Holocaust Memorial Day

Tom Morrison Excerpts

Thursday 29th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Mr Tom Morrison (Cheadle) (LD)]

I am honoured to be here for this debate. I thank the hon. Member for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket (Peter Prinsley) for leading the debate, and opening it with such an incredibly moving speech.

Genocide does not just happen. There is always a path: there is always a terrifying and evil journey towards it. The intention to destroy a group of people is an unspeakable idea. It is difficult to comprehend and yet it has happened not once but multiple times across the globe. Remembering the Holocaust is not just a Jewish issue; it is a human one. Education, reflection and, crucially, action become more and more important each day as we face increasingly fractured communities, inflammatory online rhetoric, and the casual othering of minority groups. Recent events both in the UK and abroad reiterate that “never again” cannot rest on remembrance alone; it needs conscious action.

The Nazi regime systematically murdered 6 million Jews, including 1.5 million children. That is 6 million stories, 6 million people who loved, 6 million people who added immeasurable value to this world. That murderous regime also killed Roma and Sinti people, disabled people, gay men, political opponents, Jehovah’s Witnesses and others that they deemed undesirable. In total, around 10 million people were murdered. But the Holocaust was not carried out by mobs and Nazis alone. It was enabled by the systematic involvement and compliance of institutions, including the police, civil servants, universities, courts and local authorities—the very institutions that were created to protect and serve. Instead, those institutions enforced discriminatory laws, facilitated deportations, and normalised othering and, eventually, murder. Prejudice becomes policy when institutions fail to act against hatred.

We are talking about a scale of suffering and terror that is beyond comprehension, and that is why personal stories are so crucial to our learning and reflection. I would therefore like to share some stories of my constituents who survived.

In 1939, Leonard Kaufmann’s uncle managed to secure a place for him on the Kindertransport, leaving behind his siblings and parents who later died. At four years old, Leonard remembers sitting on a barstool on his arrival to the UK, all alone and waiting to be collected, not able to speak English, scared and completely unsure of what was to come. Leonard went on to lead a successful career and have a happy family home in Gatley, despite experiencing one of the hardest starts to life anyone could imagine. He was a proud administrator at Yeshurun synagogue, which sits proudly in the heart of Gatley.

Peter Kurer was taken in by a Quaker family in Manchester with his brother and parents after they learned the SS were coming for his father. Later, Peter selflessly volunteered considerable time towards the establishment of a retirement home in Didsbury for Jewish refugees.

Martin Hyman shared with me the story of his mother who grew up in 1930s Vienna and was expelled from school simply for being Jewish. Aged just 13, she was sent alone to Britain on the Kindertransport. She never saw her parents again.

Sadly, these stories are not unusual. Martin said to me:

“In 1938, 272 Jews were recorded as having lived in the street in Vienna where my mum grew up. She was one of only 13 who survived the Holocaust.”

They reflect the experience of thousands of children whose lives were saved only because others acted. I am asking everyone in this House today to imagine the pain and suffering inflicted from just these singular stories and multiply that by 1,000 and then multiply it again.

I would like to pay tribute to Paul Porgess, a survivor of the Holocaust who was not only my friend, but a mentor to me. Paul was born in Czechoslovakia to parents Victor and Olga. During the second world war, his family were deported to the ghetto in Warsaw. After falling ill, Paul was separated from his parents, but was helped to escape by the Polish resistance. He eventually made it to England, where he earned a doctorate in chemistry at the University of London, before moving to Cheadle with his wife Joan. He was one of the first Liberal councillors to represent the Cheadle area and did so for four decades.

During his time on the council, Paul held a many positions, including on the equal opportunities special panel and the social inclusion and community cohesion working party. His experience so early on in life drove his passion to prioritise inclusion and community in Cheadle, and he also fought tirelessly for refugees in our region. Paul knew more than anyone just how important it was to be the voice for those who could not defend themselves. I was deeply honoured to replace Paul on Stockport council, and still to this day I try to ensure that I live up to his legacy. I miss him dearly.

It is no secret that hate crimes have risen year on year, misinformation continues to spread like wildfire online, and politics is becoming increasingly polarised. I visited the Community Security Trust earlier this week and heard directly about the work and resource that goes into ensuring that Jewish communities are protected. But heartbreakingly, the Heaton Park synagogue attack on Yom Kippur just three months ago shows that despite every effort to ensure people are safe and secure, the evil of antisemitism poses a real and murderous threat to our Jewish communities.

The latest statistics, published in October, showed that Jewish people had a higher rate of religious hate crimes targeted towards them than any other faith group. We have a duty today to remember, reflect and take action to stamp out this hatred now. Martin Hyman highlights that his grandparents, like many others, believed that civilisation, culture and the rule of law would protect them. But that was not the case. The Holocaust was not a sudden collapse of morality, but the end point of an insidious process in which discrimination was legalised, exclusion enforced, and dehumanisation made routine by ordinary people.

Education plays a critical role in responding to that. Organisations such as the Northern Holocaust Education Group and the My Voice project work to ensure that survivor testimony and lived experience continue to reach schools and communities. The Holocaust Centre North provides a permanent exhibition, learning programmes and an archive rooted in local survivor and refugee stories, helping young people and the wider public understand how a global atrocity unfolded through ordinary lives.

When people feel connected and invested in common values, they are better able to work together to address division and tackle hatred. The Common Ground award is an important initiative that goes some way in supporting that aim, and I hope that the Government will keep on funding it. The Government must also publish the community cohesion strategy that was promised last year, so that communities can work together to confront all forms of extremism by building understanding and trust.

Britian is a country of shared values and it has a history of being a nation that offers a hand to those in need. We must never forget that and must continuously pursue that aim. We celebrate the idea that people in our country should be able to live free from discrimination, and that no one’s rights or dignity should ever be taken away or compromised because of who they are, where they come from or what they believe. We must not lose sight of that, even though there are some who seek to undermine it.

A Jewish man in Manchester recently said to the Manchester Evening News,

“My daughter, she wears the Star of David but she puts it away…Ours are the only children that go to schools behind fences with guards.”

That cannot continue, so we must revert to our shared values, celebrate our differences and call out all forms of hatred and bigotry. “Never again” cannot rest on remembrance alone. It requires conscious action, every day. Holocaust Memorial Day offers an opportunity to reflect on not only what happened, but the responsibility we all have to ensure that the legacy of people like Paul Porgess never fades.

Local Government Finance

Tom Morrison Excerpts

Wednesday 17th December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Alison McGovern]

Well, you should see the level of debt that the Tories left us with. The global financial crisis was a tough time, but I never thought a Tory Government would leave us with a debt-to-GDP ratio of nearly 100%.

To return to the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Colchester (Pam Cox) and the important work that we are doing to rebuild local authorities after that awful period of austerity, we will be releasing information to councils today so that they can start the budgeting process. We will engage heavily with local authorities over the months to come so that they can set their budgets in the normal way in the spring. I encourage her local authority to be in direct contact with the Department, and I would be happy to meet her to talk about the impact on her constituency.

[Mr Tom Morrison (Cheadle) (LD)]

Stockport council, along with two other boroughs, missed out on the recovery grant. The grant was not mentioned in the fair funding review or consultation. Why was it not mentioned, and is the Minister concerned that that opens up the whole process to legal challenge?

Planning Reform

Tom Morrison Excerpts

Tuesday 16th December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Matthew Pennycook]

I have referenced before the consolidation and strengthening of the provisions in the framework we published last year in terms of the provision of infrastructure, particularly public service infrastructure. It is local plans, primarily, that should address needs and opportunities around infrastructure, and identify what infrastructure is required and how it can be funded and brought forward, but the reforms we are making through the draft framework will make both plan making and decision making clearer and simpler. I am more than happy to sit down with my hon. Friend to discuss the particular challenges she is facing in her constituency.

[Mr Tom Morrison (Cheadle) (LD)]

Bramhall and Heald Green are facing huge numbers of development proposals in their area, and the Government are today proudly announcing their policy to presume approval of developments around rail stations to improve sustainable transport. Gatley and Heald Green stations have the highest rates of cancellations in the north-west, and there has been no Sunday service in Bramhall for over a year and a half. The Minister should know that these stations are serviced by Northern—coincidentally, it is in effect a Government-run company—so how can my constituents trust this Government when it comes to building sustainable communities?

[Matthew Pennycook]

The hon. Gentleman’s constituents can trust this Government because we are setting out—for consultation, as I continue to stress—a clear definition of what a well-connected station means. As I said in response to the shadow Minister, we have defined it as the top 60 major economic centres based on travel to work areas by GVA, and four trains an hour or two trains in one direction. This covers 60% of train stations across the country, with 40% that are not covered, but we welcome views through the consultation.

Local Government Funding: North-west England

Tom Morrison Excerpts

Tuesday 21st October 2025 Westminster Hall

[Mr Tom Morrison (Cheadle) (LD)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered funding for local government in the North West.

It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Mr Turner. I thank the Minister for being here today.

I will start by reading the words of Stuart, who lives in my Cheadle constituency, and who wrote to me just two days ago—a timely admission for this debate. He said:

“I am writing as a resident of Cheadle Hulme to express my deep concern about the level of council tax and the prospect of further increases. My current council tax is £275 per month...This level is already difficult to sustain, and any further rise will make it unmanageable for many working households like mine. I understand that a large proportion of council spending now goes toward adult and children’s social care, but the current trajectory feels unsustainable without fundamental reform or additional central government support.”

Stuart is right: the current situation is completely unsustainable, and I am sure Members here today will agree that it cannot go on.

I am sure we all entered politics to effect change—campaigning to keep a school open, fundraising for a library or creating a community group. We know that change starts small, with one person, one area or one community. We must take to heart the saying that all politics is local. Local government is at the forefront, the most frequent point of interaction between the British public and government. As a former councillor myself, I know the amazing things that local government can achieve and the real and lasting impact it can have on a personal level.

Local governments are the key to unlocking growth, improving health and poverty outcomes, and providing the best support to the most vulnerable. But our local authorities, as Stuart rightly points out, are suffering tremendously from years of cuts and a systemic failure to properly fund even the most essential services. Our local authority finances are on their knees, and this country cannot deliver growth, reform public services or improve life changes without first fixing local government finances.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I commend the hon. Gentleman for bringing forward this debate. He is absolutely right to underline the importance of local government. I served as a local councillor for some 26 years before I came to Parliament, so I understand the importance of local government. He is outlining why Government needs to commit to funding for local towns and cities across all of the United Kingdom. Does he feel that Government’s interaction with local government should be the first stop when it comes to organising funding and understanding what the real issues are on the streets?

[Mr Morrison]

I completely agree. There has to be a two-way dialogue, in which the Government talk and work with local government to work out the challenges that need to be fixed.

The Local Government Association reports that 29 councils needed exceptional financial support in 2025-26 to set a balanced budget. That is 11 more than the previous year, and I am afraid that number will only continue to grow. The Government’s pride in place strategy is meaningless when local authorities are still being encouraged to sell community commodities such as libraries and leisure centres to avoid financial ruin. That is no way to set our communities up for success. It is stripping away the key things that make a community, the places where people gather and access the support and services that they need. Drawing on dwindling reserves is not a sustainable financial plan.

However, there are also regional inequalities to the issue, which slice across all aspects of daily life, from transport to potholes. Last year’s fairer funding review lacked all nuance, basing criteria for recovery grants on deprivation figures from over a decade ago. Stockport council missed out on any recovery funding; it is now left to pick up the pieces, and to continue fighting tooth and nail without the £20 million it so desperately needs to sustain long-term services, despite having some of the most deprived wards in the UK in our borough. In just three years’ time, Stockport council will be underfunded by £63 million. Despite that, the council won local authority of the year in 2025—a testament to its officers and councillors.

Stockport is a council that does not shy away from hard decisions. It was promised more from the Government, yet things have not changed. In opposition, the Labour party decried the underfunding of local councils across the country and said that things could only get better under its tenure. Well, councils are facing the same problems across the north-west, and we are seeing the same lack of ideas from the Government that we did under the Conservatives. Real-time cuts to local government funding in Stockport alone have reached more than £133 million in the past few years. As a result, Stockport council was forced to find £24.5 million of savings just for the 2025 budget.

[Lisa Smart (Hazel Grove) (LD)]

As a fellow Stockport MP, I am delighted that my hon. Friend has secured this debate. I strongly agree with the points he is making about the underfunding of local government over a period of years, particularly in our part of the world. I wonder if he agrees that the root of some of the problems is the unsustainability of social care. As his constituent Stuart mentioned, for Stockport council, £3 in every £4 is spent on either adult or children’s social care. The demand for that is increasing, yet the funding available is not. Does he agree that the Government taking three years to do a review into social care is too long, and that they should crack on?

[Mr Morrison]

I completely agree. The point, when it comes to social care, is political will. All parties have talked about the importance of social care and of getting the funding right. There is no need to wait for three years; we should indeed crack on.

Regional growth drives national growth. If regions are not invested in, we cannot expect the country to thrive. There are ever-expanding divides between regions, which have consequences on the quality and even length of people’s lives. According to the Institute for Public Policy Research, transport illustrates that divide exceedingly well. In London, people receive £1,183 per head for transport, but in the north-west it is less than half that figure, at just £540 per person. In total, across the north, that is an investment gap of £140 billion.

Our growth is low and slow as a country because areas outside the south-east have been neglected time and again. Anne, another constituent of mine in Bramhall, wrote to me recently to explain her frustrations. She said:

“Residents are being asked to pay more while receiving less and now must pay extra just to maintain a service that was previously included. Public frustration is escalating rapidly across online forums, community groups, and social media. What can be done about this?”

It is no wonder the public are increasingly frustrated when core spending power for local government remains 16.4% lower in real terms this year compared with 2010. The services that local government provides are vital to people’s everyday lives: bin collections, green space maintenance, street cleaning and social care for our most vulnerable residents.

If local governments can no longer sustain those services, our country will decline rapidly as people’s everyday quality of life suffers. Although the guarantee of multiyear settlements and a move away from fragmented, ringfenced grants are a step in the right direction, that is still not enough. Those changes will not be felt and frustrations will continue to grow, especially as the Government continue to work on the basis that local authorities will continuously raise council tax by the maximum 4.99% each year.

[Jonathan Hinder (Pendle and Clitheroe) (Lab)]

I am pleased that the hon. Member is leading this debate and glad that he is raising the point of regional inequality. Does he agree that council tax is the most unfair, regressive tax in Britain, and that it is long overdue a proper overhaul to link property values to the amount of tax paid, as is not the case at the moment?

[Mr Morrison]

I thank the hon. Member for that intervention and agree completely that council tax is regressive, impacting the poorest in our communities. All parties should commit to finding a new way forward to reform it.

Councillors and council staff do not want to raise council tax. The public, already squeezed by a difficult cost of living crisis, will struggle to pay more time and again. It does not have to be that way. We must have the political will to empower our local governments to deliver their full potential. I want to outline to the Minister that politics is local. Chronic national issues will turn into deeper crisis if local governments continue to be squeezed to the point of no return. The Government must understand the benefits of investing in local authorities to do their jobs right and give the people of Cheadle, the north-west and all areas the good quality of life they deserve.

Giving all councils the power and resources to invest in community centres, parks, libraries, children’s centres and green spaces will restore people’s trust and respect, not just for their local authorities, but for central Government. We are now in a situation where the Government need to invest in councils just so that they can keep the lights on without fear of going bankrupt. It really is that serious.

Local government is capable; given the resources, it will deliver for our communities. We need to invest now without delay. Proper support now to address challenges earlier will lead to fewer councils requiring more intensive and costly interventions later down the line. Local government is the linchpin for change. It is a pool of potential waiting to be unlocked, and I urge the Government to do just that.

Oral Answers to Questions

Tom Morrison Excerpts

Monday 13th October 2025 Commons Chamber

[Steve Reed]

I am sure that it will come as no surprise to my hon. Friend that I wholeheartedly welcome the delivery of 183 new council homes in his constituency. I fully agree that the Lakes estate demonstrates the ambition of Milton Keynes city council to build the homes that its communities want and need. I also value such councils’ support in helping the Government to meet our ambitious housebuilding targets, which include targets for the biggest boost to social and affordable housing in this country in a generation.

[Mr Tom Morrison (Cheadle) (LD)]

13. What steps he plans to take to ensure that new housing developments in Cheadle constituency have adequate access to infrastructure.

[The Minister for Housing and Planning (Matthew Pennycook)]

As per my answer to question 4, the changes that we made to national planning policy last year were intended to support the increased provision and modernisation of various types of public infrastructure. When it comes to ensuring that necessary infrastructure is funded and brought forward in Cheadle or any other part of the country, we look to local development plans and infrastructure funding statements to address needs and opportunities.

[Mr Morrison]

Residents in Cheadle have contacted me about the huge number of speculative development applications coming through, particularly in Cheadle Hulme and Woodford. We are now being told that a 10,000-home new town will potentially be situated on the constituency border. GPs are completely oversubscribed in Woodford, we have not had a Sunday rail service in over a year, and the bus services are completely inadequate. This has been raised time and again by my constituents. Will the Minister meet me and the leader of Stockport council to talk about this issue, and how the Government can get developers to start investing in infrastructure before they develop homes?

[Matthew Pennycook]

The hon. Gentleman has raised a number of issues. The best way in which local planning authorities can protect themselves from speculative development is to have an up-to-date local development plan in place. He touched on developer contributions; we remain committed to strengthening the existing system to ensure that new developments provide the necessary affordable homes and infrastructure. We will set out further details in due course.

When it comes to the prospective new town that the hon. Gentleman mentioned, I gently point out that it was not the Government but the independent, expert new towns taskforce that recommended to the Government that Adlington and 11 other locations in England should be the sites for the next generation of new town. On 28 September, we commenced a strategic environmental assessment to understand the environmental implications of new towns, and that will support final decisions. But no final decisions have yet been taken.

Parking Regulation

Tom Morrison Excerpts

Tuesday 6th May 2025 Westminster Hall

[Mr Paul Kohler (Wimbledon) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Efford. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Newton Abbot (Martin Wrigley) and the hon. Member for Derby South (Baggy Shanker) for securing the debate. I know from my personal experience and that of my constituents that private parking can often feel like the wild west. Extortionate fees, poor signage, outrageous fines and an often opaque and unjust appeals process are too often the norm. As one can see from the attendance at the debate, it is a real issue across the country—although oddly not in many Conservative constituencies, it seems. In the words of the AA, private parking operators often act as “shark-like businesses”. I consequently welcome today’s debate and the opportunity it affords to shine a light on this issue.

Some of the stories we have heard are appalling. The time has come to stop wringing our hands and do something about the issue. That is why the Liberal Democrats are calling for the introduction of an independent parking regulator with appropriate power to regulate fees, enforcement and appeals. It is vital that national standards are introduced to protect motorists and ensure transparency across the system.

[Mr Tom Morrison (Cheadle) (LD)]

Trust in parking companies is so low that more and more motorists are moving to on-street parking, including in Heald Green, where nuisance parking outside high-footfall businesses has caused much concern among local residents. Does my hon. Friend agree that more needs to be done to encourage holistic parking strategies, to ensure that motorists and residents get a fairer deal?

[Mr Kohler]

I completely agree. We need a parking system that works. We are not against parking; we are against abuse of the parking system.

It is beyond doubt that the status quo is allowing private companies to act with impunity, preying on the millions of motorists in this country who rely on private car parks to go about their everyday life. As we heard from my hon. Friends the Members for Newton Abbot, for Bath (Wera Hobhouse) and for West Dorest (Edward Morello), and the hon. Members for Darlington (Lola McEvoy), for Strangford (Jim Shannon) and for Derby North (Catherine Atkinson), as well as many others, many of these companies use underhand tactics to increase the fines charged and county court judgments issued. It is simply not acceptable. As the hon. Member for Shipley (Anna Dixon) said, it is rip-off Britain.

As the hon. Member for Derbyshire Dales (John Whitby) noted, the RAC has said that private parking operators are on track this year to hand out a record 14.5 million fines, each costing the recipient up to £100, and potentially more if they dispute or delay payment. Many fines are not for genuine infringements; they are simply devices to raise money, with little to no scrutiny by the Government. As the hon. Members for Derby North, for Derby South and for Shipley noted, some of our constituents face fines that soon escalate to many thousands of pounds. It is truly shocking. Such situations simply should not be allowed to happen.

The Government must urgently stamp down on the abuse of the parking ticket system. In addition to the establishment of a fully resourced and empowered regulator, a clear national code of practice must be reintroduced to promote transparency. Will the Minister confirm when the code of practice will be reissued? We also need a robust independent appeals body, as the industry’s own processes clearly are not working. As the hon. Members for Derby South, for Sheffield Central (Abtisam Mohamed) and for Glasgow North (Martin Rhodes) said, many motorists simply do not bother to appeal, as the process is so difficult and time-consuming.