Barry has been campaigning to end Leasehold for over 20 years. Recently, Barry sat on the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill Committee, trying his best to improve the Government’s flawed legislation.
Below are clips from his contribtuons in Parliament and the Bill Committee.
You can find Barry’s contributions from before the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Bill here.
For many people, the issue of leasehold crystalised after the tragedy of the Grenfell Tower fire and the subsequent purgatory that hundreds of thousands of residents throughout the country found themselves living through as they waited to have their own buildings’ fire safety defects remediated. They are still waiting.
The problem is the whole imbalance of power between leaseholder and the freeholder. Leasehold tribunals were intended to be a cheap, a cheap, efficient way of resolving normal disputes between reasonable people within without enormous legal costs. But landlords have intimidated leaseholders by engaging vast array of lawyers and threatening the forfeiture and bankruptcy.
Below are Barry’s interventions and speeches in the House of Commons from 2023 back to 2020, all on the subject of leasehold.
Seventy five years on from India’s independence, Barry spoke at a Labour Convention of Indian Organisations (LCIO) fringe meeting at Labour Party conference on 25 September 2022.
LCIO has been reinvigorated to inclusively connect British Indians to Labour and to engage with India on the big issues of our time – namely the climate crisis, sustainable development and enhancing internationalism.
Watch Barry talk of how he had spent the previous day working with the police, the council, faith leaders and Indian media to make sure that the Indian community in Brent did not rise to the bait of a planned demonstration outside a Hindu temple in my constituency. I also wrote about it in the Eastern Eye.
Barry has been touring Constituency Labour Parties and trades councils with his film about his fire and rehire campaign. Northampton, Southend and Lincoln have been among those CLPs he has spoken to. Find out more about the campaign and the film here
Every day, workers across Britain are being threatened with being fired and rehired under worse terms and conditions for basically the same job.
Unreasonable employers use this tactic to force staff to accept lower wages, different hours or changes in working life. In many other countries this is often against the law. Barry introduced a Private Member's Bill in Parliament, called the Employment and Trade Union Rights (Dismissal and Re-engagement), in June 2021 to outlaw this practice in the UK. The Bill was ultimately blocked by the Tory government, even though numerous ministers claimed to oppose fire and rehire and to be committed to outlawing it.
Now, in 2022, Lord Tony Woodley, the former Unite general secretary, has reintroduced the Bill. So we still need your help and support to make sure it finally becomes law.
Barry has launched a tour of Labour Parties and trades councils around the country showing a film about the campaign. Find out more here
There is nothing more that Barry loves than getting out on the campaign trail or spreading the Labour message across the country whether that be on the doorstep or in packed out halls.
An astute and formidable debater, Barry is very rarely caught on the back foot and relishes the opportunity to go up against the opposition. Here you will find a selection of clips from Barry in campaign mode.
Barry’s speech at 2016 Labour Party conference in which he officially announced a Labour Government would ban fracking.
The infamous moment where Barry asked how many cornflakes you would get in a Tory school breakfast (Spoiler: Not very many!)
Barry gives Sky News broadcaster, Adam Boulton a lesson in holding people to account.
Barry schools David Davis during a Question Time from Barnet during the 2017 General Election on Tory tax giveaways to corporations.
Barry tells Dominic Raab how it is in the spin room of the leadership debate from the 2019 General Election
Barry’s powerful speech for Labour during the Opposition Day Debate on Holocaust Memorial Day in January 2019
Barry tackles Matt Hancock on why he backed out of debating him during the 2019 General Election and then promptly begins to debate him!
Barry takes on Andrew Neil eloquently and precisely during the 2019 election campaign
Barry explains to Peston why Boris Johnson hates scrutiny
Barry once again on Peston, this time explaining why the Tories have let young people down over the last decade and why they are frustrated.
Barry appearing on Question Time during the 2019 election campaign and putting forward the case for a more compassionate Government that is on the side of ordinary people and doesn’t inflict austerity on them.
Barry setting out Labour’s vision for Britain to the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants
Barry taking part in the Oxford Union debate on why we should have no confidence in Her Majesty’s Government in 2019.
