Speeches by Moore.

“To sum up, I first want to thank Christina, because without her and the circumstances she has brought to our attention, we would not have had the petition, the over 100,000 signatures that have attached themselves to it and therefore this debate. On behalf of the Petitions Committee, I thank not only Christina but Skye…”

“I beg to move, That this House has considered e-petition 638449 relating to career breaks for parents of seriously ill children. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Vaz. No parent should have to go through the upset and anguish of seeing their child diagnosed or suffering with a serious illness. Sadly…”

“I thank the hon. Member for her intervention. That absolutely highlights the importance of why the petition needs to be considered by the Government and the Minister of the day. The Employment Rights Bill that is working its way through the House includes some positive measures. Potentially, this petition is an additio…”

“Absolutely. That highlights the associated challenges for parents, and not only the financial ones that can unexpectedly be put on them, but the emotional challenges and anxiety-related issues. Whether the scenario involves a short-term care plan being put in place or something much longer, that anxiety is absolutely t…”

“Absolutely, and I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention. Not all employers sing from the same hymn sheet by providing that good level of support and care to their employees while they are going through very traumatic situations. Some employers are very good, but not all carry out the same level of care for their e…”

“The hon. Member’s intervention gets to the nub of the why this petition is so important: not all employers are doing the right thing by their employees. That parent may be a single parent or have no support around them, and they can end up in a very difficult situation, having to deal quite immediately with the challen…”

“Whether it be the drastic reduction in business property relief and agricultural property relief, which will decimate many family businesses, or the increase in employer national insurance, which will negatively impact all businesses, including the GP surgeries in Keighley that have told me they are now deciding to fre…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. I thank the hon. Member for Caerfyrddin (Ann Davies) for securing this incredibly important debate. Here we are yet again, having summoned yet another Minister to the House. We have slowly worked our way through all the DEFRA Ministers, and now here we are…”

“In Keighley, we have seen how labelling legitimate concerns around grooming gangs as far-right has distorted conversations, silenced victims and inadvertently given space to bad faith actors. It is therefore incredibly concerning to see this report written by Home Office officials using similar language, calling groomi…”

“Will the Minister give way?”

“You are not listening to the question.”

“Will the Minister confirm when he and the Government will start listening to the points being made by everybody outside this place—different stakeholders, banks, accountants—”

“And supermarkets. The Minister and Government are, dare I say it, alone on this point. Secondly, as he did not allow my intervention earlier, will the Minister confirm why the Government are not taking into account the value and the size of agricultural units when projecting the impact the changes will have on family f…”

“Despite stating in 2021 that it was in “strong financial health”, Labour-controlled Bradford council now wants to put up council tax for my constituents by a whopping 15%. This is a shocking situation, resulting from continuous mismanagement by our council leaders, who have splashed millions of pounds of taxpayers’ mon…”

“Reporting is absolutely vital, based on the complexity of what is being reported—I completely agree—but it is also important, is it not, that the ethnicity of the perpetrator is recorded as well as the ethnicity of the victim? John O’Brien: Absolutely.”

“And therefore, building on that, why that additional challenge exists. John O’Brien: Yes. I was merely making the point that if you record the ethnicity but not the crime, if you like, you get an inaccurate picture of what is occurring. You might understand more about ethnicity, but you still will not have a complete p…”

“Finally from me, in an earlier answer you indicated that the weight of this Committee has an ability to shine a spotlight on these challenges. Is there any advice that you would like to give us as a Committee beyond today, specifically on this issue, given the concerns that I have raised, not only at a local level but …”

“But that was with the will of the Rotherham council to do that.”

“If you are not at this stage agreeable to a national inquiry, I want to come back to my area, which I have been talking about for a long time: the Bradford district. How is it best to achieve a local inquiry across an area like Bradford, where the current position is that we do not have local leadership on Bradford cou…”

“I completely agree with what you have just said, which is why the level of concern that I have is so strong, particularly around those areas such as the Bradford district that have not had a spotlight on them. The Home Secretary gave a statement to the House last week announcing, effectively, five audits that are going…”