Commons
Westminster Hall
21 October 2025
Ending Homelessness
It was Rowntree’s work on poverty in York that gave rise to the 1919 Housing Act, which addressed homelessness. It is in this rich tradition of social reform in York, and in order to reduce poverty and inequality, that executive member, Councillor Michael Pavlovic, with his vast experience, dedicati…
Commons
Proceedings
16 October 2025
Business of the House
York is a kind and welcoming city. Following the recent wave of intimidation, racism and violence perpetrated by a few which has rocked our city, I have launched the York Unity campaign with the hashtag, #ourthreewords, to ask people across York to provide three values that define our city. Mine are…
Commons
Oral Questions
16 October 2025
2 contributions
Creative Copyright
2. What steps she is taking to help protect creative copyright, in the context of further advances in AI.
Daisy May Johnson is an exceptionally talented author of children’s books in York, but her work has been scraped and reproduced by generative artificial intelligence. She has not given permission and has not received a penny, but she has lost thousands of pounds. The same can be said about artists, …
Commons
Westminster Hall
15 October 2025
3 contributions
Educational Assessment System Reform
It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Ms Lewell. I congratulate the hon. Member for Hertford and Stortford (Josh Dean) on securing today’s debate.
The assessment system is so broken that it is breaking our young people. It shows that those who can pass exams do well and those who cannot …
I am grateful for what the hon. Member is saying. As well as widening inequality through the current assessment system, which we know occurs, does he not agree that it also stifles social mobility, holding many young people back from the opportunities they could have?
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
14 October 2025
Middle East
I thank the Prime Minister for his statement today and also for this peace—may it be long lasting. Over 1,700 health workers have lost their lives in Gaza, and many more have been physically and psychologically traumatised by the conflict. There are not the health workers now to provide the healthca…
Commons
Westminster Hall
14 October 2025
2 contributions
Postural Tachycardia Syndrome
I am really grateful for this debate. Dr Gupta is a leading specialist in PoTS but, although he knows the physiological changes that take place and he knows how to treat it, he has been stopped in his practice because we do not have the clinical guidelines in place. The Government must now ensure th…
There are very few PoTS specialists across the country. Will the Minister meet those specialists to hear why they are facing barriers, and work with them to ensure that they can practise the medicine they know works?
Commons
Ministerial Statement
13 October 2025
Glasgow Safer Drug Consumption Facility
I thank the Select Committee for its report. I have been following the international evidence on taking a public health approach. Could my hon. Friend set out how the centre is developing a harm reduction model and how it will evaluate that? I am thinking particularly of engagement with clinicians. …
Commons
Debate
13 October 2025
Digital ID
Identifying rogue employers who exploit labour and dodge taxes is one thing. However, it makes no difference whether someone holds digital ID over paper ID if the employer refuses to acknowledge the ID. Could the Secretary of State point to the evidence, which I am very interested to see, of how a d…
Commons
Oral Questions
13 October 2025
Topical Questions
In my kind and inclusive city of York, those who are putting up flags and expressing support for them have been emboldened to perpetrate racism and intimidate communities. They have beaten people up and hung a death threat on our city wall. What further support can the Government give my local autho…
Commons
Westminster Hall
13 October 2025
3 contributions
Bovine Tuberculosis Control and Badger Culling
It is a pleasure to serve under you in the Chair, Mr Stuart. I congratulate the 102,000-plus petitioners on signing the petition, including the 185 from my constituency, and I join them in opposing the badger cull. I am so glad that it is this Labour Government that are looking at the evidence and t…
I am grateful for the hon. Member’s intervention, but it is important to understand the scale of the deposits from cows wading in their faeces compared with those from badgers, which have a far more fastidious hygiene regime. The risk of infection from badgers is very much reduced. If we were not pu…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
16 September 2025
5 contributions
Employment Rights: Impact on Businesses
As ever, it is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Dr Murrison, and I am pleased to follow the hon. Member for Spelthorne (Lincoln Jopp).
Next year will mark 125 years since Seebohm Rowntree’s report into poverty. It was that report that sparked Seebohm and Joseph Rowntree to use their family busin…
I was not, because I walk or cycle through London, which I recommend to everybody. Those strikes did not have an impact on me at all.
Good industrial relations are important for business, because when employers are in touch with their workers, business can boom. Ultimately, the people with the most…
+3 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
15 September 2025
Provision of Council Housing
I am really grateful to my hon. Friend for securing today’s debate. Bevan also said that only municipal authorities could build the housing for our communities, and it was in my constituency that council housing originated, thanks to that great Committee with Wedgwood Benn and Joseph Rowntree. Does …
Commons
Westminster Hall
15 September 2025
4 contributions
Children with SEND: Assessments and Support
It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Dr Huq. I congratulate the petitioners on bringing forward this very important issue. I also want to thank the families in York I have consulted throughout the summer and over the 10 years I have been in this place; I have written a report to give to the Min…
I absolutely do, and I congratulate the hon. Member on all the work that she has done in this area. We certainly know, for instance, that emotionally based school avoidance often happens because the culture is wrong in the classroom. We need the right culture not only in the school, but in the commu…
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
10 September 2025
Stockton and Darlington Railway: 200th Anniversary Festival
It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Stringer. I thank the hon. Member for Newton Aycliffe and Spennymoor (Alan Strickland) for introducing the debate so well, and for bringing alive the past 200 years of the railway.
Since steam filled the air on 27 September 1825, as the first pass…
Commons
Westminster Hall
10 September 2025
Occupied Palestinian Territories: Humanitarian Access
It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Stringer. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy (Melanie Ward) not only for all her work in the region, but for bringing this debate forward.
We have met those who have suffered and lost, and who have risked everything to…
Commons
Proceedings
8 September 2025
Palestine Action: Proscription and Protests
I absolutely condemn any action or violence taken against the public or, indeed, the police. However, I wrote to the former Home Secretary twice on this matter, because many legislators here have yet to see evidence that satisfies us about the proportionality of the proscription of Palestine Action …
Commons
Ministerial Statement
4 September 2025
Early Education and Childcare
This September, Poppleton Road primary school will be opening its nursery for the little people of York, lifting families out of poverty and giving them the best start. Will the Minister say how he will evaluate this programme? It is really important that we are able to prove the case that the inves…
Commons
Proceedings
4 September 2025
Business of the House
Many parameters of the fair funding review will address social injustices in our communities, but places like York will lose out significantly. It is already the lowest-funded unitary authority in the country, the Lib Dem council previously spent all the reserves and we cannot afford to make further…
Commons
Oral Questions
4 September 2025
Climate Change: Food Security
The depletion of soil health, the risk of disease and climate change threaten our food security for the longer term, and yet we need biotechnologies and sciences to ensure that we have a future in farming. Would the Minister be willing to meet the BioYorkshire project, which brings together Fera Sci…
Commons
Westminster Hall
4 September 2025
3 contributions
Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund
It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Ms Lewell. I congratulate the hon. Member for Mid Sussex (Alison Bennett).
Imagine for a moment that you are a child. You endured abuse, neglect or violence, or your parents were unwell or fought or could not cope. You were then taken into care and had to l…
Will the Minister give way?
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
3 September 2025
3 contributions
Pavement Parking
Thank you for chairing the debate, Mrs Hobhouse. I also thank the hon. Member for Epsom and Ewell (Helen Maguire) for securing it.
Having campaigned to reclaim our streets for pedestrians for many years, I have cleared the A-boards and the clutter, but I cannot shift the cars. That is why I welcome…
I am slightly baffled; I have been campaigning on this issue throughout my 10 years in this place, and the hon. Member’s Government were in power for almost the entirety of that time. Can he explain why the Tory Government did not make any improvements to pavement parking? Why is he pointing the fin…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
1 September 2025
Borders and Asylum
The stigmatising and dehumanising of asylum seekers has stirred up race hate in our communities, thankfully by only a small number, and I have been really disturbed to see that racism perpetrated on the streets of York. However, I am even more disturbed to hear that there are planned assaults on asy…
Commons
Oral Questions
1 September 2025
PIP Application Process
Over the summer, I have been doing a deep dive into children with special educational needs and disabilities, not least the transition points between education and work. As part of the Timms review—the Minister’s own review—will he ensure that that interface is looked at, so that there is a smooth t…
Commons
Petition
22 July 2025
UK Government Relations with Israel
I rise to present a petition concerning the UK Government’s relations with Israel. It is joined by 354 signatures from a parallel petition collected by campaigners for Palestine in York, who have had a presence in our city for the last 30 years, but never at a time when the scale of violations and b…
Commons
Westminster Hall
22 July 2025
Humanitarian Situation in Sudan
It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Dr Huq. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Huddersfield (Harpreet Uppal) on securing this debate.
This war is both violent and catastrophic, entrenched in bitterness and brutality. It is backed by external actors feeding the atrocities enac…