Jo White

IN THEIR OWN WORDS

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300 held · 261 searchable for Jo White. The searchable lines are below in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 3 of 6.

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1. “I have heard from all my hon. Friends from Stoke-on-Trent, who are currently seeing the demise of the ceramics industry. That cannot go on, and the cause is high energy prices.”

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2. “For a small number, skills training was via the university route, with most never returning. The middle ground between the two was a low priority for Government, and the lazy solution has been to import the skills we need. That is the history of the past 14 years, where cheap imported skills have been used to meet industry’s short-term needs, methodically sidelining local young people and adding to soaring legal migration. We have the kernel of an alternative, with high-skilled apprenticeships, but they are not yet ingrained across the system or the country.”

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3. “Ceramics, fishing, automotive, steel and shipping all dominated the midlands and the north of England. While some still remain, they are struggling, fighting an ongoing international race for cheap labour and parts, with successive Governments failing them time and again. In Bassetlaw, as the mines closed and the textile factories moved to countries with cheap labour, the employment opportunities shifted, with warehousing and logistics springing up on the old pit sites. At that time, skills provision, under the auspices of the Manpower Services Commission, developed into a simplistic system. It was literally controlled by the main employers, who wanted to mould the workforce into their own needs from age 16. In Bassetlaw, it was Tony Wilkinson of Wilko and Richard Budge of Budge Mining who ran the system.”

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4. “I thank my hon. Friend for her contribution. I hope that Ministers are listening, as the products produced in the three constituencies of my hon. Friends from Stoke-on-Trent are critical for our industrial future. My challenge to Government is to bring forward an industrial strategy that allows the whole nation to grow, but also resources and targets the towns that are crying out for change. I begin by demanding a skills revolution in our post-industrial areas. For much of the past century, areas such as mine were dominated by key industries. In Bassetlaw, we had thousands of men working down the pits while their wives, sisters and mothers headed into the big textile factories. The history of key industries is not exclusive to Bassetlaw—there are vital and historic British industries with their roots in many red wall areas.”

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5. “I totally agree with the hon. Member. An industrial strategy has to support the SMEs, because they have to be part of the supply chain. They have to be part of that engine of growth, because they are an integral part of all our communities. I want to see them benefit when there is big industrial investment. They are part of that chain, and they can grow with it.”

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6. “Again, I totally agree with my hon. Friend. I am fortunate, as I have a new mayor, the Mayor of the East Midlands. I can already see the benefits of having a mayoral combined authority. That partnership with local government, the mayor and me is critical for investment. I had a conversation with her on Saturday and talked about my hon. Friend’s area, because areas like his will get left behind if they do not have the opportunity to have a combined authority and mayor. It makes an incredible difference, and my ask of Government is to move fast and get that sorted. [ Interruption. ] I need to wind up, I am being told, so I will go to the end of my speech to give the Minister the opportunity to wind up.”

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7. “I will finish by saying that time is running out. It is not handouts we are asking for, or sympathy; our demand is strategic investment. My ask of the Minister is give us the tools. Is it little Britain or Great Britain? Is it little Englanders looking over their shoulders or Great Britons looking out to the future?”

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8. “Those unofficial road-racing events are organised via social media. People meet up in an edge-of-town car park and then stage races up and down the A57, attracting huge crowds who come to witness the speeds and the flashy souped-up cars with booming exhausts. Residents living close to the A57 hear the noise, including the screeching of tyres, but they are terrified that they or a family member will get caught up with the racers as they drive home or go about their daily business. The fear of a nasty accident is all pervasive. Across the country, people who have turned up to watch the racing have died, such as 19-year-old Ben Corfield and 16-year-old Liberty Charris from Dudley, and 19-year-old Sophie Smith from Radcliffe—young lives needlessly lost.”

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9. “Lawlessness, antisocial behaviour, street crime and shoplifting have dragged our communities down. When people believe that they can act with impunity, without fear of apprehension or respect for others, we need Parliament to come down hard to restore law and order and give the police the resources that they need to make our streets safe again. I therefore take this opportunity to welcome the Crime and Policing Bill, which put right the years of damage and disregard caused by the previous Government. My focus today is on street racing, a problem that stretches across the country but has become a curse in Bassetlaw, where cars speed along a stretch of the A57, the by-pass that runs through Worksop and then into the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Rother Valley (Jake Richards).”

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10. “My concern is that such unorganised racing events are held to show off how fast and noisy cars can be—there needs to be much stronger action to control that. I worry that there will be further deaths and accidents if the police are not given the powers to deal with it. In Bassetlaw, I visited residents who told me that their lives are a living hell, with their nerves on edge every weekend. Not only do they hear the noise, but the fronts of their houses have become viewing platforms for the crowds.”

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11. “I am disappointed that the local police of the hon. Member for Henley and Thame (Freddie van Mierlo) do not consider it in the same way. This is a serious issue. Most weekends on Friday, Saturday or Sunday night, such cars are present. People perhaps just meet in an empty supermarket car park to compare their vehicles, but on other occasions they take the opportunity to race. I have been out to look at the cars myself to see who those individuals are. At first, I thought that they were using their vehicles to engage in crime, but the whole focus is on showing off their souped-up vehicles. We have already had deaths—quite often of the people who go out to witness the speeding—so I am calling for much stronger action to prevent further death.”

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12. “The owners were not necessarily driving at the time, however, because quite often young people have borrowed their parents’ car, meaning that the notices are being sent to parents—but I think that is just as good, to be honest. The police say that that is helping to reduce involvement. The police tell me that they have put dedicated staffing into patrolling the A57 for the next four weekends. Their zero-tolerance approach will include fines, seizure and reporting to the courts. They are also sharing live intelligence on vehicles moving around the county, in order to be proactive and prevent cruising and meets before they happen. They have been successful, they believe, in preventing racing before it starts. Like me, the police are fearful that someone could die or be seriously injured, so they regard this matter as a high priority.”

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13. “That council has joined forces with Rotherham council, and they are bringing forward a public space protection order, which I just mentioned, to cover the whole of the A57—from outside Worksop all the way to Rotherham—with the ambition of prohibiting car cruising and giving the police the ability to serve fixed penalty notices, prosecute or issue fines for breaches. In the meantime, I have worked with the police to install a CCTV camera at a key point on the A57, and there are plans to put up a second. The camera is being used to collect data on the vehicles that turn up for cruising events. The police then send pre-enforcement letters to the car owners.”

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14. “I very much agree; that is why I am raising it today. The hon. Gentleman talks about public space protection orders, which I will come to shortly, but I think the law needs to be strengthened to give the police much stronger powers to deal with the problem. It is not a local phenomenon, because it is happening right across the country and people are using encrypted social media to organise the groups. Since those visits, I have been working with Bassetlaw district council and the police on this issue.”

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15. “It is not someone sneakily putting something in their pocket or bag—it is people stealing food to order very publicly, and it is food that is worth a lot of money.”

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16. “I agree with my hon. Friend—those orders could be used. The Bill strengthens the ability to seize motor vehicles when they are used in a manner causing alarm, distress or annoyance, but this is a nationwide problem, and I ask the Minister for a private discussion to consider whether the Bill can be strengthened to make it criminal to organise, promote or attend an unofficial road-racing event. I welcome the Bill because it respects and recognises the daily risks our shop workers face. My constituent went to buy a pint of milk in his local Sainsbury’s at Easter time. He was queuing up for the milk when somebody rushed in and swept the whole shelf of Easter eggs into a bag. They call it “supermarket sweep”, and it is the new form of shoplifting.”

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17. “USDAW was the first union I ever joined, and I very much support its campaign. I share the fear that shop workers have, because there is nothing they can do. They have to sit or stand and watch the crime happen, for fear of being assaulted or abused—that is the advice that USDAW and their management have given them. The law has to be strengthened to protect them. They have to go to work every day and face that fear, which creates inordinate stress. That is unacceptable.”

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18. “It was particularly bad last winter, when I spoke to staff and management there because I was so concerned. I have had meetings with the council and the police to tackle this issue. I welcome the Government’s commitment to increasing neighbourhood policing, with more police in our town centres. Everybody tells me they want to see more police walking the streets so that they feel safe as they go into town and can make the choice about where they shop. I do not want people to think about their safety when they go into town centres in my constituency. It is a priority that they know where the police are, know them by their names and feel safe as they go into town. This Bill goes to the heart of many of the issues that have broken our country, and we are doing what we can to repair it.”

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19. “I wholeheartedly agree. It is not just USDAW; the Co-op party has campaigned vociferously on this matter, too. It is so important, and I very much welcome the action this Government are taking. This has gone on for too long. People need to feel safe in the workplace, and this is the best step we can take towards that. Shop workers in Worksop town centre also have to deal with an inordinate amount of antisocial behaviour. For example, I have been told about how young people come into Greggs, take food from the cabinets and throw it about. The shop workers there feel so fearful that they have not taken the covid screens down, because they do not want to be attacked. The intimidation they feel is not acceptable. I have visited an opticians where the management escort their staff out of the workplace to their cars on a regular basis.”

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20. “The work has already started on the skills partnership, which is stretching right across regions including the east midlands, Lincolnshire and South Yorkshire. That partnership is working with our further education colleges, our universities and the advanced manufacturing centre in Rotherham. Does the Secretary of State agree that left-behind, red wall areas such as mine are where we need investment to revise our energy production and our industry? This is where we start, and I want to see more.”

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21. “I, too, wish you a happy birthday, Mr Speaker. I very much welcome the statement, which is about the future-visioning and future-proofing of our energy security and production. I particularly welcome the £2.5 billion investment in fusion, including for the STEP—spherical tomahawk for energy production —programme at West Burton in north Nottinghamshire. I thank Ministers for their work to secure that, which is very welcome indeed. The process has already started, with the tender outcomes for the construction and the design and technology to be announced later this year. I am championing British companies, which are very much part of that process. I am excited about the thousands of jobs and skills in new infrastructure that will be developed because of this programme.”

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22. “For the sake of my family, I am currently having genetic screening to check that, if it was the familial cause, it has not been passed down. I urge every woman of Jewish heritage to do the same. Screening is provided free by the NHS and can be done in the home.”

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23. “She was too embarrassed to show her breast to her doctor, and explained away her lump as an injury caused by falling off a window ledge when cleaning windows. By the time she finally went to the doctor, it was too late, and she died months later. We lost her too soon. Perhaps it was also fear that kept her away; two of her sisters were also taken by breast cancer. That is such a familiar story. So many women being treated for breast cancer tell of family members—aunts, sisters, mothers, grandmothers—who have been through the same experiences. My nan was of Jewish descent. It is now known that Jewish people of Ashkenazi heritage have a one in 40 chance of carrying the BRCA gene mutation, which means a much higher chance of developing breast cancer—a one in two chance before the age of 70.”

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24. “The first known descriptions of breast cancer date back to beyond 3,000 BC. Hippocrates described the progressive stages of breast cancer in 400 BC, when he outlined his theory for its cause. Although breast cancer mortality rates have been decreasing since the 1970s, approximately 11,400 women and 85 men die of breast cancer every year. That is 32 deaths from breast cancer every single day of the week. We all know someone who has been impacted by breast cancer—a mother, a sister, a granny, a daughter, a colleague or a friend. For me that was my nan, the matriarch of the family, a character, fit and healthy, who went out daily to clean other people’s houses. We lost her when I was 19 years old.”

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25. “I asked the chief executive of our local hospital trust to investigate that, and he quickly came back with some worrying figures showing that attendance had dropped in recent times to below 50% of women invited for screening. This was either due to an appointment cancellation or a no-show on the day. NHS England data shows that prior to the coronavirus pandemic 78% of women in Bassetlaw and Doncaster were going for screening. The decline is dramatic and is not unique to Bassetlaw.”

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26. “I thank my hon. Friend for that point. I have sympathy for her experiences and hope that she is now fully recovered. Yes, we must be conscious that women of all ages could have breast cancer, and awareness must be raised so that women continue to check their breasts for it. What I do know is this: breast cancer screening and early detection save lives. The earlier that breast cancer is detected, the simpler and more effective the treatment is likely to be. Between the ages of 50 and 70, on a three-year cycle, women will get a letter in the post inviting them in for screening. A chance conversation last autumn with a local GP alerted me to his concern that the number of women attending Bassetlaw hospital for screening appointments had dropped dramatically.”

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27. “The women from Bassetlaw are amazing, using their life experiences to join the fighting spirit, encouraging their friends, family and neighbours to get screened.”

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28. “I pay tribute to the wonderful Bassetlaw women who have been active in the campaign—women such as Liz Rew and Maria Charlesworth, who found lumps in their breasts and went for their screening. Barbara Baldwin and Claire Previn joined my campaign as they have had friends taken too soon by breast cancer; I do not want anyone else to have to go through that. Lynn Dixon from Bassetlaw had breast cancer in her family and was first diagnosed at the age of 36 after finding a lump, and she has just recently found another lump and was screened. This week she is facing further treatment for breast cancer. My thoughts and love are with Lynn right now. [Hon. Members: “Hear, hear.”] Jenny Bailey is a former NHS nurse and midwife in Bassetlaw who had her breast cancer identified following routine screening.”

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29. “I thank the hon. Gentleman for his contribution and agree that it is worrying that only half of the trusts in England are meeting the national target of 70% of eligible women going for their screening, but next year we hit a milestone in that it is estimated that almost 1 million women will be invited for screening. I welcome the fact that NHS England is actively encouraging more women to book and attend their screening. Will the Minister provide more detail on that? To be honest, in Bassetlaw I cannot wait for a national operation to kick in. Last month I launched the “Bassetlaw love your boobs, get them checked” campaign, supporting local women and encouraging women to go for their breast screening.”

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30. “I welcome the hon. Member’s contribution. Women in Bassetlaw have to travel all the way to Sheffield once they have been diagnosed to have treatment and radiotherapy. That is a long journey and it would be better if the cancer could be treated in Bassetlaw. I wait to hear how that can be achieved in future years, because it is so important for people to be treated close to home.”

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31. “This debate is not the end of my campaign. On 29 June, I will be running the Race for Life in my constituency and visiting the Bassetlaw Princess Diana mammography unit to help tell the story of how easy it is for people to get their breasts screened. I welcome the fact that my hon. Friends the Members for Doncaster Central (Sally Jameson) and for Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme (Lee Pitcher) are in their places. The data for Doncaster and Bassetlaw hospitals covers all of our constituencies. While I understand that we can presume that there are lower attendance levels by those who live in our more deprived wards, will the Minister provide advice on what more the Department can do to ensure that we can get hospital-specific data for breast cancer screening uptake?”

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32. “I thank my hon. Friend for his contribution and I agree with him. In Bassetlaw, we have a single unit, but there are mobile units in rural areas that might encourage a better take-up rate. The misconception that only women can get breast cancer is far too common. Almost 400 men get breast cancer every year, including my constituent Danny Emmerson from Worksop, who found some lumps in his armpits while he was sitting watching TV. He went to his GP to get checked and was quickly diagnosed with breast cancer. I thank Danny for joining my campaign to raise awareness that men get breast cancer too. My ask today is that everyone in the Chamber, man or woman, checks themselves, and encourages their wives, partners, daughters, granddaughters, sisters and all the women in their lives to attend their breast cancer screening appointments.”

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33. “I agree with my hon. Friend. We have data, but we remain unsure where the lowest uptake is. I would like to go to the wards in my area where uptake is low and knock on doors to encourage women to go to their screenings, so it would helpful to have precise data from the two hospitals in the Doncaster and Bassetlaw hospitals trust. Several organisations across Bassetlaw support people with cancer, and I wish to highlight the work of Aurora in Worksop, which offers support to people during and after cancer treatment. From exercise spaces to beauty treatments, emotional support or even just a cup of tea with a friendly face and a listening ear, organisations like Aurora in our constituencies are the unsung heroes for people going through the challenge that is cancer treatment.”

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34. “Why do women over 70 have to rely on memory and a phone call to get their screening appointment? All women can get breast cancer; it does not discriminate by age or background. I thank Bassetlaw women Sue Shaw and Barbara Baldwin, who are both over 70 and are now missing out. They argue that the cost of treatment for breast cancer far outweighs the costs of screening. Early prevention not only saves lives, but saves the NHS money. They are calling for the threshold to be eradicated—that is their ask and mine of the Minister. As we have heard, early diagnosis of breast cancer can save lives, and I am doing everything that I can locally to encourage women to attend their screenings when they are invited. My Bassetlaw message is: love your boobs, and get them checked.”

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35. “I thank my hon. Friend for his comments, and I agree with him. Bawtry is just across the border from my constituency, and it has a very strong community. When I go to through these towns, I see how many people come out on to the street to support one another, so I am sure that the campaign he mentions is very strong. I have come across many charities and organisations working on this issue in my constituency; they often involve people who have had breast cancer, and who want to educate other women and encourage them to be screened. They are very important to the work that we are doing. Since the beginning of breast screening checks in 1988, there has been a cut-off age of 70. My campaign includes women who are above the age threshold for being invited in for screening. My nan was over 70 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer.”

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36. “I welcome my hon. Friend’s call for a project of national renewal; I think that is absolutely excellent. I also welcome her comment that these communities are special—they are, and we need to focus our attention on them. Does she agree that the closure of Sure Start centres, including in my constituency, had a significant impact? They changed people’s lives. We have heard from so many people who have done well as a consequence of having access to those services, so it is essential that we revitalise them.”

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37. “My ask of the Minister is that that money is used to help to deliver the STEP—spherical tokamak for energy production—programme in Bassetlaw, which will change lives, create jobs and put us on the energy-efficiency agenda that we need for the future.”

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38. “I welcome the Minister’s statement. There is a shift from focusing funding on areas where it is easy to deliver in London and the south to focusing it on the midlands and the north, where there are left-behind areas like my constituency. I very much welcome that local mayors will take that decision. Some £2 billion has been given to my mayor to invest in the east midlands, which is absolutely welcome. I also welcome the Trent Arc proposal and the freedom that the mayor has to spend money in our area, such as in Bassetlaw. I am already in discussions with her about how that money can best be spent.”

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39. “When a previous Government fail to take responsibility for the crisis they have caused, they deserve a life sentence on the Opposition Benches. I welcome the construction of a new wing at Ranby prison in my constituency by Worksop-based Laing O’Rourke, a specialist in modern methods of construction that is involved in many other construction projects across the country. If the Minister is seeking more sites for new prisons, could I propose the Crown-owned land across the road from HMP Ranby? We would very much welcome a new prison there.”

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40. “There was a court case yesterday where a people smuggler, known as “Captain Ahmed”, was jailed for his part in co-ordinating and managing the small boat crossings of more than 3,000 people. He is a ruthless man who treated human life as rubbish, ordering the murder of migrants and happily bribing officials to pursue his financial objectives. This man was smuggling across the Mediterranean, but his methods mirror that of the criminal gangs bringing people across the English channel. My question to the Opposition is: why was he here living in asylum accommodation when he was arrested in 2023? He had previously served a prison sentence in Italy for drug smuggling, and yet he was never deported. That is why I welcome the borders Bill.”

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41. “More than 24,000 people have now been returned, and 23 hotels have been closed down—but I want more, my constituents demand more, and I will keep coming to the House to ensure that we get more. We must get the borders Bill into law, and smashing the gangs is critical. Reform and the Tories keep voting against the Bill, while repeatedly offering no viable alternatives. There is only one party that can be trusted to secure our border, and I will back the Government.”

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42. “I thank the Minister for making that key point. The British people were let down by the Opposition when they were in government. I welcome the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill, which gives us the powers to pursue those people not only here in our country, but across borders to their origins. In government, we will never allow people with criminal records to be considered for asylum. The last Government allowed the backlog of asylum seekers to rise to over 80,000, housing them in hotels across the country and, when that became too embarrassing, trying to hide them away by putting them on a disease-ridden barge, buying disused Army bases at huge expense, and setting up a dispersal process with houses being purchased across the country. It is only this Government who have tackled the problem head-on.”

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43. “I congratulate the Prime Minister on this deal, which will benefit so many of my constituents; it is exactly what businesses in my constituency asked for when they sent me to Parliament. The youth mobility scheme will benefit local farmers, but I want to know how young people in my area will also benefit from it opening up experiences and opportunities that they would never have otherwise dreamed of. The scheme must not just benefit middle-class kids on their gap year.”

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44. “With net migration at 1.7 million over the last two years of the previous Government, people in Bassetlaw tell me that they are fed up with the pressures that uncontrolled immigration has put on our local infrastructure. The Prime Minister has recognised this today, with a clear commitment to reduce net migration and take back control of our borders. I congratulate my right hon. Friend on this landmark cross-Government White Paper, which will fix the mess left by the Conservative party. Does she agree that we need to stop the reliance on imported workers from abroad and focus on properly training British people instead?”

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45. “I wonder whether the shadow Home Secretary could comment on the views of his colleague the hon. Member for Stockton West (Matt Vickers), who said during the Public Bill Committee that “immigration is too high. Previous Governments have failed to solve it.” –– [ Official Report, Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Public Bill Committee, 18 March 2025; c. 347.] I wonder whether he could also comment on the remarks of the hon. Member for Weald of Kent (Katie Lam), who said in Committee: “The system is broken. It has been broken for many decades, and that is now plain to see.” –– [ Official Report, Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Public Bill Committee, 18 March 2025; c. 335.]”

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46. “The amendment will mean that those arrested will now face fines of up to £60,000 per worker and prison sentences of up to five years. The French have said that people want to come to the UK because it is all too easy to be swept into the black economy and work illegally. The heavy disincentives of fines and prison sentences have the power to put a brake on the demand for the illegal trafficking of people. I welcome this Bill. As I said in February, “crack on with the job, give us a running commentary of every success, publicise the return flights and the jailing of criminals, clear up the Conservatives’ mess, secure our borders, close down the use of hotels and stop the small boats.” —[ Official Report , 10 February 2025; Vol. 762, c. 124.] Today is the next step forward.”

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47. “The Bill not only gives the power and authority to work with our international partners to track down and break up the gangs, with the powers to seize and interrogate mobile phones and laptops to collect data and evidence, but the new amendment will introduce enhanced illegal working checks, putting a stop to those delivery drivers bringing meals or parcels to our doorsteps who cannot speak a word of English, potentially using IDs that have been borrowed or purchased from legitimate employees. I welcome the raids on the businesses, such as the nail bars, barbers and restaurants employing illegal workers, potentially in slave labour conditions. In January there were 131 raids in my area of the midlands, with 106 arrests.”

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48. “Those gang members whose sole focus is on the billions of pounds that their horrific trade generates, who overload boats that are not fit to go into the ocean, who treat human life as having no value, willing to put lives at risk for huge profits must experience the full force of the law. This Bill gives Border Command the powers to pursue, arrest and prosecute those people. Breaking and destroying the gangs is critical to bringing an end to the small boat crossings. Mohammed’s witness evidence underlines how important it is to achieve that.”

    House of Commons12 May 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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49. “Thank you for calling me, Madam Deputy Speaker. “People started dying. People were screaming. It is very painful when someone is dying inside the water. The way they die—they cannot breathe...it is very difficult. I never thought I would experience such a thing… It is a harrowing experience I do not want to remember. I was holding on to what remained of the boat and people were screaming. It is something I will not forget.” This is the witness testimony of Mohammed Omar when he spoke at the Cranston inquiry, which is investigating the UK’s worst small boat disaster. On 27 November 2021, it is believed that 31 people lost their lives. Mohammed said that he was told that 33 people would be aboard the dinghy, but more were added, including children.”

    House of Commons12 May 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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50. “Last week, I visited Papa’s fish and chip restaurant in Worksop, where I met the owner, Nick. He told me about his reconnect campaign, which encourages people to come off their screens and spend time in good company over a first-class plate of fish and chips. He also showed me the safe space he has created for SEND families. Will the Leader of the House join me in thanking Nick for running such a thoughtful and caring campaign?”

    House of Commons24 April 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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