Commons
Proceedings
10 July 2025
Points of Order
On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. I support my right hon. Friend the Member for South Holland and The Deepings (Sir John Hayes), but I want to make a different point of order. Have the Government told you that they will come to the House today to make a statement on channel crossings? The c…
Commons
Proceedings
10 July 2025
Energy Planning
We are all in favour of green energy in Lincolnshire, and we do our bit with massive wind turbines in the North sea, but will the Committee do a more in-depth report about the sheer concentration of solar farms in Lincolnshire, with 10,000 acres around the town of Gainsborough? I know that the grid …
Commons
Ministerial Statement
10 July 2025
Resident Doctors: Industrial Action
We can all argue about the past, but if it helps the Secretary of State, I think we should just say today that the whole House absolutely 100% supports him in his robust attitude. [Hon. Members: “Hear, hear.”] Of course we all love doctors, but the starting salary is not so very bad. They have a job…
Commons
Proceedings
8 July 2025
Points of Order
On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. I wish to make a brief point of order following the sad death of Lord Norman Tebbit last night. I feel particularly touched by it because I served with him in Parliament between 1983 and 1992, and I suppose I am one of the last Thatcherites left standing he…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
8 July 2025
Road and Rail Projects
For 30 long and weary years, my hon. Friend the Member for Brigg and Immingham (Martin Vickers) and I have campaigned for a through-train from Grimsby, which would stop at Market Rasen and end up in London. We have been made numerous promises by Network Rail, which is now saying that the platform is…
Commons
Oral Questions
7 July 2025
Topical Questions
The number of small boat crossings is driving people mad and eroding support for the Labour Government, just as it eroded support for the Conservatives. I worry for the Labour Government; I want them to do better on this, for all our sakes. Have not our French friends got a point about this country …
Commons
Ministerial Statement
3 July 2025
NHS 10-Year Plan
As always, the Secretary of State makes a good fist of an impossible job, but I think we all know in our heart of hearts that this model, which takes 38% of public funding, is unsustainable in the long term. He mentions the Australian outback; I have been a voice in the wilderness, urging him to rep…
Commons
Oral Questions
Church Commissioners
3 July 2025
Christians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories
The Christian town of Taybeh is the same town as Ephraim in John’s gospel where Jesus went before his passion. This town is entering a new passion: there was a violent attack by extremist Israeli settlers on the town on 26 June. There is a continuing pattern of crops being destroyed and outposts bei…
Commons
Debate
2 July 2025
Defence
I am not sure there is much point in us just blaming each other on this matter. There are historical parallels. In 1935 we were spending only 2.5% of our national wealth on defence. There was massive rearmament following that and consensus on both sides of the House, and by 1945 we were spending the…
Commons
Debate
1 July 2025
Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill
My right hon. Friend quite rightly mentions covid. I am sure there is one thing that we can agree on. Unfortunately, people were assessed much more often in person before covid, and during covid that was understandably stopped. Surely we can all agree that we have to get those in-person assessments …
Commons
Debate
20 June 2025
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
I have served for many years with the right hon. Member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington (Ms Abbott) and, dare I say it, we have not agreed on everything over the years, but we have published a few articles on this topic. Those articles have always started with the fundamental principle of the …
Commons
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister
18 June 2025
Engagements
Q7. The Government quite rightly give full and unequivocal support to Israel in its bid to end the scourge of Iran’s nuclear weapons programme forever. Will they also work with our allies to try and convince the Israeli Government that it is not in the long-term security interests of Israel to carry…
Commons
Debate
17 June 2025
2 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
My concerns about these amendments were such that I and others commissioned a leading King’s Counsel to draft a legal opinion regarding their effects. Let me inform Members of his conclusions. I begin with new clause 1. The KC confirms that, under new clause 1, in practice,
“it would no longer be i…
I agree. Let me move to new clause 20. I am dealing with very narrow legal points, and it might be of interest to the House that the KC concludes that the new clause
“would render the 24-week time limit obsolete in respect of the prosecution of women who undertake termination of pregnancy in typica…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
16 June 2025
2 contributions
Iran-Israel Conflict
The Foreign Secretary knows that many of us have been prepared to speak up again and again on behalf of suffering Palestinians and be a critical friend of Israel, but will he agree that on this occasion we must stand shoulder to shoulder with our Israeli ally? The fact is, Iran is a death cult, and …
Thank you.
Commons
Statutory Instrument
13 June 2025
Business without Debate
Further to that point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. It might be useful if a Member of Parliament who has not often taken part in demos in central London intervenes at this point to show that opinion in this House of Commons is absolutely united. In various Parliaments—indeed, in most Parliaments i…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
12 June 2025
Spending Review: Health and Social Care
Our spending on the NHS is now as much as the entire GDP of Portugal. We used to be a country with an NHS attached to it, but we are almost becoming an NHS with a country attached to it. Of course we would welcome this spending if we got the same outcomes that people get in civilised countries, like…
Commons
Oral Questions
Cabinet Office
5 June 2025
2 contributions
Intelligence and Security Committee
8. What recent engagement his Department has had with the Intelligence and Security Committee.
Has the Minister had a discussion with the Intelligence and Security Committee as to why our normally sophisticated operations have not succeeded in making any significant dent in smashing the gangs and stopping the boats? Perhaps he might ask the Committee whether its view is that such is the pull …
Commons
Westminster Hall
3 June 2025
Inheritance Tax: Family-owned Businesses
The hon. Lady is making an excellent speech. Will she make the point that we do not really understand where the Government are coming from? I understand why they want to claw back money from big estates, or from people who buy farms just to avoid inheritance tax—not Jeremy Clarkson of course; he is …
Commons
Debate
2 June 2025
Strategic Defence Review
History repeats itself. In 1935, we spent just 3% of national wealth on defence, and because we rearmed almost too late, we almost lost civilisation. By 1945, we were spending 52% of national wealth on defence. Given that we face a crisis in Europe, with an unparalleled Russian rearmament almost as …
Commons
Oral Questions
Home Department
2 June 2025
Illegal Working
Could I be counterintuitive for a moment and make a New Labour point? The cause of a lot of illegal migration is the fact that it is easier to work here illegally than anywhere else in Europe, and that is because we do not have national identity cards. The Gordon Brown Government, quite wisely, were…
Commons
Westminster Hall
2 June 2025
Decriminalising Abortion
The hon. and learned Gentleman is describing the law. One of the justifications for the Abortion Act 1967 was that it would end back-street abortions; indeed, whether we like it or not, we have abortion on demand in safe environments. If the proposals we are discussing go ahead and, de facto, it bec…
Commons
Oral Questions
22 May 2025
Occupied Palestinian Territories: Christians
This week I met Rana Musa of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate. Under the traditional status quo, the Israeli authorities levied arnona—the property tax—only on Church-owned business properties, but they are now levying it on Church properties used for religious purposes. That is an existential crisis…
Commons
Debate
16 May 2025
3 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
I wish to speak to new clauses 16 and 17. Rather than giving my own views, I think that powerful testimony on behalf of someone who actually runs a care home should be heard by the House. I want to quote, as briefly as possible, Dan Hayes, who runs the Orders of St John Care Trust, which runs care h…
I wish to be mindful of other people, so I will proceed and make this one simple point on behalf of care homes. Mr Hayes continues:
“During the pandemic, we saw the appalling attempts at a widespread use of ‘Do Not Attempt Resuscitation’ arrangements for older people. This is a clear demonstration …
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Proceedings
15 May 2025
5 contributions
Solar Farms
I agree with the hon. and learned Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Tony Vaughan); let us all play our fair share—and I will support him on Romney Marsh if he supports me on Gainsborough. That is a fair deal.
The distribution of solar farms across the country is, as has been made clear, highly uneve…
My hon. Friend is absolutely right.
+3 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
14 May 2025
Great British Energy Bill
I am sure we can rely on the Minister to ensure that no solar panels are installed on British farms that are made by the Chinese Government, using slave labour. I am sure that he can assure us on that point.