Former Labour & Co-operative Member of Parliament, Kemptown & Peacehaven
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International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia Speech
I can marry whomever I want to, if anyone would want to marry me, of course—applications on a postcard. I can date a person in the style that I want, including online, and of course, consensually I can sleep with who I want without fear of persecution. However, the same cannot be said in many...
Read moreSanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill [Lords]
We know that this has been happening thanks to the investigative work of Amnesty International and other non-governmental organisations. In 2014, Ukrainian-based S-Profit Ltd, which was registered here in the UK, was named by the South Sudanese Government as brokering a £44 million small arms...
Read moreErasmus + Debate
Mr Speaker, I beg to move. That this house urges the government to negotiate continued access to the Erasmus plus program and all its successors schemes beyond 2020. Almost two years on from the EU referendum, the government has not yet answered key questions: such as how will we continue to...
Read moreLivestock Worrying: Sussex
I think it’s important that I put on the record the contribution the farming industry makes to Sussex and indeed the whole country. Farming contributes over £140 million to Sussex’s economy and employs 8500 people permanently as well as offering employment to thousands of seasonal...
Read moreSyria
On the diplomatic strategy, resolution 377A of the General Assembly—the “Uniting for Peace” resolution—would allow this Government to convene an emergency session of the GA to seek a majority there. If that majority was found, it would provide a level of backing under international law that...
Read morePublic Meetings
Please find below a message from Lloyd Russell-Moyle MP, and RSVP for the two upcoming public meetings he is hosting for women in the Brighton Kemptown & Peacehaven constituency born in the 1950s and affected by pension changes. Please only RSVP for one of the events, and when you register,...
Read moreInternational Development: Education
They have trialled a number of alternative models of education: one whereby they have used Bridge International Academies, which we touch on in the report; one whereby they use local NGOs as providers; and one whereby they use completely non-profit international NGOs. When we spoke to some of the...
Read moreNational Security and Russia
It has often been misinterpreted—I hope not deliberately, but one can never judge that totally—but it has been about proportionality and ensuring that we do not get ahead of ourselves and refrain from unnecessarily inflaming language such as, “Shut up and go away.” It is also worth...
Read moreUK-EU: International Development
I will briefly touch on a number of issues, which supplement those that have already been raised, and which are particularly about the co-ordination of non-governmental organisations. At the moment, Britain and London are one of the leading hubs for NGOs and aid organisations around the world....
Read moreLabour’s Foreign Policy
Almost all media bandwidth is recent months has been taken up with Brexit and our benighted Prime Minister’s attempts to not appear completely paralysed by the political events rapidly overtaking her. While Theresa May commands no power and has singularly failed to show who she is or for what...
Read moreMillennials and the Government’s Transport Policy
It was with great fanfare last Autumn that the chancellor, Philip Hammond, announced he was extending discount railcards to those aged 26 to 30, offering 4.5m travellers a third off their off-peak tickets. Finally, after years of mistreatment – tripling their tuition fees, raising their VAT,...
Read moreUK Sales of Surveillance Equipment
With the notable exception of people suspected of terrorism offences, Britons – although subject to blanket state eavesdropping – are safe from arbitrary arrest, torture or extrajudicial execution. The same cannot be said for the citizens of dozens of states to which Britain is approving the...
Read moreSanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill
The arms export regime we operate in this country is, of course, underpinned by EU consolidated criteria. There is no mention of consolidated criteria or of bringing the arms licensing regulations into a system such as the sanctions regulations. It is, I suggest, a great shame. The Bill does not...
Read moreErasmus Plus Programme: Youth and Sport
The Minister for Universities has stated that the Government intend to negotiate some sort of continued access with Erasmus Plus and its successor. However, the Government’s intentions remain unclear on the youth elements of the programme that are part of Erasmus now but may be separated...
Read moreDrug Consumption Rooms
Let us take Sydney as an example. In 1999, the Kings Cross area of Sydney was known particularly for its large number of overdoses and deaths. In the British national picture, I see similar patterns in parts of Brighton and Hove. I remember visiting Sydney at that time, and it was a problem. Drug...
Read moreArms Trade and Brexit
As the spectre of Brexit emerges, so do the first meaningful signs of the Tory vision of “building a global Britain”. The Department for International Trade, set up by Theresa May to put some flesh on the bones of her slogan, has prioritised arms sales for Britain’s post-Brexit industrial...
Read moreFinance (No. 2) Bill
I know the Minister says that he has better data than the OBR, but I tend to believe the OBR, which was set up by the Conservative Government to provide independent analysis, over the books that are cooked in the Treasury— Yes, the books that are cooked in the Treasury. What we need are clear...
Read moreDispelling the Re-Selections Tension
This year’s national conference in Brighton saw Labour embark on an ambitious and much-needed review of party democracy. The review aims to “ensure that the hugely expanded membership is fully involved to become a mass movement which can transform society”. In that context, it is...
Read moreBudget Resolutions
Instead, we heard that councils could borrow an extra £1 billion for home building, even though £20 billion would be available if the cap was scrapped; that we would remove stamp duty for people who can afford houses—nice if someone has the money to start with, but no help if people are just...
Read moreParadise Papers
Last year it was the Panama-based Mossack Fonseca, this year it is the Bermuda-based Appleby. Major “offshore legal service providers” offering transnational corporations and super-rich individuals a place to sink untaxed income have had their client lists leaked to the press. Naturally,...
Read moreGlobal LGBT Rights
The reports of a Government crackdown are worrying. I remember raising the reports of a Government crackdown in Azerbaijan in 2006, after one of my first visits there. The ambassador’s comments are reassuring, but we need more than just warm words. We need some concrete action from the Azeri...
Read moreJoint Press Release: South Coast Road Survey
Two Sussex MPs join calls for A259 study. TODAY Lloyd Russell-Moyle, Labour MP for Peacehaven & Kemptown, and Maria Caulfield, Conservative MP for Newhaven & Lewes, have joined together to call for councils to conduct a review on the A259. Both the MPs whose constituencies the South Coast...
Read moreGovernment Policy and the Proceedings of the House
Constituents can agree or disagree with their local Member of Parliament, but it is important that they know how their local Member of Parliament views an issue and how they vote on that issue when it comes before them. Voting in that sense is a cathartic process: it allows us to support the...
Read moreEuropean Union (Withdrawal Bill)
“We will scrap the Conservatives’…White Paper and replace it with fresh negotiating priorities that have a strong emphasis on…the Single Market” and putting “the economy first”. That was the manifesto on which Labour Members stood only a few months ago. We said that we would scrap...
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