Speeches by Turner.

“I am glad to be called in this debate. I declare an interest: the GMB—one of the steelworkers’ unions, whose parliamentary group I chair—has donated to my constituency party. Twenty years ago, the MG Rover car plant in my constituency collapsed, with devastating consequences that are felt to this day. Today, all our th…”

“For the avoidance of doubt, I am a member of Unite. I was on the BBC over the weekend to talk about exactly these issues. There has been a change in the policing of the egress from the depots, one of which is in my constituency. Also, at the start of last week, a major incident was declared in Birmingham. I support the…”

“I think what people in my constituency want is a regular and reliable service. They want the current backlog to be cleared. Some streets in my constituency have not had a collection for four or five weeks. Of course, that is completely unacceptable, particularly when other streets have had much more regular collections…”

“I have made my comments. The hon. Member is acting irresponsibly, because we are in discussions—I mean “we” in the sense that the council, which I am not a member of, and the union are in discussions. The most important thing is making sure that the strike ends, and that there is no new equal pay liability. Let us not …”

“I must say, listening to this, that I feel there is a real rewriting of history going on. Under the leadership of the Conservatives, the sharpest central Government cuts on any local authority in England were inflicted on Birmingham. Will the hon. Gentleman apologise for his party’s role in that?”

“The right hon. Lady is exactly right to say that there is west midlands Conservative party representation; I was merely making a point about the city. We do not have the same figures for the region, but nationally, fly-tipping incidents rose by 37% between 2010-11 and 2023-24. For the west midlands, where records start…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. I congratulate the right hon. Member for Aldridge-Brownhills (Wendy Morton) on securing the debate. We will talk about some of the specific issues she raised in relation to Birmingham, but this issue attracts attention in every region and, as she rightly s…”

“The right hon. Lady highlights an issue that affects my constituency, as well as that of the hon. Member for Bromsgrove. Given that party politics were mentioned, I want to put on the record the fact that there have been disruptive bin strikes in Conservative-run authorities over recent years—Wiltshire, Adur and Worthi…”

“indicated assent.”

“A 40% increase is more than “a few”, by any measure, but on the right hon. Lady’s substantive point, I was a trade union official, and in my experience the vast majority of disputes are ended by the two parties involved—in this case, Unite the union and Birmingham city council—coming to an agreement. Talks have resumed…”

“I have two more questions on compensation for passengers. The first is that, while some people will be reimbursed for cancelled journeys, most passengers will not be entitled to compensation. I am not inviting comments on what the regulations say, but do you think that that status quo is fair for passengers?”

“I want to return to contingency planning. My colleague referenced the 2014 Jacobs report, which set out some generalised warnings about the risk of electricity outages. Down the years of contingency planning at Heathrow, was this specific scenario with the complete failure of the North Hyde site identified as a risk? I…”

“Just to tease out the fine difference, you said the contingency plan was prepared for complete loss of power. Is that the same as a contingency plan being in place specifically for the complete failure of this substation?”

“You may feel that this question has been partly answered already, and I am conscious of time, so please do not feel the need to repeat anything that has already been said. With the benefit of some hindsight, how well do you think that Heathrow and the airlines communicated with passengers and adapted to their individua…”

“Just to check, you said, “Unfortunately, Heathrow does not really have a role”. Do you think that there is a change to be made there?”

“The second part was on the issue that has just been touched on, which is on delay attribution. There are other parts of the transport sector—I am particularly thinking about the railways—where delay attribution is perhaps better understood. Do you think that there is a need for change in that area?”

“rose—”

“No. With respect, I think the hon. Gentleman has misunderstood my point. The Committee has every right to express that view; we also have the right to express our view as legislators in this place as to whether the case has been made. As I say, I think the case has been made that primary legislation is not a sufficient…”

“I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his intervention, although I do not agree with his characterisation of the speeches we have heard today. I think hon. Members have brought a wide range of perspectives, and that even though there has been some disagreement across the House—and, on occasion, on the same Benches—all M…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention. I know that was one of the areas to which he paid a lot of attention in the transport brief. I am sure that as the Committee continues to look into this area, it will build on that work. As he says, this is an issue that comes up time and again in my constituency. We might n…”