Luke Myer
MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland · Labour · United Kingdom
“Teessiders know what it looks like when Governments stand back and fail to protect steel jobs, so on behalf of the British steelworkers in my constituency who work at Special Profiles in Skinningrove and Teesside Beam Mill at Lackenby, I thank the Government for their decision to step in and protect primary steelmaking in this country.”
“Teesside is home to a world-leading maritime industry and an excellent further education landscape. However, one issue that the Tees maritime cluster has identified is a lack of join-up between the two and the fact that there are insufficient qualifications locally for young people to get into the industry.”
“I thank the right hon. Gentleman for making that point, and he is absolutely right. This issue was raised by my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Birmingham Selly Oak (Al Carns), who spoke about the threat of social media disinformation from hostile states such as Iran and Russia.”
“I wish to push the Minister on the point about social media disinformation. This is one of the biggest issues affecting our democracy, and western democracies around the world, when it comes to the threat from not only Iran but other hostile states.”
“I therefore support clause 11, but I also feel strongly that it ought to apply to all of us as politicians, and I am grateful to the more than 30 Members on both sides of the House who supported my amendments 13 to 18 to that effect.”
“It is a pleasure to follow my constituency neighbour and hon. Friend the Member for Middlesbrough and Thornaby East (Andy McDonald). I share his views about the need for action on the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys inquiry.”
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“Cleveland’s ironstone travelled across the world from our region and was part of the industrial revolution. The bridges, railways and ships of the industrial age carried the mark of the people who laboured under our cliffs and hills. Today, Land of Iron holds the largest collection of ironstone mining artefacts in the country, telling that story of graft, ingenuity and pride. It hopes one day to be designated as the national ironstone mining museum. I am proud to support it in that fight, and I hope the Minister will commit to meet me to discuss it. A little further inland, in Stewart Park in Marton, stands the Captain Cook Birthplace Museum, marking the spot where Middlesbrough’s most famous son first saw the world before going on to chart much of it.”
“It is always a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Ms Lewell. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock (Jen Craft) on securing this debate on such an important issue, which matters to communities across our country. I thank her for mentioning Captain Cook, who is my constituent—give or take three centuries. I have to disagree with her on one point: I represent the neighbouring constituency to Whitby, which is, of course, a fantastic tourist destination—second only to those slightly further up the coast in my patch. One of those destinations is the village of Skinningrove, which is just on the edge of the North sea. In that village stands Land of Iron, the leading ironstone mining museum in the country. It is built on the site of the old Loftus mine, which was the first mine to open in the Cleveland area, in 1865.”
“My constituent Stephen retired almost a year ago after a long career in public service, yet he is still unable to access his pension. I appreciate that a recovery scheme is under way, but will Ministers meet me to discuss his case, because it is completely unacceptable?”
“Our primary duty at this time must be to ensure the safety of British nationals in the region—people like my constituents the Foreman family, who are trapped abroad and do not know when they will be able to come home. Their father’s medication runs out today, and they have no idea whether they will be able to obtain more drugs. What assurance will the Prime Minister provide that consular support will be there for families like my constituents, so that they get the medication they need and, ideally, come home as soon as possible?”
“This Government have announced that they are awarding over £18 million to Redcar and Cleveland borough council to help it tackle the broken children’s social care market. While that is very welcome, it is a shame that it is necessary, so will Ministers meet my council leader to discuss what further support can be put in place to make sure this is not needed in future?”
“My hon. Friend is making a passionate case for her constituent. My constituent Gill has told me how she has suffered for around 11 years as a result of the pelvic mesh scandal. She is a member of the Sling the Mesh group. Does my hon. Friend agree that, whether on sodium valproate or pelvic mesh, such groups deserve to be listened to, and that we should pay tribute to them for campaigning for these courageous women?”
“Working with Councillor David Branson, I have been pushing to get more support for our local schools to cut their bills. I am really pleased that Great British Energy funded new solar panels for Sunnyside academy in Coulby Newham last year. Will Ministers meet me to see whether we can get more support so that more of our local schools to cut their bills?”
“During last year’s election in Moldova, undercover reporters exposed a network of people who were being paid by Russia to produce disinformation content on social media platforms, including TikTok and Facebook. Does my hon. Friend agree that we are naive to assume that such things are not happening in this country, too?”
“Will the Security Minister give us an update on the work of the defending democracy taskforce to tackle the level of disinformation on social media and in our democracy?”
“I pay tribute to my constituents, including Melissa from Guisborough, who campaigns on lobular breast cancer, Georgia from Hemlington, who campaigned on cervical cancer, and Peter from Coulby Newham, who campaigns on prostate cancer. What assurances can the Minister give them that resources will be put into communities like mine to tackle health disparities and make sure that everyone, no matter where they live, can get the cancer care they deserve?”
“With the right national framework, the right investment and the confidence to try new models, we can build a children’s social care system that is stable, compassionate and worthy of the young people it serves.”
“The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill has given the Department powers to act. We can cap private providers’ profits and set up regional care co-operatives, as recommended by the MacAlister review—which the Minister, as its author, is very well acquainted with. That can improve commissioning and increase in-house and not-for-profit provision. In the Tees Valley, council leaders are exploring that idea together, to stop competing with each other, pool our buying power and shape a more stable local market to get better value for children and taxpayers. I am convinced that this is a necessary step in our region, and it sits alongside work on prevention, family help and a more stable workforce. I hope that we can look at this.”
“It has been described by the Competition and Markets Authority as a “broken” market, and it needs addressing. Private providers extract high margins while councils raid reserves and increase council tax, disproportionately in areas of high deprivation, just to keep children safe. My hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent Central (Gareth Snell) mentioned Hartlepool; across the Tees Valley we have a cluster of local authorities under extraordinary pressure in this area, and no one in this Chamber thinks that that is a sensible way to run such an important public service. There are answers; I welcome the new grant funding, the Best Start family hubs and the Families First Partnership programme. Important changes are coming forward from the Government, but we can do more to disrupt that broken market.”
“That is a big step forward, and a real credit to all the staff, the directors—previously Kathryn Boulton, and her successor Danielle Swainston—and the cabinet member responsible, councillor Bill Suthers. His leadership has been steady and co-operative, and he deserves recognition for that. It is obviously not the end of the journey, but it is a very important milestone in making sure that we serve the children we all have a duty towards. That is especially welcome given the challenging context that councils face, which we have discussed today. The Institute for Government recently found that nearly every local authority is overspending on children’s social care, largely because placements with private care providers have become much more expensive.”
“I often used to say that the toddlers who lost early intervention services in the first wave of austerity were now teenagers coming into care with complex challenges, and I think we are still seeing that today. I want to highlight the most recent Ofsted inspection in Redcar and Cleveland, which was published just this morning. In 2022, the department was rated as requiring improvement across all areas, and it was a top priority for the Labour council that came in in 2023 to turn that around. I was proud of Ofsted’s recognition of the work we were doing on that front in 2023 and, today, I am very pleased to see that Ofsted have rated Redcar and Cleveland as good, with strong practice and swift support for children and families.”
“It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Western. I congratulate the hon. Member for Woking (Mr Forster) on securing the debate, telling Sara’s story so powerfully and allowing us the space to discuss one of our most important public services. First, I pay tribute to everyone who works in children’s services across our country, but particularly in my two local authorities of Middlesbrough and Redcar and Cleveland. Before entering this place, I was privileged to be the cabinet member for children in Redcar and Cleveland. I was impressed, every single day, by the extraordinary staff working in that department—under immense pressure, as has been discussed.”
“There is a persistent issue in the Stainton and Thornton area of my constituency, which residents have raised with me. Would the Minister commit to meet me to discuss this issue?”
“I have heard from so many residents across Marton, Guisborough, Skelton, Hemlington Hall and elsewhere about issues with leasehold and fleecehold, so what message does the Minister have for my constituents that he will tackle both of those issues and protect my residents from unfair service charges?”
“Earlier this week, I met colleagues and friends in our sister party in Denmark to express our solidarity with them in the difficult context they face, and to learn from some of their successful social democratic policies that we could adopt here, including on immigration and the economy. One such policy is a change to their pensions context to ensure that those who have worked in manual labour roles are able to take voluntary early retirement schemes, while others have later retirement. Will the Government consider that and other policies that have been enacted so successfully in Denmark to ensure that we are looking after working-class people in working communities such as mine?”
“The Energy Secretary has talked about the clean industry bonus and supply chain opportunities. What commitment will he make that, for every tower and turbine that goes up, British steel is being used and Teesside jobs are being created?”
“This is an important and historic Bill about delivering justice for the families affected, so it is perfectly reasonable that we take the time to ensure that it is right. I commend the Under-Secretary of State for Justice, my hon. Friend the Member for Pontypridd (Alex Davies-Jones), who is in her place, for her tenacity in taking the Bill forward. I have tabled a set of amendments to the Bill that would extend the scope of the offence of misleading the public to apply to members of this place. Will the Leader of the House confirm that because the Bill’s consideration has been moved to Monday, there is time until Friday for Members to add their names to those amendments, should they so wish?”
“I have raised many times in this place the state of our bus services in rural east Cleveland. I am grateful to the Government for the powers and funding that have come to Tees Valley for public transport, but we are still not seeing the benefits in east Cleveland. On 20 March, Tees Valley combined authority will vote on the next stage of bus funding. Does the Minister agree that it should prioritise our rural villages, which have been left behind for far too long?”
“On Monday, a terrible fire took the life of an elderly resident in Guisborough in my constituency; my thoughts are with her family and loved ones. This is one of three serious fires in my constituency in recent weeks. Cleveland firefighters have raised with me concerns about the funding formula for fire brigades, as they believe that deprivation such as exists in our region ought to be taken into account, as happens with the funding formulas for local government and the NHS. Will the Government look at this matter to ensure that our brave firefighters are given the resources they need to tackle blazes like this one?”
“One of the first people I met when I became an MP was my constituent Janine, whose son Leon was tragically killed on a road in my constituency in 2020. I am proud that, working with her, we were able to get the speed limit changed on that road, but much more needs to happen nationally to ensure that this never happens again. As such, I welcome the road safety strategy. The strategy acknowledges that there is a relationship between deprivation and casualties, so when it is being implemented, will resources be targeted at the communities that need them most across the country?”
“I welcome the Government’s decision to increase defence spending to the highest level since the cold war, and the Teesside defence and innovation cluster stands ready to support the national interest. Will the Defence Secretary do everything possible to ensure that British steel is used across the defence industrial supply chain, so that national security is also economic security for Britain?”
“Further to the question from the hon. Member for Stockton West (Matt Vickers), I share his disappointment at the scrapping of Tees Flex, but can I gently say to him that if the Tory Tees Valley Mayor took the buses into public hands, which this Government have given him the power to do, we would not have to fight over the scraps? I ask my question on behalf of my constituents Rob from Loftus and Hilda from Skinningrove, who have raised with me their really poor experiences with contractors working on the ECO4 scheme. The Government are right to scrap the scheme, but can we secure time to discuss the quality and oversight of the work on such schemes to better serve the taxpayer and constituents like mine?”
“I think that we are a nation of George Baileys rather than a nation of Scrooges. I wish all my constituents, everyone who works here, and you, Madam Deputy Speaker, a very merry Christmas.”
“Our local councillors organised support, and pubs and village halls opened to support those residents. That story just reminds me of who we are in East Cleveland and across Teesside. As we look to Christmas, we see that spirit of community coming out across our area—in our church halls, our food banks and our warm hubs. That is what the spirit of Christmas is truly about, and it is what we on Teesside have always been about. There has been a long effort from many politicians over the years to tell a slightly different story of England—one that is about individuals working hard, pulling themselves up and putting themselves first. We have seen a shift towards an atomised England in which we lead parallel lives. Well, that is not what I have seen in Brotton in the past couple of weeks, and it is not what I see every day.”
“Two weeks ago in my constituency, there was a terrible fire on Errington Street in Brotton. I visited a couple of days later and spoke to residents and to Accent Housing, which manages two of the four affected properties. It was clear that it was a devastating fire. It affected two families with young children, and an elderly pensioner. The way the community came together afterwards to support those residents was truly remarkable. There is still some way to go. Over the road from those properties lives a young man called Steffan Bentley, who I went to school with. He took it upon himself to organise a crowdfunder. Our area is not the richest part of the world, but within a few days, it had raised over £2,000 to support those families. A whole range of other support took place, too.”
“I am a fierce defender of animal welfare— I always will be—and I believe that we are not moving quickly enough to phase out animal testing, but does the Minister agree that the pace is not what the draft regulations are principally about? They are quite tightly drafted Home Office regulations on the powers for police to respond to disruptive and illegal activity at our vaccine sites, which affects our pandemic preparedness. We in Teesside have a Fujifilm facility near Stockton— the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Stockton West will know it well—and Teessiders were very proud to produce the vaccine there during the covid pandemic. As we phase out animal testing, we must not hamper that ability—that is what today’s debate is all about.”
“In that sense, the Bill is simply a maintenance of our existing capacity, updating it to today’s values. It keeps faith with our strategic industries and the communities on which they rely and ensures that the instruments that Parliament has judged necessary are not rendered useless by neglect. It also supports jobs across every region of the country and in doing so preserves Britain’s ability to make, build and export. For those reasons, I support the Bill.”
“The Bill is not the whole answer, and the steel industry still needs a full steel strategy as well as clarity from the Government about their response to the current global trading environment. However, the Bill is a reasonable change to support the industrial strategy and ensure that assistance already sanctioned by this House in principle does not fail in practice because legal ceilings have been allowed to fossilise. I therefore support the Bill. There is a clear difference between intervention that entrenches privilege and intervention that enables productive work when private markets alone cannot bear the risk. Anyone who has spent any time at all speaking to our steel manufacturers, who are competing against heavily-backed overseas rivals, understands that distinction.”
“Without this Bill, both UK Export Finance and assistance under the Industrial Development Act 1982 would simply run into statutory limits because the law has failed to keep pace with reality. In places like Teesside, we know what happens when the tools of industrial policy are allowed to rust. We have seen world-class steelmaking exposed not because the work lacked value but because the state lacked the capacity or will to act. This Government have shown, including in their response to the challenges facing British Steel, that they will not hesitate to step in when working people’s security is on the line. This Bill is another step to ensure that that ability to act is preserved. For industries such as steel, which are foundational to our defence, energy, infrastructure and advanced manufacturing, an active state is a necessity.”
“I support the Bill. It is a common-sense adjustment of limits that were set in another economic age, so that powers that Parliament has long judged to be legitimate can carry on being exercised to support our industry. It is not in the interests of working people for arbitrary historical figures to determine whether the Government can act in the national interest today or in the future. No country can sensibly insist that its industries compete in the modern world and at the same time bind its own hands with ceilings fixed years ago when the scale of production, trade and finance were altogether smaller—and indeed when my hon. Friend the Minister was last on the Government Benches, though of course he has not aged a day since then.”
“There is a concerning tendency to view these issues as historical, when in all likelihood there are working-class children being failed by institutions right now all across our country. Will the Home Secretary confirm that the inquiry will be able to respond to new information as it comes forward? Will she confirm that the inquiry will be able to account for the behaviour of institutions as well and that actionable, clear recommendations will be included to stop the failings happening again?”
“Although I appreciate the merits of the scheme, as my hon. Friend has set out, surely the fundamental question facing us today is one of public consent. Some 4,800 of my constituents have signed this petition. Does my hon. Friend agree that such a scheme cannot be introduced without clear consent from the public?”
“The agreement in May included the restoration of the UK’s country-specific steel quota, but in October we saw new steel protection measures from the EU. Do the Government expect those quotas to be honoured after the article 28 GATT––general agreement on tariffs and trade—process, and will trade measures be set out prior to the steel strategy?”
“My constituent Caroline lost her universal credit transitional protection after her earnings fell below the administrative earnings threshold. I wrote to the Department for Work and Pensions about her case in August, but since then I have received only a holding reply. Could the Leader of the House use his good offices to ensure that I get a reply for my constituent?”
“Can I also push him specifically on social media disinformation, and what steps he can take, working with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, to address it in this country?”
“The day a British citizen died on British soil as a result of a Russian attack ought to have been a wake-up call for everyone in this country. I recognise the steps that the previous Government took and that this Government are taking to address that threat. The reality is that Russian planes and ships menace our airs and waters, their cyber-attacks have hit our NHS and councils, including Redcar and Cleveland borough council, and their propaganda has been disseminated by British politicians and online. Does the Security Minister agree that, as far as the British public are concerned, this is not a distant threat elsewhere in the world; it is here and now, affecting them today?”
“Secondly, we must uphold high standards with stronger regulation. Thirdly, we must help local outlets to innovate safely and embrace digital tools, including AI, without sacrificing trust. Fourthly, we must strengthen media literacy in schools and communities so that people can recognise misinformation when they see it. I welcome the measures in the curriculum review in that regard. Above all, we must remember that local media is not a luxury, as my hon. Friend the Member for Stirling and Strathallan (Chris Kane) said. When it collapses, civic engagement falls, scrutiny is weakened and communities lose the mirror to themselves. Tweddell wrote that his paper sought to be “the unflinching advocate of civil and religious liberty.” Let us ensure that 200 years later our local media can adapt to be the same.”
“The Washington Post reported last year that the Russian Foreign Ministry is using disinformation online to weaken western democracy. Such tactics aim to destabilise free societies, and they rely on weakened, hollowed-out information environments to succeed. That is why strong, independent and accountable local journalism matters. It provides trusted information about the places where people actually live. It can counter falsehoods with facts and create a democratic culture that is rooted in community. The challenge now is to meet audiences where they are without abandoning the standards that make local journalism trustworthy in the first place. First, we must build sustainable funding models for public interest journalism, including community and co-operative ownership, as Members have spoken about.”
“We have seen elsewhere in the country how that can lead to lapses in standards, such as the clickbait headlines recently ruled “misleading” by the Independent Press Standards Organisation. Ultimately, this is about our democracy. Just as it was for Tweddell, we now need to prepare for a wholly new age. If local media is diminished, so too is our democracy: communities become less informed, space for debate narrows and trust erodes. More than half of people now get their news from social media, and people are more exposed to misinformation than ever before. Ofcom says that 43% of UK adults recall encountering misinformation—and those are only the people who are equipped to recognise it. Meanwhile, hostile states exploit this landscape.”
“However, that determination—that refusal to be silenced—is where local journalism on Teesside began. Today, the main local news presence, Teesside Live , serves hundreds of thousands of people across our area. The journalists are dedicated, but it is fair to say they are working under immense strain. The traditional advertising model is collapsing. More than 300 local newspapers closed between 2009 and 2019. Reach, which owns Teesside Live , deserves credit for keeping the paper alive, but in doing so it has had to make cuts. We have heard about some of the decisions that Reach has made across the country recently. Reporters are expected to cover far more ground with far fewer resources, and with the shift to online, the pressure to publish quickly and at volume is intense.”
“Their retirement last year marked the end of a remarkable chapter, but their work shows what genuinely local journalism can achieve. This debate is about the future, but this tradition goes right back to our roots as a democratic society. In the 1840s, Teesside Chartists such as 19-year-old George Markham Tweddell produced radical newspapers, including his Stokesley News and Cleveland Reporter , which set out to “give the ordinary people of Cleveland a newspaper that would reflect their more liberal opinions rather than those of the landowning classes”. That was not a view shared by the Stockton Conservative association at the time, which grumbled about the “newspapers and tracts of an objectionable and mischievous tendency” that were “exclusively circulated among the lower classes”.”
“It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Dr Allin-Khan. I am grateful for the opportunity to speak on this issue, which is fundamental to our democracy. We have some fantastic local news sources in our area, from Talk of the Town in Loftus to Greater Nunthorpe News , to which I am proud to contribute a column. This debate is all about the people who make our news and the people who rely on it—people like Lynne and Steve Nicholls from Moorsholm, who for 14 years produced the excellent Coastal View & Moor News , a two-person operation delivering a free community newsletter to every home. They celebrated our area’s achievements, campaigned on our local fights and gave communities across East Cleveland a voice of our own.”
“I welcome the Government’s critical minerals strategy, but I wish the great British export of polyhalite had been included and given the recognition that it deserves as a critical mineral. As Teesside is a region with great critical mineral strength, how will the strategy benefit it and the wider supply chain?”
“I will always defend freedom of expression, but one feature I am concerned about is the proliferation of disinformation content online—particularly by hostile states—that is designed to divide us and undermine our democracy. Will the Minister comment on that, and the approach the Government will take to tackling and enforcing against it?”
“The measures that the Home Secretary has set out to restore order and fairness will be very welcome in Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, but the overriding sentiment will be that we will believe it when we see it, I am afraid—trust is so low after years of broken promises. What assurances can the Home Secretary give that she will not only talk the talk, but walk the walk?”
“I welcome Professor Francis’s work on the review, and the Government’s commitment to upholding many of her recommendations, particularly on professional autonomy and digital literacy. The review recognises the class attainment gap that is holding back so many working-class children. What steps will my right hon. Friend take to ensure that the implementation of the curriculum review focuses resources on the places that need them most?”