Commons
Oral Questions
25 February 2026
Diego Garcia and British Indian Ocean Territory
Whatever Members across this House might say, the hon. Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage) has done a service to us in raising this matter today, because this is a dodgy deal founded on a bogus basis, as I shall explain. When this was introduced to the House, we were told that the Government were doin…
Commons
Debate
24 February 2026
2 contributions
Online Harm: Child Protection
Will the hon. Lady give way?
Of course, the Minister is right that there is all kinds of data about online activity, but what is plain and truthful is that academic evidence suggests not only that there are risks of the kind that he has just described—of abuse, exploitation and so on—but that children’s very consciousness is be…
Commons
Westminster Hall
24 February 2026
2 contributions
Banking Hubs: Rural and Post-Industrial Communities
rose—
The Library has made it clear that many groups beyond the elderly and the disadvantaged, including people with mental health difficulties, people with physical difficulties and people who rely on others to pay bills for them, struggle with these issues, and they struggle all the more in rural areas …
Commons
Proceedings
12 February 2026
Business of the House
Madam Deputy Speaker, you and the Leader of the House will be aware that all those who serve on the Treasury Bench are Ministers of the Crown. For that reason, from time immemorial, the Government have been described as HM Government—His Majesty’s Government—yet we now learn that that has changed, a…
Commons
Proceedings
9 February 2026
2 contributions
Brain Tumour Survival Rates
I apologise, Madam Deputy Speaker, for intervening despite not being here for the beginning of the debate. My hon. Friend will know that I chair the all-party parliamentary group for acquired brain injury, and I am also president of the Lincolnshire Brain Tumour Support Group—she is right about the …
As the Minister is now referring to my specialist subject, I thought that I had better intervene. Although I defer, of course, to the immense experience of the hon. Member for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket (Peter Prinsley) in these matters, I think that this is associated with lesions and scarring,…
Commons
Oral Questions
Justice
3 February 2026
2 contributions
Changes to Jury Trials
3. What assessment he has made of the potential impact of his proposed changes to jury trials on the criminal justice system.
As you know, Mr Speaker, the age-old jury system connects the public to the exercise of law, and is therefore at the heart of popular consent for criminal justice. In abandoning this link, are the Government careless of the accountability that it brings, or are they driven wholly by thoughtless expe…
Commons
Westminster Hall
3 February 2026
3 contributions
Animals in Science Regulation Unit: Annual Report 2024
Order. I remind hon. Members that they should bob, but I can see that four Members already know that.
I am renowned for my generosity in the Chair and I am extremely open minded about how debates are conducted, but it is not really appropriate to come in two thirds of the way through and intervene when everyone else took the trouble to get here at the beginning. We are all busy, after all.
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
3 February 2026
5 contributions
Transport in the South-East
That intervention tested my legendary patience to its very limits, so just bear that in mind in the future.
I hope this will be a pithy intervention.
+3 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
28 January 2026
British Indian Ocean Territory
I invite my right hon. Friend to challenge the Minister to deal with the issue of the treaty of Pelindaba, which I think came into force in 2009. It was designed to prevent African nuclear proliferation. If we breach that treaty by means of this deal, it would open up an opportunity for all kinds of…
Commons
Debate
21 January 2026
Northern Ireland Troubles: Legacy and Reconciliation
I am extremely grateful to the Secretary of State for giving way; he is an immensely courteous Member of this House and always has been. He will be aware, however, that there is a live legal case by the Northern Ireland Veterans Movement, and that the very Human Rights Act he cited says that this ki…
Commons
Debate
20 January 2026
4 contributions
Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill
rose—
On that point, the Minister will be aware that the matter was debated at length in the Lords. Indeed, one of the amendments that we are considering deals precisely with the entitlements of the Chagossians. They were not involved in the negotiations at any stage, and they have made that clear. Why on…
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
20 January 2026
3 contributions
Domestic Abuse-related Deaths: NHS Prevention
I remind Members that they need to bob to catch my eye— although I can see they already know that.
For the benefit of the large number of visitors in the Public Gallery, I say that we now move to the wind-up speeches. I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
20 January 2026
2 contributions
Temporary Accommodation: Out of Area Placements
I will call Josh Babarinde to move the motion, and then call the Minister to respond. Other Members may make a speech only with prior permission from the Member in charge. There will not be an opportunity to wind up, sadly, as it is only a half-hour debate.
It is a private joke, don’t worry!
Commons
Debate
7 January 2026
4 contributions
Rural Communities
My right hon. Friend is making a salient point. When local people face the impositions that she mentions, it is prime land that is taken out of production, compromising our food security, making us less economically resilient, and costing jobs and livelihoods in the countryside.
rose—
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
16 December 2025
2 contributions
Prisoner Early Release: Earned Progression
16. What estimate he has made of the number of prisoners eligible for early release under the earned progression model.
The salient difference between the Government and the people is that the public expect vile, vicious, violent people to be locked up, so that they can ruin no more lives, whereas the Government want to let them free. About two thirds of rapists and 83% of child sex offenders will be eligible for ear…
Commons
Westminster Hall
15 December 2025
2 contributions
Online Safety Act 2023: Repeal
That is all true, by the way.
Interventions should be brief, but I am very kind.
Commons
Debate
9 December 2025
2 contributions
Illegal Migrants: Unknown Whereabouts
I am extremely grateful to the hon. Gentleman for giving way—I did give him notice that I was going to intervene. It is inconceivable, is it not, that Home Office Ministers would not know the answer to that question? When I was a Home Office Minister, I would ask my officials for exactly that kind o…
My experience in this House over almost 30 years is that most people here—indeed, the overwhelming majority—want to do the right thing, irrespective of party, and I make that perfectly clear through you, Madam Deputy Speaker. But in that spirit, I know that you will take the view that it is critical…
Commons
Proceedings
4 December 2025
Business of the House
As the Leader of the House will know, I have long championed a cause supported by other Members of this House, notably the hon. Member for Salford (Rebecca Long Bailey): nuclear test veterans. These were the young men who were sent to the other side of the world to witness the tests of Britain’s fir…
Commons
Westminster Hall
4 December 2025
6 contributions
Acquired Brain Injury Action Plan
I beg to move,
That this House has considered the potential merits of a comprehensive acquired brain injury action plan.
Dickens wrote,
“Reflect upon your present blessings—of which every man has many—not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.”
There are few greater misfortunes th…
I was hoping it might. Lateral policymaking is not easy in Government, because of the way Government works and ministerial responsibilities are exercised. It is a challenge, therefore, to get that sort of approach adopted by a Government of any colour or persuasion.
+4 more contributions in this session
Commons
Proceedings
1 December 2025
Budget Resolutions
I endorse the point about automatic cars and Motability, and the very important point about banking hubs and the extension. Does my right hon. Friend recognise that when we add costs to businesses such as the retailer in my constituency that I visited recently, we pay the price in terms of the jobs …
Commons
Ministerial Statement
1 December 2025
Office for Budget Responsibility Forecasts
The demeanour of a good Chancellor should be somewhere between an undertaker and an oncologist—a reassuring presence and no words wasted—not a party entertainer trialling a few tricks before they go on stage, which is what this Chancellor did before the Budget. In seizing back control from the OBR—w…
Commons
Proceedings
27 November 2025
8 contributions
Budget Resolutions
My right hon. Friend did a service to the House a week or two ago when he drew what he is describing now to the attention of this Chamber. He told the Government that these leaks were not only doing damage to the economy, in the way he has just described, but were a discourtesy to this House. Many t…
I am very interested in that part of the Budget and I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for setting it out in more detail. One part of the youth guarantee is the boost for apprenticeships, particularly in small and medium-sized enterprises, but looking at the fine print, is that not already su…
+6 more contributions in this session
Commons
Proceedings
27 November 2025
Business of the House
Budgets are often about what is not in them, as well as what is; no doubt we will debate that later. A glaring omission from this Budget was a settlement for the women of the Women Against State Pension Inequality Campaign. We had a statement in which the Government, presumably fearful of the court …
Commons
Debate
18 November 2025
Northern Ireland Troubles Bill
The truth is, the Secretary of State has said there is no equivalence between those who fought us and those who defended us, but his Bill says the very opposite. Every investigation has a view to criminal prosecution. Everyone pursued will feel hounded, because they will be hounded.