Anna Turley

The hon. Gentleman was in Parliament when 2,300 jobs in the steel industry were lost overnight in my constituency. We had to deal with the consequences of that. His party know all about putting people out of work. This is about breaking the cycle. Three quarters of the children growing up in poverty are in working households. The economy that we saw develop under the Conservative Government was one where work just did not pay. People were working all the hours and shifts they could, and they still were not able to feed their families. That is why we are supporting parents in getting back to work and getting their children happy, healthy and fed in school. I also want to support the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Portsmouth North (Amanda Martin) about the veterans strategy. There are 9,000 veterans in Portsmouth who have benefited from the hard-working campaigning she has done in her constituency. We have seen a big uplift in defence spending, and that is something I am deeply proud of in this country. We face a deeply insecure world at the moment. We have a Prime Minister who is rebuilding Britain’s standing on the global stage and is putting defence spending at the heart of economic regeneration in constituencies like ours. I could go on about manifesto pledges that have been met, such as banning trail hunting, ending hereditary peers, and the Football Governance Act 2025 giving fans a real voice in their football clubs. We promised 2 million more NHS appointments; we have delivered 5 million more already. We have halved the number of asylum hotels. There have been 1 million potholes fixed. My hon. Friend the Member for Dartford (Jim Dickson) has campaigned very hard about roads and potholes in his constituency. We are supporting renters by abolishing no-fault evictions. We have established Great British Energy to drive our energy renewal in this country. We have delivered pension justice for mineworkers. In my constituency, thanks to Cleveland police, from May we are going to see a named police officer in every ward. That is 3,000 more police already. That is a lot done, but as I think my hon. Friend the Member for Hitchin (Alistair Strathern) described it, these are downpayments on progress. This is just the beginning. With every month, more and more people will start to feel the benefit of the Labour Government in their pockets, and I am proud to have delivered that. The hon. Member for Thirsk and Malton (Kevin Hollinrake) talked about the importance of stability for small business. He is absolutely right, and calling for another general election completely flies in the face of that. Conservative Members may have enjoyed the chaos and upheaval of the last Government, where we had four elections and a referendum in four years. I was here; I witnessed it all. That had a disastrous effect. The public voted to end the chaos, and they want us to get on with governing the country and fixing the mess that the last Government left behind. That takes time and patience, but this Labour Government are committed to delivering on the change that the country voted for in the last general election. As I have set out, there are manifesto pledges that have been met, and there are manifesto pledges that are being delivered. I am extremely grateful to my hon. Friends for highlighting so many of the positive impacts that this Government are having on the lives of their constituents. We will continue to take difficult and strong decisions in the national interest, after 14 years of failed Conservative Government. We saw a merry-go-round of failed Prime Ministers who slashed our public services, crashed our economy and frayed the social fabric of our country. Their Governments cut the NHS year after year and betrayed the promises they made to their country. As the Prime Minister said in his new year message, this is the year the country will “turn a corner” along the path of national renewal. We will not shy away from making the big calls that are right for our country’s future. We are proud of the progress so far. We know that people will feel the change this year in their pay packets and on the streets. We are proud to stand on our record at the next general election and we look forward to it. In the meantime, we will get on with delivering the change that the public voted for—the change they expect from a Labour Government—and building a fairer, more hopeful and better Britain.