Business of the House

Debate between Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi and Lucy Powell

Thursday 19th December 2024 Commons Chamber

[Lucy Powell]

I welcome the right hon. Gentleman’s comments. We are absolutely putting children at the heart of our policy. We have a mission to ensure opportunity for all and that every child has the very best start in life, to really galvanise all the different Departments and places across the country, and Secretaries of State, including the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, are working closely on a child poverty taskforce. Putting children first is at the forefront of this Government’s mission. I look forward to working with the right hon. Gentleman on delivering that.

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

Merry Christmas and a happy new year to you and all the House staff, Mr Speaker, and to everybody out there, particularly in my constituency.

Many of my constituents have contacted me to convey their concerns over the safety of their loved ones and the wellbeing of former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan after the killing of several protesters in Pakistan, with many more injured and hospitalised, in addition to their anxieties over abductions, torture and transnational repression. Will the Leader of the House ensure that our UK Ministers make representations to their Pakistan counterparts to protect democratic norms, press freedoms and the human rights of all?

[Lucy Powell]

My hon. Friend will be aware that the British Government and Ministers are in constant dialogue with counterparts in Pakistan and around the world. We do expect democratic norms to be upheld in Pakistan, as we do in other countries. I will ensure that he gets a proper ministerial response on the issues he has raised.

Affordable and Safe Housing for All

Debate between Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi and Lucy Powell

Tuesday 18th May 2021 Commons Chamber

[Lucy Powell]

My hon. Friend makes a very good point.

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

I, too, welcome my hon. Friend to her place. Indeed, this is not just a failure of home ownership. There has been over a decade of Tory failures on housing. We have seen home ownership decrease. We have seen rough sleeping and homelessness increase. We have seen council house waiting lists increase. We have seen the failure to deal with the Grenfell tragedy, and, in the wake of that tragedy, the failure to ensure that all homes are safe, so does my hon. Friend agree that there is a litany of failures, not just on home ownership?

[Lucy Powell]

I very much agree, and when I made some of those points earlier, it was met with silence from Government Members.

In conclusion, the dream of having a secure, safe and affordable home is a powerful one, and rightly so. Housing is much more than an investment or a commodity. Homes are the places we grow up in, the places we grow old in. How safe and secure they are shapes who we are—the opportunities we can take, the freedoms we have, the successes and happiness we share—but for too many in this country after 11 years of a Conservative Government that has become a pipe dream. The Government’s market-driven ethos just will not create the homes we need, and for people trapped in buildings with dangerous cladding that dream has become twisted and has become a waking nightmare. Today we can start to fix that at least, and I hope Members from all parts of the House will join me in supporting our amendment.

Maintained Nursery Schools

Debate between Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi and Lucy Powell

Thursday 31st January 2019 Commons Chamber

[Lucy Powell]

I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention. He is right. This is the key issue. It is about by when we need this funding commitment. I hope that the Minister will get a strong signal from the House that he can take back to the Treasury and get the commitment that we need.

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

I congratulate my hon. Friend on having secured this important debate about the sustainability of maintained nursery schools. More than 1,500 very concerned Slough constituents have signed petitions on this very issue from Slough Centre, Cippenham, Chalvey, Baylis Court and Lea nurseries. Does my hon. Friend agree that if we are to ensure the brightest possible future for our young children, we need to invest properly in their education from an early years nursery stage?

[Lucy Powell]

My hon. Friend has made a very good point. We will be handing in a number of petitions in the House next week. We know that the single biggest indicator of how well children will do in their GCSEs is their developmental level at the age of five. That is why the critical early years are so important.