Commons
Proceedings
8 December 2025
Restriction of Jury Trials
I have had a number of cases, including two recently. When the Opposition were in power, a woman came to me with her case, which was of historical child sexual abuse; her trial was being adjourned repeatedly, and there was a risk that the perpetrator would die before the case was heard. I now have t…
Commons
Oral Questions
Work and Pensions
8 December 2025
Topical Questions
I warmly welcome the child poverty strategy published last week, and I congratulate past and present ministerial teams on all they have done on that strategy. Can my right hon. Friend give details on when he expects to publish the targets, the detailed metrics and the monitoring and review framework…
Commons
Debate
3 December 2025
Pension Schemes Bill
I rise in support of the Government’s new clauses, particularly those that relate to the pre-1997 pensionable service indexation where scheme rules allow. That will mean that pensioners whose pension schemes became insolvent through no fault of their own and that have failed to keep pace with inflat…
Commons
Proceedings
2 December 2025
3 contributions
Budget Resolutions
This was a positive, progressive Budget with fairness at its heart. These fiscal decisions will benefit most people, but particularly those who have been really struggling with the cost of living crisis over recent years. Those with the broadest shoulders have been asked to do their fair share of th…
I absolutely agree. It is a shame that we need food banks at all—this is the state of what we have inherited, unfortunately.
I commend the Health Secretary for the work that has been done to increase capital investment in the NHS, which will boost NHS productivity. A recent Health Equity North repo…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
2 December 2025
Topical Questions
Parliamentarians for Peace was set up in 2023 in the aftermath of the terror attack in Israel and the killings of innocent Gazan civilians. On International Human Rights Day next Wednesday, will the Foreign Secretary, her team and everyone here join us for the Parliamentarians for Peace vigil that w…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
11 November 2025
Pensions
I thank my right hon. Friend for his statement—I appreciate its technical nature. Clearly, it is a concern that this evidence was not made available to our right hon. Friend the Member for Leicester West (Liz Kendall) last year and I know that he will investigate that. I appreciate that he will not …
Commons
Westminster Hall
28 October 2025
Obesity and Fatty Liver Disease
I, too, congratulate my hon. Friend on an excellent and really important debate. May I take her back to what she was saying about the food industry, wider population prevention measures and what this means for school meals and for our poorer communities, who are reliant on food supporters, such as t…
Commons
Oral Questions
Work and Pensions
27 October 2025
Employment: People with Health Conditions
Health Equity North recently produced an analysis for the Select Committee that revealed that getting just 5% of people with disabilities or health conditions into employment would yield cost savings of over £12 billion. What progress is being made with employers to enable sick and disabled people w…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
14 October 2025
Middle East
I thank the Prime Minister for his statement and add my congratulations to him, the National Security Adviser and all his Ministers on the months and months of work that they have done that has contributed to this—it was so generously acknowledged by the US envoy to the middle east, if not by the Le…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
13 October 2025
Manchester Terrorism Attack
I thank the Home Secretary for her excellent statement. I pay tribute to the men who were killed and I send my condolences to their family and friends, and the wider Jewish community. As the Home Secretary has said, there is no place whatsoever in the UK for hate crime of any sort, directed at any g…
Commons
Oral Questions
13 October 2025
2 contributions
Topical Questions
T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.
My constituents in Oldham East and Saddleworth were delighted to learn that Oldham has received a £20 million award from the Pride in Place programme. Will the Secretary of State expand on the transformational change that the award will mean to places like Oldham, where Government support was decima…
Commons
Westminster Hall
15 September 2025
Children with SEND: Assessments and Support
My constituent’s seven-year-old son has been waiting 13 months for an assessment, and she has had to give up her job to care for him. Does my hon. Friend agree that the issue has an impact on not only the children and their parents—as she rightly says—but the economy, if we are losing people who are…
Commons
Westminster Hall
10 September 2025
Occupied Palestinian Territories: Humanitarian Access
My hon. Friend is being very generous with her time. Just before this debate, I met Antoine Renard, who made a point to me about the disinformation that is being spread about rotten food, and emphasised the importance of having trusted NGOs, a point my hon. Friend made earlier in her speech. Does sh…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
2 September 2025
Group-based Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse
I thank my hon. Friend for her statement. No one doubts her, and her team’s, absolute commitment to addressing the root causes of the abuse and exploitation that so many women and some boys have experienced. In my contact with women this morning—I speak on their behalf—I heard that they are absolute…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
1 September 2025
Middle East
I thank my right hon. Friend for his statement and the extensive work that he, his team and his officials have done to secure the international coalition of allies in the recognition of the state of Palestine—although that has been very much undermined by the Israeli Cabinet and what it proposes in …
Commons
Ministerial Statement
1 September 2025
Borders and Asylum
I thank the Home Secretary for her statement, and I recognise the complexity of the issues that she is facing. I was very struck by Lord Dubs’s description of his personal circumstances on the radio this morning. His father left Prague as soon as the Nazis invaded in 1939. Lord Dubs got Kindertransp…
Commons
Oral Questions
1 September 2025
Topical Questions
I was delighted to see the establishment of the disability advisory panel a week or so ago. [ Interruption. ] I am so sorry, Mr Speaker; I have a cold. How will the advisory panel link with the co-production in the Timms review?
Commons
Ministerial Statement
21 July 2025
Middle East
I recognise the Foreign Secretary’s labours to get as many international allies on board and the importance of that, but clearly we must do more—this is not enough. Israel’s flaunting of international law and the devastating consequences of that—I understand that Israeli soldiers are reporting being…
Commons
Debate
9 July 2025
4 contributions
Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill
I will speak to my amendment 2(b) and the amendments associated with it. Before I get to the substance of my remarks, I thank the Bill Committee Clerks for their invaluable advice and amendment-drafting expertise. I thank the dozens of disabled people’s organisations, disability charities, academics…
I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. I agree that we need a more compassionate system, but I also believe we need a system that is co-produced by the people who will actually be affected by a new assessment process. Yes, we need a system that is more compassionate, but I think t…
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
8 July 2025
Football Governance Bill [Lords]
I agree with my hon. Friend—we hosted a Football Families for Justice event a few months ago. Most people are not aware that not all footballers make thousands and thousands of pounds a week. This is the least that we can do to ensure that the pleasure that they have given us is responded to when th…
Commons
Debate
7 July 2025
3 contributions
Pension Schemes Bill
I want to make three points. First, we recognise that defined-contribution pension schemes have around £500 billion in assets under management. Around 20% of these assets are invested in the UK. That is down from 50% some 10 years ago. It is very welcome that the Government are focusing on this, so …
I understand what my hon. Friend says. There is always a balance to be found with long-term financial decisions, but this is partly a political decision, so I point to the Pensions Minister to come up with a response.
Do the Government propose to consult on the design of the mandation power and how…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Debate
1 July 2025
4 contributions
Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill
It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Torbay (Steve Darling), my fellow Select Committee Member.
I entirely agree with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State about the need for reform of the social security system. I believe that the social security system, like the NHS, should be the…
We have to ensure that that does not happen. There are risks: I am being very honest about that.
As we heard in the evidence that my Committee received as part of our “Pathways to Work” inquiry, ours is an ageing society, with worse health than other advanced economies as a result of the austerity …
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
30 June 2025
Welfare Reform
I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for her statement. I absolutely agree that we must reform our social security system; under the previous Government, it neither supported nor protected disabled people. I am also very supportive of the principles that the Government have set out.
May I query so…
Commons
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister
25 June 2025
Engagements
Q8. In Oldham, 727 families are currently living in temporary accommodation, and 8,000 families are on the waiting list. That obviously has a devastating impact, particularly on children in those families. Will the Deputy Prime Minister outline how she will use the £39 billion that was allocated t…
Commons
Oral Questions
24 June 2025
Recognition of the State of Palestine
Can my hon. Friend update me on the conference that was due to be held at the weekend but was postponed following the bombing of Iran by Israel, at which the potential for recognition was to be discussed?