Business of the House
Paul Waugh Excerpts(1 week, 3 days ago)
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Lucy Powell
Absolutely. I join the hon. Member in congratulating Oscar on his fantastic achievement. Oscar was really breaking some ground there—cycling in the Tour de France as a Scottish-developed cyclist.
Paul Waugh (Rochdale) (Lab/Co-op)
Pippa, Britain’s first ever illegal vape sniffer dog, won a special hero award this week from the Chartered Trading Standards Institute. Springer spaniel Pippa was honoured along with Rochdale trading standards and police for their work seizing vapes targeted at children by organised crime groups. Will the Leader of the House join me in congratulating Pippa and the Rochdale team on their dogged detective work?
Lucy Powell
Now that is a good Christmas joke! That’s how to tell ‘em, I say. I absolutely join my hon. Friend in congratulating Pippa on her very paws-itive work. [Hon. Members: “Urgh”.] Never mind. Perhaps the team want to come to Manchester Central to clear up some of the vapes we have there.
Business of the House
Paul Waugh Excerpts(2 weeks, 3 days ago)
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Lucy Powell
First, I join the hon. Gentleman in advertising all the debates that happen in Westminster Hall, and I encourage colleagues to attend them more often.
The hon. Gentleman raises the important matter of those fleeing persecution, especially women fleeing the situation in Afghanistan. This Government have always taken a positive view of these issues, as did the previous Government. I will ensure that he gets a full reply on that matter.
Paul Waugh (Rochdale) (Lab/Co-op)
This week, Gordon Brown and the US ambassador to the UK jointly launched a new £6 million investment by Comic Relief and Amazon UK in the Multibank project, which is a fantastic initiative that donates surplus stock from companies to families in real need—everything from basics like baby clothes and bedding to household products. Will the Leader of the House join me in congratulating John Shaw of Littleborough, who was named Rochdale man of the year recently, for his charitable work for organisations such as Multibank?
Lucy Powell
I join my hon. Friend in congratulating John Shaw, Rochdale’s man of the year—perhaps an award that my hon. Friend might one day be lucky enough to receive—for all his work with Multibank, which does great charitable work.
Business of the House
Paul Waugh Excerpts(3 weeks, 3 days ago)
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Lucy Powell
I thank the hon. Member for that, and I hope he had a good time in Manchester. I do not know whether he was there for the football, but I was at the Man City game on Saturday—the less said about that, the better. If he is looking for the allocation of time for future business, he should please not mention the Tottenham game to me ever again, thank you very much.
The hon. Member raises an important matter, which was also raised with me on a previous occasion by the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon). We have such a debate today, albeit about Pakistan, and he is absolutely right to highlight these issues. We support freedom of religion or belief everywhere, and that includes in Bangladesh. I will certainly ask Foreign Office Ministers to look at coming forward with a statement about what is happening to Hindus in Bangladesh.
Paul Waugh (Rochdale) (Lab/Co-op)
My constituent Amir Khan’s beloved daughter Sanna was in her first year at university when she died in her sleep from sudden unexpected death in epilepsy, also known as SUDEP. Ten people every week die of SUDEP, many of them young people, yet with the right research and more public awareness, this number could be reduced. Will the Leader of the House allocate time for a debate on this under-reported issue, to give some comfort to families such as Mr Khan’s?
Lucy Powell
My hon. Friend raises an important issue that has been brought to him by his constituents, and may I send my condolences to Sanna’s family and friends? I did not realise quite how many people were affected by SUDEP, and I think this would make a really good Adjournment debate. The Government are committed to supporting people with epilepsy and their families, but I think he should consider a further debate to highlight these issues.
Business of the House
Paul Waugh Excerpts(1 month ago)
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Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)
We have been saving the best till last. I call Paul Waugh.
Paul Waugh (Rochdale) (Lab/Co-op)
The Rochdale diversity awards, now in their 12th year and run by the brilliant Kashmir Youth Project, are taking place this weekend. Will the Leader of the House congratulate all the nominees, who promote not just the rich diversity of our town, but its community cohesion?
Lucy Powell
My hon. Friend is another very good attender at business questions, always raising issues facing Rochdale. I am of course pleased to join him in congratulating all the nominees for diversity awards this year. He has put that on record, and I am sure that everyone will appreciate it.
Business of the House
Paul Waugh Excerpts(1 month, 1 week ago)
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Lucy Powell
These do sound like important issues. I know that the right hon. Gentleman has raised them in the past, and I am sure he will continue to. It is nice to receive some good feedback about a written parliamentary question, which is not exactly the norm during business questions. I do not think that, in the short term, we have any legislative vehicles for what he described, but I am sure that the issues would be a very good topic for a Westminster Hall debate, or possibly even a Backbench Business debate.
Paul Waugh (Rochdale) (Lab/Co-op)
Rochdale’s “Giving Back” Christmas toy appeal has begun accepting donations. It ensures that children from disadvantaged backgrounds have a present to open on Christmas Day. It is run by Rochdale council staff, and last year it supported 2,000 children. Will the Leader of the House join me in thanking the appeal’s founder, Helen Walton? More importantly, given that nearly 50% of children in Rochdale now live in relative poverty, thanks to the actions of the Conservative party over the last 14 years, does she agree that the Government’s child poverty strategy will be the best way to tackle the national shame of children going without, not just at Christmas but all year round?
Lucy Powell
I certainly join my hon. Friend in thanking all the Rochdale council staff and Helen Walton for their work on what sounds like an extremely good campaign. He is right: it is a shame on our country that so many children still live in poverty, without presents at Christmas and, in many cases, without food on the table most evenings. That is why we formed the child poverty taskforce. We are determined to reduce these inequalities and ensure that the scourge of child poverty is eradicated.
Business of the House
Paul Waugh Excerpts(1 month, 4 weeks ago)
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Lucy Powell
I am delighted to wish the hon. Gentleman’s constituents luck in their ambitious challenge to row across the Atlantic for such a worthy cause: Head Up, which I know well, does really important work. I am sure that Monday’s general debate on veterans will be a good opportunity to raise the matter again.
Paul Waugh (Rochdale) (Lab/Co-op)
I welcome the introduction of a beefed up Football Governance Bill. I thank the Leader of the House for all her hard work in opposition on beefing up the proposals. I wish to pass on a message from the co-chairman of Rochdale Association Football Club, who says he would love to host the new football regulator as part of the redevelopment of Rochdale’s ground. Would it not be perfect for the north-west, the beating heart of our national game, to host the football regulator?
Lucy Powell
I am really pleased that the Football Governance Bill is being introduced in the House of Lords today. The Bill has been strengthened and will put fans at the heart of our football. The previous Government promised but failed to deliver it.
Business of the House
Paul Waugh Excerpts(2 months ago)
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Paul Waugh (Rochdale) (Lab/Co-op)
The Leader of the House referred earlier to the Modernisation Committee. Can she update us on its work on the key issue of call lists, which worked well in this place during covid and work well in the other place every day, and on her wider efforts to make this place a more family-friendly Parliament?
Lucy Powell
The issue of call lists and the desire for a more family-friendly Parliament have been raised by many hon. Members, especially those who are newly elected, and I hope that a wealth of people will input to the call for views that the Modernisation Committee opened today.
Business of the House
Paul Waugh Excerpts(4 months, 3 weeks ago)
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Lucy Powell
I thank the shadow Leader of the House and join him in paying our respects to those affected by the brutal attack in Kent this week.
In our last business questions before the summer recess, Mr Speaker, I want to put on record my thanks to you, House staff, security staff and others for all your hard work in recent weeks, and I wish you all some kind of holiday over that recess. I also congratulate our new Deputy Speakers; they are breaking more glass ceilings with an all-female line-up that is the most diverse in our history. On the same theme, I also send congratulations to Baroness Eluned Morgan, who is set to become Wales’s first female First Minister—that is a lot of firsts.
Finally, I put on record my thanks to the wonderful John Tamlyn, one of our fantastic Doorkeepers, who is retiring after 36 years of service. The shadow Leader of the House mentioned the number of Prime Ministers under which John served, but I think most of those came in the last few years of his time. As he said to me earlier, the last few years go a lot faster than the early ones.
I also want to address the truly shocking footage we have seen of an incident at Manchester airport. It was right of the Greater Manchester police force to refer itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct, given the widespread concern about the incident.
This week we have heard many maiden speeches. There has been a lot of demand, shall we say, but it has been good to see the enthusiasm of many colleagues from across these Benches. Those speeches have told the stories of our nation, of people and places striving to get on, and looking after and looking out for each other; but I am not sure that I can agree that every other constituency is the best in the country, because of course we all know that the best is actually Manchester Central.
This has been a special week for us on the Government side of the House. After long years in opposition, we have finally been able to win some votes in support of our ambitious, bold, fully costed King’s Speech programme. It is one to be proud of. It is the opportunity and responsibility of government made real.
The shadow Leader of the House asks about the election of Select Committee Chairs. He will know that negotiations are ongoing between the usual channels about how those Chairs will be allocated. Once those are completed, we hope to have the elections as soon as possible.
As we end our third week in government, it is clearer than ever before that the Conservatives failed in their responsibility and left the country in state beyond our worst fears. They do not like to hear it, but they failed to take the tough and right choices. It is as if they knew that they were going to lose the election and left the really difficult decisions for us. They do not like it, but history will show it. That is not just my view. The National Audit Office found that the NHS has been left in an “unprecedented” crisis. The Institute for Fiscal Studies said that we face
“some of the toughest choices in generations”.
The previous Government’s own Justice Secretary admitted that they ignored prisons running at 99% capacity because it would cost them votes to take action, so I am afraid that I will not be taking the shadow Leader of the House’s advice on the issues that he raises.
The shadow Leader of the House talks about redefining illegal migration. I remember the former Home Secretary, the right hon. Member for Braintree (Mr Cleverly), redefining the backlog under the last Government as a “queue.” Far from being stopped, boats have been coming over in record numbers over the past year, so the Conservatives’ plan just was not working. That is why we have already reallocated resources and started returning illegal migrants, which his Government failed to do.
The shadow Leader of the House will know that, yes, we are taking action to ensure that all fiscal statements have Office for Budget Responsibility oversight. I am not sure whether his party will support that next week. The Conservatives had their chance to govern, and they left the country in a much worse state than they found it. They did not fix the roof while the sun was shining; in fact, their whole house was built on sand. We have been left the job of rebuilding from the bottom up, on shaky foundations, with most of the materials gone and the workforce depleted and demoralised, but we are getting on with the job, and there is more to come in coming days.
Manifesto commitments realised today will turn the page on an era of sleaze and scandal. Our first Bills, to be considered next week, will bring our railways back into public ownership—putting passengers first, not profit—and will protect our economy and family finances from Conservative Trussonomics, of which the shadow Leader of the House was an author. We will legislate for Great British Energy when Parliament returns, delivering energy security and lower bills. What a contrast with the dying days of the last Government. If he will forgive me, I will not be taking his advice; I will continue realising the change that the country is crying out for.
Paul Waugh (Rochdale) (Lab/Co-op)
The footage of a Greater Manchester police officer stamping on and kicking a man in Manchester airport is truly shocking and disturbing. That man is one of my Rochdale constituents, and I am meeting his family later today. Our police face a difficult job every day to keep us all safe, but they know that they are expected to demonstrate the highest standards of conduct in their duties. Will the Leader of the House make time for Members to discuss the important issue of police conduct?
Lucy Powell
I thank my hon. Friend for that important question. As I said, the footage is incredibly disturbing, and there is understandably a lot of concern, particularly in his constituency, given that his constituent was affected. Greater Manchester police have said that the officer involved was immediately suspended from all duties, and a referral has now been made to the Independent Office for Police Conduct. I will ensure that the Home Secretary has heard my hon. Friend’s question and is in touch with him at the earliest opportunity to discuss the matter further.