Alex McIntyre
MP for Gloucester · Labour · United Kingdom
“Last week I signed a letter to the Foreign Secretary, along with 140 colleagues, asking the Government to take further action in response to settler violence and the rhetoric used by two far-right Israeli Government Ministers.”
“I welcome the report and my hon. Friend’s commitment to cross-departmental working, but I want to raise one area that his Department could put its weight behind.”
“The River Severn holds incredible potential for tidal energy, with the Severn Estuary Commission finding that it has the potential to generate up to 7% of the UK’s electricity. Will my right hon.”
“May I associate myself with the remarks of the Secretary of State about Romania? Last week I visited Romania through the armed forces parliamentary scheme, and met armed forces personnel who are part of the NATO air policing mission.”
“I hear time and again from constituents who are fed up with having to explain their story several times to different medical practitioners. Keeping records that do not speak to each other just does not make sense in the digital world in which we now live. It is inconvenient, frustrating and, most of all, it threatens patient safety.”
“That is just not acceptable, and it highlights the entrenched health inequalities found in constituencies like mine up and down the country. Deprivation, poverty and a lack of adequate healthcare are harming life chances in every part of our United Kingdom.”
The complete record
Every one of 319 lines we hold for Alex McIntyre, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 2 of 7.
“Q In a case where somebody makes that appeal and says, “I was not advised and there was evidence that was not considered. I think there was a miscarriage of justice here,” are you saying that you have no faith that our Crown court judges would deal with that? We are not saying that a person cannot appeal, but there would be a check on that, for cases where they have no legitimate grounds—I am sure that you see such cases. We are introducing a transcript of the magistrates court as well, so that people can understand the decisions. Would that not lead to an informed process? Do you have no faith in the Crown court judges to make that decision? Emma Torr: It is not about faith in the Crown court judges. APPEAL receives hundreds of letters from people asking for our assistance.”
“Q A quick question: building on the Minister’s questions, where would you draw the line on this? You mentioned the criminal damage cases, and I can understand your argument there, but theft is an either-way offence. Let us say that somebody nicks a bottle of whisky from Tesco and says, “Actually, I’m protesting against the excessive profits of the supermarket giants.” Does that fall into the narrow set of cases you were talking about? Do they not expand out?”
“Q We only have 30 seconds. Where would you draw the line? If someone says, “I’ve stolen a bottle of whisky to protest against Tesco,” would they be included in the cases you are talking about? Tim Crosland: If they argued that they acted in the public interest, then potentially, yes, but drawing that line—”
“Amazon recently opened a large depot in Gloucester, and is paying £4 an hour more than Royal Mail offers. The Minister knows that I have been raising this repeatedly with the Department for Business and Trade. I have written to Ofcom, which still says that it is fining those companies and that will improve things. It will not; they are baking those fines into their business cases. Can we please give the regulator more teeth so that we can actually improve the service?”
“I want to be absolutely clear that this poor service is not down to our hard-working posties in Gloucester. I visited the Gloucester North delivery office last week and spoke with them, and they are working really hard in difficult conditions. The post arrives late from the Bristol sorting office; the posties are waiting later and later in the morning for that delivery from Bristol, which impacts how many hours they can deliver for. Parcels are being prioritised over post—that is what the posties tell me, but management are still denying it. The posties also told me in detail about the two-tier workforce system, which means that most staff now leave in six months. To make matters worse, they are being undercut by other companies that pay their staff more.”
“The service provided by Royal Mail in my constituency is simply not good enough. Hundreds of residents have written to me over the past year with shocking, but unfortunately almost identical, stories. In the worst-affected areas of Abbeymead and Abbeydale, most residents I speak to do not get post for three to four weeks, only for a pile of letters to arrive at once. I know that to be true because I live there, and my post arrives monthly as well. In Tuffley, Matson and Hempsted, they are experiencing similar issues: people are waiting on hospital appointments, new debit cards and other important post. I hope that most of the Mother’s Day cards have now arrived—I pray that all the Christmas cards have been delivered. Something has to change.”
“I thank the hon. Gentleman for his support for my Domestic Abuse (Safe Leave) Bill, which he has backed from the start. He is making a very powerful point about the role that businesses can play in supporting victims and survivors of domestic abuse, who are the reason why we are all here and who we care so much about. Does he agree that we should be doing more to encourage businesses to support women fleeing from domestic abuse, such as through the roundtable that I hosted recently with Women’s Aid, Airbnb and AXA? Does he also agree that the response from Travelodge this week has been simply shameful and that, quite frankly, it has failed to tackle violence against women and girls in one of its properties?”
“Before she moves on from the subject of housing, does the Minister agree that the partnership between Women’s Aid, Airbnb and the Mayor of London is a really exciting pilot project for those people for whom refuges might not be the right place?”
“The hon. Gentleman is making a very important point. The Conservatives talk about cutting public funding for courses such as creative arts, but that will not stop the wealthiest students from accessing those courses. Does he agree with me that all that will happen is that people from more deprived parts of our country will not be able to access them, and that there will be one rule for them and another rule for everyone else?”
“There was no plan for young people, and certainly not for young people like me, who grew up in communities like the ones that I grew up in, with parents who never had the opportunities that all the Conservative Members at that time had got for free.”
“I declare an interest as I am a former student with a plan 2 loan. I became a student during the first year that plan 2 loans were introduced. I remind hon. Members that I had a very tough Saturday job when I was growing up, in case anyone is shocked that I am indeed young enough to be a plan 2 student. Frankly, I am shocked at the brass neck of Conservative Members. When I was at school, I remember having conversations with other working-class kids like me who were thinking about going to university—I was the first in my family—who were being put off because the Conservatives had put up the fees from £3,000 to £9,000. There was no consideration then for what young people were going through.”
“That is why I am proud that the Government are introducing maintenance grants, and why I am backing the new target of two thirds of young people going to university or doing gold-standard apprenticeships, because university might not be the best route for everybody. Generations of young people in my community were left behind by the Conservatives, who had no plan in Government for young people in my constituency.”
“I want what is best for young people and for the university sector in my constituency. I am delighted to be able to take this opportunity to welcome the brand new university campus that the University of Gloucestershire has opened in the city centre, taking over the Debenhams building and creating a new campus for students, with a public library, so that young people in Gloucester can see what that opportunity looks like going forward. We need to ensure that we are creating opportunities for all young people, because despite the move towards more people going to university, only a third of people in Gloucestershire will go to university, and in the most deprived parts of my constituency, that number is fewer than one in five.”
“The hon. Gentleman will be pleased that I am coming to exactly that point later in my speech. Of course there are challenges with this system. There were challenges with it back when it was introduced in 2012. We pointed out the fact that there are huge generational inequalities: there are hon. Members present in the Chamber who did not pay tuition fees at all and had lower house prices when they graduated, so they could afford to buy a house. Those challenges continue, and part of the reason that I got into politics was to deal with those intergenerational inequalities. We all talk about broken promises, but what happened to the promise about levelling up? In my mind, levelling up was about creating more opportunities for young people in places like mine in Gloucester, but those opportunities were never delivered by the Conservatives.”
“I am always happy to be educated by privately educated Oxbridge graduates who did not pay a penny for their student fees. The right hon. Gentleman will find that employment levels have actually gone up. The number of people in employment has gone up under this Government— [ Interruption. ] Well, that’s the stat. If he wants to check, he is more than welcome to. I welcome the youth guarantee that the Government have talked about this week, introducing more apprenticeships and opportunities for young people and tackling the people in my constituency who have been furthest from employment. My hon. Friend the Member for Kettering (Rosie Wrighting) made a fantastic speech about some of the other things we are doing for young people. It is not just about education; it is about renters’ rights and expanding free childcare.”
“They did not care about young people like me when they were in government. Quite frankly, they wrote me off and I had to fight my way to get here today— [ Interruption. ] Yes, I did go to a grammar school and I am proud of that. I did quite well for myself, but my parents sacrificed a lot for me to get here, so I am not going to take lectures from the Conservatives on that. This Government are fixing the mess that they left behind. Of course there are challenges in the system, but I welcome the measures that the Government have taken so far, and long may that continue.”
“We are talking about priorities and how we can support young people at the moment, and the 30 hours of funded childcare is very welcome, but it does not cover the cost of childcare for people who are working full time throughout the year, not just in term time. That is preventing young people from starting their families and getting on, and this could be a really good opportunity if there was money available. This is about priorities and about how we can support young people. I welcome what the Government are doing, but if I were to give them a gentle nudge in any direction, I would encourage them to look again at what we can do to expand the offering of free childcare. I am not going to take lectures from the Conservatives on young people. They had no plan for young people during their 14 years.”
“As I have said, there are undoubtedly challenges with this system, but the Conservatives left behind so many messes after 14 failed years in government that we cannot fix them all in the first five years of a Labour Government. We are going to need at least a decade. We said that in the manifesto. We talked about a decade of national renewal, and we are committed to that because we cannot afford to fix all the messes that you left behind straight away because you left the economy in a mess as well— [ Interruption. ] Sorry, Madam Deputy Speaker. They left the economy in a mess—you had nothing to do with it. I would say to the Minister, as a parent and as someone who is on plan 2 and has spoken to lots of my residents, that if there is money available and if there is an opportunity, we need to look at the expansion of free childcare.”
“I am proud to stand here, as the son of a train conductor, talking about opportunities for young people in my constituency who have been left behind for generations, written off and, quite frankly, talked down to by the Conservatives, who talk about making sure that the arts are only for the wealthiest who can afford to go to university and not be spread out, as if education is not actually a benefit to everyone in society and should only be in the purview of those who can afford to pay for it. It is disgraceful, it is taking us back generations and, quite frankly, I am sick to death of hearing about it. Politics is the language of priorities.”
“Gloucester has a number of grammar schools and they are doing very well for the students there. I went to a grammar school—[Hon. Members: “Oh!] I went to a state school, and my parents worked really hard to get me there. If Members want to talk about my background, where I came from and how I got to this place, I am very happy to do that. It was quite different from the background of a lot of people on the Conservative Benches.”
“My hon. Friend is making an excellent point about how, when the Opposition say they are going to cut funding for certain courses, they really mean that those courses will be available for wealthier students who can afford to pay for them without a Government subsidy. Does he agree that that will lead to a decrease in students from working-class backgrounds being able to access arts degrees?”
“Labour Members have asked Conservative Members repeatedly if they can name a course or an institution that they would cut. The hon. Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Dr Spencer) had to make up a course in David Beckham studies—as far as I understand, that never existed—to make the point. Does the hon. Gentleman have a real course in mind, or are his made up as well?”
“Under the previous Conservative Government, criminal justice funding was cut by 23%, we lost 42% of our magistrates, half of our magistrates courts were closed and the number of sitting days in our Crown courts went down. That is the record of the Conservative Government. The only thing that went up was the number of victims waiting for justice. Does my right hon. Friend agree that the crocodile tears from the Conservative party today just show why the public should never put trust in arsonists to put out the fire?”
“I must admit that I am a little disappointed by those on the shadow Front Bench, who are sneering and suggesting that plunging 3,000 Gloucester children back into poverty will somehow solve long-standing issues with youth unemployment. That is not backed up by the facts, and, quite frankly, it comes across as quite nasty. The Conservatives promised to level up places like Gloucester, but they left the most deprived parts of my city, and the young people living there, without the opportunity to get on. I am really pleased to see Gloucester boy Tom Kerridge, who grew up in Matson in my constituency, backing the proposals that my right hon. Friend is putting forward. Can he explain to the House how more young people will be able to benefit from the Government’s reforms?”
“Gloucester residents rightly expect that nobody be above the law, so will the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister update the House on what steps the Department is taking to ensure that the Metropolitan police have all the support they need for their investigation?”
“Gloucester residents have been let down by Royal Mail for years; it is prioritising parcels over post and profits over our posties. I have a visit to Gloucester North delivery office on Friday, and I was shocked to find out from the frontlines that it is offering overtime to clear the backlog before I get there. Ofcom has proven to be utterly toothless in this matter; it is not regulating properly, and Royal Mail is baking the fines into its business plans. What more can we do to give Ofcom the bite that it needs to improve service for Gloucester residents?”
“Has the shadow Minister seen today’s statement from the Institute for Government, which has backed the Government’s modelling and overturned its previous position? He might want to reflect that in his comments.”
“Gloucestershire Gateway Trust does vital work in my constituency, helping those not in employment, education or training back into work. It runs the Bridging the Gap programme, which provides an employability skills course and a guaranteed interview at the country’s best motorway services, Gloucester services. It also ran the Going the Extra Mile project, which supported over 2,000 local residents who were furthest from employment. It is exactly the kind of organisation we need to work with to tackle the challenges we face, but the GEM project was stopped under the previous Government due to a lack of funding. Can the Secretary of State visit my constituency to see the work that Gloucestershire Gateway Trust is doing, and to discuss how we can work with community and voluntary organisations to tackle these challenges from the ground up?”
“I recently met a survivor of domestic abuse and stalking who has repeatedly moved home and then been followed by her perpetrator. She told me of the impact, not just on her but on her son, who has repeatedly had to move schools through no fault of his own. After the last move, her perpetrator was permitted to move to a caravan park just a few miles away from her new place of safety and within a few hundred yards of where her son plays football. Although an exclusion zone was put in place, her perpetrator was permitted inside it twice a week to attend parole meetings, because asking him to travel further would be “inconvenient to him”. Can the Minister give some detail on how this Government will support victims such as the one I met recently to live safely in their homes after experiencing domestic abuse?”
“I thank my right hon. Friend for his statement. My biggest concern, and the biggest concern of my constituents, is that the impact of behaviour like Peter Mandelson’s undermines trust in our politics and our democracy. Quite frankly, all parties in this House have had scandals related to someone in their party, and it gives us all a bad name. I ask from the bottom of my heart: can this Government get a grip of this, and end the sleaze and scandal culture that has engulfed all our politics and all our parties, so that I can go back to my constituents and say, “No, we’re not all the same”?”
“I thank the Chief Secretary for his statement. Gloucester residents will rightly be angry and incredibly disgusted by the revelations in the papers released by the American Government over the weekend. It is in the interests of the whole House that we get this place in order so that those who commit heinous acts, who align themselves with people like Jeffrey Epstein, are no longer in this place, and so the public can have trust that we are acting in their best interests. Will my right hon. Friend confirm that he and the Government will act at pace to ensure that that man is removed from the House of Lords? Will he update the House on the steps the Government have taken to improve the direct appointments process since Peter Mandelson was removed as ambassador?”
“As my previous career was in advising businesses up and down the country, I take some issue with the hon. Lady’s point that there is no experience among Labour Members. She says that taxes, particularly the rise in national insurance, are causing the rise in youth unemployment, but does she know at what level of income young people, specifically those under 21, start to attract national insurance contributions?”
“I note that Reform Members have already made it to the pub ahead of the statement, perhaps to celebrate the latest defection from the Conservative party, but I thank the Minister for today’s statement. Since I got elected last year, I have been running a campaign to open up our empty shops in Gloucester and show that we are open for business. May I ask him to expedite the high street strategy to make sure that we are capitalising on the fantastic opportunities in my city to turbocharge regional growth in my area and make sure that everyone can be proud of their high street?”
“I welcome this legislation. Does the Secretary of State agree with me that the fact that the Government have listened to the concerns of resident doctors about training places, and have acted at pace to bring forward the legislation, shows that we as a Government are committed to fixing the problems left behind by the Conservative Government? Does he agree that the BMA should consider that when thinking about going forward with any potential further action?”
“Last Friday, I went on a visit to my fantastic local GP service, Hadwen Health. The team there are already using technology and AI to make sure patients get the right care that they need, but they told me that there is currently no technological solution that allows patients to both be triaged and directed to their hard-working family doctor when booking online. What steps is the Department taking to support the roll-out of technology in GP surgeries like Hadwen Health in Gloucester?”
“A happy new year to you and your team, Mr Speaker. I welcome the Minister’s commitment to closing the Tory asylum hotel in Gloucester by the end of this Parliament. I have raised with him in the past the plight of families who live next door to that hotel, who are having to deal with an increase in antisocial behaviour, constant protests at their front door, and YouTubers turning up and trying to get a vox-pop reaction at 11 o’clock at night. What support can we give to those families, who are having to deal with a hotel on their doorstep that they did not plan for when they moved in?”
“I must have a bit of amnesia in the new year, because I cannot seem to recall any circumstances in which the shadow Secretary of State raised in the House the 143 abscondments that happened on his Government’s watch—perhaps it is only when a leadership bid is in the offing that he cares about this issue. Will the Minister set out what steps she has taken to ensure that these prisoners are returned to custody and what measures are in place to deter prisoners from absconding in future?”
“Before entering the House, I was an employment solicitor, and I saw the impact that judicial mediation had in our employment tribunals. Will the Minister agree to meet me to discuss the role that expanding judicial mediation could have in bringing down the backlog in our employment tribunals?”
“I thank the Secretary of State for his statement. Gloucester residents are rightly worried about the rising flu levels. I was struck down a few weeks ago and can attest to how tough the current strain is. Does he agree that in this context it is reckless of the BMA to be taking its members out on strike, and will he call for resident doctors in Gloucester to go to work next week to keep their patients safe?”
“It should listen to its members, and let us together get on with the work of repairing our NHS and the damage the Conservative party did.”
“I thank the Secretary of State for his statement. My residents in Gloucester are rightly worried about strike action in the run-up to Christmas, and the impact that it will have on waiting lists in my patch in Gloucester. I am not surprised that there is no one here from the Reform party to hear about the challenges that our NHS is facing, and I am really shocked that there is nobody from the Green party, but there we go. Can the Secretary of State confirm that there will be resident doctors sitting at home in Gloucester tonight who will want to vote for this deal, who will not want to go on strike next week, and who want to get the NHS back on its feet? The BMA should do the right thing, and call off the strikes next week.”
“Environmental crimes such as fly-tipping blight cities such as Gloucester, leaving victims across my city unable to enjoy the place they love. Will the Minister confirm what discussions she has had with colleagues in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government about how we can give local councils the powers and resources to enforce action on fly-tipping?”
“The shadow Secretary of State seems to have kicked off panto season. His comments reminded me of my favourite character, Buttons, who longs to be Prince Charming. If only his colleagues would write into the 1922 committee so that he can formally start his leadership bid. In the spirit of panto season, I wonder whether the Deputy Prime Minister will join me in reminding the shadow Secretary of State that if he is looking for the reasons why our prisons are in this state, they are behind him!”
“Will the Minister confirm that the review of parental leave and pay will, at the very least, consider increasing statutory paternity leave to six weeks, commit to reforming shared parental leave so that it is more attractive to parents, and deliver on our manifesto pledge to give every child in Gloucester the best start in life?”
“Importantly, the way that women give birth in this country has changed: about 40% of all births in England are now carried out by caesarean section, which has a recovery time of up to six weeks. Why is a father expected to return to work, leaving his partner with a newborn baby when she is still recovering from major surgery and is unable to drive or even lift her child safely? We should be encouraging fathers to spend time at home with their partner. I was proud to sit on the Employment Rights Bill Committee earlier this year, and to play a role in extending paternity leave rights to more dads in my constituency. But we must go further. As a country, we are getting older; we need more people to have children.”
“There is a certain irony in the fact that last year I was given a minute in this Chamber to speak about the inadequacy of paternity leave, and this year I have been given 90 seconds. Two years ago today, I was beginning my journey as a first-time parent. That means that it is about two years since I last had a good night’s sleep. If the Minister would like to give my little boy a birthday present today, on his second birthday, he could extend parental leave, and paternity leave in particular, so that if my son chooses to have children in the future, he can have some time with his child. It is simply not right that fathers receive only two weeks’ statutory leave. That denies fathers a chance to bond with their children and perpetuates the outdated stereotype that women are expected to be the primary caregiver.”
“As the hon. Lady is so proudly championing her party’s record, will she stand by the comments by the Leader of the Opposition, who said that maternity pay is “excessive”, and by a donor to the Leader of the Opposition, Luke Johnson, who told the Employment Rights Bill Committee that the worst thing about the Bill is its further extension of paternity rights?”
“We must never forget the bravery of those selfless heroes. Their courage protected liberty and democracy in South Korea. Generations have grown up in Paju, Seoul and across South Korea in freedom, thanks in part to the unwavering courage of the Glorious Glosters. The Glosters did not seek to be heroes, but that is how their bravery defines them today. For this, they must always be honoured.”
“That is why I believe that it is our duty, and my responsibility as the MP for the great city of Gloucester, always to honour the sacrifice and the bravery of the Glorious Glosters. There are already some great memorials to them, at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire and at Hill 235 in Paju, South Korea, where the Glosters made their famous stand, which is now known as Gloster Hill. The Soldiers of Gloucestershire Museum in my constituency also has a fantastic exhibit dedicated to the Glosters, and I understand that Forest of Dean district council is working hard with partners to create another memorial. As we approach the 75th anniversary of the battle of Imjin river next year, I ask the Government to work with me and my hon. Friend the Member for Forest of Dean (Matt Bishop) to ensure that it is properly commemorated.”
“They were heavily outnumbered and faced overwhelming odds, but they remained resolute and their courage did not falter. Fifty-nine soldiers of the Gloucestershire Regiment paid the ultimate sacrifice and were killed in action, and over 500 were taken prisoner and endured years of brutal captivity. The impact of those three days cannot be overstated. By courageously holding off advancing enemy forces, the Glosters prevented the capture of Seoul. Their sacrifice slowed the Chinese advance and gave US and UN troops time to regroup. The battle of the Imjin river is often referred to as the battle that saved Seoul. Without the Glosters’ heroism, there might not be democracy, liberty and freedom in South Korea today.”