Yvette Cooper
MP for Pontefract, Castleford and Knottingley · Labour · United Kingdom
“NATO has been the cornerstone of Euro-Atlantic security for over 75 years, protecting more than a billion people, but to ensure it remains as strong for the next 75 years, it needs to respond to changing threats.”
“He may have seen that the Prime Minister and the Canadian Prime Minister put out a joint statement over the last couple of days to set out how we seek to work together to ensure that those initiatives, which do slightly different things, can combine and collaborate to ensure that we get the best possible impact.”
“The world must not fail the people of Sudan again. Last week, the UK convened an urgent debate at the United Nations Human Rights Council. A UK-penned resolution condemned atrocities, called for an urgent UN fact finding inquiry and urged the RSF to comply with international law and halt this attack, urging both the RSF and the Sudanese A…”
“We agree about the nature of the increasingly dangerous world we live in and the importance of us being able to defend ourselves and maintain our security. We have committed to reaching the 3.5% commitment on defence, but that is part of a 5% commitment that was made to cover broader defence and security intelligence.”
“I did take the opportunity to discuss the situation in both the west bank and Gaza with some of our allies and partners. I am deeply worried that last year’s 20-point plan for Gaza—which was hugely important and which we supported, as did the whole world—is at risk of running into the ground.”
“As I have said, our security since the second world war has very much depended on the NATO alliance, which has always been a defensive alliance that has built its strength through deterrence. Deterrence is immensely important. When we reached the end of the cold war in 1990, there was at that point a substantial peace dividend.”
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“I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Ealing Southall (Deirdre Costigan) for the leadership she is showing in her community. The point she raises is partly about increasing neighbourhood police numbers, which is part of this Labour Government’s plan. It is also about ensuring that we have partnerships between the police and local communities, rather than communities feeling that they have to do this alone. Such partnerships between the police and communities are at the heart of the British model of policing by consent, which is what we need to restore and rebuild after the damage that has been done.”
“The hon. Member makes a serious point. We need to increase neighbourhood policing in rural areas and to recognise the additional different challenges that rural areas can face, both because of the geography and the particular kinds of crime that affect farmers and farming equipment. That is why we have set out our intention to draw up a new rural crime action plan, alongside our plans for neighbourhood policing.”
“I caution the right hon. Member against excluding one of the most common crimes in the country from his figures. Some of the crimes that impact town centres at the heart of local communities most heavily, such as shoplifting, street crime and street theft, have soared in recent years, but there was no response at all by the previous Government. We are making those crimes a priority as part of our plans to change some of the laws around shoplifting and assault on shop workers, as well as getting more police back on the beat.”
“The hon. Member is right that off-road bikes are a total nightmare in some communities. I have talked to residents who have been driven mad by the scourge of dangerous off-road bikes that are used to harass and intimidate people. We are looking at ways to strengthen the law on off-road biking to give the police the powers they need to tackle that kind of damaging antisocial behaviour.”
“I welcome the points the hon. Member makes. To tackle shoplifting, we need to ensure that strong enough laws and policing partnerships are in place, and that we do prevention and follow-up work with young people. As she may know, we are setting up a new Young Futures programme, which is all about the greater work we need to do to prevent young people being drawn into crime in the first place. I encourage her to tell us more details about her local work to tackle this issue.”
“I have long been a strong supporter of the Elizabeth medal. I pay tribute to Bryn Hughes and others for their work campaigning for recognition for police officers and other emergency workers who have been lost in the line of duty, and who have given so much to support other people and keep others safe. I have attended the police bravery awards every year for the last 14 years, exactly because it is so important to support brave officers. I am absolutely determined to ensure that we not only continue with that work, but go further to support brave officers who put their lives at risk. I am very happy to continue cross-party working on this issue.”
“The hon. Member raises an important issue. That co-ordination between police and mental health services can be crucial in some of the most serious cases, where people are a danger to the public for reasons perhaps linked to a mental health crisis, but also in many cases where someone is not a danger to the public and mental health professionals may be far better able to respond than police officers. Significant work has been done, but she is right that we need further close working between police and mental health services across the country. That has also been part of the work that my right hon. Friend the Health Secretary is doing in the NHS and the Department of Health and Social Care on improving mental health services.”
“Apologies, Mr Speaker; I always like the chance to be able to look towards you. The criminal smuggling and trafficking gangs that organise small boat crossings are undermining our border security and putting lives at risk. It is truly tragic that a little baby died in the channel this weekend. Those gangs have been getting away with this for far too long. That is why the Government have set up a new border security command, led by former police chief Martin Hewitt, to work with other countries to go after the gangs.”
“My hon. Friend makes an important point. There are many different threats to our border security, which is why we have set up the border security command to draw together the work of different agencies, including on dangerous drug smuggling and organised crime, bringing together Border Force, the National Crime Agency, the intelligence and security agencies and local police forces. The border security command’s first priority will be to deal with the dangerous boat crossings that are undermining security and putting lives at risk, but as part of its work it will be dealing with the wider threats to our borders as well.”
“My hon. Friend makes an important point about how employers have exploited illegal migration. As a result, we set up a major programme through the summer, including raids, pursuing illegal working in different places across the country. We have also substantially increased our work on returns, including redeploying 1,000 additional staff to work on returns and enforcement, to make sure the rules are being properly respected and enforced. That has led to an increase of more than 20% in enforced returns this summer.”
“The purpose of setting up a border security command is to strengthen the security of our borders. We will do that by working with other countries. It is crucial that we do so to tackle the gangs and the boats before they reach the French coast in the first place. We have increased our co-operation, with new agreements in place with the G7, Europol and Italy, and we are working on new agreements with France, Germany and Belgium. Those agreements would not be possible if we were somehow abandoning international law.”
“Ensuring that constituency Members are informed is something that I take seriously. It often did not happen in the past, but it is important and it needs to happen. The overall situation that we inherited included an asylum backlog that was increasing because asylum decision making had totally collapsed. We have now increased that decision making so that we can clear the backlog and end hotel use. Sadly, that will take time—because of the soaring backlog we inherited as a result of the collapse in decision making—but we are determined to ensure that we can clear the backlog and save the taxpayer hundreds of millions, if not billions, of pounds.”
“I gently point out to the hon. Gentleman what we inherited from the previous Government. In the first six months of the year, there were the highest number of boat crossings on record because of the total failure of their programme, including spending £700 million on a scheme to send four people—four volunteers—to Rwanda. As for the contract, he may be interested to learn that the first Manston contract notice was issued on 4 December 2023 under the previous Home Secretary for £700 million for six years with no suggested break clauses. The new contract is not only substantially cheaper because we have made savings, but also includes break clauses so that we can close, change or reduce the contract to save the taxpayer money, which the previous Government failed to do.”
“Knife crime takes far too many young lives in this country, so the Government have set a mission—not just for the Government but for policing and local communities right across the country—to halve knife crime over the next decade. As part of that, we have already implemented the ban on zombie knives and zombie-style machetes, and we will now act quickly to ban ninja swords following the campaigning by Pooja Kanda after the death of her son.”
“My hon. Friend makes an important point. I know that she has championed that issue over many years. The Young Futures programme will include youth hubs to draw together services around young people—I used the concept of a teenage Sure Start to bring young people’s services together. We also need youth prevention programmes across all areas. She is right to highlight that this must be about young girls as well as young boys to ensure that we tackle the threats to young people’s safety from violent crime.”
“Police and crime commissioners have a crucial role to play as part of the mission to reduce serious violence, as do local authorities. The hon. Lady is right that local partnerships will best be able to target young people who are at greatest risk, and ensure that proper prevention programmes are in place. As we know, many of those services have been hollowed out over a long period, and it is important that we have partnership working to rebuild them. I hope that we can work cross-party on that—not just with police and crime commissioners but with MPs across the country.”
“Organised immigration crime puts lives at risk and threatens our border security. We have agreed a new anti-smuggling action plan with our G7 partners to strengthen collaboration in areas such as intelligence, information exchange and the pursuit of criminal finances. The UK work will be led by the new border security command. As evidence of our closer collaboration with other countries, this weekend, at the request of the French authorities, a Border Force vessel rescued 46 people and returned them to France.”
“My hon. Friend makes an extremely important point. The mission for safer streets that the Government have set includes a really ambitious mission to halve violence against women and girls in a decade. We know that that is immensely difficult, and I hope that all the devolved Administrations, as well as local communities and organisations, will want to be part of it. My hon. Friend is right to prioritise women’s online safety, and that is why my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology is prioritising action on online deepfake abuse.”
“The former Home Secretary—the current shadow Home Secretary—now seems to be admitting to the totally chaotic state of asylum accommodation finances. He had to continually seek last-minute reserve claims, because his Government had underfunded the asylum accommodation problems that they had caused by letting the asylum backlog soar. As a result, the taxpayer ended up footing the bill. This Government will be making savings from asylum accommodation by getting the system back in order. I know that the right hon. Member has been kicked out of the Tory party leadership contest because he cannot count.”
“This Government have already been putting in place the funding to try to make good the total chaos that the right hon. Member’s Government left us with. They spent £700 million to send four volunteers to Rwanda—and how much did he spend on a flight?”
“My hon. Friend is right that we have an extensive challenge with the backlog, which means that very expensive hotels are too often used as asylum accommodation. We need to clear the backlog and ensure that we end hotel use, but that also means addressing the serious challenges around violence against women and girls.”
“We will be appointing a Windrush commissioner. This is something I feel strongly about. The hon. Member will know that as the Select Committee Chair, I asked many questions about the Windrush scandal. It is a stain not just on the Home Office, but on the British state, and it is important we right those wrongs.”
“I gently remind the hon. Member that his party’s Government failed to review the funding formula for very many years. However, he is right that the issues of rural and urban areas are immensely important, which is why we have committed to a rural crime action plan.”
“I think it is a matter for us all to take the security of people immensely seriously, and to ensure that terrorist, extremist and criminal threats do not win in their attempt to pose threats not just to life, but to our way of life.”
“I congratulate the right hon. Lady on her new position. It is a great job, and I look forward to giving evidence to her as she did to me—we will see what price I have to pay as the roles are reversed. She asks an important point about modern slavery numbers. We are recruiting additional members of staff, and I will happily provide her with more information about that crucial policy area.”
“As the hon. Gentleman will know, the impact assessment is provided by the Home Office, and what we inherited from the previous Government was not simply the incredibly costly Rwanda programme, but also the retrospective element of the Illegal Migration Act 2023, which was so damaging that the shadow Home Secretary, when he was in the job, did not implement many of the measures. That retrospective element has cost the Home Office hundreds of millions of pounds, and those costs would go forward into the future.”
“My hon. Friend makes an important point. To tackle the chaos in the asylum system the rules need to be properly respected and enforced. That is why we have increased by more than 20% the enforced returns over the summer of those who have no right to be here. We have also increased the number of charter flights, including the biggest ever charter flight return.”
“My hon. Friend makes an important point, and I thank her for standing up for her community. We want to strengthen the law to give the police more powers to tackle the nightmare of dangerous off-road bikes.”
“I have met the IOPC chair to talk through the issues facing that body. The hon. Gentleman is right that we need to speed up the decision-making process. He will also recognise that there are considerable challenges in the system that we have inherited.”
“The hon. Member will know that in this country we have operational independence for the police, and independence for the Crown Prosecution Service and the courts. I strongly support police officers, who have faced cases of the most disgraceful violence and attacks. It is important that we support our police in the face of those attacks and ensure that they have the whole community behind them.”
“That is why everyone needs to be part of the measures we take to keep people safe—including those who run premises and events, who need to know what they can do and what they should be doing to keep people safe.”
“Equally, the Protect Duty must not be so prescriptive as to prevent people enjoying a normal life.” That encapsulates the purpose behind the Bill and behind so much of what we do when countering terrorism and extremism: ensuring that proper measures are taken to keep us safe; ensuring that people can get on with their lives and making it possible for people to keep enjoying all the things they do; and protection of life—protection of our way of life. Since March 2017, MI5 and the police have together disrupted 43 late-stage plots and there have been 15 domestic terror attacks. We know from those incidents that the public can be targeted at a wide range of public venues and spaces. We know too that the terror threat has become less predictable and potential attacks harder to detect and investigate.”
“That is why Labour committed in our manifesto to strengthening the security of public events and venues, why the Prime Minister made a commitment to Figen Murray and why we have moved at speed to introduce the Bill in a matter of weeks after the general election. Earlier work was done on the Bill under the last Government and I am glad to say that it has cross-party support—I hope that, when it comes to security matters, the House will always be prepared to come together. The Manchester Arena inquiry made 169 public recommendations. Volume 1 focused on the security of the arena and set out the need for a protect duty in primary legislation. The chair, Sir John Saunders, whom I thank for all the work he did, concluded: “Doing nothing is, in my view, not an option.”
“Despite her grief, she has campaigned, and when asked this morning why she does so, she said that she looks at her child’s ashes on the bookshelf and she does not want other families to have to face the same. Figen and campaigners have fought for this law. This Bill has been a long time coming, but she has never given up. I am sure the whole House will agree wheneb;normal;j I say to Figen, “You are a true inspiration. Officially, we are debating the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Bill but in essence and in spirit, this is ‘Martyn’s law’.” The first responsibility of any Government is to keep the public safe. That is, and will always be, our No. 1 priority. We will not let terrorists or extremists destroy or distort our way of life.”
“In the aftermath of the Manchester Arena attack, our country did what it always does when confronted with terrorism: we came together. As the city grieved, we stood shoulder to shoulder with those affected and offered our friendship and support. In the darkness came rays of light—those who were determined to support each other and ensure that more was done to save young lives in future. That spirit is embodied by Figen Murray, who is with us in the Public Gallery today. It is because of Figen that we are all here to talk about this legislation. Figen’s son, Martyn Hett, was among those killed in the attack. I cannot imagine Figen’s pain and I am in awe of her courage. To suffer such a horrendous loss and somehow find the strength to fight for changes that will help others is heroic.”
“More than 1,000 people were injured, and 22 of them never came home—nine of those were teenagers. Today, we remember them all. Their lives were brutally cut short in an act of pure evil. We also think of the victims of other terrorist attacks. They will never be forgotten. Their families and friends, left to pick up the pieces and somehow go on, are in our hearts and prayers. We think also of all those who survived this and other similarly abhorrent acts, the survivors of all terror attacks, who live with the scars, whether physical or psychological. We think of the first responders who are on the frontline when the worst happens, bravely working to protect the public and to save lives, and we think of the police and security and intelligence agencies who work night and day to prevent attacks and keep us all safe. We give them our thanks.”
“I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time. The Bill has the wholehearted support of the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and, I hope, the whole House. Some of those who campaigned hardest for it have joined us in Parliament for this evening’s debate. Seven and a half years ago, on the evening of 22 May 2017, thousands of people went to Manchester Arena for a music concert. Many of those in attendance were children and teenagers. They were there to see Ariana Grande, their favourite pop star, and to dance and sing along to her songs. They were there to soak up the atmosphere with friends and family. But as the event drew to a close and people started to leave, terror struck. Scenes of happiness gave way to shock and trauma, and what had been an enjoyable spring evening was transformed into a nightmare.”
“In recognition of the potentially greater impact of an attack on larger premises, those in the enhanced tier will be subject to additional requirements or public protection measures: monitoring for risks and indicators; security measures for individuals, which might mean search and screening processes; physical safety measures, where relevant, such as safety glass; and securing information to make it harder for people to plan, prepare or execute acts of terrorism.”
“Those responsible for premises in the standard tier will be required to notify the regulator and have in place public protection procedures to reduce the risk of harm to individuals in the event of an act of terrorism. It is important that those procedures are designed to be very simple and low cost. There will be no requirement to put in place physical measures in the standard tier. There are four categories of procedure: evacuation, which relates to the process of getting people safely out of the premises; invacuation, for example where we need to keep people safe within premises; lockdown, if a premises needs to be kept secure from an attacker who is trying to get in; and communication—simply communicating to all those involved, including staff and the public who might be at risk.”
“Larger premises and events will need to take steps to reduce their vulnerability to terrorist attacks. For premises to fall within the scope of the Bill, it must be reasonable to expect that there may be 200 or more individuals present on those premises at the same time. In addition, the premises must be used for one or more of the activities specified in the Bill—for example, entertainment or leisure. For those premises that are in scope, a tiered approach has been established, with requirements varying. Events and premises where it is reasonably expected that 800 or more people may be present at once will generally be in the enhanced tier, and any other premises—those where 200 to 800 people may be present—will be in the standard tier.”
“The hon. Gentleman makes an important point, and I know there will be many detailed discussions on that in Committee. Since the original draft legislation was published, we have sought to ensure that there was extensive consultation with businesses, with premises and with venues of all sizes. That is why there is a different approach, which I will come on to, for different sizes of venue, ensuring that the response that premises need to make is proportionate and recognises the detailed individual circumstances, which will be very different from one venue and one organisation to another. I will come to that point and that detail. The legislation requires for the first time that those responsible for certain premises and events consider terrorist risk and how they would respond to an attack.”
“We are being clear that it is not for the Government to specify precise arrangements for every venue. I do not think it would be appropriate to do so. Arrangements will vary according to the event. We know that many large venues already have procedures to search bags or conduct those sorts of checks. We are clear that this needs to be done proportionately, and according to the size of the venue and the arrangements in place.”
“The right hon. Gentleman is right. That is why one of the things we would expect is that premises have proper search measures, and particularly to ensure that there are security measures around the movement of individuals, but as well as the searches that might take place at an event itself, safety measures may also involve having monitoring procedures in place—for example, if the same individual has been back, circling a venue several times, and is behaving in a suspicious or inappropriate way. Making sure that staff are trained to recognise those kinds of risks and indicators may be an important part of keeping the venue safe.”
“As my hon. Friend will know, the prevention of future deaths report from the London bridge and Borough market inquests called for clarity of responsibility for venue operators regarding protective security. Addressing that point is one reason that we are bringing forward this legislation. My hon. Friend is also right that, in practice, security and safety measures require people to work together and require partnerships among them, the venue, local councils and others. It is not for this legislation to set out the decisions for insurance companies; its whole purpose is to make venues safer and more resilient to the kinds of pressures and attacks they might face.”
“I said I would give way to the right hon. Member for South Holland and The Deepings (Sir John Hayes). I will then come to the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon).”
“I reassure the House that those responsible for premises and events will be given time to understand and that the SIA’s approach will be to support venues to adopt the new measures. A range of factors will be taken into account so that penalties will be used only to address the most serious or repeated failings.”
“The third measure is about physical safety, which might include the physical arrangements that can prevent somebody from being able to take action in advance of a major event to create that risk and threat. There are ways of having those checks in place. The Bill ensures that there is a new regulator to oversee compliance through a new function of the Security Industry Authority. We expect the SIA’s primary role to be supporting and advising businesses to implement the legislation’s requirements. Even though the SIA will have a suite of powers and sanctions, including the power to issue fines for non-compliance or to shut down events in the enhanced tier, in fact those sanctions are primarily civil.”
“The right hon. Member makes an important point and I thank him for his long-standing interest in the issue. Those responsible for premises and events in the enhanced tier will be required to provide the regulator with a document that sets out all the public protection measures and procedures they have, and how they expect those processes to reduce their vulnerability and risk of harm from terrorism. The first category is about monitoring for risks and indicators. That might include monitoring prevention measures—for example, if there has been some kind of security breach a week before or some days before—or assessing what the risks might be.”
“Her headteacher asked the question afterwards: “How do you tell 276 children that their friend has been murdered”? That is a question we all ask: how can we explain how anyone could have targeted the event that day, with young children enjoying their love of music and dancing? But that is the point. When terrorists want to cause maximum damage—when they want to destroy our way of life—of course they seek out crowds, but they also seek out innocence, happiness and joy. That is why our task is not just to take measures to keep people safe but to work tirelessly to ensure that people can get on and enjoy their lives, and that we never let terrorists, extremists and criminals win. Let me finish by quoting Figen. She said: “It’s time to get this done.” I could not put it better. I commend the Bill to the House.”
“Members will know, the Bill’s proposals have been subject to extensive development, and the draft version of the legislation was subject to pre-legislative scrutiny under the previous Government. Most crucially, we have raised the threshold for being in scope from 100 to 200 individuals. We recognise the need for a location-specific approach because the procedures in one place may not apply to another. We have also ensured that in both tiers appropriate procedures and measures are required only “so far as is reasonably practicable”. Those words are crucial to recognising the importance of protecting life and our way of life. With Figen here, we always keep in our minds that terrible day in Manchester seven and a half years ago. The youngest victim was an eight-year-old girl, Saffie-Rose Roussos.”