Anna Turley
MP for Redcar · Labour (Co-op) · United Kingdom
“I welcome the ongoing work of the Modernisation Committee and look forward to the recommendations the Committee on Standards will make to the House.”
“It is a pleasure, as always, to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Western. I want to reassure you before I begin that I have notified the Members I will be mentioning today. I begin by thanking my hon.”
“It is absolutely astonishing that MPs can profit from clickbait and from driving hits and likes. The public can clearly see the contradiction and the conflict with representing constituents that could ensue from that, so I thank her for raising the issue.”
“I appreciate the Chair’s reflection, thank you. I will simply say that it is nice for some Members of Parliament to see a safe and secure future, which I am sure many of our constituents would dearly love for themselves. My concern about the examples I gave is not just that it diminishes the individual Member in the eyes of the public.”
“It is right that the Committee on Standards is at the heart of looking at the future rules governing the behaviour of MPs, given its deep expertise and the proven ability for its members to work together on a cross-party basis to promote high standards in public life.”
“Members should spend their time doing the best possible job, representing their constituents who put their trust in them in the general election. The second principle is that any earnings from a second job must not create the impression that the second job is the MP’s primary source of income.”
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“It is, as always, a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir John. I want to take a moment to pay huge tribute to my right hon. Friend the Member for Walsall and Bloxwich (Valerie Vaz). She is the epitome of a first-class MP and a doughty champion for her constituents, picking up local issues that people care passionately about and bringing them to the heart of Government. If anyone can knock heads together and make things happen, I believe it will be her. I look forward to seeing over the next few years all those problems solved. I wish I could stand here with the power to wave a wand and give my right hon. Friend all the things she has asked for, but she has put them on the record, which is the purpose of this place.”
“Where possible, robust but fair departmental sponsorship is the key way to ensure clear lines of accountability between the arm’s length bodies and the Department. Those sponsorship arrangements promote regular interaction between bodies and sponsoring Departments to ensure that bodies are held to account for their use of public money and operate in line with the priorities of the Government of the day. I urge right hon. and hon. Friends with concerns about particular bodies to write to the sponsoring Secretary of State about those issues, because ultimately, those arm’s length bodies do have accountability arrangements in place.”
“Friend the Member for Walsall and Bloxwich will be delighted that we are folding LocatED into the Department for Education to accelerate school building, combining property knowledge with schools’ needs for better value—I urge her to focus her campaign about the free school she referred to on the Secretary of State. We are also repatriating the UK Space Agency into the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. We are taking action on a number of fronts, but that is just the start. We want the body of the state to be accountable to those elected to bring about change and deliver for their constituents. I will briefly set out some of our existing processes that ensure effective arm’s length body accountability.”
“I completely agree with my hon. Friend. She articulates the struggle that so many of us find in picking up bits of casework and trying to champion our constituents’ needs and wishes; we can get lost in the matrix, and it can be deeply frustrating. I know that Secretaries of State, including the Health and Education Secretaries, see that. They want to know that their decisions are having a real impact, and that there are not unaccountable people making decisions against the grain of what we are trying to achieve on behalf of our constituents. I thank my hon. Friend for raising that point. We are also repatriating the Valuation Office Agency into His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs to speed up tax administration. We are abolishing Ofwat and creating a single regulator to cut water pollution. My right hon.”
“For them, it is not an abstract question of public service reform; it is about whether their local station has a lift to make it accessible, or where a school is built. The Leather Museum that my right hon. Friend the Member for Walsall and Bloxwich mentioned sounds fantastic—a significant local and national asset that deserves to be recognised and supported. I urge her to continue her doughty campaign, along with Linda, Adam and Lauren, who sound as though they are doing a fantastic job. That museum deserves to have a bright future and I know she will do all she can to make that happen. I hope the Government will support her in that. At a time when people are impatient to see change, I want to assure everybody that the Government are committed to transforming accountability across our arm’s length bodies.”
“To further raise the bar on accountability, we are committed to the continuous improvement of day-to-day checks and balances. A sponsorship code has been available since 2022, but we will look at it in the light of the arm’s length body review. Arm’s length bodies are also consistently reviewed through long-established lines of accountability, and through their boards and sponsoring Departments. Those boards scrutinise the arm’s length body’s executive decision making and oversee compliance with statutory and non-statutory guidance issued by the Government. Again, though, we will look at all those levels of compliance and accountability to ensure that they are fit for purpose. As my right hon. and hon. Friends have said, the public are impatient to see the change they voted for. They want it to become a reality.”
“My hon. Friend raises an interesting and important issue. Far too often there have been departmental silos, and silos within other public bodies, and they are not talking to each other. As she says, people can bounce around, failing upwards, and far too often there have not been channels of accountability and scrutiny to enable us to look at and manage performance. As part of our broader approach to public service reform, we are keen to look not just at how we manage recruitment, retention, training, accountability and performance within the civil service, but at how we ensure that people in the broader public sector are not failing upwards and are accountable to those they should be accountable to. I thank her for raising that.”
“We put ourselves forward to serve because we want to bring about change and make things better for people in our communities, on our doorsteps and in our local areas. Only by reforming the way that accountability, transparency and power are delegated in this country can we have that effect. It is right that the public expect public bodies to be accountable, to run effectively and to be aligned with our Government’s priorities. We only want them where they offer best value for the public, ensure that money is spent efficiently and effectively and, crucially, are democratically accountable. That is exactly what we are seeking to achieve through our programme of ALB reform. I thank my right hon. Friend and all hon. Members present for adding more grist to the mill on this issue. Question put and agreed to.”
“That is a great question. I will take it on myself, as an outcome of this discussion, to write to colleagues to invite them to submit the kind of examples and evidence that we have heard here to the relevant Departments, and to me, as the Minister responsible for arm’s length bodies, to identify areas where public scrutiny and accountability have fallen short. There may be some more formal mechanisms that we can also undertake in the review but, in the meantime, I ask all them to write to Secretaries of State and to me with those examples; we would be happy to incorporate them into the review. I will take this opportunity to repeat my sincere thanks to my right hon. Friend the Member for Walsall and Bloxwich for securing this debate, which is important for her constituents as well as all our constituents across the country.”
“Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. This Government’s aim is to recruit the brightest and best talent into the civil service—brilliant people from across the UK with the skills to deliver the priorities of the British people. We have already taken steps to improve recruitment, with the first ever cross-Government standardised recruitment processes and benchmarks, to strengthen accountability and bring faster, higher-quality and more inclusive recruitment. Fast, fair, inclusive: that is our recruitment vision.”
“The fast stream programme, of which I am proud to be a graduate, is the No. 1 graduate employee scheme in the country. We are proud that we have had over 70,000 applicants for just 754 appointments. We know that we have done very well in increasing diversity, with applications from ethnic minority candidates, women and people with disabilities, but we are falling short in applications from those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. I make no apologies about taking proactive decisions to ensure that people who do not necessarily have the same social capital or relationship strength as those from other higher social backgrounds can take internships. The number of working-class people in the civil service is three times smaller than the broader UK workforce, and we are taking action on that.”
“Under the last Tory Government, Boris Johnson said that he would cut the number of people employed by the civil service by 91,000, but that figure went up. Jeremy Hunt said that he would cap numbers in the civil service, but they went up. The Conservatives lost control of the civil service, just as they lost control of our borders, our streets and our prisons, but we are taking action to bring those numbers down.”
“We have full confidence in the Cabinet Secretary and we condemn all leaks and breaches. We undertake to look into how any leaks from Government take place.”
“Our great civil service serves all the people across the UK, so it should look like them, sound like them and come from the same towns, cities, regions and nations as the communities it serves. By 2030, half of the senior civil service will be located outside London, with half of the fast stream placements also in the regions and nations. This Government are absolutely committed to radical reform to ensure that people from all parts of the UK can have a full and rewarding career in His Majesty’s civil service.”
“My hon. Friend is a real champion for his constituency. We greatly value the contribution of the 23,000 civil service staff who are based in the east of England, and are determined that the people of Southend East and Rochford should have the same opportunities as those in Redcar, or anywhere else in the country. I would be delighted to meet my hon. Friend to discuss this matter further.”
“It has also been my privilege to continue to support local charities, including Footprints in the Community, South Tees Research, Innovation and Education, the Imaginarium, Teesside hospice, the Royal British Legion, Grangetown Generations, the Junction and many more. It has also been a privilege to have watched netball at Grangetown, football at Redcar Athletic, Redcar Town, Marske United and Normanby, swimming with Eston swimming club and boxing at Redcar boxing club. I am thinking today of the home helps caring for our elderly, the steelworkers at Lackenby, the small businesses on our high streets and the nurses in James Cook, Foxrush House and Redcar hospital. I am reminded every day what makes our community great and what a great community I am lucky to live in.”
“As it is Christmas, I hope the House will indulge me if I take a moment to thank my wonderful constituents across the Redcar and Cleveland constituency for putting their faith in me once again. I thank my agent Sarah, my organiser Jack and my brilliant team for their hard work in those long months leading up to 4 July. I thank them and all constituency and parliamentary staff for the fantastic support they provide for us on our constituents’ behalf. Since the election, I have been thrilled to visit schools across the constituency, including Huntcliff, Riverdale, Nunthorpe, Ormesby primary, Rye Hills, Lakes primary, Whale Hill and Redcar and Cleveland college. I talked to hundreds of pupils to celebrate Parliament Week recently.”
“And of course today we think particularly of the late, great Sir David Amess—we see the commemorative plaque—a phenomenal man who I really enjoyed working with in setting up the all-party group on endometriosis. He is much missed, and I know how much he loved this debate every year. Of course, I think also of my dear friend Jo Cox, who we still miss very dearly, and who should have been here with us, playing her part in a Labour Government. I have never been prouder in my life than to have been returned as the Member for Redcar in July. As a so-called retread, I have been denied a maiden speech, and as a Government Whip, I am unable to join in debates. I have swapped voice in this place for influence, I hope, on behalf of my constituents within this Government.”
“From the market squares of Damascus to the trenches of the Donbas, people are fighting and dying for democracy—for the right to self-determination, for the right to speak out, for freedom. We must never take this responsibility or this privilege for granted. While this may be the last speech in this Chamber for the year, it is my first speech in the Chamber for more than five years. I am very grateful to find that this old place has not changed too much. I see one or two new faces on the Benches, and I am delighted at how many of them are on the Labour Benches, and how many Labour Members represent places that have never before had a Labour MP. The lovely Jennie the guide dog, who is normally here, is following in the pawprints of Lucy and Sadie.”
“We hope for peace and a ceasefire, and we thank him for bringing this issue to the House. I also thank him for his important tribute to Holocaust Memorial Day; we all agree on its importance. I wish a very happy Christmas to you, Madam Deputy Speaker, the other Deputy Speakers and Mr Speaker, as well as your fantastic team, the Clerks, the Doorkeepers, the Library staff, the security, the catering teams, the police, the guides, the visitor support, the cleaners, Hansard and the many thousands of people who make this place and the other place run. We should never forget what a privilege it is to be here, and how well we are served by the entire parliamentary team. We also should never forget how precious our democracy is as we stand here in the mother of Parliaments.”
“Let me begin by paying tribute to the hon. Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman) and thanking him and all the members of the Backbench Business Committee for all the work they do in bringing so many important issues to the notice of this House. I thank him again for his contribution today, although I slightly disagree with him and others on the Transport for London issues. Many of us outside London dearly wish for a transport system that is so well-funded and efficient. I think he was channelling Ebenezer Scrooge a little bit in complaining about capped fares, but I take his comments in the spirit in which they were intended. I also thank him for raising the issue of the hostages taken on 7 October. Our hearts break for them and their families, and we desperately hope for them to be returned.”
“This is an exhaustive Christmas list for Britain—only missing, as my right hon. Friend the Member for Walsall and Bloxwich (Valerie Vaz) said, a partridge in a pear tree. Change is coming, Madam Deputy Speaker. The people have cast out the old and ushered in the new.”
“The programme includes: rail back in public hands to put passengers before profit; a raise in the minimum wage and increases for teachers, nurses and public sector workers; maternity leave from day one in a job; more powers for police to tackle antisocial behaviour; a house building revolution; the miners pension scheme; £1 billion for buses, with local people back in charge of them; homes for veterans; a child poverty taskforce; a national wealth fund for a transition to the industries of the future; breakfast clubs for schoolchildren; action on spiking and stalking; bringing back neighbourhood policing; action on sewage; and, in my own patch, the biggest single investment on Teesside in history, with carbon capture and storage bringing jobs and ushering in a new industrial renaissance on Teesside.”
“They turned in their droves to a Labour Government once again to clear up the mess and rebuild the social and economic fabric of a fractured nation. Now the hard yards of change have begun. We on the Government side of the House are so ambitious for change. We have the biggest legislative programme in a quarter of a century, with 38 bills in the King’s Speech.”
“I am sure that he would agree that a Labour Government are infinitely more able to tackle poverty and reduce inequality than a Labour Opposition, and I know that he will support some of our work to tackle inequality and poverty in this country. I thank the hon. Member for Bath (Wera Hobhouse) for paying tribute to all those working with adults and children with disabilities this Christmas. I will be brief, because I am conscious of time, but I want to say thank you to the British people who in July chose change. They looked around and saw the NHS on its knees, our dentistry in crisis, our trains stalled and chaotic, raw sewage in our rivers, lakes and seas, rough sleeping visibly scarring our towns and lives, taxes at a 30-year high and child poverty at Dickensian levels. After 14 years, they had had enough.”
“Member for Guildford (Zöe Franklin) raised SEND, which has been raised a huge amount in the House—it has been raised with me in every surgery since I have been re-elected—so we know that it is a critical issue. As she said, families are battling the system, and we want to have a country where every child matters and gets the support that they need. The issue of off- rolling is crucial. I thank her for raising those issues and look forward to working with her. The right hon. Member for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn) knows that I greatly respect his lifelong work and commitment to tackling poverty and inequality.”
“Member for Woking (Mr Forster), we congratulate McLaren on the brilliant work it does. As he said, Britain is at the forefront of high-tech manufacturing and engineering. We wish my hon. Friend the Member for Dartford (Jim Dickson)—my home town—all the best in continuing to campaign for spades in the ground on the lower Thames crossing and on the Elizabeth line, which are both crucial projects. I thank the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon), who is sadly not in his place, for his classic decency and kindness, not just in his tribute today, but in everything he has done, particularly for new Members to welcome and support us all. The hon.”
“Friend the Member for Luton South and South Bedfordshire (Rachel Hopkins) is, again, a doughty champion for her patch. I spent many happy times in my childhood in Whipsnade Zoo, so I wish it all the very best, as I do Maisie, my hon. Friend’s rescue dog, and Luton Town FC. The hon. Member for Keighley and Ilkley (Robbie Moore) was, again, a real powerhouse for his constituency. He paid tribute to some great sports and community groups. I congratulate him on the new hospital, and we all look forward to celebrating the city of culture in Bradford next year. I come to my hon. Friend the Member for Reading Central (Matt Rodda). We wish the Royals all the very best in their promotion. Likewise, in terms of the fine sport we have in this country, as mentioned by the hon.”
“He is absolutely right about the numbers of people who, like Patricia, have to wrestle and navigate the system for whole-person care. The Government are committed to dealing with that. I look forward to working with him, not just on that particular case but perhaps in seeking a debate and working on addressing that. The hon. Member for Ynys Môn (Llinos Medi) raised a really important issue. Our thoughts are with all those affected by the storm and the closure of the port. We will continue to press the Secretary of State and the Government for Wales on that. It is a port of massive national significance, and I can imagine that the impact is really hard for small businesses, particularly at this time of year. We will take that up. I look forward to engaging with her on that. My hon.”
“Member for Brigg and Immingham (Martin Vickers) raised really important issues on road safety that I had not really thought of, but I valued the opportunity to reflect on them—sorry for the pun. Lights and glare is fascinating, not boring. Persistence is key. I look forward to him continuing to work with Ministers on that. I am certainly happy to take that up with the Department for Transport. My hon. Friend the Member for Southend West and Leigh (David Burton-Sampson) talked about fantastic local projects. I congratulate the Music Man Project on its King’s award and wish it all the very best for the future. The hon. Member for North Norfolk (Steff Aquarone) raised a really important constituency case. We listened very carefully to that.”
“Its people are there to catch them, and thank goodness they are. I pay tribute to them and to all our voluntary and community groups. I send all best wishes to Edward and for his future. My hon. Friend the Member for Newton Aycliffe and Spennymoor (Alan Strickland) has done fantastic work championing Hitachi. He is certainly not boring in his relentlessness in that work. We are delighted to secure that half a billion pounds to support the workers, the supply chains, the jobs and the apprenticeships. We look forward next year to celebrating 200 years of the railways, and as someone who is going back via Darlington tonight, I look forward to celebrating the Stockton and Darlington railway next year. The hon.”
“I am proud of everything that this Government are doing on cancer, with £1.5 billion being put into scanners and diagnosis. As someone who lost my grandad to bowel cancer, that is close to my heart. I will also take up my hon. Friend’s issues on free schools and arts and museums. I very much look forward to the year of reading, too, as a champion of literature. The hon. Member for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk (John Lamont) paid fantastic tribute to charities and volunteers, and we all know how crucial they are to our society and our community, particularly at this time of year. We could not function without them. I am reminded that my hon. Friend the Member for Suffolk Coastal (Jenny Riddell-Carpenter) mentioned the Salvation Army. We know what a phenomenal job it does at this time of year, when so many are falling through the gaps.”
“This has been a debate worthy of this place, and I believe this is the best democratic assembly in the world, capable of rising to greatness when the occasion demands. In particular our recent debate on assisted dying was testament to our democracy and the quality and thoughtfulness of hon. and right hon. Members from all parts of the House. Today’s debate has been no less impressive, if a little more local and festive. I pay tribute to a few of the fantastic speeches we have heard today. My right hon. Friend the Member for Walsall and Bloxwich (Valerie Vaz) raised important issues, and I take to heart the pledge I made to her to bring these issues to Ministers. No one should be denied the chance, for better or worse, to watch their local football team because they cannot access transport. We will certainly be taking that matter up.”
“I pay tribute to my hon. Friend for the hard work he is undertaking. What a doughty champion he is for the people of East Cleveland, the community in which he was born, and the steel industry. As he says, it is a vital industry to this country, not a sunset industry. It is vital to our defence, our sovereignty, jobs, our plans for building homes, our infrastructure and to our being at the forefront of the global transition on steel. We are all working hard together on the Government Benches for electric arc furnaces in Teesside, for the future of Scunthorpe and for Port Talbot, and this Christmas we think of steelworkers around the country, who are doing their utmost to maintain this phenomenal industry that is so vital to our national interest. We thank them.”
“To everyone alone, or serving abroad, or in pain this Christmas, please know you are not alone, and that you are loved. That, surely, is the true meaning of Christmas. I am reminded, as I finish, that one of England’s greatest Christmas literary figures, Charles Dickens, began his career here as a parliamentary reporter and sketch writer. So, like Tiny Tim, let me close by saying, “God bless Us, Every One!””
“Eyes down. [ Laughter. ] To quote Lord Tennyson, “The old order changeth, yielding place to new”. In July, the people cast out the old and ushered in the new, and we will not fail them. At this time, I know we all want to take a moment to reflect on our families, our communities and, perhaps, our faith. We should never forget that Christmas is not always a time for celebration and joy; for some, it is a time of great regret, sadness, grief and loneliness. For many, it is a time of mental stress and financial worry. We pray for peace and for an end to conflict and separation around the world. We think of our courageous armed forces around the world, those saving lives in conflict zones, the NHS and so many other key workers, for whom Christmas day is just another day at work.”
“Three hundred jobs are already gone because the Treasury pulled the plug on its support. British Steel still sits on a knife edge. The people of Redcar and Teesside stand ready to get back on their feet. They are desperate to work, but they cannot do it alone. There is nothing in this Queen’s Speech for them.”
“The Government have turned their back on us and are leaving the reclamation to be funded by potential future business rates, robbing our local authorities of even more money and threatening that dangerous and even deadly work could be done on the cheap. Where is our investment for carbon capture and storage that could create 1 million jobs in the chemical industry? Where is the support for great institutions such as TTE Technical Institute and Redcar College to give young people the skills and apprenticeships they need? Where is the support for Teesside’s hydrogen economy to produce heat, to green our transport and to help us to hit our net-zero targets? Where is the Government’s backing for the huge Sirius Minerals project that is now at risk, along with 1,000 jobs?”
“It is a failure of our economy and our society to ensure that towns such as Redcar and the people I represent can fulfil their potential. That is why I will not take one single step towards a Brexit policy that, as its own architects admit, will make our people poorer. We have so much potential to flourish and succeed. Just as we were once the old smoggy engine of the industrial revolution, so we can be the new, clean, environmentally friendly engine of the green, low-carbon industrial renaissance. We need a Government who will invest in us. Where is the money for the reclamation of the SSI steelworks site that the Chancellor himself closed four years ago, costing us 3,000 jobs and ending 175 years of steelmaking on Teesside?”
“A quarter of our children live in poverty and, since 2012, Redcar and Cleveland has seen a 73% increase in the number of children going into care. This is a crisis, and all while £90 million has been cut from Redcar and Cleveland’s budget by the Tories and their coalition with the Lib Dems. It is not sustainable. It is upsetting for me to have to say all this—I do not want to have to stand here and plead our poverty. We should not be in this situation, with the use of food banks surging as universal credit has left people in debt and desperation, and as crime rises out of control because we have lost 500 officers and £40 million has been cut from our local police force. Drug dependency and suicides are on the increase as people feel bereft of hope and opportunity. This is a failure of Tory policy.”
“The number of young people not in education, training or employment is two and a half times the national average. Why should the young people of Redcar and Cleveland not have the same opportunity as those elsewhere in the country to live, work, flourish and prosper? One in 10 people in my area have no qualifications at all. There are seven secondary schools and a college in my constituency, yet only one of those institutions offers A-levels. Out of our total of 54 schools, 53 have had funding cuts—that is £27.8 million taken out of our local schools, or £349 taken from every single one of Redcar’s children. There is a wider crisis in respect of the children in our borough and the challenges for the families who look after them.”
“This is a Queen’s Speech for a parallel universe. It was called to set out an electioneering position for a Tory party that had planned that, by now, we would be about to launch into a general election. I am afraid it has all the hallmarks of a hollow, shallow, arrogant Government who seek to put party before country, with a hard Brexit that will hit my area and the people I am so proud to represent harder than anywhere else in the country. We have already had decades of being left behind in this unequal, loaded economy. Through no fault of their own, the people of Teesside and Redcar are struggling more than most. Unemployment in our area currently stands at 4.8%, as opposed to 3.1% nationally. Some 43% of our households have no adult in work and a third have at least one person with a long-term health problem or disability.”
“My hon. Friend is absolutely right about the pressure on trusts. The chief executive of my NHS in South Tees has recently resigned, calling the current situation underfunded and unsustainable and warning that any more efficiencies would be a step too far. Does he agree that beneath this spin services are at breaking point?”
“My right hon. Friend is absolutely right that there has been no economic impact assessment of the Bill, so many of us have to rely on the impact assessment of the previous Prime Minister’s withdrawal agreement, which showed a detrimental impact on the north-east to the degree of 7% of our GDP. How can that be justified to our industry and manufacturing in the north-east, which are already so far behind the rest of the country?”
“On a point of order, Mr Speaker. I would be grateful for your advice. I was shocked to hear the Secretary of State mention the name of Mo Mowlam in his introductory remarks. Mo Mowlam said that the EU contributed to the Northern Ireland peace process and that it was crucial in underpinning dialogue and cross-community contacts. She emphasised the precariousness of the process and the need for continued “substantial” support from the European Union. May I seek your advice, Mr Speaker, on how we can seek to defend her legacy when it is abused in such a way?”
“People were obviously delighted to see Baby’s law come before Parliament, and if Parliament had not been illegally prorogued, it would have passed through this place by now. I am glad to hear that it is a priority for the Government, but I would urge the Leader of the House to introduce it as soon as possible. It is a small Bill and could actually be fitted in in the next few days. Please will he give us some commitment that it is top of his list?”
“How can we expect the young people of the future to see a career in football unless the FA looks more like the society it represents?”
“It is great to hear the whole House in support of the football team last night—not just Gareth Southgate, but in particular those lads who had to go about their jobs just yards from the most vile and horrific abuse that no one should have to endure on the football pitch. It was fantastic to see them getting the ball in the back of the net and showing their worth in that way. It was magnificent. A lot of discussion has already taken place about getting our own house in order. The FA still has a long way to go towards representing England as a country and as a society. Currently, only 13% of the FA’s coaching staff are from black and minority ethnic backgrounds, with the proportion in leadership roles at only 5%.”
“The Minister has said that this whole process has been rigorous, open and transparent, and he is rightly making the bid available and accessible to all MPs in the Library. However, if he is completely confident that there have been no issues with this process, and if he does indeed believe in its being open and transparent, why does he not put all correspondence relating to the bid in the Library so that we can see it, instead of hiding behind his own governmental review? Show us the evidence!”
“I appreciate the Secretary of State’s response and the letter I received from the Department for International Trade this morning, but in the meetings we had with the Department, we were told that biofuels would not be covered by the protection tariffs. Ensus in my constituency tells me that the fear of a no-deal Brexit is already harming business. We know that a no-deal Brexit without tariff protection will kill British biofuels, end jobs and leave us relying on imports. Will the Secretary of State commit to working with his colleagues to maintain tariff protection on ethanol before it is too late?”