Business of the House

Markus Campbell-Savours Excerpts

Thursday 10th July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Lucy Powell]

May I join the shadow Leader of the House in marking the 20th anniversary of the 7/7 bombings? We all remember that day well, and I am sure that the whole House will want to remember all those who died and those who were affected by it.

May I also take this opportunity to welcome the newly announced new director of the Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme, the highly qualified Miriam Minty, who will be starting in September?

As the shadow Leader of the House said, this week we welcomed the French President to the UK for a state visit. I thought his address to both Houses on Tuesday was excellent and historic, and I thank you, Mr Speaker, your team and all those involved in organising it. I thought that it underlined the deep and enduring relationship between our two great countries. The visit concludes today with a summit, and I will ensure that the House is updated at the earliest opportunity on any agreements that we come to as part of that.

I have to say it is a bit galling that, week in, week out, the right hon. Gentleman raises the proposed strike action by junior doctors, which is extremely disappointing. We do not think strike action is necessary, given that the NHS is finally moving in the right direction. Strikes would put that recovery at risk, affecting patients and letting down our collective obligations to those we are here to serve. We have delivered a very generous pay settlement, but we are keen to work constructively. The Health Secretary’s door remains open—he will be in the House shortly.

Our approach is very different from that which the Conservatives left us. They left the NHS on its knees, with waiting lists at a record high, and with over half a million appointments and operations cancelled due to strike action in just one year. And it was not just the doctors; the rail strikes cost the economy over £1 billion, the teachers’ strike lost 600 teaching days in one year, and the Conservatives went to war with public sector workers week in, week out. I did notice, though, that the Leader of the Opposition is today giving a speech in which she will talk about the “ticking time bomb” that has been left. Too right there is a ticking time bomb—it is the Conservatives’ ticking time bomb. We all know that they left mines all over the place, and we are having to sweep them out.

The right hon. Gentleman wants to know how our first year in office is going, and I am happy to tell him. We promised 2 million extra NHS appointments, and we have delivered a million more than that. We said that we would get waiting lists down, and they are coming down month on month. Interest rates are coming down. Net migration is coming down from a record high under the Conservatives. We have secured three trade deals—trade deals that they once hailed but never delivered, and we have got them going. We have created nearly 400,000 new jobs since the election. We have recruited an extra 3,000 new police officers. We have built nearly 200,000 new homes, established Great British Energy, extended the warm home discount to 6 million more households, expanded free school meals for half a million more children, and opened free breakfast clubs. We have banned bonuses for water bosses who have been polluting our rivers, and wages grew more in our first 10 months in office than they did in the Conservatives’ last 10 years in office. I am happy to debate him any time on our record, and I thank him for the opportunity to do so today.

I do feel slightly sorry for the shadow Leader of the House when, coming here week in and week out, it is just going from bad to worse for the Conservative party, is it not? Perhaps that is why he goes so deep into history in his questions, because he does not want to talk about recent history. He is one of the first up this morning after—let us be honest—a big defection overnight, the latest in a long line of those fleeing the sinking ship. Personally, I would not put have put Jake Berry—best friend of Boris Johnson and former chair of the Conservative party—down as a likely defector. It really is that bad for the Conservatives. However, I could not have put it better myself, when Jake said

“we’ve got a Conservative Party that doesn’t seem to know what it stands for any more… the Conservatives have lost their way. They’ve abandoned their principles. They’ve abandoned the British people.”

He is right, isn’t he?

Having said that, and we cannot pass this by, that defection does not make up for what has been a terrible week for the Reform party, especially when it comes to, shall we say, HR matters. The bigger story for Reform this week is that it really is becoming the party of sleaze and scandal, and of dud and dodgy personnel. I do not think this is really the right moment for it to start ditching its vetting procedures. Even though it has only a handful of MPs, its Chief Whip seems to have had a busier week than ours, and that is saying something. I am not sure if Reform will welcome our partnership with the French on tackling the small boats this week, but it is already enthusiastically implementing a policy of one in, one out.

[Markus Campbell-Savours (Penrith and Solway) (Lab)]

Early-day motion 1496 sets out how Samiul Ahmed bought Cockermouth’s Old Courthouse for a knock-down price and, ignoring professional advice, allowed the listed building to collapse into the River Cocker.

[That this House notes in July 2022 Samiul Ahmed of Tower Hamlets purchased The Grade II listed Old Courthouse, Cockermouth, a building with an annual income of £38,000, believed to be worth £250,000, for the reduced price of £51,000, due to riverbank erosion and the need for major structural repairs; further notes that in pursuit of quick profit, Ahmed arranged a structural survey and associated works, but on learning of the extent of wider liability and ignoring professional advice, had support props removed, leading to major deterioration and collapse of a portion of the building into the River Cocker in October 2023; also notes that after three years the building remains unsupported, a partial ruin; notes that the Environment Agency mapped increased flood risk to Cockermouth as a result, and expressed concern that the front of the building is also undermined and at risk of collapse; observes that Ahmed failed to pay contractors, has been successfully sued for £62,000 by one local company, and that he has conspired to avoid liability by arranging transfer of his personal ownership of the building to a different legal entity, Halal Group Ltd.; believes that Ahmed is now seeking to transfer responsibility to Cumberland Council taxpayers a potential bill which could range between £1 and £4 million; asserts it should not be the responsibility of taxpayers to pick up the liabilities of persons whose motivation has been property speculation for a quick profit; and calls upon Mr Ahmed to fund the restoration costs.]

So it was disappointing to hear the owner on Radio Cumbria this morning continuing to blame the council. My message to Mr Ahmed is: “Publish your plans and prove you can finance them, and do it quick, before the town floods through your inaction.” Would the Leader of the House agree that a debate on council powers to deal with greedy, incompetent property speculators is well overdue?

[Lucy Powell]

I thank my hon. Friend for raising this important constituency case. He is absolutely right that we need more accountability, and we need communities to have more powers over these vital local assets. That is exactly what we will be doing when we introduce the English devolution and community empowerment Bill later.