Football Regulation

Debate between Samantha Dixon and Matt Rodda

Wednesday 8th November 2023 Commons Chamber

[Matt Rodda (Reading East) (Lab)]

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak about football regulation and about Reading football club in tonight’s Adjournment debate. Before I start, I will say a few words of thanks to Reading fans and to all those campaigning to secure the future of football clubs around the country. I also thank the Minister for his support; I appreciate that he is standing in for a colleague at the last minute. I particularly thank the Reading fans who set up the Sell Before We Dai campaign, which is calling on the current owner to sell the club to a new, more responsible owner. I would like to mention Ian Morton, who is here tonight, Eleanor Flood and many others. I also thank our supporters trust, and many other fans groups.

[Samantha Dixon (City of Chester) (Lab)]

As a supporter-run club, Chester football club has not-going-into-debt written into its constitution. For them, it means that they will never again lose the club to the whim of feckless owners. Chester FC competes against clubs that do not have that safeguard and is therefore always at a competitive disadvantage because it is committed to a sustainable future for the club. Football regulation must mean that that is tackled. Does my hon. Friend agree that meaningful regulation, and financial incentives to promote good governance with supporter representation at its heart, has to be the way forward, from the premiership to the grassroots?

[Matt Rodda]

I thank my hon. Friend; of course, the interests of fans and clubs must come first.

Animal Welfare (Kept Animals)

Debate between Samantha Dixon and Matt Rodda

Wednesday 21st June 2023 Commons Chamber

[Samantha Dixon (City of Chester) (Lab)]

If there is one thing I know, it is that my constituents care passionately about animal welfare. My inbox is full of emails about the importance of this topic to them. The scrapping of the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill and the prevarication on display today are, frankly, astonishing. I am baffled that Conservative Members cannot see how the withdrawal of the Bill makes constituents question whether this Government even care about delivering on their promises. As we have learned this week, trust matters to our constituents, and I know that my constituents care. They care about animal welfare and they care about the Government delivering on their pledges.

The dropping of the Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill also creates huge worries for zoos across the country, including Chester zoo in my constituency, which runs world-leading conservation research and work on animal welfare issues. It is very worried that, without this Bill, the uncertainty surrounding the legislative framework within which zoos operate will be perpetuated. This is causing it real difficulties in allocating the charity’s spending. It is, in effect, in limbo. The Government need to engage with the zoo sector quickly to bring forward the central aims of this important Bill.

Chester zoo is not the only way my area is leading on animal welfare issues. Cheshire West and Chester Council was one of the first to ban permanently the practice of trail hunting on council-owned land, and the National Trust soon followed suit. The changes introduced by the previous Labour Government have stood the test of time, from the bans on foxhunting and fur farming to the action taken to stop experimentation on great apes and the testing of cosmetics on animals.

[Matt Rodda]

My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech, and I hope that today we can have an element of consensus and that the Government will reconsider their position. It seems strange, when the official Opposition are backing a Government Bill, to not want to progress that Bill for the benefit of animals.

[Samantha Dixon]

I completely agree with my hon. Friend. We must ensure that we do not stop here; we should lead the way on animal welfare. The belief in protecting animal welfare should not come and go depending on what is politically convenient or fashionable at the time—it should be a matter of principle and conviction. There is no need to go round the houses with this issue, introducing what appears to be a parliamentary pick-and-mix approach. We need urgently to go from A to B as simply and as quickly as possible. I will be voting to bring this Bill back, and I encourage Members across the House to do the same.