Speeches by Kirkham.

“I refer the House to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. I, too, was a Unison rep, and I have taken contributions from Unison and other unions towards my election expenses. The point my hon. Friend makes is very real in Cornwall too. Migrant care workers were left on a bench in a village from the …”

“I congratulate Cornwall on being in wave one of the Government’s innovative roll-out of the neighbourhood health services. We are one of 43 areas making that shift and we have provided services locally, such as community health and wellbeing workers, which have been very well received and which make a difference. May w…”

“Since I was elected last July, I have become closely acquainted with the long-distance London Paddington to Penzance line, which a number of my colleagues have mentioned. There was a big storm in 2014, and we were properly cut off for eight weeks; we could not get in or out of Cornwall by rail, because there is only on…”

“As a member of the Committee, I attended the trip to Dover where we saw just how much meat could have been coming in in the white vans that were flooding in. Border Force is very busy and has numerous duties, and the powers and hours for the Port Health Authority were far too limited; it was obvious that it was not abl…”

“The IPC has declared only four famines since it was established in 2004. In August, it declared one in Gaza City. It said: “this Famine is entirely man-made, it can be halted and reversed”. The non-governmental organisations I have spoken to have been unable to get any aid into Gaza since March. Save the Children has 4…”

“Just very quickly to say that I had some correspondence from a witness at our last evidence session who went with Greenpeace to the conference and was very complimentary about the UK delegation’s tireless efforts throughout the negotiations. I just wanted to pass that on. He mentioned that the major divergence between …”

“I was just going to ask about ownership; are you going to come on to that next?”

“Herds are bigger, so the amount of slurry is larger and farmers have been struggling to cope. I wanted to make the point that they do not have the money or the infrastructure because it has not been built up over time. Coming back to the pesticides; I have some constituents who are very concerned about this, particular…”

“It was probably me.”

“Jon Cunliffe’s review was a big chance to look in the round at the water industry, and we have touched briefly on state nationalisation. That was obviously something that was ruled out initially, but there are other methods of ownership. We went to Germany and spoke to their Minister for water; it has many small munici…”

“That leads into what I am going to talk about, which are other types of pollution such as agriculture and pesticides. Agricultural pollution affects 45% of water bodies, so it is a big issue. The ELM targets were 65% to 80% of landowners and farmers adopting nature-friendly farming on 10% to 15% of their land by 2030. …”

“I suppose the other point was agricultural pollution, pesticide pollution, but of course there is runoff as well from roads and all sorts. Again, that means working across Departments so it is a bit more difficult. What plans do you have to deal with that as well?”

“Does my hon. Friend agree that the Government’s fair funding review is right to take into account the sparsity and rurality of coastal areas and visitor numbers into the new calculations? For example, a hotel in Cornwall in the winter can cost £53, but in the summer it can cost £100, and county councils spend twice as …”

“It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Sir Jeremy. When the Government’s immigration White Paper was published with the proposal to increase the qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain, I received numerous emails from constituents in Truro and Falmouth who could be affected. My constituency is home to …”

“How do I follow that? It is an honour to speak in the David Amess debate. I start by congratulating Falmouth town council and Source FM in my constituency for the opening of the resource project this weekend, which will bring community radio and a community café to everybody in Falmouth. Thank you and good luck to Pend…”

“The board minutes say that they were considered.”

“We know that Thames Water has been in difficulty for a long time. It is not only the staff at the top who feel it and get grief; it is the staff who are going out meeting people day after day. When Helena talks about training needs and so on, it is also an acceptance of what is happening on the ground and how difficult…”

“Yes, they were getting on with it, but without a 300% bonus. That is different.”

“I have one last question. You said that you led on workforce engagement until last year. Who is currently leading on workforce engagement?”

“The board minutes say that the potential impact of the Water (Special Measures) Act 2025 and negative publicity was considered and that the recipients themselves were asked not to say anything about it.”