Oral Answers to Questions

Wendy Morton Excerpts

Thursday 3rd July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Lisa Nandy]

I am really grateful to my hon. Friend. She has not just raised this issue in the House; she has raised it with me and with the Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, my hon. Friend the Member for Barnsley South (Stephanie Peacock) as well, and we are determined to support her. I have been through this appalling experience with my own club, Wigan Athletic, and we are determined to make sure that nobody has to go through it ever again. The Under- Secretary of State has been working very hard with Members of this House to pass the Football Governance Bill, to ensure that we rectify this situation and prevent it from happening elsewhere, but in the particular case of my hon. Friend’s club, I am extremely keen to see a sale as soon as possible.

[Wendy Morton (Aldridge-Brownhills) (Con)]

The charity sector includes hospices, such as Acorns children’s hospice in Walsall. Hospices are being hit by the Government’s damaging rise in employer national insurance, which was mentioned in an earlier question. Given that in his opening remarks, the Minister for Creative Industries, Arts and Tourism praised the Chancellor for his success in securing funding for his Department, will he speak with the Chancellor and urge her to do all she can to reinstate long-term funding for our hospice sector?

[The Minister for Creative Industries, Arts and Tourism (Chris Bryant)]

The hospice sector is not specifically my responsibility, but of course I value hospices. To go back to the earlier point about the state of the finances in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, this is the first Secretary of State who has managed to get £3 billion for investment in capital funding. That is going to be vital for many of our artistic and sporting institutions in this country, and I think she deserves praise.