Business of the House

10:33:00

Will the Leader of the House give us the forthcoming business?

The business for the week commencing 12 May includes: Monday 12 May—Remaining stages of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill. Tuesday 13 May—Opposition day (7th allotted day). Debate on a motion in the name of the official Opposition, subject to be announced. Wednesday 14 May—Consideration of Lords message on the Great British Energy Bill, followed by, if necessary, consideration of Lords amendments, followed by motion to approve the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) (Amendment) Regulations 2025. Thursday 15 May—General debate on solar farms, followed by general debate on long-term funding of youth services. The subjects for these debates were determined by the Backbench Business Committee. Friday 16 May—Private Members’ Bills. The provisional business for the week commencing 19 May will include: Monday 19 May—Second Reading of the Mental Health Bill [Lords]. Tuesday 20 May—Second Reading of the Victims and Courts Bill. Wednesday 21 May—Opposition day (8th allotted day). Debate on a motion in the name of the official Opposition, subject to be announced. Thursday 22 May—Business to be determined by the Backbench Business Committee. The House will rise for the Whitsun recess at the conclusion of business on Thursday 22 May and return on Monday 2 June.

This is of course the 80th anniversary of VE Day, when all Britain rejoiced at the defeat of fascism and the end of the war in Europe. I am sure I speak for the whole House in putting on record once again our profound thanks and our celebration of the immortal memory of that extraordinary generation who—through their courage, their selflessness and their sense of duty—made victory in Europe possible. Let us all pray that we can be worthy of their memory. If I may turn back from the sublime sweep of history to the mundane business of our politics, the Government have made valiant efforts to crowd the airwaves on trade this week, but the unfortunate truth is that they have had another dire week in office. The financial facts of life have not changed: growth is stagnant, as a nation we have to raise defence spending rapidly and the Government have made themselves a prisoner of their fiscal rules. Before the Leader of the House starts in on the local election results, may I remind her that, for all the horrors of last week, the Opposition still ended up with three times as many council seats as the Government? Let us look at those cost pressures a bit more closely. Just eight months after a 22.3% increase in pay for junior doctors—an increase described at the time by the British Medical Association as “a good enough first step”, the House will recall—the BMA has now announced it will ballot its members to strike for more pay. Meanwhile, the somewhat unlikely pairing of Tony Blair and Gary Smith, the general secretary of the GMB trade union, have both denounced the Government’s decision to ban offshore licences in the North sea. Blair described it as an “irrational” policy “doomed to fail”, the backlash to which threatened to “derail the whole agenda”. He said it was caused by Ministers afraid of being cast as “climate deniers”. He is not talking about the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, of course; he is talking about all the Ministers and MPs on the Government Benches who know better, but are too frit to say so. Gary Smith said that “climate fundamentalism”—that is the Secretary of State for Energy—would “accelerate the decline of domestic oil and gas production and increase our dependency on gas imports”, directly contrary to the Government’s supposed growth strategy. As he pointed out: “Across society, bill-payers will question why they are subsidising a domestic clean power sprint that is offshoring UK jobs and value.” Only today, we have had the news that Ørsted is mothballing its giant new offshore wind farm, as it has made it clear it is holding out for even greater subsidies, knowing that the Secretary of State has no choice, and has in effect said that he has no choice, if he wants to hit his targets. We all want a just and rapid energy transition, but does the Leader of the House not think that the words of Tony Blair and Gary Smith are simple common sense? There is one other issue that I think we should highlight. The Leader of the House has received universal condemnation for dismissing concerns about grooming gangs as “dog-whistle politics”. In response, she put out a tweet that conspicuously did not contain an apology for what she had said. The Secretary of State for Health said that her remarks were “indefensible”, but the truth is that she has talked in the same way about grooming gangs from the Dispatch Box, when she accused people of jumping on bandwagons on 9 January this year in business questions. I hope we can agree now that this is an extremely serious national issue and that no one, whether or not they hold public office, should be deflecting or denying its seriousness. I hope that in her response now, the Leader of the House will put aside party politics, avoid criticising others and speak from the heart. So I ask her: has she now watched the Channel 4 documentary, and if so, how does she feel about it? Does she agree that the dismissal of these entirely valid concerns has been one of the factors behind what even today remains a huge continuing national scandal. Will she now back the call of many victims for a comprehensive national inquiry into grooming gangs. Finally, would she like to take this opportunity to speak directly to the hundreds of vulnerable women involved, and say sorry?

Mr Speaker, further to your statement, talks on the US trade deal developments continue at pace. With your permission, the House will be updated later today. I will come on to VE Day shortly, but may I first address the remarks of the right hon. Member for Hereford and South Herefordshire (Jesse Norman)? I thank the right hon. Gentleman for raising what I said on an episode of “Any Questions” last week, so that I can be absolutely clear with the House today, and especially to the victims and survivors of child sexual abuse and grooming gangs, that I am very sorry for those remarks, as I made clear over the weekend. I, and every member of this Government, want your truth to be heard, wherever that truth leads. Your truly appalling experiences need to be acted on, for those responsible to be accountable and face the full force of the law, and for justice to be served. I would never want to leave the impression that these very serious, profound and far-reaching issues, which I have campaigned on for many years, should be shied away from and not aired—far from it. No stone will be left unturned. What the victims want, first and foremost, is for action to be taken and for the many, many recommendations from previous inquiries to be implemented in full, including mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse, for which I have called for nearly a decade. Shockingly, those recommendations remained sitting on the shelf until we came into government last year. Baroness Louise Casey, who conducted the no-holds-barred inquiry into Rotherham, is carrying out an audit on the scale, nature and characteristics of grooming gangs. She will be reporting soon. It will include the questions on ethnicity. Every police force in England and Wales has been asked to look again at historic grooming gangs cases. They will be reopened, where appropriate, to get the perpetrators behind bars. I hope the House is left in no doubt about my commitment to these issues and my apology to those victims for any distress I have caused them. I was surprised to hear the shadow Leader of the House try to claim some success in the local elections for his party. I am not quite sure that that is what those on the Conservative Benches are feeling. Let me address the issue of our need to move to being a clean energy superpower. I am afraid that yet again at the Dispatch Box the right hon. Gentleman and his party are showing a serious misunderstanding of the economics and the reality of the transition to net zero. We face the worst cost of living crisis in generations, because his party left this country exposed to international fossil fuel markets as a direct result of their failure to invest in clean energy. It is only by investing in clean energy that we will bring down bills in future. He might want to remind himself of what his former Prime Minister, Theresa May, said about this issue: “the sceptics say that the green transition will cripple business, we say they could not be more wrong.” This is a global race for the jobs of the future, to get bills down, and that is exactly what we are doing. The right hon. Gentleman should know better than anybody that new oil and gas in the North sea will not take a penny off bills, because oil and gas is traded on the international markets and therefore we are locked in. The only way to decouple that is by investing in cheaper renewable energies, as the Government are doing. It was a previous Conservative Energy Minister who said in 2022: “more UK production wouldn’t reduce the global price of gas.” The right hon. Gentleman might want to remind himself of that. We have all come together in the Chamber today to honour our veterans and all those who played their part in securing peace and victory in Europe and ending the second world war. Today, we mark the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, and will shortly recreate the procession of Members from the Chamber to a service of thanksgiving on 8 May 1945. In addressing the House on that day, Winston Churchill conveyed his “deep gratitude to this House of Commons, which has proved itself the strongest foundation for waging war that has ever been seen in the whole of our long history. We have all of us made our mistakes, but the strength of the Parliamentary institution has been shown to enable it at the same moment to preserve all the title deeds of democracy while waging war in the most stern and protracted form.”—[Official Report, 8 May 1945; Vol. 0, c. 1869.] As we represent our parliamentary democracy today, these words ring as true now as they did then. We will never forget the sacrifice, bravery and spirit and the millions of lives lost in defeating fascism. Today, we also remember Her late Majesty the Queen, whose youthful, joyous celebration symbolised VE Day, and whose long reign shaped the peace and prosperity that followed it. Today and every day, we remember the immense contribution of the second world war generation and thank them for their service.

Women’s Aid reports that 82% of domestic abuse cases go unreported. Reporting and prosecution rates are disproportionately lower for black and minoritised survivors. Does the Leader of the House agree that consistent collection and publication of disaggregated data is key to assessing whether Government actions are working for all women?

Absolutely—I thank my hon. Friend for raising that. As she knows, violence against women and girls is a national emergency and tackling it is one of the key missions of this Government. I agree that this data needs to be brought to light and disaggregated.

I mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day by commemorating the sacrifices made not just by those who fought and fell in the second world war, but by those who continue to serve our country in our armed forces and all who support them, including their families, who often spend long periods of time away from their loved ones. Last week’s local elections were the first time in history that the Liberal Democrats beat both the Conservatives and Labour at the same local elections. We are proud of the trust that voters placed in us, meaning that our party now controls more councils than the Conservatives. Last week also saw some of the most widely divided results our country has ever seen. The winner of the West of England mayoral election, from the Labour party, took the seat with just 25% of the vote; put another way, three out of every four voters put their cross in somebody else’s box. However, the lowest winning vote share was in Cornwall, where the winner in one race—a Liberal Democrat—was elected with just 18.9% of the vote. Just seven and a half percentage points separated the top six candidates. It is clear that we are witnessing the end of the traditional two-party system—[Interruption.] Like it or not, our antiquated first-past-the-post system simply is not designed to cope with a multi-party system—at least, not for those who believe in fairness, as I hope the Government do. Will the Leader of the House now grant time for the Bill brought forward by my hon. Friend the Member for Richmond Park (Sarah Olney) to be debated in full, and will she encourage all her colleagues across Government to finally support the proposed move to proportional representation?

I join the hon. Lady in congratulating all those who were successful in last week’s elections and in paying tribute to the many councillors and candidates who were not successful for their campaigning. The hon. Lady raises some important issues about turnout and engagement in elections. We both have a political challenge to ensure that people are engaged in the debate and feel energised and enthused to take part in elections, but we also need to look at how elections are conducted. This Government are committed to bringing forward an elections Bill in due course, which will address some of these issues.

I am delighted that the United Kingdom stands on the brink of a trade agreement with the United States. Does the Leader of the House agree that this is vindication of the firm, but fair, calm and measured approach of the Prime Minister, in stark contrast to the shrill voices from those on the Conservative Benches that would have landed us in a trade war weeks ago?

Absolutely. May I join my hon. Friend in paying tribute to the Prime Minister for his determined, consistent and stoic leadership in this area, which is bringing dividends to this country, and will ensure future prosperity and growth through the trade deals that he has agreed to?

I call the Chair of the Backbench Business Committee.

Let me make some additions to the business that the Leader of the House has announced. Next Thursday, there will be a Select Committee statement from the Work and Pensions Committee. On Thursday 22 May there will be a debate on access to NHS dentistry, followed by a debate on dementia care. In Westminster Hall, on 13 May, there will be a debate on the impact of churches and religious buildings on communities. On Thursday 15 May there will be a debate on funding for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and the Global Fund, followed by a debate on World Asthma Day. On 20 May there will be a debate on pensions for people living overseas, and on Thursday 22 May there will be a three-hour debate on the EU-UK summit. Yesterday, the renowned charity, StandWithUs, published a report on antisemitism on university campuses. Dozens of students have given their testimony to the failure of universities to protect them and their rights. They have come out with a series of recommendations, including sanctions against universities that failed to protect students and an independent inquiry to get to the bottom of why universities are not protecting students. Can we have a statement next week from the relevant Minister on what is going to happen to make sure that Jewish students are protected on our campuses?

I thank the Chair of the Backbench Business Committee for announcing the forthcoming Backbench Business. I thank him, too, for all his work. He raises an important report that is out this week. This Government stand firm on antisemitism. We need to root it out on all our university campuses, and wherever it exists in our society. I will ensure that he gets a full update from the relevant Minister.

As the chair of the medicinal cannabis under prescription all-party parliamentary group, I have worked closely with Hannah Deacon, the mother of Alfie Dingley, over the past eight years. This woman has changed the law, but, sadly, she lost her fight with cancer the day before yesterday. Will the Leader of the House pay tribute to her and send condolences to her family, as the work that she has done has changed the lives of so many young children living with epilepsy? Will she join me and Hannah’s friends who are here in the House today? This woman was incredible, and I just wanted everybody across this House who has had the opportunity to work with her to know that, and to stand in solidarity and send their love to the family—to Drew, Alfie and little Anni.

I am sure the whole House will join me in sending all the love and best wishes to my hon. Friend and to her dear friend, Hannah Deacon, and her friends who are here in the Public Gallery today. I remember my hon. Friend mentioning and raising this campaign many times on her behalf. I can truly say that Hannah has changed the lives of many and she has changed policy. Her life will be long remembered by many, many others and we all pay great tribute to her today.

Many members of the grooming and rape gangs that systematically abused white working class girls have never faced justice, and neither have the councillors, officials and police officers suspected of collusion and cover-up. Can we have a debate on the need for a national inquiry into these disgusting crimes? Will the Leader of the House tell us please who exactly it is she believes is using these horrors as a “dog whistle”?

Everybody up and down this country is horrified about the crimes that have been committed over many, many years by despicable grooming gangs. That is why we are, first and foremost, implementing the very many recommendations from the recent inquiries, most of which sat on the shelf until the general election last year. Those recommendations include mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse, which is something I have campaigned on for many years, as have the Prime Minister, the Home Secretary and the Minister for Safeguarding, my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham Yardley (Jess Phillips). We will leave no stone unturned to ensure that the victims of these terrible atrocities get truth, justice and accountability wherever that is needed.

Yesterday I spoke with colleagues in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs about the progress of the treaty on biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction—sometimes known as the global ocean treaty. I was assured that, as far as the Department is concerned, the matter had been dealt with and was all done, and I was assured that was also the case with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, but when I spoke to colleagues from the Cabinet Office, they had not heard of it. The Leader of the House will know that the United Nations ocean conference will take place next month, and it is really important that we get ratification of that treaty for the conference. The world is looking at us, and if we want to take leadership on this issue, we need to act.

I can assure my hon. Friend that, given my responsibility for the business of this House, I am well aware of the need to ratify the treaty and all that that involves. We are committed to doing so, and I can assure him that we will do so in good time.

Last week the Permanent Court of Arbitration allowed the UK to uphold the ban on sand eel fishing around the UK, including around the Isle of May in my constituency. The ban is doing so much to support the native puffins there. It also affirmed that policies banning sand eel fishing are based on scientific evidence. However, the impact of the remainder of the judgment is unclear, with different rulings in relation to English seas that muddy the waters considerably. Will the Government bring forward a debate in Government time so that the House can fully hear and consider their response to this ruling?

I am sorry to hear about the impact that the ruling is having on fishing in the hon. Lady’s area. I am not aware that the House is to be told of any developments, but the Government will ensure that she gets a full ministerial reply, and if the House needs to be updated, it will be.

My constituency has the most leaseholders in the country. I commend this Government’s work to give leaseholders the accountability that they should have. Will the Leader of the House support me in inviting the Minister responsible to come and talk to the leasehold action group here in the Cities of London and Westminster about mandatory qualifications and securing accountability against their landlords?

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The feudal leasehold system is a plague for many homeowners in our country. Many of the issues she has in her constituency I share in my own, and I know that the Minister responsible for leasehold, my hon. Friend the Member for Greenwich and Woolwich (Matthew Pennycook), would be delighted to meet her constituents, as he recently did with hundreds of mine, to discuss this Government’s plans for leasehold reform.

In March the complaints commissioner concluded that the Financial Conduct Authority failed to identify risks relating to the owner of the funeral firm Safe Hands Plans, despite receiving information about breaches and other serious risks connected to the company. As a result, Safe Hands went into administration in 2022, with those who had invested in funeral plans losing thousands of pounds. Can we therefore have a statement on the role of the Financial Conduct Authority in the collapse of Safe Hands and the need for redress for constituents who have been impacted by this situation?

I thank the hon. Member for raising Safe Hands, which is an issue for many MPs across the House. I will ensure that he gets a full update from a Minister and that time is found to discuss some of the issues raised by this case.

On Saturday I will be joining hundreds of people from across Beckenham and Penge at Beckenham Rugby Club for a rugby tournament and beer festival. It is a fantastic example of how our small businesses support and enhance our local communities, and I would like to thank Matt and his team at the Three Hounds for all their work on this event. Will the Leader of the House join me in wishing everyone attending a great weekend?

I do love the sporting questions from my hon. Friend, for which he gets quite a lot of cut-through. I join him in supporting all those from Beckenham Rugby Club on what sounds like a great day out.

May I welcome the UK-US trade deal and congratulate the Prime Minister on it? It is very much in the national interest, although the devil is in the detail. May we have a debate on that trade deal and the concerns of British farmers about chlorinated chicken, hormone-treated beef and antibiotics in pig farming? Will the Leader of the House assure the House, Shropshire farmers and British farmers that British agriculture is safe with this trade deal?

We can assure the right hon. Gentleman of that. There will be a statement to the House later today—these issues are still unfolding—but he is right to praise the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Business and Trade for the amazing work that they have done to get us to this point. He will be aware that the issues of food standards and agriculture have been red lines for the Government in those trade talks, and he will get the details later today.

We are currently facing a chronic staffing crisis in adult social care, which has led to increasing recruitment from overseas. Migrant workers now make up 16% of the workforce in England. While many arrive in good faith, they are too often met with extortionate recruitment fees, wage reductions, exploitative working conditions and the ever-present threat of deportation should they raise concerns or lose their jobs. I have been contacted by a number of constituents who have witnessed a shocking litany of failures, negligence and exploitation of migrant workers at the hands of a private company in my constituency of Stockport. Many workers have not been paid or have found themselves in overcrowded, substandard housing, and at times without any work at all. As such, will the Leader of the House allow a debate in Government time on the exploitation of migrant workers?

We totally condemn the exploitation of international care workers by rogue employers in the sector. We are taking robust action, including by revoking sponsor licences where that is deemed to be the case. I will ensure that my hon. Friend gets an update on his case.

I was concerned to read reports in the newspaper earlier this week that train stations will not be allowed to have step-free access if they have fewer than 1,000 passengers a day or are within 30 miles of a station with step-free access. People in rural areas will not be able to use the train if there is no alternative public transport and they cannot access a car. Will the Leader of the House commit to a debate in Government time so that we can talk about the importance of people in rural areas being able to access public transport and, in particular, stations such as Whitchurch in my constituency, where there is no step-free access to the southbound platform?

The issue of step-free access at stations is always raised with me at business questions. I assure the hon. Member that the Government are committed to the Access for All programme, and the Rail Minister is reviewing what we can do to support it better. I will ensure that the House is updated on that.

The Government have today announced best value updates for five local authorities, including Warrington borough council. The findings for Warrington have highlighted a number of serious conclusions that must be addressed. However, we should also recognise the pressures that local authorities faced under the last Government, with significant reductions to funding and increased demands on their services. Warrington council must now go further and faster to improve, restore trust and deliver best value for my constituents. Will the Leader of the House make time to debate the important topic of local government finance and the actions that the Government are taking to support local authorities?

I thank my hon. Friend for raising issues in Warrington. She is right that the Government have given record levels of funding to local government—£69 billion this year, I think—and are committed to restoring services and local government in places such as her constituency.

Baby Jack was just 16 months old when, on Boxing day 2022, he passed away from sudden unexplained death in childhood, which was incredibly heartbreaking. It is something that unfortunately we just do not know enough about. I want to commend Jack’s parents, Cheryl and Darren from Silsden, whom I have met. They have been fund- raising on this issue ever since that fateful day. This weekend they will be taking on their biggest challenge: cycling from Leeds to Liverpool along the canal. I hope that hon. Members across the House, including the Leader of the House, will join me in sending our thoughts to Cheryl and Darren and their eldest son Louis on their fortitude and determination, and wish them the very best of luck in their cycling challenge this weekend.

I look forward to seeing them coming through Chorley.

I am sure the whole House will join me in sending the very best to Cheryl and Darren with their fundraising activities this weekend. I am really sorry to hear about the sudden death of Baby Jack—what an awful thing for any parent to go through. That they have been able to turn that into fundraising and campaigning is truly commendable. I look forward to them hopefully passing through Manchester on their way from Leeds to Liverpool.

That is a funny route for the canal.