Sean Woodcock
MP for Banbury · Labour · United Kingdom
“Every week in my surgeries I hear about the consequences of Thames Water’s failures. An elderly widowed constituent was left without running water after it failed and botched the installation of a water meter, and she was forced to shell out hundreds of pounds on an emergency plumber to remedy the situation.”
“I meet businesses in my constituency all the time. As I stated at the beginning of my speech, they raise a number of the issues that the Opposition have raised, and I do not pretend that none of those come up in my conversations.”
“It is about protecting the firm, the other employees and the productivity of the business as much as it is about protecting the employee. This debate exposes a fundamental difference in vision. The Opposition believe in and want an unstable, low-growth economy built on a race to the bottom.”
“It is right for the Opposition to look at what this Government have done in this sphere, and they should absolutely provide such scrutiny, but they have missed a few things that this Government are doing. Our youth hubs will give young people the localised support they need to get into their local labour market.”
“A strong package of workers’ rights and protections goes hand in hand with a strong economy. The Employment Rights Act has been vital to modernising protections and making work pay, because when we give people certainty over their hours and their wages, we give them the confidence to spend on our high streets, to go into their local pubs…”
“They talked about AI, and how it is coming up in interviews and being used to filter out job applicants. They talked about failings in the school system and in careers advice. They talked about fears about their mental health, and whether they would have appropriate support if they enter the labour market.”
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“I have to say that I find the bleating from the Conservative party—which delayed elections in Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire and Somerset, as well as in several other areas named by the Secretary of State—pretty astounding. As welcome as the reforms are, they are taking up considerable time and capacity for local authorities, including Oxfordshire county council. The council is prioritising, among other things, economic growth, which this Government have said is their No. 1 mission. I urge the Secretary of State and his team to look at picking up the pace of these reforms, as welcome as they are, so that local areas and the councils that emerge from them can get on with delivering for their local residents.”
“As an alumnus of the University of Birmingham and former resident of Selly Oak, I have found this whole saga pretty astonishing from the start. We have had mistake after mistake and evidence that turned out to have been made up, and meanwhile the bond of trust with our Jewish community, which had already been under increasing pressure, has been caused further damage. Mistakes are made, but when they are this serious and include presenting falsified evidence to a Committee of this House, somebody has to take responsibility. I echo the calls made by Members across the House for the chief constable to do the decent thing and resign, and to do it today.”
“I pay tribute to the people who have taken to the streets of Iran, particularly in the face of industrial-scale violence and repression from this regime, as the Foreign Secretary stated. However, given the malign influence of Iran in the region, which she has acknowledged, and the risk it poses to British citizens, particularly those of Jewish extraction and from the Iranian diaspora, may I urge the Government to move at greater pace on the issue of proscription of the IRGC?”
“Nearly 11,000 homes in Cherwell district have been granted planning permission but remain unbuilt. This causes understandable frustration for local residents and the thousands of people in housing need. Will the Minister set out what action the Government are taking to improve build-out so that much-needed homes are built and delivered?”
“We have learnt that they would do nothing for the residents in Claydon in my constituency who are suffering harassment because they complained about their pets being killed, their gardens wrecked and their children terrified as dogs and horses from the Warwickshire hunt run through their village under the smokescreen of trail hunting. I will acknowledge that the issue of agricultural property relief has caused concern for many farmers, but the chief reason for their concern is not just changes to tax. They are concerned because they were let down by the Conservative party for so long. They know that the Conservatives sold out farmers and undercut them in the trade deals with New Zealand and Australia.”
“They remember a chaotic mini-Budget that sent mortgages skyrocketing and nearly crashed the economy. I raise all that because the Tories try to pitch division between rural communities and our towns and cities where there is none. The reality is that while they are different, the people in those areas have exactly the same issues and concerns. The Conservatives left our communities with sky-high NHS waiting lists. They left village schools that were literally crumbling. They left terrible infrastructure and country roads riddled with potholes. They left rivers like the Cherwell in decline, clogged with sewage. Today we have been reminded that they have learnt absolutely nothing.”
“I am very proud to be the Member of Parliament for Banbury, where I was born and grew up. I am keenly aware that I am the MP not just for that town. I am proud to represent the small towns of Chipping Norton and Charlbury, as well as the villages and countryside of north Oxfordshire. Many people in those places put their trust in me and in Labour for the first time. They did so because the Conservative party lost the trust of the British people in rural areas, just as it did in the rest of the country. People in those areas remember the Conservatives dragging them out of the European Union on broken promises to reduce immigration, a better deal for farmers and more money for our NHS. They remember a Conservative Prime Minister who partied during lockdown.”
“They want a Government who are committed to fixing and solving the issues that matter to them—the NHS, schools and the economy—but they also want better buses, better connectivity and an end to rural crime. People in villages across my constituency abandoned the Conservatives at the last election. The reason they did that was because the Conservative party abandoned them. Well, I can promise them one thing: I won’t.”
“I echo the sentiments of my hon. Friend’s predecessor. The farmers in my constituency know that the Conservative party allowed food inflation to reach 19.1%, while they continued to suffer from unfair market practices from supermarkets that prospered, rather than the farmers themselves prospering. They know the Conservatives bottled planning reforms that would have made it easier for farm businesses to invest, diversify and grow. They also know that the Conservative party likes to pigeonhole people who live in rural areas. Our villages and our countryside are filled with different people who have one thing in common: their love of where they live and their desire to make it better.”
“I thank farmers in my constituency of Banbury and Chipping Norton for engaging constructively with me on the issue—well, the vast majority of them, anyway. I know that they will welcome these changes, as they will welcome the record £1.8 billion investment in sustainable farming and food production provided by this Government. However, they are concerned about trade deals, having been left high and dry by the previous Government, so will the Minister confirm that this Government will protect farmers, not sell them down the river as happened previously?”
“My right hon. Friend will be aware that the hon. Member for Boston and Skegness (Richard Tice) recently failed to declare on time hospitality in a French villa from the wife of the former Russian deputy Finance Minister. Will my right hon. Friend assure me that the offer and acceptance of gifts and free holidays from Russian oligarchs will be in the scope of the review?”
“The Minister has rightly congratulated Lando Norris and McLaren on their victory in the Formula 1 championship at the weekend. Motorsport brings in an estimated £9 billion to the UK economy, along with high-skilled jobs, cultural soft power and so on. Will the Minister join me in commending the sector on its contribution to the wider UK economy, and perhaps join me in visiting one of the Formula 1 or motorsport teams in my constituency?”
“I welcome this strategy and pay tribute to the Minister and her predecessors for the work that has gone into it. I also pay tribute to the Banbury Youth Homeless Project in my constituency, which does great work with young people affected by homelessness, and extend an invitation to the Minister to come and visit the organisation at some point. One feature of the current housing crisis is that temporary accommodation is often anything but. The Minister has reiterated the Government’s ambition to build 1.5 million homes during the course of this Parliament, but I would be grateful if she could provide some detail on how the Government plan to accelerate the delivery of homes, particularly in areas like mine, where infrastructure issues are frequently a barrier to the delivery of much-needed affordable homes.”
“The Conservatives have spent a lot of this debate saying that apologies are due from the Government, yet under them £11 billion of taxpayers’ money was lost in covid fraud. Does the Minister agree that if an apology is due from any party in the House, it is them?”
“I am grateful to the Minister for his statement and pleased to hear of further sanctions. He stated that Dawn Sturgess was the victim of an utterly reckless and dangerous act. I would go further and call it a heinous crime, the responsibility for which lies with Vladimir Putin, among the many other such crimes for which he is responsible. The Minister also said that we must honour Dawn Sturgess’s memory. My plea to him would be that we do so by never allowing Vladimir Putin to escape responsibility or accountability for the crime that was perpetrated in Salisbury that day.”
“I am delighted by the Chancellor’s announcement in last week’s Budget, having had decades of Tory Governments dithering and delaying while pensioners lost out. It is a great sign of what this Labour Government are delivering on pensions. Could the Minister confirm how much, or by what amounts, those affected are likely to benefit from the changes he has incorporated into this Bill?”
“I thank my constituency neighbour, the hon. Member for Bicester and Woodstock (Calum Miller), for securing this urgent question. The River Cherwell runs right through the heart of Banbury, so this issue and the images and footage from the weekend have concerned a number of my residents as well. Can the Minister reassure them that the Government are supporting local authorities as best they can so that they can fulfil their obligations to tackle environmental crime?”
“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dame Siobhain. The hon. Lady makes a point about the importance of neighbourhood plans, and I have had parish councils contact me about this. As the Minister just said, it is about priorities. If the Liberal Democrats are serious about the Government funding local councils to continue with neighbourhood plans, should they not also put forward how that will be paid for, given that they have opposed all the tax measures that this Government have introduced in the last year?”
“It is great to serve under your chairship, Dame Siobhain. I refer the hon. Member to a point I made to his colleague in Committee a couple of weeks ago. Ten years ago, the district councils of Northamptonshire were dismantled by his party and forcibly put into unitary authorities. Where was his umbrage then? If district councils are so good, why did his Government not reform them, give them more money and reconstitute them? Clearly, his Government felt there was a reason why they worked better as unitary authorities. So what is the problem?”
“Like the hon. Lady and councillors in my area, I too get casework, and one of the frustrations that people have in areas where there are two levels of local government—district and town councils—is that they sometimes go to one council and are told, “Sorry, we can’t do it. You need to go to the other one.” The priority for residents is surely getting things fixed and sorted. Does she not see benefit in having all services under one roof, so that the councillor knows that he can go straight to his officers and get it fixed, without having to say, “Sorry, it’s not my department”?”
“Having been a district council opposition leader for 10 years, I can say with some real clarity that the agenda was not always dominated by the controlling group; in fact, a lot of the motions put forward by the group I led were accepted by the controlling group. It is all about the quality of the councillors and the opposition—it goes back to what my hon. Friend the Member for North West Cambridgeshire said about culture—rather than necessarily the system. Does the hon. Member agree?”
“The hon. Gentleman rightly praises the role of local newspapers. I have some brilliant ones in my constituency, including one that goes out in Chipping Norton and hence is called Chippy News . It is produced by volunteers and does a lot of the things that the hon. Gentleman talked about. However, he mentioned the diminished circulation of newspapers. If he really wants better consultation and engagement with residents, does he accept that making the proposed amendments that might not be the best way to ensure that?”
“I support the Government making it easier for communities to get involved, giving them more time and granting them more powers to take on historical pubs that are important parts of the community, but there is a real danger that the amendment could have an unintended consequence: a historical building being lost purely because it is so wrapped in regulation and protection that nobody is able to do anything with it. I would therefore vote against it.”
“The pub was in a historical village, and the real danger is that we wrap it up so much in protection and regulations that, in trying to save the pub, we will lose the historical building. If the landlord is not able to do anything with it, it can fall to rack and ruin, and even with the best will in the world we can end up losing that historical building. That pub ended up becoming a house; granted, it is no longer a pub or a community asset, but the building is retained and is no longer a dilapidated ruin in the middle of a village. Although the amendment comes from a really good place, I cannot support it.”
“I rise to speak, however, because sometimes pubs close down and, with the best will in the world, are unable to reopen, despite the efforts of the community and people nearby. There is a real danger of unintended consequences if the amendment puts in too much protection and removes the flexibility that is necessary to allow historical buildings to survive. I offer an example from my constituency, where massive efforts were put in to retain a particular pub. The brewers who owned it put it out to all sorts of people. Unfortunately, the amount of money required to bring it back up to standard made it totally unviable, not only for other brewers or people wanting to take it on, but for the community.”
“Briefly, I want to put on the record how much I value the protection of sporting assets. I have already mentioned Chipping Norton in my constituency, and how the football club there lost its land to a rather unscrupulous developer the best part of a decade ago and ever since has not been able to play in the town itself; it has to play almost 10 miles away. The protections are very close to my heart and I very much support them. The hon. Member for Stratford-on-Avon talked about pubs. I have numerous pubs in my constituency with active campaigns—the Fox Inn and the Bell Inn, for example—where the community is very active and keen to take on the pub to save it so that it is not lost to the community.”
“The hon. Lady is being generous with her time. I do not think it was suggested that the mayor could or should not engage; the question is about putting mandatory engagement in the Bill. Does she accept that is very different from what she has just stated?”
“It is great to see the coalition back in action. To use the hon. Member’s phrase, does he not agree that any mayor worth their salt would naturally have consideration for remote coastal and rural areas in those growth plans, considering that those are the people they are meant to represent? If they do not, they will find out at the ballot box what people in those areas think about it.”
“The hon. Lady has been very generous in giving way many times on all her amendments. I understand the spirit in which she has tabled them—to make sure that parish and town councils are acknowledged for their work—but one of my concerns about this amendment, as with many of her others, is the amount of work that it would put not just on the strategic authority, but potentially on the parish and town councils. They will be given a blitz of things and asked to respond to them, but many will not have the capacity to do so. Does she not accept that that is a potential challenge to this being done properly?”
“I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for finally giving way. He has been very generous, as always, with his time. Does he accept that the danger with inserting the consultations that have been proposed in so many Opposition amendments is that the only growth we will see is in the number of officers in the strategic authorities sending out consultations, and the number of people in parish councils responding to them?”
“To clarify, the suggestion in the new clause is that town and parish councils will meet the mayor once every 12 months. My constituency, which has 80 parish councils, would be part of a Thames valley mayoralty—let us call it that—that would have even more constituencies. How many days of not meeting parish councils will there be for the mayor?”
“As a Cherwell district councillor I was very keen on promoting citizens assemblies for the purpose of discussing climate change, but that is not the only thing that people might want to gather to talk about. Is the assumption that the subject would be prescribed by the mayor, or would it be okay for a citizens assembly to get together to discuss the death penalty, immigration or whatever? Could the hon. Lady clarify that?”
“The hon. Member is talking about localism and the importance of things being done with communities, not to them. I was a Cherwell district councillor when we were involved in joint working with South Northamptonshire. I remember clearly that the leaders of South Northants district council were distinctly unimpressed by the level of consent that they were given when the Conservative Government told them that Northamptonshire county council, which the Conservatives bankrupted, was being disbanded and that joint unitary authorities were to be created in Northamptonshire. Was he so exercised about local consent at that point?”
“The hon. Lady and her party seem to be proposing that every single potential devolution should come before this House for scrutiny. That would take up a considerable amount of the time of the House, as well as incur the costs picked up on by the hon. Member for Hamble Valley. Is her amendment just about kicking devolution into the long grass, rather than being serious?”
“We owe these families recognition, compassionate care, and a commitment to address the lack of consistent data that makes it so hard for them to advocate for change.”
“The trauma is compounded for families whose event may have been avoidable. A study in Finland between 2005 and 2024 suggested that a fifth of all such cases could have been prevented, or at least could have benefited from preventive measures. This compounds the trauma of affected families and underscores the importance of absolute honesty and systemic learning in our NHS services. Additionally, HIE is not always recorded consistently in NHS systems or statistics, making it harder to advocate for policy change and obscuring potential disparities in outcomes, which we know exist for stillbirths and neonatal deaths. We must listen to brave parents such as my constituent and fantastic charities such as Peeps and ensure that HIE is no longer misunderstood or unheard of in conversations about baby loss.”
“In her son’s case, it resulted in mild cerebral palsy. She was supported by a wonderful charity called Peeps, which highlights that families affected by HIE often feel that they do not belong in a baby loss space. Many of those families experience birth trauma, PTSD and complicated grief. While charities such as Peeps offer support to anybody affected, NHS mental health support can often be restricted to just the mother. This leaves fathers and partners—who are also deeply affected—to cope alone. Support must and should be for the whole family. Peeps also emphasises the significant gaps in long-term support, especially for families whose children survive but face lifelong, severe disabilities. They are left to navigate complex needs for years after the initial intensive care ends.”
“It is a real privilege to have the opportunity to speak in this debate, particularly after so many powerful and profound speeches and interventions from Members across the House. I want to share the testimony of a constituent who has endured an experience that affects many families, yet receives very little attention: hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, or HIE. Her son survived a HIE event during his birth. HIE is a brain injury caused by a lack of oxygen or blood flow, which can lead to developmental delays, intellectual and physical disabilities and—tragically—in one in five cases, death. Some of these complications can remain hidden until school age. My constituent had never heard of HIE at the time, nor had I prior to her contacting me, but it is an all-too-common condition that affects three to four births out of every 1,000.”
“For many years Banbury has been home to thousands of Polish citizens, who will understandably be very concerned at events over the past 24 hours. Can the Minister reassure them not only that our relationship with Poland is steadfast but that this Government are taking steps to strengthen it in spite of Putin?”
“We have heard a lot from opposition parties about the taxes they are not happy to see go up, but we have heard very little about the spending or investment that they would cut as a result of taxes going down. Does my hon. Friend not agree with me that this is a case of opposition parties having their Banbury cake and eating it?”
“My hon. Friend is making a great speech. Apparently, 80% of fans support this Bill, but recent polling had the Conservative party at 16%. Does she agree that these facts alone should give Conservative Front Benchers pause for thought before they oppose the Bill?”
“I know that the Secretary of State and the Minister have many calls on their time, but I can assure them that they would both be given a warm welcome should they choose to grace the hallowed turf of the Spencer stadium in Banbury, and I once again invite them to my constituency to do just that. While neither Chipping Norton nor the Puritans are within the scope of this legislation because they are not high enough up the football pyramid—not yet, anyway—their stories and those of countless others up and down show why this reform is so necessary.”
“In my constituency, while it has not collapsed, the football club for Chipping Norton has been away from the town for more than a decade. Its ground was bought and sold off by what I shall refer to as a rather unscrupulous individual with little regard for the club, the town or its fans, and that loss is still deeply felt. However, there is also hope. Down the road at Banbury United, supporters, fed up with mismanagement, took matters into their own hands. They have transformed the club, taking it over and turning it into a community benefit society, with revenue from shirt sales and matchday tickets now going back into supporting local groups and good causes. After two successive promotions, they have proved that this model is not a barrier to success on the pitch.”
“It is a privilege to have the chance to speak in this debate on an issue of such importance in legislation—one that goes to the heart of our national identity—which is the future of the beautiful game. Football, like Shakespeare, the Beatles, and James Bond, is one of this country’s greatest contributions to the world. Not just a fantastic sport, but a global phenomenon and, arguably, our most successful cultural export. English football is watched by billions globally, with some of the most exciting players, clubs and stories of any league. However, we must not allow that success to disguise the underlying fragilities in the English football pyramid. Too many clubs have collapsed in recent years, with consequences rippling through entire communities.”
“It will promote financial stability, prevent rogue owners and directors from causing harm and give supporters a stronger voice in how their club is run, safeguarding both the game and the strength of community that it fosters.”
“I thank my hon. Friend for her intervention. I also congratulate Crystal Palace on their FA Cup win and, as a Liverpool fan, I look forward to their receiving their runners-up medal in the community shield in a couple of weeks’ time. As I said in my intervention earlier, this has the support of 80% of fans, so I find it simply staggering that Conservative Members have decided that, having put forward this legislation, they are now against it for who knows what reason. Too many clubs have been left vulnerable to reckless ownership and financial mismanagement, and it simply cannot continue. The Bill is a vital step to ensuring that football is sustainable for the benefit of fans and their community—both now and into the future.”
“My hon. Friend is absolutely right. When we talked about rogue owners, I was only surprised that the hon. Member for Great Yarmouth (Rupert Lowe), with his years of experience in this sphere, decided to walk out of the Chamber. But we will leave that for now and move on. As I have said, the previous Government strutted on to the pitch full of promise, but when the whistle blew, they passed sideways, ran down the clock and then bottled it at the big moment. In contrast, this Government have shown intent and are driving the ball forward. I am proud to support this Bill in the Lobby tonight.”
“I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for his statement. Can he confirm that it is his expectation that this deal will provide new opportunities for growth in trade and for businesses in Gibraltar?”
“We have heard a lot about the failure of developers to build infrastructure, protect nature and provide enough social housing. Does that not just show that the status quo is broken, and why the Bill is so important and heading in the right direction?”
“I am absolutely delighted that this announcement will see more than 2,000 extra children qualify for free school meals in my Banbury constituency. Can the Minister explain how this announcement will improve the educational attainment and behaviour of children in my constituency?”