Speeches

Giving every child the best start in life is surely a point on which we on both sides of the House can agree. It must also surely be an ambition for all across the globe.

This Environment Bill is major legislation and a mark of this Government’s commitment to our environment and combatting climate change – as the Prime Minister himself said it is a ‘lodestar by which we will guide our country towards a cleaner and greener future’.

Universal Credit, the innovative, digital based, more agile service, is one of the major success stories during this pandemic.

When Covid19 hit this country, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) was faced with an unprecedented demand for Universal Credit.

For eleven months now we have been gripped in the jaws of the Covid19 health pandemic. It has brought hardship on businesses and livelihoods, upended our very freedoms and liberties and unfortunately for too many families it has brought heartbreak and sorrow at the loss of a loved one.

A year ago, I was elected on a promise to eradicate homelessness and rough sleeping in Hastings and Rye over the next ten years. This is a promise to local residents that I intend to keep.

Businesses up and down our country have faced pressures they never expected, challenges they never predicted and hardships they never sought. Rightly, this Government stepped up and came to their aid in their hour of need.

Tourism (with our cultural sector) is very important to Hastings and Rye’s local economy, which has taken a real hit because of coronavirus.

We are now seeing an increase in benefit claims.

This Bill is not only important for the UK fishing industry, it is also a statement of the repatriation of sovereign powers to the UK.

I want to touch on sentencing - what is the purpose of sentencing?

Primarily to punish the offender;

Importantly for this country, a country which has always welcomed immigrants, this Bill will enable the alignment of treatment for EU and non-EU citizens as part of our future immigration system.