Commons
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister
7 January 2026
Engagements
Q8. The Prime Minister promised not to bulldoze the countryside, but under Labour, green fields in Aldridge-Brownhills on Stonnall Road, Birch Lane and Bosty Lane are now under threat. Does he accept that his housing target can be met without destroying our farmland and countryside by reusing empty …
Commons
Debate
5 January 2026
Agricultural Property Relief and Business Property Relief
Despite many opportunities to do so, the Minister simply refuses to apologise. Despite warnings from so many organisations that this tax would do real harm, farmers, including those in my constituency, have been forced to live with fear and uncertainty for more than 14 months. Can the Minister expla…
Commons
Debate
10 December 2025
Seasonal Work
Is not the truth that we have a Government with no business experience who think that they can simply push the costs down to businesses, squeeze and squeeze them, and they will pass the price on to customers? They will have no customers. There will be no businesses. There will be no jobs.
Commons
Westminster Hall
10 December 2025
2 contributions
International Human Rights Day 2025
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Butler.
I start by thanking the hon. Member for Penrith and Solway (Markus Campbell-Savours) for securing this debate, and for his thoughtful and reflective introduction, marking International Human Rights Day 2025. Every year on 10 December we …
We have made our position very clear when it comes to the defence budget. Obviously, as we get nearer to another election, we will set out more detail.
Today—International Human Rights Day 2025—is an important day. It is a really good opportunity for us all to come together, not just to highlight s…
Commons
Debate
9 December 2025
4 contributions
Railways Bill
Great British Railways is not an entirely new concept, but what the Government present as a “modernisation of our railways” is, when we strip away the glossy language, a centralising piece of legislation that advances Labour’s drive towards nationalisation. It risks creating a structure that is powe…
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. What is worse is that time after time I cannot get a straight answer out of Ministers as to whether they will support open access.
The Bill also weakens the independence of the ORR. When a body that runs services also shapes the rules against which those services…
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
8 December 2025
3 contributions
Digital ID
I will keep my intervention very short, Sir Edward. An unheard-of 4,400 of my constituents signed this petition. They are very clear that they do not want the imposition—which is what it will be—of digital ID. As we heard from my hon. Friend’s history lesson, time and again it has been the Conservat…
Will the hon. Member give way?
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Proceedings
3 December 2025
Venezuela: US Military
I am grateful to the hon. Member for Bicester and Woodstock (Calum Miller) for securing this urgent question. Venezuela may be thousands of miles away, but instability there has a direct impact on the safety and prosperity of the British people here. The restoration of democratic institutions is ess…
Commons
Oral Questions
2 December 2025
Gaza: Humanitarian Situation
We have heard Ministers in this House and elsewhere make claims about Israel and aid. Does the Foreign Secretary recognise the Co-ordination of Government Activities in the Territories and the Civil-Military Co-ordination Centre figures, which show that 4,200 trucks of aid are entering Gaza a week, …
Commons
Oral Questions
2 December 2025
2 contributions
Ukraine
We all want to see Ukraine, a country that has made huge sacrifices to defend its freedom, secure a peace on its own terms, but to put pressure on Putin and weaken his ability to wage war, we must go harder after the money that is fuelling his war machine. We have seen reports that Lakshmi Mittal’s …
I am sorry, but it is simply not good enough for the Foreign Secretary to dismiss questions by saying that sanctions are not discussed on the Floor of the House. This is a man who has profited, and a business that has profited, by buying Russian oil, thus fuelling Putin’s illegal war—a war that has …
Commons
Proceedings
1 December 2025
5 contributions
Budget Resolutions
Will the Secretary of State give way?
If the policy is so good, how will the Secretary of State explain to working people that they will be £18,000 worse off than those on benefits? How can that be fair?
+3 more contributions in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
1 December 2025
Office for Budget Responsibility Forecasts
It is deeply damaging and, dare I say, unprecedented that we find ourselves here today, listening to this statement about OBR forecasts, midway through the debate on the Budget. It raises more questions, not least because the Chancellor chose not to be here today to answer those questions. Why?
Commons
Oral Questions
1 December 2025
Topical Questions
A game of strategy, tactics and sometimes outright brinkmanship might sound familiar to the Cabinet at the moment, but I am actually talking about chess. Meadow View primary school in my constituency has qualified for the London chess classic, which takes place tomorrow. Will the Education Secretary…
Commons
Proceedings
27 November 2025
Business of the House
A game of manoeuvres, tactics and at times outright brinkmanship —that might sound familiar to some members of the Cabinet, but I am of course talking about chess. Meadow View primary school in my constituency has qualified for the London chess classic on 2 December. Will the Leader of the House joi…
Commons
Proceedings
27 November 2025
Right to Trial by Jury
Another day, another leak from the Government. The Minister says that no final decision has been made—we just have speculation—and suggests that we wait, so why does she not use this time to reflect on the comments from Conservative Members and bring back the courts used during covid, to speed up th…
Commons
Debate
24 November 2025
5 contributions
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
Can the Minister assure me that the devolution of powers to our mayors—the west midlands is a really good example, because we have had a mayor for a number of years—will be accompanied by a devolution of accountability and scrutiny to local councillors and, importantly, to local communities? I fear …
I am concerned that this measure will result in a railroading of planning applications, which will impact on constituencies such as mine, on the periphery of the west midlands. What specific safeguards will the Minister be putting in place to ensure that ward councillors, local planning committees a…
+3 more contributions in this session
Commons
Proceedings
24 November 2025
Maccabi Tel Aviv FC: Away Fans Ban
As a west midlands MP, I find this deeply troubling. There are clearly questions that need to be answered. Specifically, in the light of the significant inaccuracies that have now been confirmed by Dutch law enforcement, does the Minister agree that there are also questions that should be asked of t…
Commons
Oral Questions
24 November 2025
Topical Questions
What is grey belt, and can the Minister tell us what assessment he has made of the risk it poses to the integrity of the green belt in areas such as mine?
Commons
Ministerial Statement
20 November 2025
Business of the House
This week, the Birmingham bin strike escalated further. Now, even the agency workers who have been keeping a minimal service going have voted to join the strike from 1 December. I have raised this issue with the Leader of the House before, and was promised a statement, but the situation has got wors…
Commons
Oral Questions
20 November 2025
2 contributions
Transport Infrastructure Upgrades
1. What steps she is taking to ensure that major transport infrastructure upgrades are delivered effectively.
The Secretary of State has recognised the value of the midlands rail hub and the investment that was needed there; it will create much needed capacity through central Birmingham. Given that, does she agree that now is exactly the moment to look at options such as the Sutton Park line, to enable the …
Commons
Westminster Hall
18 November 2025
15 contributions
Land Use Change: Food Security
I beg to move,
That this House has considered the impact of land use change on food security.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Murrison. I am grateful for the chance to raise this issue, which goes to the heart of our national interest. When I submitted my bid for the debate, lit…
That is exactly the point. Many farming families—often the hill farmers, in particular, but the arable farmers too—struggle. The last couple of years have been really difficult for many farmers. If they have one bad year, it is very hard for them to recover the next year. They are working against so…
+13 more contributions in this session
Commons
Proceedings
17 November 2025
Illegal Waste: Organised Crime
The number of fly-tipping incidents per day is 3,157. That is equivalent to one every 27 seconds. We see fly-tipping all too often in the west midlands. In my constituency, despite the council’s great efforts to rid us of the scourge of piles of mattresses and fridges, what we see is absolutely shoc…
Commons
Debate
17 November 2025
Budget: Press Briefings
Leaks, unauthorised briefing and speculation—or maybe not speculation—are creating instability, chaos, volatility and uncertainty for the markets, for businesses and for households in my constituency, so why will the Minister not answer the shadow Chancellor’s question about having an inquiry into w…
Commons
Westminster Hall
5 November 2025
4 contributions
House Building: London
My hon. Friend is painting a really bleak picture for London. Does he agree that to build the homes that we need in this country, we should focus not only on increased density in our city centres, but crucially on brownfield sites? We are not seeing from the Government a determined brownfield-first …
The key thing is that until the Government recognise that they need to put some support into brownfield regeneration, our green belt and our green spaces will always be under threat.
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
4 November 2025
2 contributions
Supporting High Streets
Does my hon. Friend agree that we have a Government who simply do not understand business? They seem to think that they can just squeeze and squeeze small businesses because they make unlimited profits. If they do that, there will be no businesses left on our high streets.
The hon. Lady talks a lot about footfall on high streets, and I think we all agree that more footfall benefits businesses. With that in mind, what consideration has she given to regenerating our towns and city centres by building on brownfield sites and setting proper housing targets in our city cen…
Commons
Oral Questions
4 November 2025
2 contributions
Employer National Insurance Contributions: Business Impact
6. What assessment she has made of the potential impact of the increase in employer national insurance contributions on businesses.
I am not convinced that that answer went anywhere near my question. Family businesses are the lifeblood of communities and constituencies such as mine. Last week, I met Family Business UK to discuss how the Government’s national insurance hike and restrictions to business property relief are forcing…