James Asser
MP for West Ham and Beckton · Labour · United Kingdom
“I recently visited the British Airline Pilots’ Association training facility and flight simulator with the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero. I confess, Mr Speaker, that the results were mixed: if you are flying on your holidays next week, you would not want to fly with either of us!”
“High street crime and shoplifting remain key concerns for my constituents, who have seen some pretty awful examples. My local police have had some successes, and they are running local initiatives on high streets that are starting to deliver results.”
“T3. Recently, I witnessed an attempted phone snatch outside one of my stations by three masked youths on electric bikes; fortunately, they were unsuccessful, but residents raised this as major concern at a community neighbourhood safety forum. Will my hon. Friend outline what progress we are making against tackling phone theft?”
“I am sorry to report to the House that last week, a 13-year-old boy lost his life in the Royal Victoria dock in my constituency, following a similar incident in the Thames in my constituency last year. The Royal Life Saving Society has reported evidence of an 80% increase in child deaths related to drowning over the last five years.”
“We are going through another heatwave, but we know that well tree-lined streets can reduce temperatures by 5°C to 8°C. The data shows that we are significantly behind Europe, with 18% coverage compared with 30%, and that, where there is coverage, it is mainly in more affluent areas rather than poorer, more deprived areas.”
“I am dealing with huge numbers of groups of leaseholders, and one of the things we have discovered—with the managing agent very much as my hon. Friend is describing —is this habit of subcontracting, only for the leaseholders to find that the subcontractors are owned by the same company; the name has just been changed.”
The complete record
Every one of 146 lines we hold for James Asser, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 3 of 3.
“Mine—ours—is the generation that came out just after the one that had lost so many to AIDS, into a world before effective treatment where so many were still losing their lives. We were, however, on the cusp of the era that now knows living with HIV to be living with a long-term condition. Yes, progress is often fraught with challenges and difficulties, but if we test people, find people who were previously undiagnosed and treat them, they will have a normal life expectancy. How things have changed. The magnitude of the 2030 goal should never be lost on us. To be a country that ends the onward transmission of HIV is a massive task. Think about how it will change dating and relationships in this country, and think about how it might change how we treat each other.”
“It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Dr Allin-Khan. I thank the right hon. Member for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale (David Mundell) for securing the debate and for all the work he does on this; it is very much appreciated. We have just had another successful National HIV Testing Week, and I join others in paying tribute to the Prime Minister for his participation. That will be a huge boost in awareness-raising. I also thank the Terrence Higgins Trust for its work on this, and for focusing us on the 2030 goal. My own campaigning journey started at university more than 30 years ago as we worked to fight the stigma around HIV in what was a very different era, as my hon. Friend the Member for Sittingbourne and Sheppey (Kevin McKenna) so effectively outlined.”
“One of the challenges facing people who are moving to electric vehicles is the charging infrastructure, particularly in inner cities. Local authorities have worked to try to help that, but they have limited resources. My old team at Newham council did a deal with Uber to supply 400 on-street charging units. Does the Minister agree that that sort of partnership using public sector actors with private finance could help resolve the issue? Could the Government look at ways they could work with local authorities to secure those public-private partnerships?”
“As we have heard, it is National Apprenticeship Week. In constituencies such as mine, apprenticeships are hugely important for people securing good jobs underpinned by strong skills. Given the Government’s commitment to growth, supported by a lot of infrastructure projects and building, does the Leader of the House agree that we need to make sure that an apprenticeship scheme is embedded in each of those projects, so that we are building not just infrastructure but jobs and skills? Will she use her good offices to make sure that challenge is picked up across Government?”
“Mr Speaker, I wish you and your team a very happy Christmas. I thank the Minister for her reply. We are all keen to increase recycling, but too often the opportunities for recycling electronic waste are very limited, meaning that it goes into mainstream waste, leading to increased pollution and hazards. We are seeing an increasing number of bin fires starting with vapes, which, as she has highlighted, are a particular problem. Will the Government consider what opportunities there are to work with local authorities to increase recycling opportunities and, in particular, to ensure that the public are aware of the downsides of not disposing of electronic waste properly?”
“I am grateful that the Government are rising to that challenge, and we must ensure that we rise fully to the needs of that community.”
“It is important that we support veterans in that, but also that we work to create a culture of dignity and respect for those veterans, to value them as a society, and to respect their service to their country and expunge the legacy of discrimination. As so many Members have already done, we should pay tribute the campaigners who have fought hard for this campaign, many of whom are in the Public Gallery. That includes those who stood up and led the legal campaigns of the 1990s, and in more recent times the campaigners from Fighting With Pride. We are here because of them, and this debate is built on their hard work. We have an opportunity finally to draw the legacy of that shameful policy to a close and place it fully into the dustbin of history. It is an opportunity we have to take.”
“It will come as welcome news that we are making further progress on that, and that applications will open immediately. We must ensure that all those eligible can easily apply. It is also welcome that veterans will see the restoration of their rank, and their service record amended. I very much welcome the fact that pre-1967 veterans are also being considered. It is important to ensure that we deliver on all recommendations in the report, so that all those who have served and faced discrimination can now wear their medals and remember their service with honour and pride, and so that we can wipe away the hypocrisy that tried to tarnish their service to their country.”
“This House has changed, the law has changed, and society has changed too. It has changed for the better, but the impact of the policy and the ban has a long tail, and veterans are still dealing with it today. That is why Lord Etherton’s report is so important. This is a live issue that we must resolve, and I welcome the progress we have made as a society and the progress on delivering the recommendations. I very much welcome the announcement by the Secretary of State about the financial redress being made available to veterans. When I spoke recently to a veteran they raised the issue of financial redress, as the impact of dismissal from the military has had a big impact on many, some of whom are now of an age when the issue of support is pressing.”
“That attempt to alter the law failed, and it took until 2000 for the change to take place, which led to continued discrimination and suffering for serving personnel, as we have heard. Those targeted lost not only their job but their reputations and rank, and until the 1990s—a quarter of a century after the decriminalisation of homosexuality in civilian life—they faced criminal convictions and jail time. It is perhaps worth noting how much has changed since that debate of 1996. Then we had only one openly gay MP, Chris Smith, and the idea that Parliament would now have so many LGBT MPs would have seemed impossible to believe. Most of the freedoms and privileges that the LGBT community now enjoy were yet to come. Indeed, many of them were beyond the possibility of even campaigning for.”
“Far too many people suffered from that policy, and the opportunity to end it earlier was lost as the Government of the day asserted that it would undermine military effectiveness if LGBT people were allowed to serve. My West Ham predecessor in that debate, Tony Banks, was heard to shout “Rubbish!” at that assertion. He was of course right. Someone is a good soldier based on their skills; bravery and good service are not dependent on someone’s sexuality. History has since proved that it was rubbish, as over the last 25 years, since the change in the law, the military has continued to operate with distinction and LGBT people have played their part with honour within it.”
“There were no questions about homosexuality then…If there was a war tomorrow, there would be no discrimination against homosexuals or lesbians. They would be dragged in just as they were in 1939.” —[ Official Report , 9 May 1996; Vol. 277, c. 507.] Of course, there was plenty of discrimination pre-1967 and at the time of that debate, but Eddie was making the point that this policy was based not just on discrimination, but on hypocrisy. It was hypocrisy in that distinguished service was duly undertaken, and was often honoured and recognised with medals, only to be disregarded and thrown aside when the question of someone’s sexuality was raised.”
“Looking at the history of this campaign, which was the focus of much energy in the 1990s, when I was in the early days of my political campaigning, it is worth noting that there was an attempt 28 years ago to change the law so that lesbians and gay men could serve in the military. In the debate at that time, the then MP for Liverpool, Garston, Eddie Loyden, intervened on the Minister, who was defending the status quo. As Eddie explained, he was one of the few remaining Members in the House at that time who had served through the whole of the second world war. The question he put to the Minister, which I remember watching at the time, is worth repeating. Speaking of world war two, he said: “I was in no fewer than seven troop ships carrying men and women to the four corners of the globe to fight on behalf of the nation.”
“People were dismissed under the bans, and there were broken family relationships, poor mental health issues and a marginalisation driven by the shame of being thrown out of the military. In his debate, my hon. Friend rightly highlighted that this had an impact not only on LGBT people, but on those merely suspected of not being heterosexual. It also had an impact on all those serving given the climate of fear and discrimination that it drove within the military. He said in that debate that, as a young gay man, it seemed an alien world, but of course this is discrimination not from a century ago, but from our lifetime and within living memory.”
“I draw the House’s attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. I am very pleased to be able to speak in this debate as one of the newly elected co-chairs of LGBT+ Labour, and it is a great honour to follow a number of hon. Members who have given very powerful testimonies from veterans. It is very difficult to follow that and to do justice to this issue. There is much interest in this debate and in the review of LGBT veterans. As he mentioned, my hon. Friend the Member for Burnley (Oliver Ryan) recently held an Adjournment debate on this topic. He raised the issues that the ban had caused those who were dismissed, and we have heard about many of those issues in the words of the veterans themselves.”
“I thank my hon. Friend for her answer. Hon. Members will have noted the progress that has been made on a ceasefire in Lebanon, but, as she has just mentioned, without a ceasefire in Gaza the £3.4 million that has been allocated to the Al-Ahli hospital by the UN Development Programme will not be spent. Given the scale of the humanitarian crisis, the desperate need for medical aid and the onset of winter, that is likely to lead to further suffering and a greater number of deaths.”
“T4. Last week I was at London City airport’s STEM event, which brought together 500 students from secondary schools across east London. Does the Secretary of State agree that if we are to see thriving STEM industries, we need more engagement events like that?”
“The London Design and Engineering university technical college in my constituency caters for 14 to 19-year-olds and offers at secondary level the kind of training often only found at further education level. Does the Minister agree that we need to create more opportunities at secondary level for skills-based training to ensure that it is embedded and lasts, post 16, into the workplace and that it improves employability skills as well?”
“Two weeks ago, there was a fire in a 10th floor flat in Plaistow in my constituency. Thankfully, the quick reaction of the residents and neighbours and the good work of the London Fire Brigade meant that they were all able to be evacuated quickly and there were no serious injuries. Clearly, this could have been worse. Does the Minister agree that it is a perfect example of why we need to continue to work to make these batteries safer and run awareness campaigns, so that residents understand the safety issues and how they can be mitigated, and how the batteries can be disposed of if they need to get rid of them?”
“It is 30 years since I began to get involved in campaigning on LGBT issues, so this is not as ancient history for me as it is for my hon. Friend as he is younger than me— I got that in before he did. I was speaking to a veteran last night. My hon. Friend has mentioned how this is still affecting people, and the world has changed significantly from when I started campaigning, when people were still being criminalised and convicted. But this is still a live issue for many people and there is concern among campaigners that many veterans are now getting older and time is running out for them to be able to resolve this.”
“One of the reasons why we are in this position, having made so much progress, is that under the last Labour Government, we made a lot of legal changes, but we also worked to make societal changes, along with progressive colleagues from other parties. There is a lot of hope from the community that, with a new Government, we can pick up that baton and make progress again, so I am pleased to hear what the Minister says. Does he agree that resolving these issues quickly would send the message to the LGBT community that we are taking this seriously, and are keen to get on with making progress on equality again?”
“I have been contacted by constituents who are increasingly distressed about the scenes in Gaza, and there is growing concern about the rapidly deteriorating and utterly appalling situation in the north of Gaza. I urge the Foreign Secretary to ensure that the Government are using every measure available, including work with our international partners, to get a resolution to the situation and prioritise getting humanitarian aid and medical relief into Gaza, particularly the north?”
“Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. The East London gymnastics centre in Beckton is a grassroots facility that is well used by local people and community sports groups, but it also contains national facilities used by Team GB and some of our Olympians. The facility has now been sold by its owner to a housing developer, and faces imminent closure despite a vigorous local campaign, which will have an impact on our national training facilities. Will the Leader of the House consider providing an opportunity to debate grassroots sport and what measures we can put in place to protect such facilities in future?”
“The hon. Lady mentioned the importance of the Windrush generation and the Windrush story to the start of the story of Black History Month. My constituency is one of the most diverse in the country, and long has been. In the 1920s, we had the biggest black population in London, but our black history prior to the second world war is often forgotten. Does she agree that we need to do more to celebrate, and to remind people and teach them about, that longer history?”
“Homeless applications this year are up by 26%, which adds to the borough’s waiting list—there are now 38,000 people waiting for housing.”
“I thank the hon. Member for Eastbourne (Josh Babarinde) for giving me the opportunity to contribute to his debate. I congratulate him on securing a debate on this extremely important topic. I agree with much of what he has said, and how he has highlighted the problem that we face. My local authority of Newham faces an absolute crisis in temporary accommodation; the situation is one of the worst in the country. To give the House some indication of where we are, there are 6,700 households in temporary accommodation in Newham, which is more than in any other local authority. That number is growing by around 30 households a month. One in 20 homes in Newham is now temporary accommodation. The cost of temporary accommodation for next year will be £72 million, adding £31 million to the council’s budget overspend.”
“People have come to see us who have been living for months in a hotel room—a perfectly decent hotel room for someone staying three or four days, but not for a family of four or five people for months on end. They are living in a single room without cooking facilities. The impact on the parents’ mental health and the children’s physical health and educational opportunities was really quite serious. It is difficult to deal with the sheer numbers.”
“The hon. Lady makes a valuable point. The figures are hard to believe; sometimes I have to check that I have not misread them or added a zero. As she highlights, the issue affects councils across the country and seriously adds to their financial problems. This is clearly unaffordable and unsustainable, even in the short term. We desperately need support, so that we can deal with the impact on councils’ budgets; they face huge pressures already. As the hon. Member for Eastbourne pointed out through the example of Kelly, his constituent who is in the Public Gallery, the issue is the impact on families. Since the cost of living crisis began, when the supply of temporary accommodation slumped and demand soared in my borough, my advice surgery has seen a massive increase in casework.”
“My council is one of those pioneering the building of new social housing, but in the grand scheme of things, we are effectively talking penny packets, given the scale of the issue that we need to deal with. I appreciate that we inherited this crisis. It has been exacerbated by the cost of living crisis, and seriously exacerbated by the difficulties that councils have faced as a result of the funding settlements that they have had over the past 10 years. They are juggling 10 years of austerity and the cost of these problems. However, it is a crisis that we have to deal with. I am confident that we can, but it is clearly something that we have to tackle as a matter of urgency, not just for the sake of our councils’ budgets, but to help the people who most need help.”
“My hon. Friend is exactly right. We have gone back from people in temporary accommodation living in flats to hotels being the only option. My council is desperately seeking alternative solutions, but the sheer scale of the problem makes that very difficult. As a fellow east London MP, the Minister will understand the problem and the issues that we face. I ask the Government to look urgently at financial support in the short term, so that we can try to deal with the immediate crisis, but we also need a long-term solution—a financial solution to help councils through these difficulties, and a long-term solution, a way to build social housing.”
“Friend the Member for Ealing Southall and others have made the point that we need to share initiatives. We need to share policy ideas and pilot projects. It is difficult for councils to work on their own, and therefore a national strategy and national ways of working are important. In this regard, regional and central Government can do more, bringing together different agencies and bringing together different councils to share those ideas. A national strategy will look at that and at ways we can bring those together and share those good ideas. I hope this is the start of a longer debate that we can make some progress on.”
“It was particularly useful in areas where there were residents rather than in areas with high footfall, but the council has moved on to other measures in high-footfall areas, which have led to a 32% drop in those spaces. This is a key point: one size does not fit all. Different areas—both urban and rural—have different problems and we all need different solutions, even within local districts. We need a range of options. We also need ways of working with the public. As we have heard, they play a vital role. Local people care. They are the eyes and ears, helping to keep their area safe. So, what is the ask of Government? Money and resources for local councils, yes—we all know the demand, but, to help the Minister, this is not just about cash. My hon.”
“Councils have the dilemma of whether to collect the waste, thereby hiding the problem rather than solving it but clearing the streets, or to leave it for investigation, which creates distress for residents because the streets are a mess. In my borough, we have found that this problem can be tackled through education and awareness. In Newham, we saw success by working with residents and Keep Britain Tidy. We piloted wrapping waste in crime investigation-style tape and painting messages where the fly-tips were removed that both highlighted the cost of the removal and what the council could have spent that money on. We found that had an effect: in the immediate term, there was a 64% drop in fly-tipping; in the long-term, there was a 40% drop. It is worth saying that it did not work in all areas.”
“I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Ealing Southall (Deirdre Costigan) for securing the debate. It is a huge issue for residents, as other contributors have said, but it is also a huge area of pressure for councils, as finances and resources have been squeezed very hard and bin and street cleaning services are already resource-intense, taking up a lot of time for all of our local authorities. It is worth asking how we define fly-tipping, because often it is presented just as a man in a van dumping white goods by the side of the road. That is an issue, as we have heard, but, in many areas, it is more about low-level rubbish being dumped on streets, often through ignorance of a system that creates fly-tipping hotspots or a lack of understanding about when one should present waste.”
“I am under no illusion; more than a century on, that demand is still real. I have been sent here to support change, and to fight to improve lives. It is my great regret that my father is no longer alive to see me elected. It would have meant a lot to him. His advice to me was, “Make sure you always do your best, because no one can ask more of you.” In my election acceptance speech, I promised my best to my constituents, and I repeat that promise today. I will do the best I can for everyone in West Ham and Beckton, and I will give my best to this House, too. I believe that together we can achieve the absolute best for our country and the people of my constituency. The people of West Ham and Beckton deserve no less.”
“My constituents do not lack ambition, aspiration or talent—they have it in inspirational quantities—but too often, they lack opportunity. Poverty is a real issue and, in recent years, has become much worse. Locally, we have seen children going to events in the hope of getting food because they are hungry; parents sleeping in shifts on mattresses on the floor because there is not enough room for the whole family to have beds; and children forced to do their homework in the bathroom because there is no other space for them to do it. This Government were elected on a mandate for change. For many of my constituents, that is not an aspiration; it is a necessity. My early Labour predecessors were sent here to represent those who had no voice, those who needed to be lifted out of poverty and those who deserved a better life.”
“Each community that arrives adds to the mix, but also joins in those long-standing east London traditions of hard work, community spirit and plain speaking. Kamal Chunchie also reminds us that while much focus is placed on the changes that have happened since 1945, there has been diversity much longer. In the 1920s, Canning Town had the largest black community in London. Migration has been a fact of east London life for centuries. German immigration into east London in the Victorian era is part of my family history. The debate around those who choose to make the UK their home is frequently too narrow, and too often driven by populist voices. We forget our history at our peril, but east London is a testament to its vibrancy.”
“The same goes for momentous events in London’s history; the meeting in 1931 of Mahatma Gandhi and Charlie Chaplin is marked by the Gandhi Chaplin memorial garden, which is on the site of the house where they met. Most recently, to mark the move of City Hall, we honoured Sri Lankan first world war veteran and pioneering race relations campaigner Kamal Chunchie, who fought for better lives for the local black and Asian community, and who, in 1926, founded the Coloured Men’s Institute, where City Hall now stands, to further that aim. He speaks to the diversity of my constituency. We are one of the most diverse places in the country, with communities from every part of the world working and living alongside one another. It is what makes the area such a great place to live and to represent.”
“We are also the new home of London City Hall and have London’s only enterprise zone, which aims to create 35,000 new jobs and tens of thousands of new homes on brownfield sites. Education is also thriving, including at the University of East London and the London Design & Engineering university technical college. Locally, we like to celebrate our heritage, and you will find many parks, buildings and roads named after local heroes from the arts, sports, politics and public life, such as local boxers and footballers, the speedway stars of the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s who used to thrill on the racetrack at the old West Ham stadium in Custom House, and local factory worker and suffragette leader Minnie Baldock, who founded the first London branch of the Women’s Social and Political Union.”
“Sadly, river pollution is still a topical issue, two centuries on, as was so eloquently outlined by the hon. Member for Chichester (Jess Brown-Fuller). Many industries have gone, and shipbuilding at Harland & Wolff and the Thames ironworks are just a memory—although the local football team the ironworks, which started in West Ham, is doing all right—but companies in some traditional industries, including Britvic and Tate & Lyle, still have big local factories at the heart of the community, and that is. The constituency is also a key element of London’s economic future. The ExCel exhibition centre brings in 4 million visitors every year. London city airport is London’s most central airport and is important to the City of London.”
“It contains the Royal Docks, which were the centre of much of the country’s shipping and trade until their decline and closure in the early 1980s. The area was also a hub for manufacturing and infrastructure, much of which, but not all, has since gone. Beckton gas works may now be primarily remembered for its spoil heap, which became Beckton alps, and its one-time ski slope opened by Princess Diana, or as a film location for many movies and music videos, most notably “Full Metal Jacket”. Beckton is, however, still the site of Europe’s largest sewage treatment plant. He is not here any more, but I was hoping that might reassure my hon. Friend the Member for East Renfrewshire (Blair McDougall) a little bit. It was a key part of Bazalgette’s work to clean up London in the Victorian era and today is part of the Thames tideway tunnel.”
“In 1906, Will Thorne, the founder of the union that is today GMB, which was founded in Canning Town in the heart of my constituency, was elected to the same seat. When he was elected, there were just 29 Labour MPs. Things have moved on somewhat since then. In fact, I am told that more MPs are members of the GMB than are members of the Conservative party; I thank them for demonstrating that so beautifully this afternoon. I say this not to be controversial, but mainly to drum up some canvassing support for the next election. This is a big legacy to take on, because West Ham and Beckton has been at the heart of the Labour movement’s history for over a century. It is also at the heart of this country’s economic history.”
“West Ham and Beckton has a long history, but this is a new seat made up of the southern half of the old West Ham and the Beckton and dock areas of the larger East Ham seat. The area has had multiple constituencies over the years, including at one point Ernest Bevin’s old south London seat of Woolwich East, which took in North Woolwich, the part of Kent that is north of the Thames—a curious but often forgotten bit of history, with a completely baffling county border. Others who have represented parts of this area in recent times include Jim Fitzpatrick and the irrepressible Tony Banks, but the first Labour MP to represent here was the original Keir—Keir Hardie, the founding father of the Labour party, who was first elected to Parliament in West Ham South in 1892.”
“He marks 30 years as an MP this year, and I know he is well respected in this House. He is a well-known figure to local people and is recognised as a diligent constituency MP. Indeed, canvassing the areas I gained from him, the most common question was, “Where’s Stephen?” As a former councillor in his constituency, I want to thank him for his support. I also follow on from Lyn Brown, who retired at the election after 19 years’ service in this House and an impressive 36 years total elected service to the borough of Newham. I know Lyn made a big impact in Parliament and leaves a strong legacy. I want to thank her for all her support in the last few years, especially during the election. Her support and advice have been invaluable, and I know that supporting other Members is part of her record in this place.”
“Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for calling me to make my maiden speech, and may I congratulate you on your election? I also congratulate all those who have spoken for the first time today and over the last two weeks. The speeches we have heard have been an incredible guide to the UK, and should make us all proud of the country we collectively represent. I offer my congratulations to the hon. Member for Maidenhead (Mr Reynolds) on his contribution, and wish him well in his time in the House. May I say, as an MP at the other end of the Elizabeth line and a “Carry On” fan, that I accept his invitation to dinner? May I first pay tribute to my two immediate predecessors? First, there is my right hon. Friend the Member for East Ham (Sir Stephen Timms), now representing a smaller version of that seat.”
“This week, the new Minister of State for Education visited my constituency to look at the excellent work being done by the London Ambulance Service in its education centre, and in particular the apprenticeships that it offers, which have opened up opportunities to people who would not normally have access to that route, including military veterans. Will the Leader of the House look to find time to debate apprenticeships, particularly with an eye to schemes like this and how might broaden opportunities?”