Category: Speeches

  • Andrew Bowie – 2026 Statement on North Sea Oil

    Andrew Bowie – 2026 Statement on North Sea Oil

    The statement made by Andrew Bowie, the Conservative MP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, on 22 September 2026.

    We are on the brink of a serious oil supply shock in Europe.

    We are sending RAF planes to support the Saudi’s re-secure shipping routes and pipelines.

    Diesel is about to cross $2 a litre.

    And yet, in spite all of that, it remains the policy of this Labour Government to ban new oil licences in our own North Sea!

    And they still refuse to approve Rosebank.

    It isn’t just mad, it is unforgivable. A complete and utter dereliction of duty.

    Energy Security IS National Security. Labour can’t be trusted with either.

  • Andy Burnham – 2026 Statement on Sarah Everard Murder

    Andy Burnham – 2026 Statement on Sarah Everard Murder

    The statement made by Andy Burnham, the Prime Minister, on 21 September 2026.

    The brutal abduction, rape and murder of Sarah Everard at the hands of a serving police officer changed everything. As the country recoiled in collective horror, we were forced to confront the reality women and girls face every day.

    For me, that happened when watching the details of Sarah’s death unfold on the news with my daughters. As they watched, they began to open up about some of the things they and their friends have to deal with.

    Sarah’s loss was at the most violent end of a scale of misogyny that women experience all around them. It begins with words designed to disrespect them, or catcalling to intimidate women on their own streets. It can grow into harassment, stalking and image-based abuse that seeks to humiliate and dehumanise. At its most extreme, it can lead to violence, abuse and murder. The outcomes may be different, but they have the same poisonous roots.

    This behaviour corrodes our whole society. Yet it is women who are expected to change their behaviour to accommodate it. Wearing trainers so they are ready to run. Changing their route home. Holding their keys between their fingers.

    Checking over their shoulder. And shamefully, it is women who must find the strength to speak out, an experience which too often becomes as traumatic as the original abuse. That has to change. And it has to change now.

    We must end the shame placed on victims and put the responsibility where it belongs: on the men who abuse them. Instead of asking women and girls: what are you doing to avoid this? We should be asking ourselves: what are we doing to change this?

    I am committed to tackling violence against women and girls and getting justice for victims. When I took office, I was presented with some good plans to roll out specialist rape and sexual abuse police offence teams. But these were not due to be introduced until 2029. I have now brought these reforms forward to next year.

    Prosecution rates for rape remain shamefully low. Victims wait years for justice. Cases drag on. And too many victims eventually withdraw, exhausted by a system that was supposed to deliver justice for them. It is not good enough.

    We will ensure court buildings have separate entrances and private rooms to support vulnerable victims. And we will create a new victim support role in courts that will mean women are not alone in this difficult period of their lives. In short, we will rebalance the scales of justice and put women and girls first.

    These changes are long overdue and will help, but directing our efforts on prosecution alone is not enough. We must do more to stop these crimes happening in the first place. To fix this problem, we require a culture shift in our society and a focus on how we prevent male violence against women and girls.

    This starts with education. Our new curriculum will teach young people about healthy relationships and guide them away from harmful misogynistic influences. We have made strangulation pornography illegal, so young men do not grow up thinking sexual violence is normal and young women do not feel pressured into dangerous acts. We will teach students to spot the signs of abuse as they head off to university. And the Minister for Women and Equalities will lead a new national taskforce to tackle and prevent misogyny.

    I know that too often people feel like politics does not work for them and that the government is unable to make a difference when it matters. I am determined to change that. I want to see every part of government and every part of society work together on this issue. And early next year, I will bring together experts from across the UK and around the world for a summit to find new solutions.

    My daughters challenged me that evening to do my bit so every woman can live their life free from fear. That is a responsibility I take very seriously both as a man and as Prime Minister. Together, we can change our culture, make our country safer and bring back hope.

  • Alison McGovern – 2026 Speech on Dementia

    Alison McGovern – 2026 Speech on Dementia

    The speech made by Alison McGovern, the Minister for Social Care, in London on 17 September 2026.

    It’s lovely to be with you all and I just want to say thank you, Michelle, and to the whole team for welcoming me here this morning. It’s been a very exciting time to take on my new brief as Minister of State for Social Care and Mental Health, and it’s wonderful to see you all today.

    Now, I just want to start my contribution with a little story, because in the House of Commons nearly 13 years ago a backbench opposition Member of Parliament intervened on the Shadow Health Secretary during the debate on what became the 2014 Care Act, proudly telling him that a hundred of her constituents had turned out to a public meeting on social care.

    Now, the Shadow Health Secretary at the time replied by acknowledging her recent campaign against zero-hours contracts for care workers, and he said that with such poor conditions for care workers, he was particularly bothered about young people being able to join the profession.

    You’ve probably guessed that the Shadow Health Secretary is now the Prime Minister, and that backbencher was me. And I start with this blast from the past to explain why we meet here at a very important time.

    In the 13 years since that exchange, many issues have crowded the political agenda, from Brexit to Covid, the cost of living, and the cost to society of hate rising around the world.

    It’s about time for a more hopeful story to capture our attention. And I believe the subject of this conference is exactly that — from the despair that too many feel when the diagnosis is Alzheimer’s, to the hope that one day this disease will be something to be managed and no longer a determinant of your future.

    Now, it’s true we should also be hopeful, that we should also be hopeful, not just because we have a new Prime Minister who knows this subject intimately, and I hope you will all have seen from the football last night that, in fact, in the G7 we have two prime ministers who know and care about this subject intimately. And I also want to add that I know that the thoughts of everyone at this conference will be with Andy and his mum and his brothers and their whole family, grieving the loss of their dad. I know that your thoughts are with them.

    And it’s also true, not just because we’ve now speeded up the Casey Commission and social care is rising up the agenda, but also we should have hope because the science of our brains is giving us that hope for the next generation that we will be able to prevent, contain and treat dementia like never before.

    But before I turn to the science, I want to dwell on social care. Now, again, forgive me for telling a short story. Over 16 years ago, I asked my friends and family in the Wirral to send me to Parliament. It is an absolute honour to stand to be elected in your hometown. I thought I knew all the issues requiring attention in my part of the north of England.

    We needed industrial jobs, apprenticeships for young people, and we needed to keep families’ heads financially above water. But in that election, when I knocked on door after door, after door, I was shocked how many people told me their issue was care — whether a family member with dementia, a partner working in a care home, or a constituent desperately worried about their carers struggling to get around a complicated day of 15-minute appointments. There was a hidden crisis I had failed to see.

    And I wish that I could tell you that that changed long ago, and that all MPs in my 16 years in Parliament since have been focused on social care. We haven’t. So I want to ask: what is it about social care that means it gets pushed to one side, never quite the challenge — until recently — that politicians walk towards?

    We are told people just don’t like to think about getting old. Yet there are plenty of people who will opine on pensions, the triple lock, inheritance tax, and a plethora of other issues that affect us as we age.

    I think there are two factors that hide social care: the role of working-class women in care, and the experience of trauma.

    First, women. Of the 1.5 million strong care workforce, just under four in five are women; more than one in five are on a zero-hours contract; more than two in five aren’t working full time; and a third of them are caring unpaid for an adult, likely a family member, outside work. And around 80% of care workers working for independent providers receive within 10% of the minimum wage — the legal minimum that anyone can earn. So the odds are set against this workforce getting a hearing.

    Moreover, it’s a noted failure, pointed out through the years, that economics, particularly the economic models we use to oversee policy, have historically accounted badly for care. In the history of economics, caring responsibilities were not costed but assumed to be given freely by women.

    And as more women worked beyond marriage, their caring responsibilities were thought of as a constraint to the potential labour supply, but not as the crucial infrastructure in our economy without which productivity and growth would be held back.

    We’re still going through this transition. In 2023, the Office for Budget Responsibility recognised that improving childcare would help more people move into paid work, but social care still lives with the consequences of that age-old misunderstanding of care work, which assumed no cost for the labour, ignoring its crucial and foundational role for the rest of the economy.

    Investment in social care is not just a matter of fairness. It’s a matter of seeing the work done by 50 per cent of the population. So, as the population ages, more and more people will face hard choices: keep working, dividing yourself badly between a career and a family, go part-time, or give up your job to care for the person you love. And unless we have social care that helps families keep life in a better balance, that is no choice at all.

    And too many women, and many other, now experience the constraints of providing both childcare and care for an older loved one — it can feel like drowning.

    We know people are leaving work to care for a family member. Recent polling commissioned by Carers UK estimates that about 1,500 people in Britain quit their jobs each day to become unpaid carers, often people with many years’ experience in the labour market whose knowledge we can ill afford to lose.

    And I want to pause on these people for a moment, because I think their experience explains why social care has been a cause without enough campaigners in recent years.

    It’s not that people don’t want to talk about it — it’s that they can’t. Too many of my constituents have lived the trauma of seeing a strong, determined loved one become a shadow of themself.

    To be a child and lose a parent, as I found out only recently, is a horribly predictable shock at any age. But to be a child and experience your parent not knowing you is torture, to try to comfort a parent crying for their own parents, to help a parent lost in this world to try to find any memory that can calm them, is traumatic.

    And I think that’s why people don’t want to talk about social care, particularly care for people with dementia. It’s too often a trauma, and as a result it’s been neglected for far too long. But that is all the more reason it must be a priority right now.

    We need to get our economy firing on all cylinders everywhere, and I think care is a crucial part of the answer for that. And we need the hope in our hearts that the traumas we have lived through can heal. And I believe the plan for social care can do both. Politics doesn’t need to fail. Changing social care will show that we are prepared to walk towards the hardest of problems and hide from them no longer.

    Our Fair Pay Agreement lays the foundations for a National Care Service. These agreements are the first of their kind for the adult social care workforce, with long overdue boost to their pay, terms and professional development. A national agreement, negotiated between unions and employers, and backed by half a billion pounds for the first agreement alone.

    It’s a major step forward to improve pay and conditions, and give staff the status and respect that they deserve, not just once, year-on-year. And it has addressed the power imbalance that has meant women and others working in care have been looked down on for way too long.

    This is just the beginning, though. Skills England estimate that there will need to be an extra 200,000 adult social care workers by 2035. And it will not have escaped anyone’s notice that we have nearly one million young people out of work. But you may not be aware that just 7% of the care workforce are under 25, lower than you would expect compared to their representation in the overall workforce.

    And I think that’s a huge missed opportunity, because as Minister of State for Social Care and Mental Health, I know only too well what some of the next generation are experiencing. Their opportunities for work experience have been constrained, particularly by Covid and other things, and too many have been left to struggle with very poor mental health.

    Those people deserve a job, a start, and to have a first boss who can help them learn alongside the dignity of their first pay packet. Now, when I point this out, some people tell me that care is not for everyone. They tell me people don’t want to wipe old people’s bums. And I would just ask those people to come with me to a care home or on a domiciliary care shift, because quite apart from the fact that dementia also affects people at younger ages, I would just like to show them the emotional intelligence it takes to help an older person, proud, but frail, to have a shower; allowing someone to be vulnerable with you, giving them the confidence to let you help them. That takes intelligence and kindness — and it’s a skill that most politicians could do with learning.

    Working out in the moment what a person can still do for themselves, and helping only to give them the surety to keep going, requires an attention to detail that could help the next generation go on to great careers.

    And I have hope that not only will our plan to change social care serve our citizens better, but also that it will play a central role in paying our debt to the Covid generation, for all those who’ve missed out on the chance they should have had, and who had the temperament to work in care but not the experience on their CV. I want to help them get a job and give them hope for the future. It will also set a clear direction for the health and social care sector to take over the next 10 years.

    And so, now, I want to turn to my second source of hope: science. Now, I know you’ve already heard from Professor Catherine Mummery, who has done so much to build the evidence base on dementia treatments as Director of the UK Dementia Trials Network.

    And after two short years, the network can already point to a proud record of supporting 10 trials and for some of these studies, the UK Dementia Trials Network was the first site in the world to recruit participants, which is another reason to be hopeful about this country’s potential.

    In July, Professor Mummery also gave a fascinating presentation of the CELIA Phase 2 trial results, which showed that the drug, diranersen — I hope I’ve pronounced that right — removed harmful proteins from the brain and slowed cognitive decline. And this is coming at the tail end of a decade that has seen so many breakthroughs.

    I think, if only I could go back in time now and tell Andy Burnham and I, in that House of Commons debate what we know now about Alzheimer’s and dementia, I think he and I would have been so happy.

    The Lancet Commission on Dementia, which gave us a systematic understanding of the ways in which we could modify dementia risk, including addressing hearing loss, which until now we just took to be a natural part of ageing. Blood-based biomarker tests, which may now indicate Alzheimer’s disease pathology, which we’re trialling through READ-OUT and ADAPT trials funded in partnership with the Alzheimer’s Society. We now have 158 drugs being tested in clinical trials, compared to only 24 a decade ago.

    Through the Medical Research Council, the government has funded several studies which will allow us to better understand the neurodegenerative diseases that give rise to dementia.

    Take the Sleep Boost project, which is using sleep recordings, brain activity monitoring, and blood and spinal fluid tests to assess the importance of how slow wave sleep impacts dementia risk. Now, we know sleep plays a vital role in removing harmful proteins from the brain, potentially slowing the development of Alzheimer’s disease, and this study will be recruiting widely, including South Asian communities, who it’s possible may be more affected by poor sleep.

    The SPIN-D multidisciplinary dementia network are funding some really exciting projects, like an evaluation of a physical activity programme inspired by martial arts to see whether it can reduce the risk of dementia.

    But we also know that the average time taken for evidence and innovation to be incorporated into practice is too long at 17 years, which is why the government has committed £5 million to the Dementia Patient Flow Challenge to work out what we need to do to speed up diagnosis and get innovation into practice.

    And I’ll just pause at this point to say that the report that the Alzheimer’s Society published today on going on the journey that we have been on with cancer with Alzheimer’s and dementia. I think that is spot on. The science says we can hope. The question is: can we get it into practice quickly? And that is the job now.

    Now, speaking of getting things done, Baroness Casey will address you this afternoon, and I was very proud to welcome her to the Wirral earlier this month. She recommended we move faster on dementia trials, and we will — turbocharging participation in trials to 2,000 people this year, furthering our investment in the AD-SMART Platform Trial, and standing up the next phase of the Dementia Trials Accelerator. We want these trials to be available to people across the country, because wherever you live, you should have the same chances as everyone else to participate in life-changing research.

    Because this science is not just in pursuit of knowing more, important though that is, but of our lives being more. This science is directed at undoing the trauma of watching a loved one disappear, in all but body before us. Twinned with political efforts on all sides to find a way to provide better, easier, more predictable care. This science can give us hope.

    And we have another reason for hope just now, and that’s the policy decisions we’re taking with the most pro-social-care Prime Minister in history.

    Dementia has been neglected for far too long, and nowhere is this division between health and social care felt more sharply than by people living with dementia and their families, too often left to navigate a shattered system at the most difficult time in their lives.

    That’s why this year we will publish the first ever Modern Service Framework for Frailty and Dementia, our guidebook for better support. It will bring health and care workers together, adhering to a clear set of national standards, sharpening the priorities, raising expectations of the help that people living with dementia and their families should receive, because we must put a floor under the kind of care that people can expect, and we must improve it too, giving the workforce the direction and support it needs to reach the best standards.

    And nobody knows that better than this audience, because I know so many of you have helped shape the framework over the past year. So thank you for putting your expertise, creativity and commitment at the service of our carers and people who depend on care.

    Now, we will need that support again as we act on Louise’s recommendation to appoint a Dementia Tsar, backed with real expertise I’m going to waste no time in doing.

    Nobody wants a future where we can live longer but do less. We want a future where our loved ones stay with us for more years, with more joy and more life to live.

    Where dementia has been a burden for too many to carry the efforts of those in science and social care together can lift that weight off their shoulders.

    Families can be free to enjoy their time and make more memories. That, I think, is the vision for all of us here today, and I’m very excited and pleased to be joining the fight.

  • Sarah Jones – 2026 Speech at the Police Superintendents’ Association Conference

    Sarah Jones – 2026 Speech at the Police Superintendents’ Association Conference

    The speech made by Sarah Jones, the Policing Minister, in Stratford on 15 September 2026.

    Last week, I stood with the policing family and the people of Cleveland to honour PC Blades and PC Clough at their funerals, just as I stood earlier in the year at the funeral of PC Jess Turnbull, who was only 19.

    Along with PC Corke, PC Najeeb, PC Chester. Six officers have died since this time last year, and I know the impact of that will still be raw for everybody, especially those who knew and worked alongside those officers who lost their lives.

    I realise too that the work doesn’t stop just because someone has lost their life and something dreadful has happened. You and your colleagues have to carry on serving your communities despite the shock and sadness, and I saw that in Cleveland on the two days that I was there.

    So let me say clearly, on behalf of the government, that we value you, we cherish you, and we stand by you today and always.

    In honouring the memory of those officers who have lost their lives, and all the officers and staff who have died in the line of duty, we have a responsibility to give thanks for their service and their sacrifice, and that of every man and woman who goes to work every day with a singular aim: keeping the rest of us safe.

    While recent events have brought that responsibility to the fore in the most painful way, it is something that has been at the forefront of my mind ever since I was appointed a year ago. And it’s why I was also so proud to have been reappointed to this post when Andy Burnham became Prime Minister, and to have the opportunity to carry on our work together.

    Looking back at my speech here last year, I observed that I was not a police officer and, much to the relief of the people you serve, that remains the case today.

    The point I was making then about not knowing everything and the need to work together, I can see even more clearly now. 

    Because the last 12 months have taught me so much.

    About the challenges of policing in an online age. About the split-second operational decisions in situations the rest of us can barely comprehend. About the painstaking investigations carried out over months and years to tackle the most dangerous threats.

    And the obstacles, the really frustrating obstacles, that stop the service performing to the levels it could reach. And, perhaps most of all, about the enduring courage that is the hallmark of British policing.

    So, my first message to you all – and please convey this to your teams – is one of heartfelt thanks. 

    Not just for the high-profile operations and feats of supreme bravery, but also for the work that often goes unseen but matters so much, from daily acts of local police work, to securing the entire country.

    There are few, if any, public services with such a broad and crucial role in our national life. No one understands that better than you.

    As operational leaders, you are uniquely placed within the system, helping to shape your forces’ long-term strategies in a range of critical areas, as well as overseeing the work of those grappling with the realities of fighting crime and protecting the public on the ground.

    Over the last year I have tried to talk to, go and see as many front-line teams as possible to build my understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing the service. In doing so I have sought to strengthen the lines of communication between forces and the government. 

    In one way or another, you will have contributed to that. In fact, I would guess there is no item or issue that crosses my desk without some level of superintendent involvement, and I am grateful for that.

    One of the topics I spoke about last year was having a shared sense of mission and going on this journey together. I think we can all agree that has not always been the case. But it is something we have worked hard to get right.

    While there is undoubtedly much more to be done, we can reflect on some really significant achievements. 

    To start with an issue that matters a lot to me personally because of where I live and the people that I represent, we are making really good progress across the country in our mission to halve knife crime in a decade.  

    Overall knife crime has fallen by 11%. Knife homicides are down by 26%. Hospital admissions for stabbings are down 13%. Knife-enabled robberies are down by 16%. And we have taken more than 63,000 knives off our streets.

    And the impact of all this work can’t be overstated. Our communities are safer as a result.

    There is, of course, much more to do, and earlier this year we published a plan setting out how we want to go further in key areas including prevention and policing. 

    Neighbourhood policing has been a big focus for us. Through the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, we delivered more than 3,800 officers and PCSOs into neighbourhood policing roles, which exceeded our target for the first year.

    This means more visible neighbourhood policing, and a greater focus on the issues that matter most to local communities. Building on that strong start, we need to keep going as we work towards the target of 13,000 additional neighbourhood policing personnel by the end of this Parliament.

    And that’s about more than just numbers. We are also restoring the link between policing and communities with named, contactable officers for every neighbourhood and guaranteed 72-hour response times for neighbourhood queries.  

    I’ve just come before here from a visit in Coventry, where I was talking to local police officers tackling antisocial behaviour, dodgy vape shops, the challenges that we know our communities care about so much, the value of neighbourhood policing, the intelligence and the wisdom that they have was there to see, and it is on every visit that I go on.

    Our use of technology also continues to grow. Take facial recognition for example. I have seen that in my own constituency, catching wanted rapists and robbers, taking them off the streets. 

    The benefits to public safety are clear, and we are tripling the number of live facial recognition units across the country.

    Knife crime, neighbourhood policing and technology – these are just some of the areas where we have taken really important strides forward together. 

    But none of us would suggest it’s plain sailing. We still face significant challenges. 

    I know the demand placed on policing is a source of constant concern for you.

    Nick and I have had this conversation many times, and I appreciate it and I understand it. Our task together is to find ways of reducing and effectively managing that demand.

    I spent the weekend on the phone with a constituent, who was a young girl who had mental health problems, who’d been in and out of mental health hospitals, and had been arrested by the police because of her behaviour on the street.

    And the police were having to look after her all weekend because there was nowhere else for her to go. That will be something that you all recognise, and is one of the challenges that we know we face. So together we have to find ways to reduce demand and head off the pressures that we can see.

    The Police Efficiency and Collaboration Programme is cutting unnecessary bureaucracy. Again, something that when I speak to rank and file officers, they always talk about and show me.

    We need to modernise those outdated processes while working to free forces from responding to incidents that would be best dealt with by other agencies, like mental health continues under the Right Care Right Person approach. 

    We are also investing in responsible AI, such as audio-visual redaction tooling.

    Previously, trained police officers, as you know, were spending hours, sometimes days, painstakingly drawing black boxes frame by frame around digital footage as part of case file preparation.

    Over the last two years, we have been supporting the majority of forces with AI software that does this in minutes, freeing up around 1 million hours a year for redeployment if adopted nationally.

    And last month, I announced a new AI-enabled 101 triage system, which will drastically reduce the 4 million calls policing gets a year that are actually for other organisations. 

    We all know there are processes and procedures that make policing more difficult. Often for good, and valid reasons. But sometimes because that is how it has always been done. 

    Where this is the case, we want to know about it and we want to help find the solution. We can, for example, better use the tools officers already have to reduce the time spent on briefing at the start of a shift. How can we help on that?

    We’re working with industry, and there will no doubt be many areas that are ripe for progress as technology continues to evolve.

    Technology offers many opportunities for good. But it also brings risk. 

    To say that criminals today are tech-savvy is an understatement.

    We see this across a range of threats from fraud to child sexual abuse, serious violence to drug-dealing, and the generation of deep fake sexual imagery without consent. 

    It is not enough merely to keep pace with these evolving threats. We need to get ahead of them – and we are supporting you to find ways to do that, including through PoliceAI, the new national centre dedicated to the responsible development, testing and scaling of AI across all forces in England and Wales.

    We know, too, that you and your colleagues are operating in a complex and contested environment. Some of the most acute challenges facing our society play out in our streets, with implications for policing.   

    It wasn’t long after this conference last year that we had that appalling act of terrorism at Heaton Park synagogue in Manchester. 

    And this terrible trend of violence towards British Jews has continued this year, with a series of arson incidents in London, as well as the attack in Golders Green in April.

    In response, we have ramped up resources for policing and protective security, so that our Jewish communities can have the safety and the confidence they deserve. 

    Clearly, it’s going to be a major area of focus for us all in the days, weeks and months ahead, especially at the moment during the High Holy Days. 

    We know, too, that the escalation in hatred and hostility isn’t confined to antisemitism. The threat faced by British Muslims has also grown, demanding an equally robust response from us all.

    As recent events show, public order remains a complex and challenging issue. We had the incidents in Dover and Portsmouth just 10 days ago.

    And I would reiterate the point that the Home Secretary made to your chief constables last week, about the need to move quickly and effectively, making full use of available powers.

    While the right to protest is an essential part of our democracy and one we must and always will protect, I also recognise the pressure policing such events place on your forces.

    There is, undoubtedly, a strong appetite for greater clarity across the service. 

    And that’s why the Home Secretary asked Lord Macdonald to review the public order and hate crime framework. Lord Macdonald has submitted his findings and we will publish them, and our response, soon. 

    Let me turn to resources. This government remains committed to supporting the police mission and has increased police funding by £2 billion since being elected.

    As we change police force structures, the case for changing the funding formula is also well made. 

    We are committed to a proper review of the police funding formula to ensure that force funding is fair and keeps the public safe. A new approach to allocating funding will be brought in as part of our reforms to police structures. 

    Ultimately, we’re looking to ensure that more resources meet the frontline. 

    The successes we have had and the challenges we face are, in a sense, two sides of the same coin. Our achievements to date show what can be done when we work in tandem. 

    Driving down serious threats, becoming smarter and more modern in our approach and keeping a clear focus on the issues that matter most to our communities. When done to the world-class standards we know are possible, the potential of policing is enormous. 

    At the same time, that potential can only be realised if we set up the system for success, which brings me to police reform.

    We would all agree that policing is performing remarkably well given that much of the current system dates back to the 1960s. It is no longer well suited to the nature of modern crime or public expectations.  

    The fundamental issue is that policing is currently neither properly local enough nor properly national enough. Too often, officers and staff are having to work around existing structures rather than being supported by them.

    At present, there’s a heavy reliance on voluntary collaboration, part-time leadership arrangements and securing agreement across all 43 forces, which can make meaningful change really difficult to deliver.

    As a result, policing is not making the best possible use of data and technology, is not supporting and developing its workforce consistently, and it risks being outpaced by increasingly sophisticated criminal networks.

    Policing must evolve to meet modern crime and public expectations. At the local level, it needs to be organised closer to communities and more responsive to local priorities. At the national level, it must be better equipped to tackle increasing complex, cross-border threats. 

    The Police Reform White Paper set out our plans for the biggest structural changes in 200 years.

    At the heart of this programme is a commitment to strengthen local policing through the introduction of stronger and more empowered Local Policing Areas.  

    We’ll establish the National Police Service to tackle national threats, deliver national capabilities and support forces to provide a more consistent service to the public. 

    And we will introduce a force structure that reduces duplication, improves resilience and addresses the inefficiencies of maintaining 43 separate HR, finance and support functions, while ensuring forces have sufficient scale and capability to respond to major incidents.

    Reform isn’t just a structural exercise. 80% of the total police budget is spent on people. The officers and staff who invest heavily in their careers, who are the service’s most vital asset.  

    We are developing a new Police Workforce Strategy to ensure policing has the right people, with the right skills, in the right places, at the right time. 

    Strong, ethical and consistent leadership at every level is essential. Lord Blunkett and Lord Herbert’s report on that subject made a number of really important recommendations.

    We are actively going through all of those now with police leaders, and we will publish our full response to that in the autumn.

    I know people are hungry to get going on those changes, and that Lord Herbert, that I think you’ve already seen, is pushing us to go faster. And of course, you understand and recognise that.

    We are also committed to addressing longstanding concerns with accountability systems to drive up standards and improve both the public and police’s confidence.

    Yesterday, you heard from Jason Beer KC, who the Home Secretary and Lord Chancellor recently appointed alongside Dame Lynne Owens to lead an independent end-to-end review of the police accountability system. We really look forward to receiving their findings, and we absolutely recognise, as Nick said, how important that is for policing.

    To meet the challenges of today and tomorrow, policing cannot remain the same and that is clear. But what will never change is our commitment and the public’s commitment to supporting you and your families.

    The Police Covenant is central to that. And we are putting support for officers and staff at the heart of our police reform, with a package of measures backed by £2.4 million in additional funding this year.

    This is about doing right by those who put themselves under extraordinary pressure every day, facing situations that most people could barely imagine. And going to remarkable lengths to keep the rest of us safe.

    For what we ask of you and your colleagues, the least we can do, as a society, is make sure help is there when needed.

    That is the rationale behind the funding I mentioned. But we must go further. 

    I can therefore announce that I will ask His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services to provide an assessment of the current support landscape, and to consider what more needs to be done at force and national level to drive improvements in this area.

    And your role in this can’t be overstated. No one knows better than you what your teams need and how to manage them through a period of change. Put simply: this successful reform programme will live or die on you and on all of us working together.    

    Before I wrap up, a word of thanks and appreciation must go to Nick and his team for organising this conference. Thanks too, to the whole PSA membership for all that you do in the name of keeping people safe.

    Finally, I spoke at the beginning about the developments since we were last together a year ago, and I want to return to that theme in closing. 

    Perhaps the biggest change is that we have a new Prime Minister. He has spoken very clearly about his determination to lift up our country and restore hope.

    Everyone in this room and the teams they lead are integral to that effort. Because for people to realise their potential, they must be safe. And for communities to flourish, they must be secure.

    That is our mission. And if we build on the momentum we have generated over this past year, I know we can and will succeed.

    Thank you very much.

  • Chris Williamson – 2026 Resignation from Workers Party of Britain

    Chris Williamson – 2026 Resignation from Workers Party of Britain

    The statement made by Chris Williamson on 15 September 2026.

    I have tonight resigned from the Workers Party of Britain because I profoundly disagree with the decision to stand in the Holborn and St Pancras by-election. I have a huge amount of respect for George Galloway, but I believe we should get behind Zack Polanski on this occasion. My firm view is that the left must collaborate to defeat the Labour Party, Reform UK, Conservatives and Lib Dems because these parties are all in the pocket of the neoliberal Zionist war machine. Zack is best placed to do that in this by-election.

    I commend Zack’s recognition that the govt can intervene in the economy to create a good society because it issues the currency. I applaud his position on the so-called war on drugs, which has absolutely failed. I salute his pragmatic and compassionate analysis of illegal immigration. And I commend his assessment of the criminal justice system.

    I do have some differences on a small set of issues, most notably their current pro-EU and pro-NATO stances, but my view is that we should agree where we agree, which is on most things, and simply have fraternal disagreements where we don’t.

  • Matthew Pennycook – 2026 Speech at the Housing Community Summit

    Matthew Pennycook – 2026 Speech at the Housing Community Summit

    The speech made by Matthew Pennycook, the Housing and Planning Minister, in Liverpool on 9 September 2026.

    Thank you for that introduction Kirsty and good morning everyone.

    It is a privilege to take part in this year’s Housing Community Summit, and I extend my sincere thanks to the National Housing Federation and the Chartered Institute of Housing for inviting me to do so.

    It is also a real pleasure to be back in Liverpool – a city region with a hugely ambitious regeneration pipeline and a strong commitment to maximising social and affordable housing delivery. I commend and thank Steve Rotherham and Liam Robinson for their continued leadership in this area.

    Our housing market is resilient, and I have no doubt that it will not take long to recover, but as this audience knows only too well, these are tough times for housebuilding in England.

    Margins continue to be squeezed by a combination of factors including a sharp reduction in interest cover and a significant increase in building materials costs – not least owing to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

    The resulting viability challenges are affecting every part of the country, with pressures particularly acute in some housing markets.

    As councils and housing associations seek to take forward ambitious development programmes, they are having to cope not only with challenges in relation to site viability but also those arising from the pressing need to improve the safety and quality of the homes they already manage.

    The government is asking a lot from the sector, and we appreciate fully the difficult balancing act involved in seeking to build new social and affordable housing at scale while also improving the decency of existing stock.

    That is why, throughout the 26 months that this government has been in office, we’ve striven to work in close partnership with you, listening carefully to what you have told us you need to deliver your social purpose, and doing as much as we possibly can to accommodate your asks.

    I intend to argue today that we have made significant progress since coming to office just over two years ago, but that much more can and will be done in the years ahead to ensure councils and housing associations, alone and, I hope, in deepening partnership, can flourish and play their full part in the decade of social and affordable housing renewal that this government remains determined to deliver.

    It is a natural human habit to bank what you have, take it for granted and ask for more, but I want to begin by reminding you all just how far we have come over the past two years and two months.

    It is almost three years to the day that I gave a keynote speech at the NHF’s National Housing Summit in Birmingham as the then Shadow Housing and Planning Minister.

    I remember well the general air of polite scepticism that greeted my speech and the series of bold commitments it contained:

    To enhance compulsory purchase powers.

    To provide long-term rent policy certainty.

    To overhaul the Right to Buy Scheme to better protect existing social housing stock.   

    To deliver a marked increase in affordable housing supply.

    And to prioritise social rented homes.

    As you all know, we have not only fulfilled those promises, we have gone much, much further.

    When it comes to grant funding, we’ve made the biggest investment in social and affordable housing in living memory – a £39 billion pound 10-year Social and Affordable Homes Programme with a target to deliver at least 60% of homes as Social Rent; a target that I’m delighted to say we are on course to exceed in the first wave of allocations announced a fortnight ago.

    When it comes to rebuilding the sector’s capacity to borrow and invest in new and existing homes, we’ve not only secured a 10-year social housing rent settlement at CPI+1% but also Social Rent convergence; equal access to government remediation funding schemes for social landlords; and £2.5 billion of low-interest loans over this Spending Review period.

    When it comes to reinvigorating council housebuilding, we’ve not only returned Right to Buy maximum cash discounts to pre-2012 levels and allowed councils to keep 100% of Right to Buy receipts, but through our Social Housing Bill we are taking forward a comprehensive and radical package of reforms to Right to Buy that will give councils the confidence they need to increase the delivery of new council homes.

    And when it comes to providing regulatory clarity and certainty, whether through our updated Decent Homes Standard, our new Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards or the implementation of Awaab’s Law, we have sought to ensure that standards are proportionate as well as ambitious with implementation timelines that will allow social landlords to boost housing supply at the same time as driving up the quality of the homes they manage.

    Taken together, these measures have laid the foundations for that decade of social and affordable housing renewal we are so determined to deliver.

    I’ve dwelt on them at some length because as we look to the future, it is important to acknowledge that the outlook for the sector has been utterly transformed over the past 26 months as a result of the decisions taken by this [political content removed] government.

    Yet, notwithstanding what has been achieved, I know that councils and housing associations across the country want and need more support and more funding to deliver the high-quality homes and services that residents and communities need.

    I also recognise that we issued a “call to arms” to everyone with a role in social and affordable housing to step up and demonstrate they could deliver at scale and at pace, and that precisely because the positive response has been so overwhelming we have not been able to give everyone what they asked for.

    This is particularly true when it comes to our Social and Affordable Homes Programme.

    As you know, a fortnight ago, we confirmed that Homes England is allocating just over £9.5 billion pounds to 33 Strategic Partners to deliver over 70,000 social and affordable homes outside London, with the Greater London Authority set to offer allocations of at least £6 billion in the capital.

    Sadly, the sum total of bids received by Homes England and the GLA dwarfed the amount of funding we had available to allocate in this initial wave.

    But with £39 billion of funding available over the lifetime of the Programme there is over £16 billion of funding outside London and around £5 billion in London still yet to allocate.

    This includes funding in each year of this Spending Review period up to 2030 and significant sums in the second half of the Programme. 

    In allocating this funding, we have made clear we intend to prioritise social rented homes and in particular council homes.

    But I want to stress again that funding will also be available for other providers.

    With that in mind, I reiterate our call to partners to come forward with strong bids in respect of specific sites, and Homes England stands ready to work intensively with you to exhaust all options. 

    I want to say a little more about council housebuilding given the emphasis our new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, has rightly placed on it.

    Direct council delivery of Social Rent homes does have a range of benefits, including democratic accountability, the ability to tailor provision to meet local housing need, and the creation of public assets that generate rental income which is reinvested in local housing to support and sustain communities.

    It is also simply a fact that the last time we built social housing on the scale that is now required, councils were the driving force, delivering tens of thousands of social homes each year until building rates fell off dramatically from the early 1980s onwards as a result of the constraints and restrictions created by the introduction of the Right to Buy scheme. 

    It is for these reasons that we are determined to enable councils to once again build at scale and we know that hundreds of them share our ambition to secure the future of council housing. 

    The steps we have taken since arriving in office to reinvigorate council housebuilding, including providing tens of millions of pounds to increase skills and capacity within councils, have already borne fruit.

    In 2024/25, councils delivered the highest number of social homes since the current reporting period began in the early 1990s.

    I am also delighted that for the first time ever, three councils outside London have been awarded Strategic Partnership status with Homes England, namely Cambridge City Council, Eastleigh Borough Council and Newcastle City Council.

    But we need to go much further.

    The Prime Minister, the Secretary of State and I are determined to deliver the biggest council housebuilding programme since the post-war boom ended in the early 1980s.

    To that end, we are actively exploring further ways we might support councils to expand their stock of social homes, including low-cost borrowing options, and we’ve made clear that councils will be able to access more of the funding available through our Social and Affordable Homes Programme.

    Now, I can well imagine that having registered the renewed emphasis that the government is placing on council housebuilding, many housing associations and other providers may be questioning what it means for them.

    Let me reassure anyone who is in any doubt that private registered providers will continue to play a key role in the delivery of social and affordable homes.

    We value immensely all that you do to help meet housing need and we are relying on you to continue to progress ambitious development plans, not only delivering grant funded homes but also maximising homes built through Section 106 – drawing on the recently published National S106 Affordable Housing Engagement Guidance developed jointly by the NHF, CIH, HBF, and the LGA.

    And for any housing association or other provider that is concerned about their future in a world in which councils are once again building at scale, let me state plainly that the revival of council housebuilding that this government is working to deliver should complement not threaten the contribution you make.

    Indeed, we want to encourage greater partnership working between councils and housing associations whether that be through forming Joint Ventures, aligning development plans, delivering new council homes through partnership models, or working more closely on allocations.

    Our ambition is to harness the potential of everyone across the sector, and we want to hear your ideas about what effective partnership working looks like and what more government and Mayoral Strategic Authorities can do to support it.

    I believe passionately that good housing is the foundation of a flourishing life.

    Decent, safe, secure and affordable homes provide a platform for families to live, grow, and build better lives.

    They make for stronger, healthier and happier communities.

    Everyone, everyone, deserves to have one.

    Yet, as we all know, far too many families in need are still languishing on social housing waiting lists, struggling in the private rented sector or in expensive temporary accommodation as a result, and driving up rents and the housing benefit bill in the process.

    That is why this [political content removed] government committed in its manifesto to delivering the biggest increase in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation; to prioritising the building of new social rented homes; and to supporting councils and housing associations to build their capacity and make a greater contribution to affordable housing supply.

    Over the past two years, we have strained every sinew to faithfully honour those commitments.

    The steps we have taken today have made a real difference, with affordable starts up by 26% last year, and the highest number of social rent starts since 20101.

    But there is more to be done in the coming months and years to finish the job we have started.

    Whether council, housing association or other provider, we cannot do it without you.

    I very much look forward to continuing to work with you all as we deliver that decade of social and affordable housing renewal and in so doing ensure that all our people enjoy a decent, safe, secure, and affordable home in which to live.

    Thank you for listening.

  • Chris Elmore – 2026 Statement on the Nepal-China Flash Flooding

    Chris Elmore – 2026 Statement on the Nepal-China Flash Flooding

    The statement made by Chris Elmore, the Foreign Office Minister, in the House of Commons on 11 September 2026.

    I am sure the whole House will join me in expressing our deepest sympathies to all those who have lost loved ones, homes and livelihoods following the devastating floods on the Nepal-China border.

    I am writing to update the House on the impact of the floods and on the support the United Kingdom is providing in response.

    The flooding has caused significant loss of life and extensive humanitarian need. As of 8 September, Nepalese authorities report 1,357 fatalities, 5,326 people missing, 6,827 injured and 13,583 rescued. As of 6 September, Chinese media report 43 dead and 519 missing. Damaged infrastructure and disrupted communications continue to hamper the delivery of assistance and the assessment of the disaster’s full impact. Immediate priorities include emergency shelter, food, safe water and sanitation, healthcare, essential relief items and protection services.

    The UK stands with the people of Nepal and China through this tragedy. I pay tribute to the emergency responders, Government authorities, humanitarian organisations and community volunteers working tirelessly in extremely difficult circumstances.

    In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, the Prime Minister announced a £5 million package for lifesaving humanitarian assistance for Nepal. This support is being delivered through the Red Cross, Start Fund Nepal and UN agencies, providing clean water, sanitation, shelter, medical care and co-ordinated emergency support. A central part of the UK’s approach is to work through organisations that can reach affected communities quickly and effectively. UK contributions to pooled funds and multilateral development banks, including the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies disaster relief emergency fund, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, are also helping to mobilise large-scale financial support. A multidisciplinary UK humanitarian team has also been deployed to assess evolving needs and help ensure assistance is delivered effectively. The United Kingdom’s response is being delivered in support of, and in co-ordination with, the Government of Nepal’s relief and recovery efforts.

    This support builds on the UK’s long-standing contribution to strengthening Nepal’s resilience to climate-related disasters, with more than £100 million provided over the last 15 years. UK-supported institutions, including Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority and humanitarian logistics systems, are playing a central role in the current response. British science, research and technical expertise have also helped Nepal prepare for and manage natural disasters over many years, including through Met Office support on forecasting and work by Durham, Northumbria and Edinburgh Universities on early warning, contingency planning and glacier change.

    The UK has not received a request for assistance from the Chinese authorities but stands ready to offer support to those affected.

    I visited Nepal last week to demonstrate the UK’s solidarity and hear directly from those co-ordinating the response and recovery effort, including the Nepalese Government, the UN and other agencies.

    The United Kingdom’s response has involved close co-ordination across Government, including the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the Ministry of Defence, the Met Office and other departments.

    Our consular teams continue to work intensively to support British nationals and their families. UK police family liaison officers are supporting affected families. We recognise that families understandably want clear and rapid answers. We have written to affected families and spoken to diaspora representatives, and we will continue to work with the Nepalese and Chinese authorities to pursue every credible avenue, while avoiding unverified information or false expectations. Travel advice for British nationals is being updated regularly to reflect the evolving situation.

    We have reinforced the British embassies in Beijing and Kathmandu with additional staff and deployed two disaster victim identification experts to Kathmandu. They are engaging with the Nepalese authorities and assessing what further support may be appropriate.

    As recovery efforts continue, the United Kingdom will remain a steadfast partner to Nepal. We will continue to help meet urgent humanitarian needs, support vulnerable people and contribute to longer-term recovery and reconstruction.

    The thoughts of the Government remain with all those affected by this tragedy.

  • Angela Eagle – 2026 Speech on Back British Farming Day

    Angela Eagle – 2026 Speech on Back British Farming Day

    The speech made by Angela Eagle, the Environment Secretary, on 9 September 2026.

    Thank you everybody. It’s a great pleasure to be here this morning.

    I’d like to thank the NFU for convening today’s Back British Farming Day reception, which is an opportunity to celebrate the tireless work of our farmers and growers in producing high-quality food, nurturing our natural world and sustaining the beating heart of Britain’s rural communities.

    I think today is an opportunity to wear a wheat sheaf in recognition of all you do for our country.

    I’m pleased to be back at Defra. My leadership will be shaped by my experience as Farming Minister, which taught me so much, but also as Security Minister. It was a slightly shorter tenure there, but it also taught me a very great deal about what we need to be thinking about as we move into the future. It taught me as well that farming is as integral to our national security as energy or defence.

    And I would make one observation – that supply of food has often been taken for granted over the years. Because we’ve been so good at it, it has kind of faded into the background and everyone assumes it will always continue the way it always has.

    But I think that there are challenges that we have to face, not least after the kind of summer and growing season that we’ve had this year, that we perhaps haven’t had to think about in a strategic way for many, many years – and I would probably say since the last World War.

    And so, I think we must have different ways of thinking about how we do things as we move into the future.

    I know that the past year has been incredibly difficult for many farmers. You’ve had rising input costs, water supplies drained by back-to-back heat waves and climate-driven outbreaks of disease, and most notably bluetongue, which we’re having to deal with at the moment.

    I think when a third of farmers report that they make no profit, we’ve got to think about how to change that. If we’re relying on farmers to put food on our tables, farming has to put money in the pockets of those who farm. That is not rocket science conclusion to come to.

    So that’s why we’re taking action to help the sector respond to immediate pressures and build a more profitable, productive, and sustainable future.

    And we do that on the cusp of another great agricultural revolution, I believe, with the technology that has increasingly become available, which we have to not only be at the forefront of operationalising, but making certain that our farmers can use it and benefit from it.

    In his first month of office, the Prime Minister visited a farm to announce a £65 million support package, including improved access to water and £15 million for on-farm reservoirs.

    I also know this is an incredibly difficult time for animal keepers dealing with the bluetongue outbreak. APHA has published a new heat map of suspected and confirmed cases, which I hope you’ll all have seen so you can better understand the risk in your area. And from Friday 11th September, a revised reporting process will make it quicker and easier to confirm disease.

    Please speak to your vet about vaccination. It significantly reduces the severity of the disease, and you can apply for a free annual vet visit under the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway.

    But immediate support isn’t enough. For too long farmers have been left to get on with it with nobody thinking about the overall structure. That’s why I worked closely with the sector on the first ever strategic plan for agriculture, setting out how farming needs to evolve – combining nature-led solutions and farming together that will make us more resilient as we look to the future.

    On Back British Farming Day, I’d like to reiterate my full-throated support for Farming Roadmap. I’m backing it, the PM’s backing it and we are backing you to put it into effect.

    The Roadmap doesn’t see nature and farming pulling in opposite directions. Healthy soil holds water in a drought, and it drains it in a deluge. Hedgerows shelter livestock in a heat wave, as do trees.

    Our Land Use Framework says that 15% of land use needs to change and that we can change it and produce the same levels of food. We want to help that transition come about.

    Our Sustainable Farming Incentive encourages nature-based practices which we need to see adopted. And I’m pleased to say that Window 1 was a success with 7,000 applications – 87% for businesses without an ELM agreement.

    We expect Window 2 to open on the 22nd of September with an increased budget of £230 million. And we’re introducing a new feature for Window 2 allowing farmers with agreements expiring by the end of February 2027 to apply for SFI26 before their current agreement ends.

    Alongside this we’ve allocated £225 million, up 50% from last year, to support our capital grants offer. That funding is delivering practical improvements to the environment like creating 2,500 km of new hedgerows and improvements to profitability.

    Our Farming Improvement Partnership Board is bringing industry leaders into the same room to set system-wide plans for growth, starting with our growth plan for horticulture, which I am extremely committed to making a success of. With poultry and other sectors to follow.

    British farmers shouldn’t have to shoulder the risks of changing climate.

    I believe we’re at a turning point, especially after the summer we have just had, which, let’s face it, is the third difficult summer in the last five years, and it’s probably going to be repeated in its difficulties perhaps next year, with the El Niño that we’ve got forming in the ocean on the other side of the world.

    So, we’re at a turning point where the Farming Roadmap, the Farming and Food Partnership Board, the Land Use Framework, all need to come together to set a direction to make farming profitable and ensure that we can support a good and secure food supply.

    On Back British Farming Day, therefore, I want to reiterate this government’s commitment to creating the conditions you need to adapt and to succeed, because when farmers thrive, the nation thrives.

    Thank you very much.

  • Andy Burnham – 2026 Joint Statement on Israel and Palestine

    Andy Burnham – 2026 Joint Statement on Israel and Palestine

    The statement made by Andy Burnham, the Prime Minister, on 8 September 2026.

    A two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is critical for peace, stability and security in the Middle East and beyond. It is a fundamental national interest for the UK, France and Canada to protect and secure this outcome.

    Systematic settlement expansion in the West Bank, including the Government of Israel’s latest decision to progress the E1 settlement, as well as the dramatic increase in settler violence, pose a direct and urgent threat to that vision for peace. 

    One year ago, we recognised the State of Palestine. The time has come to take further action to uphold our commitment to protect the two-state solution, our interests and to stand up for our values, before it is too late. 

    Settlements are illegal under international law. The UK, France and Canada will therefore take steps to ban the importation of goods from settlements and enforce targeted measures against settlements and those who facilitate them or profit from them. 

    In taking this coordinated action we reiterate our desire for a close and productive partnership with Israel, our enduring support for the Israeli people and our unwavering commitment to Israel’s security. We support a safe and secure Israel, living alongside a safe and secure Palestine.

    Today marks a further turning point in our approach to protecting the two-state solution. We will co-chair a meeting at the United Nations General Assembly later this month to advance our efforts and pursue peace.

  • Ed Miliband – 2026 Statement on Israel-Palestine

    Ed Miliband – 2026 Statement on Israel-Palestine

    The statement made by Ed Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, in the House of Commons on 8 September 2026.

    Madame Deputy Speaker, with permission, I would like to make a statement on Israel and Palestine.

    I do so as a proud British Jew, someone with the deepest gratitude to the State of Israel for giving a home to my grandmother after she lost her husband, my grandfather, and 60 other family members at the hands of the Nazis.

    I remember visiting her in the 1970s in Tel Aviv and seeing the life and the sanctuary Israel had provided. Indeed, some of my most joyful childhood memories were picking oranges as a kid on the kibbutz where my cousins lived.

    Madame Deputy Speaker, my personal story and that of thousands of British Jews is one of the many reasons why I say to anyone here or around the world who questions Israel’s right to exist as a homeland for the Jewish people: you are wrong and we will call you out whenever you engage in this attempt at the erasure of Israel.

    Madame Deputy Speaker, I know what the trauma of Hamas’s terrorist atrocity of October 7th meant and still means to people across Israel and to Jews across the world. It was a murderous act by a murderous terrorist organisation designed to massacre and instil fear across a whole population.

    October 7th makes plain the grave threats that Israel faces. And it has every right to defend itself.  We should not only condemn those threats but act against those who carry them out.

    Iran continues to threaten Israel and Jews across the world.

    We have already designated Iran’s IRGC and we will do more today on Iran’s proxy groups. So today I can also announce we are sanctioning Lebanese Hezbollah’s financing arm, Al-Qard Al-Hassan.

    Iran must never have a nuclear weapon. So we are also acting this week to report Iran to the UN Security Council for its nuclear violations, alongside our allies. And I can announce today that we are also reimposing major economic sanctions on Iran in line with the European Union and the United States.

    Madame Deputy Speaker, tackling these threats is just one of the important, shared national security interests we have with Israel, on which we will continue to co-operate.

    I know too that so many members of the Jewish community now live in fear in the face of rising antisemitism, including here in the UK.

    Last week we commemorated the anniversary of the Heaton Park attack—Jews murdered at their place of worship simply for their religion.

    An outrage that was followed by antisemitic attacks in Golders Green, including on the Hatzola ambulances.

    And the everyday life of Jews in Britain is deeply affected by the climate that such hate creates.

    When I went to school in the 1980s, I did so without fear.

    Today we need to face the truth: that is not the case for thousands of Jewish children across the UK, children who have to go to school with security guards outside their school.

    Mr Speaker, no child should have to go to school facing this. And no teacher should face antisemitism either.

    Whether it happens in our schools, universities or workplaces or online or on our streets, antisemitism is a scourge and an evil.

    We are rightly putting in place an additional investment of £250 million for community security. But we all have a responsibility to do more.

    As part of this, I will in October host representatives of the J7, the countries with the largest Jewish populations from across the world.

    We will meet in the UK to discuss the different ways we can work across borders to tackle antisemitism, including tackling online hate.

    So Madame Deputy Speaker, I am proud of my Jewishness and unwavering in my support for the State of Israel.

    And there is absolutely no contradiction between this and my support for the State of Palestine. Indeed quite the opposite.

    The two state solution is based on an explicit belief that the only route to security for both peoples is to live side by side in peaceful co-existence with freedom, security and self-determination.

    Securing the two-state solution in its fullest form is the North Star of this government’s policy, and indeed of successive British governments over decades.

    And it is precisely this belief in the rights and freedoms of the Israeli and Palestinian people that leads many, including me, to a deep sense of shame about what has unfolded in Palestine under the eyes of the international community.

    In Gaza, the most unimaginable trauma and suffering in the last three years – death, destruction and dehumanisation on an appalling scale.

    A stain on the conscience of the world and of this country too.

    And in the West Bank, the clear attempt to – in the words of Israeli Finance Minister Smotrich – and I quote – “bury the idea of a Palestinian State”.

    So Madame Deputy Speaker, there is a deeply painful contrast between our professed commitment to a two state solution, and the reality on the ground in Gaza and the West Bank.

    I pay tribute to my predecessors, the current Health Secretary and the Right Honourable Member for Tottenham, for their tireless efforts on this issue as well as my Right Honourable Friend the Member for Lincoln.

    We should always be proud that it was a Labour government that took the historic step of recognising the State of Palestine. 

    But the Prime Minister is right to say that the Labour government has not done enough in the face of what is happening.

    So today marks the beginning of a new approach.

    An approach that not only calls out injustice and suffering but acts.

    And in taking this stance, I make a very clear distinction – which is crucial for all of us in this debate:

    Our argument is not with the people of Israel, with whom the UK has unshakeable bonds. Our argument is with the conduct of its government.

    And I also want to say emphatically to people in Britain and across the world:

    Holding British Jews responsible for the actions of the Israeli Government is antisemitism, plain and simple.

    What we seek today is to salvage the only course for peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians – the two state solution.

    Let me start with the situation in the West Bank.

    Madame Deputy Speaker, at the time of the Oslo peace accords in 1993, around 270,000 settlers lived in the occupied Palestinian territories. Today it is some 770,000.

    More settlements have been approved under the four years of this Israeli government than in the previous twenty years. 

    Let us spell out what this has meant for Palestinian communities.

    Houses bulldozed. Roads and public infrastructure destroyed. Families displaced from their homes.

    Community by community.

    Family by family.

    Person by person.

    Madame Deputy Speaker, sixty-five Palestinian communities completely expelled since 2023 – a total of over 4,000 Palestinians evicted from their homes due to settler violence and state actions.

    And in August, the crossing of a long-standing red line: the issuing of E1 tenders for over 1,200 homes.

    I visited a community in the area covered by E1 in 2014. The Bedouin communities I met in Khan Al Ahmar had lived on that land for generations.

    E1 proposals would evict them and place settlements directly between East Jerusalem and the West Bank cutting through the heart of Palestine.

    Let’s be clear what this means: the creation of a set of facts on the ground to make the two state solution unviable.

    And on top of official state policy, settler terrorism is rampant.

    The UN reports an average of six violent settler attacks against Palestinians per day this year, the highest on record.

    Take one example

    In Al Mughayir, twenty miles north of Jerusalem, settlers have encircled the village and mounted a campaign of intimidation, largely under the protection of the Israeli military.

    Families in the village are increasingly cut off from accessing their land, squeezed into ever smaller areas and have olive trees uprooted and livestock stolen.

    In the same community, just last week, two teenagers were shot when settlers entered the village under police and military escort. Both died before reaching hospital. Madame Deputy Speaker five teenagers have now been killed from their school this year.

    Ehud Olmert, the former Israeli Prime Minister, has described what is happening as – I quote – “a violent and criminal effort to ethnically cleanse territories in the West Bank’.

    The former Minister of Health and retired Brigadier General from the IDF, Ephraim Sneh has said – and I quote again – “this is ethnic cleansing to put it simply”.

    Ethnic cleansing is defined by the UN as ‘a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas.’

    The British government agrees that there is ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas of the West Bank – perpetrated by settler terrorists.

    And all too often the Israeli government has turned a blind eye to this and worse, members of it have made statements and taken actions to support the forced displacement of Palestinians.

    Now Madame Deputy Speaker, I recognise the gravity of saying this but the truth is, it is the least the people who face such suffering deserve. And it should be the prelude to justice.

    Now for a long time, the British government has rightly said settlements are illegal.

    But we have remained silent on the question of the legality of the occupation as a whole, which in 2024 the International Court of Justice concluded was unlawful.

    Today I announce that the official view of the British Government is that the occupation is unlawful.

    Because of Israel’s entrenchment of its control, its intention to extend permanent sovereignty, and its expansionist agenda via illegal settlements.

    Madame Deputy Speaker, our position is not just an overdue statement of reality.

    The government believes the unlawfulness of the occupation should be reflected in the economic relationships we choose to have with the occupied territories.

    I do not believe that the British people want us supporting the occupation by accepting products from settlements in our shops and supermarkets.

    So I can announce today that we will introduce an import ban on goods from illegal settlements in the occupied territories.

    To do so, we will introduce a new comprehensive sanctions regime working with my Right Honourable Friend the Business Secretary, with appropriate religious exemptions.

    And as part of this regime, we will go further.

    We will take action against specific companies and individuals who provide services such as construction, infrastructure, financing, or real estate for settlement expansion.

    So to those who finance or facilitate illegal settlements, let me say this, you will face the full force of UK sanctions.

    Settlements are illegal. They should not be promoted in our country.

    Earlier this year, shamefully, just a few miles from here, we saw an expo advertising illegal settlement land. 

    We must and we will ensure this never happens again, so we will ban the advertising in the UK of illegal settlements.

    The sanctions regime will target illegal settlements and settlement expansion, not Israel.

    We will continue to support important and valued trade with green line Israel precisely because we support the two state solution, including security and prosperity for Israel.

    For this reason, I wholeheartedly oppose the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions or BDS campaign.

    The legislation I have announced today will be in place within 6 to 9 months and we will also take more immediate steps.

    Today we are sanctioning a further set of extremist settlers who have supported or incited acts of violence against Palestinian communities.

    And I can also announce that we are extending the existing global human rights regime such that it will enable swifter action to deter settlement expansion, including crucially seeking to present the development of E1.

    I also want to address the question of arms sales. We have already suspended over 30 arms licences used by the IDF in Gaza. That suspension remains fully in place.

    We will now also refuse all licence applications for arms and other exports that materially contribute to the occupation, in effect a double lock against arms sales.

    This means the ban on such exports will now remain as long as the occupation persists. 

    To advance the two state solution, we also need viable and effective Palestinian governance.

    So I urge the Palestinian Authority to accelerate reform and I urge Israel to lift its withholding of revenues that is financially crippling the provision of essential services in the West Bank.

    The set of measures I have announced represents a clear message to the government of Israel, to the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, and to the world that we will not acquiesce in the destruction of the two state solution.

    I turn now to Gaza.

    The horror of October 7th appalled the world and had terrible echoes of the centuries of persecution of the Jewish people.

    Men, women, children and babies killed, mutilated, and tortured by Hamas terrorists. People murdered whilst seeking to protect their families. Young people massacred at a music festival. People abducted from their homes.

    As the 20 point peace plan for Gaza sets out, this is one of many reasons Hamas can play no role in the future governance of Gaza, it must decommission its weapons and must dismantle its terrorist infrastructure.

    Israel has the right not to live in fear of vile terrorism, and the Israeli State has the right to protect its people and defend its territory.

    But Madame Deputy Speaker that cannot justify what has happened in Gaza.

    Over 70,000 people have been killed, at least 20,000 of them children. 20,000 children.

    The vast majority of the population is now displaced – nearly two million people – who are now penned into just one third of the territory.

    Life-saving humanitarian aid and access has been routinely blocked.

    Hospitals and clinics have been destroyed.

    Over 60% of homes are in ruins.

    Mr Speaker, international humanitarian law imposes clear rules for states fighting wars – including to ensure access to food and medical supplies, to avoid mass displacement of civilians, and to avoid the targeting of civilians.

    Serious and intentional violations of this law, if proven, amount to war crimes.

    What has occurred, including the actions of the IDF, have been examined in depth by a number of organisations, including the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry.

    The conclusions of these reports represent increasing evidence that war crimes appear to have been committed.

    And we support legal processes to determine this.

    On the question of genocide, the UK has always supported full, robust and fair judicial processes to consider allegations, with final determinations made by competent courts before the British government reaches a conclusion.

    This has been the case for all of the genocides since the 1948 Genocide Convention: Rwanda, Srebrenica, Cambodia, and acts against the Yazidi people.

    This will remain our policy. It is right that this issue has been brought before the ICJ and I want to make it clear that we support the Court in coming to its determination.

    So accountability for what has happened in Gaza matters.

    But even more urgent is action to address the ongoing crisis. 

    Because today in Gaza, the death and suffering continue.

    Nearly a year ago, Madame Deputy Speaker, a ceasefire was declared. Yet over 1,200 Palestinians have been killed since.

    And the people of Gaza are experiencing a totally avoidable humanitarian catastrophe, I am afraid, driven by decisions of the Israeli government.

    Last week I talked to courageous doctors and humanitarian aid workers who have served in Gaza. It was a heartbreaking conversation.

    They recounted:

    Children dying waiting for medical treatment.

    People forced to live next to open sewage and without shelter.

    And food insecurity rampant.

    I’m sure the whole House agrees, this is unconscionable.

    So I pledge we will continue to do everything we can to provide all the humanitarian support possible to help the people of Gaza.

    UK-supported hospitals in Gaza will enable around 800,000 medical consultations this year and essential health services for patients. 

    UK expertise will deliver care to over a thousand child amputees.

    And we recently welcomed another wave of students from Gaza coming to study in Britain and we will welcome more.

    But in truth, unless Israel changes course, the situation will remain dire.

    So we are taking further steps – both ourselves and with others. 

    Our extension of the global human rights sanctions regime will enable us to target those responsible for violations of international humanitarian law, whether in Gaza or anywhere else in the world.

    And we will at the UN General Assembly in New York later this month shine the clearest and harshest spotlight on what is happening and what must change.

    And with Jordan, we will convene countries across the world to lead a call for action on health and humanitarian access.

    We will also lend the UK’s voice to the growing global alliance of countries – led by Arab partners in the region – calling for the full implementation of the US-led 20 point plan, the rejection of extremism, and for a lasting end to the cycles of violence.

    As we implement the policy measures I have announced today, we will continue to assess the government of Israel by its actions. We want to see a new approach – in both Gaza and the West Bank.

    Madame Deputy Speaker, today we refuse to be bystanders to further suffering and to the destruction of the two state solution.

    We call out what is unlawful.

    We act on the import of goods from illegal settlements.

    We ban advertising of illegal settlements

    We act on services to prevent new settlement expansion.

    We act on settler violence.

    We support accountability for what has happened in Gaza.

    And we pledge to galvanise the international community to confront the ongoing and urgent humanitarian crisis.

    Above all, we say: Britain is not silent in the face of deep injustice and nor is it powerless.

    And today we act in concert with others in a broad international coalition.

    I can tell the House that today France and Canada are announcing, alongside Britain, that they will also ban the import of goods from illegal settlements. 

    Joining the Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium, Spain and Norway – which have either banned goods or are in the process of doing so.

    With many other countries – Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Poland, Portugal, and Sweden – pledging today they will support further action.

    Madame Deputy Speaker, this is what Britain can achieve leading with others.

    And this is in our fundamental national interest because if there is one lesson of recent decades, it is that we will never have stability in the Middle East without a two state solution.

    And it is also the case that if we fail to stand up for the values that this country has long held and fought for, we lose credibility and influence in the world.

    Madame Deputy Speaker, my parents came here as Jewish refugees and found sanctuary and a country that stood up for the rule of law, freedom and self-determination.

    Those are the values this government is standing up for today.

    And I truly believe that the vast majority of the British people, including in our communities with ties to the region, are united in their desire to see humanitarian suffering end, and all sides commit to a durable peace process.

    And just as we want Israelis and Palestinians to live side by side, so we have to live out those values in Britain.

    Jews in Britain, Muslims in Britain, people of all faiths and none have a right to live without prejudice or fear.

    Madame Deputy Speaker, a Britain that upholds its values at home and around the world.

    A Britain that fights against oppression and suffering wherever it occurs.

    A Britain that stands up for what is right.

    And I commend this statement to the House.