Mr Calvin Bailey
MP for Leyton and Wanstead · Labour · United Kingdom
“As a consequence of this volatility, oil prices continue to rise, with Brent crude climbing above $85 a barrel. Even as events unfold, this Government’s objectives are unchanged. We want to see a diplomatic solution to this crisis.”
“I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention. As I will go on to say, the things we should be concerned about are not limited to the manifestation of kinetic attacks within the region, but include the things that impact us here at home, such as cyber-attacks.”
“However, it is not just British citizens and military personnel in the middle east who are endangered by Iran. Its far-reaching terror threat extends to the communities, streets and people of the United Kingdom, too.”
“I think it is appropriate that we treat this debate with the appropriate seriousness and that the response comes from people who have this matter as part of their portfolio. I am grateful to be able to speak to the House about the contribution of our brave armed forces personnel, which is why I did not allow the hon.”
“The International Atomic Energy Agency estimates that Iran’s total enriched uranium stockpile now stands at 48 times the limit set under the joint comprehensive plan of action.”
“At the moment, the destroyer is part of a UK plan, but, should it be used later, it will form part of a broader design alongside the French—at the moment it is not playing that part. Perhaps I can explore that with the right hon. Gentleman later, or answer in greater detail as I progress.”
The complete record
Every one of 481 lines we hold for Mr Calvin Bailey, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 2 of 10.
“Yesterday, the Health Secretary confirmed that all eligible black men would be invited to the Transform trial. As chair of the all-party parliamentary group on prostate cancer, I welcome this vital step towards screening for this terrible disease, for which black men have a doubled risk for both diagnosis and death. This is something that Reform has responded to with nothing but divisive weasel words and rage-baiting. Does the Prime Minister agree that our NHS was founded by Labour to be there for everyone equally, and that when there is a proven higher risk, targeting support is equality?”
“Indeed, it especially matters because of the NATO article 3 commitment to national resilience, which is becoming increasingly important. We are targeting the 1.5% spending on the resilience component, so resilience is far more than defence.”
“It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Barker. I want to focus on two areas of national resilience. The first is hospital capacity. The covid inquiry highlighted the lack of surge capacity within the NHS, and NATO recognises the lack of medical capacity as a critical vulnerability. The UK has an opportunity to address both challenges together through better integration of civilian and military capabilities. The second area is supply chains for essential medicines. China now controls about 85% to 90% of global production of the antibiotic precursor 6-aminopenicillanic acid or 6APA, on which many common antibiotics depend. There is only one remaining producer of it across Europe and within the NATO area. That is a strategic dependency that should concern us all.”
“This was a vile act and a crime of the upmost severity, and I am pleased that it has been treated as such by our courts. The case is about the murder of a young man, and our thoughts should remain with Henry Nowak’s family. We do not know why the officers acted as they did, but there is nothing in the Macpherson inquiry that can be blamed for the apparent lack of humanity displayed in the body-worn camera footage. Does the Home Secretary agree with me that we should reflect on the words of Henry’s father, Mark Nowak, who asked that his son’s death should “not…be used to create further division, hatred or tension.”? Does she agree that this is entirely what the interventions of the hon. Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage) and others seek to do?”
“This weekend, just over two years after leaving the military, I received my recall notification. I managed to update the details within it. At the same time, I was presented with nearly 60 pages-worth of forms to complete just to take on a reserve service commitment. Does my hon. and gallant Friend agree that there is still some way to go and that the amendments should perhaps speak of movement between reserve forces and regular forces, rather than the other way round?”
“The right hon. Member is making a powerful point, and it is something I hope that I can expand on as the chair of the all-party parliamentary group on the armed forces community. We have worked extensively with the Department for Education on this matter, and I hope to be able to address the right hon. Member’s concerns in my speech later. Does he recognise that special educational needs and disability policy should fall under the Department for Education, and that the point of the armed forces covenant is that we can have some leverage over the Department for Education rather than placing this detail in the Bill?”
“Rather than the shadow Minister extending his speech, I urge Members concerned with this area to perhaps listen to what I will explain, which is the work that we have been doing with the DFE. We have had members from the armed forces community from across the country liaising directly with the Department for Education and the Minister for Veterans and People. I will try to put that across in my speech.”
“As many members of the armed forces community APPG know—they support this amendment—we have repeatedly sought clarity from the Home Office on how the new immigration rule changes will affect service personnel and their dependants. I have repeatedly requested meetings with Home Office officials over months, but—this is in contrast to the position with the Department for Education—I have made little or no progress. I am therefore pleased that I have been granted a meeting on this matter next week. Responses to my letters state that the views of the armed forces community will be considered, but that does not mean that they are being heard.”
“The repeated and genuine engagement we have had with Education Ministers gives me hope that these changes will come forward. New clause 5 would waive fees for indefinite leave to remain for spouses and dependants of serving or discharged members of the armed forces. I strongly welcome the intent of the amendment. As its author, the hon. Member for Huntingdon (Ben Obese-Jecty), knows, this policy was included in the Labour manifesto in 2024, and it must be delivered by the Home Office. While I understand that the Home Office is working on the issue with the Ministry of Defence, we are nearly two years on from the general election, and there is still no clarity on when this change will be introduced. In the meantime, the families of service personnel are struggling to afford to stay in this country, and that is plainly wrong.”
“Records from devolved Administrations and overseas postings must properly be considered and accepted by receiving authorities, and this must be accompanied by a greater understanding of the different education systems from which service children may arrive, including overseas systems. The amendment does not address that. We have raised that issue with the Minister for School Standards. Training about armed forces life should be embedded in mandatory SEND teacher training. There must be stronger cross-nation co-ordination between the four Education Departments to establish shared principles for the transfer of support, particularly as all four systems are undergoing reform. That work must be led first and foremost by the Department for Education.”
“Friend the Member for Aldershot raised the well-evidenced and distinct challenges faced by our service children arising from frequent relocations across borders—challenges that the SEND White Paper did not adequately recognise. However, the solution is not the automatic transfer of plans. Our devolved education system means that an education, health and care plan in England is not equivalent to a co-ordinated support plan in Scotland. In England, around 5% to 6% of children with additional needs qualify for an EHCP, but only about 0.2% qualify in Scotland. Making one legislative change in this Bill will not automatically make our disconnected SEND systems conform to the needs of our service children. Instead, we need the standardisation and timely transfer of records. Children’s SEND documentation must move with them.”
“SEND policy falls within the remit of the Department for Education, which is now rightly covered by the covenant extension, including in this legislation. The APPG on the armed forces community has contributed to the Department for Education’s SEND consultation, with particularly notable contributions from my hon. Friend the Member for Aldershot (Alex Baker), who has been leading on this area for members of the Army and her local community. Drawing on a number of meetings that the APPG held with the Minister for School Standards, we hosted a roundtable involving civil servants from the Department, researchers from Oxford Brookes University and Edinburgh Napier University, the three armed forces family federations, the Royal British Legion and the SSAFA. My hon.”
“Likewise, I remain concerned that the current draft of the statutory guidance makes it clear that non-ministerial Departments such as His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, Ofsted and HM Prison and Probation Service are not covered by the covenant. Those institutions have critical roles in taxes and income support, education and the justice system, so I would welcome it if the Government could explain why those Departments are not included and say whether they will make changes to include them. I turn to some of the Opposition’s proposed amendments. I understand and welcome the intent behind the amendment dealing with special educational needs and disabilities, but this Bill is not the appropriate vehicle for such changes.”
“The GLA has responsibility for critical aspects of everyday life in London, including transport through Transport for London and oversight of the Met, and it plays an important role in skills development and housing. We must ensure that all levels of government, including combined and mayoral authorities, have obligations under the covenant duty, so I welcome the GLA’s inclusion. However, I am concerned that some policy areas that—as our casework shows—intersect with local government, such as immigration, citizenship, pensions and armed forces compensation, are excluded from the local government scope. This risks current and future inconsistencies in the application of the covenant duty.”
“I welcome the many amendments tabled to this Bill, the first of which is the Government’s amendment to include the Greater London Authority among bodies that must apply the covenant duty. As a London MP and chair of the all-party parliamentary group on the armed forces community, which has supported the campaign to ensure that military compensation is not treated as income for the purposes of welfare means-testing by local councils, I strongly welcome this step to ensure that the covenant applies to all local and regional authorities. I also recognise the changes that both Redbridge and Waltham Forest councils made to their treatment of military compensation last year as a result of that work.”
“I hope to provide the detail on why new clause 5, tabled by the hon. Member for Huntingdon, is not appropriate in this Bill. The Home Office must take on this work and responsibility, which is why the armed forces covenant has been put in place. We must make sure that all Departments take their responsibilities seriously, but this Bill is not the mechanism for doing so.”
“That was a point that my hon. Friend the Member for Aldershot made to the Minister, and I hope that it will be addressed in the next iteration of the SEND work.”
“I thank the right hon. Member for his intervention. One thing that came up very strongly in the APPG’s discussions with the Department—we had military families from all three services, and representatives of all the service organisations—was that this problem is faced by all people; it is just that service families and service children manifest the issue most specifically. The problem has to be fixed for all people in the United Kingdom, which is why the changes were taken on board as part of the SEND work. We received a great amount of care and support from the Department, and I hope that the work will prove beneficial. Where I see a bit of a failing is that, in taking that on, the Department could perhaps have noted that work, so that service families could have seen that it had been part of the considerations.”
“As legislators, we have a responsibility to ensure that the legal frameworks governing our armed forces continue to evolve alongside those changes. This Bill makes important improvements, but it should also encourage us to think carefully about the work that remains to be done and ensure that future legislation is ambitious enough to meet the realities of the world as it is, rather than the world as it once was.”
“It brought together a number of separate pieces of legislation and created a framework suited to an era in which the size and scope of the armed forces were reducing and many of the strategic assumptions underpinning our national security appeared to be settled. The measures in this Bill are all welcome and necessary, but they remind us that much of the heavy lifting now sits elsewhere. Questions about mobilisations, reserve integration, military aid to the civil authorities, the legal protections offered to service personnel acting on behalf of the state, and wider national resilience sit largely beyond the scope of the Bill, yet those issues are becoming increasingly important as the strategic environment changes around us.”
“The right hon. Member makes a powerful point, and I agree with him entirely. That is why it is so important we make sure that the armed forces covenant works. The covenant will have to do a lot of work and heavy lifting, just as it will in relation to the amendment tabled by the hon. Member for Huntingdon, but we will have the legal power and we will have recourse to those Departments. We hope to hear from Ministers today that they will press home the legal advantage they now have in that regard. Finally, this debate reminds us that the Armed Forces Act 2006 was itself forged in the context of its time.”
“Gentleman join with the all-party parliamentary group to ensure that we apply and enforce the armed forces covenant in the way it is designed in order to achieve the outcomes on which we both agree?”
“I thank the hon. and gallant Gentleman for giving way. He is making a powerful speech, the majority of which I agree with. Does he recognise, however, that the armed forces covenant places a legal responsibility on all Departments to remove those barriers and impediments to service life? As a service member, I engaged with the Royal British Legion and Cobseo from about 2017 to try to address those barriers and impediments and failed to do so numerous times under the previous Government because of the nature and approach of the Home Office in addressing these problems. Perhaps the problem we have today is not whether the Department wants to address the issue, but a wider cultural problem. Would the hon.”
“I just want to amplify what this means for our service people, as I know there is a slight conflation of issues here. As our service people approach the end of their time in service, if they are not a UK passport holder—the majority of those people may be Americans and not Commonwealth personnel—they will not have access to work and to credit during the final six months of their service. This impediment has been in place for decades; as I said, I fought to change it through Cobseo when I was in service, and we are trying to deal with it again now. That is why this matter is broader than the hon. Gentleman’s new clause.”
“Will the right hon. Gentleman confirm that on Labour’s arrival in government, the National Audit Office stated that the previous Government and the hon. Member for South Suffolk (James Cartlidge) had left an equipment plan with a £7 billion to £28 billion gap? Is that correct?”
“I welcome the measures that the Chancellor has set out, particularly those that will help small businesses such as Noted Eel & Pie House in Leyton, Homies On Donkeys in the ’Stone, Bare Brew and City Place in Wanstead, and Fresh as a Daisy in South Woodford. I look forward to seeing their children’s menus, so that families can benefit from the measures she has set out. What more is she doing to support hard-pressed families in Leyton and Wanstead, particularly those who rent in the current cost of living crisis?”
“Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker—I will truncate my question. Israel is demonstrating a disinterest in peace and a disregard for international norms. Does my hon. Friend agree that we need to put more pressure on our regional partners, with whom we have recently created a trade arrangement, so that we can achieve the outcomes that our unilateral measures are failing to deliver?”
“The nationalisation of the steel industry explicitly links our domestic and international policies. It demonstrates the need for us to go out and champion our steel sector by filling its order books, as we have been able to do because of the wonderful trade deal created with Nigeria, which is expanding its ports and railways, that has been achieved by this Government. That is the type of work that I am doing in southern Africa, and it is the type of work that we should all be going out to do on behalf of our country and our growth agenda.”
“I thank the Minister for giving way. We are having this debate because in hindsight the military forces deployed in Northern Ireland were not provided with adequate protection. If the hon. Gentleman genuinely cared about veterans and the protection of members of the forces in future, he would have submitted amendments to the Armed Forces Bill to prevent a recurrence. Can he make us aware of any such amendments?”
“Q2. Today marks the anniversary of the racist murder of my friend’s brother, Stephen Lawrence. Tomorrow is St George’s day. Does my right hon. Friend agree that now, more than ever, we need to tell the positive story of Englishness, founded in who we are and not in who the far right would like us to be?”
“Mandelson’s appointment was a huge failure of the British state, and I welcome the Prime Minister’s candour in accepting his responsibility for his part in it. Does the Prime Minister agree that restoring public trust is a mammoth task that requires leaders on all sides to be careful with their language and to ensure that they understand the processes that they are talking about, rather than throw about baseless accusations of “lying”?”
“I joined East London and Essex liberal synagogue for a seder this month. They, and all our Jewish communities, are loved and respected—something that has been made clear to them in the many written messages from our churches and mosques, and from across the community. I truly regret not speaking out louder and calling out the clear increase in antisemitic bigotry across society, which has created fertile ground for malign actors to target young people and draw them into these appalling crimes. Will the Minister describe the measures that he is taking to educate the public about the tactics used by hostile states to target our Jewish communities, and the solid steps that he is taking to address the apparently escalating frequency of these attacks?”
“I welcome the Prime Minister’s leadership in supporting our regional partners and our national interests, particularly that of free navigation. However, that lies outwith our most immediate security problem, which is defending Europe from Russian attack in all its forms. Does the Prime Minister agree that we should recognise Russian-Iranian co-operation, and that we must not let that distract us from our urgent need to rearm collectively and defend our country and the continent of Europe?”
“T2. As the US-Iran war pushes up petrol prices, ensuring that people can own electric vehicles is an economic and environmental necessity. To do that, it is essential that families can reach a charging point within a four-minute walk of their house, which Waltham Forest council has enabled for 86% of its residents, but the continuing barrier to ownership and the cost of charging at public stations need to be addressed. Can the Minister highlight to me—”
“The availability of Type 45s is a direct result of the severe defence cuts enacted by the Conservatives in 2010, so I am incredulous that they comment on their availability without giving an apology. However, while we recognise that perhaps there is not an Iranian missile capable of travelling the 2,000 km to the Chagos islands, will my right hon. Friend recognise that, were there to be one, that would show a worrying proliferation of technology from North Korea and Russia, and that shows we must continue to support Ukraine in its war against Russia?”
“March is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month. As we know, this Labour Government have created a men’s health strategy in which the men and boys summit later this year will be an essential pillar. Today, the all-party parliamentary group on prostate cancer heard powerful testimony from Movember, Maggie’s, the British Association of Urological Nurses and Alphonso Archer, a survivor who spoke powerfully about the inequities in prostate cancer care provision and the place for music therapy in the recovery process. I welcome the powerful response to the right hon. Member for New Forest East (Sir Julian Lewis), but will the Leader of the House ensure that a roundtable on prostate cancer is included in the lead-up to the very welcome summit later this year?”
“My hon. Friend is making an incredibly powerful point. However, if we are really going to change things, we need fathers to speak to their daughters. I recall making a deliberate point when my daughter started menstruating. I was standing in the supermarket trying to assess and understand what I was faced with, with the wall of things, with people coming up to me and asking, “Do you want some help?”, and me saying, “No, I need to work my way through this.” We need men to advocate and understand these things as well.”
“I urge anyone who sees my very truncated speech to go and listen to the wonderful speeches that we have heard today, including the maiden speech from the hon. Member for Gorton and Denton (Hannah Spencer), which will all be very ably summarised in a moment. I started my speech by saying that a landmark piece of work was done by the Defence Committee. It is therefore important that I recognise Lucy, Eleanor, Ines, Toni and Corrin, who sit in the background and tolerate the likes of me, and who helped us produce that incredible work. I thank them. I look forward to hearing the summing up.”
“Over the past couple of days, we have all seen that a female F-15 pilot was shot down over Kuwait. We should all reflect on the fact that, although women are putting themselves in the line of fire, the people who deploy them are questioning whether their gender makes them suitable to do their job. In the extra five minutes that I would have taken, I would have discussed how these things are being challenged at this very moment. I call on all of us to ensure that we challenge them when we are given the opportunity to speak. Although the armed forces are recovering and the number of women in service is improving, it is important that we point to the disparities in treatment that persist. There are good stories, but there remain challenges and inequities.”
“When I delivered aid to the Yazidi women stranded on Mount Sinjar, it was Flight Lieutenant Abbie Anderson who generated our beloved C-130J aircraft, and it was my very close friend Jen Bracewell who managed both me—as you have done, Madam Deputy Speaker—and the missions. When I commanded a frontline squadron, I learned from the venerable Wing Commander Caz Viles, who had commanded the Royal Squadron. I did so under the exceptional leadership of Air Marshal Suraya Marshall, who is without doubt one of the most outstanding military leaders of her generation. Despite the landmark Sex Discrimination Act 1975, women continued to be excluded from frontline combat roles in the British armed forces until 2016. In fact, it was only when I entered the Ministry of Defence in 2018 that all the restrictions were finally removed.”
““A very quick speech from Calvin Bailey,” said no one ever. Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker—this will show your influence over me. In 2021, the Defence Committee published a landmark report on women in the armed forces. One of the most consistent things that came out of it about women who serve is their feeling that they fail to be recognised by the public. Our veterans do not feel that society acknowledges them, so the Committee recommended that we use occasions like International Women’s Day to make sure that those voices and experiences are heard. Throughout my career, I have had the privilege of serving alongside some exceptional women. When I led humanitarian aid operations in the Philippines, I did so alongside Master Sergeant Aircrew Samantha Green.”
“The impacts of this spiralling conflict are serious and will fall on our constituents’ pockets, so I welcome the Chancellor’s statement and the measures that she has set out. Yet last week, the hon. Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage) was in the United States attempting to lobby against our national interests—with a comical lack of success. Does my right hon. Friend agree that the impact on living costs can only be compounded by continued, deeply unpatriotic interventions by Members of Reform UK?”
“It was a Conservative 2010 strategic defence and security review and subsequent basing review that took the Royal Navy’s repair facilities from three to one—an utterly reckless decision that was made worse considering that the Conservatives knew of the Type 45s’ power plant problems—creating an internal competition for the limited resource of the Royal Navy. Does the Secretary of State agree that it was reckless Tory risk taking that left the Royal Navy in this precarious situation—”
“At the announcement of the £50 million Wales defence growth deal that the Secretary of State and the Defence Secretary made a few weeks ago, they visited Space Forge, which, at the request of my air cadets from 12F Walthamstow and Leighton Squadron, I am meeting at the Space Expo in east London tomorrow. Space Force is one of the small and medium-sized enterprises at the forefront of semiconductor and spacecraft technology development in a sector that is supporting economic growth and creating high-quality jobs here in the UK and in Wales. What steps are the Government taking to support space SMEs in accessing finance, and in continuing to grow here, where they can create jobs for my air cadets, rather than relocating to the United States, where space regulations can be more flexible?”
“I thank my hon. Friend for her very powerful and pertinent speech. One of the big shifts is from aid to trade, and as trade envoys, we are trying to deliver some of our aid ambitions through trade relationships. However, if we just do not have the people available, there is no way that we can make that shift. I know that she has already started to talk about the importance of ensuring that we have people present, but can she elaborate on the importance of retaining them in the country so that we can deliver the transition that we expect to see?”
“The right hon. Gentleman makes a powerful point about the British Council and the work that it does. Much of that work is required to counter malign Russian and Chinese influence. There are a number of countries that are desperate to get out of the grasp of China and would like to have greater friendship with us. To do that, they are trying to encourage a shift in the culture and how their young people engage, and that is delivered through the British Council and English language training. Does he agree that some of the value of that training is not necessarily seen directly and should perhaps be assigned to security and defence?”
“That is a very good example, but there are also examples that are far from the frontline against Russia. Some of the countries in Africa actively need our help—aid and other contributions—to get away from that influence. We should actively support countries such as Gabon, which is trying to be a strong Commonwealth partner, and Mozambique, despite English not being spoken as widely there.”
“I thank my hon. Friend for securing such an important debate. One of our vital tasks in creating stronger communities is to counter how patriotism and national symbols are abused by racists and the far right. I am grateful for the work that British Future and Hope not Hate are doing with me on this, alongside excellent local partners such as the Leyton Orient Trust. Does my hon. Friend agree that one of the first steps in community cohesion is learning how to be strong and proud in diversity, and saying clearly that our flags belong to all of us, as do our streets and country?”
“My hon. Friend is making a very powerful speech. One of the most important areas for UK-German security co-operation is in tackling the full range of threats that Russia exposes us to as Europeans. It is very clear from discussions with German colleagues and others that we need a better doctrine on that and one that includes sharing information, attributing the attacks that are happening weekly across Europe and deterring them through a co-ordinated response. Does my hon. Friend agree that we can work on that bilaterally and through the triad with France, and use the lessons we learn to improve our partnership working across Europe as a whole?”
“My hon. Friend is making a passionate and heartfelt speech about his relationship with Germany. In the cold world of national security, one important area for collaboration is cyber-security, and perhaps also AI, quantum and other areas. That is something that European democracies should have a shared approach towards, because these areas have typically been owned by our American allies. Does my hon. Friend agree that the UK and Germany need to work together to shape offensive cyber-operations and encourage fresh thinking about middle powers and how we seek to counter the Russian threat?”