Commons
Proceedings
17 December 2025
Northern Ireland Troubles: Legacy and Reconciliation
The Secretary of State is perfectly entitled to pursue a policy desire of removing immunity. Indeed, he knows that my colleagues and I support that position and we found it quite difficult that yet another Government were prepared to offer a different variation of immunity for the perpetrators of te…
Commons
Oral Questions
17 December 2025
Modern Industrial Strategy
The Secretary of State will know that in my constituency we have an advanced manufacturing cluster and proudly boast over 5,000 high-skilled jobs in defence, maritime and aerospace. She will understand that last week Boeing concluded its deal to become the successor owner of Short Brothers. Will she…
Commons
Proceedings
9 December 2025
2 contributions
Northern Ireland Troubles: Operation Kenova
(Urgent Question): To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make a statement on the latest publication from Operation Kenova and the Government’s response to its findings.
I am grateful to you, Mr Speaker, for granting this urgent question. I thank the Secretary of State for his response, and for being in the Chamber this afternoon to discuss Operation Kenova. I know that since he was appointed, he has spent an inordinate amount of time on legacy, and I know he is com…
Commons
Westminster Hall
3 December 2025
2 contributions
Veterinary Medicines: Northern Ireland
I congratulate the hon. Member on securing the debate. He is right to invoke the issue of human health, because it was the European Union that went as far as to invoke article 16 to frustrate the supply of covid vaccines in Northern Ireland, before it realised that doing so was politically inappropr…
I am grateful to the Minister for taking the intervention. Does she accept that the fundamental flaw in the Government’s approach is to accept the premise that the European Union controls what access there should be from one part of our United Kingdom to another and that we are accepting that there …
Commons
Proceedings
1 December 2025
3 contributions
Budget Resolutions
It is a pleasure to participate in this Budget debate. I am reminded that in 2005, whenever Tony Blair was seeking re-election for an historic third term as Prime Minister, he celebrated the fact that this country had enjoyed 40 quartiles of economic growth. If anyone cares to think about that, they…
As my hon. Friend knows, we have campaigned on the removal of the two-child limit. We did not agree with the limit; we do not think it is right, and we think it is immoral for families to be placed in that position. We opposed it when it was introduced, and we oppose it today.
When considering the …
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
26 November 2025
1994 RAF Chinook Crash
I congratulate my friend the hon. Member for North Down (Alex Easton) on securing this important debate. It follows a series of interventions, most recently from my hon. Friend the Member for Upper Bann (Carla Lockhart) with the Prime Minister. Given the Hillsborough disaster and the change in the l…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
25 November 2025
G20 and Ukraine
Over the past 18 months, the Prime Minister has shown himself to be influential and purposeful at significant times in this crisis, so I thank him for that. While events may be superseding the statement this afternoon, there are some principles that should not change. Aggression must not be rewarded…
Commons
Oral Questions
Northern Ireland
19 November 2025
2 contributions
Community Groups: Northern Ireland and Great Britain
The Minister will be enjoying his opportunity to travel across Northern Ireland and see some of the wonderful groups we have. He knows the strength of this United Kingdom, and he knows that increasing the bonds across Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England is crucial. He should know that the …
In drawing upon the bonds of our country, the Minister will know while Northern Ireland has a greater than average growth rate compared with the rest of the United Kingdom, we still have a productivity gap. Behind that is the fact that our growth is masked by an over-reliance on our public sector. T…
Commons
Debate
18 November 2025
2 contributions
Northern Ireland Troubles Bill
I think it is appropriate that the Secretary of State opened his speech in the way that he did, but he should recognise that when he gave dates for when the troubles started and concluded, he finished on 10 April 1998. He knows well that that means he did not include the largest atrocity of the trou…
It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Belfast South and Mid Down (Claire Hanna). We do work with each other on these issues, although we do not always agree.
It is fair to say that our history is sorrowful. It is pitiful and painful, and grounded on a corruption of justice. While we listen…
Commons
Debate
11 November 2025
BBC Leadership
To interrogate honourably, the BBC needs to have a level of integrity, yet it has diminished itself in ignoring a report for six months that looked not just at one “Panorama” programme but at a litany of failures. The BBC piously shows religious observance to the principles of integrity and impartia…
Commons
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister
29 October 2025
Engagements
The Prime Minister has a deep understanding of policing in Northern Ireland and its importance. He knows about the ongoing national security threat and about the additional costs of dealing with the legacy of our past. He knows that the Police Service of Northern Ireland has been underfunded, and th…
Commons
Westminster Hall
28 October 2025
2 contributions
Family Farming in Northern Ireland
rose—
I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this debate. It is quite right that she took the last two interventions because she was talking about cross-party support for Northern Ireland farms. She is blessed to have a constituency with some of the most fertile and therefore valuable agricultural land…
Commons
Oral Questions
Northern Ireland
15 October 2025
2 contributions
Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023
Yesterday, in an atypical fit of pique, the Secretary of State failed to answer my question as to whether the Attorney General, Lord Hermer, had been excluded from the legislation or had personally recused himself. So today I have an easier question. Given that the Secretary of State yesterday highl…
Labour Members may cheer, but not one of those clauses refers to veterans. Those are not protections for veterans; they are protections for everyone—paragraph 20 of the explanatory notes shows that what I am saying is true—and many of them are already available in the criminal justice system. It is …
Commons
Ministerial Statement
14 October 2025
Northern Ireland Troubles
First, I welcome the Minister to his place and to the Department, and I welcome the new shadow spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats. I personally thank the hon. Member for Putney (Fleur Anderson) for the role she played in her time in the Northern Ireland Office.
That the announcement with the Ir…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
14 October 2025
Speaker’s Statement
Further to that point of order, Mr Speaker. I think it is appropriate that on behalf of the Democratic Unionist party, and indeed on behalf of all Northern Ireland parliamentarians, I extend our condolences to the Liberal Democrats and to the colleagues who knew Mr Campbell better than I did. I firs…
Commons
Debate
13 October 2025
Digital ID
Through the Secretary of State, may I thank the Minister for Digital Government and Data, who is sitting to her left? He was in Belfast last week and engaged with the Minister for Communities in the Northern Ireland Executive. He will know, and she should know, that our principled and practical obje…
Commons
Proceedings
10 September 2025
Russian Drones: Violation of Polish Airspace
In November 2022, the hon. Members for Widnes and Halewood (Derek Twigg) and for Angus and Perthshire Glens (Dave Doogan) and I were in Ukraine with the Defence Committee when there was an onslaught of rockets fired into that country, one of which errantly fell into Poland and killed two Polish nati…
Commons
Oral Questions
Science, Innovation and Technology
10 September 2025
Technology Companies: Accountability
Over the last 10 days in my constituency, there have been five of the most appalling and violent acts by self-styled vigilante groups. In each case, they livestream on Facebook Live and TikTok LIVE. Those videos disappear, and the creators remain anonymous. There will be a criminal justice response,…
Commons
Debate
14 July 2025
Privilege
I have had the privilege of sharing time on the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee with the hon. Gentleman and the hon. Member for Gower (Tonia Antoniazzi), in the names of whom this motion has been laid. It is crucial that the Omagh inquiry gets the information it requires, and we have raised conce…
Commons
Westminster Hall
14 July 2025
Northern Ireland Veterans: Prosecution
Thank you for your chairmanship, Mr Mundell, and for the opportunity to speak in this important debate. I give thanks to the armed forces of our country: those who came and served with us in Northern Ireland—people from Culloden coming to Coleraine, from Folkestone to Fermanagh, from Birmingham to B…
Commons
Oral Questions
Northern Ireland
2 July 2025
2 contributions
Spending Review: Northern Ireland Executive
I commend the Secretary of State for at least answering a question yesterday. Despite it being a day when the Labour Government were prepared to take money out of the pockets of the most vulnerable, they at least had the courage to stand forward and say that Gerry Adams would get none, so I thank th…
The Secretary of State knows that the blue book has a flat line for the next five years. Talking of economic growth, let me say he also knows that there is a commitment to an enhanced investment zone in Northern Ireland. When does he believe the businesses of Northern Ireland will benefit from that?
Commons
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister
25 June 2025
Engagements
My colleagues and I identify with the comments around de-escalation in the middle east.
I hope that the Deputy Prime Minister will condemn recent disorder on the streets of Northern Ireland, as the Prime Minister and my colleagues have done. Does she accept that the Windsor framework, although sold…
Commons
Debate
20 June 2025
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Sittingbourne and Sheppey (Kevin McKenna), though I will reach a slightly different conclusion from him. Although she is not in the Chamber, may I remark on the principled stand taken by the hon. Member for Lewisham North (Vicky Foxcroft), not only toda…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
11 June 2025
Spending Review 2025
I thank the Chancellor for engaging productively in the discussions about sustainable budgets for Northern Ireland, for the willingness to negotiate further and for the recognition that our need levels should be met. I thank her for that engagement and for the allocations to Northern Ireland for spe…
Commons
Debate
2 June 2025
Strategic Defence Review
The Secretary of State will know that the Democratic Unionist party, and the people we are privileged to represent from Northern Ireland, are hugely supportive of our armed forces. He should know that as a region, we disproportionately provide more personnel than any other part of our country to tho…