Speeches by Cooper.

“The Government’s commitment to build more affordable homes is both welcome and urgent. However, we also need to ensure that registered providers are willing and able to take on section 106 affordable homes when they are built. In recent years, a combination of factors has meant that too many homes stand empty. Will my …”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Mark. I commend the hon. Member for Poplar and Limehouse (Apsana Begum) for securing a debate on this extremely important subject, on which she speaks with real authority. This is a pervasive problem that we cannot afford to ignore. It is our responsibility to tack…”

“This piece of legislation carries immense significance for the health of our nation, and I welcome the steps being taken to protect people from the harms of tobacco, to create a smokefree generation and to tackle youth vaping. We are all too aware that smoking remains the biggest cause of preventable illness and death …”

“After Northwich station collapsed in 2021, an Access for All application was submitted, with the support of local partners, to add step-free access to the Chester-bound platform. Unfortunately, that opportunity was missed by the last Government, and the station has been rebuilt without those accessibility improvements.…”

“12. What steps she is taking to improve the accessibility of railway stations for disabled people.”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Vaz, and I congratulate the hon. Member for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East (Seamus Logan) on securing this crucial debate. The alarming fact is that after 14 years of Tory Government, food bank use is a significant problem in every constituency in every corner o…”

“Chester zoo, in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Chester North and Neston (Samantha Dixon), does important and nationally leading conservation work. Zoos nationwide have faced regulatory uncertainty for nearly three years because of the previous Government’s delay in publishing new zoo standards. Will …”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Pritchard. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Tony Vaughan) on securing this important debate. With 4.3 million children living in poverty in the UK and one in four in my constituency, covering Northwich, Winsford and Middlewich, it i…”

“After more than a decade of stagnation, this Budget provides the vital reset that our economy needs, not just to address the immediate challenges we face but to lay the foundations for a brighter and fairer future for all. There are many welcome measures in this Budget, and of particular importance to my constituency w…”

“T7. As has been said today, justice delayed is justice denied. I am sure that the Minister will agree that victims of domestic violence are being forced to wait years for their cases to be heard in court. A constituent of mine has told me that the delays in her case have left her feeling trapped, scared and let down by…”

“Building on the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for York Central (Rachael Maskell), does the Minister agree that stroke patients should have the highest priority for ambulance call-outs—as high as cardiac arrest, for example?”

“I thank the hon. Lady for securing this important debate. She rightly talks about the need for stroke patients to receive urgent medical treatment. Last month, I attended a thrombectomy awareness event at which my constituent, Mark Paterson, was speaking as a stroke survivor. Mark’s remarkable recovery was thanks to th…”

“Parents want the best for their children, schools want to deliver the best for their children and local authorities want to provide the best for their children, but the system sets everybody up to fail. It is adversarial instead of being person-centred, and it actively incentivises bad outcomes. I am pleased to hear th…”

“I agree with that; a trauma-informed approach would benefit a lot of areas of public life, and I bow to my hon. Friend’s greater experience in this area. Rough sleeping is an intractable issue with many diverse and overlapping root causes, including a lack of affordable housing, unemployment, financial instability and …”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Christopher. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Ealing Southall (Deirdre Costigan) on securing and ably leading this important debate on rough sleeping. Rough sleeping blights our communities and ruins lives. Being forced to sleep on the streets has a dev…”

“Like many of us today, I proudly say that I am a member of the GMB and of USDAW. Alas, I cannot declare any donations from either of those organisations, but we do still have a good stock of USDAW carrier bags, which everybody knows are the cornerstone of any Labour campaign centre. I was also recently the director of …”

“We can probably all agree that every child should have the opportunity to reach their full potential, regardless of their background and circumstances, who they know and where they come from. None of that should shape people’s lives more than their talent, creativity or determination. I welcome the emphasis on the impo…”

“Does my hon. Friend agree that town centre events have a really important role to play in driving the vitality and viability of town centres that have been in decline? In my constituency, for instance, Northwich town council, the business improvement district, rotary clubs and various community groups have partnered to…”

“It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for North Cornwall (Ben Maguire), who gave a passionate if controversial maiden speech. It is also a pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Warrington South (Sarah Hall), whose father-in-law is one of my predecessors as MP for Northwich. I pay tribute to Mike Hall, w…”

“The Cheshire county netball under-17 squad, which includes girls from my constituency, will travel to America next month to compete in the netball open championships—the first British team to be invited to do so, I believe. I know that the team will have an unforgettable experience and will showcase their talent, and I…”