Shaun Davies
MP for Telford · Labour · United Kingdom
“Telford is the third fastest growing town in the UK. The Government are investing in my town, and the Secretary of State saw the fruits of that investment during a recent visit.”
“This week, Telford experienced a major fuel tanker fire near a primary school in Newdale, which affected many children, families and staff. I thank Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service for its swift action, together with other blue light services.”
“In Telford, the Church—through Rev. Laura Lenander at Telford Minster, Rev. Andy Ackroyd at St Michael’s church and Rev. Jo Farnworth at St Leonard’s church—plays a key role in supporting families, including by offering pastoral support and providing spaces for volunteers.”
“There are 461 looked-after children in Telford and the Wrekin, and I want to see every one of them given the care, support and opportunities that they need to thrive.”
“I welcome the Government’s focus on closing the hotels, and I am delighted that the last remaining hotel in my constituency that was opened by the Conservatives will be closing in the coming weeks, but will the Minister recommit the efforts of the Home Office to recovering the excess profits made by the providers of the contracts that wer…”
“Shrewsbury and Telford hospital NHS trust today came out of special measures for the first time since 2018. The community, the staff, the leadership of the trust and I know that there is far more to do, but this is a vital step and the hard work required should not be underestimated.”
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“This cyber-attack is terrible news for Jaguar Land Rover and its supply chain. Many of those companies are based in and around my constituency. Pool Re is a publicly owned insurance provider that provides insurance cover for physical terrorist attacks, invests in terrorism reassurance initiatives, and has £2.3 trillion of assets on its books. Have the Government considered extending the reach of that publicly backed insurance scheme to cyber-incidents such as this one?”
“Over the summer, hundreds of Telford residents joined me in demanding that the Conservative police and crime commissioner scrap his 8 pm cap on police community support officers patrolling the streets of Telford. Will the Leader of the House arrange a debate on the importance of neighbourhood policing so that we can send the commissioner a clear message: “The Government are providing you with money for community policing, so you should keep police officers and PCSOs on the streets of Telford”?”
“I was delighted to hear recently from headteacher Mrs Solomon and school legend Lynne Purcell, who are excited about rolling out their school-based nursery this week and the difference it will make to communities across Telford. I have also spoken to Mrs McQuiggin and school business manager Sarah Nicholls at Lawley primary school, which serves Telford, about the difference that their breakfast club is making to parents and children. Minister, when can we have some more in Telford?”
“Lords amendment 1 flies in the face of the intention of the Government and this House to immediately reform the House of Lords by removing the last 91 peers who sit in Parliament based solely on their bloodline entitlement. I start with the premise that the last 91 hereditary peers sit in the other place as a result of a compromise in 1999, when more than 660 hereditary peers were removed. I take the view that the other place, and indeed this Parliament, is no less effective as a result. The very architect of that compromise, the Marquess of Salisbury, said himself that the arrangement was supposed to last for around six months. The final 91 have had an effective notice period of 26 years already—a notice period that any worker in the real economy would no doubt welcome. It is now time to complete this reform.”
“My hon. Friend makes a valid point. A point that has been made by other Members, including from the Opposition Benches, is that there is nothing stopping the Leader of the Opposition putting forward any hereditary peers for life peerages.”
“The hon. Gentleman makes an interesting point. This is about priorities and choices. The Leader of the Opposition will be able to nominate people this year and next year—and maybe the year after, if she is still in place. She can make a decision on whether to put forward a hereditary peer or someone else during that spell.”
“As the Minister has stated, many Members from across the political spectrum in the other place have called for a cross-party approach, and that is exactly what the Government are doing through the establishment of a Select Committee. Let me close on this thought. We have heard for many decades the promise of future reforms. I support and will vote with the Government today on the basis that those future reforms will come through. I hope that the Government will be true to their word, and constituents like mine, who have seen themselves locked out of this place for far too long, will have the opportunity to serve it.”
“The Leader of the Opposition has a number of tough choices ahead of her, and those choices will no doubt be executed using her good political judgment. To conclude, to right hon. and hon. Members from different sides of the Chamber who say that we need more reform of Parliament, the House of Lords, the constitution and the way in which the country works, I say—as a moderniser and the MP for an area for which the current system does not work—that I could not agree more. But this modest change—this slender Bill—has taken around 10 hours in this place and 40 in the other place, with more than 180 amendments tabled, so imagine how a larger and more far-reaching Bill would be treated.”
“The passion that the Minister is showing today also underlines that the engagement over the summer has been really worthy of this Labour Minister. Inquiries will take place between now and when the Bill is given Royal Assent. Will she confirm that the duty of candour will apply to those inquiries that are live at the time that Royal Assent is provided by the King?”
“When the Government help businesses reduce energy costs, including by aiding their transition, businesses such as the pubs and cafés in Dawley, Madeley and Oakengates and manufacturers on Stafford Park and Halesfield can then protect and create jobs and pass on savings to customers. Will the Government back those businesses and ask the energy giants, which continue to make tens of billions of pounds of profit, to pay for it?”
“Tackling climate change is a top topic among children and young people when I visit schools and colleges across Telford. Switching to renewables is a top topic among employers; it will help to reduce the cost of their energy supply. Renewables companies tell me about the fantastic, well-paid jobs that are available. Climate security, environment security and energy security are national security. Does my right hon. Friend know a single reason why this is not a key mission to rebuild Britain and protect our planet for generations to come?”
“I welcome the statement and the launch of the review. I recently held a dads’ drop-in event supported by the Dad Shift, where I heard from dads about examples of excellent employers doing the right thing, but also frustrations among the self-employed and those who run small and medium-sized enterprises about how complex and confusing the system can be. Can the Minister confirm that the voices of businesses of all sizes and of dads will be at the heart of this review? Also, can he give a message to his Government colleagues that Government Departments and organisations often lag behind the best of the employers in this country?”
“We need action in respect of the Jay inquiry and in respect of the Casey review, but does the Home Secretary agree that we also need action in respect of the number of local reviews that have taken place up and down the country whose findings have not been on the desks of Ministers over the last 14 years and which have therefore not received the attention that they deserve?”
“Let me first praise and pay tribute to survivors across the country, and draw attention again to the survivors who worked in Telford along with me and various organisations to carry out the local review. We did so because the then Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, and the then local government Minister, the right hon. Member for Richmond and Northallerton (Rishi Sunak), refused to provide a statutory inquiry into what had happened in Telford. That is why we worked with the police and crime commissioner—who happens to be a Conservative—and with people across the political spectrum to take this matter out of the party political field and try to find answers in our small part of the world. What we need, though, is action.”
“Away from the knockabout of Westminster politics, I and people in Telford welcome this change. The principle of means-testing was right, but the level was too low. Does my hon. Friend agree that millionaires, MPs who happen to be of pensionable age and those who are living abroad should not receive this payment?”
“Does the Lord Chancellor agree that when it comes to sentencing, ancillary orders, including those banning offenders from shops and high streets, are part of the answer? We need the police, together with the Crown Prosecution Service, to apply for them, and when an offender appears in court, we need the courts to issue those orders when sentencing.”
“T4. The 14,500 volunteer magistrates who deal with 95% of criminal cases are the backbone of our justice system. Will the Lord Chancellor meet me, the Magistrates’ Association, and a group of cross-party MPs who recently wrote to her, calling for a long-service medal to be established for justices, as well as discussing the Magistrates’ Association’s forthcoming report on how to recruit and retain magistrates, as she increases their powers and responsibilities?”
“Last month, I had the honour of visiting RBSL—Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land—in Telford. Along with many defence companies and organisations, it is so proud of its effort to help Britain to defend itself here and around the world. The SDR provides certainty to industry, but we need to go further to ensure that every Government agency, body and Department—from skills and infrastructure to planning and the availability of land—gets behind its ethos. Does the Secretary of State agree that creating growth cluster zones will provide certainty to local communities and assist in that mission?”
“Police officers, magistrates and judges all report that some offenders would rather go to prison to be back with their mates, watching Sky TV and having three square meals a day. Does the Lord Chancellor agree that those who go to prison should be treated more harshly and robustly than was the case under the 14 years of the previous Conservative Government?”
“As a new Member of this House, I have noticed that on almost every single day on which Parliament sits, there is a statement from the Government, alongside, quite rightly, urgent questions. Will the Leader of the House use the Modernisation Committee to look at more ways that we can scrutinise the work of the Government without slowing down the delivery of government, which is needed to rebuild Britain?”
“How will my hon. Friend bring together UK pension schemes and local and regional governments in order to invest in local infrastructure projects, given that European and global pension schemes invest when UK pensions schemes too often do not?”
“This Labour Government inherited disorder at the border: a broken system where criminal gangs, dodgy employers and fake colleges too often decided who came into this country. Will the Home Secretary give the courts the powers to deport and the universities and colleges the resources to train our young people, and will she have a system that encourages the brightest and the best to come to this country and rebuild Britain?”
“On a recent visit with the courts Minister, my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Finchley and Golders Green (Sarah Sackman), to Shropshire’s justice centre, I was reminded about the dedication of our magistrates. Can we have a debate in Government time about the importance of magistrates in the justice system? Since the 12th century, magistrates have played a critical role in delivering local justice, and now do so as volunteers, many with decades of service. Currently, there is not a long service medal award; does the Leader of the House agree that there really ought to be?”
“This Government inherited a chaotic and broken system and disorder at the border. Under the last Conservative Government, the local community was deprived of a manor house in my constituency because it was used as an asylum hotel. Can the Minister confirm that it is the hard-yards mission of this Government to close those hotels and give them back to their communities?”
“The Bill is about acknowledging that we can do better. The treatment of rare cancer patients is a scandal—not in the sense that any one individual is liable or culpable, but because the system as a whole has let tens of thousands of cancer patients down. To the healthcare and research sectors, we say, “You must do better, we want you to do better, and we will work alongside you to do better.” The Bill is a welcome first step in doing that. I urge the Government to be bold. This cohort of Members of Parliament and Ministers can do a lot on this agenda. We talk a lot in this place about hope and change. Well, goodness me—what better example is there than this Bill of providing hope and change to millions of people across our country? Let’s make cancer history.”
“When resources are scarce, the treatments that will save the most people are prioritised, but that is no consolation to the 47% of patients in the UK whose cancers are rare and less common. An even more damning statistic is that sufferers of rare and less common cancers make up the majority of cancer deaths, as we have heard—55%. Clearly, that is not sustainable, fair or just. We cannot let a single cancer patient slip through the cracks in our healthcare service, let alone 90,000 people each and every year. All too often, people in my constituency and across the country will, as we have heard, rally around to raise money for their loved ones—their children—to receive treatment. On one level, that is amazing to see, but on another, it is depressing that that has to be done in order for people to access lifesaving treatment.”
“Every year, one in every 6,000 people are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and half of them die within three months. There are roughly 107,000 people in Telford, which means that 18 of my constituents will be diagnosed with that awful cancer each and every year, and nine of them will die within three months of diagnosis. That is absolutely shocking. I owe it to those 18 people in my constituency to speak up in the Chamber and demand drastic change. It is easy to see how this problem can arise, although that does not make it any less galling. In a healthcare system under strain that is failing cancer patients in particular—last year, UK cancer survival rates were 25 years behind some other European countries—decision-makers might be faced with a Sophie’s choice: the unenviable task of prioritising cancer treatments.”
“I am not quite brave enough to tell her story today, but maybe one day I will. I have heard about devastating impacts from a number of constituents who have contacted me to share their stories. I heard from one constituent about the mother of his three teenage children. She is in her 40s and battling terminal pancreatic cancer after a late diagnosis. Among those stories, a familiar theme arises: conditions such as pancreatic cancer are being diagnosed too late and there is no available treatment. My constituents’ loved ones are given just months to live. I focus on pancreatic cancer because it is an example of the scandal of rare cancer treatment. It is classed as a rare cancer by the Bill because it affects fewer than one person in every 2,000.”
“I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh South West (Dr Arthur) for introducing the Bill. He has channelled his personal experience, and that of his family, to produce a vital piece of legislation. I hope that he succeeds in driving change on this issue. He certainly has my support and that of all Members of the House. It is on days like this that I call Members of Parliament from across the House my hon. Friends rather than hon. Members. This cause certainly unites us. I know from reading emails from my Telford constituents that they are fully behind the Bill. I join my hon. Friends in paying tribute to the many people who have told the stories of loved ones in their families and communities—they are far braver than I. Next Thursday, I will be a bearer at the funeral of a woman who is very special in my life.”
“Us former council leaders have to stick together. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend for bringing forward this Bill. As I mentioned in my maiden speech, I was a recipient of free school meals myself. I remember that stigma; I remember getting a blue ticket when I went to get lunch with my friends, while they got a yellow one. The stigma is still with me today. It runs very deep in me. Does he agree that the Government’s child poverty taskforce has to consider everything in the round? We should welcome the Government’s announcements on free breakfast clubs and the roll-out of the trial of those clubs. Does he also agree that we need to see urgency from the Government and the Minister, as I am sure we will, to address this issue and to take a systematic look at families and children in poverty?”
“Child poverty in some parts of the country went down under the last Conservative Government, but in my region it soared. We need to engage with councils and, where applicable, with combined authorities and mayors to ensure a systematic approach.”
“In my area, Telford, absolute poverty rose from 14.9% to 18.4% between 2014 and 2023, and we know that a huge number of families who are not included in the poverty figures were also struggling to make ends meet. Ultimately, we need an economy that is growing and getting people into work so that the poverty trap can be removed. Like the shadow Minister, I declare an interest: my wife is a primary school teacher in Telford. She tells me about the direct contrast between the children she teaches now and the cohort that she taught when she started 20 years ago. Children are coming in with major social issues, and those social issues have to be addressed as a whole. The Government also need to consider the huge regional inequality in deprivation.”
“I heard from a constituent this week who has just taken their child out of a breakfast club because the cost of the club has gone up by £15 a week. Sadly, that school is not one of the 750 early adopters of breakfast clubs, but it will benefit from that policy initiative as it is rolled out. It is an excellent initiative and we should be proud of it. We should call on the Government to go harder, faster, in implementing the policy. Some 900,000 more children in working households were living in poverty in 2023 than in 2010. That means that 1,350 children entered poverty every single week for the first 13 years the Conservatives were in power.”
“I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Crawley (Peter Lamb) for bringing forward this private Member’s Bill on a process that, as a former council leader, I saw as a bureaucratic, red-tape nightmare. Children eligible for free school meals were not accessing them simply because a form was not filled in. Even though local authorities, schools and communities knew exactly who those children were, bureaucracy was getting in the way. I was pleased to hear the Minister say at the Dispatch Box that he is working with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to look at ways in which data sharing and passported benefit checks could be used to ensure that more children get food. However, this must be looked at in the round.”
“We have heard a lot this week, from the Prime Minister downwards, about the need for delivery, about urgent action and about the ability to make a difference and demonstrate change. As a Labour Government, we cannot be in a position where, in four or five years’ time, we point to bureaucracy and red tape as the reason why we have not made a huge impact on the lives of the poorest children in our country.”
“I absolutely agree. My county borders Wales, so I know Wales very well indeed. The Westminster Government should absolutely learn from the Welsh Labour Government’s approach to child poverty, and to inequality more generally. We should congratulate and acknowledge the work of Welsh Labour in that space. I welcome the previous Government’s household support fund and its extension by this Government. As a council leader and as chair of the Local Government Association, I worked with Conservative Ministers on the fund. The approach and ideals were absolutely right, but the one-year duration means that the money is not being used to the best possible extent. That goes back to the point about the importance of a cross-ministerial taskforce looking at the issue in the round.”
“In Telford and the wider west midlands, we have a strong and proud British manufacturing base, as the Minister has just outlined. One of the biggest challenges that I hear from businesses is the uneven playing field between us and the rest of the world on pay rates and regulation. Clearly, no one wants a race to the bottom, so will the Government back British business to ensure that we sell more, make more and do that in the west midlands and in Telford in particular?”
“I welcome the statement and the work of the Government to remember the greatest of all generations. Will the Minister join me in congratulating Telford and Wrekin council on launching a £50,000 community fund to mark this event? In particular, will she thank parish and town councils, the Royal British Legion, Telford and Wrekin Interfaith Council and veterans’ groups for grabbing the opportunity to apply to that fund? Does she agree that our allies then and our allies now are very welcome to join us in marking this very special occasion?”
“Q2. Telford and Britain voted for change in July, yet this week we saw the bizarre spectacle of the Conservatives attempting to bring back the Rwanda policy, clinging on to a gimmick that cost British taxpayers £700 million yet sent only four volunteers to Rwanda. As Labour works to secure our borders through our plan for change, does the Prime Minister agree with me that it is quite clear that the Conservative party has learned absolutely nothing?”
“The recent announcement of 110,000 sitting days is welcome, but we need to use technology to streamline our justice system. Between 2016 and 2022, we saw a 25% reduction in cases being concluded. What plans do the Government have to use emerging new tech to enhance court processing, get faster justice for victims, and help manage offenders in the community, including through ankle tagging to enforce exclusion zones, and drug and alcohol testing?”
“When we were elected, we promised our constituents that we would help them to take back control of their streets. The first priority of any Government is to keep their citizens safe—at home, at the border and around the world—and it has been a source of national shame that we have not done that for the past 14 years. There is a lot of work to do to restore public trust, but through the Bill we will make vital first steps towards protecting victims, punishing criminals and preventing crime. Let me finish on this note. The shadow Home Secretary, the right hon. Member for Croydon South (Chris Philp), said that the general election was unnecessary or regrettable, but my Telford constituents voted for change, and I urge the Government to get on with it.”
“They, too, should be given powers to deal with low-level antisocial behaviour and the yobs on our streets. We can also make our streets safer by introducing stand-alone deportation orders for foreign national offenders who endanger public safety. The Government have deported more than 3,000 criminals since taking office, but often after several thousands of pounds have been spent in the criminal justice system. I also welcome clause 105, which requires registered sex offenders to notify the authorities if they change their name. That is, again, about helping the public to feel safe and secure, as they will know that someone convicted of sex offences is not hiding among them, and victims will know that perpetrators are not repeating their crimes somewhere and going undetected because of that ridiculous legal loophole.”
“I welcome the Government’s plans to create a new duty to report child sexual abuse, and increase sentencing for the monsters who organise child grooming; to crack down on knife crime and the sale of weapons to under-18s; to give police the power to seize and destroy bladed articles; and so much more—all within months of the Home Secretary taking office. I urge the Government to go further, however, by strengthening neighbourhood policing, which is at the heart of their mission to take back our streets. The increased powers for police officers to tackle antisocial behaviour are among the most important measures in the Bill, but we must not stop there. PCSOs and local authority enforcement officers do vital work to support the police and be friendly faces in our communities.”
“I welcome the Government’s plans to introduce 13,000 extra neighbourhood police officers and put a named officer in every community; to introduce respect orders and real punishments for the so-called low-level crime, such as antisocial behaviour and off-road bike crime, that has plagued our communities because of the Tory amnesty; and to protect retail workers, including by scrapping the Tory shoplifter’s charter, which decriminalised theft below £200. I remember speaking to shop workers in my constituency during the general election campaign. They talked about yobs walking into shops, nicking items off the shelves and walking straight out, because they knew that the police would take no action.”
“There are many areas in which the British people have had to put up with decline and decay over the past 14 years, but the breakdown of law and order might be the most profound. Victims have felt unprotected, criminals have gone unpunished and crimes have simply gone unchecked. Meanwhile, the law-abiding majority has looked on in horror and police officers have felt frustrated without the tools to act. I am delighted to support the Bill, which will start to turn the tide on 14 years of neglect.”
“I recently had the pleasure of visiting Mail Solutions, an employee-owned company in my constituency led by Karl Lee. That company exports envelopes and printing around the world, including for elections across Africa, but it told me that it faces red tape and barriers in doing so. Can we back British business, reduce red tape, and allow businesses such as Mail Solutions to grow?”
“In the last year that the Conservatives were in power, off-roads bike incidents went up by 60% in my Telford constituency. The pathetic spectacle of police officers having to issue warnings to these yobs was at the heart of it. Does the hon. Gentleman want to apologise now for not reforming the police system to remove that?”
“Under the last Conservative Government, we saw a reduction in the numbers of Crown court judges in Shropshire and Telford; courtrooms remained empty for years while victims waited for years for their trials to take place. With Labour, we now have an extra Crown court judge, a remand court back in the county and extra Crown court sitting times. I have heard from magistrates and Crown court judges in my area that defendants are opting for a Crown court trial because they know it will take years to conclude. Can we make sure that that does not happen in future? We should absolutely tackle the backlog, but can the Lord Chancellor give an assurance that we, unlike the last Government, will not tell police officers to stop arresting people and putting them before the courts?”
“I welcome the statement from my right hon. and learned Friend the Prime Minister. In places such as Telford—which has a proud defence sector—companies, communities and supply chains need certainty. British taxpayers will be demanding that their money is used to enable British-based companies to support our British troops around the world. Can my right hon. and learned Friend assure me that each and every pound will be diverted to British industry or British-based industries, enabling them to support our interests around the world?”
“This Labour Government have given our armed services their biggest pay rise in almost 20 years. I have spoken to service personnel in my constituency, and those who are part of the armed forces parliamentary scheme. They talk about pay, but they also talk about service conditions and support for their families being key drivers of retention. What are the Government doing on those matters?”