Business of the House

Debate between Lucy Powell and Kirith Entwistle

Thursday 8th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[Lucy Powell]

Mr Speaker, further to your statement, talks on the US trade deal developments continue at pace. With your permission, the House will be updated later today. I will come on to VE Day shortly, but may I first address the remarks of the right hon. Member for Hereford and South Herefordshire (Jesse Norman)?

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for raising what I said on an episode of “Any Questions” last week, so that I can be absolutely clear with the House today, and especially to the victims and survivors of child sexual abuse and grooming gangs, that I am very sorry for those remarks, as I made clear over the weekend. I, and every member of this Government, want your truth to be heard, wherever that truth leads. Your truly appalling experiences need to be acted on, for those responsible to be accountable and face the full force of the law, and for justice to be served. I would never want to leave the impression that these very serious, profound and far-reaching issues, which I have campaigned on for many years, should be shied away from and not aired—far from it. No stone will be left unturned.

What the victims want, first and foremost, is for action to be taken and for the many, many recommendations from previous inquiries to be implemented in full, including mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse, for which I have called for nearly a decade. Shockingly, those recommendations remained sitting on the shelf until we came into government last year. Baroness Louise Casey, who conducted the no-holds-barred inquiry into Rotherham, is carrying out an audit on the scale, nature and characteristics of grooming gangs. She will be reporting soon. It will include the questions on ethnicity. Every police force in England and Wales has been asked to look again at historic grooming gangs cases. They will be reopened, where appropriate, to get the perpetrators behind bars. I hope the House is left in no doubt about my commitment to these issues and my apology to those victims for any distress I have caused them.

I was surprised to hear the shadow Leader of the House try to claim some success in the local elections for his party. I am not quite sure that that is what those on the Conservative Benches are feeling.

Let me address the issue of our need to move to being a clean energy superpower. I am afraid that yet again at the Dispatch Box the right hon. Gentleman and his party are showing a serious misunderstanding of the economics and the reality of the transition to net zero. We face the worst cost of living crisis in generations, because his party left this country exposed to international fossil fuel markets as a direct result of their failure to invest in clean energy. It is only by investing in clean energy that we will bring down bills in future. He might want to remind himself of what his former Prime Minister, Theresa May, said about this issue:

“the sceptics say that the green transition will cripple business, we say they could not be more wrong.”

This is a global race for the jobs of the future, to get bills down, and that is exactly what we are doing.

The right hon. Gentleman should know better than anybody that new oil and gas in the North sea will not take a penny off bills, because oil and gas is traded on the international markets and therefore we are locked in. The only way to decouple that is by investing in cheaper renewable energies, as the Government are doing. It was a previous Conservative Energy Minister who said in 2022:

“more UK production wouldn’t reduce the global price of gas.”

The right hon. Gentleman might want to remind himself of that.

We have all come together in the Chamber today to honour our veterans and all those who played their part in securing peace and victory in Europe and ending the second world war. Today, we mark the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, and will shortly recreate the procession of Members from the Chamber to a service of thanksgiving on 8 May 1945. In addressing the House on that day, Winston Churchill conveyed his

“deep gratitude to this House of Commons, which has proved itself the strongest foundation for waging war that has ever been seen in the whole of our long history. We have all of us made our mistakes, but the strength of the Parliamentary institution has been shown to enable it at the same moment to preserve all the title deeds of democracy while waging war in the most stern and protracted form.”—[Official Report, 8 May 1945; Vol. 0, c. 1869.]

As we represent our parliamentary democracy today, these words ring as true now as they did then. We will never forget the sacrifice, bravery and spirit and the millions of lives lost in defeating fascism.

Today, we also remember Her late Majesty the Queen, whose youthful, joyous celebration symbolised VE Day, and whose long reign shaped the peace and prosperity that followed it. Today and every day, we remember the immense contribution of the second world war generation and thank them for their service.

[Kirith Entwistle (Bolton North East) (Lab)]

Women’s Aid reports that 82% of domestic abuse cases go unreported. Reporting and prosecution rates are disproportionately lower for black and minoritised survivors. Does the Leader of the House agree that consistent collection and publication of disaggregated data is key to assessing whether Government actions are working for all women?

[Lucy Powell]

Absolutely—I thank my hon. Friend for raising that. As she knows, violence against women and girls is a national emergency and tackling it is one of the key missions of this Government. I agree that this data needs to be brought to light and disaggregated.

Business of the House

Debate between Lucy Powell and Kirith Entwistle

Thursday 24th April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Lucy Powell]

This sounds like a troubling case in my hon. Friend’s constituency. He is right that high-quality consultation for developments is imperative, and it does not sound as though that happened or that proper procedures were followed in this case. I will certainly raise it with Ministers for him.

[Kirith Entwistle (Bolton North East) (Lab)]

Too many of my constituents in Bolton are trapped in overcrowded homes. As a result, too many parents are left with no option but to share rooms with their adolescent children. Outdated overcrowding rules and a shortage of housing mean that pleas for help are routinely dismissed. Does my right hon. Friend agree that families deserve better and that everyone deserves a decent home that is fit for purpose?

[Lucy Powell]

As my hon. Friend will know, this Government are committed to providing more affordable homes, so that we can tackle the issues of overcrowding and poor housing that she describes in her constituency. I think this would make a good topic for a debate.

Business of the House

Debate between Lucy Powell and Kirith Entwistle

Thursday 16th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Lucy Powell]

It is not Labour Members droning on—in fact, none of them has today raised a point of the kind he mentions—but we would all welcome a debate in this House on the performance of the Scottish Government and whether they are delivering for the Scottish people, because they now have the powers and the funds, so they have no excuses.

[Kirith Entwistle (Bolton North East) (Lab)]

I associate myself with the remarks of the Leader of the House about welcoming a long-overdue ceasefire. My constituent Dr Ryann Sowden has been working tirelessly to support survivors of that crisis. I commend the Bolton Council of Mosques for its unwavering advocacy of peace. The House should reflect that determination. Will the Leader of the House work with colleagues across Government to get vital aid into Gaza before more lives are tragically lost?

[Lucy Powell]

I thank my hon. Friend for raising that issue, which she has raised consistently in the House—it is a matter of deep concern and importance for her. We all very much welcome the developments in Israel and Gaza over recent hours and days, and we all want a long-lasting ceasefire and for the hostages to be released. Crucially, as she says, it will be important to surge much-needed aid into Gaza, so that we get people back to living there safely, with water and food.

Business of the House

Debate between Lucy Powell and Kirith Entwistle

Thursday 21st November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Lucy Powell]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for raising the issues facing Queen’s Hospital in his constituency, particularly the A&E department. My husband is an A&E consultant, so I hear most evenings about the crisis facing our accident and emergency departments. That crisis has increased exponentially over the past 14 years, I am sorry to say, and he and other doctors working on the frontline would contrast that starkly with the situation under the last Labour Government, which provided support to accident and emergency. I am sure the Health Secretary would be delighted to debate those issues with the hon. Gentleman and the Opposition, because A&E needs some serious investment, which is what this Government are all about.

[Kirith Entwistle (Bolton North East) (Lab)]

I rise to point out the recent changes to the proxy voting scheme. As a member of the Modernisation Committee, can I ask for a debate in Government time about further changes to the procedures and working practices of the House, so that we can create a more accessible and family-friendly culture?

[Lucy Powell]

I thank my hon. Friend for all her fantastic work on the Modernisation Committee. She has been a really good member of the Committee; in fact, all the members of the Committee, including those from Opposition parties and the shadow Leader of the House, have been very good and there has been consensual work towards the endeavour of modernisation. The proxy voting change that I have just announced will be on the Order Paper for consideration by the House next week. I hope we can have many opportunities to discuss further issues in the coming months.