Tag: Toby Perkins

Toby Perkins – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Toby Perkins on 2014-05-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will commission an inquiry into the extent of problems arising from the use of motorised vehicles on unmetalled roads.

Dan Rogerson

In the Deregulation Bill Committee debate on 25 March, we announced that we propose to form a working group along the lines of the current rights of way Stakeholder Working Group. We will invite stakeholders with the relevant experience and expertise to join a group with an independent chair and secretariat, ensuring that the group contains a balance across the full range of interests.

Any proposals made by the group for changing the current framework for managing the recreational use of motor vehicles would be subject to a full public consultation.

November 1, 2022

Toby Perkins – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Toby Perkins on 2014-06-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, which organisations (a) he and (b) other Ministers in his Department met to discuss regulation of pub companies in (i) 2013 and (ii) 2014; and on what dates those meetings took place.

Jenny Willott

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has taken an even handed approach to speaking with stakeholders from all sides of the debate in developing our proposals for statutory intervention in the pubs sector.

In 2013, BIS Ministers met the following organisations:

Date	Organisation	Minister
22 January	Ministerial Roundtable with licensee groups including: British Institute of Innkeeping; GMB Union; Federation of Licensed Victuallers Associations; Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers; Brighton & Hove Licensees Association; Campaign for Real Ale; Fair Pint Campaign; Independent Pub Confederation; Federation of Small Businesses; Guild of Master Victuallers.	Jo Swinson
28 January	Ministerial Roundtable including: British Beer and Pub Association; Punch Taverns; Star Pubs and Bars.	Jo Swinson
7 February	Ministerial Roundtable including: Greene King; Shepherd Neame; Everards Brewery; Admiral Taverns; Hook Norton Brewery; Independent Family Brewers of Britain.	Jo Swinson
21 February	Meeting with the Scottish Licensed Trade Association.	Jo Swinson
27 February	Meeting with Enterprise Inns	Michael Fallon
10 June	Ministerial Roundtable including: Everards Brewery; Fuller Smith & Turner; Admiral Taverns; Hook Norton; McMullen & Sons; Shepherd Neame; Wadworth & Co; Trust Inns; Greene King; Titanic Brewery; Westerham Ales; Society of Independent Brewers.	Jo Swinson
12 June	Ministerial Roundtable including: British Beer and Pub Association; Enterprise Inns; Marston’s; Mitchells & Butlers; Punch Taverns; Spirit Pub Company; Star Pubs and Bars; Wellington Pub Company.	Jo Swinson
18 July	Meeting with Greg Mulholland MP and the Independent Pub Confederation.	Jo Swinson
30 September	Meeting with the British Beer and Pub Association.	Vince Cable
29 October	Meeting with the Federation of Small Businesses (pubs were discussed as part of a wider meeting).	Vince Cable

In 2014, BIS Ministers met the following organisations:

Date	Organisation	Minister
30 January	Meeting with the Federation of Small Businesses.	Vince Cable
12 February	Meeting with Sir Peter Luff MP and Admiral Taverns; Hook Norton Brewery.	Jenny Willott
17 March	Meeting with Greene King.	Jenny Willott
24 March	Meeting with representatives of the British Beer and Pub Association; Punch Taverns; Shepherd Neame.	Jenny Willott
31 March	Meeting with the Campaign for Real Ale.	Jenny Willott
25 April	Meeting with S A Brains.	Jenny Willott

In addition to meetings with organisations, Ministers met with a number of tied tenants. Officials also met with stakeholders before, during and after the consultation process to discuss our proposals to establish a Statutory Code and an independent Adjudicator.

November 1, 2022

Toby Perkins – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Toby Perkins on 2014-06-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many approved partners of the Start Up Loans programme there are in each region.

Matthew Hancock

The number of approved partners of the Start Up Loans programme by region are as follows:

England (National): 15

Greater London: 11

North West: 8

North East: 4

East Of England: 2

Yorkshire And Humberside: 6

West Midlands: 5

East Midlands: 4

South East: 4

South West: 2

Northern Ireland: 5

Wales: 6

Scotland: 5

November 1, 2022
Toby Perkins – 2022 Speech on the Government’s “Plan for Growth”

The speech made by Toby Perkins, the Labour MP for Chesterfield, in the House of Commons on 19 October 2022.

I rise to speak in support of the motion. I am glad to hear that it seems to be enjoying a lot of support, and I hope to see the Office for Budget Responsibility’s forecast published immediately after the motion is carried.

I have always opposed Tory Governments. I have long been of the view that a bad Labour Government is better than a good Tory one. I know what the Tories are about and I never expected them to do anything other than make life more difficult for the most vulnerable. In fact, if that were not the way the Tory party operated, we would never have needed to invent the Labour party in the first place. But having opposed many Conservative Governments, never before have I seen one so inept, yet so arrogant as the current Government; so damaging, yet so casual about their impact on people’s lives.

When the revisionism comes, as it undoubtedly will in the weeks and months to come, we must remember that this situation did not fall out of a clear blue sky. There was a clear mandate, because during that leadership contest the Prime Minister was clear about what she intended to do. It was Tory MPs who put her into the final two. Now we hear them say, “We must never again let the members choose the leader”, but they chose to put the right hon. Member for South West Norfolk (Elizabeth Truss) in the final two knowing full well what policies she would support. Huge revisionism is going on so that the next generation of Tory MPs will be able to say, “Oh, that was just a rogue Chancellor and a long-ago deposed Prime Minister. Forget about them—we changed after that,” but the right hon. Lady won a mandate from her party to pursue those policies.

At the time of the mini-Budget statement, some voices were expressing disquiet, but I recall the support we heard from many Tory Members. It was when I heard how happy the mini-Budget had made the right hon. Member for Wokingham (John Redwood) that I knew how bad it would be for the British people. I remember the hon. Member for Don Valley (Nick Fletcher), who was in his place a few minutes ago, claiming that the whole of Doncaster would support the mini-Budget. I have not heard him say that today. As the hawks of the right-wing press circle over the Prime Minister, let us not forget that they were the loudest cheerleaders for this mini-Budget. The day after the statement, the Daily Mail proclaimed, “At last! A true Tory Budget”. The Express was equally triumphant—“Big tax cuts to herald new era”.

Janet Daby (Lewisham East) (Lab)

Does my hon. Friend agree that the then Chancellor was carrying out what the Prime Minister had said she would do? She made sure that he lost his job, but she should be the one taking responsibility and, indeed, resigning.

Mr Perkins

I could not agree more. The right hon. Member for Spelthorne (Kwasi Kwarteng) is the first politician in history to have had to resign for doing what he said he was going to do, which was precisely what the Prime Minister said she was going to do. The mini-Budget was born of the recklessness of the previous Prime Minister having pursued so much, so confidently, with so little evidence.

Make no mistake: I will spend every day between now and a general election making sure that the people of Chesterfield know that the higher interest rates, the tax rises, the cuts to our threadbare services and even, shamefully, the prospect of disabled people on benefits and impoverished pensioners suffering further cuts to their real-terms income, are all the result of this arrogant recklessness. This did not need to happen. Yes, there are global issues, but the central banks in America and Germany did not have to bail out the pension funds. Of course we welcome the fact that the Government have undone some of the measures, although it was bizarre to hear the Chancellor say on Monday how pleased he was that Labour were supporting his plans. They were our plans a few weeks ago! Now, the Tory Government see it as a success that they are trying to put out the fire that they lit in the first place, but the damage has already been done.

The logical call for a windfall tax made by my hon. Friend the Member for Leeds West (Rachel Reeves) continues to be rejected. What objection do the Government have to asking the energy generators to contribute some of their vast excess profits to help to fund the cost of ensuring that people can stay warm this winter and enabling businesses to keep their doors open?

Paula Barker

Does my hon. Friend agree that when even the CEO of Shell is advocating a windfall tax—we truly have gone through the looking glass—it is time the Tories did the right thing?

Mr Perkins

It absolutely is. I suspect that, ultimately, they will. I am a great student of history and I can remember all the way back to January this year, when the Labour party called for a windfall tax. I remember the then Prime Minister standing at the Dispatch Box mocking us and saying that Labour always wants to raise taxes, and the then Chancellor saying the same thing. A few months later, reluctantly they had to announce precisely that. The right hon. Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Boris Johnson) used to stand at the Dispatch Box criticising the policy—our policy—that he later adopted. That is how bizarre this Government’s behaviour has been. Now we have to go through the same damaging charade again. It is clear that ultimately the Government will adopt Labour’s policy of a windfall tax, but in the meantime their resistance will cost our country and our people dear.

Just a week ago, the Prime Minister was boasting that she was guaranteeing people’s energy bills for the next two years, so why were Labour only going to guarantee them for six months? Then on Monday the Chancellor comes here and says, “All right—six months.” That is how this Government are running our economy. You would not run a whelk stall like that.

Government policies change at a bewildering rate, but they do not seem to understand that it is not just that the policies are wrong; it is the clear demonstration that they do not have a clue what they are doing that is unsettling the markets. In Chesterfield, 3,352 households face a hike in their mortgage payments next year. It is quite unforgiveable. My hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, Wavertree (Paula Barker) said that this is 2011 all over again, but that is not so. In 2011 we were coming off the back of 13 years of Labour investment in our public services, so there was a chance that our health services, our schools and our Sure Starts could withstand the cuts. Not now. Our public services cannot tolerate the sort of cuts that the Chancellor has warned might be coming our way.

The idea that this Government can restore confidence in our nation’s finances by having two more years to demonstrate the ineptitude that in the past 12 years has brought us to our present state would be laughable if it were not so serious. There is no mandate for the approach that they are now pursuing. If the Tories think that they can quietly euthanise the career of the latest Prime Minister and have another go, they are further removed from reality than even I believe they are.

We need a Government who are truly committed to growth, to a green recovery and to rebuilding our public services. We need a Government whose policies last beyond the ink drying on the growth document they have just printed. We need a Government whose plans are robust and whose leader is strong. We need a Government who are willing to lead in the national interest, and not just in the narrow interest of their party. That means we need a Labour Government led by my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Holborn and St Pancras (Keir Starmer). We need that general election now.

October 20, 2022
Toby Perkins – 2022 Tribute to HM Queen Elizabeth II

The tribute made by Toby Perkins, the Labour MP for Chesterfield, in the House of Commons on 9 September 2022.

I rise to speak on behalf of the people of Chesterfield and Staveley, who share the shock, sadness and pride at the passing of our beloved late Queen Elizabeth II, and to send our condolences to King Charles III, who spoke so well just a few moments ago.

Last night, prayers at St Michael’s church in Brimington were dedicated to Her late Majesty, and the bells beneath the famous crooked spire will be ringing muffled tones of mourning. Books of condolence have already been set up in Chesterfield Borough Council’s contact centre, and others are appearing across the borough as our town’s citizens come out to send their respects and regards to a truly remarkable woman, who has embodied our nation as our monarch for 70 years.

We have heard from so many people here who have had personal experience of meeting Her Majesty, but last night a friend’s son posted a video, which has gone viral, of the moment when his grandmother, sitting in the Toby Carvery restaurant, heard of the Queen’s passing. As she sobs uncontrollably, in the background we can hear her son’s bewilderment: “But you never even knew her, Mother.” However, the British people did not have to meet our Queen to feel that we knew her, or to feel bereaved at her loss. She was indeed a friend to so very many of us. She has been the constant throughout our lives—at every celebration and grand occasion, naturally; but more crucially, in times of peril, worry and heartbreak, it was Her Majesty the Queen whom we looked to.

The Queen promised, on her coronation, to serve our nation faithfully, and the dedication, wisdom and fortitude that she has shown throughout every day of that service have inspired so many of us. She loved our country, the four nations that make up our United Kingdom individually and collectively, and she took great pride in the Commonwealth as she helped to lead our nation through its changing place in the world—as she moved from being the head of the British empire to heading the Commonwealth to leading a prominent nation at the head of the EU, and subsequently leading us into our post- Brexit future. She led us through two painful and divisive referendums without ever breaking her famous political impartiality, and she was there when our nation was tortured by the cruel pandemic, bringing us together as so many of us sat there afraid and alone.

An image that said so much about the Queen’s dedication to duty was that image of her sitting alone at her beloved husband’s funeral. No one would have begrudged her sitting with a family member, but it was typical that she should want the world to see that she was subject to the same restrictions so painfully being observed by her people.

Let me end by saying that we should all remember that her late Majesty’s family are grieving right now, yet forced, at this most painful moment, to grieve in public. Those organs of the press who believe they are defending Her Majesty the Queen by attacking her children or her grandchildren, or claiming to know better than they do how her family should grieve, do our nation and our royal family a huge disservice. The people of Chesterfield will always take pride in her selfless devotion, and wish His Majesty King Charles III a long, happy and successful reign. God save the king.

September 10, 2022
Toby Perkins – 2022 Speech on Standards in Public Life

The speech made by Toby Perkins, the Labour MP in Chesterfield, in the House of Commons on 7 June 2022.

Once again, the Labour party has to use one of our precious Opposition days to debate not the cost of living, NHS waiting times, court delays, falling apprenticeship numbers or any of the other manifest ways in which the Government are failing, but the standards and conduct of the Prime Minister. I do not say that critically—I am pleased that we have chosen to use today’s debate for that purpose—but it shows once again why the Prime Minister is not able to get on with it as a result of yesterday’s vote: in fact, he is the distraction that prevents this House from moving on. It shows why the 148 of his Members of Parliament who voted yesterday that they had no confidence in him were right.

British parliamentarians have often been asked to go overseas to nations considered to be less developed and provide them with advice about what a functioning democracy looks like. It is not an exaggeration to say that if we arrived as parliamentarians in another country to find that it had a leader whose response to being convicted of breaking the law was not to set about changing his behaviour, but to lower the standards to which members of his Government could be held, we would take a very dim view of that sort of democracy—but that is precisely what is happening here in the United Kingdom.

I have never had any regard for the political priorities of the Conservative party. I do not expect Tory Governments to be good for my constituency or to share my values. But I have respected the fact that, regardless of the difference in approach to matters such as public services and the economy, when it came to the basic rule of law there were things that united parliamentarians of all parties. Under this Prime Minister, I fear that that is no longer the case. That is why it is so important that Conservative Members are willing to be brave enough to stand up and speak out, because some of these matters are more important than narrow party political advantage, and so it is with today’s debate; and that is why I pay tribute to the hon. Member for Newton Abbott, who resigned yesterday as the Prime Minister’s anti-corruption tsar. I think that his letter was of real significance. He wrote to the Prime Minister:

“The only fair conclusion to draw from the Sue Gray report is that you have breached a fundamental principle of the ministerial code – a clear resigning matter.

Butt your letter to your independent adviser on the ministerial code ignores this absolutely central, non-negotiable issue completely. And, if it had addressed it, it is hard to see how it could have reached any other conclusion than that you had broken the code.”

I think those words are incredibly significant, I think they are brave, and I think the hon. Gentleman should be commended for having written them.

The Prime Minister’s own briefing to Conservative Members, which featured widely on Twitter yesterday, suggests that they must tolerate his behaviour because no one else is capable of leading them. I am afraid that too many people are missing the point here. The hon. Member for Devizes (Danny Kruger) said earlier that we were raising this issue because we did not like the Prime Minister, and he advocated a system of self-regulation. I think that if Conservative Members look daily at the Prime Minister and think, “There is no one in our whole parliamentary party with 360-odd members who could possibly perform in this way”, they must have a pretty low opinion of themselves, and I think that they may be wrong. I also think that the question of standards is not about whether or not one likes a person, but about whether the behaviour that that person has exhibited is tolerable in a functioning democracy, and I am afraid that, in the case of this Prime Minister, it is absolutely not.

Alex Sobel (Leeds North West) (Lab/Co-op)

One way to cheat is to change the rules. We have seen the rules in the ministerial code being changed, and we are seeing a general levelling down of standards in public life. The idea that the Government can carry on marking their own homework is absurd. Does my hon. Friend agree that we need an independent commission on ethics and standards in public life, so that there is some accountability?

Mr Perkins

I certainly do. That is why I am happy to support the motion today, and why I was happy to support the committee’s recommendations.

I agree with Lord Evans that a graduated sanctions approach must go hand in hand with increasing the independence of the adviser. Recommendation 6 states:

“The Ministerial Code should detail a range of sanctions the Prime Minister may issue, including, but not limited to, apologies, fines, and asking for a minister’s resignation.”

The Paymaster General spoke about that more graduated approach, and I agree with that, but I also agree with Lord Evans that it must go hand in hand with recommendation 8, which states:

“ The Independent Adviser should be able to initiate investigations into breaches of the Ministerial Code”

—the Government propose not to heed that—and with recommendation 9, which states:

“The Independent Adviser should have the authority to determine breaches of the Ministerial Code.”

That seems to be the point: that the independent adviser determines whether the code has been breached, and it is for the Prime Minister then to decide what sanctions should be applied. What we have now, however, as we heard from the Paymaster General, is an approach whereby if the Prime Minister believes that he still has confidence in people—and I suspect that he will have confidence in the Culture Secretary almost regardless of what she says, because of her slavish support—that is good enough, and no standards are relevant.

As we heard from my hon. Friend the Member for Ellesmere Port and Neston (Justin Madders), all of us in this place suffer from the allegation that “they are all the same.” Despair is the most corrosive emotion possible when it comes to politics, because it leads people to disengage and to decide that there is no point in engaging in politics in any way. The right hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr Carmichael) spoke of a cross-party consensus, but how is that possible if the Prime Minister is willing, for political reasons, to overlook breaches of any kind if he thinks that it is in his political interests to do so?

A politically motivated standards regime that allows rules to be rewritten if they become inconvenient, and places the future of Ministers in the hands of the Prime Minister to vanquish or rescue as he sees fit, is not itself fit for the 21st century in a supposedly developed democracy. How can it be that the ministerial code, detailing the way in which those at the very top of the political tree operate, actually lags behind that which applies to MPs, peers and civil servants?

I also support the committee’s recommendation for reform of the powers of the commissioner for public appointments to provide a better guarantee of the independence of assessment panels.

Our politics is suffering from a crisis of public confidence, which is particularly dangerous at a time of national economic difficulty such as the one that we are currently experiencing. Only by increasing the independence and clarity of the rules and the rule arbiters can we have a hope of restoring public confidence in our politics, and it is for that reason that I support the motion.

June 9, 2022
Toby Perkins – 2021 Speech on the Integrated Rail Plan

The speech made by Toby Perkins, the Labour MP for Chesterfield, in the House of Commons on 8 December 2021.

Conservative Governments have made me angry before. Indeed, it was the Thatcher Government who first awoke my passion for politics, because I wanted to stand against everything that they stood for, but at least the Thatcher Government were competent. What we have now is a Government who are so incompetent, so inept, so irresponsible and so dishonest that they constantly let down the people who voted for them, and that is what we see in this plan for integrated rail.

We need only look at the manifesto promises that we have had from the Tory Government—all the way back to 2010, when I was first elected and the hon. Member for Ashfield was working for a Labour MP—to see what the Tories have been all about. Throughout that time, we have seen manifestos promising that HS2 would be delivered. We saw those promises in 2010 and we saw them in 2015, and the Tories were also promising to electrify the midland main line in 2017. In 2019 they promised that they would listen to the Oakervee review, a detailed review of HS2, the costs of which were escalating because of the constant delays and ineptitude of this Government in implementing it.

For 11 years HS2 has been Tory party policy, but throughout that period they have managed the policy so ineptly that the costs have continually escalated, and public confidence has not been there. Now they are asking how we can support policies that they spent four general elections and 11 years telling us were the right policies. They stand there and say that this is a major investment, but every major investment in rail that they have announced in the 11 years for which I have been here has never been delivered. They have stood there and announced midland main line electrification, and they have never delivered it. They have stood there and announced HS2, and they have never delivered it. So why on earth should anyone believe that the plan that is on that desk, which will take many years and future Parliaments to be delivered, will ever happen?

The people of Chesterfield have been lied to, and people across the midlands and the north have been lied to, in order to get this shabby Government elected. It is no wonder that people throughout my constituency are finally starting to see what this Government really stand for. It makes me sick, Mr Deputy Speaker.

December 9, 2021
Toby Perkins – 2021 Comments on Government Failing to Meet Apprentice Target

The comments made by Toby Perkins, the Shadow Minister for Further Education and Skills, on 13 September 2021.

Young people and employers have been failed by the Conservatives’ irresponsible handling of the Covid crisis and a decade of neglect which has shut young people out of the training opportunities they need.

Skills and retraining should be a vital part of our economic recovery, but the Conservatives have shown themselves incapable of reversing the decline in apprenticeships which has seen over 188,000 opportunities lost under their leadership with 2020 seeing the lowest number of 16 and 17-year-olds starting an apprenticeship since the 1980s.

Labour has set out an ambitious plan to create 100,000 new apprenticeship opportunities for young people harnessing their skills and capabilities to fuel our economic recovery post-pandemic.

September 13, 2021
Toby Perkins – 2021 Comments on BTEC Results

The comments made by Toby Perkins, the Shadow Minister for Further Education, on 10 August 2021.

Labour congratulates the 230,000 students who have achieved their Level 3 BTEC qualification today.

They should be proud of their achievements through the most challenging of circumstances and against the backdrop of a Conservative Government looking to devalue their qualifications.

Despite the high value placed on BTECs by employers and universities, the Government plans to scrap most of these qualifications putting young people’s life chances at risk.

The Government’s alternative T-Level qualifications are currently unproven and a hasty charge to abolish Level 3 BTECs would be hugely irresponsible.

August 10, 2021
Toby Perkins – 2021 Comments on the Lifetime Skills Guarantee

The comments made by Toby Perkins, the Shadow Minister for Further Education and Skills, on 30 March 2021.

You would be forgiven for thinking the Conservatives’ Lifetime Skills Guarantee is an April Fool’s joke, rather than a plan to help reskill our country after this pandemic.

The Conservatives’ mishandling of the Covid crisis has led the UK to experience the worst economic crisis of any major economy. Their limited plans will now leave millions unable to access the skills they need to play their part in our recovery.

Minister should urgently widen eligibility for the Lifetime Skills Guarantee to ensure it reaches all adults who could benefit.

April 1, 2021