Joe Morris: It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Vaz; I will be brief. I applied to contribute to this debate because I wanted to speak not just about my experiences, but about the experiences of people I grew up around, people I was at school with and people who, in many cases, were forced to leave my constituency of Hexham, which colleagues will be surprised to learn is the largest in...
Joe Morris: The Government the hon. Gentleman supported were responsible for driving living standards down, in the first Parliament on record in which that happened. Does he not agree that it is traditionally bad form for the arsonist to start criticising the fire brigade?
Joe Morris: What assessment she has made of the adequacy of the provision of SEND services.
Joe Morris: I thank the Secretary of State for her answers so far. People in my constituency of Hexham—one of the largest constituencies in the country—routinely tell me of the struggle they face in enabling their children to access the support they need and the education they are entitled to. Will the Secretary of State or one of her Ministers meet with me to discuss the challenges of accessing SEND...
Joe Morris: What assessment she has made of the adequacy of the provision of SEND services.
Joe Morris: I thank the Secretary of State for her answers so far. People in my constituency of Hexham—one of the largest constituencies in the country—routinely tell me of the struggle they face in enabling their children to access the support they need and the education they are entitled to. Will the Secretary of State or one of her Ministers meet with me to discuss the challenges of accessing SEND...
Joe Morris: My constituent Michael Parry is currently fighting pancreatic cancer. He has raised the issue with me on numerous occasions. Will the Leader of the House give us a debate in Government time on screening for pancreatic and other high-mortality cancers?
Joe Morris: The previous Government’s plan for steel was to pay half a billion pounds to Tata Steel to not make any steel for years, while placing thousands of highly paid and highly skilled workers at risk of redundancy with no guarantee of jobs in the future. Can the Minister reassure me that she is taking steps to secure the future of our strategic industries?
Joe Morris: I thank all hon. Members who have taken part in the debate. It has been an incredibly valuable experience for me and for the constituents who have been in contact throughout the process of writing my speech and going to local agricultural shows. It has been heartening to hear the Minister’s response, the input from all colleagues and the collegiate tone of the discussion, particularly as we...
Joe Morris: I beg to move, That this House has considered the future of sheep farming. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Huq. The future of our sheep farming sector is vital to my constituency and my constituents in Northumberland, which is, after all, famous for having more sheep than people. I was privileged in the run-up to and during the recent general election to meet local farmers...
Joe Morris: I will come on to tenant farmers later, and I hope the hon. Gentleman will like some of what he hears. The election of the Labour Government is an opportunity to reset the relationship between sheep farmers, the wider farming community and the Government. The farmers I have spoken to are aware that this is our chance to have an honest and productive relationship built on trust, with the...
Joe Morris: As I was discussing with my hon. Friend before the debate, I spent two years working for the UK steel sector, which also faces dramatic challenges from goods produced at far lower costs flooding into our markets and damaging production. Those issues that affect steel also affect farming, and it is incumbent upon us to look at the trade deals we sign and how they impact us. Later in my speech,...
Joe Morris: The hon. Member makes a valid point, which takes me back to a conversation about rural crime that I had near Byrness in my constituency. A local farmer told me that when criminals came out, she had to wait 45 to 50 minutes for the police to arrive. I hope that the Government will look carefully at sheep worrying as part of a broader rural crime strategy and I look forward to the Minister’s...
Joe Morris: I will finish my sentence and then give way. Farmers saw larger businesses able to continually dictate terms to tenant farmers when it came to selling their produce.
Joe Morris: Many farmers who are small operators have expressed their frustration to me about people assuming that the majority of farmers are incredibly wealthy and can shoulder the burdens. I am reminded of the current Leader of the Opposition, the right hon. Member for Richmond and Northallerton (Rishi Sunak), saying to the National Farmers Union conference that a lot of farmers did not do it for the...
Joe Morris: I thank Mr Speaker for granting this debate. The Minister will know as well as I do, and as well as Members on both sides of the House do, that there are banking deserts across the country, with many people shut off from accessing very basic face-to-face services. The figures merely hint at the crisis in my constituency. Northumberland has lost more than half of its bank branches since 2015,...
Joe Morris: I very much agree that before a bank branch closes, we need to mitigate the consequences. We need to make sure that the rural economy has space to grow, so that people like my constituents do not face such long journeys, which are particularly hard to navigate on public transport.
Joe Morris: My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I know how hard he fights for his constituents across Blyth and Ashington, and I know how much bank closures have impacted his part of the world, and more urban parts of Northumberland. I completely agree that we need to fight for these services in all our constituencies. I am reminded of a 74-year-old constituent who was forced to travel from Wark to...
Joe Morris: I agree with my hon. Friend, and I thank her for giving me an unintended promotion. It may seem like we are just saying names on a map, but consider the vast scale of my constituency in our wonderful county of Northumberland. These places are separated by huge distances, and have a public transport system that does not always seem to work as it should. It is simply not fair that vulnerable...
