On 17 April 2024, there was an Urgent Question on the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
Barry asked: “Since when did the Party of Edmund Burke become a Party of complicity and appeasement?”
In the words of Edmund Burke: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
On April 15 2024 Barry intervened to ask his colleague Steven Kinnock if he shared his “marvel” at the government’s ability to simply rule that Rwanda is a safe country.
Will the government use its amazing power to legislate that “CO2 no longer causes global warming and that sugar, fat and alcohol will no longer damage human health”.
On 16 April 2024 Barry asked the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Claire Coutinho to “fess up” and tell the truth that the price of her failure “will be paid for by hard pressed families”.
Independent analysis says that Labour’s plans will reduce families’ energy bills by £300 a year.
On April 15 2024 Barry asked the Prime Minister:
“Iran sought to justify its unjustifiable attack on Israel on the basis that it was retaliating for Israel's attack on its consulate. I welcome the fact that the Prime Minister has said that in his telephone conversation with Prime Minister Netanyahu later today, he will be urging de-escalation. In that telephone conversation, will he set out the measures the UK will take if, in fact Israel seeks to retaliate further?”
On the 19th of February 2024 Barry asked the Minister of State for the Home Department that, “whatever one believes about the actions of Israeli government, racism and anti-Jewish hatred must not be allowed to hide being any political mask”.
This came after a student outside of JFS was attacked outside of the school, the perpetrators goaded the student about the situation in Palestine.
On the 27th of February 2024 Barry made a speech in the 3rd reading of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill in which he stated that whilst it “pretends” address the issues" it will “fail”.
“The proposals put in front of us today do not liberate leaseholders… it will be left to a future Labour government to do so”.
On Tuesday the 20th of February 2024 Barry spoke against the Conservative government’s Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill which would make Britain “colder and poorer”.
Barry described the bill as a "20th century piece of legislation” stating that it will be left to a future government to fix our “broken energy system”.
On the 22nd of January 2024 Barry made a speech into the House against the Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill, describing it as a “sad attempt to sow division and polarise our politics.”
Barry argued that this Bill is a demonstration that the government has “given up governing” and is “out of step with the British people’s priorities”.
“The government is failing to understand that to transition away from fossil fuels, you have to stop producing them”.
Barry is proud to condemn this Bill to the same fate as this Conservative government, “a vote of no confidence”.
On 8 January 2024, Barry intervened in the statement on the Horizon compensations and convictions. He challenged the Minister to confirm that the maximum punishment for public servants who willingly knowingly caused harm or financial damage to an innocent party is life imprisonment.
You can watch Barry’s intervention below:
On the 14th of December 2023 Barry asked the Leader of the House, Penny Mordaunt, to join him in thanking food banks for all the work they do. In particular mentioning the amazing support that the London Community Kitchen and the Sufra Food Bank provides the Brent community.
Barry called on Penny Mordaunt to host a debate in the new year, not just to praise food banks but to make them “redundant”.
Barry intervened on a speech by former Housing Minister Rachel Maclean to correct her on the history of leasehold legislation in the UK.
Maclean claimed that Labour had failed to introduce leasehold legislation as they “bowed to pressure from the freeholder”, claiming that “we will never know why”.
Barry corrected her, pointing out that it was in fact the House of Lords at the time in the early 2000s, the filled with a majority of Conservatives, that blocked Labour’s leasehold reform. Barry also points out that at this time, 66% of Lords listed on the register of interests that they earned the “majority of their income from the management of land”.
Winter is coming, the government must get help to those who need it, to our most struggling fuel poor citizens.
On the 9th of November 2023 Barry made a spoke up for those suffering from fuel poverty in the King’s Speech debate on Energy Security.
If we levelled tax on oil and gas at the global average we would have “an extra £14 billion into the public purse” - how can the Government explain this to the 4706 families who lost families to excess deaths during winter? It’s simple, she can’t.
On the 17th of October 2023, Barry introduced a Westminster Hall debate on the subject of Safe asylum routes for Afghan refugees.
“We had 540 government staff working on the Homes for Ukraine scheme… the number of full time staff handling the Arab scheme was just 36… I do not want the Ukrainians to get fewer resources, I want the Afghans to get as many”. The government must explain this disparity, Barry argued.
“The government know how to decrease small boat crossings… establish safe asylum routes for Afghan refugees”, Barry stated, as he made clear that in the first 8 months of 2023 1/5 people crossing the channel in small boats were Afghan.
You cant watch Barry’s full speech and Minister Robert Jenrick’s response below:
On the 19th of September 2023 Barry called on the government to implement the Afghanistan family reuinion pathway.
This is a “matter of honour” and a “matter of huge personal commitment” Barry told the House as he called on the Minister to “please increase the number of officials dealing with family reunion.
“When will the government act to end this misery?” This is the question that Barry asked Ministers in a speech to the commons on the issue of unsafe housing.
“The government knows that thousands of families are going to sleep tonight in unsafe apartment buildings” and yet they are taking no action. Something has to change.
On the 13th of July 2023, Barry asked Rishi Sunak a question in response to the Prime Minister’s statement on the NATO summit.
475 new military sites and 50 major new military bases have been built by Russia on its northern frontier, its northern flank, in the past six years. Barry explained how this demonstrates why the melting of the arctic, caused by climate change, is damaging the enviornment and our security.
Barry expanded on this issue in the Guardian back in June, which you can read here.
On the 3rd of July 2023 Michael Gove introduced his anti-Israel boycott bill, designed to stop local councils introducing their own “BDS” — boycott, divestment and sanctions — measures against Israel.
In an intervention on Lisa Nandy’s speech, Barry asked the Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities whether she thought that this Bill would have restricted the boycotts of Apartheid South Africa, which had real impact at the time - so much so that Nelson Mandela included local authorities in his thanks to the UK.
Barry is proud to have been one of 10 Labour MPs to vote against this Bill.
On the 6th of June 2023, Barry made a speech during the Westminster Hall debate on Government Policy on reaching Net Zero, where he argued that more needs to be done to achieve 2050 targets.
Barry specifically took aim at the Government’s “market led and technology driven” route to Net Zero, arguing that this is merely the Tory cover for a voluntarist, business-as-usual system, which lacks any of the incentive or enforcement that we need.
There is a fundamental incoherence to the Government’s approach to climate change, with huge differences in what they promote abroad and what they do at home.
Without a clear and structured plan to achieve Net Zero, our targets will never be met.
“it is your responsibility to regulate the market”, Barry told Environment Secretary as he interrogated her on rising food prices.
In the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee on 28 March 2023, Barry questioned Thérèse Coffey on food price inflation and what the government are doing to help families suffering food poverty.
Barry presented Coffey with the statement by John Allen, the CEO of Tesco, that supermarkets were partaking in “excess profiteering”.
When Coffey demanded that Allen provide “evidence for his assertions”, Barry made clear that is in fact the Minister’s responsibility to regulate the market.
On 15 March, Barry spoke in the debate on the 2023 Spring Budget. He took this opportunity to challenge not only the Chancellor’s speech, but speeches from other members as well. Barry also expressed his disappointment at the lack of environmental policies in the Chancellor’s speech and called for a “Green filter” to be placed on the research and development tax credit. See Barry’s full speech here: