Public Services

Richard Drax Excerpts

Wednesday 16th October 2019 Commons Chamber

[Priti Patel]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Offenders who have committed the most heinous crimes should be in receipt of the appropriate sentences and justice should be served. He mentions Helen’s law. He is absolutely right in terms of making sure that we deliver on that and enable the justice that needs to take place.

[Richard Drax (South Dorset) (Con)]

May I remind the Home Secretary of the excellent private Member’s Bill presented by the hon. Member for Rhondda (Chris Bryant) on increasing sentences for those who attack members of the emergency services? If I can take her back to prison officers, from what I hear in my constituency about a number of prison officers who have been assaulted, the offenders are not receiving severe enough punishment. The deterrent is still not there. Will she look at that and ensure that anyone who assaults someone in the emergency services faces the full force of the law?

[Priti Patel]

My hon. Friend raises an incredibly important point. He is right in terms of the legislation. He will be aware, as I think all Members are, that sentences are not, I am afraid, fitting the level of assaults that have been committed. That is why we are now going to have a police covenant. We will also work across Government, including with the Ministry of Justice, to ensure that, for example, when probation and prison officers are assaulted the right sentences are given.

The Government believe in second chances when it comes to offenders and overcrowding in our prisons, but at the same time it is important that we continue to serve our country and our public and do more to protect the victims of domestic abuse, to ensure that criminals pay a price for withholding information about their crimes and to enshrine in law a system of support set out in the victims code.

By the time these debates on the Gracious Speech are over, we will have heard about the Government’s ambitious agenda for every area of our public services, whether it is our long-term plan for the NHS, adult social care, the Mental Health Act or improvements to railways, aviation and our national infrastructure. We are preparing our country for a brighter future. At the heart of this Government is a solemn promise, from the Government to their people, that we will protect the vulnerable, see justice done, keep our citizens safe and deliver on the people’s priorities.

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[Sir John Hayes (South Holland and The Deepings) (Con)]

I certainly would not want to disappoint you, Mr Speaker, so I must rise to the occasion and fulfil your aim for my speech. Like you, I believe it is a politician’s duty to inspire. But I would go further—it is our mission to enthral, but at least we should try to inspire. Too much of modern politics has become peppered with dull managerialism.

G.K. Chesterton said:

“For fear of the newspapers politicians are dull, and at last they are too dull even for the newspapers.”

Any Queen’s Speech is therefore welcome because it sets out a series of measures that we can debate and consider. Indeed, it has enlivened a discussion today that could not have taken place had the Government not set out such a series of measures. The least that can be said of the Queen’s Speech is that it does just that: it is bold, it is fresh and it is evidence of an agenda. Whether it could be said to be a coherent mission or—dare one say?— evidence for a vision is more debatable, but at least it is a fresh start. Many of the measures are necessary, and most are desirable.

The Home Secretary is herself, as I noted when I intervened on her, a breath of fresh air. I am going to say some very nice things about a former Home Secretary in a minute, just in case she was worrying that I would not. The Home Secretary said that many of the measures are to address freedom from fear. Fear and doubt pervade too much of Britain. In too many places, too many people we represent live lives of fear, and crime perhaps strikes the greatest fear in our constituents’ hearts. The continuing threat of terror is the apex of those fears, and, as my right hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May), who earlier made such an impressive contribution to this debate, mentioned in her final Prime Minister’s questions, at the Home Office I was able to introduce measures to tackle terrorism, but I could not have done so without her guidance and leadership. There is no one more resolute in their determination to tackle that threat than my right hon. Friend.

The fear that people feel daily, however, is the fear of disorder, and many of the measures in this Queen’s Speech are welcome because they begin to address that kind of disorder. The daily experience of lawlessness blights lives, diminishes communities, damages and sometimes destroys individuals and families. The figures that I looked at in preparation for this debate are stark. The year of my birth was 1958—I know that hon. Members are wondering how that could be so, but I was indeed born in 1958, and you probably know the date, time and place, Mr Speaker, given your approach to these things. In that year, there were 261 murders or manslaughters. In 2018, there were 732. In 1958, there were 1,692 robberies; in 2018, there were 82,566. As far as arson is concerned, the numbers have gone from 722 to more than 25,000. There is no doubt that crime of all kinds has grown at an alarming rate over my lifetime. It has to be said that unfortunately most of the snowflake elite who run too much of Britain are in denial about that and about how to deal with it.

[Richard Drax]

Does my right hon. Friend agree that the best way to combat this level of fear is the sight of a police officer on the beat?

[Sir John Hayes]

Absolutely. The Queen’s Speech and the spending provisions that the Government have made allow for more police officers to be on the beat to tackle crime, to reassure potential victims of crime and to solve as well as to anticipate the incidents that cause so much misery.

The denial that I described is as plain as this: there are many people, including, I am sad to say, some people in this House, who simply will not face the fact that many of the people who commit crimes are cruel, vicious, heartless thugs and villains who deserve to be caught, deserve to be convicted and deserve to be locked up for as long as possible. That is what our constituents would say, and the fact that we do not say it frequently enough creates a gulf, at least in their perception, between what the people affected by these things, who live on the frontline, know and what people in this place think.

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[Richard Drax (South Dorset) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Oldham East and Saddleworth (Debbie Abrahams). My only point on the second referendum she is calling for is that I am not quite sure anyone in this country would believe that that would be honoured either, bearing in mind that the first has not been honoured for three and a half years.

I welcome the Queen’s Speech; it contains a raft of domestic measures that for too long have not been given the attention they should have been, not because we have not wanted to give them attention, but simply because Brexit has consumed all our energy and time. However, from the end of March this year, that should not have been the case. The fact that it has continued is down to the antics of MPs from all parts of the House who have done, and continue to do, their utmost to prevent our departure from the EU. There is, of course, a handful of exceptions who genuinely wish to leave with a deal, but let me tell them that we all want to leave with a deal. However, we voted to leave the EU, deal or no deal, and that must now be done on 31 October.

It is to the shame of the House that the so-called surrender Bill was passed, and with such undue haste. A pernicious piece of legislation, its aim was to undermine Brexit and our negotiating position, which it has done. The Prime Minister has called on the Opposition parties to throw themselves on the mercy of the electorate and, unsurprisingly, they refuse to do so. They bang on about democracy, but they are terrified of it. That is the truth.

As I have said, the Queen’s Speech touches on many important areas. We heard from my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary this morning that we will take a far more robust approach to crime. I applaud the proposal for an additional 20,000 police officers, having argued for them for many years. Dorset’s share in the first year is 50, and it is vital that we get the extra 120 in the following two years if the formula is to be followed. I would like to pay tribute to Dorset’s police officers, all of whom do great credit to their force. I know for a fact that these extra officers will be welcomed and are desperately needed.

I would be failing in my duty if I did not mention our prison officers, who often feel like the forgotten army. They must not be forgotten by this Government, and we must continue to ensure that they have the support and numbers they need to do the job.

While talking about those in uniform, I want also to pay tribute to our armed forces. A former soldier myself, I welcome the new Office for Veterans Affairs, which is aimed at better co-ordinating care for our veterans, many of whom need our help. I pay special tribute to the former soldier Andy Price, who has established a help centre and garden in Weymouth. It has been hugely successful, and Andy is now considering applying for charitable status.

I was concerned that there was no measure in the Queen’s Speech to stop the ongoing witch hunt against our veterans, especially those who served in Northern Ireland decades ago. However, I was encouraged by the reply that the Prime Minister gave to my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Beckenham (Bob Stewart) on Monday. I remind the Prime Minister that we are not asking for a statute of limitations. We simply want there to be a presumption against further prosecution when a case has already been investigated and when there is no new evidence. I attended a rally in Parliament Square recently, and there is genuine anger among our veterans and their families that this injustice has still not been resolved. It must be. I am glad to read that the defence budget will continue to meet NATO’s 2% requirement. There is no doubt that more money is needed, not least to ensure that our brave men and women are housed properly and decently.

The national infrastructure strategy and plans for a White Paper on how to unleash regional potential are welcome announcements, and nowhere is the former more needed and the latter being more promoted than in South Dorset. A new business-led panel that I initiated has been taken on by Bill Reeves, the chief executive of Portland Port, to whom I am most grateful and owe so much. Under his dynamic leadership, more and more people are getting involved in the panel’s aim to create and deliver a strategy that attracts more investment, more businesses and better jobs. Coastal towns such as Swanage and Weymouth, and the island of Portland, cannot do it on their own. We need at least a fair slice of the infrastructure cake, crying out as we are for better road, rail and broadband connectivity. Our biggest drawback is that our conurbations are relatively small and often do not meet the Government’s criteria, but those guidelines must change if coastal resorts are going to survive, as they should and must. I should like to thank the Minister for the Northern Powerhouse and Local Growth, my right hon. Friend the Member for Rossendale and Darwen (Jake Berry) for responding so rapidly to my invitation to visit us recently. Rest assured we will be chasing him and his Department in the months ahead.

I would be failing in my duty if I did not mention farmers, and I refer Members to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. I meet farmers every quarter, and there is genuine concern about Brexit and the effect that it will have on them. There is an appreciation that public moneys will be available for public good. There is also a need for support in the face of possible punitive tariffs. We would all be grateful—I note that the Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond Park (Zac Goldsmith) is on the Front Bench—if the Government fleshed out exactly what support will be available, particularly in the event of no deal. The fishing community is also worried about its future, and the sooner we take back control of our waters, the better.

Affordable housing is a pressing issue in South Dorset. We have seen imaginative new housing developments where house builders use a range of materials to lower the cost. “Affordable homes” is not a popular phrase in my constituency, because they are simply not affordable, so we must deal with that issue. While on housing, can we please look at density? All too often there are too many houses and not nearly enough green space. More money for health and education is to be welcomed, of course, but we cannot ignore the shortage of nurses. We need more home-grown nurses, who are essential for the future of the NHS.

There are many more issues that I would like to cover, but my time, regrettably, is running out. I will end where I started by saying that if some MPs have doubts about the direction of travel in this place, let us trust the people and let them decide in a general election.

[Several hon. Members rose—]