I want to thank the right honourable member for Bradford West for her brilliant opening contribution to the Gracious speech.

I also want to start by acknowledging that this Government has delivered, from renters rights - ending no fault evictions, to the new deal for workers, to education, to Great British Railways to bringing the NHS waiting lists down, to lifting children out of poverty, to the work on Violence Against Women and Girls, all of that good work does deserve to be talked about and celebrated. 

But it must also be acknowledged that people need more, they are desperate for change following decades of neglect and unfortunately the measures in this King’s Speech whilst in the main are welcome, are not the bold moves we need to see.

We need a Government that will tackle the extreme wealth inequality in the UK, a government that delivers for communities and we need to go back to giving people hope.

We need to ensure that our Government has received the message from the local elections last week - that people are unhappy with the direction we have taken and that as it stands, we do not have the trust of our communities. It was devastating to see the two councils that my constituency cover, South Tyneside and Gateshead, - Councils that Labour have held for 50 years - fall to Reform.

We let those communities down and we need to deal with that.

We must build on the things we have delivered, like the new deal for workers, instead of focusing on divisive commitments like the digital ID scheme and the removal of Jury trials - two things I remain opposed to.

When we move away from our Labour Values, we let the country down, we let our communities down and scarily we leave a gap for the far right to move into and exploit people's fears, desperations and their legitimate need for jobs, housing and security. 

Housing, Security and Jobs are particularly needed in the North East, in my constituency of Jarrow and Gateshead East, this year we are commemorating the 90th Anniversary of the Jarrow Crusade - the march for jobs - yet 90 years on and the problems those marchers faced are the same as the residents in my constituency face today - for decades successive Governments have neglected the North East and the North East made their feelings very clear last week.

We need a Government that takes action to improve our communities.

It is the Labour Party that is the party of the people, that is the party of workers - that is the Government we need to see now  - a Government that delivers for people - change that communities can see - we need action not words. We need to drastically redistribute wealth so that it is invested in communities, we need to rebuild trust locally and nationally with bold and ambitious policies and action.

There are some highlights in the gracious speech, including the Leasehold Reform Bill, Hillsborough law, Legislation to clean up the water industry, nationalisation of steel, the £45 billion to deliver Northern Powerhouse Rail and the legislation to support small businesses and stop late payments, and licensing for private hires  - all subjects I have spoken about many times in this place and at events in Parliament.

But we need to do much more than this tinkering at the edges  - we need to legislate to bring water back into public ownership,  we need to stop the scandal of the water companies bonuses, it is an absolute disgrace that they are profiting from the pollution they are dumping into our waters.
It is also welcome to see proposals around Education for All, but we must ensure that any SEND reforms do not push children into a one size fits all approach.

The SEND Consultation ends next week and we must listen to the views that are submitted.

The consultation responses need to be thoroughly read, not filtered by AI, we must have a genuine consultation and we must ensure that the reforms do not harm SEND children with the most complex needs.Around 1.7 million children are now identified as having special educational needs. I know that MP’s are all being inundated with correspondence from constituents and many of us have held our own consultation meetings. 

In my constituency I have 5% more children with SEND than the national average and every one of my local consultations have raised the same issues, they are worried about their loss of legal rights and they are worried about their child being forced into mainstream schooling.

Sense (The national disability charity) have said that whilst “Inclusive mainstream education should be strengthened, this must not come at the expense of specialist provision. Disabled children with complex needs must continue to have access to specialist settings where these are the most appropriate environments for them to thrive.”I completely agree with Sense, and it is evident that already many families struggle to find adequate provision.

I have held drop-ins in parliament with people from across the political spectrum and I want to thank Rory Bremner and Nick Ferrari for coming into Parliament to meet with young people and their families and listen to their stories. The last government described the SEND system as broken, and of course they did a lot of the breaking with their destruction of Local Government budgets, but it has been neglected for decades, it is in desperate need of reform and investment - we can and must get this right to ensure that the most vulnerable are protected.

To that end whilst I welcome the Gracious Speech I will be setting forward a simple amendment highlighting the difference the right placement makes to a child with complex needs. And the cost to families, life outcomes, and the state, when we get that placement wrong.

We must ensure that those children with the most complex needs who cannot be placed into mainstream school do not lose out with these reforms and I have written to the Secretary of State on this issue. I would be happy to meet at any point to discuss it.

I have an autism diagnosis as do some of my family, it is something those close to me are aware of but something I haven't spoken about publically before. I know the impact it has when you are failed in school, this matters personally and politically to me and is something I care deeply about.

Moving on to something in the Gracious speech that I am hugely pleased with and that is the commitment to bring forward a draft Bill banning abusive conversion practices. Whilst it has appeared in many a gracious speech, I firmly believe that the Minister will bring forward a fully trans inclusive ban on conversion practices as soon as possible. I want to recognise the work of and thank the Minister for Equalities, the Member for Reading West and Mid Berkshire for the time taken to speak to me about this over the last few months and indeed even this morning.

In every meeting I have had with her on this issue, I have been impressed by her determination to finally deliver this legislation and by her understanding of the harm caused by continued delay. 

On that delay my one concern which I have already raised is that this is the only legislation in the kings speech that the promise is for a draft bill rather than a bill. We absolutely need to get this right, but we must not give people any excuse to delay and frustrate this vitally needed legislation.

Earlier this year, I was proud to deliver a report at the Council of Europe calling on member states to ban conversion practices. I will continue to work with the Minister to take both the spirit and the framework details of that report into consideration as this legislation is developed. 

Whilst I am particularly happy with that commitment, we need to be bold, we need new ambitious policies that people will feel in their pockets and see the change in their communities.

People need action, not another year of delay and U-turns, Labour needs to do what it was elected to do, govern in the interests of workers and our communities and deal with the obscene levels of wealth inequality in the UK.