Commons
Debate
10 December 2025
2 contributions
Seasonal Work
Does my hon. Friend agree that this Budget and the previous one have been hammer blows to our already flagging high streets? Does he also recognise that the only retail premises that can currently be exempted from business rates are those that are listed and unoccupied? That introduces perverse cons…
Has the Minister compared and contrasted Pride in Place with the future high streets fund, which was a proven mechanism for uplifting the state of many of our high streets, including Trowbridge in my constituency? He is trotting out a load of things that he thinks will benefit retail and hospitality…
Commons
Debate
9 December 2025
2 contributions
Railways Bill
On that point, will the Secretary of State give way?
I am grateful to the Secretary of State for allowing me to intervene. Her Wiltshire constituents and mine are not really interested in organisational change, but they are interested in railways that run on time, are reasonably comfortable and have interconnectivity. When will those passengers who us…
Commons
Proceedings
3 December 2025
Venezuela: US Military
On data sharing with our allies, does the Minister agree that signals intelligence and human intelligence are not a pick and mix when it comes to the Five Eyes community? Will he assure the House that we will continue to provide the information that the US needs in order to deal with Venezuelan coca…
Commons
Proceedings
2 December 2025
3 contributions
Budget Resolutions
The hon. Lady is outlining an extensive programme of capital expenditure on the national health service. Between last year and this year, we have had the largest set of Budget increases in the history of this country, but are the Liberal Democrats proposing that we should tax the British public even…
I will start on a positive note by commending the lines on productivity in the Red Book, and the recent comments that various Ministers have made about that. Productivity has to be the No. 1 objective in getting our NHS to where it needs to be to deliver for our constituents. I have to say to the He…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Debate
25 November 2025
Waste Incinerators
I beg to move,
That leave be given to bring in a Bill to prohibit the carrying out of construction work in respect of new waste incinerators, other than in cases where substantial construction has already begun; to make provision about the taxation of waste disposed of by way of incineration; to pr…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
24 November 2025
Critical Minerals Strategy
This country has no phosphates, and no phosphates means no agriculture. Happily, our close friend and ally the Kingdom of Morocco has most of the world’s reserves of phosphates, but it is closely followed by unreliable countries such as Russia, China, Syria and Algeria. Does the Minister’s 60% rule …
Commons
Oral Questions
Northern Ireland
19 November 2025
Community Groups: Northern Ireland and Great Britain
Does the Minister agree that reported attempts to extend European Parliament observer status to politicians in Northern Ireland are bound to inflame tensions between communities in Northern Ireland and between communities in Northern Ireland and Great Britain? Will he say that the UK Government will…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
18 November 2025
ExxonMobil: Mossmorran
The company has been absolutely clear that this is the result of the economic and policy environment that it found itself in—it is as plain as a pikestaff. The Minister said that he has been in discussion with Exxon, including today, when presumably he discussed what it meant by “policy”. Will he pl…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
18 November 2025
China Espionage: Government Security Response
I welcome the package and the Minister’s commitment to continued engagement with Beijing, but does he share my view that one cannot reason with a tiger when one’s head is in its mouth? We are rapidly approaching that position because of the stranglehold that China has on this country by virtue of ou…
Commons
Westminster Hall
18 November 2025
3 contributions
Flood Risk and Flood Defence Infrastructure: North-west England
Order. I shall begin calling the Front Benchers at 5.08 pm, so colleagues might like to titrate their contributions accordingly.
I call Sarah Hall to wind up extremely briefly.
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
18 November 2025
Land Use Change: Food Security
I will begin calling the Front Benchers at 3.28 pm, so hon. Members need to be aware of time. I am sure that Chris Hinchliff will be an exemplar.
Commons
Debate
17 November 2025
Asylum Policy
It was a genuinely good statement—as far as it went—from which we learnt that countries could be determined to be safe at some point in the future and refugees from them returned home. What would be the Home Secretary’s criteria for safety, and which countries does she have in her sights? For exampl…
Commons
Proceedings
17 November 2025
Illegal Waste: Organised Crime
On the dumping of waste across the countryside, what assessment has the Minister made of the ability and capacity of the Environment Agency to adequately control and regulate the dumping of toxic emissions by wholly unwanted and unnecessary waste incinerators that are being foisted on our communitie…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
13 November 2025
Police Reform
Will the Minister pay tribute to Philip Wilkinson, Wiltshire’s PCC, who has realigned policing in my county with the priorities of my constituents? Will she account for the difference between the £100 million that she says in her statement this measure will save, and the £20 million she cited in res…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
13 November 2025
Business of the House
The Northern Ireland Troubles Bill is in the business statement. Does the Leader of the House accept that that will cause concern for many members of the armed forces and the veterans community, who are worried that in years to come they may be judged by the standards of the day rather than the stan…
Commons
Debate
12 November 2025
2 contributions
Energy
Would my right hon. Friend agree that the Government could at least be consistent in their management of contracts for difference and auctions? Does she share my bemusement at the fact that they have dismissed one way of providing about 7% of our grid requirements in fairly short order, which is acc…
The Minister’s constituents, like mine, are worried about their electricity prices right now—not in 10 years’ time or 20 years’ time, but right now. They are paying the highest electricity prices, bar one, in the world and the industries and businesses on which they rely are paying the highest elect…
Commons
Debate
12 November 2025
Taxes
So far, Labour Members do not appear to have mentioned covid. We reduced the deficit by 80%, which enabled us to spend £373 billion to support households and businesses during those years. I have businesses in my constituency that would no longer be in business had it not been for that support. What…
Commons
Debate
11 November 2025
Remembrance Day: Armed Forces
May I say that there is no more appropriate Member of the House to be introducing this debate than the hon. and gallant Gentleman with his distinguished record? I think I represent more generals than any other right hon. or hon. Member of the House. The Minister will have seen that nine four-star of…
Commons
Debate
11 November 2025
BBC Leadership
Why does the Minister think the BBC’s national leadership has spent hundreds of thousands of pounds of licence fee payers’ money resisting attempts to publish the 2004 Balen report? Does she suspect, like I do, that it might be because the conclusions drawn 20 years ago are very similar to the concl…
Commons
Debate
11 November 2025
Prisoner Releases in Error
It is good to see a quieter, more emollient and, even by his own lights, humbler Secretary of State at the Dispatch Box than the one we saw last week. Will he say how many people have been wrongly detained and how much money his Department is setting aside for the likely ensuing litigation?
Commons
Debate
5 November 2025
2 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
Further to that point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker—
It very much is, Madam Deputy Speaker. We have this week had the publication of a very important Bill—so important that the Prime Minister himself came to this House to present it on Second Reading. The sponsor of that Bill is the Justice Secretary. While I have no doubt that the Justice Secretary w…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
5 November 2025
Curriculum and Assessment Review
Scrapping the EBacc means potentially reducing the exposure of disadvantaged children to modern foreign languages, and the problem with that—a bit like their access to classics in the past—is that they will become relatively disadvantaged when it comes to places at elite universities. Does the Secre…
Commons
Proceedings
5 November 2025
Conflict in Sudan
Sudan is a crushingly poor country, but it is not without resources, so it is hardly surprising that malign state actors and their proxies are closely involved there, and not in a good way. What can be done in particular to disrupt the smuggling of gold from Sudan to Syria by the Wagner Group to fun…
Commons
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister
5 November 2025
Engagements
Q8. Burning waste is as polluting as burning coal, and our incinerators are already over-capacity. When will this Government renew the previous Government’s pause on new incinerators, end perverse deliver-or-pay contracts with incinerator companies, and deliver an incineration tax, such as the landf…
Commons
Debate
4 November 2025
Welfare Spending
I am listening, as always, to the hon. Gentleman’s wise words—he presents his case very well—but, honestly, has he forgotten the pandemic? Will he give any credit to the then Government for managing it? Does he talk to his constituents, and all the businesses that are still going thanks to the work …