David Pinto-Duschinsky
MP for Hendon · Labour · United Kingdom
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“When she spoke then, she had no underlying strategy, and she did not focus on what was right for the country. Clearly she has learned nothing from that. Her cynicism becomes clear now, when we peel back the rhetoric and expose the lack of substance behind her arguments. Peter Mandelson was dismissed last September, and rightly so.”
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“The figures are stark: five of the six less survivable cancers received only 17% of the research funding for more survivable cancers. By proposing that the Secretary of State will be required to review the current laws on marketing authorisations for these orphan drugs, and by placing a duty on Government to support research and innovation further, the Bill would go a long way to achieving something that many of us would view as common sense: incentivising the production of these medical products and putting them to use where they are so badly needed in the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of cancer. I also pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh South West and his team for the work they have done to improve the power of collaboration among Members of Parliament, the charity sector and patient advocates.”
“However, although we need to incentivise research, it is not the only barrier that we face to improving rare cancer outcomes. The comparatively lower occurrence of many rare cancers mean that, although drugs to combat them often exist, for economic reasons they are not developed by the pharma industry, despite the pressing and urgent need for them. These orphan drugs have the potential not only to save thousands of lives but to provide hundreds and thousands of families with that most valuable thing, to which my hon. Friend the Member for Calder Valley referred: more time with their loved ones. Under normal market conditions, pharma companies may be unwilling to invest in the research and development of new treatments for diseases that affect fewer people than the most common forms of cancer.”
“Some of the more common cancers have screening programmes, which means that many people are diagnosed before they have symptoms. Sadly, that is much less common in the case of rare cancers. Additionally, doctors see the symptoms of common cancers more frequently, and so are more likely to spot them. Also, currently, 82% of patients with a rare or less common form of cancer are not offered a clinical trial. The Bill will seek to reduce the knowledge gap on rare cancers, proposing a national specialty lead for rare cancers to advise on research design and facilitate collaboration in rare cancer research, and a specific rare cancer registry to share information to improve the recruitment of participants for rare cancer clinical trials.”
“That was brought home to me when I visited Chai Cancer Care in my constituency to hear the stories of many people battling to live with cancer. Their bravery is inspiring and they need our help now. I commend the Government’s work to improve cancer outcomes for all. Last month they launched the call for evidence to inform the development of a national cancer plan, and I hope that we can pass the Bill to support those efforts. Illnesses classified as rare or less common are among some of the very cruellest. The Bill seeks to address some of the fundamental reasons why diagnosis of a comparatively rare form of cancer can leave patients with a disproportionately lower chance of making a full recovery. For a start, rare cancers are harder to diagnose. There are many reasons for that.”
“The cancers we class as rare in total account for almost half of all cancer diagnoses each year, and as has been mentioned, tragically they account for over half—55%—of all cancer deaths. Given that, on average, one in two of us develops some form of cancer in our lifetimes, the chances of experiencing one of these so-called rare or less common cancers, or seeing them diagnosed in a loved one, are far higher than the term suggests. In the coming year, 182,000 people will be diagnosed with these types of cancers—equivalent to the population of a city the size of Swindon. Sadly, 92,000 people will lose their lives as a result—the population of a city the size of Chester. Behind each one of those tragic statistics lies a story of families bereaved; of mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and children lost, and of lives torn apart.”
“Friend the Member for Blackpool North and Fleetwood (Lorraine Beavers) for her powerful speech about her father, and my hon. Friend the Member for Falkirk (Euan Stainbank) for his speech about his grandparents. I give a special mention to my hon. Friend the Member for Calder Valley (Josh Fenton-Glynn); I am so sorry that I did not get a chance to meet his brother Alex. He sounds like a phenomenal human being. I am so sorry for my hon. Friend’s loss, but I know that his brother would be very proud of him. My heart goes out to those who have shared their stories. I thank them for their bravery. As so many stories show, the term “rare cancers” is misleading.”
“I start by thanking my hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh South West (Dr Arthur) for raising this deeply important issue. I know that I speak for everyone here in finding his words about his father-in-law, and the story of Kira, very moving. I join him in welcoming Kira’s family. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Mitcham and Morden (Dame Siobhain McDonagh) for her campaigning on this issue—her sister would be very proud of her. I also pay tribute to everyone who has spoken, for both their bravery and the immense bravery of their constituents and their family members. I particularly want to recognise the hon. Member for Kingswinford and South Staffordshire (Mike Wood) and the story of Dan, the hon. Member for Esher and Walton (Monica Harding), my hon.”
“Could the hon. Gentleman enlighten me on a slight confusion I have with the wording of his Bill? The Government are talking about bringing more of these agencies back under Executive control so that the Executive, elected by the British people, can drive their performance. His Bill would provide direct parliamentary control, which in many cases—such as with the Prison Service, which is overseen by the Ministry of Justice—would move control and oversight from the Executive to Parliament. I may be confused, but would the Bill not make some of that harder not easier?”
“Online scams are a cause of particular concern in Hendon. A number of my constituents have been targeted, and one lost £40,000 to an online scam. Many of the scams originate overseas. What discussions has the Minister had with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology about tackling online scams and working with other countries to crack down on scams originating abroad?”
“As my right hon. Friend mentioned, the Conservatives did not do much on this issue except tagging on a Bill at the very end of their tenure. The Information Commissioner’s Office was very critical of the approach taken in that fraud Bill. Can she reassure the House that she has addressed those concerns?”
“This Government and this ministerial team are modernising our system to protect public money, help the vulnerable and, critically, get Britain working. I am proud to support the Bill.”
“I am strongly reassured by the powerful raft of safeguards that the Secretary of State has included in the Bill. Those safeguards mean that new debt recovery powers will be focused not on those on benefits, but rather on those who are neither on benefits or PAYE, and the DWP will not have access to people’s bank accounts, contrary to what some have implied during the debate. Those safeguards will include independent oversight and options for appeal. I am pleased to hear that, on top of that, the ICO believes that the safeguards address the concerns that it had with the Conservative party’s proposals. This is a fair and balanced package, which modernises our approach and gives us the digital tools to fight a digital scourge, and the enforcement powers to take on organised crime while protecting the vulnerable.”
“Along with the measures that the Chancellor brought forward in the Budget, these measures will help us protect legitimate claimants by helping to pick up overpayments earlier. Last year, 480,000 people had deductions averaging £500 taken from their universal credit payments because of overpayments. Underpayments can be a source of huge anxiety and hardship. Preventing them and catching them earlier will help protect the most vulnerable claimants. That will be possible only because of the better data and the better processes that the Bill will help support. As we heard from the hon. Member for Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe (David Chadwick), some have voiced concerns about whether the powers proposed in the Bill will impinge on people’s rights.”
“Virtually all banking is now done online, and yet while fraud is propagated through digital channels and moving at lightning speed, the DWP is still forced to rely on analogue tools. In other fields, we already integrate information and get institutions to work together to prevent fraud. Banks regularly scan patterns that indicate fraud; benefits should be no different. We need digital tools and access to digital data to fight fraud. As with tax, investigators should have the powers they need to recover funds from those who are no longer on benefits. That is why the powers that the Secretary of State is proposing to take are so important as they will allow us to better identify those committing fraud and take more effective recovery action to get taxpayers’ money back. That brings me back to my second story.”
“The DWP’s own statistics show that of the £7.4 billion lost to fraud last year, about £1 billion was lost to people who held too much capital to be eligible, £1.3 billion was lost to those who had failed to report their self-employment earnings, and a further £1.3 billion was lost to those who had failed to provide sufficient evidence. A further £250 million was lost to those who were abroad. Those frauds could have been caught with better data and better investigatory powers. It would have been possible for banks to spot people with too much capital to claim, or those with considerable earnings, yet today, because of the last Government’s failure to update their legislation, the DWP cannot compel information digitally.”
“Even when they finally got their act together at the end of their term in office, it was too little, too late. Once again, we are having to step in to clear up their mess. They owe everyone in the House and everyone in the country an apology. It is striking that in all their bluster during the debate, we have not heard the only word that they should be uttering: sorry. Fraud exploded on the Conservatives’ watch because of their failings, but the pattern of fraud also tells us much about why the powers outlined in the Bill are so desperately needed.”
“That can be seen nowhere better than in how the Conservatives set up universal credit. Because of their failures in properly establishing and policing its gateway, it became a magnet for fraud. Universal credit accounts for just 22% of benefit spending but contributes over 76% of all benefits fraud. Almost £1 in every £9 claimed through UC in the Conservatives’ last year in power was claimed fraudulently, compared with just £1 in £25 for housing benefit, £1 in £300 for PIP and just £1 in £1,000 for pensions. The reality is that the Conservatives failed to take the threat of fraud seriously and failed to understand how it was being professionalised and industrialised, as my earlier story showed. They left us all to pick up the bill. They say that they acted, but the truth is they did nothing for years.”
“The headline figures for fraud and error excluding underpayment tripled in cash terms between 2010 and 2024 from £3.3 billion to £9.7 billion. As bad as those figures are, they actually understate how badly things deteriorated under the Conservatives. Claimant error rose only slightly in cash terms, while official error remained flat. In contrast, fraud rose a stunning sevenfold in cash terms and more than fourfold as a proportion of the total benefits budget. That was not some act of God; it was the result of serial failures by the Conservatives, who failed to understand that fraud was evolving and failed to modernise the DWP’s powers to allow it to keep up in the arms race with the fraudsters. They also made truly terrible policy and design choices that actively fuelled the fraud crisis.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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?”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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?”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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.”
“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?”
“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?”
“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?”
“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?”