Business of the House

Nusrat Ghani Excerpts

Thursday 9th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Lucy Powell]

May I, too, wish you, Madam Deputy Speaker, and the whole House a very happy new year? I send all our sympathies to the residents of Los Angeles who are being hit by wildfires—the situation unfolding there is very concerning indeed.

May I also take this opportunity to congratulate a fellow northerner, Luke Littler, on winning the world darts championship? He might support the wrong football team, but he has been a great role model and is making darts a very compelling sport.

It is the new year, but I am afraid it is the same old Tories. Their decision to try to vote down the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill yesterday was another huge misjudgment. They seem to have learned nothing and are incapable of accepting they got things wrong or having what it takes to rebuild trust. The victims of grooming gangs need politicians to hear their voices, to act without fear or favour, and to take all necessary steps to root out and bring justice to perpetrators and enablers, whoever they are. They do not need pathetic and blatant political bandwagon jumping.

If Conservative Members were really interested in the victims and justice, their leader would have met with victims, but she has not. When she was Children’s Minister or the Women and Equalities Minister, she could have acted or spoken about the subject in the Chamber, but she did not. If this was really about addressing the root causes and making sure our institutions, culture and laws are fit for purpose, the Conservatives would have started implementing the recommendations of the Jay report, but they did not. Their wrecking tactics last night showed that they would rather play politics instead of supporting measures to safeguard children. I find it quite depressing to watch the official Opposition chase the spectre of Reform. These are very serious issues that require serious attention, with victims and their learnings at the centre.

Yet again, the shadow Leader of the House raises the economy but, as ever, I will take no lectures from him. After all, he admitted that we inherited a “struggling” economy with “anaemic” growth. Our commitment to economic stability, sound public finances and meeting the fiscal rules is non-negotiable, as we have just heard from the Chief Secretary to the Treasury. We are borrowing only for investment and we will see net debt fall. As the right hon. Gentleman knows well, the cost of debt fluctuates, often because of global markets. That is in stark contrast to the chaos we saw under his Government, when Liz Truss’s kamikaze Budget directly and immediately led to the gilt market crashing, needing the Bank of England to intervene to buy up Government bonds. She might want us to cease and desist, but we will not cease and desist from telling the truth that they crashed the economy.

When we talk about fixing the foundations of our economy, we are talking about tackling the fundamental and huge structural problems we face: years of low growth; very low productivity; chronically low investment; poor connectivity; a labour market with high levels of sickness; a health service on its knees; low skills; and an overreliance on record levels of immigration, which, in turn, puts more pressure on the housing crisis.

There are no quick fixes, but that is why the decisions we have taken, such as those in the Budget, are different and represent our vision of sustainable, shared growth. That begins with investment in health, investment in education and skills, and investment in the jobs of the future. It begins with providing a pay rise for the lowest paid, investment in transport and connectivity, and decent homes for people to live in.

Our approach is fundamentally different from that of the Conservative party, which is based on short-term, deregulatory, trickle-down economics. Opposition Members cannot have it both ways. We would have had cuts now —huge cuts to health and education—if they had been in government. They cannot have the benefits of the Budget without the measures it took to achieve them. Their agenda saw living standards fall for the first time in decades, with stagnant growth, poor productivity, high waiting lists and sickness rates and, perhaps most telling of all, in their last year of office net migration at nearly 1 million. We recognise that it will take time and we are beginning to turn the oil tanker around.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

I call the Chair of the Defence Committee.

[Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Slough) (Lab)]

In 1984, the global Sikh community suffered catastrophic collective trauma when the then Indian Government ordered the storming of the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar, which led to devastating destruction and bloodshed, with thousands of innocent people losing their lives. Thirty years later, to our shock, new documents exposed that the Thatcher Government had helped their Indian counterpart by providing advice prior to that military operation. In its pursuit for the truth and transparency, the British Sikh community duly launched a campaign for an independent inquiry to establish the extent of that involvement. While previous Conservative Governments have tried to brush the issue under the carpet, Sikhs expected the new Labour Government to establish that promised independent inquiry. When will that be initiated?

[Lucy Powell]

I know that this matter is of great importance to the Sikh community across the UK, so my hon. Friend is absolutely right to raise it today and to continue to do so on behalf of the Sikh community and others. We need to get to the bottom of what happened, and I will ensure that the Ministers responsible are in touch with him to discuss the matter further.

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

[Marie Goldman (Chelmsford) (LD)]

I wish you a happy new year, Madam Deputy Speaker.

Community pharmacies are fundamental to our healthcare system, providing essential advice and services while alleviating pressure on the NHS. We simply cannot do without them. Indeed, we are all now encouraged to “Think Pharmacy First” for some medical conditions. However, it is hard to understand how that is possible if pharmacies are facing closure because the NHS is not covering the cost of the medications they dispense.

The contract between the NHS and pharmacies has simply failed to keep up with the rising costs of many medicines. The result is that many pharmacists are operating out of their own pocket, taking huge losses year after year. The outcome feels inevitable. We have seen 1,200 pharmacies close since 2015, including nearly 500 in the past year alone. When the Company Chemists’ Association reports average shortfalls of £60,000 per pharmacy per annum, can we really be surprised?

We are warned by the National Pharmacy Association of pharmacy deserts, where many rural and deprived areas risk having no immediate access at all. This can only spell a health inequality crisis, which will be felt more intensely by those who already struggle the most. This needs to be fixed. We must avoid even more pharmacy closures up and down the country.

Pharmacies are vital not just to the communities they serve, but to the NHS as a whole. Will the Leader of the House grant Government time for a debate on how our pharmacies can be better supported for long-term viability and sustainability?

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[Lucy Powell]

Yet again, my hon. Friend raises the important matter of Doncaster royal infirmary in her constituency. I know that she is doing great work to highlight the problems that it faces. She will be aware that the so-called new hospital programme—the previous Government’s capital investment programme—was a work of fiction. The programme did not have the funds our hospitals needed, but I will ensure that she gets a meeting with a Minister, because the circumstances that she describes are unacceptable.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

I call the Chair of the Backbench Business Committee.

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)]

Happy new year to you, Madam Deputy Speaker, and to everyone.

In addition to the business that the Leader of the House has announced, the Backbench Business Committee has organised debates in Westminster Hall on Tuesday 14 January on railway services in the south-west; on Thursday 16 January on Government support for the marine renewables industry; on Tuesday 21 January on the provision of auditory verbal therapy; and on Thursday 23 January on the United Nations International Day of Education, followed by a debate on the innovation in the field of rare retinal disease. With your permission, Madam Deputy Speaker, on Tuesday 28 January, there will be a debate on road safety for young drivers.

The Leader of the House has announced the debate on the performance of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. She will know that that debate was frozen out before Christmas, because the Government put on a succession of statements and there was insufficient time for it to take place. She has said that it now has an allocated day, but will she arrange for it to be given protected time so that that debate can take place in full?

We have a heavily subscribed request for a debate on Holocaust Memorial Day, which takes place on 27 January. Obviously, the Leader of the House has not announced the dates for debates during that period, but it would be helpful for all Members if she could indicate whether she will allow a debate either on the 27th or on one of the two relevant Thursdays. This will be the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, and sadly many of the survivors will not live to see another significant memorial day, so I hope that she will be able to facilitate a debate.

Yesterday, our allies in the United Arab Emirates announced that 19 entities and individuals have been proscribed and put on their watchlist for terrorist links across the world. Sadly, eight of those entities exist in the UK, where they operate freely and are not proscribed. Could we have a statement from a Minister early next week on what action the Government will take following the actions of the United Arab Emirates, to ensure that these Islamist terrorist groups, which are linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, are proscribed in the UK and are not allowed to operate freely?

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[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

Order. I need you all to work with me. If your questions are fast and the answers are just as fast, I will be able to get everyone in, otherwise not everyone will be able to get in.

[Ellie Chowns (North Herefordshire) (Green)]

Two days before Christmas, the Government pulled the plug on the community ownership fund. This is a devastating blow to organisations, charities and community groups across the country, such as Much Marcle community shop, Pencombe parish council, which wanted to buy the local pub, and the local disability charity ECHO for Extra Choices in Herefordshire. They are all in my constituency, and all have fantastic projects that now have no prospect of Government funding. Will the Leader of the House ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government to come to the House to answer questions from Members about why the Government pulled the rug out from under projects such as those, and how they will support community projects to serve their communities?

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[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

Order. We have 20 Members left, all on the Government Benches. If you work together, you will all get in. It is up to you.

[Mr Mark Sewards (Leeds South West and Morley) (Lab)]

I welcome the Government’s announcement that Yorkshire and the Humber is getting £123 million to repair potholes. Since the announcement, many of my constituents in Leeds South West and Morley have been in touch about key roads in the constituency—Cross Peel Street, the Tingley roundabout and Asquith Avenue. I have mentioned this three times in the House already. Will the Leader of the House grant an urgent debate on the need to help these local authorities spend this money quickly, so that all our residents feel the benefit?