Commons
Petition
25 November 2025
Two-child benefit cap
I rise to present a petition on the two-child benefit cap. Tomorrow we all trust will be a turning point for children living in poverty, as the third child and subsequent children in a family have been denied vital support since 2017 unless proved to be conceived by rape. To lift 540,000 children ou…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
25 November 2025
COP30
Leadership at home, leadership globally, and now we need leadership on the fossil fuels road map. I am sure that my right hon. Friend will play a pivotal role in setting the terms of reference, the scope and the ambition of that. It is also important to build the industrial strategy to ensure that w…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
25 November 2025
G20 and Ukraine
It is feared that the brutality in El Fasher will only intensify and spread to Tawila and beyond if international action is not convened and focused on the resolutions that are needed, not least to stop the incursions with drones supplied via the United Arab Emirates and mercenaries. Will the Prime …
Commons
Westminster Hall
25 November 2025
2 contributions
Immigration Reforms: Humanitarian Visa Routes
It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Sir Edward. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Rushcliffe (James Naish) for securing today’s debate.
In a dangerous and dystopian world, our word must be our word. It must be honoured. Many have fled to our land for sanctuary, safety and security,…
Will the Minister set out what the English requirements and the earning requirements will be for someone with a learning difference? Clearly, those requirements will be significantly different from those for the wider community. How will they be assessed?
Commons
Westminster Hall
24 November 2025
3 contributions
Gaza: Humanitarian Obligations
It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair this afternoon, Ms McVey. I thank all the petitioners for their efforts, as well as my constituents who, as the hon. Member for Argyll, Bute and South Lochaber (Brendan O’Hara) also highlighted, have for decades been campaigning on this and standing with the …
I thank my hon. Friend. It is an obscenity that mothers cannot feed their infants and have only filthy, disease-ridden water to give to their children. Of course we have to use every lever we have to address that injustice—including sanctions on the Israeli Government. As we have already heard about…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
19 November 2025
Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
I am really grateful to the Minister. We know that, at the heart of this, we need to ensure that all clinicians have a basis of training, and that is certainly missing at the moment. We see misdiagnosis, and we see some provision, including fatigue clinics, providing the wrong interventions. Will sh…
Commons
Debate
18 November 2025
Warm Homes Plan
I am really grateful to the hon. Lady for raising this issue, because the two things are intrinsically linked. It is absolutely vital that we have a strategic plan that brings together the issues that cause fuel poverty, including poorly insulated homes. Does she agree that the Government need to ha…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
18 November 2025
Gaza and Sudan
I thank the Foreign Secretary for the focus she is putting on Sudan. We know from the horrific bloodshed in El Fasher that the RSF has got its sights, as we have heard, on Tawila and then on Khartoum itself. We have got to stop those atrocities from occurring. We know that the conflict is being fuel…
Commons
Westminster Hall
18 November 2025
UNESCO: 80th Anniversary
It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mr Dowd. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Derbyshire (Jonathan Davies) on securing the debate. The power of culture to maintain peace and promote diversity over the last 80 years demonstrates the opportunity to use soft power to transform the…
Commons
Debate
17 November 2025
Asylum Policy
I urge caution. We are in this predicament because the very people who championed Brexit failed to warn of the consequences of leaving the Dublin agreement. Since then, the EU has moved on and will introduce its asylum and migration management regulations next summer. Instead of creating insecurity,…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
13 November 2025
Business of the House
When the last Government allowed the sale of Royal Mail to billionaire Daniel Kretinsky’s company, they maintained a golden share, which I now ask Government to use. Services are less frequent, outsourced workers are handling parcels and postal workers feel devalued, with their traditional Christmas…
Commons
Westminster Hall
12 November 2025
3 contributions
Public Bodies: Governance and Accountability
I take a real interest in these matters, and my right hon. Friend is making a fantastic speech. I believe it is ultimately about unaccountable power, and we need to find ways to hold these institutions to account. I can give the example of Bootham Park hospital in my constituency. It closed 10 years…
I want to draw another two bodies to the Minister’s attention. Integrated care boards are completely unaccountable as they make clinical decisions about our constituents. They need to be evidence-based, but they are simply not working. Multi-academy trusts, too, are certainly not accountable—I have …
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Proceedings
5 November 2025
Conflict in Sudan
The Independent Commission for Aid Impact, in its evidence to the International Development Committee, made some insightful observations about the focus of the Government as the penholder. In what way is the Minister using the strength of the UK to bring parties together to stop the flow of arms, me…
Commons
Westminster Hall
5 November 2025
Council of Europe and the European Convention on Human Rights
It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mr Mundell. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Stourbridge (Cat Eccles) on her outstanding speech, and other colleagues too.
I represent the city of York, which is England’s only UN human rights city, and our University of York hosts the Centre fo…
Commons
Proceedings
4 November 2025
2 contributions
Sudan: Government Support
I am grateful to the hon. Member for securing this debate. When I read the transcript from the International Development Committee, I was struck by the contribution from Liz Ditchburn, who said that the Government’s approach to this was not sufficiently structured and that there needed to be focus a…
I am grateful to the Minister for what she has said, but can she tell me how the UK is approaching the UAE, especially in relation to the supply of arms and the use of mercenaries who are being deployed into Sudan?
Commons
Westminster Hall
4 November 2025
Official Development Assistance Reductions
It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Sir Desmond. I congratulate the hon. Member for West Dorset (Edward Morello) on securing the debate.
I refer hon. Members to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests: I have recently met Unite representatives who work for development …
Commons
Debate
3 November 2025
Care Leavers
My hon. Friend is making a fantastic speech. Tomorrow I will be hosting York’s director of children’s services here in Parliament to talk about York’s care journey, which has been phenomenal. It has enabled care leavers to co-produce services and to chair many committees. Does she agree that that is…
Commons
Debate
3 November 2025
Huntingdon Train Attack
With LNER headquartered in my constituency, I have written to David Horne, the managing director, to offer my support to him and pass on my best wishes to his crew. I put on record my thanks to the signallers, also based in my constituency, who made it possible to shift the train on to the other lin…
Commons
Westminster Hall
28 October 2025
Connected and Automated Vehicles
I am grateful to the hon. Member for looking into this subject. It is something we all have to learn a lot about. The University of York has the Institute for Safe Autonomy, which is really interested in how the Government will monitor the initial pilots of this scheme, and how lessons will be learn…
Commons
Oral Questions
Work and Pensions
27 October 2025
Topical Questions
Giving sick and disabled people agency and drawing on lived experience sets the only path to getting policy right, so that they can access work appointments and get out of their homes, avoiding worklessness, health decline and isolation, with their mobility support needs recognised through PIP. Furt…
Commons
Westminster Hall
27 October 2025
2 contributions
Statutory Maternity and Paternity Pay
It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mrs Hobhouse, and I congratulate the Petitions Committee and all the petitioners on bringing this issue forward for debate.
I will home in on the specific issue of self-employed adopters. There is real inequality built into the system, where self-employed a…
I am really grateful to my hon. Friend for his speech. Will he ensure that there is a matrix over the Government’s objective that measures inequality in family life and ensures that we close the inequality gap so that parents experiencing the greatest deprivation benefit the most from the policy?
Commons
Debate
22 October 2025
3 contributions
Mental Health and Hoarding
I am really grateful to my hon. Friend for securing tonight’s debate. I have met York’s Community Bees, who have developed strategies for supporting people in the community. They dearly need money, because they are not only addressing mental health needs but de-risking a situation. Hoarding risks in…
My hon. Friend is being incredibly generous with her time. Community Bees in York has helped 600 people over the past seven years. It has a lot of expertise, not just in how to sensitively support people in decluttering, but in upcycling; it makes a positive contribution by selling things on. It has…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
22 October 2025
Trade Union Workplace Access
I am grateful to my hon. Friend not only for his incredible work to advance employment rights, but for securing today’s debate; I refer to my entry in the register of interests, having spent many an hour on street corners trying to get information to workers about trade unions. Does my hon. Friend a…
Commons
Oral Questions
21 October 2025
NHS Reorganisation
Likewise, in York, children and adolescent mental health services are just not working for children, who are left on waiting lists often with no management or treatment. In order really to achieve reorganisation in our NHS, would our Government look at local authorities commissioning mental health s…
Commons
Westminster Hall
21 October 2025
Mandatory Digital ID
The public did not vote for this, and the country cannot afford it. When we look at the Government’s stated purpose, there is also no evidence behind it. If we are looking to scrutinise the grey economy, employers are ignoring the documentation whether it is digital or paper. Of course, we have to c…