Business of the House

Tom Gordon Excerpts

Thursday 15th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Sir Alan Campbell]

I thank my hon. Friend for raising this matter. As she alludes to, it is not new; delays are affecting the lives of constituents right across our country. The DVLA is currently rolling out a new casework system, which is expected to deliver significant improvements to the services provided to drivers with medical conditions, but as I have said before, that is small beer to people who are sitting at home waiting or are unable to take job opportunities. If she gives me the details of the case, I will raise it with Ministers to see what further action we can take.

[Tom Gordon (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (LD)]

One of the greatest privileges I have had in this place so far was sitting on the assisted dying Bill Committee. We have seen in the press today rumours that No. 10 thinks the Bill will not return before the King’s Speech and subsequently would fall. Could the Leader of the House enlighten us on what conversations he is having with his counterpart in the other place and whether the Government will ensure there is adequate time for the Bill to pass, given that the public perception and polling is in support of the Bill, and many people I speak to already think it will come into force? Given that the Prime Minister made a personal promise to Esther Rantzen, will the Leader of the House gently nudge him in the right direction?

[Sir Alan Campbell]

As the hon. Gentleman knows, the Government have always said that this is for Parliament to decide. I would say to those in the other place that they should respect the will of this elected House, which did support the Bill. However, their job of scrutiny is up to them. I urge them to get on with it, so that we can make every effort. I am a supporter of the Bill, and the Prime Minister has made it clear that he is too, but I know there are real concerns about it. I have also made it clear that, should the Bill come back to this place, presumably with amendments made, we will facilitate time here to make that happen. We have to be clear about this: the Lords have a job to do, and they are getting on with it in a particular way. We might not like it, but it is their job to get the Bill into shape. If it does come back here, we will do everything we can to get it on to the statute book, but it is not a Government Bill.

Business of the House

Tom Gordon Excerpts

Thursday 8th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Sir Alan Campbell]

I join my hon. Friend in thanking everyone involved in this initiative. There is a long way to go, but important progress is being made. Tackling knife crime is a top priority for this Government, although there are still too many cases. Knife crime overall has fallen for the first time in four years, but there is a great deal more to do. The coalition to tackle knife crime has helped to shape key policies, including the ninja sword ban and the online sales review. However, I will draw her remarks to the attention of Home Office Ministers. We are bringing forward further measures in the Crime and Policing Bill to the strengthen legislation on knives.

[Tom Gordon (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (LD)]

I join the Leader of the House in recognising people who were awarded honours in the new year’s list, including those who live and work in Harrogate and Knaresborough such as Simon Roberts, Jane Bayliss, Professor Piers Forster, Miriam and Terence Wilcox, and Master Ali, who was awarded an MBE for services to taekwondo. I have had the pleasure of attending some taekwondo sessions, but fortunately not of participating in them, and I was a guest at one of the contests held locally last year. Martial arts and taekwondo in particular play an important role in health, wellbeing, discipline and providing an opportunity for young people. Will the Leader of the House ask the relevant Minister for further support and promotion of martial arts?

[Sir Alan Campbell]

Local sport plays such an important part in our local communities, and the many volunteers who get involved literally change people’s lives for the better. The hon. Member is right to pay tribute to those involved and to draw to our attention the fact that many of them have quite rightly received an award. I will draw his remarks to the attention of the relevant Minister and see what more we can do, but the Government are ambitious in this regard.

Business of the House

Tom Gordon Excerpts

Thursday 23rd October 2025 Commons Chamber

[Sir Alan Campbell]

Yes, we will ensure a full right to equal pay for ethnic minorities in law, and we will introduce mandatory ethnicity pay reporting for larger employers to help close the pay gap and to support my hon. Friend’s campaign.

[Tom Gordon (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (LD)]

Last week I held a drop-in with the Great Start in Life Foundation, which supports health visitors and school nursing services across much of the north of England, helping children and families to get the best start in life. Will the Leader of the House congratulate that organisation on its work and find time for a debate on supporting and strengthening nought-to-19 public health services, which play such a vital role in improving outcomes for children and young people?

[Sir Alan Campbell]

I will, of course, congratulate the foundation on its work. The Government are seeking precisely to ensure that everybody gets the best start in life and that the investment is there, because it pays off later.

Business of the House

Tom Gordon Excerpts

Thursday 16th October 2025 Commons Chamber

[Sir Alan Campbell]

I congratulate the choir. When we think about the Welsh valleys, we associate them with male voice choirs, which are an important part of the fabric of those communities. The Government are acutely aware of that, so I would welcome the opportunity to raise these issues through a debate. Where the Government are able to support music and other community activities, they are keen to do so to ensure that support does not go just to certain areas and to certain types of music, but that everyone and every area—particularly community things like male voice choirs—gets its share.

[Tom Gordon (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (LD)]

Rural families across North Yorkshire, including those in villages such as Killinghall and Hampsthwaite in my constituency, have been left stranded by changes to home-to-school transport rules, with children living in the same villages now set to go to different schools and parents facing having to give up work to get them there. Will the Leader of the House make time for a debate on reforming school transport laws so that school transport properly serves areas like North Yorkshire? Will he perhaps pass that on to colleagues in the Department for Education?

[Sir Alan Campbell]

I think it is important that the hon. Gentleman seeks a debate on that matter so that he can put together the evidence and bring it to the attention of Ministers, who are acutely aware of the cost of public and school transport. I think that an opportunity to share experiences of that across the House would inform debate.

Business of the House

Tom Gordon Excerpts

Thursday 11th September 2025 Commons Chamber

[Sir Alan Campbell]

I very much congratulate Bournemouth on how it is promoting its town, as well as my hon. Friend on how he is promoting it. I have to say he is stretching it a bit by asking me to say it is the best seaside town since I have Whitley Bay in my constituency, but it should not be a competition. What we need to do is promote seaside and coastal towns. They are fantastic places to live and to visit.

[Tom Gordon (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (LD)]

Last weekend, I met residents of New Park, alongside local Liberal Democrat councillor, Monika Slater. Residents are frustrated about the new Tesco that has been built and its impact on local businesses, with contractors regularly flouting the planning rules to work outside permitted hours. Will the Leader of the House allow for a debate in Government time on local authority enforcement powers and, perhaps, how we can get Tory-run North Yorkshire council to use them?

[Sir Alan Campbell]

I am not sure of the detail of this case, but it is not unfamiliar to many of us to see the stress that big developments sometimes cause to residents. Again, this is the sort of thing the hon. Gentleman should seek an Adjournment debate on.

Business of the House

Tom Gordon Excerpts

Thursday 4th September 2025 Commons Chamber

[Lucy Powell]

I join my hon. Friend in paying tribute to Touchstones and all its work for bereaved children and especially those who are bereaved due to domestic violence. Its work is vital in supporting children through probably the most difficult time of their lives and I thank him for raising that.

[Tom Gordon (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (LD)]

I sit on the Joint Committee on Human Rights. One of the issues concerning me is what scrutiny and accountability the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s new code of practice and guidance will have from this House. My understanding is that it will be laid before the House as a negative statutory instrument, meaning that unless the Leader of the Opposition pushes for time and scrutiny, there may be none. Will the Leader of the House outline what opportunities Members will get to scrutinise that guidance when it is published?

[Lucy Powell]

I know the new guidance from the EHRC is of great interest to many Members across this House; it is something that I get many emails and correspondence about myself. A parliamentary process will sit alongside that, but I will absolutely ensure that there is appropriate time to debate and discuss these issues, which I know are important to the House.

Business of the House

Tom Gordon Excerpts

Thursday 17th July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Lucy Powell]

I absolutely join my hon. Friend in congratulating Lucy Bronze and the rest of the women’s Euros team. We are all getting behind them in the coming days. He is absolutely right that our grassroots clubs, whether in men’s or women’s football, are the engine of the football pyramid. That is why I am really pleased, and I am sure the whole House—well, those of us on the Labour Benches, anyway—will be pleased that the Football Governance Bill has now passed all its stages and will hopefully soon receive Royal Assent. We are putting fans and community clubs right back at the heart of the football pyramid, which is as it should be.

[Tom Gordon (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (LD)]

A couple of weeks ago at a Quaker Asylum and Refugee Network event in Harrogate, I met constituents who came to the UK from Afghanistan under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy scheme, and who still have family living in Afghanistan. They showed me photos of their loved ones, some smiling and some a lot more brutal and bleak after attacks they had faced. The statement earlier this week focused rightly on the Afghanistan Response Route scheme and the associated super-injunction. Will the Leader of the House liaise with her Cabinet colleagues and look for further opportunities for MPs to meet relevant Ministers to discuss existing applications under the ARAP scheme, such as those of my constituents and their families?

[Lucy Powell]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for raising that issue on behalf of the Afghan refugees in his constituency. He is absolutely right that the UK made a commitment—the right commitment—to honour our moral obligation that we owe to those Afghans who stood with us through all those years of conflict and terror. He will be aware that, to date, around 36,000 Afghans have resettled in the UK under Government schemes—a significant number. We have to keep the schemes under constant review and assess the risks to those in countries such as Afghanistan. That is why we have taken the decisions we have to close some of the schemes recently, but I will ensure he gets a response from a Minister.

Business of the House

Tom Gordon Excerpts

Thursday 10th July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Lucy Powell]

I know what a great football club Altrincham FC is and how much my hon. Friend, as the local MP, supports them. He is absolutely right that the Football Governance Bill is an important step in ensuring that fans and communities, like those who support Altrincham FC, are right back at the heart of our football system. I am sure that a debate on the 3UP campaign would get a lot of support.

[Tom Gordon (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (LD)]

Last week, I asked the Leader of the House if she would join me in wishing good luck to Freedom Performing Arts, which was performing at the world championships in Spain. I am sure she will be pleased to hear that the six to nine-year-olds secured a bronze medal. Amy and the team are really chuffed.

Last week, I visited Golf in Society—an initiative through which a group of volunteers and paid staff take people who live with Parkinson’s, dementia and other age-related conditions out, ensuring that they get out and about, and keep fit and active. Will the Leader of the House make time in Government time for a debate on how such initiatives help older people with ageing and associated diseases?

[Lucy Powell]

I am pleased to hear that Freedom Performing Arts got a bronze medal—that is fantastic. I join the hon. Gentleman in thanking all those who work with people with dementia and those who are ageing to keep them independent, active and involved in initiatives like the one that he visited this week. The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care is now in his place. The NHS 10-year plan, and all the work that we are doing in the NHS and in health in this country, is about bringing services back into the community, as well as prevention and exactly the sort of initiatives that he describes.

Business of the House

Tom Gordon Excerpts

Thursday 3rd July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Lucy Powell]

I thank my hon. Friend for raising that issue, which was discussed in the debate yesterday by many colleagues. As the Minister set out, there is a clear precedent for the approach taken yesterday—it happened in 2001, for example, when the motion bundled together 20 other militant groups alongside al-Qaeda. I know the strength of feeling on this issue, but I assure my hon. Friend that the Home Secretary must reasonably believe that any such organisation is concerned in terrorism in any form, and we do not take these decisions lightly. I want to be clear that the proscription of Palestine Action is not aimed at banning all protests that support Palestine by any means. There are many ways in which people can continue to express their support for Palestine without becoming a member of that organisation.

[Tom Gordon (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (LD)]

Freedom Performing Arts, a dance school in Knaresborough, is currently representing England at the dance world cup in Spain. It had to raise £30,000 from the local community, businesses and parents to get there, and it still faces a funding shortfall. Will the Leader of the House join me in wishing Amy and the entire team the best of luck and make time for a Government debate on support for grassroots dance and performing groups? They not only represent our country internationally, but bring such huge social and community benefits.

[Lucy Powell]

I will absolutely join the hon. Gentleman in supporting Amy and all those involved in Freedom Performing Arts. My daughter is heavily involved in her local dance group, but we want all children to have access to performing arts, music and the arts more generally. That is what our curriculum review will do and what the work of the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport is doing in supporting grassroots communities. We want to see this access for all, not just for a few who can afford it.

Business of the House

Tom Gordon Excerpts

Thursday 26th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Lucy Powell]

I absolutely join my hon. Friend in congratulating Danielle and David on the upcoming birth of their child. It is so important, as a parent, to be able to drive around, so I am sorry to hear about the delays they are experiencing. This matter gets raised with me lots at business questions. The Government have recently taken steps to deal with the abuse of and the huge backlog in the driving test system. We are delivering around 10,000 additional driving tests, but I will ensure that the House is updated on the matter.

[Tom Gordon (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (LD)]

In recent weeks and months, Harrogate has been gridlocked, with seemingly unco-ordinated roadworks blocking our town. It is particularly difficult for businesses when those works go on for protracted periods of times—and when they already face Labour’s jobs tax. Will the Leader of the House agree to look at a compensation scheme for businesses affected for long periods by roadworks?

[Lucy Powell]

Really badly delivered roadworks, which are often unco-ordinated, can be a huge blight on local businesses, town centres and others. I hear what the hon. Member is saying. These are the responsibilities of local councils and we are putting more money into making sure that roads can be put right, but I will definitely ensure that he gets a reply.