"I thank Members who have contributed to today’s debate. We have heard excellent and very thoughtful speeches from Members in all parts of the House, but particularly from those on the Labour Benches.
This debate is not about whether taxes should go up to fund services; it is about the …..." Steve Reed - View Speech
"It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Pritchard. As many others have done, I congratulate the hon. Member for Twickenham (Munira Wilson) on securing this important debate. She has big shoes to fill, following her illustrious predecessor, but has certainly made an impressive start this afternoon.
"The hon. Lady makes an important point. Many of the outcomes for these children in later life are negative when they could have been positive.
The failure to fund high-needs services adequately means that lower-level support suffers as a result. The Children’s Commissioner says that speech and language services and …..." Steve Reed - View Speech
"It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Evans. I congratulate the hon. Member for Stockport (Ann Coffey) on securing this extremely timely and important debate. I thank all the Members who have taken part and the all-party parliamentary group on runaway and missing children and adults for …..." Steve Reed - View Speech
"I am listening with interest to what the Minister has to say. She is absolutely right about the need to prevent, to reduce the numbers of children needing to go into the care system. Is she aware—she must have conversations with the heads of such services, as I do—that the …..." Steve Reed - View Speech
"I listened with interest to the Minister’s warm words, but I suspect that we will hear much this afternoon about the gap between the rhetoric and the reality in the Government’s approach to civil society. Ever since they were elected, this Government’s method has been to underfund, undermine and sideline …..." Steve Reed - View Speech
"My hon. Friend is absolutely right. As I said, 600 youth centres have closed, and all the activities that could have gone on in them have been taken away. That is a crying shame.
Sadly, the Government have not finished with that agenda; there is worse to come. Their new …..." Steve Reed - View Speech
"I agree. It is outrageous that the Government are actively penalising people for volunteering when we need to be encouraging volunteering. In particular, it helps people who are looking for work to develop the skills that they need to gain employment. I hope the Minister will take that away and …..." Steve Reed - View Speech
"What is destroying our high streets are the right hon. Gentleman’s Government’s business rate hikes.
The community and voluntary groups that are part of all of this innovation are pointing the way forward, not only to a better society, but to a new politics—not the centralised state or the marketised …..." Steve Reed - View Speech
"I congratulate the many Members on both sides of the House who have contributed to such an important debate. On my own side, my hon. Friends the Members for Tooting (Dr Allin-Khan), for Cardiff Central (Jo Stevens), for Harrow West (Gareth Thomas), for Keighley (John Grogan) and for Rhondda (Chris …..." Steve Reed - View Speech