Commons
Ministerial Statement
9 December 2025
Grooming Gangs: Independent Inquiry
I welcome the Home Secretary’s statement and the appointment of Baroness Longfield, who will be an excellent chair. When I met Professor Jay at the start of the year to talk about her inquiry, she impressed two points on me: the importance of a child protection authority, and the importance of data …
Commons
Debate
8 December 2025
Child Poverty Strategy
Every child, no matter their background, deserves the opportunity to flourish and fulfil their potential. The Liberal Democrats welcome any and all efforts to reduce the number of children in poverty, because we believe that investing in our children and young people is one of the most important inv…
Commons
Debate
4 December 2025
Camden Nursery Sexual Abuse Case
I thank the Secretary of State for advance sight of her statement, and for the briefing that officials provided to me. The details of this case are harrowing and deeply disturbing, and my first thoughts are with the families affected. I sincerely hope that they are getting all the support and care t…
Commons
Proceedings
4 December 2025
Business of the House
Residents across Twickenham, Teddington, the Hamptons and Whitton are sick to the back teeth with South Western Railway repeatedly cancelling, delaying and putting on short trains. The service to every station in my constituency has become appreciably worse since nationalisation, despite promises to…
Commons
Westminster Hall
1 December 2025
3 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship today, Ms Barker. I thank the Petitions Committee for granting this important debate. I also thank my hon. Friend the Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross (Jamie Stone) for so ably opening the debate. I pay tribute to the approximately 16…
David Laws was not in government for the last decade of Conservative Governments; he was there for the first five years and he did some excellent things, not least introducing the pupil premium. I would say, however, that Conservative Governments left us with crumbling schools that are unable to hir…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
1 December 2025
Evacuation Chairs: Schools and Colleges
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship today, Sir Alec.
I start by thanking all the people—over 104,000 in total—who have signed this petition, including 65 people in my own constituency of Twickenham. They are the primary reason why we are debating this important issue. I also pay tribu…
Commons
Debate
25 November 2025
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
I rise primarily to speak to new clause 26 and amendment 82, tabled in my name, which are related to the changes the Government propose to the assets of community value system.
Members across the House will know from their own communities that playing field space is at a premium, and my constituenc…
Commons
Oral Questions
24 November 2025
Families in Temporary Accommodation
With London councils now spending £5.5 million per day on temporary accommodation, it is clear that we need to build more social homes in London. Richmond council has been prioritising sites that it is selling for social housing. As the Member for Hackney South and Shoreditch (Dame Meg Hillier) has …
Commons
Oral Questions
Home Department
17 November 2025
Topical Questions
The Secretary of State will be aware that the Met police recently proposed closing, or scaling back the hours of operation for, a number of police front counters across London. Those plans were scaled back, apparently in response to public feedback, but the Twickenham police station’s front counter …
Commons
Westminster Hall
17 November 2025
Parkinson’s Disease
I pay tribute to the 459 constituents of mine who have signed this important petition. Does my hon. Friend agree that, as well as swift access to neurologists, access to specialist nurses is absolutely vital, as is having a named GP for long-term conditions such as Parkinson’s disease? One of my con…
Commons
Westminster Hall
13 November 2025
Rogue Builders
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Furniss. I congratulate the hon. Member for Wyre Forest (Mark Garnier) on securing this debate, and for his record of campaigning on this issue. I also recognise the Federation of Master Builders for its important work in this area. I was proud t…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
5 November 2025
Curriculum and Assessment Review
I thank the Secretary of State for advance sight of her statement and I thank Professor Becky Francis for her important work on the review. I welcome much of what has been announced today. As with free school meals and maintenance grants, this Secretary of State seems to enjoy adopting Liberal Democ…
Commons
Westminster Hall
5 November 2025
4 contributions
House Building: London
I have long campaigned on that issue. I have a disused police station in my constituency, in Teddington, and we want to turn it into a GP surgery and social housing. I tabled an amendment to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill to ensure that public sector sites are redeveloped for public good. Unfo…
My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech. Does he agree that the measures announced by the Mayor of London and the new Housing Secretary actually reward developers and do not incentivise them? Not only will the mayor be funding half of developers’ affordable housing if they meet the new target, …
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
28 October 2025
5 contributions
World Stroke Day
I beg to move,
That this House has considered World Stroke Day 2025.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Vaz. I thank all the hon. Members who have come to Westminster Hall today to mark World Stroke Day, which is tomorrow. This year, recovery is in the spotlight, and this debate…
Of course I am very happy to congratulate the staff in the hon. Gentleman’s local hospital. Through my personal experience with my mother, I have seen how amazing hospital staff are, and where community services are available, I am sure those staff are brilliant, but the crux of my speech is about h…
+3 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
27 October 2025
Statutory Maternity and Paternity Pay
The hon. Gentleman is making a powerful case for boosting maternity and paternity pay. Does he agree that if we are to give meaningful choice to families about whether they would like to spend more time at home in the early months of a child’s life—shown to have real developmental benefits for child…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
22 October 2025
Heathrow: National Airports Review
The Chancellor has staked her economic credibility and growth strategy on a third runway at Heathrow. The Secretary of State said that she is committed to seeing flights take off from it in 2035, yet at the same time, she talks about taking an evidence-led approach, putting this project to her four …
Commons
Debate
21 October 2025
Sentencing Bill
The hon. Gentleman is making a very powerful speech with some shocking figures. Just last Friday in my constituency surgery, Sarah Imi came to talk to me about her husband Jason. Seven years ago, he and his colleague were killed after a work dinner by a 17-year-old driving well above the speed limit…
Commons
Oral Questions
Education
20 October 2025
Topical Questions
Esther Ghey, the mother of Brianna Ghey, is in Parliament today, campaigning to keep phones out of the classroom. Given that young people themselves are saying that they want a “break from the stress” of social media at school, and given the impact of phones on children’s concentration and focus, wi…
Commons
Oral Questions
Education
20 October 2025
Free School Meals: Eligibility Criteria
We Liberal Democrats warmly welcomed the Government’s decision earlier this year to finally adopt our long-standing policy of extending free school meals to all children in households in receipt of universal credit. At the time, Ministers repeatedly refused to confirm how they were funding this exte…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
15 October 2025
2 contributions
Pride in Place
The Minister said in her statement:
“Our job is to give our constituents the investment and powers that they need”.
Of course, we all agree with that, and today’s announcement is welcome. However, as a fellow London MP, she will be aware that the so-called fairer funding review will actually decim…
Will the Minister at the very least commit to an impact assessment of the fair funding review changes for local authorities such as Richmond, and will she grant transitional funding?
Commons
Oral Questions
Home Department
15 September 2025
2 contributions
Police Stations
1. What discussions she has had with the Mayor of London on the closure of front counters at police stations.
May I, as a London Member, begin by paying tribute to the brave police officers from the Met and many other forces who were policing protests on Saturday, a number of whom were injured in the line of duty as a result of abhorrent attacks? I am sure that the thoughts and prayers of all Members, in al…
Commons
Westminster Hall
15 September 2025
2 contributions
Children with SEND: Assessments and Support
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship today, Dr Allin-Khan. I thank the Petitions Committee for granting this important debate and my hon. Friend the Member for South Cotswolds (Dr Savage) for opening the debate with such a powerful speech. I welcome the new Minister to her place, and I …
I agree with my hon. Friend. I have heard about that hub-and-spoke model and would like to go and see it; I think it could be a good model to scale up.
I also implore Ministers to look at the bureaucratic hurdles that local authorities face in putting specialist units in mainstream schools. I think…
Commons
Oral Questions
Treasury
9 September 2025
Infrastructure Strategy: Economic Growth
Over the summer, Heathrow finally published its proposals for a third runway. It is very clear that a lot of supporting road and rail infrastructure will be needed if that expansion goes ahead. Could the Chancellor outline to the House what estimates her Department has made of the amount of public i…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
4 September 2025
Early Education and Childcare
High-quality early years education is the best possible investment we can make in our future. Whether we are serious about tackling the SEND crisis or the attainment gap, or are simply concerned to give every child the best start in life, proper investment in the early years is one of the strongest …
Commons
Proceedings
4 September 2025
Business of the House
I was disappointed that the Leader of the House, when she was celebrating summer moments, did not mention our Lionesses’ amazing victory in defending their European title.
In a less positive moment over the summer, the Metropolitan police announced the closure of Twickenham police station’s front c…