Commons
Debate
25 November 2025
3 contributions
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
I want to argue the case for Wessex. [ Laughter. ] No, I don’t.
I originally came in to support new clauses 67 and 68, tabled my hon. Friend the Member for Crawley (Peter Lamb), on the licensing of cabs and others. Unfortunately, he had problems printing out his speech and arrived late, so he is un…
My hon. Friend got a good part of his speech in anyway. That is exactly what came out of the meeting with the cab drivers themselves. Like my hon. Friend the Member for Heywood and Middleton North, they put an emphasis on the Casey report and raised their concerns.
My understanding of the Governmen…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Debate
24 November 2025
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
I heard the word “finally”, and that moved me to intervene. I offer my support and thank the Government for amendments 116, 117 and 118 on air pollution, which render redundant the Government’s announcement tomorrow on the expansion of Heathrow. Before the Minister moves on, what is the Government’s…
Commons
Westminster Hall
24 November 2025
Gaza: Humanitarian Obligations
My hon. Friend has mentioned children. Last night I met Dr Mohammed Tahir, the doctor featured in the film “The Mission”. In that film, he is shown operating on children without anaesthesia, with dead children at his feet. Only 10%, at best, of medical supplies are getting through to Gaza at the mom…
Commons
Debate
18 November 2025
Northern Ireland Troubles Bill
The thing that seems to bind us all together is the search for the truth. I just hope that, through this process, we might be able to agree about how we can achieve that. One of my earliest Adjournment debates, way back in 1999, was on the murder of Patrick Finucane. Only weeks before that, I had be…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
18 November 2025
China Espionage: Government Security Response
I, too, send my condolences to the family of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary member who has been lost. The RFA is unique in that it is largely civilian-crewed by members of the RMT trade union, working alongside Royal Navy personnel. They work as a very professional, tight family; any loss like this will …
Commons
Debate
17 November 2025
Asylum Policy
When we introduce new legislation and new procedures, it is important that we calculate the implications and where they could lead us. Like my hon. Friend the Member for Vauxhall and Camberwell Green (Florence Eshalomi), I have worked—for decades, to be frank—with asylum families, and in particular …
Commons
Debate
13 November 2025
7 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
indicated assent.
King’s consent signified.
Those who are watching this debate might think that we are just debating tedious parliamentary processes, but as my hon. Friend the Member for Vauxhall and Camberwell Green (Florence Eshalomi) made clear, national policy statements have impacts. We are about to consider—in some detail, I hope—the na…
+5 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
5 November 2025
2 contributions
Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill
I must say that I do get a bit edgy when Front Benchers agree so much.
In respect of Lords amendment 84, I want to be absolutely clear about what the Minister has said. As far as I am aware, it will now be a human being making the decisions: an authorising officer. The authorising officers will be …
I just want to clarify one point. For the life of me, I cannot understand why the Government are resisting having contained within the annual review the question of whether harm is being done, because that is, to be fair, the only way we will learn whether the legislation is operating in the way the…
Commons
Debate
3 November 2025
Public Office (Accountability) Bill
I pay tribute to all the campaigners, but I want to pay special tribute to the Scouse MPs, who in the last few months put their foot down and said that they were having nothing but the Hillsborough Bill. I thank them on all our behalf.
I want to raise a point about the duty of candour, transparency…
Commons
Debate
29 October 2025
3 contributions
Sentencing Bill
I have only a couple of sentences, Madam Deputy Speaker.
To remind the Minister, in last week’s Committee, my new clause—which is effectively new clause 26 today—represented the views of a number of organisations, including the National Association of Probation Officers, recalling the problems that…
That is why I tabled my new clause in Committee. I did not want to be a pain in the neck; I just wanted the Minister to acknowledge our understanding of the implications of the measures and the Probation Service’s overall concerns about these matters. I have re-tabled the new clause simply to get th…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
22 October 2025
Heathrow: National Airports Review
I first of all express my sympathy for the Secretary of State: she knows from past experience that this is like watching a car crash in action, and it has been thrust upon her by the Chancellor. She knows that Heathrow has made the clear commitment that it will not pay for the infrastructure; that l…
Commons
Debate
21 October 2025
3 contributions
Sentencing Bill
Thank you, Ms Ghani; it is nice to be a substitute.
Like others in the Chamber, I am a member of the justice unions parliamentary group, and I will speak very briefly to new clause 3. As many Members know, the justice unions group comprises the probation officers’ union, Napo, as well as the Prison…
That is exactly in the tradition of community service as it was founded and developed over the years, but the experiments with privatisation have been a disaster. There is an argument that once a system starts using the private sector, as in America, offenders become economic units for exploitation …
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
14 October 2025
Middle East
The Prime Minister mentioned his conversations with President Sisi, so may I take this opportunity to thank him for his conversations and interventions with President Sisi and his team to secure the release of Alaa Abd el-Fattah from an Egyptian prison?
We are all elated at the release of the hosta…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
14 October 2025
Speaker’s Statement
Further to that point of order, Mr Speaker. For those of us on all sides who were here during the debate on the Iraq war, I want to thank Ming for the legal advice that he provided and the way that he addressed that debate, because he did so without seeking any party advantage. He simply set out the…
Commons
Debate
16 September 2025
Sentencing Bill
To respond to the hon. Member for Runcorn and Helsby (Sarah Pochin), in 1997—I do not know if my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State was with us then—we were concerned that the prison population was 40,000; it is now 80,000 and it is predicted to go up to 112,000 if we continue on the current f…
Commons
Debate
10 September 2025
Urgent Care Centres: Hillingdon
I will try to attend the meeting on Friday, but the Minister must appreciate that there is an element of scepticism about the future, in particular about what is happening with this unit. It confirms in my mind that if you stand still long enough, things will come around time and again. In our const…
Commons
Proceedings
3 September 2025
Point of Order
On a point of order, Mr Speaker. I am chair of the Public and Commercial Services trade union group in Parliament. As Members will know, PCS members from the House’s security division are taking strike action today. These are professional, dedicated and committed staff, and it takes a lot to motivat…
Commons
Westminster Hall
3 September 2025
Duty of Candour for Public Authorities and Legal Representation for Bereaved Families
I should explain to my hon. Friend that I will have to leave the debate to attend a meeting about the violence meted out in a demonstration outside an asylum hotel in my constituency, but I want to make this point very clear. Labour is going to Liverpool for its conference in three weeks’ time. If t…
Commons
Proceedings
21 July 2025
Point of Order
On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. On 8 July, I wrote to the Home Secretary regarding the implementation of the proscription order against Palestine Action. I wrote to her asking whether any guidance is being issued to the police on the implementation of that proscription, and in particular …
Commons
Ministerial Statement
21 July 2025
Middle East
I just want to be clear on the Government’s legal position. On 11 June last year, the Government reported that they saw “no serious risk of genocide” in Gaza. All this time on, and after the statements that the Foreign Secretary has made, can I be clear: is he saying tonight that the Government acce…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
21 July 2025
Independent Water Commission
Many people will find it incredible that Cunliffe was not even allowed to look at public ownership. I also say mildly to the Secretary of State that the £100 billion he cites has largely been refuted by independent bodies and economists. Way back in 2014, I raised the example of Northumbrian Water a…
Commons
Debate
9 July 2025
Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill
I will do my best, Sir Roger. I want to address new clause 8, tabled in my name. It is a procedural clause and I do not think it is particularly contentious.
Before I address the new clause, I want to say that I am still getting emails and still being met on the bus and at community events by peopl…
Commons
Proceedings
4 July 2025
2 contributions
Services for Adults with Learning Difficulties: Hillingdon
I congratulate the hon. Member on securing this debate. He will know that the garden centre also provides an essential service to my constituents. I have visited the place for either 20 or 30 years—I am not clear—and it was commended by the former Conservative leader of Hillingdon council, who calle…
I fully appreciate the point that the Minister makes, but will she take advice from colleagues in other Departments on the following specific point? My hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Danny Beales) and I have been working with different groups and we have sought to register, u…
Commons
Proceedings
3 July 2025
Phone Theft
I just want to throw something else at the debate around the insurance issue. Many say, “You should be covered by insurance.” My phone was stolen last November. It was classic: I got bumped into in a big crowd and did not realise. I then recognised the theft and did “find my phone”. It was in north …
Commons
Debate
3 July 2025
3 contributions
Women’s State Pension Age: Financial Redress
I want to put on the record my thanks to my hon. Friend the Member for Salford (Rebecca Long Bailey) for this campaign. Reference has been made to the manifesto in 2019. She and I wrote that section. We worked with WASPI and all the campaigns and with Lord Bryn Davies. We, in the modern language, “c…
I have an awful lot of affection for the hon. Member. Is there any difference between this speech and the one that was made in Westminster Hall? As it does not look as though there is, he might as well just send us the tape of the last one.
+1 more contribution in this session