Business of the House

Martin Vickers Excerpts

Thursday 10th May 2018 Commons Chamber

[Andrea Leadsom]

I am really sorry to hear about the hon. Lady’s constituent. That is absolutely appalling, and unfortunately it is all too regular an occurrence. I agree that it would be a good thing for this House to debate; she might like to seek a Backbench business debate. She will be aware that the Government are taking action through the Law Commission review to ensure that everything that is illegal offline is also illegal online.

[Martin Vickers (Cleethorpes) (Con)]

Notable among the successful candidates in the North East Lincolnshire Council elections were Callum Procter and Oliver Freeston, because of their relative youth. Indeed, the Grimsby Telegraph reports that Oliver Freeston is the youngest councillor in the country—he now represents Croft Baker ward in Cleethorpes. May we a debate in Government time to look at how we encourage young people to stand for elected office?

[Andrea Leadsom]

Congratulations to Oliver Freeston and to my hon. Friend on the success in the local elections. He is exactly right: we do want to encourage more people to come into Parliament. As we often discuss, it is vital to ensure that people feel that they can be respected and are not threatened or abused online or in person when they decide that they want to put themselves forward to support and represent their constituents and to make this world of ours a better place.