Commons
Oral Questions
5 March 2026
Topical Questions
The York Central 45-hectare development site will be the most powerful outside London. The Government have twice announced that they will have a government hub there. However, the Government Property Agency has not signed that off. The development is going to planning in May. Can the Minister give m…
Commons
Westminster Hall
3 March 2026
Environmental Protection and Biodiversity
The power of the speech by my hon. Friend the Member for North East Hertfordshire (Chris Hinchliff) must resonate around Whitehall and warn the City, developers and all who seek to profit from our natural habitats.
Today, I want to talk about York. York is described as a humane city and the Strays …
Commons
Oral Questions
Education
2 March 2026
Topical Questions
I welcome the Education Secretary’s commitment to inclusion, but many children in York are not in school because of the disciplinary processes run by multi-academy trusts and the culture that ensues. What will she do to ensure that leaders in such trusts are held to account for that?
Commons
Westminster Hall
25 February 2026
Student Loan Repayment Plans
I have spoken to the students’ unions at York St John University and the University of York, as well as many graduates, who have told me that a student loan does not even cover the cost of living in our city because housing is so expensive—not only does it put people in debt for the future, but it d…
Commons
Debate
24 February 2026
3 contributions
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor
Unaccountable power must not hide, privilege must not be protected, money must be accounted for and elite networks of men operating here and overseas must meet their reckoning for dehumanising, subjugating, exploiting and sexually assaulting women—women who must have justice. The web of abuse surrou…
I do agree with the hon. Gentleman, because I know that journalists have been up through the night poring over the Epstein files and digging deep to hold power to account. Our media have a vital role in this, and long may it continue. Their scrutiny is also important for this place and the work that…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
24 February 2026
3 contributions
Gaza Healthcare System
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for securing the debate and for the pertinent points he is making. Does he agree that the Minister should work with the Health Secretary to ensure that clinicians of all kinds can get the release they need to spend the appropriate amount of time in the region to provi…
It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Sir Jeremy. Clinicians have been targeted by arrests, torture and bullets, and 1,700 have been killed. Hospitals, clinics and ambulances have been destroyed by bombs and drones. Medical aid, equipment and pharmaceuticals have been blocked at the border. Pati…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
24 February 2026
2 contributions
Foster Care: Recruitment and Retention
Feedback from foster carers in York has highlighted the differential in the sums of money they receive for Staying Put and for foster caring, which makes it really difficult for them to decide whether to maintain that home—that safe place—for a child or to push the child out of the home. Does the ho…
Could the Minister say a little more about how foster carers from within families will be handled in this process? That is really important. Also, how will the reunification process work, so that we can reunite a child with their birth family?
Commons
Westminster Hall
24 February 2026
EU Membership Referendum: Impact on the UK
Our duty in this place is to build bridges, not walls, and yet, since the Brexit vote, we have seen our country pull itself apart day by day because the disruptors who caused the Brexit vote have continued to disrupt our communities. Why is that? They have made our country poorer, they have regresse…
Commons
Debate
23 February 2026
3 contributions
Universal Credit (Removal of Two Child Limit) Bill
Before the House are four new clauses to the legislation. They set out a pathway through which we can generate data, particularly around the welfare cap, which we know holds back 141,000 children. In the assessments that the Government make, will the Minister draw out particularly the impact of the …
There could be no greater cause for a Government than to lift children out of poverty, which is why I very much welcome the removal of the two-child limit. However, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has reported that 141,000 children will not see the full benefit of the change and 50,000 children—the p…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Debate
23 February 2026
Lord Mandelson: Government Response to Humble Address
Palantir is a client of Global Counsel, which was Peter Mandelson’s PR agency, and clearly Palantir has benefited from lucrative contracts from the Government. Will the Minister ensure that all papers associated with Palantir are published as part of this inquiry?
Commons
Oral Questions
23 February 2026
Labour Together and APCO Worldwide: Cabinet Office Review
We expect integrity from our journalists and we expect integrity from our Ministers. In the light of the fact that 109 MPs received funding from Labour Together, can the Minister say what involvement the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards has had, and what advice was given to those 109 MPs reg…
Commons
Oral Questions
Housing, Communities and Local Government
23 February 2026
2 contributions
New Social and Affordable Housing
14. What steps he is taking to help increase the proportion of social and affordable housing in new developments.
York Central will create 12,500 new jobs and 3,000 new homes in phase 1, which will be before the planning committee in May. Just 20% is allocated to affordable housing, but there must be an ambition for 40% because York has one of the worst housing affordability disparities in the country. We must …
Commons
Oral Questions
10 February 2026
Ministry of Defence: Palantir Contracts
There is a pattern with Palantir: its £1 covid contract with the NHS expanded to a £330 million contract under the last Government, and its Ministry of Defence contract tripled in size to £240 million, without due process or competition. As we have seen, the links with Global Counsel are now on the …
Commons
Westminster Hall
10 February 2026
Independent Water Commission: Final Report
It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Sir Jeremy. I congratulate the hon. Member for West Dorset (Edward Morello) on securing the debate. We inherited the most dysfunctional water system imaginable. The governance was not there and there was no accountability in the system. Labour came in to put…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
5 February 2026
National Cancer Plan
I, too, thank the Government for bringing forward this cancer plan. I visited York Against Cancer’s Leveson centre last Friday, and I really welcome the holistic care it gives to cancer patients. I want to highlight prevention. We know that four in 10 cancers are preventable, and the right intervent…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
5 February 2026
Sudan
Let me say to the Foreign Secretary that that was the most powerful statement this House has heard on Sudan over the 1,000 days of the conflict. I thank her for all her work in this area, but we know that this war is being fuelled by external actors with an interest in their own profligacy in Sudan.…
Commons
Oral Questions
Justice
3 February 2026
Topical Questions
The Government were making great strides on imprisonment for public protection sentences, yet after my constituent, who was held for nearly two decades, had a minor infringement—he missed an appointment—he ended up back inside. That cannot be right. We need to ensure that people get proper support o…
Commons
Westminster Hall
3 February 2026
2 contributions
Taxation: Small and Medium-sized Enterprises
I am grateful to the hon. Member for securing this debate. I held a business rates summit in my constituency last week, and what came across is that in York we are seeing an average increase in business rates of 35% compared with the national average of 19.4%, so there is a geographical element to t…
It might not have filtered through, but I have written to the Chancellor on behalf of many Labour MPs regarding concerns about small businesses and the fact that many of them will not receive the vital support that they need. They are very fearful of what is going to happen in just eight weeks’ time…
Commons
Westminster Hall
3 February 2026
2 contributions
Town and City Centre Safety
Thank you for your chairmanship, Mr Dowd. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Derby South (Baggy Shanker) for securing the debate. York may have a purple flag, but the feeling of security is certainly not spread across my community. There are particular areas of crime where we have great concerns,…
I thank my hon. Friend for all the work she is doing in Darlington. Clearly, PSPOs can be used in a really powerful way to create safer spaces in our town and city centres.
I called two meetings in York, one for the night-time economy in the city and one for the daytime economy, because they operat…
Commons
Westminster Hall
2 February 2026
Indefinite Leave to Remain
It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Ms Lewell. My word is my bond, and when we break our word we break our bond—not just with those people who have trusted our country, given up their lives and come to serve us, but across society as a whole. It is a particular challenge at this time, so we ha…
Commons
Debate
28 January 2026
Education Funding: Distribution
I am grateful to the hon. Member for securing this important debate. Sadly, York falls below Cambridgeshire and Gloucestershire in the tables, and ours is the lowest-funded authority under the new fair funding formula, although we have high levels of deprivation. Does the hon. Member agree that when…
Commons
Westminster Hall
28 January 2026
Local Authority Children’s Services
Thank you for chairing the debate, Mr Western. I pay tribute to the hon. Member for Woking (Mr Forster) for representing his constituents so well in this debate, and in particular, given the horror story that he shared, I express my condolences to Sara’s family.
Colleagues may have heard York’s sto…
Commons
Oral Questions
Work and Pensions
26 January 2026
PIP: Number of Claimants
When the data is segmented, there is a strong correlation between NHS waiting lists and the number of claimants of personal independence payments, so what steps is the Minister taking to ensure that those people who are unable to work because they are on an NHS waiting list are having their health o…
Commons
Westminster Hall
26 January 2026
4 contributions
Key Stage 1 Curriculum
It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mrs Barker. I congratulate the Petitions Committee on focusing on such an important debate, the 216 of my constituents who made the case through the petition, and the teachers and support staff who have very much brought this to my attention. I raise for the…
I completely agree with the hon. Member. She made the point so powerfully, not least because of her own experience.
It is really important that we embed play as a fundamental principle in the curriculum. For far too long, play has been seen as a process of reward or enrichment, not as a fundamental…
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
21 January 2026
Warm Homes Plan
There are 44,000 homes in York that are energy-insecure, so we really welcome today’s announcement. However, scaling the skills is really important. How is the Secretary of State working with the Education Secretary to ensure that further education has the resources it needs to scale the workforce f…