Commons
Ministerial Statement
10 July 2025
Children’s Social Care
I am immensely grateful to the Chair of the Education Committee for the way she has introduced the report and the work she has done. I am particularly moved by what she said about disabled people, and I wonder if she would look at the relationship between that and special needs education as there is…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
10 July 2025
Resident Doctors: Industrial Action
I have known the Secretary of State a long time. I knew him before he was an important man—although he was always important to me, of course. He will know that as a Minister, I worked with the trade unions in every sector for which I was responsible, as the RMT and the University and College Union w…
Commons
Debate
3 July 2025
4 contributions
Women’s State Pension Age: Financial Redress
I pay tribute to the hon. Lady for her leadership of this campaign. The situation is worse still than she paints it to be, for the ombudsman made clear that the
“DWP has clearly indicated that it will refuse to comply”
with the ombudsman’s recommendations, inviting Parliament to step in to resolve…
The purpose of this place is, of course, to make laws, to amend them and sometimes, if we are in opposition, to stop laws being made. But it has another purpose: to hold those with power to account. We do that as individual constituency MPs all the time, taking up cases on behalf of constituents, bu…
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
2 July 2025
17 contributions
Corporate Businesses and Franchisees: Regulatory Environment
Speaking long before I was born, G. K. Chesterton said that
“big business…is now organized like an army. It is, as some would say…militarism…without the military virtues.”
Heaven knows what he would say if he was alive now, as global corporations have such influence on all our lives.
Yet it is th…
I think my right hon. Friend is referring to the £500 he still owes me from the days when I used to work for him.
The point is that nowadays the connection between customers and suppliers has become at best detached and at worst remote. As I say, now you would have a conversation with some remotely…
+15 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
2 July 2025
ECO4 Scheme Redress
I remind hon. Members that the Member in charge does not have the opportunity to wind up the debate. I call the Under-Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero.
Commons
Westminster Hall
2 July 2025
2 contributions
Spending Review 2025: Scotland
Order. I hope the hon. Gentleman will tailor his critique of the SNP Government to the spending review. I appreciate the thrust of his remarks, but he will understand my advice.
Order. This debate is not really about welfare in Scotland; it is about the spending review. [ Interruption. ] I take the point, but I would like the remarks to be tailored to the subject at hand.
Commons
Debate
1 July 2025
Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill
The Secretary of State was right: welfare reform is tough, and Governments tend to duck the issue, with notable exceptions such as my right hon. Friend the Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith). However, if a Government are going to change welfare radically, they should sur…
Commons
Proceedings
25 June 2025
Points of Order
On a point of order, Mr Speaker. On Monday, the High Court ordered a £60,000 cap on contribution to the Government’s legal fees by campaigners seeking justice for the change in the pension age—the so-called WASPI women. This is a major breakthrough for that campaign, which has had support from acros…
Commons
Westminster Hall
25 June 2025
2 contributions
Access to Banking Hubs: Hertfordshire
My hon. Friend is right that this is a problem felt across Britain, as banks abandon their customers and close branches in my constituency in Crowland, the Deepings, Holbeach, Long Sutton and Sutton Bridge. The key thing about this issue is that it affects those least able to bank online; it also af…
The hon. Lady is making a powerful point and she is right about the number. The Payment Choice Alliance, to which I have already referred, estimates that if every community with a population of 5,000 or more were provided with a banking hub, there would be about 1,200 of them. Ministers want solutio…
Commons
Westminster Hall
25 June 2025
Flags: Public Buildings
It was in that guise that my hon. Friend came to see me on the subject when I was a Cabinet Office Minister. We had some success in that venture, as he will recall, and subsequently, thanks to my right hon. Friend the Member for Hertsmere (Sir Oliver Dowden), we had further success. We worked togeth…
Commons
Oral Questions
24 June 2025
2 contributions
Chagos Archipelago: Sovereignty
9. What changes were made to the draft agreement to transfer sovereignty over the Chagos islands to Mauritius between October 2024 and May 2025.
The Foreign Secretary is an old friend and the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, the hon. Member for Lincoln (Mr Falconer), is a Lincolnshire neighbour whom, in all his innocence, I regard with a degree of paternal care, so I ask this question more in sorrow…
Commons
Debate
19 June 2025
Water Safety Education
I am grateful to the Minister for giving way. I have known her since she first came to the House, and she knows that she has my respect and regard. Swimming is critical. It is true that people who can swim still get into trouble, but if someone cannot swim at all, they are at much greater risk. Will…
Commons
Debate
17 June 2025
3 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
I am delighted to tell my hon. Friend that I, too, will be supporting her amendment. There has been a lot of talk in this place in recent weeks about coercion—in a different Bill and in a different context. The kind of coercion that she describes is a reality. It is all fine and well to have a fanci…
I am trying to reconcile the two things that the hon. Lady has said. She talked about the significance of the 1967 Act. When Lord Steel—David Steel as he was then—spoke on its Second Reading, he said that it was not his aim
“to leave a wide open door for abortion on request”, —[ Official Report , 2…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Debate
13 June 2025
10 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
Will the hon. Lady give way?
I am very grateful to the hon. Gentleman and I entirely support his argument and his amendment. This is the difference between, in his estimation, accepting a request and promoting a service. Advertising is about the promotion of a service to doubtful, fearful and vulnerable people, and that is prec…
+8 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
12 June 2025
4 contributions
SEND Funding
That is partly about the specification of need and the quantification of how we meet it. Government can be helpful in that. I first took an interest in the matter as a county councillor more than 30 years ago and then as a shadow Schools Minister more recently—some 20 years ago. The Government can p…
That is the truth that dare not speak its name. It is often the most disadvantaged or poorly educated parents who struggle to navigate a complex system. Middle-class parents are at an advantage—let us face facts—but that is never really recognised, and it needs to be. Those people need support and g…
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
5 June 2025
4 contributions
Bank Closures and Banking Hubs
My hon. Friend makes a powerful point, and I particularly wish to draw his attention to the plight of blind people. Royal National Institute of Blind People research in 2023 found that 28% of blind and partially sighted people never used the internet, they struggle with ATMs, and they struggle too w…
The hon. Gentleman is becoming an hon. Friend. What happens is that the banks encourage their customers to do things online. You cannot open an account in a branch—where branches still exist—and then say that online banking is replacing face-to-face contact.
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
4 June 2025
3 contributions
Swimming Facilities
Before my hon. Friend comes on to those challenges—and I am mindful of the contribution of my hon. Friend the Member for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk (John Lamont)—can he tell us whether he is as disturbed as I am by the increasing number of tragic events in which people drown as a result of n…
A report last year by the Royal Life Saving Society found that the number of child drownings in England had doubled over a four-year period. That was 125 lives lost. Two years ago, The Guardian reported that England had lost almost 400 swimming pools since 2010, including local authority and communi…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
3 June 2025
8 contributions
Groceries Code Adjudicator
I beg to move,
That this House has considered the powers of the Groceries Code Adjudicator.
It is a delight to be here and to speak on this subject, which is of great importance to my constituents, both consumers and producers. A free economy works best when those who buy and those who sell can do…
I am delighted to accept the hon. Lady’s advice on that. She is not, in parliamentary technical terms, my hon. Friend, but she is a friend none the less, and she is right in her assertion, which I shall move to after I entertain the House a little further with my preparation for making exactly that …
+6 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
3 June 2025
4 contributions
Animal Welfare in Farming
As a result of the Division in the House, the debate’s revised end time is 4.44 pm. I will call the shadow Minister and the Minister to wind up at 4.06 pm. I know that we have two speakers to come and that Terry Jermy is coming to the conclusion of his speech.
We are moving ahead with alacrity, and I am grateful to all hon. Members for allowing us to do so. Without more ado, I call Sarah Dyke, the Liberal Democrat spokesman.
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
3 June 2025
3 contributions
Inheritance Tax: Family-owned Businesses
I will call Susan Murray to move the motion, and then the Minister to respond. I remind other Members that they may make a speech only with permission from the Member in charge of the debate and the Minister.
Before I call the Minister, I hope he will leave me a couple of moments at the end of the debate to put the question.
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
3 June 2025
4 contributions
Serious Fraud Office
I remind Members that they should bob if they wish to be called in the debate; I can see that some have already taken that advice.
I intend to begin the winding-up speeches at 5.50 pm, and we have two more Back-Bench speakers, so it would be lovely if I could get you both in.
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
2 June 2025
Decriminalising Abortion
I apologise for arriving late, Mr Dowd, and it is a pleasure to see you in the Chair. My hon. Friend makes a salient point about the ethical issues around extinguishing the life of the unborn. There is another salient matter: the assumption on the part of the advocates of this move that individual a…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
22 May 2025
Diego Garcia Military Base
The right hon. Gentleman knows the regard I have for him and for the Foreign Secretary. He knows, too, of my interest and involvement in national security matters. There is no debate across the House about the salience of Diego Garcia. It is absolutely critical to our national interest. The debate i…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
22 May 2025
Independent Sentencing Review
The Lord Chancellor will know that for a very long time in this country, the prejudices of the establishment, poisoned by liberal thinking, have been at odds with the preoccupations of the vast majority of law-abiding people. Will she acknowledge now that the principal purpose of prison is retributi…
Commons
Westminster Hall
22 May 2025
19 contributions
EU-UK Summit
Will the hon. Lady give way?
Someone once said that the general rule in politics is never to apologise and never to explain, and I am certainly not going to break that rule now. The truth is that the hon. Lady is arguing for co-operation, and we all affirm that. Britain has co-operated with its neighbours, and with countries mo…
+17 more contributions in this session