Commons
Westminster Hall
19 March 2026
9 contributions
Banking Services: Accessibility
I beg to move,
That this House has considered the accessibility of banking services.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Western. I am grateful to the Backbench Business Committee for permitting me the opportunity to raise the issues and concerns about access to banking services …
I strongly agree with my hon. and gallant Friend. I will come to questions to the Minister in a moment; I believe that the Government need to look at the robustness and sustainability of those services. What has been put in the place of banks is rather flimsy in the longer term, and that represents …
+7 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
17 March 2026
5 contributions
Isles of Scilly: Transport
I am pleased to have secured this debate, and I am sure the Minister is delighted that we have reached the Adjournment at a point when we have ample time to explore the important issues of transport to and between the Isles of Scilly.
There is, frankly, a shocking injustice. Scillonian residents ha…
I am grateful to my hon. Friend, who leads me on to my next point. Although he says that we are all in the same boat—if you will pardon the pun, Madam Deputy Speaker—the fact is that we are not. Services in Scotland are very heavily subsidised, as I will explain. When we look for parity and comparab…
+3 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
11 March 2026
Royal Mail: Universal Service Obligation
On Monday, it was my privilege to visit the Helston sorting office, where I discovered staff burdened with remote, counterproductive micromanagement of their work and inadequate plans to deal with the inevitability of staff absences. I was distressed to hear them describe that they had been abused a…
Commons
Debate
10 March 2026
Extreme Climate and Weather Events: National Resilience
The hon. Member mentioned Storm Goretti. She and I attended the online meeting on storm recovery with Ministers two days after the event. What troubled me in that meeting was the culture that exists among service providers, and indeed Government Departments, of always seeking to reassure Ministers t…
Commons
Oral Questions
26 February 2026
2 contributions
Parthenon Sculptures
8. What discussions she has had with her counterpart in the Hellenic Republic on the future management of the Parthenon sculptures.
I am grateful to the Minister for that response, and I should declare an interest as the chair of the British Association for the Reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures over the last 20 years. The British Museum’s planned redevelopment will necessitate its board agreeing the relocation of many of…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
25 February 2026
Post Office Green Paper
I welcome the statement, and I welcomed the opportunity to meet the Minister to discuss these issues. A lot of people are talking about either reopening post offices—indeed, the Post Office want to see them reopen—or avoiding closure, and he knows that it all comes down to remuneration. As he will h…
Commons
Oral Questions
24 February 2026
Topical Questions
Minor injuries units are being phased out as are urgent treatment centres such as the brilliant one at West Cornwall hospital in my constituency—its hours were cut under the Conservatives, and have not been restored. Those units clearly help to take the pressure off ambulance and emergency services,…
Commons
Westminster Hall
24 February 2026
3 contributions
Gaza Healthcare System
I strongly support the points the hon. Gentleman is making in advancing his case. I am slightly worried about the expression “in the region”. We need to get medical workers into Gaza to make sure they can safely deploy their skills in the area. We are long past the time when the Israeli regime could…
Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
Housing, Communities and Local Government
23 February 2026
2 contributions
Topical Questions
T2. Ministers know full well that a planning application submitted today for affordable homes will not contribute to the Government’s welcome intention to meet affordable housing need by the end of this Parliament—
The Minister is shaking his head, but it simply is not possible through the pre-development process. Although I have met the Secretary of State to discuss how we can move forward shovel-ready projects that are held back at the moment, will Ministers meet Members of Parliament who are concerned about…
Commons
Westminster Hall
23 February 2026
Firearms Licensing
The hon. Lady is making a very strong point about evidence-based policymaking. She will be aware of the truism of what we do in this place: that we need to draw lines in legislation between freedoms and responsibilities, and in this case between rights and public protection. She acknowledges that th…
Commons
Proceedings
12 February 2026
Business of the House
As an Oliver Cromwell enthusiast, will the Leader of the House find time for a debate on the purpose and function of the other place? I am sure that he will have studied very closely the wording of early-day motion 2709, which addresses the role of the House of Lords.
[That this House believes that…
Commons
Oral Questions
Transport
12 February 2026
Topical Questions
The Minister has referred to a local transport grant that is of course not available to the Isles of Scilly in my constituency, because it is not deemed to be a local transport authority. Attending medical appointments for my constituents from off-islands on a day like today would cost them £120 ret…
Commons
Debate
5 February 2026
2 contributions
Occupied Palestinian Territories: Genocide Risk Assessment
rose —
I will be brief, Madam Deputy Speaker. I congratulate the hon. Member for Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber (Brendan O’Hara) on bringing this issue to the House. I was worried that we would concentrate primarily on the jurisprudence—on the merits of the arguments over whether the threshold in the defi…
Commons
Debate
22 January 2026
2 contributions
Fishing Industry
Meur ras, Madam Deputy Speaker. It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for South East Cornwall (Anna Gelderd), a Cornish colleague who is a very strong advocate for Looe and the fishing communities around her constituency’s coast. I want to emphasise a point that she made about the fishing and c…
I am very grateful to the Minister for coming to Newlyn, which is in my constituency, and for listening to the industry. The Cornish Fish Producers’ Organisation proposes a dedicated fund of £10 million, and wants to ensure that it works with the Government to agree on a strategy to develop the indu…
Commons
Oral Questions
Cabinet Office
22 January 2026
Emergencies: Rural and Coastal Areas
I am very grateful to the Minister for coming to Cornwall last week and visiting my constituency, which was noted and very much appreciated. He will know that west Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly took the brunt of Storm Goretti, and we have many lessons to learn, not least the point made by the rig…
Commons
Westminster Hall
14 January 2026
Horse and Rider Road Safety
As my hon. Friend knows, I strongly support his proposed legislation; indeed, I am a sponsor of it. Does he agree that, in order to advance new regulations, the Government need to review whether there is sufficient bridleway capacity across the countryside to avoid the necessity of using roads? It i…
Commons
Proceedings
13 January 2026
2 contributions
Storm Goretti
(Urgent Question ) : To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will make a statement following Storm Goretti.
I thank the Minister for his reply. He has described the impact that the storm has had on our communities. As he rightly says, west Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly took the brunt of the storm, but it nevertheless had a devastating effect throughout Cornwall, south-west England and beyond. Nursing h…
Commons
Westminster Hall
7 January 2026
4 contributions
Rural Fuel Duty Relief
It is a pleasure to serve under you, Ms Furniss. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for North Devon (Ian Roome) on securing this debate and making a very strong case, of which I hope the Minister will take heed.
I will return to some of the prehistory, because I have campaigned on this issue …
The Minister raised the issue of the administrative burden. I was referring to an occasion when an operator of the scheme was late in his submission to HMRC, in which case he was refused the rebate, which he had been taking. In such circumstances, he had to appeal. I was simply demonstrating the rig…
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
17 December 2025
Local Government Finance
The Minister constantly says that she does not recognise the figures when presented with what are expected to be the settlements for certain local authorities. That is possibly because we are fumbling in the dark today, as the figures simply are not available. I had to go to the Vote Office, and I h…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
16 December 2025
Planning Reform
The Minister must accept that house building targets are a means to an end, not an end in themselves. House building targets are based on a naive delusion that private developers will collude with Government in driving down the price of their final product, which surely cannot be the case. Cornwall …
Commons
Ministerial Statement
16 December 2025
Electoral Resilience
Although it may seem a little tangential, will the scope of the investigation include the fact that hundreds of thousands of people who have worked in this country for 20, 30 or 40 years and who have paid their taxes are unable to influence the outcome of elections because they have an EU passport, …
Commons
Debate
15 December 2025
Violence against Women and Girls Strategy
Further to the excellent campaigning and question by my hon. Friend the Member for Eastbourne (Josh Babarinde) and the brilliant question from my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Dunbartonshire (Susan Murray), will the Minister say a bit more about preventing or at least reducing repeat offending? Spe…
Commons
Debate
15 December 2025
NHS: Winter Preparedness
I strongly endorse the Secretary of State’s emphasis on the importance of vaccination, not least to protect the resilience of frontline NHS staff and face down the anti-vaxxers and vaccine-hesitant. Nevertheless, will he reflect carefully on his emphasis on the shift from hospital to community at th…
Commons
Westminster Hall
11 December 2025
2 contributions
Fairtrade Certification
I congratulate the hon. Member on the way he is articulating the case for Fairtrade. It is important that it is robust and traceable and has strong integrity, but if we are to scale up, should we not also integrate international Fairtrade standards into the Groceries Code Adjudicator, which is part …
I am dreadfully sorry to ask, but is the hon. Gentleman aware that those who are campaigning for Fairtrade believe that it can succeed properly only if this Government lead the way with their official development assistance budget, which has been severely cut? Does he agree that to achieve the aims …
Commons
Petition
10 December 2025
Bank Closure in Penzance
I rise to present a petition on behalf of the people of the Penzance area, 3,000 of whom have already signed a public version to oppose the closure of the Lloyds bank, which is located in the iconic market house in the centre of Market Jew Street. The decision has been taken without any local consul…