Commons
Debate
23 February 2026
3 contributions
Industry and Exports (Financial Assistance) Bill
Madam Chair, it is a great honour to speak to this packed Chamber on my amendments, and it was good of you to call me so soon—there are so many people ready to speak.
I rise to speak in support of amendments 1 and 2 that appear in my name and those of my colleagues and friends, and it is my intenti…
What!
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Debate
23 February 2026
Schools White Paper: Every Child Achieving and Thriving
I welcome the right hon. Lady’s ambition, but where in all this will she retain the power to do something about councils that simply fail completely? An Ofsted report of my local council referred to it as disjointed and having weak co-ordination and limited accountability. It also talks of services …
Commons
Ministerial Statement
9 February 2026
Standards in Public Life
I do not doubt the right hon. Gentleman’s desire to put things right. What I slightly doubt today is this: everything is about the Prime Minister’s judgment right now, and this looks a lot like smoke to me—this is right, but not right now. The point is that all this stuff about Mandelson was known i…
Commons
Oral Questions
9 February 2026
2 contributions
Jimmy Lai: Prison Sentence
(Urgent Question): To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs if she will make a statement on the 20-year sentence imposed on our brave British citizen, Jimmy Lai.
I am grateful to you, Mr Speaker, for granting this urgent question.
Today, as the Minister said, Jimmy Lai, a British citizen, has been sentenced to a further 20 years in prison. Given his poor health and the fact that he sat for five years in solitary confinement, that is not a sentence; it is a …
Commons
Westminster Hall
29 January 2026
Ukraine: Non-recognition of Russian-occupied Territories
I congratulate the hon. Member on his work on Ukraine and on securing the debate. He is talking about the occupied territories, and I want to raise an issue that we have discovered. In the occupied territory of Alchevsk, there are currently 100,000 people without heating or any form of support, not …
Commons
Debate
28 January 2026
12 contributions
British Indian Ocean Territory
My right hon. Friend is making an excellent start to this attack on the Government, but I will ask her a simple question. Should we not also dig a little deeper on the links between the Prime Minister and some of his earlier colleagues? That way, we would learn that Phillipe Sands, who was represent…
On that point, will the hon. Lady take an intervention?
+10 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
26 January 2026
Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill
Is it not clear that the Minister, who is normally very benign, is now rather tetchy? If he was so sure of what he says, why did he not make a statement rather than be dragged to the Floor of the House by the Opposition? When the previous Foreign Secretary made the clear statement that, if the US sa…
Commons
Debate
21 January 2026
4 contributions
Northern Ireland Troubles: Legacy and Reconciliation
In essence, what my hon. Friend is talking about here with the agreements about the destruction of weaponry and the loss, therefore, of any ability to prosecute or proceed was, in a sense, one way. There is no way on earth that the same process would have been allowed for soldiers who had served in …
I congratulate Members who have spoken, particularly the right hon. Member for Belfast East (Gavin Robinson). He set out eloquently, in precise and excellent detail, exactly what is wrong with what is happening today and what will be wrong when the Government next bring forward their Bill. I still d…
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
20 January 2026
5 contributions
Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill
On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. I only want to clarify that point slightly. Those amendments are mentioned on the Order Paper, but cannot be voted on because of financial privilege, yet they are on the Order Paper, so surely they can be debated and discussed, without us having a vote at t…
I rise because in the previous debate we had on this, a question was posed to Ministers, and it has been asked again now: what are the reasons for this Bill? First, Ministers rested on one idea, which was all about how we had somehow received a binding judgment from the International Court of Justic…
+3 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
20 January 2026
2 contributions
Chinese Embassy
Nonsense.
I say gently to the hon. Gentleman that I raise these issues as a sanctioned individual. Not only am I sanctioned, but my whole family is sanctioned, I have been trolled by operatives from the security service of China, and I am under constant watch by them, all the way through. On the basis of that…
Commons
Debate
8 January 2026
High Street Gambling Reform
I apologise that I will not be able to stay for this debate because I have to follow up with the family of Ryan Cornelius—they were in the Gallery earlier —whom I referenced during the previous debate.
As the hon. Member knows, we on the all-party parliamentary group on gambling reform have taken v…
Commons
Debate
8 January 2026
10 contributions
Human Rights Abuses: Magnitsky Sanctions
I beg to move,
That this House is concerned that serious human rights abuses, including crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture, together with widespread grand corruption, continue to escalate in an increasingly unstable global environment; notes that global human rights and anti-corruption…
I absolutely agree with my right hon. Friend. We have a tool here that can be used to drive back those who act badly—in this particular case, against a country illegally invading a neighbouring democratic state—so we should use this ability to sanction those involved and to increase such sanctions d…
+8 more contributions in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
7 January 2026
Ukraine and Wider Operational Update
The Secretary of State knows of my support for the Government’s persistence over Ukraine, and I welcome his statement. We have spoken endlessly throughout this process. I am, however, deeply worried about deploying British troops into what is basically a first-world-war war, as it were. The fact tha…
Commons
Proceedings
17 December 2025
Northern Ireland Troubles: Legacy and Reconciliation
I simply say to the Secretary of State that it does seem like ridiculous haste when the Bill is going through the House right now. Surely to do this when he knows for a fact that there is already an appeal going on does, as has already been said, become abusive of the real purpose of a remedial orde…
Commons
Debate
15 December 2025
Jimmy Lai Conviction
I agree with the right hon. Lady in her comments about the terrible attacks in Bondi, and I congratulate her on raising that now, but I rise to express the view again that this case is not only about Hong Kong, but about this Chamber. I have been named nine times in the prosecution case against Jimm…
Commons
Debate
15 December 2025
Sudan: Humanitarian Situation
I congratulate the hon. Member for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East (Seamus Logan) on securing this urgent question. Although there have been two recent sanctions— [ Interruption. ] All right, four, if we add in the other two. In reality there are 21 other Sudanese, many of them RSF, operating her…
Commons
Westminster Hall
8 December 2025
Digital ID
The right hon. Gentleman is making a very good case. I am utterly opposed to digital ID, as are many of my constituents. One of them has made the point that in fact our great liberty, our great freedom, which is that the state has to prove that a person is guilty of a charge—innocence before guilt—i…
Commons
Debate
4 December 2025
8 contributions
War in Ukraine
They have not really taken it.
It is interesting that although we have all mounted pressure on the UK Government, and the Foreign Office in particular, to seize these assets and use their capital value—most of the assets are in cash now anyway—the answer has been a refusal. I understand the nervousness about resulting market inst…
+6 more contributions in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
4 December 2025
Northern Ireland: Legacy of the Past
I apologise—I have only just seen this report. I was not aware that it was coming out in this statement, so forgive me if the hon. Lady has already covered this.
Two questions have emerged. The first is that one of the biggest criticisms as the Bill went through the House of Commons and that still …
Commons
Westminster Hall
2 December 2025
Gambling: Regulatory Reform
In the light of that, some two years ago it was recommended very clearly that a gambling ombudsman should be set up. So far, across two Governments, nothing has happened on that. That is needed to check that all these elements are being dealt with at the same time. Does the hon. Gentleman not agree …
Commons
Ministerial Statement
1 December 2025
Office for Budget Responsibility Forecasts
I have been here a few years and have seen the run to different Budgets. In line with the Chair of the Treasury Committee, the hon. Member for Hackney South and Shoreditch (Dame Meg Hillier), I have to say that this Budget has been utterly chaotic and appallingly dangerous. The reality is that the M…
Commons
Westminster Hall
26 November 2025
4 contributions
Driving Test Availability: South-east
It is always a welcome thing to be in the same room as you, Mrs Harris, let alone to be chaired by you.
I congratulate the hon. Member for Surrey Heath (Dr Pinkerton) on securing this debate on a much bigger issue than people might think at first glance. I personally got into a bit of difficulty ov…
I will write to you all.
The main thing was that someone learning to be an instructor has two years after passing the part 1 test, which is the theory, to complete part 2, the extended driving test, and part 3, the teaching ability test. The limited availability of parts 2 and 3 causes massive prob…
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
18 November 2025
3 contributions
Northern Ireland Troubles Bill
The way in which the last intervention was made suggested that this is a numbers game based on the numbers who were out there in Northern Ireland. The fact is— [ Interruption. ] No, with respect, I actually served out there, and I can tell you something about this. The reality is that the British Ar…
I rise to support the Opposition Front Bench in their concerns about the present legislation. Three facts stand out. First, the Bill does not protect veterans from criminal cases, even repeated ones. It essentially means that they are likely to be dragged through the criminal process multiple times …
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
18 November 2025
China Espionage: Government Security Response
I have great respect for the Minister. However, listening to what he has said today about the China espionage case, which follows the collapsed spy case, the Christine Lee case and the other spying that took place here in the House, does he not look back and think that it is peculiar? We now have Ho…
Commons
Debate
11 November 2025
2 contributions
Remembrance Day: Armed Forces
I want to return to the point about commemoration. Having served before, I remember that when I got elected back in 1992, we were not allowed to wear uniforms in public because of the IRA threat at the time, and bit by bit commemorations were no longer attended. I remember my first commemoration in …
My right hon. Friend has mentioned Bill Slim, who many who know history will say was probably the greatest allied general of the war—it was brilliant what he achieved with next to nothing. Does my right hon. Friend agree that there was something very special about the 14th Army, which comes out in o…