Speeches by Witherden.

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Murrison. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool Wavertree (Paula Barker) for securing this debate and for her tireless work on tackling homelessness. The crippling cost of living, sky-high private rents and the lack of social housing in the UK mean that far t…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Jardine. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Newport West and Islwyn (Ruth Jones) for securing the debate and for all her dedicated work to bring us closer to achieving a truly fur-free Britain. The UK was the first country in the world to ban fur farming. That is a …”

“The level of poverty that 14 million people in the UK face is not inevitable; it is the result of political choices, and it damages our economy, costing around £75 billion each year. Will my right hon. Friend consider equalising capital gains tax with income tax and introducing a 2% wealth tax on assets over £10 millio…”

“Some 17,600 people in Wales are known to be living with type 1 diabetes. Like England, we do not yet have a national screening programme. In 2018, the Cardiff and Vale university health board introduced a series of quality improvement initiatives to support earlier diagnoses. As a result, it has recorded the lowest ave…”

“I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Newport West and Islwyn (Ruth Jones) on securing today’s debate and thank her for all her work as the Chair of the Welsh Affairs Committee. In last year’s debate, I spoke about the pride that I feel in representing Glyndŵr, the area that I have lived in my whole life. While …”

“I have one final question on this broader topic. We touched on this already when Katie spoke about that trial in the West Midlands Combined Authority. I want to get the panel’s take on whether there are any other policy levers that the UK Government could use to reduce the cost of rent in the private sector, such as re…”

“I have a follow-up question. Debbie, Shelter Cymru supports increasing LHA from the 30th percentile of local rents to the 50th percentile. Have you made any assessment of the cost to the public purse of such a change?”

“It was two things, really. I am interested in the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 and its provisions in England that you might like to see in Wales. I also wanted to ask about the issue of no recourse to public funds and its impact on housing insecurity and homelessness for the migrant community in Wales. I know they are slig…”

“I would like to talk now about local housing allowance. What would aligning current rates of LHA with inflation—by that, I mean matching it against increases in average rents or raising it to the 30th percentile—do to reduce homelessness in Wales?”

“Thank you, Minister. You have touched on what I was going to follow up with. Obviously, contaminated land is a legacy of Wales’s industrial past. I was going to ask about the UK Government helping with the inspection and remediation of these sites, as they have done for coal tips. You have touched on that, but does thi…”

“Thank you, Minister. That is incredibly thorough. I was going to ask a follow-up question on what we are doing to realise these ambitions, but you have covered that comprehensively in your answer, so I will move on to my next question. How is the Wales Office working with other Departments in the UK Government and in t…”

“Just following on from that, I greatly welcome coal spoil tip safety. My constituency is home to Bersham colliery, the last coal mine to shut in north Wales; it is very close to the village of Rhostyllen. That is something that is hugely welcome. I wanted to turn my attention to contaminated land. Natural Resources Wal…”

“Thank you all for coming to meet us today. What are your ambitions for inward investment in Wales over the next 10 years?”

“T4. My constituency is home to Bersham colliery, the final coalmine to close in the whole of north Wales. Coal tip safety is paramount to Welsh communities, but there is a concern about companies extracting coal from our 2,590 tips for commercial gain. With the Senedd elections less than three months away, if the Welsh…”

“I thank the hon. Member for Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber (Brendan O’Hara) for laying out so powerfully the extent to which our Government have failed in their responsibilities to assess the serious risk of genocide, and our legal obligation to act under the genocide convention. Since the latest US-brokered so-called…”

“Scrapping the two-child limit is a clear win-win. It will improve the living standards of around 1.6 million children overnight and prevent hundreds of thousands more from being pushed into poverty in the years ahead, while also leading to better health, development, educational attainment and economic outcomes. These …”

“Members on both sides of the House share my deep concern about the Government’s amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill, which has already been dealt with in Committee and which would restrict the right to protest on the basis of “cumulative disruption”. Does the Minister not agree that, given the significance of that…”

“I agree with my hon. Friend, who cites some absolutely appalling statistics. An essentials guarantee would embed the principle that universal credit should, at a minimum, protect people from going without food, heating and other basics. A protected minimum floor would ensure that no one falls below a humane safety net.…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Edward. I place on record my firm opposition to proposals to dramatically extend the timeline for the route to settlement, and in particular to the deeply unfair plan to apply the changes retroactively. To now withdraw that promise is, as the Work Rights Centre has ri…”

“Is there anything that you would like to add, Mr Newns?”