Commons
Debate
7 January 2026
2 contributions
Jury Trials
Will my right hon. Friend give way?
My right hon. Friend is making excellent points about alternative solutions to scrapping the right to a jury trial. Any MP who has spent any time in their local courts will have seen that the issue is not the juries, but poor administration, which is resulting in about a quarter of trials having to …
Commons
Westminster Hall
6 January 2026
BBC Charter Renewal
Thank you, Mrs Harris. I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Member for Maldon (Sir John Whittingdale) on securing the debate. I cannot think of anyone more qualified to kick off this conversation. The Select Committee will almost certainly look closely at the charter review, but today I will pull…
Commons
Westminster Hall
17 December 2025
3 contributions
Membership-based Charity Organisations
I beg to move,
That this House has considered Government support for membership-based charity organisations.
It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Twigg.
Membership organisations play a central role in protecting and enhancing the things that we consider important to our nat…
The hon. Gentleman has done beautifully to put that on the record. He is absolutely right that these incredible membership charities preserve our national heritage.
If we were to ask people why they support such charities, I expect they would not say that they do so just to get access to some of th…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Debate
10 December 2025
7 contributions
Seasonal Work
That is exactly the issue: the Minister was in this place back when the Government were coming up with their plans and policies; meanwhile, I was starting and running a business and employing people. That is the difference. A minimum wage cannot be given to someone who does not have a wage at all be…
As I mentioned to the Minister when he was in his place earlier, I started my first business at the age of 19. That is what I did for 20 years, before I became an MP—I ran businesses. That is why I am so upset at some of the ways in which this Government have behaved: I understand viscerally how tak…
+5 more contributions in this session
Commons
Proceedings
8 December 2025
Maccabi Tel Aviv FC: Away Fans Ban
This really is a catalogue of disaster, and it raises a range of issues, some of which the Committee will consider when we kick off our inquiry into major events tomorrow. In the previous Parliament, the Committee looked at the safety of sporting events and concluded that safety advisory groups have…
Commons
Oral Questions
25 November 2025
Cancer Care
A constituent of mine recently had successful high-intensity focused ultrasound treatment for prostate cancer, which was at Charing Cross hospital because it is not even offered to men at Portsmouth hospitals, despite being a less invasive treatment with fewer long-term health implications. As if to…
Commons
Debate
12 November 2025
3 contributions
Taxes
I apologise—I may be a little hard of hearing. Could I ask the hon. Member once more for a quick yes-or-no answer? Would he vote to get rid of the two-child benefit cap?
It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Harlow (Chris Vince). I thank him for cantering us through his mother’s career at HMRC—on behalf of the whole House, I thank her for her service, and I ask him to pass on our very best wishes.
Madam Deputy Speaker, as a near neighbour to my constituenc…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Proceedings
12 November 2025
Independent Football Regulator
I want the independent regulator to succeed—not least because of clubs like mine, Portsmouth football club, whose fans had to step in and buy it after it had gone into administration twice—but we need transparency and trust in public appointments. The Secretary of State has said repeatedly that the …
Commons
Debate
11 November 2025
BBC Leadership
I thank the Secretary of State for her statement, and I echo her words about the director general and the head of news. She will know that the airwaves over the last couple of days have been dominated by a number of debates about the BBC: the concern about bias, particularly on some of the most cont…
Commons
Debate
3 November 2025
“Soldier F” Trial Verdict
The Secretary of State is right to say that this Remembrance Month underlines the debt of gratitude that we owe to those who serve our nation, but many in my constituency feel that that stands in stark contrast to the fundamental failure in our nation’s duty of care to veterans of Operation Banner. …
Commons
Oral Questions
Defence
3 November 2025
Defence Industrial Base
As the Secretary of State said, the defence industrial strategy promises to boost British export success, British businesses and British jobs. As such, I am sure he is as excited as I am about the Aeralis bid to replace the Red Arrow Hawk aircraft, which would deliver around 600 skilled jobs at Stan…
Commons
Westminster Hall
29 October 2025
Independent Lifeboats: Government Support
It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Harris. I congratulate my neighbour, my hon. Friend the Member for Hamble Valley (Paul Holmes), on securing the debate.
People from my constituency have been saving lives at sea for hundreds of years—we are a coastal community. In fact, l…
Commons
Debate
20 October 2025
Maccabi Tel Aviv FC: Away Fans Ban
On Friday, the club’s chief executive raised concerns about what the ban on fans actually signals. The Secretary of State will be aware that this is not the first time we have heard about Jewish people not feeling safe at either cultural or sporting events, whether that was the scenes at Glastonbury…
Commons
Oral Questions
Education
20 October 2025
Children with SEND: Mainstream Schools
The number of EHCPs being maintained by Hampshire county council is rising exponentially, but the funding is simply not keeping pace with the demand and the cost. Surprisingly, the proportion of pupils receiving SEND support in mainstream schools is going down, which demonstrates to me that teachers…
Commons
Oral Questions
16 October 2025
Grassroots Sports Facilities
Earlier this week, the Committee heard from Henry Hughes and Nathan Young, two brilliant swimmers who are travelling to Tokyo next month to represent Britain as part of the Deaflympics. The competition has been running for over 100 years—longer than the Paralympics, in fact—but deaf athletes are the…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
15 October 2025
Pride in Place
My constituents in Rowner were delighted to hear that they had been chosen for pride in place funding, but they are now a little bit worried, and I hope that the Minister can help us. My constituents fear that rather than the money being spent on projects that will change lives in Rowner in a meanin…
Commons
Oral Questions
13 October 2025
Social and Affordable Housing
There are over 560 families on Gosport borough council’s waiting list for social housing, yet despite taking power a few years ago, the Liberal Democrat council has not built a single extra council house. Meanwhile, the complaints I get in my mailbag about the substandard quality of council accommod…
Commons
Oral Questions
Defence
8 September 2025
Topical Questions
Fort Blockhouse in Gosport was due to have been sold by 2024, but the deadline keeps moving. The Defence Infrastructure Organisation has not been at all proactive; this giant site sits empty, doing nothing for the MOD, taxpayers or the local economy. First Reform and then the Government have suggest…
Commons
Debate
3 September 2025
Hospitality Sector
If we are going to exchange numbers, does my hon. Friend agree that it is shocking that over 1,000 pubs and restaurants have closed since the autumn Budget, and that 84,000 hospitality workers have lost their jobs? That is one in every 25 since the autumn Budget alone—and that was when the autumn Bu…
Commons
Debate
15 July 2025
Welfare Spending
My hon. Friend talks about tough choices. Does she agree that families that are in work make tough choices every single day, about what they can afford and how they spend their money, and that those who receive benefits should really have to make the same tough choices?
Commons
Debate
15 July 2025
Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Regulation)
I beg to move,
That leave be given to bring in a Bill to make provision about the regulation of online providers of fertility and certain ancillary services by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority; and for connected purposes.
Having a child is variously viewed as one of the most life-c…
Commons
Debate
3 July 2025
Women’s State Pension Age: Financial Redress
The hon. Lady is making a powerful speech. What she says reflects some of the conversations I have had with WASPI women in my constituency about not only the distress this has caused them, but how so many of them simply did not receive the correspondence that they have been told they did receive ove…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
3 July 2025
7 contributions
British Film and High-end Television
I am grateful to the Backbench Business Committee for making time for this statement.
In April, the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, which I am very honoured to chair, published its report on British film and high-end television, and this sector is absolutely thriving. We have world-class facili…
The hon. Gentleman makes such an important point. We have remarkable skills around the UK, but when we go into sixth forms in any of our constituencies and speak to the young people there, we find few who are considering a career in film and TV. Yet if we look at the things they are studying, we see…
+5 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
3 July 2025
Major Sporting Events
I 100% back the words of the hon. Member for Gower (Tonia Antoniazzi) and send all our best wishes to the Lionesses as they start their competition shortly.
The Secretary of State will know that Royal Ascot last week attracted a viewing population of tens of millions, and “Glorious Goodwood” is abo…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
30 June 2025
Glastonbury Festival: BBC Coverage
I refer the House to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. I thank the Secretary of State for that strong and welcome statement. The BBC editorial guidelines on livestreaming are actually quite clear. They say,
“The level of monitoring should be appropriate for the likely conten…