just about to say that that goes for both sides. There are strongly held views: express them strongly when you have the floor, but please do not shout at one another. Liz McInnes.

[Liz McInnes]

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I want to end by quoting one of my constituents, Father Paul Daly, who said to me:

“When I vote in May, I will want a full-time MP who does not feel so hard-done by on a mere 67 grand a year plus expenses that they have to go looking for part-time work at a few extra thousand quid a day.

I don’t mind MPs getting rewarded for writing the odd article, but when MPs are earning more outside their parliamentary duties than within them then something is very wrong.”

I think that Father Daly speaks for the majority of people in their perceptions of MPs. That criticism from a member of the clergy brings home to us what people really think of us. This is a moral issue, and it is right that the Church should express its views in that way. We owe it to all our constituents, believers and non-believers alike, to conduct ourselves in an honourable fashion and to concentrate on the role to which we have been elected and which we should be proud to perform.

Business of the House

Liz McInnes Excerpts

Thursday 20th November 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hague]

It does sound fairly barmy, if they have to consult so many people, but my hon. Friend has used this opportunity to raise the issue in the House. I doubt that we will have a debate in the House on the decisions of Somerset county council, but she is obviously pursuing the matter energetically, and is no doubt encouraging the council to debate the issue itself.

[Liz McInnes (Heywood and Middleton) (Lab)]

In Heywood, 123 people are employed by Capita to handle the distribution and filing of Department for Work and Pensions claimants’ files. Capita has refused to pay those staff a living wage, and even pointed to other examples of employers in the area that pay poverty wages to justify that decision. May we have a statement, or even a debate, on the Government’s attitude to the payment of the living wage to those working in outsourced services?

[Mr Hague]

Debates on subjects such as the living wage can be held, and the Backbench Business Committee listens carefully to requests for such debates. In addition, the hon. Lady can pursue the matter directly with Work and Pensions Ministers; they do not have questions next week, but she can raise the matter in correspondence and in the House.