← LEADERSHIP TERMINAL

UK PARLIAMENT · SITTING

Dave Robertson

MP for Lichfield · Labour · United Kingdom

IN THEIR OWN WORDS

“The hon. Member is making a really important speech about many of the ways in which Ofcom’s regulation touches everybody’s lives, especially through Royal Mail—I am sure she will be aware that I am doing some work in this space.”

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“Advantage Retirement Homes runs two care homes in my constituency: St Thomas’ Priory near Armitage and Chasewater Mews in Burntwood. Between those two properties, the company is currently owed almost £600,000—a staggering sum—by the local integrated care board.”

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“My constituents rely on the Cross-City line to get them in and out of Birmingham, but the last train back from Birmingham in the evening does not run as far as Lichfield, meaning that we cannot make the most of the nightlife there.”

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“Q6. Hon. and right hon. Members will all know that Royal Mail has a serious problem. Part of it is that the parcel companies that Royal Mail competes against use bogus self-employed models for their employees, and too many pay a pittance for an unmanageable workload, where drivers cannot provide a quality service as they race to complete…”

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“Before I start, I draw the House’s attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests in relation to the Communication Workers Union.”

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“I am proud that Labour MPs up and down the country are leading on this, and I could thank countless Members for their hard work, I am especially grateful to my hon.”

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The complete record

550 held · 524 searchable for Dave Robertson. The searchable lines are below in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 6 of 10.

This is not an official version of UK Parliament proceedings. It reproduces the published record and links to it; the official version is the one UK Parliament publishes.

  1. “The midlands rail hub project, which was funded at the spending review, will bring huge benefits to Lichfield, Burntwood and the villages, doubling the number of services to Birmingham per hour, but my constituents are wary about big infrastructure projects because they have seen the mess that HS2 has caused in our area. What reassurance can the Secretary of State give me that this Government have learned lessons from the previous Government and will make sure that HS2 Ltd acts swiftly and decisively to limit further disruption?”

    House of Commons20 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

  2. “This weekend, a very special service will leave the station at Chasewater Railway in Burntwood in my constituency. The hospital Santa special trains are a Christmas service for seriously ill children, and are offered completely free of charge. This year, 1,300 kids and their families are expected to attend. Will the Leader of the House join me in congratulating Chasewater Railway, its trustees and its fantastic volunteers on their wonderful work to spread the festive spirit?”

    House of Commons20 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

  3. “The ceramics industry across the country is foundational to every single part of the Government’s industrial strategy. Ceramics is an energy-intensive industry. Can the Minister confirm whether recent discussions about high energy costs for business have made mention of ceramics, an energy-intensive industry with deep roots in my constituency, where Armitage Shanks has been operating for over 200 years?”

    House of Commons18 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

  4. “In January, criminals dumped two lorry loads of rubbish on Watery Lane, just outside the city of Lichfield. The dump was so large that it blocked access to the road and, in the process, stopped emergency services being able to access nine properties. One of the residents of those properties requires chemo and has issues with his blood pressure, and occasionally he needs to call an ambulance. Given that these incidents are having such a serious impact on people’s lives, are the Government looking to introduce an aggravating factor for such situations, so that if fly-tips prevent access to a property, the risk to life is treated as an aggravating factor, and the waste criminals receive larger sentences?”

    House of Commons17 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

  5. “It meant that the management of Clive’s epilepsy was fragmented, and the link between his epilepsy and the sometimes challenging behaviours that he could exhibit when stressed, such as not taking his medication, withdrawing to his room, or not communicating, were often overstated. Those behaviours disproportionately impacted the generally held view that Clive required a hospital setting, and despite the fact that he had long expressed a wish to live in his own home, care in the community was discussed with him and his family only towards the end of his life. That is where Clive’s life was, and if we move on past his death, it is important to pay tribute to Clive’s family. Throughout all the suffering, they have been relentless in their focus on ensuring that other families do not go through what they had to.”

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  6. “Clive was not listened to, and his family were not listened to, and the consequences were devastating. After that terrible event, Clive’s family had to fight hard for answers. They had to fight to secure an inquest into his death, and later to secure an independent review. When that review was completed in 2021, four years after Clive died, it confirmed what they had suspected all along: the independent review found that Clive’s care fell far short of what should be expected for somebody with drug-resistant epilepsy, and it identified multiple system-wide failures in delivering his care and treatment, which put him at greater risk. It found that his death was potentially avoidable, and that he had been failed both in life and in death. What did that mean in practice?”

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  7. “Clive’s sister Elaine says that her brother was “engaging, humorous, gentle, and loving”. His parents, Pauline and Michael, have said his heart “knew no bounds”, and describe their son’s “magical qualities” throughout his life. In all the accounts of Clive, his love and optimism shine through. Clive passed away in 2017 at just 47 years of age, after a seizure caused by his epilepsy brought on cardiac arrest. This is known as SUDEP—sudden unexpected death in epilepsy. Clive had been living in residential placements for years up until that point, moving often. Before he died, Clive’s family had become worried about his deteriorating health—and, tragically, so had Clive. He left a message on his dad’s phone, which was not received until some days after his death, saying that he was dying and needed an ambulance.”

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  8. “Sadly, they are important to understanding Clive’s death and the failures in care throughout his life, but they do not define what Clive’s life was. I want to ensure that the House hears who Clive was. Clive was a talented artist and gardener, gifted with a brush and able to make plants spring seemingly from nothing. He loved music, especially Elvis Presley, and was often singing and dancing—his family remember him as the life of the party. He wanted to work in a garden centre, helping to raise plants; to have his own home, close to family; to own a cat; to learn to drive; and to go on holiday to Blackpool and Somerset. Clive was as devoted to his family as they were to him. He was known as the family calendar, never forgetting a card for a birthday, Christmas, Easter or any other reason.”

    House of Commons17 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

  9. “It is an honour and a privilege to lead this debate on Government support for the Clive Treacey safety checklist. I secured this debate in Clive’s name, and I want to start by telling the House a little bit about him. I did not have the pleasure of meeting Clive, so I am drawing here on the words of his family, who knew him best. Clive’s sister, and his father Michael, are in the Public Gallery this evening, and I am really glad that they are able to see proceedings. They have been tireless advocates for Clive, making sure that his voice is heard, and I hope that I can do their efforts justice tonight. Clive was born in Lichfield, in my constituency, in 1969. He was soon diagnosed with a learning difficulty, and, between the ages of 8 and 10, with epilepsy. I will cover both those factors today.”

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  10. “In this House, we cannot tolerate a situation where local outcomes are so varied, so I hope that we hear from the Minister what more we can do, both here in this place and through the Department of Health and Social Care, to ensure that people with learning disabilities are not dying of preventable causes, and to see the very best practice, as set out in the Clive Treacey safety checklist, adopted up and down the country, so that we can end this perverse postcode lottery.”

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  11. “It is detailed work, bringing health and care services together, and using joined-up thinking, which we do not hear enough about in Whitehall, to tackle the problem and normalise best practice. That best practice, like the Clive Treacey safety checklist, should be more widespread. I again pay tribute to Elaine and to Clive’s family more broadly for the work that they have done to drive this entire piece of work forward. The problem is that we still have a postcode lottery. Different parts of the country do and do not follow the checklist; different parts of the country have and have not gone through that detailed work to update their practices.”

    House of Commons17 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

  12. “It is a practical tool and the accompanying guidance, at just 24 pages long— for the NHS, a short story at best—is packed with information, and it is a document that can save lives. Since Clive’s death, a number of NHS regions have reviewed the way that they care for patients with learning disabilities and epilepsy using the checklist. That includes the NHS in the midlands, where 11 integrated care systems carried out a detailed appraisal using the self-assessment tool developed by the charity Epilepsy Action, based on the work of Professor Shankar, to find the weaknesses in their services and take concrete steps to improve them. More recently, six integrated care boards in the north-west, north-east and North Yorkshire have done the same.”

    House of Commons17 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

  13. “The checklist was designed for commissioners and service providers, whether the care is provided in a specialist hospital setting or out in the community, and it outlines the steps that should be gone through annually, as well as whenever a patient moves between services or has a big change in their care, such as a new team looking after them. It recommends up-to-date health plans, genuine consultation with parents and families—not box ticking, but genuine consultation—and proper epilepsy training for staff. The Clive Treacey safety checklist is not a document that should be put in a drawer somewhere in an integrated care board, left alone and looked at once every so often when someone asks a question about it.”

    House of Commons17 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

  14. “Indeed, the chances of death were reduced by 84% for people with a learning disability and epilepsy who had a review of their epilepsy in the past 12 months. That brings me to the Clive Treacey safety checklist. The checklist is a tool developed after Clive’s death, and an important part of his legacy. I place on record my thanks to Professor Mike Kerr and Professor Rohit Shankar for their work on the checklist, alongside the charity SUDEP Action, NHS England Midlands, and the Cornwall partnership NHS foundation trust.”

    House of Commons17 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

  15. “Coupled with that, epilepsy is the second most frequently reported preventable cause of death for people with a learning disability, so not only are people with a learning disability more likely to have epilepsy, but the risks they face from their epilepsy are higher. The risk of SUDEP—that is what killed Clive—is more than three times higher for those with epilepsy and a learning disability than for those with epilepsy and no learning disability. Tragically, Clive’s case is not an isolated example of these failures; this is a story that is far too common across the country, but there are things that we can do to change the story. Research suggests that annual health checks can significantly reduce the chance of premature death in people with a learning disability and autism who have epilepsy.”

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  16. “I thank the hon. Gentleman. That is my first intervention from him. He raises an important point, and when he asked that question, I thought back to a couple of weeks ago, when I was asked at a community event, “What gives you hope, Dave?”. I thought for a while. So often, we hear in this place stories of people who have gone through unimaginable hardship, but who somehow find the strength within themselves not to turn that into anger. They do not turn inwards; they turn outwards, and campaign to make sure that the same does not happen to other people. That is an example of what we have here. It is the very best testament to the human spirit that we see so many people who are able to do that. Like a quarter of people with a learning disability, Clive had epilepsy. By contrast, one in 100 of the general population has epilepsy.”

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  17. “Last week I had the honour and privilege of attending the dedication of the new LGBT+ armed forces community memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum in Alrewas in my constituency, alongside His Majesty the King, proud veterans and members of our armed forces. Will the Minister join me in commending the unveiling of this important memorial, and does she agree that it will serve as a lasting reminder of the injustice and discrimination suffered by LGBT+ service personnel and as a powerful symbol of our commitment to equality and respect for all those who serve?”

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  18. “I have had dozens of households get in touch to tell me about the appalling service they have received from their managing agent— I will not name it, but I am sure it is the first name we would think of. Over the summer, I held a town hall with residents, at which I heard the same thing over and over again. Bills for management were coming through completely irregularly, sometimes with three bills for three years being received in the space of three months, which is interesting. There was absolutely no transparency about the level of charge, with demands to come up with huge sums of money at a moment’s notice. All the while, basic maintenance such as cutting the grass just was not being done, leaving residents wondering what exactly they were paying for.”

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  19. “I place on record my thanks to the hon. Member for Reigate (Rebecca Paul) for bringing this debate before the House, and to the Backbench Business Committee for scheduling time for it. From the number of Members present in the Chamber today, we can all see that property service charges are a problem across the entire country, but they certainly are for people in Lichfield, Burntwood and the villages. In the time I have, I will focus on just one of the estates where these charges are an issue: the Roman Heights estate in the village of Streethay, on the edge of Lichfield. The people who live on that estate know just how difficult managing agents can be.”

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  20. “My hon. Friend is right. She is a very good friend, and often she has seen speeches before I give them, but she has not seen this one, and she gives me the perfect segue into my next point. Transparency is so important. When I surveyed residents in the affected estate, 85% told me that billing was either poor or very poor. Some 79% have told me that the management of the estate was poor or very poor. I have written to that management company, and I am looking forward to meeting it, because its written response is simply not good enough.”

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  21. “Fourteen years of cuts, freezes and austerity on councils have left planning departments hollowed out, and we need to ensure we are rebuilding that capacity so that things can be done correctly. It is important that we take this issue seriously, so that residents in my constituency and across the country get the service they so deeply need, for which they apparently are paying through the nose.”

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  22. “Friend the Member for Hitchin (Alistair Strathern) for organising that. The message that came out of that was clear that adoption is holding up those companies, too. They want to see adoptions happening faster. There are massive issues with how they are approached for things. We heard one story of a particular local authority that demands semi-permeable paving as part of its planning process, but its highways department will apparently never adopt anything with semi-permeable paving. That is a totally bizarre situation. It is a case not of two councils but of one organisation where the different parts are not talking to each other. Councils need to work harder on this issue. They need to ensure that they are working with residents and companies to get it right, but they also need to have the money and expertise to be able to do so.”

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  23. “My hon. Friend is well apprised over the specific issue. Part of the issue we may be facing is that he refers to an Act of Parliament that is older than either of us. There may be significant space for an update in this area. It is clear from my hon. Friends’ comments and from everything we have heard this afternoon that this situation is all too common. Up and down the country, managing agents are just letting people down. The long-term solution has to be councils taking on the management of these estates themselves. It is an absolute travesty that we have a bizarre situation where some people are being charged twice for the same service. Last week, other Labour MPs and I met the House Builders Federation to discuss this issue, and I place on record my thanks to my hon.”

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  24. “Standing Together and DAHA have pioneered the adoption of what they call the whole housing approach, and last week they published the findings of a trial in Cheshire East. It was astonishingly successful, preventing 98% of the women involved from becoming homeless, up from 63% before the pilot began. What consideration is the Department giving to expanding that approach across the country? Under that approach, Standing Together and DAHA have also developed a new accreditation targeted at the private rented sector, and I want to see a trial of that new accreditation fully funded. I have written to the Secretary of State, and I would love to hear from the Minister what the consideration the Department will give to funding the next stage of that pilot.”

    House of Commons21 October 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

  25. “Four days after she signed that lease, he was arrested, charged and later convicted. Caitlin has never lived in that flat, but despite her former partner’s conviction, there was no way to release her from that contract. He refused to pay rent, as another way of exerting control over her, and that put Caitlin at huge financial risk. It took until last week to resolve the issue, with months of back and forth from my office, and eventually the threat of legal action, before the agent backed down. There was no compassion and no understanding, and Caitlin knew things could have been much worse if she did not have a supportive family. I am proud that the Renters’ Rights Bill will take us a step closer to solving that problem by doing away with shorthold tenancies, but there is a lot more we need to do.”

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  26. “It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Efford. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool Wavertree (Paula Barker) and the hon. Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman) for securing the debate, and the Backbench Business Committee for scheduling it. Last week, my hon. Friend and I had the privilege of speaking at events hosted by Standing Together Against Domestic Abuse and the Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance. It is so important that we bring domestic abuse into this conversation, because it is the leading cause of homelessness for women in this country. However, the real reason I am here today is my constituent Caitlin. Caitlin is a survivor. She was in a relationship that turned abusive, and unbeknown to her family she was coerced into co-signing a lease for a flat with her abuser, naming herself as guarantor.”

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  27. “I thank my hon. Friend or right hon. Friend—sorry, my right good friend—and neighbouring MP for giving way. He has mentioned the Staffordshire chambers of commerce, which is so excited to see these investments happen. At the corridor’s closest point to my constituency is one of the roundabouts in Uttoxeter that gets so snarled up—it is just 4 miles away. Improving these roads will affect not just constituencies along the corridor, but those adjacent to it and further afield. Does my hon. Friend agree that investment in this road is not just an investment in getting to and from places faster, but an investment in real, good, high-quality, unionised jobs?”

    House of Commons20 October 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

  28. “It is hard to describe to a non-mathematician, but it is so beautiful. We need to talk about the creativity of physics. We need to talk about how caring some of the life sciences can be. We need to talk about the adjectives, not just the verbs. We also need to make sure we have a cross-governmental response to encourage more people into STEM. It is the Department for Transport, DSIT, the Department for Work and Pensions and further afield. We need parity of esteem for vocational courses in STEM. We need access to triple sciences for more kids, not just the highest achievers. We need the measures in the Employment Rights Bill. We need the women’s tech taskforce. Here’s hoping that, soon, every day can be Ada Lovelace Day.”

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  29. “She had just that day passed out, getting her doctorate in astrophysics, and had placed a note in the acknowledgements section of her thesis thanking me “for being so inspiring and enthusiastic…and planting the seed by asking me the all-important question once after a class: Have you ever considered studying astrophysics at university?” That does not sound like an exact quote—I suspect there was possibly more sarcasm when I said it—but it made me reflect on the fact that we should never miss the opportunity to ask such a question of a young person. We need to go further and faster. We need women working in STEM and women teaching STEM. We also need to change the way we do this. We need to talk about adjectives, not just verbs. We need to talk about the beauty of mathematics.”

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  30. “It is a pleasure to be here and to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Furniss. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Morecambe and Lunesdale (Lizzi Collinge) for securing the debate. We are here to celebrate Ada Lovelace Day—a day to celebrate women in STEM across the country and across the world. When I spotted this debate on the Order Paper, I was reminded of 12 July last year, when I received a Facebook message, of all things, from a former pupil— I have no idea how she found me.”

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  31. “Friends the Members for Tamworth (Sarah Edwards), for Birmingham Erdington (Paulette Hamilton), for North Warwickshire and Bedworth (Rachel Taylor) and for Coventry North West (Taiwo Owatemi)—as they share my concerns. Can the Leader of the House arrange for me and those Members to meet the relevant Minister to discuss how we can ensure that the trust is supported to continue to deliver the best possible education?”

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  32. “The Arthur Terry Learning Partnership is an academy trust with 24 schools across the west midlands, including five primary schools with alternative provision and my old secondary school in Lichfield. Last year the trust was bailed out by the Department for Education, and last Friday it wrote to all its staff inviting applications for voluntary redundancies and suggesting that there may be compulsory redundancies to follow. This is a huge worry, not only for the hard-working staff but for parents, pupils and the community. I have reached out to other Members affected—the hon. Member for Birmingham Perry Barr (Ayoub Khan) and my hon.”

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  33. “Friend agree that if we genuinely want to solve the SEND crisis, we must solve the problem of the postcode lottery that so disadvantages people in Lichfield, Burntwood and the villages, and more widely across Staffordshire?”

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  34. “I started my teacher training in 2008, and I continued to work as a teacher and to be a teacher trade unionist until 4 July last year. I knew that the SEND system was broken, although I did not realise quite how broken it was until I opened my emails on day one. We all know that the system is broken throughout the country, but it is most broken in Staffordshire, a place that I have the pleasure to represent but which has the eighth highest refusal rate for EHCPs in the country, rejecting more than 45% of requests. It also has a high rate of appeals, more than double the national average at nearly 10%, and a startling 98% of those appeals are successful. Does my hon.”

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  35. “It is no overstatement to say that that trial is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to look at our approach to the safety of babies in this situation. I really hope that it reports and moves us towards a situation in which we can routinely test for this condition during pregnancy. The gold standard test costs just £15, and can save lives—potentially, a life a week. We must do all we can to protect babies like Zack and ensure that no more parents go through what Tim and Hannah have had to.”

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  36. “Zack’s story is that he caught a group B strep infection as he was born. It is incredibly common—20% to 40% of women have it on any given day—and it is generally symptomless in adults, but if it passes from mum to baby during labour, it can be fatal. On average, one baby a week in the UK dies of a strep B infection. Group B strep is common in mums and highly dangerous to babies, but the UK does not routinely test for it during pregnancy. Instead, we rely on risk factors to identify expecting mums who have it, and too often—as in Zack’s case—that approach is not working. I am pleased that a major trial, the GBS3 trial, is under way to look at whether we would be better off routinely testing, and is due to report later this year.”

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  37. “I place on record my thanks to the co-sponsors of today’s debate and to all Members who have shared their personal experiences. It has been a very difficult debate for many of us on such an important but such a difficult subject. Like many Members today, I am here to speak on behalf of my constituents. Tim and Hannah lost their son Zack when he was just 14 hours old. Zack’s inquest found that there was a total and complete failure in his care. I genuinely do not know how parents can receive an inquest verdict like that and find the strength to put themselves back together, but Tim and Hannah did—I am sure that is something we will see in many of the people in the Gallery today. They found the strength to put themselves back together and start looking to what comes next.”

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  38. “My hon. Friend is a powerful advocate for children with SEND right across the country. Given her personal experience, and the experience of many of our constituents, it is clear that the system is broken. Across Lichfield, Burntwood and the villages, I have set up a network of people looking to challenge Staffordshire county council, which significantly underperforms even the atrocious national standards. Does my hon. Friend agree that it is essential that the voices of those with experience of the system are heard as we move towards the White Paper and the Government work to fix the mess they inherited?”

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  39. “Many right hon. and hon. Members will know the name Armitage Shanks as the company that has been making basins and toilets for over 200 years. However, fewer people will know that it takes its name from the village of Armitage in my constituency. Sadly, Armitage Shanks is planning to scale down its operation there, shutting one of its kilns and threatening up to 100 jobs. I am working closely with the GMB union to make sure that those affected can find other opportunities and to safeguard as many livelihoods as we can, but the impact of those job losses on the community will be serious. Can the Leader of the House arrange for a debate in Government time on how the Government can help protect historic brands such as Armitage Shanks?”

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  40. “It also means that 50 stations across a number of regions will get to see improvements in their services. That is a fantastic example of this Government investing in the projects that we need to close some of the transport inequality gaps, and I thank the Minister for that. As I have a minute left, and given that those improvements are coming, let me say this. I have a line from Lichfield to Burton that passes by the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire. It would make a brilliant place for a passenger service, so that everybody from around the country can get to the National Memorial Arboretum to enjoy the fantastic facility that it is and take part in remembrance all year round, not just in November.”

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  41. “Lichfield is a city of 35,000 people and a million journeys began at that train station. It is a busy line—it is important infrastructure. This debate is about regional transport inequality; the idea that on a line that busy that served anywhere in the south-east or London the service would be halved and nothing done about it for years is absolutely laughable. But because it is in the west midlands, the services have not come back. The villain in this piece is just how busy New Street is. It is over capacity; we cannot get any more trains in or out. That is why I am so glad to have campaigned to get the midland rail hub project funded and to have co-ordinated dozens of Back-Bench MPs to support the campaign. That will improve the capacity at New Street, meaning that we can get our trains back on the city line.”

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  42. “I am pleased to follow my hon. Friend the Member for East Thanet (Ms Billington), who talked about the impact of covid on transport. Many of my constituents across Lichfield, Burntwood and the villages rely on the cross-city line to get to Birmingham for work, for social activities—to visit the theatre or go for a night out—and for many other reasons. Unfortunately, during the pandemic the service on the line was cut from four trains an hour to just two. That was understandable at the time, given the circumstances, but years have passed and those trains are still not back. The cross-city line is the busiest commuter train line in the country outside of London. In the year before covid, a million journeys started at Lichfield City, going towards Birmingham New Street.”

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  43. “T3. Too many of my constituents in Lichfield, Burntwood and the villages are struggling with appalling mobile signal. It is a problem we see across the country, and it is often worse in rural areas. What steps are the ministerial team taking to ensure that the Government’s review of the mobile market leads to a faster roll-out of 5G?”

    House of Commons10 September 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

  44. “Earlier in response to my hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Danny Beales), the shadow Secretary of State said that my hon. Friend did not need to pay any attention to the people in his inbox who had contacted him. Was he not advocating exactly that—we should not listen because it is a small number of people, and we should accept these amendments so that this legislation can be watered down? Is he not arguing both sides of the same coin on this?”

    House of Commons8 September 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

  45. “I am glad that I managed to sneak in this speech, and I hope I will finish it. There have been many speeches made by Members on both sides of the Chamber, many of which have focused on the many things that the Bill will hopefully achieve. I confirm that my hon. Friend the Member for Paisley and Renfrewshire South (Johanna Baxter) does have two very cute cats.”

    House of Commons8 September 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

  46. “For 16 years, people in Burntwood in my constituency have had to visit their GP in portacabins in the car park of a leisure centre. The site was closed in March 2024, but there was no replacement and 5,000 patients were distributed to other surgeries. No one agreed with that decision, but we were told that all would be well because the Conservative-controlled county council would have a replacement built and ready to operate by the end of this year. That council failed, and now the Reform-controlled county council is failing too. It has not even submitted a planning application, and there is no chance that it will keep its promise to the people of Burntwood and open the centre this year. Will you join me in telling that council to get their thumb out and get this done?”

    House of Commons4 September 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

  47. “I thank the Minister for all the work he has done in bringing us so far, so quickly. I have three school nurseries opening in my constituency this year, which will mean dozens of families and scores of children being given the very best start. Can he advise me on how best I can remind those parents that while we hear platitudes from Opposition parties, they have either voted against or failed to support all the measures we are taking to fund this provision? The Minister mentioned a plan without a pledge; it is this Government who are delivering on a plan for that pledge.”

    House of Commons4 September 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

  48. “Does the shadow Minister honestly think that I could go back to my constituents in Lichfield, Burntwood and the villages and say that by supporting the amendment, as he is encouraging me to do, there would be more Ministers from the other place and fewer from the Commons? How does he think that would go down on a doorstep? I have been punched in the face, and it is not great.”

    House of Commons4 September 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

  49. “Bore da. Does the Secretary of State agree that the introduction of the midlands rail hub project, which will see an additional train per hour from Cardiff in south Wales to the midlands, is a great sign that this Government are investing not just in Wales and the midlands but in the whole country?”

    House of Commons16 July 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

  50. “A business in the village of Fradley in my constituency has a plan to put millions of watts of solar on the roof of its businesses. Unfortunately, it cannot proceed with that application, because there is not sufficient export capacity on the site. It would never export a watt of that electricity, which would meet only a fraction of its energy needs. Will the Minister meet me, so that we can discuss how we can make regulatory changes to support projects like this one?”

    House of Commons15 July 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗