Christmas Adjournment

Josh Babarinde Excerpts

Thursday 18th December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Josh Babarinde (Eastbourne) (LD)]

Merry Christmas to you, Madam Deputy Speaker, your team and all the House staff who, in their own way, help MPs give a voice to our constituents. I want to give enormous thanks to all MPs’ staff, who are the unsung heroes of our work. On behalf of my constituency, I want to say a massive thank you to my staff team, including incredible Inga Frame, excellent Euan Morrison, jolly smart Jack Morrell, conscientious Kathryn Sutter, cracking Kara Bishop, sensational Sam McManus, knock-it-out-the-park Nadia Wyllie, just brilliant Josh Moreton and heroic Hannah Wain. I thank my parliamentary support team volunteers, too: Cherine, Jackie, Arianne and Sue, who I will shower with alliterative adjectives in person. All of them, and many more volunteers, have helped to power my missions and more for the people of Eastbourne.

A key mission will be to drive down homelessness in Eastbourne next year and beyond. The issue of street homelessness is more stark than I have ever known. Rough sleeping has soared outside Eastbourne train station. I have urged Eastbourne borough council to do its bit to get on top of this tragedy, and a taskforce has been created, bringing together homelessness agencies, station management, the council and others, including me, to help drive this out. But we need the Government to play their part, including by providing the funding for the support services that street homeless folks need to get back on their feet. In particular, we need Government to help fund more transitional housing, like that run by Kingdom Way Trust in Eastbourne, which provides a roof over folks’ heads as well as holistic support to help them to move from street homelessness into a tenancy that they are able to manage and sustain. Locally, we have the model, the expertise, the will, and an award-winning homelessness hub, but we need the cash to scale it. I hope that the Government can provide support for that.

Another issue that I would like to draw attention to, as I have done on many occasions in this House, is water quality and the conduct of Southern Water and South East Water in Eastbourne and the surrounding area. Not only is our sea polluted by raw sewage and our air polluted by all the stuff that comes out of Eastbourne water treatment works, but bio-beads have been released from those works, and have polluted beaches in the surrounding area. Southern Water needs to get its act together, and in 2026 and beyond, I will continue to hold it to account.

Merry Christmas, one and all!