← LEADERSHIP TERMINAL

UK PARLIAMENT · SITTING

Brian Leishman

MP for Alloa and Grangemouth · Labour · United Kingdom

IN THEIR OWN WORDS

Fuel is being transported hundreds of miles from Stanlow in Cheshire to Scottish airports, increasing emissions and undermining our local fuel distribution industry.

TOPICAL QUESTIONS · 2026-07-16 · READ IN HANSARD

Both were launched when the Iranian Government were sat around the negotiating table. Secondly, there is the rapid unravelling of the subsequent ceasefire under Trump’s maximalist attitude, with his having stopped the military campaign which his Administration had started in the first place without agreement or approval internationally.

IRAN · 2026-07-15 · READ IN HANSARD

We must also openly denounce and separate ourselves from the Trump Administration’s dangerous and hypocritical tactics, specifically Trump’s willingness to initiate and pursue illegal wars while claiming to negotiate.

IRAN · 2026-07-15 · READ IN HANSARD

I have often quoted the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in this place, and it says: “It is now 85 seconds to midnight.” That is the closest the world has ever been to annihilation.

IRAN · 2026-07-15 · READ IN HANSARD

This could easily become an all-out full-scale war with devastating consequences, not just for the people of Iran but for the wider middle east region and, of course, for hundreds of millions more, with the economic and environmental impacts reaching across the globe.

IRAN · 2026-07-15 · READ IN HANSARD

We now witness a new cycle of rapidly worsening tit-for-tat military action, with the Islamic Republic Government targeting commercial shipping in the strait of Hormuz and US assets in neighbouring countries, and the US launching blunt-force bombardments, primarily of cities and areas along Iran’s southern coast, but also elsewhere in the…

IRAN · 2026-07-15 · READ IN HANSARD

The complete record

Every one of 423 lines we hold for Brian Leishman, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 8 of 9.

  1. We have millions shoehorned into a confined prison, hundreds of communities destroyed, thousands of people indiscriminately killed and lifesaving humanitarian aid being blocked. Will the Foreign Secretary show consistency, judge Israel on its actions and at last define what Netanyahu’s apartheid regime is doing to Palestinians as a genocide?

    TOPICAL QUESTIONS · 2025-01-14 · READ IN HANSARD

  2. I thank the Chancellor for her statement. In regard to raising money for public services, an annual wealth tax on the multimillionaire and billionaire class would certainly achieve that. However, that is a conversation for another day—on to China. My right hon. Friend and I have had discussions regarding the closure of the Grangemouth refinery, in which PetroChina—part of the Chinese state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation—is heavily involved. If the refinery closes, thousands of jobs will be lost. This is not just a constituency issue for me. It will impact all of Scotland, as our fuel and national security will be severely weakened. Did the Chancellor speak about the issue with her Chinese counterparts, and if not, will she do so?

    UK-CHINA ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL DIALOGUE · 2025-01-14 · READ IN HANSARD

  3. 3. What discussions her Department has had with the Fire Brigades Union on improving protections for firefighters against occupational diseases.

    FIREFIGHTERS: OCCUPATIONAL DISEASES · 2025-01-13 · READ IN HANSARD

  4. I thank the Minister for her answer. Exposure to toxic substances is an avoidable risk and every firefighter should have access to the resources they need to protect themselves. The dangerous nature of being a firefighter has also been amplified as the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service has had more than 1,400 frontline firefighter jobs cut since 2010, a reduction of nearly 20%. Does the Home Secretary agree that the fire service needs proper investment and a national body with legal standing to set standards on fire cover, training, equalities, and health and safety?

    FIREFIGHTERS: OCCUPATIONAL DISEASES · 2025-01-13 · READ IN HANSARD

  5. Of course, staff will do everything in their power to avoid that, but it is the stark reality of palliative and end of life care in Scotland. The hospice sector needs the Scottish Government to provide further financial support to address the shortfall in statutory funding, which is not keeping up with increased costs. That, coupled with the Scottish Government’s delivery on their promise of a new national funding framework for hospice care, is desperately needed, so that hospices can prepare for the long term.

    HOSPICE AND PALLIATIVE CARE · 2025-01-13 · READ IN HANSARD

  6. The private sector receiving an extra £2.5 billion a year in Government funding to cut waiting lists is not one of the principles—of either the NHS or the Labour party. There was an earlier back and forth between hon. Members on how to find money. That does not necessarily have to mean cuts; I suggest an annual wealth tax. In Scotland, our hospices remain under enormous strain. Annually, approximately 21,000 adults and children receive expert palliative care, end of life care and bereavement support. The heads of all 14 hospice charities in Scotland have said that their sector is in the grip of an insurmountable funding gap, and staff have spoken openly of the dire possibility of budget shortfalls reaching the point where there will be no other option but to introduce service reductions.

    HOSPICE AND PALLIATIVE CARE · 2025-01-13 · READ IN HANSARD

  7. I thank the hon. Member for Wimbledon (Mr Kohler) for securing the debate. I will challenge any politician, regardless of their rosette, when they say that the NHS is broken. It is not broken; it is just underfunded. It is starved of the resources that it needs to function at its very best. We on the Labour Benches are enormously proud of the NHS and its founding principles: the universal right to comprehensive healthcare that is free at the point of use. Money should never be the passport to the best treatment. People should get the best that modern science can offer. The NHS is our greatest creation, and it is socialism in action. As the NHS endures another hard winter, so must Labour’s founding principles. The private sector should not always be the solution.

    HOSPICE AND PALLIATIVE CARE · 2025-01-13 · READ IN HANSARD

  8. That includes a properly funded and resourced health and social care system that has the same principles and ethos as when Labour created it.

    HOSPICE AND PALLIATIVE CARE · 2025-01-13 · READ IN HANSARD

  9. The Scottish Government need to do much better with the resources they have been given. On the topic of funding, hospices also rely on financial donations, and people the length and breadth of the UK raise so much for hospices. Naturally, many loyal supporters of the hospice sector have not been immune to the bankrupt political ideology of austerity, and the ensuing cost of living crisis has seen ordinary people become poorer, with out-of-control food bills, escalating food costs and sky-high mortgages and rents. Overall, the general erosion of living standards means that donations are an expense that many people can simply no longer afford. The rebuilding of wider society cannot happen without the rebuilding of and investment in the vital public services that people rely on.

    HOSPICE AND PALLIATIVE CARE · 2025-01-13 · READ IN HANSARD

  10. Austerity and the cost of living crisis have been crises for the poorest, most vulnerable, the most disadvantaged and the working class. Thankfully, over the last two years the British Labour movement has led the fight against insatiable corporate greed and avarice. The collective power of trade unions as an effective fighting force for workers’ rights has thankfully been re-established. The fight for equality in the workplace and across society, just like the cost of living crisis, goes on.

    WORKPLACE PAY GAPS · 2025-01-07 · READ IN HANSARD

  11. The huge disparity between pay for those at the very top of industry and their staff—those who generate that wealth—has grown bigger. We cannot look at pay inequality in isolation because, in the ongoing fight for a fairer society, multiple issues must be linked. In Britain today, as well as pay inequality, millions of people are in the grip of food poverty, living in substandard housing, in a society where, overall, many are victims of tax injustice. We are still a country where wealth and power continues to be concentrated in the hands of corporations and not ordinary working people. The truth is that the cost of living crisis has not gone away, but it is not a crisis for the banks, supermarkets, utility companies or individual oligarchs who have seen their wealth explode.

    WORKPLACE PAY GAPS · 2025-01-07 · READ IN HANSARD

  12. While the typical Scottish male has seen their hourly pay increase by £1, a Scottish female has seen it increase in comparison by 74p: yet more inequality built into our society. That is sadly reflected when we look at local government workers in Scotland, approximately three quarters of whom are female. Local authority workers need and deserve a wage that genuinely reflects their worth and value to society. After 17 years of the SNP’s own brand of austerity, the Scottish Government must now invest in workers and the public services that people so drastically rely on. An article published yesterday described how a FTSE 100 boss’s hourly pay has now hit £1,298. That shows the gross inequality and unfairness that exists in workplaces.

    WORKPLACE PAY GAPS · 2025-01-07 · READ IN HANSARD

  13. If I may be permitted a little more history, the creation of the Labour party in 1900 meant that at last the working class and the trade union movement had an effective voice in Parliament. But for women, it took until 1928, when the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928 was passed, to deliver them equal voting rights with men. However, pay discrimination for women is still an issue. To focus specifically on Scotland, the Scottish Trades Union Congress, using the Office for National Statistics annual survey of hours and earnings, has shown that women in Scotland can expect to earn an incredible £3,000 a year less than men. That gender pay gap rose from 6.4% in 2023 to 8.3% in 2024, up by 30%.

    WORKPLACE PAY GAPS · 2025-01-07 · READ IN HANSARD

  14. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Roger. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Brent East (Dawn Butler) for bringing this important issue to the fore. As a declaration of interest, I am a proud member of Unite the union and the Community union. At the heart of this debate is the ongoing problem of inequality and, ultimately, who actually holds the power in our country, which has been the consistent issue that workers have faced for centuries. The truth is that our country and our economy has always been run for the benefit of the few—historically, those who owned the land and its resources, and the people who worked on it. Whoever controls that will have wealth; therefore, inequality is not a new phenomenon.

    WORKPLACE PAY GAPS · 2025-01-07 · READ IN HANSARD

  15. Thank you very much for that upgrade, Madam Deputy Speaker. In my opinion, there is no grey area to be had here: to sell arms is to be complicit. How can the Government realistically and honestly say that Britain is doing everything it can for a ceasefire and for peace when we continue to sell any arms to Israel?

    NORTHERN GAZA · 2025-01-07 · READ IN HANSARD

  16. I declare the interest that I am a Unite the union member. Communities all across Scotland rely on the Grangemouth refinery for their energy. As closure looms, Unite has given the Government a plan that will save jobs, help hit sustainable aviation fuel targets and build new green industries for the future. It is not too late to save those jobs and achieve the just transition that my community desperately needs. Will the Secretary of State agree that the plan has great potential and agree to meet Unite to see what the Government can do to achieve a truly just transition for the refinery workers and keep Scotland’s only refinery working?

    COMMUNITY ENERGY PROJECTS · 2024-12-17 · READ IN HANSARD

  17. In the framing of my question to the Secretary of State, I first wish to say that I am appalled by this announcement. I have campaigned with WASPI women, as have many parliamentary colleagues, and this is an incredible let down for them. In my opinion, WASPI women certainly do not need words of disappointment and hollow statements. What they need is justice. Does the Secretary of State not agree with that?

    WOMEN’S STATE PENSION AGE COMMUNICATION: PHSO REPORT · 2024-12-17 · READ IN HANSARD

  18. Section 127 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 bans prison officers from taking industrial action and limits trade unions’ ability to protect prison officers from attacks on their terms and conditions and wages. Thankfully, these fundamental trade union rights have been reinstated for prison officers in Scotland. Does the Secretary of State agree that it is time for section 127 to change so that workers’ rights are fully restored for prison officers in the rest of the UK?

    TOPICAL QUESTIONS · 2024-12-10 · READ IN HANSARD

  19. I declare an interest: I am a member of Unite the Union. The Grangemouth refinery costs £100 million a year to run, and its economic contribution to Scotland exceeds £400 million per annum. Unite has a credible plan to save the refinery and prevent thousands of job losses. Will the Treasury consider the plan, and meet me, Unite and the refinery owners to discuss its viability and Government intervention for the public good?

    MANAGEMENT OF PUBLIC FINANCES · 2024-12-03 · READ IN HANSARD

  20. Our fire service and our working-class communities across the country need to be invested in, not stripped bare, hollowed out and failed by the state.

    GRENFELL TOWER INQUIRY · 2024-12-02 · READ IN HANSARD

  21. In reality, there has been a lack of urgency around implementing lifesaving changes so far. The inquiry must change things. Time is of the essence, because how many Lakanal Houses or Grenfell Towers must there be before things really do change? We can all talk in sombre tones in the Chamber, but why are people still going to their beds surrounded by flammable cladding tonight? Grenfell survivors deserve justice, and firefighters and every community across the country deserve a properly funded fire service with the equipment they need to save lives and keep themselves as safe as possible. For example, firefighters deserve proper decontamination units to reduce their risk of getting cancer while at call-outs. Funding, rules and regulations do save lives.

    GRENFELL TOWER INQUIRY · 2024-12-02 · READ IN HANSARD

  22. I might only be five months in as an MP, but I have heard every Government promise to cut red tape. The thing is, regulations keep people safe in their homes and in the workplace. There are organisations and people who should have faced a trial over Grenfell by now. The criminal process should have happened simultaneously with the inquiry. There is plenty of evidence—plenty of proof—but the survivors of Grenfell are still waiting for action and justice. When we look at Orgreave, Hillsborough, infected blood, the Women Against State Pension Inequality, Horizon and Grenfell, we see that the list of injustices that impact working-class communities goes on and on. These are shared struggles, because Grenfell is not about cladding. Grenfell is about how the state has repeatedly treated the working class with utter disdain and contempt.

    GRENFELL TOWER INQUIRY · 2024-12-02 · READ IN HANSARD

  23. I thank the Foreign Secretary for his answer. Alaa Abd el-Fattah’s mother, Laila Soueif, is in the Gallery today on the 58th day of her hunger strike in protest at the continued imprisonment of her son, a British citizen, whose prison sentence in Egypt ended in September. I am sure that the Foreign Secretary feels the same as me and understands that Laila wants to know that her Government are doing everything they can to bring her son home. Will the Foreign Secretary guarantee that the UK Government will put a hold on any new economic or financial partnerships with Egypt unless and until British national Alaa Abd el-Fattah is freed?

    RELEASE OF ALAA ABD EL-FATTAH · 2024-11-26 · READ IN HANSARD

  24. The Government cannot afford to tinker around the edges when it comes to what we do—we must transform society. The welfare system, as has been mentioned, needs to be changed. Universal credit is too low. People cannot afford the basic essentials needed merely to get by and to meet their basic needs for food, heating, toiletry and accommodation costs. The decline of local councils is well documented. It is local councils that provide vital public services. England has seen local councils declare bankruptcy, and that is a realistic possibility for Scottish local authorities. Bankruptcy is the result of councils eventually buckling under the strain of rising costs and funding cuts. Now is not the time for the Government to have limited ambition.

    FOOD BANKS · 2024-11-19 · READ IN HANSARD

  25. This was neatly labelled as the cost of living crisis, but really it was a continuation of the degradation of working-class people. To show how things have changed, I am 42 and when I was at school, if there was a classmate who was poor, it was probably because mum and dad did not work. Nowadays, we have the creation of a new strand of society—the in-work poor. That is a situation where both mum and dad work full-time jobs but still do not have enough to put food on the table. The scale of the cost of living crisis cannot be denied—rocketing energy bills, increased food costs, wage suppression and stagnation and out-of-control inflation. Austerity and the cost of living crisis have been crises for the poorest, most vulnerable and most disadvantaged and for the working class. It is little wonder that food bank usage is what it is.

    FOOD BANKS · 2024-11-19 · READ IN HANSARD

  26. I thank the hon. Member for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East (Seamus Logan) for securing this vital debate. Austerity is, of course, ideologically driven. It was, in the first instance, an assault on the most vulnerable and the poorest in society. As poverty grew, we saw a decade in which the wealthiest in society accelerated away from everyone else as they enjoyed tax cuts. Obviously, gross inequality followed. Areas such as my constituency have seen industry leave and low-wage insecure employment become the norm, with rising poverty and suicide rates, and decreasing life expectancy. Austerity has ripped the soul out of Britain, and has naturally increased food bank usage. After this ideological assault on the poorest and most vulnerable, a new target was needed.

    FOOD BANKS · 2024-11-19 · READ IN HANSARD

  27. That means a free Palestine that is not an open-air prison shoehorned into a confined area, but a real nation with its people free of the relentless Nakba and persecution that they have been the victim of for generations.

    OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES: HUMANITARIAN SITUATION · 2024-11-19 · READ IN HANSARD

  28. The international community, and especially the UK and the US in their November and December United Nations Security Council presidencies, must do more, and a lot more than the timid condemnation of the Israeli Government’s belligerent and truculent actions, which have inflicted death and destruction. We must let the world see just how special a relationship we really have by stopping all arms sales to Israel, achieving the release of all hostages, brokering an end to the killing with a lasting ceasefire, making sure that lifesaving humanitarian aid reaches those people in dire need, and by ensuring a safe Israel alongside a rebuilt, prosperous and free Palestine.

    OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES: HUMANITARIAN SITUATION · 2024-11-19 · READ IN HANSARD

  29. It is part of the daily struggle of the colonised Palestinian people. Ilan Pappé, the Israeli historian, described it perfectly when he said, “Palestine’s blood never dried.” The seizing of land and possessions, the violence, the refusal to recognise culture and basic human rights, the imprisonment, the apartheid and now the blocking of water, food, medicine and, as my right hon. Friend the Member for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell) mentioned, even a fire engine donated by the Fire Brigades Union Scotland to the people of Gaza when they need it most—these are all examples of settler colonialism that sees removal of the local population through ethnic cleansing and a genocide.

    OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES: HUMANITARIAN SITUATION · 2024-11-19 · READ IN HANSARD

  30. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Roger. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow West (Patricia Ferguson) for securing this vital debate. The current humanitarian situation in Palestine needs to be analysed through a much wider historical lens, because the intense suffering being felt by Palestinians began many decades ago. The term “Nakba” translates from Arabic as “the catastrophe”, and it is a catastrophe that is felt by Palestinians as a collective trauma. The Nakba in 1948 led to approximately 750,000 people, half of Palestine’s predominantly Arab population, being expelled from their homes and having to flee their communities. Displacement is not a new occurrence for Palestinians. From the 1940s to the present day, ethnic cleansing has been continuous.

    OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES: HUMANITARIAN SITUATION · 2024-11-19 · READ IN HANSARD

  31. The other place does not just have a geographical imbalance, but a gender one—none of which I care for. I believe that there should be an upper Chamber. In Scotland, we have seen some ill-thought-out political policy that has been financially costly. An upper Chamber would likely have prevented that with the benefit of added scrutiny. Like British society, the other place needs transformational change. What the Government propose is only a step in the right direction to what I, as a Labour party member, will continue to campaign for from within the party, which is ultimately to change the other place into an elected Chamber where class and privilege are not the entry requirements, but where talent and ability are what get you there.

    HOUSE OF LORDS (HEREDITARY PEERS) BILL · 2024-11-12 · READ IN HANSARD

  32. For the record, when we talk about more reform, it is with a lower case “r”. For many people, the other place in its current format embodies what Britain really should not be: it is undemocratic, it is unelected and—to touch on this only very lightly—it has had its fair share of controversial appointments. There is a suggestion of nepotism here and a dash of financial scandal there, not to mention a sprinkling of oligarchy. Therefore, it represents what a classist society of haves and have-nots can produce. As we know, some Members are there on a hereditary basis, and some are there on the whim and wishes of political leaders who, of course, have their own political motives for having them in position. It is also clear that the different regions that make up the United Kingdom do not have fair representation.

    HOUSE OF LORDS (HEREDITARY PEERS) BILL · 2024-11-12 · READ IN HANSARD

  33. Although this is not a problem of this Government’s making—the previous UK Tory Government and the current SNP Scottish Government have long since turned their backs on the refinery, and it was previous UK Ministers and Scottish Cabinet Secretaries who got us into this mess—make no mistake, it is our mess to clean up now.

    GREAT BRITISH ENERGY BILL · 2024-10-29 · READ IN HANSARD

  34. Stopping refining does not help Scotland’s fuel or national security. There can be no doubt that my constituency will be much weaker for losing the refinery—job losses will run into the thousands. There can also be no doubt that Scotland will be weaker for losing the refinery. After all, Scottish Enterprise has reported that the economic contribution of the Grangemouth refinery is north of £400 million. Mark my words, stopping refining at Grangemouth and closing Finnart will have monumental consequences for all of Scotland. It will not take long for the pumps on forecourts all over the country to be impacted, and so too the public.

    GREAT BRITISH ENERGY BILL · 2024-10-29 · READ IN HANSARD

  35. Since coming to this place, I have heard it said—indeed, I have said—that a nation’s energy security is linked to its national security. GB Energy should eventually help with both those things and create thousands of skilled jobs. That is excellent. However, what about the jobs of the Grangemouth refinery workers, the same workers who are right now crucial to Scotland’s energy security, and therefore to Scotland’s national security? Those workers are nearing the end of their 45-day consultation process, during which the focus should be on how jobs can be saved and maintained for those workers. Recent comments include, “These workers will be okay and it will all be fine because they’ll get employment elsewhere.” If the workers have to leave, that will not help my community.

    GREAT BRITISH ENERGY BILL · 2024-10-29 · READ IN HANSARD

  36. Before I make my contribution, I apologise to you, Madam Deputy Speaker, and to the House for failing to mention during the Employment Rights Bill debate last week the financial donations made to me by Unite the Union of £7,500, and by the Communication Workers Union of £3,500. I appreciate that being a first time MP is no excuse, and I extend my sincere apologies to you and to the House. On that note, I refer to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests, where it also says that I am a member of Unite the Union, which I will refer to later in my remarks. There is so much to like in the GB Energy Bill: a publicly owned clean energy company, the creation of skilled jobs, reindustrialising communities and cutting household bills. It is a transformative and bold idea, which is to be applauded and to be proud of.

    GREAT BRITISH ENERGY BILL · 2024-10-29 · READ IN HANSARD

  37. On the face of it, I share the same reservations as many veterans, as replacing ASAP with a call centre could be a potentially fatal reduction in service provision, and I urge the RBL to reconsider. Over the last 14 years, this country has seen what happens when austerity takes hold and vital services are sacrificed. Everyone deserves better, especially our veterans.

    REMEMBRANCE AND VETERANS · 2024-10-28 · READ IN HANSARD

  38. Veterans of our armed forces deserve not just our respect and gratitude, but our practical and meaningful help as they seek to find a place in civilian life. I commend organisations such as the Falkirk Veterans and the Wee County Veterans from Clackmannanshire. The bond among our military personnel extends well beyond service, and veterans’ groups such as those in my constituency play a phenomenal role in so many ways. There is currently a difference in opinion between the Royal British Legion and many in the veterans community as to the consequences of cutting the Armed Services Advice Project. Personally, I feel that the veterans have legitimate concerns about the removal of ASAP: some have told me that an in-person interaction with an ASAP adviser was the difference between life and death.

    REMEMBRANCE AND VETERANS · 2024-10-28 · READ IN HANSARD

  39. Over in Grangemouth, what was planned to be the country’s largest commercial airfield became a fighter base to defend against bombing raids. Once the fear of airstrikes had subsided, it was designated as a training centre for daring young pilots to learn to fly the iconic Spitfire. More than 60 young men from all over Britain and the Commonwealth, as well as from Poland, Holland and what was then Czechoslovakia, died as student pilots, along with some 20 ground crew who also paid the ultimate price while serving there. Today, a replica Spitfire on Bo’ness Road reminds us of their sacrifice, with thanks to the members of the 1333 Grangemouth air cadet squadron for their efforts in pushing for that memorial more than a decade ago.

    REMEMBRANCE AND VETERANS · 2024-10-28 · READ IN HANSARD

  40. It is an honour to be given an opportunity to speak this evening as we look ahead to this year’s remembrance events across the country, and as we recognise the service and courage of the exceptional men and women who helped safeguard our values and freedom. My contribution seeks to commemorate some of the local effort from my constituency. Perhaps the biggest contribution of Alloa to the D-day landings took place at the now gone McLeod and Sons shipyard. The workers there laboured day and night to refit ships for war, including around 130 of the tank landing craft for Operation Neptune. Indeed, a message from their lordships at the Admiralty was sent to McLeod and Sons after the war, congratulating the entire workforce on their “magnificent effort during hostilities”.

    REMEMBRANCE AND VETERANS · 2024-10-28 · READ IN HANSARD

  41. It is also right that prison officers in the rest of the UK achieve parity with Scottish prison officers: they too should have a fundamental right to withdraw their labour.

    EMPLOYMENT RIGHTS BILL · 2024-10-21 · READ IN HANSARD

  42. Prison officers were not exempted from the Conservative Government’s raising of the public sector pension age to 68, which, given the physical nature of the day-to-day work, is obviously unfair, unrealistic and, of course, incredibly dangerous. Since that wealth of experience has left, violence directed at both officers and prisoners has escalated. The prison system is another mess that this Government have inherited and must now sort. Prison officers should have the right to retire at 60 or after 30 years’ service: it is just the right thing to do for employees. No one should feel like a disposable commodity that is there to be exploited and then discarded when every last ounce of work has been wrung out of them.

    EMPLOYMENT RIGHTS BILL · 2024-10-21 · READ IN HANSARD

  43. Section 127 has also limited trade unions’ ability to protect prison officers from wage stagnation and attacks on their terms and conditions, which has led to a recruitment and retention crisis and, naturally, to low morale. As in professions such as nursing, the police, the fire brigades and teaching, it is often the camaraderie of colleagues on the shift that keeps things going in a job that provides a vital public service that has been disgracefully underfunded. The state of our prisons is well documented. Ruthless Conservative austerity has hammered the service. More than a quarter of prison officers have left since 2012.

    EMPLOYMENT RIGHTS BILL · 2024-10-21 · READ IN HANSARD

  44. Let me declare first that I am a proud member of both Unite the Union and the Community trade union, and secondly that I am even prouder that the Bill will positively transform thousands of lives across the Clackmannanshire and Falkirk council areas that I serve in this place. I thank my right hon. Friend the Member for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell) and my hon. Friend the Member for Leeds East (Richard Burgon) for their comments about prison officers. Under section 127 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, prison officers were banned from taking industrial action. Correctly, the Scottish Parliament restored the right to strike in 2015, but today prison officers in the rest of the United Kingdom find themselves in a poorer position than their Scottish counterparts, in that they are not allowed to withdraw their labour.

    EMPLOYMENT RIGHTS BILL · 2024-10-21 · READ IN HANSARD

  45. I was happy to hear the Secretary of State’s words last week when he said that industries should not die, and the Government investment in Merseyside and Teesside is most welcome. Can he commit to the same level of bold and transformative Government action to retain the Grangemouth refinery workers’ jobs, as they face the prospect of redundancies and their industry dying?

    CARBON CAPTURE, USAGE AND STORAGE · 2024-10-07 · READ IN HANSARD

  46. Sustainable aviation fuels, low-carbon hydrogen and clean e-fuels—let us not rule anything out of the equation for the Grangemouth site. But we must act quickly, because time is of the essence. If we are to have a truly just transition, one that looks after workers and their communities, we must move with purpose and speed on determining the industrial future of the Grangemouth site. And Grangemouth must continue refining until these new energies are ready. There has been an environmental need for a green industrial revolution for a long time, and it has been discussed for ages, but now we see the social need for a transition to clean energy, and the need for that has been incredibly accelerated today.

    SIR DAVID AMESS ADJOURNMENT DEBATE · 2024-09-12 · READ IN HANSARD

  47. I know how hard the Secretary of State has worked during the intensive discussions with the refinery owners to secure tailored support for the workers who are impacted and, along with his counterpart in the Scottish Government, to devise a plan that will help to secure Grangemouth’s industrial future and protect the workforce. I thank them both for showing what can be achieved when both Governments work together, but it is just a start. This Labour Government have done more on this issue in eight weeks than the Conservative Government did in 14 years. Today’s news, although shocking, has been coming. Truthfully, Project Willow or the like should have been done and delivered years ago. The workers and the Grangemouth community need action that leads to us creating something truly transformative and world leading at Grangemouth.

    SIR DAVID AMESS ADJOURNMENT DEBATE · 2024-09-12 · READ IN HANSARD

  48. The shops, the pubs, the restaurants, the hotels, the cafés, the bed and breakfasts and the snack vans would all suffer if the refinery were to close. As a Government, we must do everything we can. I welcome the steps that the Secretary of State and his team have taken with the announcement of £20 million of funding to support the community and its workers by investing in local energy projects to create new growth for Grangemouth. I have previously spoken positively about Project Willow and the importance of it being a joint commitment between both Governments to determine what the industrial future of Grangemouth will be, because both the UK Government and the Scottish Government will need to work together. The new working relationship that this Labour Government have with the Scottish Government has already shown its worth.

    SIR DAVID AMESS ADJOURNMENT DEBATE · 2024-09-12 · READ IN HANSARD

  49. That is what should happen, and nothing will convince me otherwise. Oil will still be part of the energy mix for a while yet, and the refinery workers know that. They also know that oil will not last forever. They know that cleaner industries must come, and they tell me that they want to be part of a new green industrial revolution. They have so many of the skills that will be required for us to achieve net zero and make Britain a clean energy superpower, but if there is a gap between refining stopping next year and these new industries being ready, the truth is that the workforce will be gone. Workers cannot hang around and wait, because mortgages need to be paid and families need to be fed. Jobs must be found or talent will leave. The impact on the local community and the local economy would be enormous.

    SIR DAVID AMESS ADJOURNMENT DEBATE · 2024-09-12 · READ IN HANSARD

  50. Over the past few months, the campaign to keep Grangemouth working has spread the message of extending the life of the refinery, investing in the workforce and making sure there is no gap that would see workers lose their jobs. I have stood in solidarity with the refinery workers, and I will continue to do so. Unite the union has said that it does not accept that the future of the refinery “should have been left to the whim and avarice of shareholders.” I completely agree. Energy security is intrinsically linked to national security, and for both to be in the hands of a foreign Government and private capital is inherently wrong, not to mention utterly reckless. The primary ideal of the Keep Grangemouth Working campaign is to extend the life of the refinery so that a truly just transition can be achieved.

    SIR DAVID AMESS ADJOURNMENT DEBATE · 2024-09-12 · READ IN HANSARD