Commons
Proceedings
10 July 2025
Business of the House
May I join the tributes to Lord Tebbit? He was a political giant in his day and far more capable than the “Spitting Image” puppet ever gave him credit for.
May we have a debate in Government time on emerging proposals to cancel education, health and care plans? I say in all sincerity to the Leader …
Commons
Ministerial Statement
8 July 2025
Road and Rail Projects
The largest road programme in the UK is the lower Thames crossing from Tilbury to Gravesend. It is now scheduled to cost about £10 billion, and the Government say that 90% or more of that will be funded from the private sector. I asked the Secretary of State last month on the Floor of the House whic…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
7 July 2025
Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life
I endorse the tribute to the late Tessa Jowell—she was a remarkable lady.
The Secretary of State pointedly refused to rule out scrapping EHCPs. If that is her intention, may I genuinely offer her some advice? Please do not do that. I have had parents in my surgery in tears of frustration, some of w…
Commons
Debate
2 July 2025
9 contributions
Defence
One of the fundamental tenets of the strategic defence review, as the Minister is now broadening this out, is that we should be prepared to fight and defeat a peer enemy by 2035, which is 10 years from now. Why, after all the hullabaloo about the much-vaunted defence review, have this Government ret…
The purpose of this instrument is to provide for the continuation in force of the Armed Forces Act 2006, which would otherwise expire in mid-December 2025. In essence, the measure provides for the 2006 Act to continue in force for a further year, taking us up to a deadline of 14 December 2026.
For …
+7 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
2 July 2025
2 contributions
Armed Forces Commissioner Bill
I rise to address the Lords amendments, following yet another Government defeat in the other place.
As I said last month when we last debated this important Bill, His Majesty’s official Opposition are driven by a commitment to ensure that our brave servicemen and women receive the robust, transpare…
I have listened very carefully to what the Minister has said, but I am afraid I remain unconvinced. I think he used the phrase “flip it to see it”. I could offer him another one: jaw-jaw is better than war-war.
Baroness Goldie has done a great job in the other place in bringing together people from…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
1 July 2025
Parental Leave Review
My constituent Christina Harris sadly lost her job when she had to take time off to care for her seriously ill daughter Skye, who I am pleased to report is now in remission. Christina started a parliamentary petition calling for employers to hold open the jobs of those parents who, through no fault …
Commons
Oral Questions
Defence
30 June 2025
2 contributions
Operation Banner: Legal Protection for Veterans
According to the 2021 census, there are more than 2 million veterans living in Great Britain. Clearly, some of them have been busy lately: their parliamentary petition entitled “Protect Northern Ireland Veterans from Prosecutions”, with support from the Daily Mail , the Express and others, now has m…
The Government could have appealed to the Supreme Court on this but deliberately did not. I do not doubt the Secretary of State’s personal sincerity. However, at Prime Minister’s questions on 15 January, the Prime Minister promised veterans:
“We are working on a draft remedial order and replacement…
Commons
Debate
26 June 2025
2 contributions
Floating Solar Panels
As the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) is not here, unusually, perhaps I can fill in for him. We have already heard from one of my Essex colleagues, my hon. Friend the Member for Epping Forest (Dr Hudson), about the controversy in Essex over a number of solar farm developments on land. Befo…
My hon. Friend makes a strong point about being able to use floating solar to obviate the need for development on green-belt land in other parts of the country. Is he aware that a development has been proposed by Bloor Homes at Dollymans Farm in my constituency for up to 1,300 houses, which is a maj…
Commons
Debate
26 June 2025
6 contributions
Armed Forces Day
For the record, the shadow Defence Secretary is not here because he has a very important personal family commitment today. I am honoured to stand in for him.
Has the Minister seen our proposals for a ringfenced armed forces housing association, to provide better quality accommodation for armed forc…
Given the topic, I am genuinely honoured to open this debate on behalf of His Majesty’s loyal Opposition on the subject of Armed Forces Day. I had the honour to be present in New Palace Yard on Monday to watch members of the armed forces raise the armed forces flag in Parliament, in a ceremony presi…
+4 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
25 June 2025
4 contributions
Armed Forces Recruitment: North-east England
I thank the hon. Member for his kind personal remarks. He is absolutely right, and I will be saying more about this point in my speech, but would he acknowledge that whatever colour of party is in government, all armed forces across the western world are now struggling to recruit and, particularly, …
I am ever so sorry to interrupt the hon. Gentleman, but technically it is still a Bill. We are debating it in the main Chamber next Wednesday.
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
24 June 2025
4 contributions
War Memorials
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stuart, as we debate the important topic of war memorials and the fallen whom they commemorate. I congratulate the hon. Member for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy (Melanie Ward) on securing this debate. It seems fitting that we are debating this topic …
The hon. Gentleman pre-empts me, but for the avoidance of doubt, most certainly—I am a great fan of the commission.
In total, the commission cares for large memorials down to individual graves in some 23,000 locations, encompassing more than 150 countries and territories around the world. I recentl…
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Proceedings
20 June 2025
3 contributions
Green-belt Development: Rayleigh and Wickford
I am grateful for this opportunity to raise the important matter of the potential development of the green belt in my Rayleigh and Wickford constituency. In addition, I am sure the Minister responding to the debate has many pressing demands from his constituency diary on a Friday, so I am personally…
My hon. Friend the Member for Brentwood and Ongar is nodding his assent.
We do accept there has to be some new house building in our county, but not on the scale that the Government propose in order to meet a random ideological target of 1.5 million homes, even at the risk of materially undermining…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
18 June 2025
HS2 Reset
I welcome the Secretary of State’s statement. I too served on the Public Accounts Committee, so I know that while HS2 is by far the largest civil infrastructure programme in the United Kingdom, the second largest is the lower Thames crossing from Tilbury to Gravesend, for which about £10 billion is …
Commons
Proceedings
17 June 2025
3 contributions
Points of Order
Further to that point of order, Mr Speaker.
Further to that point of order, Mr Speaker. We now know undoubtedly that T he Sunday Times was given access to the White Paper, because people could read most of it in The Sunday Times the day before Parliament saw it, although crucially the article did not mention up to 12 new SSNs—nuclear-powered …
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
16 June 2025
Farmed Animals: Cages and Crates
The hon. Lady declared one interest, and I will quickly declare two. First, I am a patron of the Conservative Animal Welfare Foundation, which has campaigned passionately on this issue for many years. Secondly, my— indeed, our—great friend Sir David Amess felt very passionately about this, and the f…
Commons
Proceedings
5 June 2025
Business of the House
May we have a debate in Government time on the three flagrant breaches of the ministerial code committed by the Defence Secretary on Monday? For the record, the Opposition received their copy of the strategic defence review mid-afternoon, the media received it at 10.30 am, and defence companies rece…
Commons
Debate
3 June 2025
5 contributions
Armed Forces Commissioner Bill
With your permission, Madam Deputy Speaker, perhaps I could begin by referring briefly to the ten-minute rule Bill introduced by the hon. Member for Truro and Falmouth (Jayne Kirkham), which immediately preceded this debate. As a Navy wife, she clearly fully understands the vital role of the Royal F…
For a party that sometimes likes to wrap itself in the flag, if I can put it like that, one would think that when it came to our armed forces, Reform would be more bothered. Empirically, that is not always the case. We are not allowed to take photographs in the Chamber—that is a mortal sin, Madam De…
+3 more contributions in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
20 May 2025
7 contributions
UK-EU Summit
The most pernicious part of this deal is dynamic alignment, by which we become an automatic rule-taker from the European Union. Labour has been briefing journalists that we have an opt-out from that. I have read the document in detail, and we do not. Besides, the ECJ is the ultimate arbiter in a dis…
After they have been changed.
+5 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
Defence
19 May 2025
2 contributions
Support for Veterans
A group of Army veterans who feel totally let down by this Government have started a parliamentary petition entitled “Protect Northern Ireland Veterans from Prosecutions”, which has so far amassed nearly 87,000 signatures in just over a week. Assuming that they successfully obtain the further 13,000…
Labour could have appealed those judgments to the Supreme Court but chose not to. Labour MPs and peers have already voted for this barmy process in the Joint Committee on Human Rights on 26 February. Labour will now be expecting all its MPs to vote for it again this autumn. Given that many of the yo…
Commons
Proceedings
13 May 2025
23 contributions
UK-EU Summit
The Minister has referred to the Labour manifesto several times in a few minutes. Did it say anything at all about accepting dynamic alignment or becoming a rule taker—yes or no?
Will the hon. Member give way?
+21 more contributions in this session
Commons
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister
30 April 2025
Engagements
A week tomorrow, the whole nation will come together to commemorate VE Day. Those who fought in world war two, including my own father, would often attest that no one did more to maintain their morale in adversity than Dame Vera Lynn, the forces’ sweetheart. For several years, a doughty band of camp…