Commons
Oral Questions
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
16 June 2026
Topical Questions
I refer the House to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. The Government have previously stated that Hamas must voluntarily disarm in accordance with the 20-point peace plan, but that is clearly not happening. What is the Government’s practical strategy to ensure that Hamas is c…
Commons
Oral Questions
Home Department
8 June 2026
Topical Questions
T7. In the last three years, the number of Metropolitan police officers has fallen by 3,000, and it is now at a lower level than it was in May 2016, when Sadiq Khan became Mayor of London. Overall crime in London has increased by 26% and knife crime is up by 27%. It is true that policing in London i…
Commons
Oral Questions
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
21 April 2026
Topical Questions
I refer the House to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. Point 13 of the first phase of the Gaza peace plan negotiated by the United States is very clear that Hamas must disarm, dismantle their terrorist infrastructure and play no role in Gaza’s future. The Government have expr…
Commons
Westminster Hall
16 April 2026
Housing Needs: Young People
This is the first time I have served with you in the Chair, Ms Butler. It is a pleasure to do so, and to take part in this debate about the housing needs of young people. I thank the hon. Members for Mid Dunbartonshire (Susan Murray) and for Taunton and Wellington (Gideon Amos) for raising this impo…
Commons
Oral Questions
13 April 2026
2 contributions
Protecting the Green Belt
Is the Minister confident that the Government’s invention of the term “grey belt” is providing protection to the green belt?
The Government have previously claimed that so-called grey-belt land is comprised of old petrol stations and disused car parks, but by December 2025, of the 13 developments of 10 or more homes on so-called grey-belt land that had been approved by Government planning inspectors, 88% were due to be bu…
Commons
Westminster Hall
24 March 2026
Women’s Safety in Rural Areas
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Dowd, and to take part in this debate about the impact of planning on women’s safety in rural areas. Any concern about the safety of women and girls in their local communities is, of course, of real importance, and I welcome the opportunity to ex…
Commons
Debate
16 March 2026
2 contributions
Grenfell Tower Memorial (Expenditure) Bill
This will be one of those rare occasions when there is a broad consensus across the House. The Opposition support the Government in wishing to continue the work begun since that tragic night in 2017 to ensure that lessons are learnt, changes are made, and the 72 victims who lost their lives are prop…
I thank the Secretary of State and the Minister for their work today to shepherd this important Bill through Second Reading. I also want to thank all hon. Members, who contributed thoughtful comments and points, as we strive to work across the House to see this memorial realised. I thank the hon. Me…
Commons
Oral Questions
5 March 2026
2 contributions
Civil Service Pension Scheme
2. What assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the delivery of the civil service pension scheme.
I thank the Minister for her answer because, like many hon. Members on both sides of the House, I have been getting correspondence from former civil servants whose payments have been excessively delayed since Capita took over. I note what the Minister says about the Secretary of State meeting the ch…
Commons
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister
4 March 2026
Engagements
Q9. The United States of America is our most important international strategic ally. Does the Prime Minister believe that his dithering and equivocal response to events in the middle east this week has made that relationship stronger or weaker?
Commons
Ministerial Statement
3 March 2026
Spring Forecast
If lifting the two-child benefit cap is such a moral imperative for this Labour Government, could the Chancellor advise the House why only 20 months ago, a commitment to do so was entirely absent from the Labour party manifesto and why, 19 days after that election, Labour withdrew the Whip from seve…
Commons
Oral Questions
Education
2 March 2026
2 contributions
Nursery Provision: Greater London
9. What steps she has taken to help improve nursery provision in Greater London.
I thank the Minister for her response. Late last year, with relatively little notice, the trustees of a pre-school in my constituency, Crofton Early Learners, decided to close the pre-school, meaning that 40 sets of parents had a very anxious Christmas wondering and worrying about what childcare the…
Commons
Oral Questions
Housing, Communities and Local Government
23 February 2026
2 contributions
Building Safety Regulator
When announcing reforms to the Building Safety Regulator last June, the Secretary of State’s Department promised to
“enhance the review of newbuild applications, unblock delays and boost sector confidence”,
but in London, where demand is highest, house building has fallen to its lowest level since…
With all due respect, the Government need to do an awful lot better than that. They hide behind the claim that there is a clear downward trend in live gateway 2 applications, but the reality, according to the Government’s own statistics across all categories, is that the number of live applications …
Commons
Oral Questions
Solicitor General
5 February 2026
2 contributions
Jury Trials
4. What advice she has given the Government on the potential impact of removing jury trials on the rule of law.
The president of the Law Society has described the proposals as
“an extreme measure that goes too far”.
The chair of the Criminal Bar Association has described them as
“a wrecking ball to a system that is fundamentally sound and has been in place for generations”.
He pointed out that the juries …
Commons
Petition
29 January 2026
Education on methanol poisoning
On 21 November 2024, Simone White lost her life, aged just 28, following a mass methanol poisoning incident. She was one of six tourists who died after consuming contaminated drinks served at a hostel in the tourist town of Vang Vieng in Laos.
Alongside my right hon. Friend the Member for Sevenoaks…
Commons
Westminster Hall
21 January 2026
2 contributions
Local Government Reorganisation: Referendums
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms McVey. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Leicestershire (Mr Bedford) for securing this important debate and congratulate him on the excellent points he made in his speech.
Local government holds a special place in our multilayered and mu…
Three local elections were delayed by one year in 2021, all of which were the result of local government reorganisations; a consultation took place with the authorities affected in advance and their views were taken on board. That is in complete contrast with what the Labour Government are doing rig…
Commons
Oral Questions
Education
19 January 2026
Topical Questions
A year ago the Secretary of State dropped the statutory free speech complaints scheme from the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act 2023. According to a letter published in The Sunday Times from 370 academics, including three Nobel prize winners, this has totally negated the whole point of the A…
Commons
Debate
15 January 2026
3 contributions
New Towns
The hon. Lady is correct that I am familiar with the site in her constituency that is proposed as one of the new towns. I acknowledge, accept and support her argument that the DLR infrastructure would stimulate the regeneration of Thamesmead. Is it therefore a cause of regret that that site is not i…
I am grateful to the Backbench Business Committee for allocating time for this important debate, and to the hon. Member for Cumbernauld and Kirkintilloch (Katrina Murray) for bringing it forward. I have been rehearsing the name of her constituency in my head for quite some time, and I have made a me…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
Housing, Communities and Local Government
12 January 2026
2 contributions
House Building: London
At the outset of the Secretary of State’s answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Weald of Kent (Katie Lam), one could be forgiven for thinking that we had an entirely new Mayor of London. In fact, this year we celebrate, or perhaps more appropriately commiserate, a decade of Sadiq Khan’s tenure as …
What the Secretary of State did not say is that local boroughs are not in charge of building out planning consents, and he did not acknowledge that London boroughs are subject to the London plan. The Secretary of State claims that he is working with the Mayor of London, who writes the London plan, t…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
16 December 2025
Planning Reform
I thank the Minister for advance sight of his statement.
This Labour Government’s last planning framework began pushing development on to rural areas, prioritising concreting over the green belt and green fields rather than focusing on supporting building in urban areas, which is where we need to b…
Commons
Westminster Hall
16 December 2025
Quarries: Planning Policy
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Murrison, and to take part in this debate about planning policy for quarries. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for South Leicestershire (Alberto Costa) for securing the debate. I appreciate that many hon. Members on both sides of the House have …
Commons
Ministerial Statement
11 December 2025
National Plan to End Homelessness
I thank the Minister for her remarks and for advance sight of her statement. This is the third time that I have had the opportunity to discuss the issue of homelessness with the Minister in the last seven weeks. I do not doubt that all hon. and right hon. Members here today share a strong desire to …
Commons
Debate
8 December 2025
2 contributions
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
It is a privilege to present some of the Opposition’s final words on what I am sure the Minister will agree has been an extensive effort on both sides of the House to debate, scrutinise and amend the Bill. In the light of that, I particularly wish to thank my hon. Friend the Member for Hamble Valley…
No I do not—not fully; I will return to that answer in more detail in a couple of moments.
As a prime example of what more could have been done, the Bill could have addressed the democratic deficit it creates. It strips powers away from elected councillors and gifts them to unelected planning offic…
Commons
Westminster Hall
2 December 2025
2 contributions
Homelessness: Funding
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Vickers, and to take part in this debate about the adequacy of funding to support homeless people. At the outset, I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman), for securing this debate. I know how important this topic is to hi…
I will not. I apologise to the hon. Gentleman, because I know he cares passionately about this issue, but we are running out of time. I need to leave time for the Minister to respond and for my hon. Friend the Member for Harrow East to conclude.
The figure of 126,040 households is a 15.7% increase …