Bob Blackman
MP for Harrow East · Conservative · United Kingdom
“I hope that the Leader of the House will again provide protected time and prevail on his colleagues not to have too many Government statements, so that we can have a reasonable debate on the subject.”
“Since the changes, we have been inundated with requests from Select Committees to have statements in the House, which I welcome. Next Tuesday, before the two debates that have been scheduled, there will be Select Committee statements on the Treasury and Public Accounts Committee reports.”
“On Tuesday 20 October there will be a debate on manufacturing skills. On Thursday 22 October there will be a debate on compensation for Equitable Life policyholders. I am sure that the whole House will recognise the importance of hospital radio across the country.”
“Many of my constituents work at Heathrow airport. They have had to work extra hours, as the right hon. Member for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell) mentioned, and they have suffered abuse, too. I put on record my appreciation for all that they have done. Even more of my constituents use Heathrow for business travel and social travel.”
“I am sure that the Leader of the House will join me in congratulating Radio Brockley on this wonderful anniversary. Perhaps we could have a statement in Government time on the importance of hospital radio in the health service and the benefits it brings to patients and staff.”
“This is a sad day for the UK-Israel relationship, given the risks of what the Foreign Secretary is doing. Affecting the Israeli elections by making even moderate politicians even more hawkish is a huge risk.”
The complete record
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“Over the past 14 years, I have regularly raised the building industry and its failures to provide decent homes of decent quality. The one strand that follows all the way through is the failure properly to inspect independently work that has been carried out, to certify it, and to ensure that it is fit for purpose. Will the Minister ensure that, beyond the current audit, all future work is properly inspected, certified and signed off, so that the people receiving the insulation can feel confident that the work has been done properly?”
“His words should resonate with us all when assessing the urgency of this project: “I look forward to one day taking my family to the new national memorial and learning centre, telling the story of Britain and the Holocaust. And one day, I hope that my children and grandchildren will take their children and grandchildren, and that they will remember all those who came before them, including my mother, Sara, my sister, Luisa, and my father, Moishe.” Sadly, Sir Ben died last year. I have no doubt that, through the memorial and learning centre, his memory and story will live on for his children, grandchildren and generations to come, so that we can all learn the lessons of the Holocaust and vow never to repeat them.”
“It is crucial that we enable the Holocaust memorial to be built alongside this place, together with the education centre, so that future generations can learn the true horror of what happened during the war and pass it on to their children, so that we never allow history to repeat itself. I have had the privilege of visiting the original Yad Vashem and the modern-day Yad Vashem. Those who visit will know the horrors that the Jewish people encountered, and it is hard to express those horrors. We must make the Bill’s passage a matter of urgency, so that the few Holocaust survivors still with us can see the centre for themselves and be proud of the amazing work they have done in sharing their stories. I leave the House with the poignant words of Sir Ben Helfgott MBE, a Holocaust survivor and successful Olympic weightlifter.”
“I finish on two points. First, it is extremely concerning to see the stark rise in open antisemitism on our streets following the 7 October attacks on Israel by the terrorist organisation Hamas. Jewish people are afraid to go about their lives, and have to hide their identity for fear of being attacked in their own country. We have reiterated, time and again, that the Holocaust must serve as a reminder that we must never allow such persecution of any race or religion, so we must make a conscious effort to stand up against such violations on our own streets. Secondly, the Minister kindly mentioned the Holocaust Memorial Bill, which is going through Parliament. Sadly, as time moves forward, survivors are passing, and there are fewer and fewer to share their stories.”
“On 7 April 1944, two young Jewish inmates who had escaped from the camp, Rudolf Vrba and Alfréd Wetzler, published detailed information about the camp’s geography, the gas chambers and the numbers being killed. Roswell McClelland, the US War Refugee Board representative in Switzerland, is known to have received a copy by mid-June and sent it to the board’s executive director, but no action was taken. We are 80 years on from the liberation of Auschwitz. Antisemitism has increased significantly in the UK and globally following the 7 October attacks by Hamas and the subsequent war in Gaza. Many UK communities feel vulnerable, with hostility and suspicion of others rising. We hope that Holocaust Memorial Day 2025 can be an opportunity for people to come together, learn from and about the past, and take action to make a better future for all.”
“Proposals to drop weapons into the camp to enable a rebellion were considered but abandoned. From 1942 to 1943, British intelligence was regularly able to intercept and decode radio messages sent by the German order police, which included daily prisoner returns and death tolls for the 10 concentration camps, including Auschwitz, yet no action was taken. Another common argument is that the allies did not know the numbers and the horrors of the camps until after the war, despite the fact that hundreds of prisoners escaped and described their ordeals. The US Office of Strategic Services, the predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency that had been established in 1941-42 to co-ordinate intelligence and espionage activities in enemy territory, had received reports about Auschwitz in 1942, but no action was taken to target the camp.”
“It is clear that the Nazis deliberately set out to kill the 6 million Jews, but there are many actions that we in the UK and the United States could have taken. Auschwitz was accessed by a vast network of rail routes, bringing trains full of Jews from across Europe. At no point did the allied forces choose to bomb those rail networks to prevent access to the camp. In 1944, the US Department of War refused multiple requests from Jewish leaders to bomb the railway lines leading to the camps, despite 452 bombers of the 15th Air Force flying along and across the deportation railway lines on their way to bomb the Blechhammer oil refineries just weeks later. Time and again, military commanders said that a precision strike on the camp had no chance of success. However, no study was ever made.”
“While we commemorate 80 years since Auschwitz was liberated, it is important to note that there were 23 main camps across Europe, each with a series of internal camps, totalling over 1,000 camps in all—all dedicated to the torture and extermination of the Jewish community. To implement the final solution during the latter years of the war, the Nazis built extermination camps on Polish soil. We must remember Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Majdanek and, of course, Auschwitz-Birkenau. I commend the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and the Holocaust Educational Trust for their brilliant work to educate us about the horrors that people endured. I urge the Minister to confirm funding for the Holocaust Educational Trust’s wonderful “Lessons from Auschwitz” programme so that young people can learn what happened.”
“If a prisoner was missing, the others had to remain in place until he or she was found, or the reason for his or her absence discovered. After roll call, individual and collective punishments were meted out before the prisoners were permitted to return to their barracks for the night and receive their bread rations and water. Prisoners received a hot drink in the morning, but no breakfast, and a watery, meatless turnip soup at noon. In the evening, they received a small ration of bread. At no time did their daily intake exceed 700 calories. Sanitary conditions were poor, with inadequate latrines and a lack of water. The camp was infested with vermin, such as disease-carrying lice. Inmates suffered and died during epidemics of typhus and other contagious diseases.”
“Kapos, the prisoner supervisors, were responsible for the prisoners’ behaviour and conformity while they worked, as was an SS escort. The working day lasted 12 hours and was marked by torture and fatigue. Much of the work took place at construction sites, quarries and lumber yards. Visits to the latrines were permitted only at designated times, not when nature called. Work was carried out in the shadow and smoke of the crematoria chimneys that burned incessantly day and night, burning the bodies of murdered Jews and others, invariably including the family members of those forced to work. The belching smoke was a constant reminder of their potential fate. In the evening, after block inspection, there was a second mandatory roll call.”
“If inmates were lucky enough not to be sent straight to the gas chamber on arrival, they were sent to the prisoner reception centre, where they were tattooed, shaved, disinfected and given a striped prison uniform. The horrors escalated dramatically from there. Youth and fitness for work gained prisoners a temporary reprieve from the gas chambers. From the time they entered Auschwitz-Birkenau, everything was done to debase and dehumanise the Jews. Their immediate gassing was delayed in order to rob them of their individuality. Each was identified solely by the number that he or she was designated. The day would start at 4.30 am with a roll call. Prisoners would walk to their place of work, wearing striped uniforms and ill-fitting wooden shoes without socks.”
“Some 960,000 were Jews, 865,000 of whom were gassed on arrival, having been singled out for immediate extinction. About 74,000 non-Jewish Poles, 21,000 Romani, 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war and 15,000 others were also killed. Those who were sent to the camp but escaped being gassed were murdered through starvation, exhaustion, disease, individual executions or beatings. Others were killed during torturous medical experiments—we should remember what that must have been like. The first mass transport to arrive at Auschwitz, on 14 June 1940, contained 728 Polish male political prisoners, including Catholic priests and Jews. By 1942, transport was arriving regularly, containing thousands of Jews who were all earmarked for execution.”
“Next Monday marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, which was the largest concentration and extermination camp used by the Nazis. The site consisted of Auschwitz I, which was the main camp; Auschwitz II-Birkenau, a concentration and extermination camp with gas chambers and incinerators; Auschwitz III-Monowitz, a labour camp for the chemical conglomerate IG Farben; and dozens of other sub-camps. The camps became a major site of the Nazis’ horrific final solution to the Jewish question. Between 1942 and late 1944, freight trains delivered Jews from all over Nazi-occupied Europe, and collaborators from across those different countries joined in. A shocking 1.3 million people were sent to Auschwitz, where 1.1 million were sadly murdered.”
“Hitler, a rising star in the German political scene at the time, promised that the humiliation of Versailles would be avenged and that Germany would be made great again. Many Germans believed that they had been betrayed by the high command of the army in the great war, and they were tired of endless ineffective coalition Governments following the war. Hitler had no connections to the elite, and he offered a new beginning. Most of all, he promised jobs and bread at a time when unemployment and poverty were at extremely high levels. It is important to ask the question: if we had acted differently after the great war, would Hitler ever have come to power? Of course, we know that he did and that his Nazis embarked on a systematic and deliberate attempt at extinguishing the Jewish race across Europe.”
“The Rhineland, an area of Germany on the border with France, was demilitarised, and Woodrow Wilson’s idea for a League of Nations was agreed to. The reparations caused immense problems for the German people, who universally believed that they were too harsh, not least because of the damage and instability that they caused to the German economy. Many held a lot of anger and were ready to shift their blame, which fell on the Jews. Shortly after that was the great depression, sparked by the Wall Street stock market crash of 1929. Economies across the globe were affected, leading to a crisis in world trade, prices and employment. Almost overnight, the regular loans from the United States through the Dawes plan, on which the German economy depended, ceased.”
“The Jewish genocide did not officially start until January 1939, but Jews have been irrationally targeted throughout the centuries, dating back to as early as 270 BC. I do not intend to go through the history of that. Let us fast forward to the end of the great war, when the escalation of antisemitism was about to begin. The allied forces sanctioned Germany extremely harshly at the end of the great war. Germany had to accept full blame for the war and pay £6.6 billion—in today’s money, that is a huge amount—because of the damage it caused during the war. Alsace-Lorraine, which had been taken from France by Germany in the 1871 war, was returned to the French, and the Anschluss was banned. Germany was allowed to have only 100,000 soldiers, with no tanks and no air force, and its navy could have a maximum of six battleships.”
“Time is going quickly, and many of the courageous and inspirational survivors are sadly passing away, so it is important that we preserve their memories and stories, and teach the next generations, so that we do not make the same mistakes again. I think I have spoken in every Holocaust memorial debate since I was elected in 2010, and today I will focus on the origins of the Holocaust, and on how the United Kingdom could and should have done more to prevent it. The Holocaust was one of the most tragic events the world has ever seen. The brutal, systematic murder of 6 million Jewish men, women and children by the Nazis in Germany and their collaborators during the second world war must always serve as a stark reminder of the evils that can be perpetrated by humankind.”
“It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Brent East (Dawn Butler). I wish her well in her recovery from cold and flu. I thank the Government for putting on this debate and for making sure that we continue to honour the victims of the Holocaust, and I thank the Minister for both the tone and content of his opening speech. I declare my interest as co-chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on Holocaust memorial since its formation in 2018, and I am also proud to chair the all-party parliamentary group on UK-Israel. This Holocaust Memorial Day is particularly prominent and poignant, as it marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest concentration camp during the war.”
“The clear issue here is why the previous chair resigned, and what remit the Minister has given the interim chair to change the policy and direction of the CMA. Can the Minister outline that remit for the House? He says he will do it later this year, but he has manoeuvred a position in which the previous chair has resigned. We need to know what the CMA will be doing now to regulate the market.”
“We look forward to the release of the hostages and, indeed, the cessation of hostilities.”
“The Metropolitan police have finally decided that it is unacceptable for the campaigners to form up at midday 100 yards from a synagogue where Jewish people were threatened when leaving or joining the Shabbat service, and have insisted that the route of the marches must not go near any synagogue. However, the campaigners have said that they will defy the police and form up outside the synagogue again. May we have a statement from the Home Secretary reinforcing the view that if that happens, those individuals should face the full force of the law and the cost of policing the demonstration to ensure that public order is protected?”
“In Westminster Hall, next Tuesday there will be a debate on the provision of auditory verbal therapy, next Thursday there will be a debate on the United Nations International Day of Education followed by a debate on innovation in the field of rare retinal diseases, on Tuesday 28 January there will be a debate on road safety for young drivers, and on Thursday 30 January there will be a debate on medicinal cannabis. In addition, may I point out that the Palestine Solidarity Campaign has organised hate marches across London over many months since 7 October?”
“I thank the Leader of the House for allowing protected time for this afternoon’s Backbench Business debate, and also for allowing time next week for the annual Holocaust Memorial Day debate. In addition to the business that she announced for Monday, there will be two Select Committee statements on behalf of the Treasury Committee and another on behalf of the Defence Committee. Those Committee statements are important, so I trust that the Government will try not to schedule too many Government statements that would squeeze the time available. We always like to satisfy colleagues, and on Thursday 30 January there will be a debate on proportional representation for general elections.”
“I welcome the Foreign Secretary’s tone, content and, above all else, caution. There are clearly concerns that Hamas are trying to resile from the commitments they have made in this deal. In fact, overnight, their leader praised the events of 7 October, vowed to keep repeating them until Israel is eliminated and called upon all his followers to continue the fight. Equally, the Foreign Secretary has not mentioned that part of this deal, as I understand it, will see the release of Palestinian prisoners who have been convicted of terrorist offences. The risk is that they will return and cause more problems. What can he do to ensure that Hamas are eliminated from government in Gaza, so that the Palestinian Authority can take control and ensure that peace is restored to the region?”
“I thank the Minister for that answer. Clearly, we all hope that there will be a deal to release the hostages held illegally in Gaza. Given that Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis, the proxies of Iran, are on the brink of defeat, the risk to the region now is that Iran takes direct action. As we want to see the end of the despotic regime that brutalises the people of Iran, now is the time for sanctions and the proscription of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps once and for all. Will the Minister take the necessary action to bring that regime to its knees, so that democracy can be restored to Iran?”
“Will the Minister look at early diagnosis for firefighters because, very sadly, many suffer very bad ill health in retirement? If they are diagnosed early, treatment can be provided to improve the quality and the length of their lives.”
“Almost daily, we see reports about what is going on in Gaza or Ukraine, yet, as my right hon. Friend the Member for New Forest East (Sir Julian Lewis) mentioned, we see hardly anything about the situation in Sudan. Clearly this is genocide, and the most important thing now will probably be the attitude that the incoming Administration in the United States take towards it. What discussion has the Minister, or any Foreign Office Minister, had with the incoming Trump Administration on the action they will take to support our penholder initiatives in Sudan?”
“This will be the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, and sadly many of the survivors will not live to see another significant memorial day, so I hope that she will be able to facilitate a debate. Yesterday, our allies in the United Arab Emirates announced that 19 entities and individuals have been proscribed and put on their watchlist for terrorist links across the world. Sadly, eight of those entities exist in the UK, where they operate freely and are not proscribed. Could we have a statement from a Minister early next week on what action the Government will take following the actions of the United Arab Emirates, to ensure that these Islamist terrorist groups, which are linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, are proscribed in the UK and are not allowed to operate freely?”
“She will know that that debate was frozen out before Christmas, because the Government put on a succession of statements and there was insufficient time for it to take place. She has said that it now has an allocated day, but will she arrange for it to be given protected time so that that debate can take place in full? We have a heavily subscribed request for a debate on Holocaust Memorial Day, which takes place on 27 January. Obviously, the Leader of the House has not announced the dates for debates during that period, but it would be helpful for all Members if she could indicate whether she will allow a debate either on the 27th or on one of the two relevant Thursdays.”
“Happy new year to you, Madam Deputy Speaker, and to everyone. In addition to the business that the Leader of the House has announced, the Backbench Business Committee has organised debates in Westminster Hall on Tuesday 14 January on railway services in the south-west; on Thursday 16 January on Government support for the marine renewables industry; on Tuesday 21 January on the provision of auditory verbal therapy; and on Thursday 23 January on the United Nations International Day of Education, followed by a debate on the innovation in the field of rare retinal disease. With your permission, Madam Deputy Speaker, on Tuesday 28 January, there will be a debate on road safety for young drivers. The Leader of the House has announced the debate on the performance of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.”
“May 2025 be filled with positivity, peace, health and happiness.”
“Merry Christmas, Mr Speaker. St Luke’s Hospice in my constituency covers the whole of Brent and Harrow. I helped to form it back in the 1980s. The staff tell me that the biggest problem they face is that, every time there is an increase in nurses or doctors’ pay, it is never passed on to them, so they have to find the money from charitable giving. The Minister’s announcement of extra money is of course welcome, but she has failed to answer the question: will it cover the national insurance increase, or not?”
“Could she arrange for a statement when we return about the true facts on casualties and deaths in Gaza, rather than the fictitious figures made up by the Ministry of Health, which is controlled by Hamas?”
“Also in Westminster Hall, on 14 January there will be a debate on railway services in the south-west, on Thursday 16 January there will be a debate on Government support for the marine renewables industry, and on 21 January there will be a debate on the provision of auditory verbal therapy. We will obviously offer debates in the normal way, and we are taking applications appropriately. I am not sure whether the Leader of the House has seen the rather excellent report produced by the Henry Jackson Society questioning the number of casualties and deaths in Gaza since the beginning of the war. We seem to be inching towards what everyone wants to see: a ceasefire and the return of the hostages. We wish those hostages the very best at this time of year and hope for their return to their families.”
“In addition to the business that the Leader of the House announced on Backbench Business days, we are trying to find a date for the debate delayed from last Thursday because the Government put on three statements and squeezed the agenda so that it could not be heard. That debate is on the performance of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, which I asked a question about some weeks ago. In addition to those debates, in Westminster Hall on Thursday 9 January there will be a full day’s debate on the impact of conflict on women and girls.”
“As someone who has consistently and regularly called for more shipbuilding to take place in the UK rather than be exported, today’s statement is good news, and I congratulate the Secretary of State on announcing this decision. He has clearly said that further orders have been added as a result of this deal. What further defence and—much more importantly—commercial opportunities are there for Harland & Wolff to acquire contracts from across the world, rather than building elsewhere?”
“The Minister might like to welcome the fact that the Israeli air force is systematically destroying chemical weapons, rather than relying on the word of terrorists. Will she comment on the largest occupation anywhere in the middle east, namely that of Turkey in Syria, and on the pro-western Kurdish fighters who are being singly dealt with by the Turks? It appears that the Turkish Parliament now sees an opportunity to annex more and more of Syria, creating a greater Turkish empire. Has the Minister or the Government had any discussions with Turkey about its intentions?”
“As a fan of technology, I was particularly interested as I walked around the new X-ray wing, which has three new scanners specialised in different intricate requirements—we often downplay what the health service does in such specialist areas. I am reaching the end of my remarks, as you will be delighted to hear, Madam Deputy Speaker, so I pay tribute to our great friend, the late, great Sir David Amess, who so loved these debates. May he rest in peace and remain in our thoughts. I wish everyone a very merry Christmas, and a happy Hannukah, which starts on Christmas day. I hope that everyone enjoys the rest and a well-deserved break with good food and good company—we will have the debate on obesity and food strategy when we return after Christmas. I also wish everyone a very happy new year.”
“I recently visited the Royal National orthopaedic hospital in Stanmore for a productive meeting. I spoke at great length with Paul Fish, the hospital’s CEO, about future plans and improvements to the hospital. Many of the outbuildings are in dire need of investment to maximise patient care. Back in 2015, I led the campaign to get the hospital rebuilt—at the time, the Care Quality Commission had deemed it not fit for purpose. I am delighted that the previous Government allocated £42.5 million to rebuild the main site into the state-of-the-art centre that it is now, supporting literally thousands of people every year with their problems.”
“Come 2025, I will be working tirelessly to stand up for the people of Harrow East, as all Members should do for their constituencies. I am delighted that the Government have got the Tobacco and Vapes Bill through to Committee stage in this House. I welcome their ambition to inherit the previous Government’s goal of eradicating smoking from society and tackling youth vaping. I look forward to the continued work to scrutinise the Bill and ensure that all appropriate amendments are adopted so that we have a smokefree society in our lifetimes. I pay tribute to my friends at Action on Smoking and Health—in particular to Deborah Arnott, who retired this year after so many years leading the organisation—who have been tireless in providing briefings and meetings, and in hosting events for colleagues and me.”
“The support from councillors and activists every weekend, as we continue to knock on residents’ doors, is invaluable and greatly appreciated. The general election was, it is fair to say, very tough for my party, and I am sorry to have seen so many great colleagues depart this place—I look forward to many of them returning. I am eternally grateful that we in Harrow East bucked the trend and increased my majority, and grateful to everyone who helped during that time, come rain or shine. I thank the residents of Harrow East for showing up to vote for me, and the thousands of them who completed my surveys on a range of issues. I have taken up those issues and am organising meetings with the appropriate people to ensure that we get results for local residents. I never take this wonderful job for granted.”
“I send my good wishes to my local charity FirmFoundation, which will be providing hostel accommodation once again, and to Crisis and all the other homeless charities, which do such good work. When passing someone who is sleeping rough, do not just ignore them; wish them a merry Christmas. That acknowledgment, with just a few words, could mean a lot to them. However, please do not give them money. Give them food; give them time and attention. Let me mention at this point that, despite my prompting, the Government still have not implemented the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Act 2023, which was my private Member’s Bill. I look forward to that happening in 2025. I thank everyone in my constituency for their hard work over the past year.”
“It is saddening that the tensions in the middle east are so frequently spilling over onto our streets, with antisemitic behaviour rising by over 500% compared with pre-7 October levels. We must stand up to that abominable behaviour, not allowing any hate crimes to take place, regardless of race or religion. During the festive period, it is particularly important to share a thought for those without a permanent home and those sleeping rough. The winter months can be ruthless, with increased hours of darkness and plummeting temperatures. It can be an incredibly lonely period for those without any friends or a home to live in, watching everyone ignore them on the sidewalk while others enjoy quality time with their families.”
“In December, the National Audit Office identified a deficit in the equipment plan of £3 billion for this year and a further deficit of £3.9 billion for the following year. The MOD will have to find an extra £1 billion each year to fund the above-budget costs of the 2023 and 2024 pay settlements for the armed forces. It is such an important point that the national interest should not be subject to party politics or spending reviews—the money should be ringfenced. On 27 January, we mark Holocaust Memorial Day. I am pleased that through January there will be a range of activities to mark it, including the annual book of commitment, which I urge all colleagues, especially those new to the House, to sign. They can place in it their commitment to combating antisemitism and hatred of people because of their religion, race or background.”
“The longer Emily is held captive, the slimmer her chances become and the longer she has to endure such dark days. My thoughts and prayers remain with the Damari family and those who have lost loved ones due to terrorism. Another issue that the Government need to reconsider given the situation globally is their defence spending commitments or lack thereof. They committed to spending 2.5% of GDP on defence as soon as they could. Now that has changed to having a road map to achieve it. In this uncertain world, we need this to be accelerated, not delayed. We have already heard that the Ministry of Defence faces a large funding gap in the current financial year and in 2025-26.”
“On 8 July, T he Guardian reported that the Government would not proscribe the IRGC as a terrorist group in its entirety, completely U-turning on their promise. I call on the Government to correct that error of judgment sooner rather than later. I was honoured recently to meet the inspiringly brave Mandy Damari—a woman with rizz. Her daughter Emily Damari is still being held hostage in Gaza. Emily is the last British hostage in Gaza. She is an avid Tottenham fan and an innocent young girl taken from her apartment on 7 October 2023. She has not been returned, and she has been shot, wounded and not given medical treatment. It is totally unimaginable what she is going through. We must not let Emily be forgotten, and I urge the Government to work with the Israeli Government to ensure a safe return as soon as possible.”
“We should remember the violence being implemented on Hindus and other minorities in Bangladesh, and the attacks in—can you believe it?—Canada on Jews and Hindus in their synagogues and temples. That is outrageous. We in this House are all conscious of the escalating situation in the middle east, but there is a clear and present danger that if terrorists remain in Gaza, the conflict cannot have a long-term solution. Indeed, it could drag Hezbollah, Iran and extremist forces in the middle east into a full-scale war with Israel, which none of us want to see. We should understand that the regime in Tehran is pure skibidi. On 25 June, Labour promised that if it was elected, it would proscribe the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in its entirety, as many of us had been calling on previous Conservative Governments to do for a number of years.”
“Madam Deputy Speaker, you will be delighted to hear that I will not bore the House with the history of the names of the London Underground lines, but they are either historically derived or named after royalty. The Overground lines are certainly not. I am therefore disappointed that the Government see fit to reward this wanton destruction of TfL with a promotion for the former deputy Mayor for transport—she is the new Transport Secretary—and a possible knighthood for the man in charge of it all. Nearly 200,000 people have already signed a petition calling on the Government to reconsider, and I whole- heartedly agree. Indeed, I would be more than happy to recommend colleagues from the Government Benches who would be far more deserving of a knighthood than Mayor Khan.”
“The Bakerloo line has the oldest working trains in regular service in the UK. Those who have travelled on them know how bad they are, yet TfL ducked the issue of replacing them again, citing funding as the reason. There are no plans to replace the 1972 stock, which many of my constituents have to use from stations in my constituency, but there was money for Mayor Khan to pay off his union paymasters. There was also money to pay for a costly election year fare freeze gimmick, and £7 million to spend on a vanity project regarding the London Overground, to say nothing of the choice of the line names themselves, which are at best virtue signalling and at worst extremely confusing.”
“Transport for London has continued to be run into the ground, with spending priorities that are short term, political and simply vain. The refurbishment of the Central line needs to be expedited. This is badly needed, because it is my understanding that there are literally no more spare direct current motors for the 1992 stock available, necessitating their conversion to alternating current motors as a matter of priority. That may sound not so important, but the project has been going on for the last five years. TfL now has a completion date of 2029 for the project. That is outrageous. The Piccadilly line is four years behind schedule. The new trains will not come into force until the end of next year; they were supposed to come in in 2011. Now TfL is saying that it does not have funding to upgrade the signalling either.”