Commons
Oral Questions
4 November 2025
Business Rates: Affordability for SMEs
When the Chancellor imposed £40 billion of tax rises, she chose to double business rates for leisure, retail and hospital businesses—and she is going to come back for more. It may be in vain, but perhaps I can offer her a policy suggestion: scrap business rates for 250,000 shops, pubs and restaurant…
Commons
Oral Questions
4 November 2025
Agricultural and Business Property Relief: Impact on Farmers
This morning the Chancellor failed to take responsibility for her poor choices in a Budget that whacked up taxes, borrowing and spending, and made it clear that she would once again break her promises on tax. The farmers whom I have met have been in tears about the family farm tax, not because they …
Commons
Oral Questions
Business and Trade
30 October 2025
Topical Questions
To show his deregulatory zeal, the Business Secretary just boasted about scrapping the British Hallmarking Council, which has one part-time employee. Given that every £1 of regulatory costs has the same impact on investment as £1 taken in tax, why are the Government proceeding with their unemploymen…
Commons
Debate
28 October 2025
4 contributions
China Spying Case
Will my hon. Friend give way?
The first senior Treasury counsel, Tom Little, yesterday said that he took the extraordinary step of having a direct discussion with the deputy National Security Adviser because he could not understand why what he said was a relatively straightforward piece of evidence—namely, that China was an acti…
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Proceedings
23 October 2025
Fishing and Coastal Growth Fund
When the fishing and coastal growth fund was announced, the Government said that they had also secured a new sanitary and phytosanitary agreement to slash red tape for UK seafood exporters and businesses. Can the Minister tell the fishing fleet in King’s Lynn, Brancaster and around the Norfolk coast…
Commons
Proceedings
23 October 2025
Alleged Spying Case: Role of Attorney General’s Office
The Director of Public Prosecutions has said that the case was dropped because efforts over many months to get evidence that China represented a threat to national security were not forthcoming from this Government. When was the Attorney General informed that the case was at risk and what did he do?
Commons
Debate
22 October 2025
Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund
Since the Minister has been talking about taxpayers’ money, I would be grateful if he could let us know what the minimum leverage is. For every pound of taxpayers’ money put in, what is the minimum that has to be put in by the private sector?
Commons
Oral Questions
21 October 2025
Topical Questions
Greater transparency about NHS data should be used to drive improvements, so what assessment has the Health Secretary made of the impact on the Queen Elizabeth hospital in King’s Lynn of being forced to make savings of £18 million this year? What impact will that have on the need to reduce waiting t…
Commons
Proceedings
16 October 2025
Official Secrets Act Case: Witness Statements
The Minister knows the Prime Minister well, having been one of his close advisers as well as his Parliamentary Private Secretary. Why, when he learnt that a major trial concerning spying on Members was going to collapse, did the Prime Minister do nothing? Why did he not ask if anything could be done…
Commons
Debate
15 October 2025
Jhoots Pharmacy
Staff and patients at Jhoots Pharmacy in South Wootton in North West Norfolk have been let down, going months without pay or stock, and with no communication from management. The pharmacist left after non-payment. When I raised those issues with the company, it simply refused to respond. The Ministe…
Commons
Oral Questions
14 October 2025
Grid Infrastructure
Proposals for 90 miles of pylons from Grimsby to Walpole in my constituency would have a major detrimental impact on rural areas due to the scale of the infrastructure, the loss of high-quality farmland and the proximity of the infrastructure to homes. Does the Minister understand—I do not think he …
Commons
Debate
15 September 2025
Employment Rights Bill
I am grateful to the Secretary of State for giving way; he is being very generous. Can he explain why, before he took up his present post and took responsibility for the Bill, no assessment was made of the hiring practices that would occur if the unfair dismissal period was reduced from two years? W…
Commons
Oral Questions
Treasury
9 September 2025
Planning Reform: Economic Growth
The Government want to drive growth through house building, but even before the departure of the Deputy Prime Minister, they were predicted to miss the 1.5 million new homes target by half a million. How does the Chancellor and her team of tax raisers think a 3,000% hike in the builders tax, adding …
Commons
Debate
3 September 2025
Hospitality Sector
As we have heard, hospitality is a crucial part of our economy. Our pubs, restaurants, hotels and other businesses employ 3.5 million people—over 5,000 in my North West Norfolk constituency alone, contributing £136 million to my local economy—but this Government’s decisions have hammered the sector.…
Commons
Proceedings
17 July 2025
NHS Pensions: Frontline Patient Care
With the British Medical Association set to strike, and with the Health Secretary reduced to pleading with it not to, thousands of patients are set to have their appointments cancelled. Can the Minister assure the House that she will grip this issue so that senior doctors do not also reduce their ho…
Commons
Westminster Hall
15 July 2025
2 contributions
Beer Duty
Where did they all go?
I congratulate the hon. Member for Woking (Mr Forster) on bringing this important debate to Westminster Hall and uniting us behind support for beer—although his colleague the hon. Member for Wokingham (Clive Jones) slightly broke that consensus with my hon. Friend the Member for Kingswinford and Sou…
Commons
Proceedings
10 July 2025
Energy Planning
There are plans for major solar farms, substations and other infrastructure in North West Norfolk and across the county, taking high-quality agricultural land out of use. The cumulative impact of that is being ignored. I welcome the Committee’s recommendation on solar. Does the hon. Gentleman agree …
Commons
Debate
10 July 2025
Electricity Market Review
Under the current system, the most expensive generator sets the clearing price for electricity, pushing up prices for consumers and businesses. Can the Secretary of State explain how the reforms that he is setting out today change that by moving to a pay-as-bid system and providing more affordable e…
Commons
Proceedings
10 July 2025
UK-France Nuclear Partnership
Clearly, our deepest and closest relationship on nuclear deterrence is with the United States of America. Can the Minister confirm how this agreement will affect that relationship, which is crucial for our security?
Commons
Oral Questions
10 July 2025
Relations with the European Union
This Government have a track record of announcing trade deals and then nothing actually happens, as our steel sector can attest. Two months on from the Prime Minister crowing about a deal with the EU, will the Minister confirm whether any legal text has been agreed on SPS checks, sharing criminal re…
Commons
Oral Questions
Treasury
1 July 2025
Poverty Reduction
First, it was a humiliating reversal of the Chancellor’s winter fuel cuts. Now, welfare cuts that she rushed to meet her fiscal rules have been shredded, leaving unfunded spending to pay for. In October, the Chancellor said that extending the freeze in income tax thresholds
“would hurt working peop…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
30 June 2025
Welfare Reform
Health and sickness benefit spending is set to hit £100 billion by the end of the Parliament, so why is the Secretary of State not bringing forward proper reforms rather than these rushed cuts imposed by the Chancellor that save only £2 billion, and that duck the difficult decisions to deal with the…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
19 June 2025
Warm Home Discount
Will the Minister confirm that park home residents in North West Norfolk and across the country, who pay their bills directly to the site owner, will also benefit from the extended £150 discount, and that when they apply, funding will not be limited, so that everyone who is entitled to this payment …
Commons
Oral Questions
Health and Social Care
17 June 2025
Topical Questions
In March, the Minister for Care told me that no decision could be taken on a new dental school at the University of East Anglia until the spending review settlement was known. Now that we know it, will he instruct the Office for Students to allocate new training places at the UEA from 2026?
Commons
Ministerial Statement
12 June 2025
Spending Review: Health and Social Care
Will the Minister confirm that the funding envelope that she set out in a letter to the Queen Elizabeth hospital in King’s Lynn in April stands unchanged after this spending review?