Commons
Debate
7 January 2026
3 contributions
Rural Communities
Will my right hon. Friend give way?
rose—
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Debate
7 January 2026
6 contributions
Jury Trials
The letter on criminal court reform written by the Justice Secretary to the Justice Committee states on rape and prioritisation:
“We are not introducing a specific target for rape cases, but our overall objective is to drive down these wait times as quickly as possible. Listing is a judicial functi…
New year, new David!
+4 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
Energy Security and Net Zero
6 January 2026
Topical Questions
In Hinckley and Burbage, if you look one way, you can see the rooftops of lots of logistics businesses, because we are the heart of the logistics sector; looking the other way, to Barlestone and Nailstone, you see agricultural land that has been turned into solar farms. My constituents rightly ask w…
Commons
Debate
5 January 2026
Agricultural Property Relief and Business Property Relief
The Government say they have been listening carefully, but they had 14 months and four votes to listen to the Opposition and the farming community. One question is: what changed the Government’s mind? The second question is: who made the decision—the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary, th…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
16 December 2025
Planning Reform
My constituents would have much more sympathy with the Minister if he could explain why, when it comes to house building, Leicester city’s target will go down by 31%, whereas Hinckley and Bosworth’s and north-west Leicestershire’s targets will go up by 59% and 74% respectively. It means that we have…
Commons
Debate
15 December 2025
3 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
Has the Minister conducted an impact assessment? If so, how much does she think this change will cost? How many uncapped awards will be made? These are the kinds of big, important decisions that the other place has concerns about, as do Conservative Members. If she has that evidence, she could put t…
I am conscious that we are debating a particular point. Is the hon. Member voting for or against the cap? That is the essence of what we are looking at today.
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Debate
10 December 2025
2 contributions
Conduct of the Chancellor of the Exchequer
One concern that I have is the repeated pattern seen with the Budget. At the time, the Government sat on an impact assessment that showed that 100,000 pensioners would be pushed into poverty and 50,000 into absolute poverty. That was the Government’s own assessment, but they did not release it to th…
Nowhere is that more evident than in health, with the abolitions and redundancies in integrated care boards. Given that those redundancies cover 50% of ICB staff, we now understand that the funding is just being reprofiled into later spending in 2028-29. Is that not exactly the kind of example that …
Commons
Debate
10 December 2025
12 contributions
Seasonal Work
On the tourism tax, only a couple of months ago, in response to a question that I had posed, the then Minister for Creative Industries, Arts and Tourism, the hon. Member for Rhondda and Ogmore (Chris Bryant), said, “We think they have been taxed enough.” Is it a surprise to Opposition Members to see…
It is not just wealthy people who have left. We know from the Office for National Statistics data that 257,000 Brits have gone—it had been estimated at 70,000—of whom about two thirds to three quarters are under the age of 35. We are losing young people to the rest of the world because of the implic…
+10 more contributions in this session
Commons
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister
10 December 2025
Engagements
Q7. Mr Speaker, I feel for the Prime Minister. It must be tough, wherever he goes in the UK, because of his policies: a pub, higher taxes; a restaurant, higher taxes; a café, higher taxes; a farm, higher taxes; a GP, higher taxes; a care home, higher taxes; a hospice, higher taxes. Is that the reaso…
Commons
Debate
8 December 2025
4 contributions
Mental Health Bill [Lords]
I have talked about roads and bridges throughout the duration of the Bill. We have now reached the end of the long road that was, of course, embarked on by Baroness May in 2018 with the independent Wessely report, which was the foundation of this legislation. It constitutes a cross-party, cross-depa…
The hon. Gentleman makes a very good point, but he has also missed the point. He gives me the opportunity to point out that one way in which the previous Government dealt with this issue was by bringing forward the mental health investment standard, under which the proportion of spending on mental h…
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
8 December 2025
Employment Rights Bill
Does the hon. Lady agree that it would have been helpful if an impact assessment had been carried out, so that everyone could see exactly what the impact of removing the cap would be?
Commons
Proceedings
8 December 2025
Restriction of Jury Trials
I congratulate the Minister on both her passion and her ability to get so many words into Hansard in her responses on an urgent question. However, one bit of detail that we are missing—and she is now being asked about this for the fifth time—is an impact assessment. She has said again that the impac…
Commons
Westminster Hall
3 December 2025
2 contributions
Terminal Illness: Mental Health Support
The old adage we often hear is that there are two certainties in life—taxes and death. We spend a lot of time in this House talking about the former and very little time speaking about the latter, even though we know it will affect us; I have argued that both as a doctor and in this House since I wa…
The Minister is indeed right to say that there was an injection of cash, but the proportion of funding being spent on mental health was actually cut. The written ministerial statement is very clear that that proportion went from 8.78% to 8.71%, which the royal college said was about £300 million of …
Commons
Proceedings
1 December 2025
6 contributions
Budget Resolutions
When it comes to making decisions about poverty, it is difficult, so I would be grateful to understand the Secretary of State decision to change the winter fuel payments, which the Government’s own analysis said put 100,000 people into relative poverty and 50,000 people immediately into absolute pov…
I have the automotive industry in my area too, and electric vehicles are really important. The implementation of the pay-per-mile change for electric vehicles is causing huge anxiety, as is the impact on the second-hand car market. We do not understand how this measure will work. Does the hon. Gentl…
+4 more contributions in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
1 December 2025
Office for Budget Responsibility Forecasts
Through the morass of leaks, one thing is crystal clear: this Labour Government broke their manifesto commitment. The Chancellor said:
“I am asking everyone to make a contribution”, —[ Official Report , 26 November 2025; Vol. 776, c. 393.]
then went around the studios at the weekend saying,
“I am…
Commons
Proceedings
27 November 2025
Business of the House
Electric and plug-in car drivers in Hinckley and Bosworth in north-west Leicestershire have woken up angry and anxious this morning. They were told to do the right thing by getting electric cars, yet the Chancellor is going around this morning saying that they will be charged per mile and that the m…
Commons
Proceedings
27 November 2025
Right to Trial by Jury
Under this Labour Ministry of Justice we have had leaked prisoners and now leaked documents. When we had leaked prisoners, the Justice Secretary came here, demanded a review, put in new checks and made it clear that he would personally look into it. Given that we have had leaked documents, what step…
Commons
Oral Questions
25 November 2025
2 contributions
New Hospital Programme
When it comes to hospital provision, the Conservatives believe that we should continue to use private providers to improve access and reduce waiting times. We believe the Government should not let spare capacity go to waste on ideological grounds; we should continue to make use of private-sector cap…
I am pleased to hear that the Minister does, given that it is her current policy. The last time the Government brought in private finance, they brought in the private finance initiative, which brought in £13 billion of investment. The problem was that it cost the taxpayer a whopping £80 billion, and…
Commons
Proceedings
24 November 2025
Ministerial Code
I will try a fourth time. We know that the chair of the football regulator—the chap who is now in charge—donated to the Labour party, to both the Prime Minister and the Culture Secretary, before he was appointed. At what point did the Prime Minister know personally that he was signing off a Labour d…
Commons
Westminster Hall
19 November 2025
3 contributions
Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
I try to take a positive outlook. The one thing the pandemic did was shine a spotlight on the likes of long covid and ME, and I know from my medical career how difficult that can be. I would like to thank Sajid Javid, who in 2022 announced the plan for ME, and I congratulate the Minister because she…
The Minister attended the task and finish group, as did I. Will it meet again to consider that?
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
19 November 2025
3 contributions
Suicide: Reducing the Stigma
indicated assent.
I want to start by finishing where I left off in the main Chamber in the debate during Suicide Prevention Month. I talked about a TikTok meme that was going around about where men go, and who they turn to, when they are at their lowest. The answers in that video are all “no one”: “No one cares”; “Th…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
18 November 2025
Topical Questions
In October 2024, I asked the Secretary of State about the previous Government’s idea of pumpwatch. He said,
“I will not comment on the Budget, obviously. We are very sympathetic to pumpwatch”. —[ Official Report , 8 October 2024; Vol. 754, c. 159.]
The Competition and Markets Authority has looked …
Commons
Debate
17 November 2025
Asylum Policy
I thank the Home Secretary for a copy of her speech. It states that
“the public rightly expect that we can determine who enters this country, and who must leave,”
and I agree. One thing that is missing, though, is verifying the people who come in. We Conservatives put forward the idea of age verif…