Commons
Westminster Hall
22 June 2026
Spinal Muscular Atrophy: Newborn Screening Test
Thank you very much, Mr Mundell. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship. I will seek to speak relatively briefly.
The hon. Member for Sunderland Central (Lewis Atkinson) set out the case behind this petition eloquently, reasonably and with passion. Every year in the UK, 48 babies are bor…
Commons
Proceedings
15 June 2026
Defence Investment Plan
I welcome the Minister’s response to my right hon. Friend the Member for Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge (Sir Gavin Williamson), the former Defence Secretary, and his reaffirmation of the Government’s commitment to all the recommendations in the strategic defence review. Given that reaffirmation, …
Commons
Westminster Hall
10 June 2026
Local Government Reform
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Murrison. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Harborough, Oadby and Wigston (Neil O’Brien) on his success in securing this important debate. He has set out how this is the answer to a question that no one asked. Whatever anyone thinks ab…
Commons
Debate
3 June 2026
Lord Mandelson: Response to Humble Address
In the context of disappearing messages, is my hon. Friend troubled by the fact that in March 2023, the Cabinet Office issued very clear guidance about the use of non-corporate communications channels by Ministers, special advisers and others? It said that disappearing messages should be used sparin…
Commons
Oral Questions
14 April 2026
NHS Waiting Lists
Among the things that can help reduce waiting lists and waiting times is increased use of existing community hospital facilities, such as Melton Mowbray hospital in my constituency. Will the Secretary of State join me in calling on the local ICB and University Hospitals of Leicester NHS trust to inv…
Commons
Debate
13 April 2026
SEND Provision and Reform
When I spoke in the Select Committee debate on this matter in the Chamber, I highlighted that too many parents feel that the system is done to them, rather than working with them. Does my hon. Friend share my concern and the concern of parents in my constituency that in order for trust to be rebuilt…
Commons
Proceedings
18 March 2026
Student Loans
The Minister is typically generous with her time and courteous in the number of interventions she accepts. May I gently take her back to lines 3 to 4 of the text of the Prime Minister’s amendment on student loans, which state that this House
“welcomes the Government’s commitment to make the system …
Commons
Ministerial Statement
17 March 2026
Meningitis Outbreak
I associate myself with the Secretary of State’s remarks: the thoughts of all of us in this House are with the families of those, tragically, who have died and all those who have been affected.
While there are understandably questions about vaccination and antibiotic eligibility, it is important th…
Commons
Westminster Hall
17 March 2026
Productivity and Economic Growth: East Midlands
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Huq. I am grateful to my constituency neighbour the hon. Member for Rushcliffe (James Naish) for securing this important debate, and I look forward to welcoming him to my constituency later this week. I agree with much of what he said, particular…
Commons
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister
25 February 2026
2 contributions
Engagements
Q1. If he will list his official engagements for Wednesday 25 February.
May I associate myself with the remarks of the Prime Minister in respect of Team GB and Ukraine?
A great former Prime Minister once said,
“You turn if you want to. The lady’s not for turning.”
Like the leader of my party today, she was a leader of principle and backbone, but we know this current …
Commons
Statutory Instrument
25 February 2026
Draft Surrey (Structural Changes) Order 2026
My hon. Friend rightly highlights the campaign of my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Spelthorne for the new council to be named West Surrey and South Middlesex. As I understand it, that name is also championed by—this shows my age—popular household name Russell Grant. Does my hon. Friend agre…
Commons
Committee Stage
5 February 2026
3 contributions
Railways Bill (Twelfth sitting)
I will not get into whether a peacock or a pheasant is a large or small bird—it takes me back to my days as a Health Minister, when we had a debate about whether a scotch egg is a substantial meal in the context of the regulations. However, my hon. Friend the Member for South West Devon made a very …
The Minister says that GBR will be able to design a bespoke performance regime, but does that not go to the heart of what my hon. Friend the Member for South West Devon highlighted, which is essentially that it will be designing a performance regime against which its own performance will be managed?…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Committee Stage
5 February 2026
Railways Bill (Eleventh sitting)
On a point of order, Mr Western. We have just dealt with a couple of amendments that the selection list described as tabled by the Opposition but were actually been tabled by the Liberal Democrats, which I suspect is where some of the confusion came from. Will it be possible during the lunch break f…
Commons
Oral Questions
Justice
3 February 2026
Topical Questions
In their manifesto at the last election, the Government promised to set up specialist rape courts in every Crown court location. Will the Minister update the House on how many have been set up to date?
Commons
Committee Stage
3 February 2026
2 contributions
Railways Bill (Tenth sitting)
As ever, Mrs Hobhouse, it is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship. I will speak primarily to amendment 63, as articulated, typically eloquently, by my hon. Friend the shadow Minister.
We have heard some extremely powerful interventions during the course of this Committee, particularly from t…
Does the Minister also recognise that the review has led to cuts of about 20 individual programmes? That was not done on the grounds of accessibility—although the letter I received from his colleague the noble Lord accepts that there is clearly a significant accessibility challenge in the case of st…
Commons
Committee Stage
3 February 2026
2 contributions
Railways Bill (Ninth sitting)
Can the Minister give a few examples of the exceptional circumstances that might cause the power to be used?
Is the hon. Member aware that, although not in a domestic context, there have in the past been schemes in which, instead of air miles, points or miles have been available—for example, with Eurostar—and they were extremely popular?
Commons
Committee Stage
29 January 2026
3 contributions
Railways Bill (Eighth sitting)
The Minister says the watchdog can request enforcement. Does it have the power to compel enforcement?
I will endeavour not to detain the Committee for long. In the Committee’s second sitting, when Mr Reeve and Mr McDonald gave evidence—as I think my hon. Friend the Member for Broadland and Fakenham alluded to—Mr McDonald stated:
“In the case of Wales, the heads of terms for the MOU were published i…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Committee Stage
29 January 2026
Railways Bill (Seventh sitting)
I will be brief, as I know that a number of hon. Members wish to speak.
I can see the intent behind amendment 134 in the name of the hon. Member for Didcot and Wantage, which would ensure that the strategy covers a 30-year period, and I think it is important that one looks to the future. Given our …
Commons
Westminster Hall
14 January 2026
Horse and Rider Road Safety
I congratulate both the hon. Member for Newbury (Mr Dillon) and the British Horse Society for their work on this hugely important issue. The demand to speak in the debate shows the importance of this issue to so many hon. Members and communities. It is especially important in rural constituencies su…
Commons
Westminster Hall
14 January 2026
UK-France Relations
It is right that we recognise, despite the ups and downs in the relationship between our two countries, that the interaction of their histories and cultures has made them what they are today. However, relationships take work, so will the hon. Gentleman—I do not think he will have to declare an inter…
Commons
Statutory Instrument
12 November 2025
Draft Victims and Prisoners Act 2024 (Permitted Disclosures) Regulations 2025
It is always a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Dowd. I am slowly beginning to get used to life on the Back Benches and to sitting on neither the Government Front Bench nor the Opposition Front Bench in Delegated Legislation Committees.
Following the Minister’s announcement earlier, I …
Commons
Debate
30 October 2025
3 contributions
GP Services: Melton and Syston
Thank you for calling me, Madam Deputy Speaker, and through you I thank Mr Speaker for granting this important Adjournment debate. I congratulate the Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, the hon. Member for Glasgow South West (Dr Ahmed), on his well-deserved promotion to ministerial …
The hon. Gentleman is right. Although I spent two and a half years as a Minister in the Department of Health and Social Care, I was never the Minister for Primary Care, but I am very much aware, as I suspect Members across the House are, that that is an additional pressure on time for general practi…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Debate
29 October 2025
2 contributions
Sentencing Bill
On new clause 1, will my right hon. Friend give way?
I am very grateful. As a former sentencing Minister, I can see no logical reason why the Government would oppose new clause 1—tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Leicestershire (Mr Bedford), my fellow Leicestershire MP—which simply asks for an assessment and recommendations to be made and fo…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
29 October 2025
UK-Türkiye Typhoon Export Deal
I welcome this announcement, and I congratulate the Minister and, indeed, the right hon. Member for Liverpool Garston (Maria Eagle) and their Conservative predecessors on the team effort in getting us to this point. Following this announcement, what next steps are the Government planning to take to …
Commons
Debate
13 October 2025
Baby Loss
I pay tribute to the hon. Members for Sherwood Forest (Michelle Welsh) and for Rossendale and Darwen (Andy MacNae) and to my right hon. Friend the Member for Godalming and Ash (Sir Jeremy Hunt) both for bringing this debate during Baby Loss Awareness Week and the incredibly thoughtful and moving con…