Speeches by Morgan.

“17. What steps her Department is taking to improve support for children with special educational needs and disabilities.”

“Children with special educational needs and disabilities in Shropshire are relatively poorly funded compared with those in the rest of the country. Top-up funding for those with the highest level of needs is just £7,000, meaning that the schools that support them cannot even afford a full-time teaching assistant to hel…”

“As the chair of the all-party parliamentary group on flooding and flooded communities, and the MP for a constituency that suffers from surface water flooding as well as river flooding, I am concerned that the proposals will divert decision making away from those with the greatest local knowledge. When a flooding area i…”

“My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech. Does she agree that the single biggest reason that people fail to access work in rural areas is public transport? The figures that she has given are not just numbers; it benefits somebody’s whole way of life if they can access work because they can catch the bus there.”

“20. What fiscal steps she is taking to increase economic growth in rural areas.”

“Rural North Shropshire is home to some great independent businesses that we are looking forward to celebrating on Small Business Saturday this week, but they are held back by the business rates system, which benefits big online retailers and holds back investment not only on the high street but in the countryside. Will…”

“It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Sir Mark, and indeed to represent the Liberal Democrats for World AIDS Day. I thank the hon. Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Danny Beales) for his excellent introduction to this topic and for securing the debate. There have been so many brilliant contributions. I want to…”

“I can confirm that it has been a very long time since anyone has asked me for ID to make a purchase—a moment that is even further into the past than the last time I bought a packet of cigarettes. That experience will inform some of my comments today. I support this legislation, but it will be a free vote for my Liberal…”

“I remind Members that I am chair of the all-party parliamentary group on flooding and flooded communities. Large areas of North Shropshire are often under water, either from river flooding or from prolonged rainfall. This weekend has been no exception, with villagers cut off for long periods of time and vast swathes of…”

“Q14. Last week I was contacted by a constituent whose husband has stage 4 bowel cancer. He had a routine scan in June but did not receive the results until early November, and unfortunately during that period he received unsuitable chemotherapy and his cancer has progressed. Given that Shropshire has the worst record i…”

“Hospices provide essential care for people at the most difficult point of their life, and they are usually only partially funded by the NHS. Hospice UK says that real-terms funding has fallen by £47 million since 2022, and hospices are struggling with this hike in national insurance contributions. Hope House children’s…”

“The Conservatives’ disastrous legacy on dentistry means that more than 4.4 million children have not seen a dentist in the past year. In Shropshire, dentists continue to hand back their contracts, including one in Wem in recent weeks. Will the Minister outline his plan to reverse that terrible decline and ensure that t…”

“Shropshire is one of the worst-served counties in England for public transport, having lost 63% of its bus miles since 2015, compared with a national average of about 19%. A person in Market Drayton who wants to get to the closest hospital in Telford, which is a 20-minute car journey, is looking at a five-hour round tr…”

“Oswestry in my constituency is the second largest town in Shropshire and serves a vast rural area stretching into mid-Wales and across north Shropshire. It is digitally excluded because it often does not have adequate mobile signal or broadband services, so the full range of Crown post office services are absolutely es…”

“Nowhere are disabled people more discriminated against than on Britain’s railways. The previous Government had an Access for All scheme that would allow disabled people to get to platforms that were otherwise inaccessible. This has been put on hold by the new Government. Can the Minister tell me what discussions he has…”

“Many homes in my constituency are off grid, which means that their owners have to fill up the tank at the beginning of winter to keep warm. The pensioners who have lost the winter fuel payment are struggling with that up-front amount. Will the Minister review the level at which the winter fuel payment is removed, becau…”

“I congratulate the hon. Members who made their maiden speeches earlier. I thought they were all excellent, although I obviously take issue with anyone who does not think that North Shropshire is the best place to be an MP. North Shropshire is very rural and is inhabited by some of the best people you will ever meet. I …”

“I am just about to conclude, so I will carry on. I was about to talk about farmers and the concerning differences between DEFRA and the Treasury on the number of farms that will be affected. My sense from talking to farmers locally is that the DEFRA numbers are more likely to be accurate, and I therefore think there ma…”

“I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. The point that we are trying to make is that some of the Budget measures will cost extra money. If we look at the detail on the national insurance contributions hike, for example, we see that changes in behaviour and exemptions for the NHS will reduce the amount of money…”

“Fair funding for rural authorities, and indeed all local authorities, is something I have talked about many times in this House, and I absolutely agree with the hon. Gentleman on that. We saw £600 million allocated to social care in the Budget and an increase in the national living wage, both of which are obviously wel…”