Speeches

Edward Leigh MP delivered this speech to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

With the great cost in human life currently being paid in Syria, there’s no doubt that this is a subject of urgent importance worthy of discussion amongst all European.

Yet there is a firm reluctance amongst the proponents of liberal interventionism to take into account the reality of the situation we are dealing with in Syria.

The casual dualistic thinking whereby Assad and his cronies are the big baddies and the insurgents and their allies are the goodies is simplistic folly which must be disregarded by all serious thinking people.

The regime of Bashir al-Assad and that of his father before him have been responsible for horrendous human rights abuses including arbitrary detentions, deaths, and even massacres.

The uprising against Assad has been carrying on for over a year now, allowing us an opportunity of observing what life is like in the areas under the control of the Free Syrian Army. It does not paint a pretty picture. Read the rest of this entry »

Edward Leigh MP is calling on Stagecoach Lincolnshire to explain to local people the company’s decision to cut services along the number 3 route from Lincoln to Grimsby. The MP, who represents the Gainsborough constituency including Market Rasen and Caistor, was responding the significant changed to the Number 3 service from Monday 2 April 2012. This will include the loss of an hourly connecting bus service between the south east and north east of the Gainsborough Constituency during the daytime.

The Number 3 currently serves local residents in Nettleham, Welton, Dunholme, Faldingworth, Market Rasen, Holton-Le-Moor, Nettleton, Caistor and Cabourne. Through journeys will now end during the middle part of the day with the last through departures from Lincoln and Grimby at 8:40am and not resuming until 1:40pm.

Stagecoach have admitted that they are eliminating less economical services because of the Department of Transport’s twenty percent reduction in the Bus Service Operators Grant, equivalent to an additional 39p to the cost of a gallon of diesel. But talk of local authority intervention might be overly optimistic, given the £1.3m savings to the county transport budget and the need to find £125m in savings to put the County Council budget on an even keel.

“I am relieved that the cut to the Number 3 service won’t be as deep as originally proposed,” Edward Leigh said, “but it is still regretful that those who will need to travel outside the peak period will have their options severely curtailed.

“In rural parts of the country such as ours,” the MP continued, “providing connections by regular public transport is challenging, but important. I’m not convinced Stagecoach have made a proper case for curtailing the Number 3 service. This follows from their cuts to Sunday and Bank Holiday services from last year.”

“This situation is the responsibility of the bus company, and I hope they find more imaginative ways of responding to public demand. They can’t solve their problems simply by demanding subsidies from taxpayers who are hard-pressed to make end’s meet already. All this underlines the overriding importance of cutting the vast deficit we have inherited from the previous government.”

The Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley MP, recently announced a major investment in improving the health care of people in Lincolnshire. The Department of Health is to provide a further £8 million of funding to United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust / Lincolnshire PCT across the years 2011/12 and 2012/13.

This funding is part of an investment of over £330 million towards improving patient services and the overall condition of the NHS across the country. The Department of Health is planning to spend over £72 million on urgent care facilities, £30 million on hospital facilities, £20 for CT scanners and other diagnostic equipment, and £16 million on improving maternity services. A further £6 million will be devoted to improving cancer care and screening, especially in increasing women’s access to breast cancer screening equipment.

“I am absolutely committed to maintaining and improving the quality of services and care that patients need,” the Health Secretary said in a letter to Gainsborough MP Edward Leigh. “Ensuring patients have access to the best quality equipment and services is essential in a modern NHS that strives to put patients first. This investment will mean that old facilities are re-vamped, there is more world-class equipment in NHS hospitals, and more patients get the scans and treatment that they need.”

“I am sure Lincolnshire residents will welcome this inflow of funds,” Edward Leigh MP said in response to the announcement. “Alongside education, health is arguably the most important sector in which the government can have a role in reforming and improving. I am glad that the Government are making this important investment in Lincolnshire’s health and future.”

Edward Leigh, Member of Parliament for Gainsborough, has attended the opening of the Little Lambs Nursery, in Corringham Road, Gainsborough. The nursery was forced to close following a fire which gutted the building at the start of December last year, in what is understood to have been an arson attempt. The blaze damaged light fittings and fixtures as it spread through the toddler room to the corridors, kitchen and children’s toilets. Thousands of pounds of repairs have taken place and now the nursery is back in business.

Edward joined parents, children and staff to celebrate the re-opening of the nursery. Owners John and Joyce Ramm, who have devoted eiighteen years of their life to the business, were left devastated at the destruction, while the forty-four under-5s who attended the nursery had to be cared for at alternative premises. Read the rest of this entry »

Edward Leigh has received a written reply to his Defra question concerning the drought conditions in Lincolnshire. The Gainsborough MP asked the Secretary of State for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs “what steps she is taking to mitigate the effects of any potential drought in Lincolnshire”.

Richard Benyon MP, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Natural Environment and Fisheries) issued the following response on behalf of the Department:

Following the exceptional shortage of rainfall over the last 18 months Lincolnshire is in a drought.

The Environment Agency’s drought team in Lincolnshire meets regularly to plan and implement agreed actions. The meetings include representatives from Anglian Water and the National Farmers Union.

Advice has been given to all water users in relation to the potential impacts and how they can help. The Environment Agency will continue to provide advice and updates as the situation develops.

The Environment Agency will continue to operate a number of water transfer schemes, including a scheme that pumps water from the River Trent into the rivers Witham and Ancholme. This is used to support public water supply, industry, and agriculture in the county.

Gainsborough Member of Parliament Edward Leigh has voiced his opposition to a proposed wind farm at Corringham outside Gainsborough. The proposed windmills would stand over 400 feet tall, making them taller than Lincoln Cathedral or Big Ben.

“As a countryside dweller and frequent rambler I am totally opposed to the building of wind farms which are beginning to blight our rural areas,” Mr Leigh said.

“Not only are these structures an offense to behold and to hear, they are entirely economically unjustifiable and are made ‘profitable’ only by massive subsidies from central government. In this trying times when many of us are feeling the pinch, government should end these counter-productive subsidies and make sure that money stays in the pockets of working people rather than subsidy scroungers.”

Edward Leigh MP recently joined over a hundred Members of Parliament in signing a letter to Prime Minister David Cameron calling for the subsidy for on-shore wind farms to be scrapped entirely, and for the National Planning Policy Framework to ensure that local views are given priority when considering applications for on-shore wind farms.

More information about the campaign opposing this wind farm proposal can be found at notowindfarm.co.uk.

A new campaign has been launched today to support the current law of marriage. The Coalition For Marriage has initiated a petition to try to persuade the Government to think again about its plans to introduce same-sex marriage.

Along with Commons colleagues such as Jim Dobbin and Joe Benton (Labour), David Burrowes and Fiona Bruce (Con), I am pleased to give my support to this petition.

Marriage has stood the test of time as the bedrock of a good society, and there is absolutely no need to redefine it. I am a staunch supporter of civil liberties for all people and constituents of every background can rely on me to help them in cases of genuine injustice. But the existence of civil partnerships today demolishes completely any claim that marriage must be redefined in the name of equality. Same-sex couples who enter into civil partnership have all the legal rights of marriage. Why should they also have the right to redefine the institution of marriage for everyone else? It is a separate legal framework which predates civil partnerships by centuries and we would do well to leave it alone. Read the rest of this entry »

Many of us in the countryside have been concerned about the growing threat of wind farms blighting the splendid landscapes we have held dear for so long. I recently joined forced with over one hundred of my parliamentary colleagues in signing a letter to the prime minister, David Cameron, about this all important issue. We have asked that the subsidy for on-shore wind farms be scrapped and that the new National Planning Policy Framework which remains under consideration to be revised to ensure that local views matter when determining planning applications for new on-shore turbines.

Many landowners are aware of the profitability of wind farms, but they might not be aware that most of this comes from the largesse of the public purse: wind farms only make economic sense for country people because of the massive subsidy that comes from our taxes. This subsidy is simply not tenable in times of want when we have to make very difficult decisions about our health system, our schools, and the way our army, navy, and air force are operated.

As someone of a conservative disposition, I am entirely in favour of preserving the sacred inheritance of our countryside and our environment. An ecosystem once ruined can take generations to renew. But I remain unconvinced of the efficacy of subsidising wind farms which, while they do create energy, only do so unreliably and at great cost to the natural beauty of our surroundings. Read the rest of this entry »

Local Parliamentarian, Edward Leigh MP, has joined over 100 parliamentary colleagues and jointly signed a letter to Prime Minister David Cameron calling for the subsidy of on-shore wind turbines to be dropped and for the new National Planning Framework to be sufficiently robust to ensure that local views matter when determining planning applications for new on-shore turbines.

The letter states:

“In these financially straightened times, we think it is unwise to make consumers pay, through taxpayer subsidy, for inefficient and intermittent energy production that typifies on-shore wind turbines.”

The letter concludes, requesting that the Prime Minister ensure, that the views of local communities are the priority, not centralised targets. Read the rest of this entry »

Edward Leigh MP, who has campaigned for the sanctity of life during his years in Parliament, has secured agreement for Euthanasia to be effectively illegal across Europe.
Speaking two weeks ago in the House of Commons Mr. Leigh said:

“There is no doubt in my mind that, if we allow assisted dying, it will eventually become encouraged exit.

“One of the witnesses to the Falconer inquiry said: ‘I think we can only go for terminal illness at the moment, so this doesn’t actually apply to the people who are probably about to go into care homes. But, you know, baby steps’. That is a chilling statement.

“To us, this is a moral issue. We believe that the body is simply the mirror of the soul, and however old, crippled or useless someone might seem to society – our society seems to be dominated by the worship of youth and beauty – they are of immense value to society and should be sustained by society to the very end of their lives.”

Mr. Leigh, who is a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, supported an amendment to a declaration that will have legal implications in the 47 member states, the Strasbourg-based organisation announced that such practices “must always be prohibited”. Read the rest of this entry »

Local MP Edward Leigh has written to Lincolnshire County Council regarding the composting site at Sturgate Airfield recommending a compromise on expansion. Mr Leigh recently visited the site and met with neighbouring residents, including both opponents and supporters of the composting site’s expansion.

In a letter to Tony McArdle, the chief executive of Lincolnshire County Council, Edward Leigh asserted that “an increase to 75,000 tonnes per annum is unacceptable.” However, the Member of Parliament for Gainsborough suggested that restricting the site to 30,000 tonnes instead would be an acceptable compromise. “I suspect that this would allay most local concerns.”

Edward Leigh called yesterday for a fairer deal for Lincolnshire’s railway passengers in the month that rail fares have risen by 6% nationwide. The MP also highlighted the Gainsborough to Cleethorpes line, which has only three trains a week, and all on Saturday. Poor transportation links make it much harder for people to travel from Cleethorpes, and local businesses suffer accordingly.

Mr Leigh noted that an anytime day return from Market Rasen to London costs £150.50, or over 26% of the average weekly wage for someone in the constituency working full time. “That is not acceptable, and something must be done,” Mr Leigh said in the Commons. “We must have less emphasis on the high-speed rail link and all those wonderful projects and more emphasis on helping ordinary people in rural areas.”