Commons
Westminster Hall
15 July 2026
Waste Management Sites
I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this debate. She may be aware that we have had a plastics recycling facility in my constituency for several years. Only when it opened did we suffer an awful fly infestation across the town, as well as a horrendous odour. It is on a normal industrial estate,…
Commons
Debate
2 July 2026
Commonhold and Leasehold Reform: Managing Agents
My hon. Friend talks about leaseholders being treated with contempt. I have an estate in my constituency, Bishops Gate, where it took three years for FirstPort to respond to residents’ requests, and even when the council got involved, FirstPort refused its request. Given all the service charges they…
Commons
Westminster Hall
1 July 2026
7 contributions
MPs’ Second Jobs: Prohibition
Before I call Richard Burgon, I would like to make a point to Members contributing to this morning’s debate. I remind Members to be careful if they choose to refer to other Members in this debate. If you wish to refer to a specific Member, you should have given them notice, and I would appreciate it…
I remind Members that they should bob if they wish to be called in the debate. After the next speech, I will be reducing speeches to five minutes.
+5 more contributions in this session
Commons
Proceedings
1 July 2026
Israel: E1 Zone Expansion
(Urgent Question): To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs if she will make a statement on Israel’s planned illegal expansion in the E1 zone in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Commons
Debate
1 July 2026
Taxation (Energy and Vehicles) Bill
My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech. This is fantastic news for my constituents, my farmers and my businesses. Does she welcome the statement from the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, which said that increasing the rates of approved mileage allowance payments is absolutely the right thing to do …
Commons
Ministerial Statement
30 June 2026
Defence Investment Plan
I thank my right hon. Friend for the statement. As he said, this is a welcome shot in the arm for our defence and security sector. He talked about the defence export funding that would be available. That is extremely important because so many nations around the world really rate our kit and our expe…
Commons
Debate
29 June 2026
6 contributions
Cabinet Office
I thank the Backbench Business Committee for granting this debate, which could not be more timely given the crucial NATO summit next week in Ankara. I was hoping that we would be inundated with contributions from across the House, but sadly it looks as though we might be limited to one or two.
Keep…
That is such an important point, and I do not think that we as a Chamber have given it enough airtime. If we think about what would happen if any other premier of any other country was attacked like that—their home attacked and their car set on fire—the reaction from the media was quite muted. Now t…
+4 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
Cabinet Office
25 June 2026
National Resilience
Having spoken to ambassadors from various nations, such as the Scandinavian and Baltic states, as well as to the high commissioner of Canada, I understand that so many of these countries are now planning for dual-use infrastructure, for instance by expanding the width of motorways so that they can b…
Commons
Proceedings
25 June 2026
Sudan
This is a most bloody conflict, and the Foreign Secretary was right to say that rape is being used as a weapon of war. What steps is the Minister taking with international partners to ensure that the belligerents and those culpable are brought to justice?
Commons
Debate
16 June 2026
Cyber Security and Resilience (Network and Information Systems) Bill
It is a pleasure to follow the right hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith). I concur with the points he made on Jimmy Lai and Jagtar Singh Johal and, more widely, about the internet of things. I think of Norway and Denmark, which suddenly realised that hundreds of buse…
Commons
Oral Questions
Energy Security and Net Zero
2 June 2026
Household Energy Bills
A good way of reducing bills is to reduce consumption. In Germany, about 12 years ago, subsidised mortgages were introduced to help reduce the cost of installing triple glazing in houses. However, in conservation areas in this country, such as in my constituency, people are prevented from installing…
Commons
Westminster Hall
2 June 2026
Preparedness for National Emergencies
Last year was monumental in terms of the number of events suffered in the UK and internationally; think about the economic damage to Jaguar Land Rover and Marks & Spencer, and there were power outages across Spain and Portugal for 10 hours. There is a real need for wider resilience. Certain othe…
Commons
Oral Questions
Defence
1 June 2026
Defence Procurement
Those of us interested in subsea cables will have been delighted to hear the news announced over the weekend about the AUKUS arrangement, which the Government spoke about, and the development of new technologies with unmanned drone vehicles for subsea capability. Beyond that, will the Minister look …
Commons
Debate
1 June 2026
Lord Mandelson Humble Address: Government Response
Any cases that are clearly a real risk to national security should alarm everyone around this House. I think back to some of the questions that I put to then Prime Minister Johnson, as you will recall, Mr Speaker, about his relationship with Alexander Lebedev, for example. We have heard about the ca…
Commons
Debate
27 April 2026
4 contributions
Ernest Bevin
Ernest Bevin was a Bristol barrow boy who became our Foreign Secretary. In between, he became not just a trade union leader, but the head of the largest union in the country. He then went on to play a vital role in the wartime cabinet as Minister of Labour. A titan of the labour movement, some sugge…
My hon. Friend is absolutely right that we should commemorate that day.
At the time of that amalgamation, the membership stood at 300,000 workers, but in just 15 years, Bevin would lead it to becoming the largest union in the country, with over 650,000 members. During that time as trade union leade…
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
23 April 2026
National Resilience
Happy Warwickshire day and St George’s day, Mr Speaker. Clearly resilience is multifaceted and goes beyond subsea cables, which the hon. Member for Tiverton and Minehead (Rachel Gilmour) referred to. We are the third most attacked nation globally when it comes to cyber-attacks, as the Minister will …
Commons
Debate
22 April 2026
Pension Schemes Bill
On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. I thank you for granting my point of order and apologise for not giving you due notice of it. Given the events of recent days and some of the debates that have been called, when can we get an update from the Intelligence and Security Committee on the work i…
Commons
Debate
21 April 2026
6 contributions
Peter Mandelson: Government Appointment
It is a pleasure to follow the right hon. Member for Kingston and Surbiton (Ed Davey). On the point he made latterly about the economic situation we find ourselves in, I would say that the Prime Minister is absolutely focused on that, and has been from day one. There are these distractions—it would …
In a moment—I am just beginning to make my speech. There is the point about some sort of conspiracy or cover-up at No. 10 on which I can disabuse the Leader of the Opposition. The point is to differentiate between the team around the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister himself.
+4 more contributions in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
13 April 2026
North Atlantic Submarine Activity
I thank my hon. and gallant Friend for his statement. GUGI has been at work since the 1960s, as I understand it; it has been doing extensive mapping for quite some time. In our report on subsea cables, the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy came up with a great many recommendations, w…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
13 April 2026
Middle East
I commend the Prime Minister—and also the leadership from the Foreign Secretary and the National Security Adviser, I am sure—for the work that is being done. I welcome the news about trying to resolve the issues in the strait of Hormuz, but I share the concerns that have been voiced across the Chamb…
Commons
Proceedings
25 March 2026
Foreign Financial Influence and Interference: UK Politics
I very much welcome Sir Philip Rycroft’s review. It is long overdue when we think about how much money has been flooding in from Russia and elsewhere. There are questions about association, and certain individuals who have been donating significant amounts of money while living for 21 years not here…
Commons
Proceedings
24 March 2026
2 contributions
Defence
I came into this place only in 2017. I was deeply disappointed by what happened in 2014 and our failure to stand by Ukraine on the invasion of Crimea. I think Michael Fallon was one of the few who said, “We should actually take action.” What was the hon. Gentleman’s view and what would he have done?
My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech. The 1.5% is, of course, about security-related initiatives, and it is important that we get to those soon. As for the wider defence investment plan, I would just say a word of caution: we must get it absolutely right. I have been trying to work with coll…
Commons
Debate
19 March 2026
2 contributions
National Security Strategy, Political Finance and Foreign Influence
I am pleased to present the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy’s third report of this Parliament, on political finance and foreign influence, and I am grateful to the Backbench Business Committee for granting time for this.
Let me outline why this issue matters. First, the UK’s polit…
The Committee very much hopes that a new service will be able to accommodate that recommendation. We hope that there can be a centralised service, using whichever is the most appropriate vehicle; whether that be within the National Crime Agency or separately within the police service is for others t…
Commons
Debate
19 March 2026
UK Steel Strategy
I thank my right hon. Friend for his statement. As he says, steel is national security and economic security. Can I just say, it is terrific at long last to hear a Government showing some mettle? [Hon. Members: “Oh.”]
The array of measures in the strategy is impressive, from tariffs to procurement …
Commons
Oral Questions
19 March 2026
Air Pollution
The Minister will know that in Warwick and Leamington, we have suffered extreme chemical pollution in the atmosphere from Berry Polymers. More recently, we have had an application from Bellway Homes that proposes dumping the equivalent of an Olympic-size swimming pool of building waste for every day…