Mr Luke Charters
MP for York Outer · Labour · United Kingdom
“When someone says, “It’s gone reyt,” you know it has gone properly well. Many of these words carry real history: “laiking”, “beck” and “fells” are all rooted in Old Norse. Long before Westminster caught up with the north, we were already shaping a language of our own.”
“Research shows that nearly a third of university students have been mocked because of their accent, and almost half of workers say that they face jokes or jibes about the way that they speak in workplace settings—including me, in my experience at the Bank of England. I felt it when I started doing national media as an MP, too.”
“Like many colleagues here today, I was not elected because I sounded polished; I was elected through hard graft and to represent the people who sent me here. I have done my best, though, to get a few Yorkshire phrases into Hansard , because that is how my constituents speak.”
“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Roger. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Leigh and Atherton (Jo Platt) on securing today’s debate.”
“I really appreciate that, and those producers know who they are. I am especially grateful to broadcasters such as Matt Chorley, who is helping to challenge some of the assumptions in national broadcasting and to get regional accents on air.”
“I do not want my two boys, Robin and Louis, to grow up believing that if they want to pass an interview or land a graduate job, the first thing that they have to do is to change how they speak. When a young person starts believing that they have to hide or change their accent, it chips away at their confidence.”
The complete record
Every one of 414 lines we hold for Mr Luke Charters, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 2 of 9.
“Working with the charity StepChange, we have seen that some councils are too often moving too quickly towards bailiff enforcement action. Would the Minister consider issuing best practice to councils to ensure that vulnerable households are supported instead of too often being pushed into further financial misery by overly aggressive enforcement action?”
“While the hon. Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage) talks down our Royal Navy, I think the House is today united in praising it for its work to deter Russian activity at deep sea. Does my hon. and gallant Friend agree that, through Atlantic Bastion and the emerging defence SMEs, defence companies should get the finance they need to be able to thrive and protect our deep-sea assets?”
“One of my constituents, Olivia, is battling for her son to stay in mainstream education, alongside her son’s twin, who is an anchor for him. Does my hon. Friend agree with me that we must ensure that ISPs are there quickly to avoid some of the distress of the process as parents battle to keep their children in mainstream settings?”
“BBC News Ukraine recently published an outstanding report on the demand for drone interceptors, such as the British-made Octopus and the Wild Hornets Sting drone. Will the Government update the House on what work they are doing to bolster UK and Ukrainian drone interceptor production so that these devices can be in the skies to defend against Shahed drones, which are threatening the interests of Britain and Gulf partners alike?”
“The hon. Gentleman is making some impassioned points about heating oil. I have a simple question for him: does he believe that the war in Iran increases the cost of heating oil or not, and will he reject the escalation that the Leader of the Opposition has called for in entering that war in the first place?”
“The hon. Gentleman is right to draw attention to that 5p fuel duty cut at the height of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, but it was too slow. Will he remind the House of the level that diesel had got to at the pump when the 5p cut came in? Was it two quid? It was far too late, wasn’t it?”
“I wonder whether the hon. Gentleman has read the IFS report evaluating his party’s proposal. It states that the proposal would do zilch, nada, zero when it comes to monthly repayments, and the IFS shows that lower and middle earners would not benefit at all. It is a plan for higher earners, isn’t it?”
“I am on plan 2, and I had a targeted maintenance grant. I will ask the hon. Member a simple question: does he think it is a fairer system to have targeted maintenance grants in it—yes or no?”
“The hon. Gentleman referenced the IFS report. He will know that it has costed his proposals and that for the plan 2 cohort there would be a capital cost of £30 billion to £40 billion—I believe that could be a gaping hole. It is a seriously uncosted policy, is it not?”
“Apprenticeship starts fell under the last Government, largely driven by the reduced uptake from SMEs, so today’s SME incentive is a game-changer. Can the Minister confirm that that incentive can be stacked with other incentives—for example, when hiring a care leaver—and will he send a message from the Dispatch Box to York employers that they should take on apprentices and provide the opportunity of a lifetime?”
“I welcome my right hon. Friend’s comments about the defence investment plan, and his leadership on increased defence spending. Does he agree that a defence finance and investment strategy is key to unlocking the capital that firms across the supply chain need, if they are to deliver for the DIP? Will he therefore update the House on when the DFIS will be published?”
“Before entering the House, I worked in tech building products to streamline ID checks, improving user interface and user experience in the process. Does my right hon. Friend agree that that will be the case with a digital ID? Does he further agree that making funded hours of childcare more accessible will be an important use case to explore?”
“Many of my constituents stranded in the middle east have been left out of pocket because of their travel insurance. In my view as a former regulator, those policies have overly broad exclusion terms. Will my right hon. Friend update the House on her meetings with the insurance sector, the Financial Conduct Authority and consumer groups, and will the City Minister meet me to discuss this issue?”
“As my constituents head off to beaches in Benidorm, open-top buses in Barça and city breaks in Copenhagen over Easter, they will be sending holiday snaps and making calls home to their families. Will the Minister update the House on what discussions he has had with his European counterparts on cutting roaming charges for UK travellers, which came back to bite Brits thanks to the Tories’ botched Brexit?”
“I recently visited the Defence Intelligence Academy with the armed forces parliamentary scheme and saw at first hand that our intelligence services are the best in the business. The Government should be praised for increasing the single intelligence account in real terms. Will he commit to keeping the SIA under review, given the increasing threats around political interference, and the threat of state-sponsored terrorism from Iran?”
“I am on plan 2, which is a dog’s dinner of a system. Like me, is my hon. Friend not surprised that the architects of this Frankenstein’s mess are not even here for the debate? Our generation is picking up the cost of their mess.”
“When kids are young, we never get that time back, and every hour counts. Smartphones, though, are a feat of human engineering and have been deliberately designed to take our attention, quietly and relentlessly. I had to make a deliberate change for my two boys: cutting my screen time down, choosing to be on the floor building Brio—even making a Duplo Parliament—rather than being half present and half scrolling. Present fatherhood starts with all of us putting the phone down.”
“I beg to move, That this House has considered the impact of screen time on young children. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Jeremy; thank you for your time this morning. I have always said that I am a dad first and an MP second. My son Robin is three; he is kind, and he is happiest when he is outside playing. I am proud of him every single day. My youngest, Louis, is seven months old, and he is already curious about the world, watching and taking everything in. When this job takes me away from them, it hurts. One thing is very clear: when I am at home, I need to be a properly present dad. I want to be honest with the House: there were weeks when my phone told me I was spending more than six hours a day on it. Even on weekends, when family time should be protected, it was four or five hours.”
“Parents do need a bit of support when it comes to guidance and advice around what is excessive, particularly when it comes to unsupervised screen time.”
“Through his brand, Zactiv, he is sending a clear message to children: if you want to grow up happy and healthy, stop scrolling and keep it IRL.”
“Thank you, Sir Jeremy. Briefly, my hon. Friend is a fantastic mum herself and an advocate for the great parents of Britain. Parents need advice about unsupervised screen time, particularly on smartphones, which is totally different from sitting down at a laptop doing homework. I will touch on adaptive technologies later. Every time a child looks up and finds a parent looking down at a phone, a lesson is quietly taught about what deserves their attention. That truth was reinforced when I spoke to Zack George, known to many as Steel from “Gladiators” and now an ambassador for Smartphone Free Childhood. Zack’s message to young people is stark and powerful: “Don’t let your phone steal your power.” He has dedicated his life to inspiring kids and talked with thousands of schoolchildren in more than 400 school visits.”
“Members to take away: not all screen time is created equal. Used well and supervised, technology can support learning—for a child with dyslexia, speech-to-text software can remove barriers and build confidence—but unsupervised access to personal smartphones and tablets is entirely different.”
“I thank my hon. Friend for citing that study. We can draw real lessons from what is happening in Australia. Hon. Members may not be aware that some bookshops in Australia are seeing a resurgence from new young readers who are putting their phones down in favour of novels. I have recently watched content from Dr Rangan Chatterjee, who has consistently warned about the dangers of excessive screen time, and in preparation for this speech I also gathered insights from the Youth Sport Trust and BookTrust. Each of those voices highlights similar concerns. Staying with voices from the education sector, I spoke with teacher Lee Parkinson, aka Mr P—my wife, a primary school teacher herself, can often be seen scrolling through his content on Instagram. He made a really important point that I would like all hon.”
“I thank the hon. Member for sharing his personal experience with us. I completely agree that young people need support in their real life, whether through youth services or physical activity.”
“I thank my hon. Friend for all the work he is doing through the Labour group for men and boys. It is refreshing that this Government, and particularly the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, are carefully considering this with a lot of deep thought. The consultation will not look just for one silver bullet; it will look at a variety of options. Children are spending hours a day on platforms designed to maximise engagement and deliver constant dopamine hits through short-form video content and infinite scroll loops. The evidence increasingly shows that that is affecting attention, behaviour in schools, sleep and emotional regulation.”
“They made the point that screen time can range from something as harmless as using Google Maps to find the local library, to accessing inappropriate material. To go back to the words of Mr P, not all screen time is created equal. On this point, it feels timely to mention that I am pleased the Government have this week launched a new campaign, “You Won’t Know until You Ask”, to address harmful content. That follows the finding from YouGov that half of British parents admit to never speaking to their children about toxic content. Encouraging parents to sit down with their children and talk about online harms helps to break down barriers. It is a healthy step in the right direction.”
“Ofcom data from 2024 reveals that one third of five to seven-year-olds are using social media without any supervision. That scares the living daylights out of me as a parent. Such data is stark, but it is just part of the story. Somewhat ironically, I turned to social media to ask my constituents about their own experiences with their young children, and they expressed concern about more than the quantity of screen time that children have. Parents responded that they were even more worried about the type of content to which children are exposed. One teacher shared with me feedback from NASUWT’s “Better Deal on Behaviour” report, with a year 1 teacher describing how children were beginning to mimic inappropriate behaviour that they had seen online, despite being far too young to understand it. Another raised the idea of digital diets.”
“I wish my hon. Friend’s daughter a happy birthday and thank her for the work she is doing as a paediatric nurse. “Cocomelon” has been described as “visual fentanyl” for young children. What is much more appropriate, particularly at a younger age, is more hand-drawn types of content, like “Peppa Pig”. Perhaps we all ought to go for a bit more Peppa and a bit less JJ. You need not take my word for it, Sir Jeremy: research published by the Department for Education showed that nearly 98% of children under the age of two engage with screens every day. A University College London study in 2026 has found that toddlers now average about two hours of screen time daily—far more than my little lad is allowed. Analysis from the Centre for Social Justice estimates that, very sadly, nearly 800,000 under-fives are now using social media.”
“As children grow older, they absorb the behaviours they see all around them, and if adults are constantly on their phones, children will almost absorb that by osmosis. The more parents are aware of that from the start, the better the outcomes can be.”
“I think, particularly when it comes to things like YouTube shorts, that Members of this House would never want to see a ban on YouTube, but when it comes to the user experience on those platforms, there should be things like firebreaks or rest breaks—akin to when we drive—to try to give children a pause so that they do not end up in an infinite scroll loop. Actually, I think we should view screen time as a public health issue, not just a parenting dilemma. Health visitors meet parents at a very early stage in a child’s life. I think they should be able to talk explicitly about screen time to parents from the very start. Early guidance at that point is critical, as habits form early.”
“I thank the hon. Member for making that eloquent point. I would say that we should learn the lessons from Australia. Back in 2015, it established the eSafety Commissioner, whose work on screen time was all about linking parents and children together as part of a collective dialogue. I think we must keep young people safe by looking at age-appropriate digital spaces. So often the debate is focused on banning social media, but we would never talk about banning young people from driving; we talk about an age-appropriate limit, so that they can start driving at the age of 17.”
“I know that she cares deeply about this matter and is considering it carefully. I thank hon. Members for joining this debate today and I hope that their points will also be considered in the consultation.”
“To conclude, I am deeply concerned about children becoming trapped in a system that they did not design. Children did not build this digital world—it was created by forces far beyond their control—yet they are being drawn deliberately and persistently into addictive digital environments long before they have the tools to recognise or resist them. If we fail to act, it will be children who live with the consequences, not those who designed the system. Yesterday, I met the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology to talk about the Government’s forthcoming consultation. I really welcomed her saying that many of the issues I have raised today, regarding how we prevent excessive and unsupervised screen time harming young children, will be considered.”
“I like to think of myself as one of the most pro-tech MPs in this place, given my previous career. However, as the youngest parent in Parliament and a proud dad, I believe that we owe it to families to take the more harmful types of screen time seriously. After all, childhood only happens once, and if we are honest with ourselves, too much of it is now unfolding behind a screen. At the heart of the issue is balance, because not all screen time is created equal. There is nothing wrong with children using BBC Bitesize on an iPad, learning a language on Duolingo, or even watching an episode of “Bluey”, which, as some Members will know, has an incredibly catchy theme tune. There is, of course, a balance to be struck—and if we are honest, this epidemic is affecting not just children, but adults.”
“We should all make better use of the things that are set by schools and already out there. Events such as sports days and World Book Days are perfect opportunities to get kids outdoors, active and reading together. That all fits with the sentiment of Zack George, aka Steel, that I referred to earlier: the less time scrolling and more time socialising, the better. In Australia, as I touched on earlier, bookshops are welcoming more young readers, libraries are seeing a renewed interest and community sports clubs are attracting younger members in record numbers. These are the positive alternatives that we must build. Of course, none of this is as simple or straightforward as it might seem, but I am very glad that we are having a conversation about it.”
“Although technology can absolutely be a force for good, transparency is essential so that parents can be clear about how screens are being used in school and can reinforce consistent habits at home. We cannot have a situation where the approach to screens at school is different from at home. When schools and families are aligned, children will develop clearer boundaries and healthier habits online. The reality is that we cannot simply say, “Less smartphone screen time” and leave it at that; we also have to create positive and fulfilling alternatives. My son Robin loves charging through what we call the swamp on his balance bike, usually straight through the muddiest bit and always at maximum speed. As a parent, those magical moments with muddy knees, fresh air and real laughter are more precious than an hour in front of the telly.”
“I thank my hon. Friend for making that excellent point. I have spoken openly in this House about my own mental health struggles in the past. When it comes to AI tools in particular, we must ensure that they point people to the right and proper advice that is specific to the UK and the NHS, and to charities such as Samaritans. I also believe that schools should be transparent with parents about the nature of screen use in the classroom. It is a welcome move that, thanks to the Government, Ofsted will check schools’ mobile phone policies during every inspection, with schools expected to be phone-free by default. Many schools already have thoughtful policies on tablet and laptop use, too.”
“I will never forget my mum renting a house in York with ancient heating, freezing rooms and an evil prepayment meter that drained her finances. In York, over a third of fuel-poor households rent privately. What is the Secretary of State doing to ensure that the warm home discount reaches them and ends the unfair penalty paid by many simply for renting?”
“I thank my right hon. Friend for all that he is doing to overhaul standards in public life, following the absolute bin fire that the Conservative party left behind. Peter Mandelson is reportedly in receipt of a severance payment. As a former regulator, I know that clawback is an important tool. If possible, Peter Mandelson should be forced to pay back every single penny to the British people. Does my right hon. Friend agree?”
“Q5. An EU agrifood deal would boost exports and cut supermarket prices. The CBI backs it, and according to Best for Britain’s polling, 62% of the public do, but—surprise, surprise!—Reform opposes it. I thought the hon. Member for Ashfield (Lee Anderson) wanted 30p food. Does the Prime Minister agree that while some on the Opposition Benches prefer to have temper tantrums at Brussels, this Labour Government must build closer ties with Europe to cut the price of the weekly shop?”
“I heard that a significant proportion of US GDP growth comes from the DARPA investments of the 1980s—of course, that agency invented the internet, the smartphone and so many other underlying technologies. Let us learn from the leadership role of DARPA.”
“We cannot just look at incremental fixes. I do not want to take up too much time on that, but there is a role for multilateral development finance. As the report I wrote sets out, private capital alone is not filling the gap, particularly for SMEs in the dual-use space, and where finance does flow, it can be short term. I do not want to get into the details, but we need to make sure that the institutions of the state, be that the NSSIF—the national security strategic investment fund, an arm’s length body that is part of the British Business Bank—or the National Wealth Fund or UK Defence Innovation, sing together and make sure that their finance comes into innovative technologies. We need to learn the lessons from the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency in the US.”
“What is missing is a shared understanding across Government, regulators and financial institutions that defence, when conducted lawfully, in line with UN weapons conventions and in support of democratic security, is not a problem but a public good to be enabled. The hon. Member for Windsor touched on the theme of their being nothing more ethical than lending to defence companies that are equipping our Ukrainian friends. Other countries around the world understand that. The US has been much more explicit in aligning its financial system with its national security priorities, particularly in terms of single-use and lethal military equipment. What needs to change? There is an overwhelming case for a multilateral defence bank—such as the proposed defence, security and resilience bank—that would meet some of the financing challenges.”
“There is a risk of strategic contradiction, because on the one hand we are asking defence firms to scale, innovate and deliver at pace, but on the other hand we seem to be tolerating a financial system that treats some firms as a reputational liability. That is not sustainable, to borrow a term. The issue is not necessarily ESG principles themselves, but the absence of clarity in how lenders apply their risk tolerance to defence. ESG concerns are only one part of the financing challenge facing defence firms, alongside credit risk, contracting structures and cash flow, but they are the tip of the iceberg. Because these issues are often poorly defined, they create uncertainty that deters lending.”
“We could become more dependent on foreign supply chains for critical technologies. The Under-Secretary of State for Business and Trade, my hon. Friend the Member for Stockton North (Chris McDonald), has done some really strong work on critical minerals and our sovereign capability in that respect. We have to ensure that there is a sovereign financial base to support our sovereign defence industry. The challenges we have talked about in procurement, ESG and access to finance hit SMEs the hardest. They do not have big teams of financial experts, and the larger primes can navigate the challenges more easily as they have access to wider capital pools that the smaller firms do not.”
“It is interesting to note that some of the protesters who target the insurers may well themselves have insurance policies with them, or their defined-contribution workplace pensions may well be held in one of these insurer’s accounts. There is a degree of hypocrisy there. Insurers should have every confidence from Members in this place that they are doing right by the defence sector in supporting its growth and development. Why do all these complexities matter? As the hon. Member for Windsor touched on, they create serious consequences, because if challenges mount up, they could undermine our sovereign defence capability. If British firms cannot raise capital here, what will they do? They may choose to scale abroad or sell to overseas buyers rather than to the British base, or fail altogether.”
“In turn, that means that when defence SMEs try to get loans for inventory or asset financing, they are often offered worse terms. Primes have a duty to start paying the wonderful SMEs of Britain quickly, because improving their payment terms will create a cyclical effect. Some great primes are better at it. Overall, the result is a system in which highly capable, export-ready firms struggle with the basics—securing bank accounts, insurance and working capital—not at the margins but as a matter of course. I am worried that some insurers are becoming increasingly hesitant about insuring defence companies because of the risk of political violence. I have worked with Aviva and others on this issue.”
“Sometimes the cash-flow challenges created by defence primes are not acceptable. The primes are great employers in this country. I have been to Barrow-in-Furness and seen at first hand how BAE Systems is transforming the fortunes of that town. The primes have a great understanding of their tier 2, 3 and 4 suppliers, but they need to make sure that they pay SMEs on time and quickly. This is not a mundane point. Were Members to sit down with the chief financial officers of these SMEs and look at their cash flows, it would be clear: a 90-day payment term with a prime, or even a 120-day payment term, increases working capital requirements. The company then has to go out to lenders to try to get financing to cover the shortfall, because the primes are really slow.”
“On that last point, let me turn to the work of my hon. Friend the Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry, who cannot be here today. He has done some phenomenal work setting up the office for small business growth in the Ministry of Defence, which is designed to break down some of the contractual complexities and the fear factor that many defence SMEs face when trying to contract with the MOD. I am happy to confirm to the House that one company in my York Outer constituency, Flyby Technology, will be part of the new OSBG’s shaping cohort, to get into the nitty-gritty of how we can streamline the contracting processes for SMEs, in line with the Government’s mission to increase the direct spend in defence SMEs across the country. I want to touch on the role of primes when it comes to SMEs in particular.”
“As I mentioned, there have been some good shifts, but ESG and broader ethical considerations are only part of the structural barriers facing defence firms. Recent work by colleagues across the House, including a report I co-authored, “Rewiring British Defence Financing”, makes the point clearly. That work shows that ESG considerations sit alongside and are outweighed by deeper, more persistent problems across access to capital, commercial lending risk, cash-flow pressures, contracting structures and compliance complexity. Defence SMEs are not failing to secure finance because they are somehow irresponsible actors, but because they operate in an ecosystem defined by long payment cycles, sometimes single dominant customers like the primes, uncertain procurement pipelines and fragmented support across Government.”