David Pinto-Duschinsky
MP for Hendon · Labour · United Kingdom
“Sometimes in our lives, we are fortunate to meet someone truly inspirational. Rabbi Bernd Koschland was such a person. Bernd came to this country in the Kindertransport, aged just eight. His parents were not so lucky; he never saw them again. Many of us would have been broken by such a tragedy, but Bernd triumphed over that adversity.”
House of Commons15 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“This debate is named for Sir David Amess, and I think it is an important chance to honour the values of unity, community and tolerance that both Sir David and our much-missed colleague Jo Cox stood for so strongly. I also want to echo hon.”
House of Commons16 July 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Anti-Muslim hate crimes are now at record levels. British Muslims, including my friends and neighbours in Hendon, are regularly subjected to a barrage of abuse, vilification and even violence. This hate is becoming normalised online, on our streets and, shamefully, by some Members of this House.”
House of Commons16 July 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“They contribute so much to our area, but they are understandably worried. I welcome the action that the Government are taking to protect our Muslim community. Continuing action is essential so that our Muslim citizens can live free and safe as they practise their faith and go about their daily lives.”
House of Commons16 July 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Q4. My Hendon constituency is proud to sit at the heart of the UK’s largest Jewish community in the London borough of Barnet, but today many of my constituents and many from that community are living in fear.”
House of Commons24 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I thank the Minister for his statement. As Members of the House will be all too painfully aware, our Jewish community in north-west London, including in my constituency, has been subject to repeated despicable antisemitic attacks in past weeks. Our Iranian community has also been attacked.”
House of Commons14 May 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
The complete record
221 held · 215 searchable for David Pinto-Duschinsky. The searchable lines are below in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 4 of 5.
This is not an official version of UK Parliament proceedings. It reproduces the published record and links to it; the official version is the one UK Parliament publishes.
“Perhaps no area illustrates the challenge that we face, how it evolved and the last Government’s catastrophic failure to kerb fraud better than benefits. The DWP’s net bill for fraud and error, even after deducting underpayments, is £8.6 billion. That is £272 a second, £16,300 a minute and almost £1 million an hour. In the time that it will take for us to have the debate, the DWP will have lost more than £3 million. The bill for fraud and error is roughly the same as the Department’s entire programme budget. The DWP loses as much to fraud and error as it spends on every active programme it has to help the unemployed, the long term-sick, those with disabilities and the elderly. The picture is shocking, and it got much worse under the Conservative party.”
House of Commons3 February 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“This is not a victimless crime or some technical infringement. It robs every family in Britain, erodes our public services and takes money that could be used to help those most in need, depriving the most vulnerable of support. My constituents in Hendon and people across the country rightly expect it to be tackled. This is a crime that feeds on the most disadvantaged and weakens not only public services but the public’s faith in those services and their fairness. I say gently to those who have criticised the Bill that there is nothing progressive and nothing compassionate about allowing fraud to fester. It is a scourge that must be tackled. It is a scourge that grew out of control and was professionalised under the last Government.”
House of Commons3 February 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The second story is of Yvonne, a disabled woman who was paid thousands of pounds more in benefits than she was entitled to over a number of years as a result of an innocent mistake and is now struggling to make ends meet as the DWP deducts overpayments from her current entitlement. Both those stories illustrate why we so desperately need the Bill. The extent to which fraud against the public purse spread under the last Government is breathtaking. The proportions are simply staggering. As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State said, public sector losses amounted to £55 billion last year—as much as the defence budget, and three times what we spend on police in England and Wales. That loss costs every man, woman and child £800 a year and is the equivalent of a third of the entire national VAT take.”
House of Commons3 February 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“We have heard lots of statistics and detailed policy questions, but I want to start by sharing two stories. The first is of Antonia Foods in Wood Green, north London. From the outside, it looked like a normal neighbourhood corner shop selling fruit, veg and groceries, but from its back room Galina Nikolova and Gyunesh Ali ran a vast fraud operation, making use of transnational networks to file hundreds of illegal UC claims. By the time they were caught, they had defrauded the DWP of over £50 million. When the police finally raided their addresses, they found cases stuffed with cash. Nikolova and Ali received prison sentences, as did many of their associates, but the reality is that most of the money they claimed had long since disappeared, likely spirited out of the country. They had successfully stolen from us all.”
House of Commons3 February 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Will the hon. Lady acknowledge that under the last Conservative Government inactivity rates among the young were the highest in the OECD, and that they were working on it, but it was not working?”
House of Commons29 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I was lucky enough, later on, to work on similar issues in the Prime Minister’s strategy unit. What characterised the Administration then was a real passion to change lives and a real passion to make things better. That has been so lacking for the past 14 years, and it is so refreshing to hear that it is back. I am absolutely proud to stand here and support the motion.”
House of Commons29 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“It is such good news that through the good work laid out by the Minister on the industrial strategy, and through bringing the careers service together with Jobcentre Plus so that we have a system that focuses not just on getting people into work but on helping them get on, we finally have a Government who are taking the problem seriously. Our ambition is no less than to give people proper power over their own lives. As my hon. Friend the Member for Loughborough pointed out, the Conservative Government so often just sought to demonise and sloganise. We are trying to put power back into people’s hands and give them the real power over their own lives that only fulfilling and decent work can offer. As I said, I started work in the new deal taskforce in the DWP’s predecessor Department.”
House of Commons29 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“We heard about the changes that will actually tackle the barriers to work—real, practical steps rather than the slogans of the Conservative party. We heard about the work on fraud and error, so that our public money is spent on helping people to get back to work, rather than leaking out of the system. We heard about the efforts that will be made to get people not just into jobs, but into good jobs. It is worth pausing on that point for a second. The labour market has changed a lot in the past 30 years. It is no longer a given that all jobs provide a ladder to good, fulfilling, family-supporting work. For too long, the Conservative party, when it was in government, ignored that.”
House of Commons29 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“We know that the average family in poverty goes through up to seven separate spells in poverty. All too often, it is like “Hotel California”: they can check out, but they can never leave. Rather than trying to deal with that problem, all we got from the Conservative party were sticking plasters and political slogans. I am incredibly proud to sit on the Labour Benches and support a Government who will take a different approach and are absolutely determined to make an actual difference and tackle the root causes. We heard from the Minister the action that will be taken to give our young people a choice, through the youth guarantee, between earning and learning—a real, proper stable start in life. We heard about the changes we will make to the DWP to actually get it working.”
House of Commons29 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I know that DWP staff want to make a difference, but, because of the previous Government’s terrible policy design and incompetence, they are often prevented from doing so. This is a massive human tragedy. We know from survey work that at least half of the people who are inactive—4.5 million people—say that they want to work if they can have the right support. We also know that work is the best tonic for many of the issues faced by those who are inactive. We know from a University of Cambridge study, for instance, that just eight hours a week of paid work can reduce mental health issues in a large portion of the population by up to 30%. What is more, the Conservative party did far too little to tackle the underlying dynamics of low work and no work faced by so many people in poverty.”
House of Commons29 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Those of us old enough to remember will know that in 1997, the outgoing Conservative Government bequeathed more than 5.1 million inactive people to the incoming Labour Government. It is just what Conservative Governments do. My hon. Friend the Minister also mentioned the fact that many of the technical changes the previous Government made to universal credit and other benefits actually dragged people further away from the labour market, putting up barriers and making it harder to get work. This is an absolute scandal, especially because we know that DWP staff—the people who work on this—want to make a difference. I worked for the new deal taskforce 26 years ago, working on the previous Labour Government’s strong efforts to get people back into work.”
House of Commons29 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The number of NEETs—those not in employment, education or training—went up by a third in the last three years of the previous Government. It goes deeper than that. Beneath the shocking rise in 16 to 24-year-olds who are out of work and inactive, a stunning 79% are also low skilled, with skill levels lower than GCSEs. Because of Conservative failures, so many of our young people have been caught in a downward spiral of low skills, poor opportunity, low self-esteem and poor mental health. This failure by the Conservatives is a moral disgrace, but it is also a massive economic problem. If not addressed, the sickness bill they bequeathed the country could exceed £100 billion by the end of this Parliament. I would like to say that this is the first time they Conservatives have done something like this, but that would not be true.”
House of Commons29 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Friend the Member for Loughborough (Dr Sandher) for sharing some of them. Today, one in five adults is economically inactive because of the Conservatives’ legacy. We are the only G7 country where employment rates remain below the pre-covid level. I note that the hon. Member for Faversham and Mid Kent, when asked, acknowledged the fact, but she could not tell us why that is. Well, I have a clue for her. It is because of the incompetence and the failures of her party. What is more, we know that these problems are driven overwhelmingly by ill health, with 85% of those who have dropped out of the labour market having done so due to ill health. This disproportionately hits those over 50, but, scandalously, also affects the youngest in our society.”
House of Commons29 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Zero. That is the difference. I am proud of our Chancellor, who has made the tough decisions that have given us the foundation of stability and allowed us to make these announcements today. It is because of the stability created by the Budget and her other decisions that we now have inflation of 2.5%, that interest rates have been cut twice, because the Bank has confidence in the Government’s fiscal management, that investment is at a 19-year high, and that wages are growing at their fastest rate in three years—I could go on. It is only because of the tough decisions that we have made that we are in that position. Beyond the Conservatives’ failure on growth, the breaches of the welfare cap also shine a spotlight on their terrible failure to get people into work and to combat poverty. The figures are extraordinarily stark; I thank my hon.”
House of Commons29 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“From 2019, on their watch, the economy grew slower than any other G7 economy, bar one. In the last decade of their rule, GDP rose in real terms by only 6%. If it had grown at the same rate as comparable countries, on average we would each be more than £8,000 better off. I welcome the fact that after years of this country being held back by previous incompetent Governments, this Government are finally taking the decisions to realise our country’s potential. That is what we heard today: £78 billion being released through supporting the Ox-Cam arc; £160 billion through the Chancellor’s excellent announcements over the weekend to allow investment of pension surpluses; £7.9 billion of infrastructure to give us nine new reservoirs. The Conservatives had 14 years in government—do you know how many reservoirs they built, Madam Deputy Speaker?”
House of Commons29 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Member for Faversham and Mid Kent (Helen Whately) said that she could make savings. The Conservatives had 14 years —where were they? Instead, we got lots of “dog ate my homework” excuses. They should be hanging their heads in shame. As hon. Friends have pointed out, it is telling that, behind the shadow Minister, the Opposition Benches are empty. They know how badly they let the country down. It is not just about the £8.6 billion; the Conservatives’ failures shine a spotlight on two deeper failures that are the root causes of today’s motions: a failure to grow the economy, and a failure to get people into work and to help those with health conditions move on in the labour market. Let me turn to growth first. We have heard a lot today about the economy, but it is worth pausing to remember how bad things were under the Conservatives.”
House of Commons29 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“To put it in some context, it is as much as the entire programme budget of the Department for Work and Pensions. To give another comparison, it is half the entire police grant for all policing in England and Wales. It is a phenomenal failure on the part of the Conservatives that we face this issue today, and it is not their only failure in the DWP. My hon. Friend the Minister laid out fantastically well the litany of failures. Let me pick up one in particular: the Conservatives breached the welfare cap, but we have not had much time to talk about their failures on fraud and error. Because of failures on their watch, the numbers more than doubled, and are now stuck at an elevated post-covid rate. They left us with an entrenched fraud and error problem. We could go on. The litany of catastrophic mismanagement is almost endless. The hon.”
House of Commons29 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I thank my hon. Friend the Minister for her opening speech, on a timely subject as the Government have just laid out their bold and striking ambitions to grow our economy and take the tough decisions needed, after years of dither and delay by the Conservative party. Today more than on other days, we have seen laid out in stark relief the choice before us of either doubling down on the failures—more of the same—or picking a new route. That is what this debate is about. I want to talk about the root causes of some of the growth issues that we face. But first I want to focus on a number: £8.6 billion. That is how much the welfare cap was breached by, because of the Conservatives’ failures time and again. That is not a small amount.”
House of Commons29 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“He travelled to a new country that was a bastion of those values, a country in which his son was able to carry his family name, a name that was on the verge of extinction, into Parliament and sit surrounded by so many colleagues whose own family stories are marked by hardship and oppression. That is why I am so proud to sit here and to be a co-sponsor of this debate. The lesson this journey teaches us is that a path to a better future is possible if we work together to build it. On this Holocaust Memorial Day, we should renew our determination to strive to build it every day.”
House of Commons23 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“At 8pm, I ask everyone to light a candle and put it in their window— a light in the darkness to keep memory alive. The theme of this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day is “For a better future.” The path to a better future, one where tolerance and mutual respect trumps division and bigotry, lies in a steadfast defence of our values and a willingness to confront hate. The foundation of this determination in turn rests on our collective remembrance of the Holocaust and our determination to tell its stories and echo its truth down the generations. I know something about that, because that is the path my family trod. It seems unlikely that a baby boy in a ghetto leaving his family in the arms of a stranger might be on a path to a better future, but because of their decency and bravery he found his way to a place of safety.”
House of Commons23 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“At a time when antisemitic incidents are up over 1,500%, we can see that hatred, particularly the world’s oldest hatred, is never fully vanquished. It must be fought and defeated anew with every generation. In Britain, we take pride in our pluralistic society, a society where people are free to practice their religion, express their identity and live without fear of persecution, but we must always remember that those freedoms must never be taken for granted. They are the product of a long history of struggle and sacrifice, and they are something we must constantly protect and defend in our politics, our rhetoric and our daily lives. We can all play our part. This coming Monday, at 7 pm, I urge everyone who can to tune in to BBC One for the national ceremony of commemoration.”
House of Commons23 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“It is why the Government’s pledge to ensure that the Holocaust will be at the core of a national curriculum that is taught in every school is so welcome, as is the extra £2 million in funding for the HET. It is also why the deep personal commitment of the Prime Minister, seen in his strong advocacy and his recent trip to Auschwitz, is so critical. This anniversary is not just about remembering. It is about reaffirming our collective commitment to the values that ensure such atrocities can never happen again. That is why the importance of Holocaust Memorial Day cannot be overstated. It is not only a time of reflection, but a time of vigilance and a time when we renew our vow to act, because, as history often reminds us, prejudice and bigotry are light sleepers.”
House of Commons23 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“This is not just about the numbers and statistics; we must remember the people, the families, the communities. We must speak for them and, where we can, make sure their stories and voices are heard, especially in an age when misinformation proliferates. When truth competes with a blizzard of distortions and lies, and when conspiratorial thinking and shrill rhetoric numbs us to true horror, we cannot rely on the facts of the Holocaust alone to speak for themselves. We must tell its stories insistently and repeatedly, and make sure they reach every ear. That is why the work of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust in running Holocaust Memorial Day is so important, and why the work of the Holocaust Educational Trust, the Association of Jewish Refugees and so many other charities is so vital.”
House of Commons23 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“For those of us who know survivors, it will be the last major anniversary when we have them with us. In Hendon, we are enormously proud of the work of our local survivors, including Manfred Goldberg, Renee Salt, Vera Schaufeld, Peter and Marianne Summerfield, and my good friend Rabbi Bernd Koschland, all of whom have done so much work to raise awareness. Yet with each anniversary, the Holocaust slowly but surely slips from living memory. As the generation of survivors passes on, so the responsibility falls upon us to ensure that their stories endure. The torch of remembrance is being passed and it is down to us, the people here today, to safeguard the memory of the Holocaust: to spread understanding, tell its stories and keep them alive for our children and grandchildren.”
House of Commons23 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“And not just Jewish families; there are so many others—other victims of Nazi persecution, as well as survivors of the Rwandan genocide, and those in Bosnia, Darfur and Cambodia, who have similar stories to tell. Victims of hatred, victims of persecution, they are bound together by a common experience and a common humanity. Holocaust Memorial Day is particularly important this year. It comes at a moment of dawning hope after 15 months of darkness, with the release of three hostages, including Emily Damari, and a ceasefire in Gaza. I pray for the safe release of all the hostages, for the ceasefire to be sustained, and for us to take the first steps towards a sustained peace. But 27 January is also critically important this year because it marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. It is a hugely significant milestone.”
House of Commons23 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I think of my grandmother, forced to live under a false identity for the remainder of the war, not knowing what happened to her family. And I think of Maria, whom I never met and who I know little about, but to whom I owe so much. In these moments, the enormity of what happened hits me hardest. A few years ago, I took my family to the Holocaust memorial at Yad Vashem. There, in its files of those who perished, I looked up my family on my father’s father’s side. Now, my name is pretty unusual, but among the names of those who were murdered I found literally hundreds of Duschinskys. I know I am not alone in that; my family’s story is far from unique. There are millions of Jewish families with stories like mine: stories of loss, trauma and persecution, but also of survival.”
House of Commons23 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Many members of my family counted among their number and did not survive, but my father did and so did my grandmother, thanks to the extraordinary bravery of a woman named Maria. In a last desperate throw of the dice, my family entrusted my infant father to her care. She risked everything to smuggle him, and a short time later my grandmother, out of the ghetto just days before it was liquidated. Maria’s courage was extraordinary. Her willingness to risk her own freedom, and maybe even her own life, for a stranger and her child is a testament to the power of human decency even in the darkest of times. I often think of what the last tearful meeting, where my great-grandparents bade farewell to my father, barely 10 months old, knowing that they would never see him again, must have been like.”
House of Commons23 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Each year, Holocaust Memorial Day serves as a powerful reminder of the horrors that humanity is capable of inflicting, and of where antisemitism can lead. For me, this day is not just a time to remember the 6 million Jews murdered across Europe, but an opportunity to reflect on their personal stories, including my own family’s. Critically, this day is also a chance to renew our solemn pledge, “Never again,” which has particular meaning for me and my family. My father is a Holocaust survivor. He was born in Budapest in 1943. In spring 1944, after Nazi Germany invaded Hungary, he was herded, along with tens of thousands of other Jews, into the ghetto in Munkács, his mother’s hometown. Over just two months, more than 437,000 Hungarian Jews were deported to Auschwitz, the vast majority of whom were murdered.”
House of Commons23 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The Conservative council that ran Barnet for 20 years left Hendon’s roads in a dreadful state with terrible potholes and pavements. Since it was elected, the Labour council that took over has been investing record amounts in tackling the large backlog that the Conservatives left. I am pleased that the Government this week announced that they would invest £1.6 billion in fixing potholes this year. That is a huge increase over the previous Government. Will my right hon. Friend grant a debate on how we can put our foot down and drive forward the Government’s plans as quickly as possible to help motorists in Hendon?”
House of Commons16 January 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The last Government left us far too reliant on foreign dictators for our energy needs. I congratulate this Government on their focus on ending that dependence and making us energy independent. What steps is my hon. Friend taking to reduce bills for residents in my constituency and to further ensure that Britain remains genuinely energy independent?”
House of Commons17 December 2024Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Leaseholders in Hendon constituency—in Colindale, in West Hendon and in Edgware—are getting a raw deal. The big property managing agent companies that maintain their developments have put up service charges this year by as much as 40%, but all too often are failing to provide an adequate service, or even a basic explanation of why charges have gone up so much. It has to stop. Will the Leader of the House allow a debate in Government time on regulating managing agents?”
House of Commons12 December 2024Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I warmly welcome the White Paper. I think it is a huge step forward. Mental health challenges have been the biggest single driver of rising inactivity among the young, and we know that mental health can be hugely helped by work. One study shows that just eight hours of work a week will reduce the risk of depression and anxiety by up to 30%. Given that, what will the Secretary of State do to help support those at risk from mental health issues to get back to work?”
House of Commons26 November 2024Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I thank my right hon. Friend for her statement. Like other speakers in this Chamber, I have a large Hong Kong community in my constituency, in Colindale, and that community is very worried about transnational repression. Will the Minister meet me and other MPs to discuss this issue?”
House of Commons19 November 2024Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I thank my hon. Friend the Minister for sharing her statement and welcome the support that it has gathered from across the House. However, I noted that the right hon. Member for South West Wiltshire (Dr Murrison) mentioned concern about pensions. Members will, of course, remember that it was the Conservatives who caused chaos in the markets with their mini-Budget, putting all our pensions at risk. What will the Government do to ensure financial stability and make sure that there can be no repeat of the chaos that they caused?”
House of Commons18 November 2024Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I thank my hon. Friend for his previous answers. We are blessed with some fantastic high streets in Hendon, such as Mill Hill Broadway, Station Road and the High Street in Edgware, Watling Avenue in Burnt Oak, Brent Street in Hendon and Vivian Avenue in West Hendon. However, when I talk to business owners, they all too often tell me that they are struggling to find and retain the staff they need to grow successfully. What steps is the Department taking to make sure small businesses can get the skilled staff they need not just to survive, but to thrive?”
House of Commons31 October 2024Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The Conservatives have left a terrible inheritance and, as we have heard throughout this debate, they have absolutely nothing to say about the answers they would offer.”
House of Commons30 October 2024Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“As the Chancellor’s statement has shown, though, where the Conservatives jeopardised our future, this Government will fix the foundations. This Budget will deliver stability, putting our public finances on a sound footing. Unlike the Conservative party, this Chancellor will never gamble with Britain’s future. Instead, she will begin the work of delivering the investment that our economy and public services need, launching new investments, injecting over £6 billion into our crumbling schools and boosting the NHS with record investment. She will protect the payslips of working people, she will drive forward reform, and she will deliver the change the country voted for. It will not be easy, and change will not happen overnight.”
House of Commons30 October 2024Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“No wonder we are growing slower—no wonder our public services are at breaking point. The Conservatives failed the British people, and rather than coming clean, they overspent, hid the problems from the public, and hid the scale of their irresponsibility even from the Government’s own budget watchdog: a £22 billion black hole, an emergency reserve spent three times over, with no money put aside for the infected blood crisis or the Post Office scandals. It was a festival of fiscal recklessness. For example, according to the IFS, the Conservatives spent the asylum support budget 25 times over, costing every man, woman and child in the country £110. Their cover-up has been laid bare by the review published by the OBR today, yet they remain in complete denial. They have no shame, and importantly, they have no plan.”
House of Commons30 October 2024Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Investment is the downpayment we make today to ensure prosperity tomorrow, yet for 14 years the Conservatives turned that logic on its head, mortgaging our future to pay for their political gimmicks and undeliverable plans. They invested 50% less as a proportion of GDP than our peers and hamstrung private investment, leaving us consistently at the bottom of the league table for business investment. That may sound abstract, but the effects are all too real. Over the past decade, we have built only half as much motorway as Germany and a fifth as much rail track as Spain. Our overstretched hospitals have only half the average number of CT scanners seen in other OECD countries, and our crumbling schools have only half the number of electronic whiteboards. Today, Britain has barely half the capital per worker of comparable countries.”
House of Commons30 October 2024Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Since 2010, if we had kept up with comparable countries, the average household would now be over £8,000 richer. While our economy has languished, our public services have been run into the ground. NHS waiting lists have more than doubled. Criminal prosecutions and convictions have halved in recent years. Our schools struggle to recruit expert teachers. Our prisons are bursting. The list goes on and on. That stagnation is not some kind of accident—some kind of economic act of God. Rather, it is the result of decisions made by the Conservative party. Under Liz Truss, the Conservatives crashed the economy, sending bills and interest rates soaring, but the Truss disaster was but one instalment of their 14-year story of economic mismanagement.”
House of Commons30 October 2024Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I thank my right hon. Friend the Chancellor for her Budget statement, which brought into sharp focus the choice that the country faces. The stakes could not be higher: we face a choice between beginning down a path of national renewal with today’s Budget, or continuing decline and denial if we tread the path of the Conservative party. We cannot fix our problems until we face up to them. The Conservatives parrot empty fantasies about their legacy, but the truth is that they have left our economy, our public services and our finances in ruins. The figures are stark: according to the World Bank, since 2014, real income per capita has only grown by 6%. That is without historical precedent. Poverty and hardship have risen, and meanwhile Britain has fallen behind.”
House of Commons30 October 2024Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“No, thank you. I am winding up. As the Chancellor has made clear, our Government will not shy away from taking the steps needed. We will not let our ambition be dimmed. To govern is to choose, and the Conservative party chose to put party before country. This Government and this Chancellor are making a different choice—to invest and rebuild, to fix our NHS, to protect people’s payslips and to deliver change. We are putting our country first. It is a choice that will give us our future back, and we should all support it.”
House of Commons30 October 2024Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“We know that Iran poses a threat, and we know that that threat is growing, so I welcome the cross-party consensus that the measures make real sense. I thank the Minister for introducing the regulations, and I ask that the FCDO keep a close eye on the threat that Iran poses so that we can take further measures if needed, to back up the Government’s strong action to confront the threat of Iran head on.”
House of Commons23 October 2024Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I thank the Minister for his statement, which I welcome both for its steadfast support of Ukraine and for its action on Iran. As we have heard from everyone in the debate, Iran poses a threat to both regional and global stability. The Iranian regime is not just exporting weapons to support Russia’s despicable illegal war in Ukraine; it is exporting terror—we have heard mention of the Houthis and various other groups. It is—and I thank the hon. Member for Bicester and Woodstock (Calum Miller) for mentioning this—committing savage repression against its own people. Over 230 people have been executed in Iran in the past few months alone, and I know that the Iranian community in Hendon is incredibly worried about the horrific repression that the Iranian people face.”
House of Commons23 October 2024Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“China, as the Prime Minister said, has clearly broken its agreement with Britain, but far more importantly, it has breached its covenant with the people of Hong Kong to respect their rights and freedoms and to allow them to live in the way that they were promised. In so doing, it has struck at the very heart of what makes Hong Kong so special.”
House of Commons17 October 2024Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Altrincham and Sale West (Mr Rand) for setting up this important debate. For me, this debate is freighted with some emotion for very personal reasons. When I was a student many years ago—this will give away my age somewhat—I helped to organise for Martin Lee to speak at my university. I remember how hard campaigners like him fought to establish a vibrant democracy in Hong Kong. I remember the hope we had for the future. It is heartbreaking to see how the situation has unfolded: with China’s promises turning to ash; with the repression that my hon. Friends have talked about; with publications like Apple Daily being shut down; and with British citizens such as Jimmy Lai resting in prison, denied their basic rights.”
House of Commons17 October 2024Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Time is tight, so I will finish by echoing the points already made and by urging the Government to do what China has not: renew our covenant with the people of Hong Kong. I thank the Minister for her work on this issue.”
House of Commons17 October 2024Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Member for Carshalton and Wallington (Bobby Dean) made an incredibly important point about the recognition of qualifications; that is a real challenge for people in Hendon. We have also talked about access to public services, which includes everything from getting a national insurance number to finding schools, and about BNO status and ETAs. The point I would like to rest on is that of transnational repression. The hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington mentioned overseas police stations, one of which was allegedly identified in my constituency. It is completely unacceptable that people in this country face surveillance, repression and threat simply for exercising their democratic rights—and that extends to the treatment of Members of this place.”
House of Commons17 October 2024Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I thank the hon. Member for his point. Absolutely—Mr Lai’s treatment is appalling. I welcome the Prime Minister’s words yesterday in the Chamber about the way he will hold China accountable for that, alongside engagement. I am also incredibly proud of the way in which my community in Hendon and communities across the UK have welcomed new arrivals from Hong Kong. In Hendon, we have a large and growing Hong Kong population, particularly in Colindale. It adds so much to the life of our community, but those people have some serious concerns, as many others have expressed. I shall not echo in great detail the points that others have excellently made, but many of my constituents face great difficulty in accessing their savings and their futures through the MPF, and local financial institutions are not doing enough to help. Similarly, the hon.”
House of Commons17 October 2024Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“It was a huge pleasure to welcome my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State to the Nepalese community centre in Burnt Oak this summer to talk to Gurkha veterans about the issues they face. Does the Minister agree that the Gurkha Regiment has an important role to play in the future of the UK’s defence? Will he outline what steps the Ministry of Defence is taking to address the failures of the previous Government in supporting Gurkha veterans, and will he meet me to discuss these issues?”
House of Commons14 October 2024Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗