Oral Answers to Questions
Warinder Juss Excerpts(3 months, 4 weeks ago)
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Sarah Coombes (West Bromwich) (Lab)
Warinder Juss (Wolverhampton West) (Lab)
The Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office (Nick Thomas-Symonds)
The sleaze of the previous Government eroded trust in politics and the public’s belief in our political system. The Prime Minister’s commitment to upholding the highest standards of integrity in public life is clear. He met the independent adviser on Ministers’ interests on his first day in office. This Government are committed to ensuring high standards, including by establishing an ethics and integrity commission, reforming the business appointment rules and appropriately empowering the independent adviser on Ministers’ interests.
Nick Thomas-Symonds
This Government will restore trust in politics by delivering for the public. As I have indicated, the Cabinet Office will support the development of a new ethics and integrity commission to deliver a much-needed reset on standards in public life. We will also review and update post-Government employment rules and support the Prime Minister as he issues a new ministerial code and grants the independent adviser the powers and support that he needs.
Warinder Juss
Polling before the last general election found that two thirds of the British public did not think that the then Government had observed high ethical standards, which probably accounted for the disillusionment with politics that we saw on the doorsteps. It is therefore essential that the new Government now work to restore trust in politics and to put public service rather than self-service at the heart of everything that they do. How will the Minister ensure that ministerial standards are upheld, and how will he ensure that the Independent Adviser on Ministers’ Interests has the powers to crack down on misconduct?
Nick Thomas-Symonds
My hon. Friend is entirely right: the last Government presided over appalling falling standards, which is why the Prime Minister is insisting that this is a Government of service to the public. The Labour party manifesto committed the Government to giving the Independent Adviser on Ministers’ Interests the powers to initiate investigations of misconduct, but also to ensuring that the adviser has access to the evidence that he or she needs, and those changes will be introduced in due course.
Debate on the Address
Warinder Juss Excerpts(4 months, 1 week ago)
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Warinder Juss (Wolverhampton West) (Lab)
I am deeply honoured and privileged to represent the new constituency of Wolverhampton West, which was created through the amalgamation of the seven wards of the former Wolverhampton South West constituency, one ward from Wolverhampton North and one from Wolverhampton South East.
As in so many other places in our country, housing is a major issue in my constituency. I am pleased to note the housing measures set out by His Majesty’s Government in the Gracious Speech. Our country faces a growing housing crisis. In the year to March 2024, the number of new homes started by builders in England was about 135,000—a 22% fall on the previous year. Just over 153,800 housing units were completed in England, representing a 12% annual fall. Moreover, planning applications have fallen.
In late November 1918, Prime Minister David Lloyd George chose to start his general election campaign in the Wolverhampton West constituency with the famous “homes fit for heroes” speech. He demanded better homes and said:
“What is our task? To make Britain a fit country for heroes to live in.”
I echo that sentiment and have every confidence that the Government will deliver a significant boost to house building—especially, I hope, council housing—just as they did in the 1920s and the 1960s. Less than 25 years ago, it was possible to allocate a one-bedroom Wolverhampton council flat in less than 48 hours. Now it seems that, as in so many parts of the country, the waiting list is nearer 48 months. We desperately need a mass programme to build council housing, which is quite literally an investment for the future.
I am a proud son of Wolverhampton—a Wulfrunian. We are so called because our great city was founded over a thousand years ago by Lady Wulfrun, and is perhaps the only city in the country founded by a woman. I have lived in the city that I love since I arrived from east Africa aged four. I went to school, college and university in the city, where I did my law degree and professional exams, and did my legal training in a solicitor’s office there to begin with. I have spent my working life as a social justice lawyer at the great firm of Thompsons solicitors, focusing on work for trades union members and on clinical negligence cases.
Wolverhampton has a long and proud tradition of manufacturing. It was formerly home to renowned companies Sunbeam Motor Car Company—which held the land speed record—and Guy Motors. Incidentally, my father worked on a laser machine at Guy Motors. The constituency also contains the headquarters of Marston’s, a big pub chain whose brewery is being sold to Carlsberg this month. I wish to work with others to encourage Marston’s to continue our city’s 149-year tradition as a major brewing location.
Our city has a fine tradition of assisting the disadvantaged. For example, headquartered in the constituency is the Haven—the second oldest charity in the country—which provides refuge accommodation for women and children escaping domestic abuse. We also have the head office of the excellent Refugee and Migrant Centre, a national centre of expertise. I am a long-standing and active trade unionist and sit on the executive council of the GMB. I am always conscious that the first national union agreement with an employer for an eight-hour day was signed in Wolverhampton in the 1930s.
Those who are unfortunate enough not to know Wolverhampton are often surprised about how much the city has to offer. We have a premier league football team in Wolverhampton Wanderers, or Wolves. I am a proud wearer of the Wolves badge, and I am fortunate enough to have a season ticket for the club with my son. In this week when English football players have done us proud and have achieved so much as a team, it is worth bearing in mind that Stan Cullis, who lived in the city for many years, captained England, as did the great Wolves player Billy Wright, who was captain of England on the most occasions. Molineux, the city centre stadium, has a statue of Billy Wright. Correspondingly, perhaps the best known captain of the England cricket team was Rachael— later Baroness—Heyhoe Flint, who in 1963 hit the first six in a women’s test match against the old enemy, Australia, and was unbeaten in six test series. Also capped for England in hockey, she grew up in the city and lived there all her life.
Wolverhampton West is also home to the country’s first all-weather floodlit racecourse. Despite the budget cuts of recent years, there are three hospitals in the constituency, as well as many fine schools, including, I am pleased to say, four special schools. We are blessed with cultural facilities such as the fantastic Victoria-era West park, the 19th century Grand Theatre, Wightwick Manor—the finest arts and crafts National Trust house in the country—and the Wolverhampton art gallery, which is home to nationally important collections of pop art and Northern Ireland troubles art.
I note the contributions and influence of my predecessors, the most well known of whom may well be, regrettably, Enoch Powell. Having lived in Wolverhampton since the age of four, I can attest that community relations have improved very markedly. That has not happened by chance; it has come about because of hard work by many people, including several of my predecessors and groups such as Interfaith Wolverhampton, of which I have been a member for several years.
I pay tribute to the work of my predecessors the hon. Member for South Shropshire (Stuart Anderson), who was the MP for my constituency before deciding to stand in South Shropshire, and Jenny Jones, who fostered the developing democracies of eastern Europe around the turn of the century. I commend the work of my great friend and predecessor, and 2008 Back Bencher of the year, Rob Marris, particularly for his Assisted Dying (No. 2) Bill and his pioneering work on adaptations to climate change.
Wolverhampton is underrated. It a great place to live and a great city. I am sure that the measures set out in the Gracious Speech will help it to become greater still.