Debate on the Address

Debate between Tom Hayes and Anna Dixon

Wednesday 13th May 2026 Commons Chamber

[Anna Dixon (Shipley) (Lab)]

I would like to begin my congratulating my constituency neighbour, my hon. Friend the Member for Bradford West (Naz Shah), on her humorous and passionate opening speech. It is a true privilege to sit alongside her and, together with Madam Deputy Speaker, to represent our shared home of Bradford. I would also like to congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Harlow (Chris Vince), though he is not currently in his seat, for demonstrating his commitment to meeting his personal goals—and no, I am not talking about getting a PB in the marathon, but about hitting 400 contributions in Parliament.

Just 10 days ago, I stood in the other place for the Prorogation of Parliament and proudly heard an account given of the many things that this Labour Government achieved in their first parliamentary Session. Renters are no longer worried, thanks to secure tenure under the Renters’ Rights Act 2025. Children have been lifted out of poverty and families have been supported through the Universal Credit (Removal of Two Child Limit) Act 2026, which removed the cruel two-child benefit cap. We now have stronger safeguards through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026. Workers are no longer on exploitative zero-hours contracts thanks to the Employment Rights Act 2025.

I returned to my constituency buoyed up, ready to take the positive message to the doors alongside hard-working Labour councillors defending their seats and a new group of enthusiastic candidates, some standing for the first time. All of them were prepared to stand up for their communities and be a strong voice in City Hall. They all wanted to be part of a Labour-led council that after a decade of overseeing drastic budget cuts handed down by a Tory Government could finally turn a corner.

Our Labour Government in Westminster who believe in local government are devolving more power to local authorities and communities through the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026, and we have a new fair funding formula that links deprivation to funding, giving places such as Bradford the first significant budget increase for over a decade. There have been commitments to invest in Northern Powerhouse Rail to better connect our city, and I am pleased to see legislation on that in the King’s Speech. I could go on.

There was hope, and there was possibility, but all that was dashed as the results came in. I was devastated to see so many brilliant Labour councillors lose their seats, to see Reform take the most seats on Bradford council, and to see people winning seats who frankly should not even have been allowed to stand as candidates due to racist comments that I will not repeat in this place.

Reform UK was spreading despair. It argued that Britain is broken and cannot be fixed, and it undermined the very foundations of our democracy. Let me be clear: the majority of people in Bradford rejected Reform’s divisive politics, despite it winning the most seats. I fear that Reform is bringing its divisive politics to our beautiful, multifaith and diverse city, which my hon. Friend the Member for Bradford West described so beautifully.

As we begin this second parliamentary Session, we need a bold agenda that delivers tangible and visible improvements in the lives of people in every community across the country. I therefore welcome today’s King’s Speech, but I urge the Government and Ministers, as they bring forward these Bills, to ensure that they go as far and as fast as they can to deliver the change we promised to the people of this country.

I would like to focus on three of the Bills that address opportunities that we particularly need to grasp. I welcome the commonhold and leasehold reform Bill, which will abolish the outdated and, frankly, feudal system by which leaseholders can be held to ransom by unscrupulous freeholders. I have constituents in Bingley and Wrose who have faced massive increases in service charges, failures to carry out maintenance to accepted standards and unexpected bills for large upgrades. I have estates in Gilstead and Cottingley where homeowners have been left on unadopted estates paying out extortionate fees for ground maintenance.

I look forward to hearing more about how the Government propose to strengthen the regulation of managing agents to ensure that this new system works fairly and has the confidence of leaseholders and commonholders alike. I hope that Ministers will ensure that there continue to be ways in which older people looking to right-size can benefit from living in specialist retirement communities when switching from leasehold to commonhold.

While that legislation, together with the Renters’ Rights Act, will provide security for renters and homeowners, for those with no home, those in temporary accommodation and those waiting for a social home, the Government must take more radical steps to accelerate the building of a new generation of social homes so that everyone can have a secure, safe home. I look forward to hearing more about the social housing renewal Bill.

I welcome the Government’s intention to bring forward legislation that will strengthen accountability for the NHS, abolish NHS England and ensure that we continue to allocate funding to the frontline to bring down waiting lists and improve patient care. However, I urge the Government not to wait until the next parliamentary Session to lay the foundations for a national care service. We urgently need national commissioning standards to ensure greater consistency for older and disabled people and a workforce strategy that addresses the need for better training and career progression for care workers. Baroness Casey has made an initial set of recommendations, but I hope the Government will act with urgency and take this opportunity to put in place legislative provisions that will enable us to move further and faster towards our ambition of a national care service as we also rebuild our national health service.

Finally, I welcome the clean water Bill, which will take forward the major reform of the water sector that is needed. However, I am concerned that if we simply take forward the proposals for a new regulator without fundamentally addressing the financial failings of the water companies, we will only perpetuate a broken model. I have urged Ministers to use existing powers to immediately take Thames Water under special administration and use this as an opportunity to explore alternative public ownership models. I also hope to see the Government create a legislative path for bringing other water companies into public ownership in future.

[Tom Hayes (Bournemouth East) (Lab)]

Bournemouth is a footballing town, and we are so excited for the Cherries, who are in pole position to qualify for European football for the first time in our history. That being so, does my hon. Friend also welcome the measure in the King’s Speech to curb ticket touts, especially ahead of Euro 2028?

[Anna Dixon]

I do join my hon. Friend in welcoming that measure. I recently saw Bradford City play at Valley Parade. The team has an important championship play-off match, and I hope that there will not be ticket touts selling extortionate tickets for that much sought-after match.

There is still time to make the fundamental and radical changes that we desperately need. We need to show the public that we are not going to let privatised water companies profit from polluting our rivers and seas. Above all, our most urgent priority must be to renew our democracy. I welcomed the speech by my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes Central (Emily Darlington) about how we clearly need to protect our democracy against threats. From my point of view, the local election results show clearly that two-party politics is dead. The vote has fragmented, and people have stopped tactical voting. Therefore, I urge the Government as part of the Representation of the People Bill to set up a democracy taskforce that will look at electoral reform for both local and Westminster elections.

In conclusion, I sat today in the Royal Gallery amid much pomp and ceremony and plenty of bling. I can honestly say that it seemed a world away from the realities of my Shipley constituents: the single mom who is working two jobs and struggling to make ends meet at the end of the month; the pensioner who, despite a modest private pension, is having to cut back; and the young person living with their parents, unable to get employment, training or a place of their own. The Labour Government have begun the work of rebuilding Britain after the failures of the past. We must now push on and be bolder and more ambitious in delivering for people across every community of this country and delivering a fairer society for all.

Department of Health and Social Care

Debate between Tom Hayes and Anna Dixon

Tuesday 24th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Anna Dixon (Shipley) (Lab)]

First, I draw the House’s attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. I am a trustee of the charity Helpforce, a member of the Public Accounts Committee and an officer of the patient safety all-party parliamentary group.

It was a Labour Government who founded the NHS on the principle that it would be there for us when we needed it. Patients in my constituency lost that confidence under the Tory Government. When they rang for a GP in the morning, they were told that it would be three weeks before they could be seen. If they rang 999, they were not confident that the ambulance would arrive. When they were referred for tests, they would be waiting months rather than weeks. These estimates show that this Labour Government believe in the NHS, believe in its future and can turn it around, so that again it is there when we need it.

The spending review gives an uplift in day-to-day spending as well as a huge rise in capital budgets. It is those capital budgets that will enable the rebuilding of Airedale Hospital, which has been plagued by RAAC, and is vital to my constituents. I have seen at first hand the difference that good-quality primary care facilities can make with the completion of the extension at Grange Park surgery. I know that, with this settlement, the Government will want to see further investment in primary care, and I hope the Minister will confirm that.

It is imperative that this extra spending helps deliver the shifts from treatment to prevention, hospital to community and analogue to digital. As a member of the Public Accounts Committee, I helped to challenge officials at the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England as to why, despite commitments over many years to community and prevention services, the money had never followed under the Tories. I hope that, with Labour’s NHS 10-year plan, we will make it clear that the money will be there for community services and for prevention. I am very pleased that the Chancellor has put a stop to the raiding of capital budgets to fund everyday expenditure.

These estimates rely on very ambitious productivity savings. At the heart of that is the health of our workforce, because too many are sick and absent from work. Volunteers can make a huge difference to retention because they improve staff wellbeing. Volunteering can also be a route for people to try out a career in healthcare. I urge the Minister to back the initiatives that support the use of volunteers.

[Tom Hayes (Bournemouth East) (Lab)]

Will my hon. Friend give way?

[Anna Dixon]

I will not give way, because we are under a time limit.

In conclusion, I am confident that this funding settlement will help to put the NHS back on track and make it fit for the future.