Commons
Ministerial Statement
16 April 2026
British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme
Let us start with the positives. I am glad that there is now some form of recognition that there is an industrial energy crisis, and that the Secretary of State has brought forward something that helps some sectors.
The bad news for the sector that I and many colleagues in the Chamber represent is …
Commons
Oral Questions
16 April 2026
Business of the House
On 28 April, it will be Staffordshire Day across the Houses of Parliament. There will be a marketplace in the Jubilee Room from 12 pm till 2 pm, and there will be Staffordshire oatcakes in the Tea Room for breakfast. Could I, through a question to the Leader of the House, invite the whole House to c…
Commons
Debate
13 April 2026
Southport Inquiry
As the Home Secretary will be aware, there are 28 Prevent priority areas across the country—there used to be 40, and Stoke-on-Trent was one of them until 2023, when the last Government changed the criteria. She will also know that for an area to become a Prevent priority area, the local authority no…
Commons
Proceedings
24 March 2026
7 contributions
Oil and Gas
I accept the Minister’s point about having more home-grown energy, and renewables can be good for insulating ourselves from economic shocks, but he will know that great swathes of our industrial base are gas dependent, not least the ceramics industry. What message does he send to them? The current p…
I will start with the things that we all agree on. I think that across the House, we all acknowledge that the international energy prices we face in this country are too high. As the Minister is on record as saying, there is a rollercoaster effect when it comes to the price of gas. Today, it is 149p…
+5 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
18 March 2026
Fuel Duty
The Minister rightly talks about household budgets, but the other impact, particularly of the gas price, is industrial energy costs in this country, not least for the ceramics sector, which is gas-dependent rather than electric-dependent. When the Chancellor was asked about gas prices in her stateme…
Commons
Westminster Hall
18 March 2026
Social Enterprises and Community Ownership
The Minister is rightly talking about people who want to set up co-operatives. I wonder whether he might talk to his colleagues in the Department for Education about the role that co-operative education should play in the curriculum through history, business studies, and personal, social, health and…
Commons
Debate
11 March 2026
3 contributions
Finance (No. 2) Bill
I will speak to the two new clauses that stand solely in my name, which relate to the impact of the changes to the remote gaming and remote betting duties. I do not intend to relitigate the rights and wrongs of those changes; we have had a number of debates on that subject in this Chamber and in Wes…
That is an incredibly fair question. The Treasury has been unable to give me an answer, but I hope that the Minister will be able to when he sums up the debate. Regardless of one’s views on gambling, we must ensure that the implementation of new levies does not drive people into the black market, be…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
11 March 2026
Royal Mail: Universal Service Obligation
Given that the Government used the National Security and Investment Act 2021 to extract a golden share, because they considered Royal Mail to be national critical infrastructure, I find it slightly odd that, having recognised its importance, we think there is nothing that we can do. Will the Ministe…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
9 March 2026
Social Cohesion Action Plan
I welcome the community cohesion strategy, which the Labour group of Hope not Hate, which I chair, has been calling for. The Secretary of State will know that the other side of the coin when building community cohesion is the counter-extremism work to stop people being radicalised in the first place…
Commons
Debate
9 March 2026
Middle East: Economic Update
I welcome the Chancellor’s reiteration of the British industry supercharger scheme, but she will know that it helps only 10% of this country’s energy-intensive industry—electro-intensive industry in particular. The price per therm of gas is pretty much double what it was last week, so will she set o…
Commons
Oral Questions
9 March 2026
Immigration Policy
Given these changes, what changes to the national referral mechanism in relation to modern slavery does the Minister expect to see? What does the switch from a duty to a power for housing people waiting for asylum mean for the national dispersal method, including for places that have routinely had m…
Commons
Debate
4 March 2026
Department for Business and Trade
I congratulate the right hon. Member for Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North (Liam Byrne) on securing this debate. I want to touch on three areas of Department for Business and Trade activity where the estimates and the funding it receives could be put to best use. One relates to the industrial…
Commons
Westminster Hall
3 March 2026
2 contributions
Small Charity Sector
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Roger. I congratulate the right hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith) on securing this debate and on his kind words about Noreen Oliver. I had the pleasure of meeting Noreen when I was first elected. The legacy she…
One thing that might help is if there was a settled model for how small charities could quantify volunteer hours to use as a bank against matched funding. Some charities in my patch tell me that they have lots of social value but no cash, and when they go for matched funding, the funders want to see…
Commons
Debate
24 February 2026
10 contributions
Online Harm: Child Protection
I am sympathetic to all the hon. Lady’s arguments. However, it appears that we are about to have a Second Reading debate on an as yet unpublished Bill, when the motion on the Order Paper is about whether we have a day for that Second Reading debate. I am conscious, because I have been to the Vote Of…
I do not wish to make this a procedural debate, but the hon. Lady presented a Bill earlier for First Reading. We have been asked to consider that Bill for Second Reading on a future date. That Bill is not available. Although I absolutely respect her approach for a cross-party consensus to design the…
+8 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
11 February 2026
5 contributions
Police Grant Report
One of the challenges that we have always had in Staffordshire is that, because of a manufacturing site in Tamworth and because of the politics of Stoke-on-Trent, we have often had to deal with complex national issues around far-right activism and Hizb ut-Tahrir activism. With the increases for poli…
Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?
+3 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
9 February 2026
2 contributions
UK-India Free Trade Agreement
rose —
The UK is the single largest importer of Indian ceramics. The trade deal removes some of the tariffs that we apply to Indian imports. The removal of those tariffs, along with industrial energy pricing in India, means that those imports become incredibly competitive in comparison to our domestic mark…
Commons
Oral Questions
9 February 2026
Jimmy Lai: Prison Sentence
I thank the Minister for her answers, but I think it is fair to say that when the sentence was handed down, the CCP baked in that our reaction would be to reiterate calls for Jimmy Lai’s release and put out warm words and demands regarding his wellbeing. Of course, there are now concerns that he may…
Commons
Oral Questions
5 February 2026
Business of the House
My constituency has been well served for 35 years by the West Midlands Air Ambulance Service, but there is now the Stoke Air Ambulance. Yesterday, the fundraising regulator published a damning report about the new boy in town, because, despite raising hundreds of thousands of pounds, it does not hav…
Commons
Debate
4 February 2026
Lord Mandelson
I remember the Humble Addresses that were tabled in this place during the Brexit years. The Minister will know that, in opposition, we never felt the need to put national security or international relations on the face of a motion itself, because that was an implied protection.
Can I ask the Minist…
Commons
Debate
3 February 2026
4 contributions
Universal Credit (Removal of Two Child Limit) Bill
Will my hon. Friend give way?
I am an hon. Friend, not right honourable, though I welcome the promotion.
I have listened to this debate from outside the Chamber this afternoon and heard many Conservative Members talk about how the route out of poverty is through work. I absolutely and fundamentally agree with that, so I find it…
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
2 February 2026
China and Japan
Further to the question from my right hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North (Liam Byrne), the anti-dumping measures that we impose on Chinese goods coming into this country protect hundreds of jobs in Stoke-on-Trent, whether in the ceramic tableware manufacturing sector…
Commons
Debate
28 January 2026
4 contributions
Youth Unemployment
The shadow Secretary of State is obviously well known for speaking clearly and candidly, which is refreshing. Can she clearly and candidly answer these questions? Which rights does she think young people should be denied in order to get into work? By how much would she cut the minimum wage to facili…
rose—
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
28 January 2026
Local Authority Children’s Services
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Western. I commend the hon. Member for Woking (Mr Forster) for the compassionate way that he spoke, and the dignity that he brought to Sara’s memory. When we have to speak about horrific cases in this place, it can go one of two ways, and I think…
Commons
Debate
26 January 2026
2 contributions
NHS Urgent Care: Staffordshire
Royal Stoke hospital is in my constituency, and one of the things its staff tell me is that if it were not for the Haywood walk-in unit up in Stoke-on-Trent, Leek Moorland hospital or Stafford MIU, the A&E would simply fall over. Naturally, people in Staffordshire gravitate to the A&E when t…
I want briefly to highlight the fact that one of the perverse things in Staffordshire is that my constituency is serviced by the Royal Stoke hospital, as is Stafford. Its headquarters are within the ICB that funds it. Some of the places that the Minister has mentioned this evening include Cannock, B…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
26 January 2026
Police Reform White Paper
The litany of failures under the Conservatives of Staffordshire police is too long to mention in the short time that I have for this question. The Home Secretary mentioned local accountability being done through mayors and police and crime boards. Where we will have mayors in areas smaller than thos…