Commons
Westminster Hall
8 September 2025
4 contributions
Indefinite Leave to Remain
May I just say to the Minister that his socks are in order? The Clerks are excellent, because I now know that the first reference to socks in the House of Commons was in 1842, in a manufacturing debate. To reassure him, there is no mention whatever of socks in the “Rules of behaviour and courtesies …
Order. Votes in the House are always, as we know, a moveable feast. However, it is likely that there will be eight votes later this evening, so perhaps everybody here in Westminster Hall could keep an eye on the main Chamber, unless they want to come back here later in—I don’t know—95 minutes. It is…
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
2 September 2025
Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse
I am glad that the Minister wants to put victims and survivors first, and I hope the whole House will join her in that. It is absolutely right that we all do so. She will be aware of the Tom Crowther inquiry, which highlighted 1,000 victims over 30 years in Telford and in some parts of my constituen…
Commons
Oral Questions
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
2 September 2025
Sudan
Do the Government actually have an Africa strategy—not just for north Africa, but for sub-Saharan Africa—and does the Foreign Secretary share my concern about the apparent lack of focus on the importance of sub-Saharan Africa to the security of the United States, let alone to our security and that o…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
1 September 2025
Borders and Asylum
Does the Home Secretary accept that some of the UK’s adversaries are seeking to weaponise illegal migration, and does she share my concern about the growing nexus between malign state actors and non-state actors, such as the criminal gangs she has mentioned? If she accepts that that collaboration an…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
21 July 2025
Independent Water Commission
The Environment Agency estimates that there are 4 million regular and occasional anglers throughout the United Kingdom, with 1.2 million getting fishing licences last year. Angling across the country is worth about £3 billion to the economy and it is the favourite pastime in this country, as the Sec…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
17 July 2025
Ukraine
Operation Orbital is the UK training programme for the Ukrainian military. Can the Secretary of State confirm that that personal and personnel data is safe at the Ministry of Defence? He mentioned there being 15,000 drone attacks over the last four months, and he referenced meeting with Germans to l…
Commons
Proceedings
17 July 2025
Business of the House
If I asked the Leader of the House, “1666—what happened in that year?”, I am not quite sure— [ Interruption. ] There we are: the great fire of London. In fact, it was also the last time anyone in Parliament was fined for lying to Parliament. Of course, there is the ministerial code, the Nolan princi…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
15 July 2025
Afghanistan
If the Defence Secretary will forgive me, I detect some wriggling. The fact is that he is justifying this super-injunction and not telling Parliament, the press, the public and, unbelievably, the Afghans who were potentially in harm’s way. Is it not the case that his argument is actually very thin? …
Commons
Oral Questions
15 July 2025
Clean Power: Jobs
If the Secretary of State loves Shropshire, and I am sure he does, I hope he will not bulldoze over all our green belt—but that is another story for another day.
The Secretary of State talks about green jobs. I am sure he does not want our fire services to be deployed more and more, but with solar …
Commons
Westminster Hall
9 July 2025
2 contributions
Glaucoma Awareness
The shadow Minister needs to be brief. He has had five minutes, and I gave six minutes to the Liberal Democrat spokesperson. I will give the shadow Minister another 30 seconds.
To be clear, it is important that the Chair is both neutral and fair in the distribution of time.
Commons
Westminster Hall
9 July 2025
2 contributions
Early Years Providers: Government Support
I call the Chair of the Education Select Committee.
I will give an extra two minutes to the shadow Minister if she wants them, given that we have a little bit of time.
Commons
Ministerial Statement
26 June 2025
G7 and NATO Summits
Although we may disagree on the detail, I agree with the Prime Minister that, as far as possible in this place, it would be better to keep partisan politics out of national security issues. Who knows, I may get the Whip withdrawn for saying that, but so be it. There are things that go beyond party p…
Commons
Oral Questions
24 June 2025
Topical Questions
Melia, Gvaramia, Badri Japaridze, Khazaradze, Zurab Japaridze and Vashadze: all six opposition leaders arrested over the last two weeks in Georgia. What are the British Government going to do about it, and what is the message from the British Government to the Georgian people, who are suffering as a…
Commons
Oral Questions
24 June 2025
Gaza: Humanitarian Situation
Israel dealing with Hamas and Hezbollah is to be welcomed, but the continuing blockage on medical and humanitarian aid going into Gaza is not welcome. As we continue to talk, children continue to die. I hope that the Foreign Secretary will make it very clear that the continuation of children dying e…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
16 June 2025
Iran-Israel Conflict
I agree with the Foreign Secretary that a nuclear-armed Iran is not in Israel’s national security interests or in the security interests of other countries in the region—or indeed of this country, which has received direct threats from the current Iranian regime. Some 8,000 UK nationals are living o…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
16 June 2025
Child Sexual Exploitation: Casey Report
Regardless of whether local inquiries are commissioned by councils, will there be an opportunity for those same areas to fall under the remit of the national inquiry, to ensure that some of the ongoing issues to which the Home Secretary herself has referred are caught within the new framework of the…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
10 June 2025
Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories
I welcome the Minister’s statement, but can he tell the House whether he thinks these sanctions will save a single Palestinian life? If he will forgive me, ahead of the Palestinian recognition summit—rather than the two-state solution summit; maybe that was a slip of the tongue by the Minister—next …
Commons
Oral Questions
Cabinet Office
5 June 2025
Topical Questions
The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster will know that the UK has some of the best intelligence agencies in the world, and they have huge powers and huge budgets which they use to keep our country safe every single day of the week. He also knows that in any large organisation mistakes are made and …
Commons
Ministerial Statement
4 June 2025
Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories
The Minister says he hears the frustration of the House, but do the Government hear the cries of Gaza’s orphaned children and the cries of the children who have had their loved ones literally blown to bits in front of them, who will be maimed for life? I have been at many of these statements before.…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
22 May 2025
Independent Sentencing Review
May I first say to the Lord Chancellor that I have huge personal respect for her? I may disagree with some—some, by the way, not all—of what she has announced today, but I would like to put that on the record. She mentions female offending. She will know that there are six mother and baby units in f…
Commons
Proceedings
20 May 2025
Points of Order
On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. I think that today we have had the heavy assent from the Foreign Secretary that, ahead of the Palestinian state discussions led by Saudi Arabia and France at the UN in June, the British Government are on their way to recognising a Palestinian state, which I…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
20 May 2025
Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories
I welcome the Foreign Secretary’s statement, which is the strongest statement I have heard in this House on the issue in recent times. I welcome the actions and sanctions that have been announced today, and I hope the Government will continue to keep those under review and take further measures if n…
Commons
Debate
19 May 2025
National Security Act 2023: Charges
As President Trump seeks to negotiate a nuclear deal with Iran, may I ask the Home Secretary, along with senior Ministers across Government, to work with Five Eyes partners and the National Security Council and National Security Adviser team in the White House to ensure that any deal is comprehensiv…
Commons
Oral Questions
Defence
19 May 2025
Defence Procurement: SMEs
I do not wish to end the Defence Secretary’s glittering career here on the Floor of the House, but may I praise him as my new favourite Minister—alongside the Defence Procurement Minister—for today announcing the new £400 million investment in my Shropshire constituency for Rheinmetall to build a ne…
Commons
Proceedings
14 May 2025
Gaza: UK Assessment
As we meet here, in this rather grand Palace of Westminster, the reality on the ground is that Palestinian children continue to die in the rubble. Is it not becoming clear that the central policy of the Israeli Government seems more about protecting the political skin and life of the current Israeli…