Business of the House

Jon Trickett Excerpts

Thursday 12th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

To follow on from what the Leader of the House and the shadow Leader of the House have said, all our prayers and thoughts go to the families of the London-bound aircraft that has crashed. Let us hope there is better news to come on that.

I was tempted by the Leader of the House when she talked about the knighthood for Sir Billy Boston. I just hope that it will be like London buses and we will see further knighthoods for rugby league—I look forward to none more so than the news of Sir Kevin Sinfield.

Let us try somebody from Yorkshire; I call Jon Trickett.

[Jon Trickett (Normanton and Hemsworth) (Lab)]

I very much associate myself with your comments about Kevin Sinfield, Mr Speaker, who is a hero for the whole nation and a great role model.

On the question of the north, the Leader of the House is right. In the great northern town of Featherstone, there is increasing irritation about the way in which the absentee and irresponsible owners of the former Junction pub are allowing it to deteriorate. It is now in a dangerous condition and I fear that somebody will be badly hurt. The process of dealing with dangerous structures is too long, too bureaucratic and too cumbersome. Please may we have a debate in Government time—I think lots of Members will have the same experience—so we can share our experiences and see whether the Government can push things forward?

[Lucy Powell]

My hon. Friend is right to raise the difficult issue of the Junction pub in his constituency. We all hear those stories time and again. We want to give local communities more powers to have the right to acquire such facilities, and for those powers to be exercised more quickly than they currently are. We are bringing forward legislation in that regard, but he might want to club together with others to get a debate on the issue.