Olivia Bailey
MP for Reading West and Mid Berkshire · Labour · United Kingdom
“While we understand that the owner is not currently in administration, there are robust protocols that will be followed if an administrator ends up being appointed. This process would include considering the conduct of the company’s directors and an assessment of whether further review or investigation was warranted.”
“Friend that in this case, as with any closure, we are working closely with the local authority to ensure that places are available in local, state-funded schools for any child who requires one. I am happy to keep her up to date with this.”
“Friend the Member for Clwyd East (Becky Gittins), I have asked officials for advice on ways that we could consider recording the ownership of private schools to understand better who is potentially making any profit or who is taking relevant business decisions. I also reassure my hon.”
“I sincerely thank my hon. Friend the Member for City of Durham (Mary Kelly Foy) for calling this debate, for her excellent speech and for her important advocacy on this crucial topic.”
“I am grateful to my hon. Friend for her advocacy on this topic both in the Chamber and outside it. I am extremely concerned to hear of the practice that has been described this evening. I am happy to meet with her, my hon.”
“On the topic of our statutory powers in relation to independent schools, the Department has a robust system in place around how proprietors are registered and regulated. The proprietor is the person or persons legally responsible for the running of the school.”
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“They say that they support investment in our public services, but they do not say how they would pay for it. They have perfected faux outrage, but they crashed the economy and left a huge mess for us to clean up. They are yet again unwilling to make tough decisions in the national interest, but we will not repeat their mistakes. We will fix the foundations of our economy and our public services, working hand in hand with our great British businesses, and we will get our future back on track.”
“Hairdressers, beauticians, cleaners, independent shops and artisan bakers—the lifeblood of Reading West and Mid Berkshire —will stand to benefit from the expanded employment allowance, which will allow them to employ the equivalent of four full-time workers on the national living wage without paying any national insurance contributions on their wages. Businesses in my constituency will also benefit from our reforms of business rates, our action to tackle late payments, our significant investment in roads and infrastructure, our plan to restore our high streets, our commitment to the lowest corporation tax in the G7, and, of course, our cast-iron commitment to protecting economic stability and growing our economy. As we heard from my hon. Friend the Member for Basingstoke (Luke Murphy), the Conservatives want to have their cake and eat it.”
“I ask the hon. Gentleman not to twist my words. I very clearly said that I was intimidated by the sheer scale of the mess that the Conservative party left our economy in, and the hard conversations I have had to have with my constituents because of how much harder that has made it to make things better for them. Some of the bigger businesses in my constituency will find the changes difficult, and I thank those who have shared their views with me, but I believe that this was a fair choice, given the situation that we are in. Small businesses in my constituency will benefit from the changes, and there is also the benefit to all of us from our significant investment in public services.”
“Illegal bikes are an absolute menace for people in Tilehurst, and indeed for all my constituents. I welcome the tough and swift action that the Government are taking on illegal bikes and antisocial behaviour, issues about which the Conservatives were clearly far too relaxed when they were in government. As well as associating myself with the request from my hon. Friend the Member for Reading Central (Matt Rodda), may I ask the Minister whether there will be new powers for the police to seize illegal bikes, get them off our streets and tackle this terrible problem?”
“I, too, have brilliant independent breweries in my constituency, such as Renegade and Double-Barrelled. They make a huge contribution to our local economy and, importantly, make a great pint. Will my hon. Friend join me in welcoming the Government’s determination to improve access to the market for independent brewers and to get great local beers into our pubs?”
“T4. I recently visited the fantastic Shinfield Studios in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Earley and Woodley (Yuan Yang) and saw the huge value that our creative industries can bring to my constituents. Will the Minister please tell me what the inclusion of the creative industries in the industrial strategy and the huge investment delivered at the investment summit last week will deliver for my constituency and others like it?”
“Does my right hon. Friend agree that the legislation gives young people, such as the impressive A-level students I met at Little Heath school in my constituency, an equal chance to make the laws of this country from either House? How will he ensure that the legislation progresses quickly?”
“I, too, thank the hon. Member for securing a debate on this crucial issue. My constituency of Reading West and Mid Berkshire boasts several beautiful chalk streams. The Pang is one and it is said to have inspired “The Wind in the Willows”. I recently tested the water quality there with campaigners from the Angling Trust and found phosphate levels were three times what they should be. We would not find Ratty or Mole there any more, sadly, because that is a dangerous level of phosphate.”
“I apologise. Does the hon. Lady agree that the previous Government let our chalk streams down when they abandoned their chalk stream plan? Will she join me in calling for urgent action to protect our chalk streams?”
“I thank my hon. Friend for giving way, and I thank her and the Government for the decisive action they are taking to clean up our rivers and streams. Will she reassure us that chalk streams will very much be a part of that plan?”
“It was political progress that enabled my wife and I to marry and to build our own family. My political flame, sparked at school, burns now for my two boys and for all young people still in our care system. It burns most fiercely as I hold the hand of my mum, being taken from me by Alzheimer’s while being let down by the state. I am very proud to find myself here today, and my two boys are very proud as well. The problem is that, having spent the election telling their teachers to vote Labour, they are now telling all their friends that I am some sort of supreme leader— [Laughter.] That may be funny, but I am at pains to remind them that the opposite is true: I am a servant, and in the years I have in this place I hope to continue the hard work and dedication of the many men and women who, little by little, have fought for change.”
“My dad, a police officer known as “Red Roy” because of his belief in building relationships with the community, not simply asserting power, first took me out delivering leaflets for the Labour party. My mum, an English teacher who would always fight the corner of even the most badly behaved pupils, instilled in me the determination captured in her favourite book: “you never really understand a person until you consider things from their point of view”. I have spent my career trying to honour their contributions. I have developed policy solutions to improve our public services, reconnect the police with their communities and tackle discrimination. I have sought to put the public at the heart of our politics through my work conducting public opinion research. But the political is ultimately personal.”
“While the rural villages of Berkshire may not be traditional Labour territory, I think that my constituency shares the values of this new Government. We are a place of service to our country, to our land and to each other. We are a place where people work hard, enriching our economy, our community and our families, and we are a place of opportunity, where our young people can get a great start. In this place, I am determined to do everything in my power to embody that service and support our communities to prosper. My political passion was sparked in the corridors of my school, where Government policy in section 28 told me that I should be ashamed of who I was. But my commitment to public service came from my parents.”
“He was a good constituency MP, held in high regard by many locally. He was also a tireless campaigner in the battle against climate change, most notably as President of COP26. I wish him all the best in the other place. I must also mention the last Labour MP for Reading West, Martin Salter. Martin served for over a decade and gave me one of my first tastes of politics as I undertook my work experience in his office. He remains a force within the constituency—as I am sure hon. Members can imagine—as a passionate campaigner for the protection of our waterways, and in particular our fragile and precious chalk streams. My constituency also contains areas previously represented by Laura Farris and John Redwood. I put on record my thanks to them both for their commitment and public service.”
“Perhaps the most picturesque leaflet rounds of any constituency are had strolling through Streatley, Yattendon, Compton, East and West Ilsley, Mortimer and Frilsham, although eyebrows were raised when I asked one of my activists to take a trip to the hamlet called World’s End. Thankfully, they were met with beauty rather than eternal doom. I thank the many activists who worked so hard to see me elected to this place, and I thank everyone who placed their trust in me at the ballot box; many voted Labour for the first time. I will work tirelessly to live up to that trust and to fight for everyone in my constituency, no matter how they voted. I know that my predecessors sought to do the same, and I also want to thank them for their service. The majority of my constituency was previously represented by Sir Alok Sharma.”
“There are many military families, and we are also home to the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston and Burghfield. I am really proud of the work that my constituents do there, and I will always support our nuclear deterrent. We are an unusual constituency in that we are made up exclusively of villages and hamlets, discounting our official overlap with Reading. There are more than 70 settlements, most nestled in the north Wessex downs national landscape. The rivers, fields and architecture around Pangbourne and Basildon are said to be the inspiration for E. H. Shepard’s beautiful illustrations of “The Wind in the Willows”. My constituency is truly the quintessential English countryside.”
“I thank the right hon. Member for Rayleigh and Wickford (Mr Francois) for a wonderful tribute to Sir David Amess, and for his kind words to those of us sitting nervously on these Benches today. I am proud to be the first Member of Parliament for the new constituency of Reading West and Mid Berkshire. The most populous part of my constituency is the village of Tilehurst, where I live with my family. Tilehurst has always been a place of skilled labour. Our name reflects our history in the manufacture of tiles, but today we are proud to be a place of brewers, beauticians and builders. In this place, I will always stand up for small businesses and the self-employed. My constituency also has a proud history of defending our great country.”
“After the last Government left our prisons on the brink of collapse, I welcome the Secretary of State’s commitment to building new prisons and driving down reoffending. I also welcome her commitment to additional transparency. Does she agree that such transparency is a significant departure from the approach of the previous Government, who released thousands of prisoners early in secret?”
“I welcome the twin ambitions the Secretary of State has set out today: to get Britain building in order to provide the homes we need, and to make sure that we have the infrastructure required to support them, such as schools and GP surgeries. Those ambitions are of equal importance, and we cannot have one without the other. On social and affordable housing, will she confirm that the aim of her package is to go net-positive, so that the number of social rent homes rises rather than falls, and to achieve that in the first year of this Parliament?”