Commons
Debate
5 January 2026
Middle East and North Africa
First, I welcome the Minister’s statement. I certainly agree with him on the strikes in Syria, and with the view that he has taken towards the Houthis in Yemen, who have murdered so many people over recent years. May I ask him about a separate aspect of the Iranian situation? We see extraordinarily …
Commons
Ministerial Statement
5 January 2026
Venezuela
Surely the real story coming out today and over the past few days is the revelation—one we should all have known—that this country has opted out of protecting the international rules-based system. We have not significantly invested in defence, and even the commitment the Foreign Secretary speaks of …
Commons
Proceedings
17 December 2025
Puberty Suppressants Trial
I welcome the care with which the right hon. Member has approached much of this, and I appreciate that he has before him some very difficult decisions, especially because of the way the report was written. But I must come back to the simple truth that these are very young children, and decisions wil…
Commons
Debate
15 December 2025
Employment Rights Bill
I am not at all surprised that the Minister is having a little bit of a problem with the other place—after all, she is not the first Minister to have been confused as to what was in a manifesto and what was not; the Prime Minister seems to have been confused about the assisted suicide Bill.
May I r…
Commons
Debate
15 December 2025
Jimmy Lai Conviction
Let me start by saying that I greatly welcome the Foreign Secretary’s words about the horrific antisemitic murders in Australia. To those who died, let us all just say, “May their memories be a blessing.”
When we talk about Hong Kong and when we talk about Jimmy Lai, we should remember that the att…
Commons
Debate
10 December 2025
4 contributions
Seasonal Work
As my hon. Friend will remember, it was wonderful to see the King and the President of the United States sit down at Windsor recently. What was particularly striking was that, on the British side, only the King had run a business—he ran the Duchy of Cornwall. Nobody else had run a business. On the A…
There is a fundamental misunderstanding between the Conservative Members and Labour Members. Labour Members seem to believe that the Government create jobs, wealth and everything, but we recognise that individuals get up in the morning to group together into what we call companies, and they come up …
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
9 December 2025
Costs for Commuters
I very much welcome the statement that the Chancellor has just made. Can I take that as an assurance that she will speak to her right hon. Friend the Transport Secretary and make sure that rail fares in Tonbridge do not increase when a second peak-time service is introduced when contactless is rolle…
Commons
Oral Questions
1 December 2025
Attainment in Schools
I welcome the ambition for greater attainment, but does the Minister agree that cancelling the large programme uplift funding for schools offering the international baccalaureate, as the Government have recently done, has left year 11 students, particularly at schools like Tonbridge grammar school, …
Commons
Debate
26 November 2025
8 contributions
Budget Resolutions
Did you get a job?
I am interested to hear the hon. Gentleman using the figure of £70 billion, and I agree with him. He knows that £30 billion of that results from the rise in the triple lock, so does he agree that the triple lock is simply not affordable?
+6 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
25 November 2025
Immigration Reforms: Humanitarian Visa Routes
I am grateful for the speech that the hon. Member is making. He has highlighted many of the reasons why I wrote about this issue for The Atlantic more than six years ago, and why my right hon. Friend the Member for Witham (Priti Patel), as the then Home Secretary, was able to change the law at the t…
Commons
Proceedings
20 November 2025
Ukraine: Forcible Removal of Children
I welcome the courage of the American people over many decades in standing up for our liberties and defending our freedoms, and I draw attention to the fact that this wonderful act of generosity has supported a US economy that has grown more powerfully, more capably and in more directions than any o…
Commons
Proceedings
20 November 2025
Russian Ship Yantar
I welcome many of the Minister’s comments. I would add my enormous thanks to the intelligence personnel who assisted not only in zeroing in on the ship but in understanding its capabilities a long time before anybody else arrived on the scene.
As a fellow former military assistant in the MOD, may I…
Commons
Oral Questions
20 November 2025
Topical Questions
The Secretary of State will know that there is no mandate for TfL beyond the bounds of London—little enough within it. Does she agree that it has absolutely no mandate to increase the price on rail fares to Tonbridge by extending the peak hours system in London to areas where there is now talk of pu…
Commons
Debate
18 November 2025
2 contributions
Northern Ireland Troubles Bill
Does the hon. Member have any views on the South African truth and reconciliation commission that did exactly that?
I welcome the speech that the hon. Member for Foyle (Colum Eastwood) has just given, and the reason I welcome it is that he recognised correctly, fully and truthfully that almost all those who were victims in those terrible years of the troubles were UK citizens. They deserve the same recognition, r…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
18 November 2025
China Espionage: Government Security Response
I shall begin, if I may, by saying to the Minister: you’re welcome. It is a pleasure to hear his statement today and to hear the areas where he is taking things forward. I particularly welcome the update on connected devices. There are a few other areas where connected devices are very real. My hon.…
Commons
Oral Questions
Solicitor General
13 November 2025
Support for Victims of Crime
Given that over recent months we have discovered that the whole country has been a victim of crime from foreign espionage, state aggression and any number of different forms of hostile activity, will the Attorney General be kind enough to give a statement explaining how he is actually representing o…
Commons
Debate
4 November 2025
8 contributions
Supporting High Streets
I was somewhat entertained by the lines about Labour being the new Trojans, which I suppose makes us the Greeks. It might be worth remembering that the Greeks won the war, and that the current Greek Government are generating employment while this Government are cutting it.
While we are telling stor…
This explains why I was never welcome in the Navy.
You will know, Madam Deputy Speaker, that there are many other high streets, such as those in Romsey and Southampton, that are doing well despite this Government’s policies. However, we are seeing a series of changes that are costing us all, and I …
+6 more contributions in this session
Commons
Proceedings
23 October 2025
Alleged Spying Case: Role of Attorney General’s Office
May I just start by saying that nobody in this House is disputing the independence of the prosecution or indeed the judicial officers? Nobody has had any dispute on that point at all. The question is a different one. It is whether an official who is giving evidence not on his behalf, but on behalf o…
Commons
Proceedings
16 October 2025
5 contributions
Official Secrets Act Case: Witness Statements
Stop playing politics! This is about national security, you petty little man!
May I apologise for earlier outbursts, Mr Speaker? [ Interruption. ]
+3 more contributions in this session
Commons
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister
15 October 2025
2 contributions
Engagements
rose —
The lines that we have heard from the Government in recent days have been a conflation of fabricated stories trying to set up straw men and knock down things that have not been said. The real question in this whole debate is whether or not the Director of Public Prosecutions charged legally and prop…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
13 October 2025
Security Update: Official Secrets Act Case
The Minister and I have been friends for many years, so it gives me no pleasure to say this. The statement that he read out today, no doubt under instruction, has thrown out more chaff and set up more straw men than a Russian disinformation campaign. It is pure fabrication to claim that those are th…
Commons
Debate
9 September 2025
6 contributions
Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill
The Minister will be aware that the payment from the 1960s, referred to by the hon. Member for Boston and Skegness (Richard Tice), was also supposed to be spent on Chagossian welfare, but many Chagossian groups have raised the fact that that money did not go on Chagossian welfare. It went on many ot…
I wonder whether my right hon. Friend can help me in giving a prediction. Two families have swapped leadership of Mauritius over the last 60 years. Does he see any reason to doubt that the same two families will swap leadership over the next 60?
+4 more contributions in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
24 June 2025
China Audit
I enjoyed playing buzzword bingo when the right hon. Member presented his statement. I remind him that the rebellion on Huawei was actually led by Conservative Members, not Labour.
May I question the right hon. Gentleman about a meeting, which he referred to with a little more pride than I would ha…
Commons
Proceedings
24 June 2025
National Security Strategy
I welcome today’s national security strategy, which bears a remarkable resemblance to every single one I have seen over the past 15 years. There have been only very slight adjustments over that period; I wonder whether there is any connection between the authors, or whether it is just that the offic…
Commons
Debate
20 June 2025
3 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
Many points have been made already today, so I will not cover them all. Briefly, I associate myself with the words of the right hon. Member for Belfast East (Gavin Robinson), whose powerful speech summarised the points that many of us wish to make, and those of the hon. Member for Vauxhall and Cambe…
I will not.
Those are the words that will give powers to Ministers and to the Secretary of State to exercise his or her discretion with the most cursory of oversight from this place.
Let us be absolutely clear on what we are choosing to do. Let us be absolutely clear that it is on us—it is our res…
+1 more contribution in this session