Commons
Debate
29 January 2026
Holocaust Memorial Day
It is a genuine pleasure to speak as a shadow Housing, Communities and Local Government Minister in a debate where Members across the House have been frank, honest, open and emotional. Debates such as this, about our history and our future, often bring out the best in Members, and I pay tribute to a…
Commons
Westminster Hall
21 January 2026
4 contributions
Waste Collection: Birmingham and the West Midlands
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms McVey. I thank my right hon. Friend the Member for Aldridge-Brownhills (Wendy Morton) for securing this important debate. She is an absolute champion for her local area, and I know how hard she has worked to secure this debate on Government suppo…
My right hon. Friend has made that point expertly. That is also on the back of a 7.5% increase in council tax after a previous 10% increase.
Finally, after that intervention, I would like to piggyback on my right hon. Friend and thank local Conservative councils, particularly Walsall, and recognise…
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
20 January 2026
Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill
I thank the Minister for giving way; every time he comes to the House, he is most courteous. He mentioned the example of the former Prime Minister, but the former Prime Minister stated very clearly that the negotiations had to result in a “mutually beneficial” agreement. That did not happen, and the…
Commons
Proceedings
19 January 2026
Business Rates: Retail, Hospitality and Leisure
The Minister is talking in numbers, but out there on the doorsteps and in the streets and high streets, I have met a café owner and a publican whose businesses are busier than ever—they are selling more drinks and more food—but whose top line is shrinking because of the decisions being made by this …
Commons
Debate
13 January 2026
Finance (No. 2) Bill
I am sure that, like me, my hon. Friend has been to quite a few pubs in his constituency. Many of my publicans are saying that because of the decisions the Government are making, they have a choice, which is to try to get more customers or to lay off staff. This is affecting pubs who are busy—pubs a…
Commons
Debate
12 January 2026
Finance (No. 2) Bill
My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech. Does he agree that these tax rises are damaging to our middle earners? The number of people who are being dragged into taxation—essentially, a fiscal drag—will increase from 15% in 2010 to 24% by 2030. Does he agree that that is bad for the economy?
Commons
Oral Questions
Housing, Communities and Local Government
12 January 2026
New Homes
With a new year often come new year’s resolutions. Will the Secretary of State make a new year’s resolution to accept the truth that the Government will not meet their 1.5 million housing target, which he set out? Will he confirm that he still thinks his job is on the line if he does not achieve tha…
Commons
Westminster Hall
17 December 2025
4 contributions
Housing Development: Cumulative Impacts
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Twigg. I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Member for East Hampshire (Damian Hinds) on raising this important issue for debate today. He and I—as well as our hon. Friend the Member for Farnham and Bordon (Gregory Stafford) —represent stunning…
The hon. Gentleman is absolutely correct. My right hon. Friend the Member for East Hampshire and my hon. Friend the Member for Farnham and Bordon made that point, I was about to make it, and the hon. Gentleman’s Liberal Democrat colleagues also made it, so there is universal acclaim for his claim, b…
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
16 December 2025
Electoral Resilience
I thank the Secretary of State for giving me advance sight of his statement. Let me begin by saying that protecting the integrity of our democratic system from foreign interference is not a partisan issue. It goes to the heart of public trust in our elections. Interference in our elections by foreig…
Commons
Westminster Hall
16 December 2025
8 contributions
Quarries: Planning Policy
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Murrison. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for South Leicestershire (Alberto Costa) on securing the debate, which is vital to me and my constituents.
Over the past six years, since being elected in 2019, I have been fighting against a pr…
The hon. Gentleman is absolutely correct. His situation sounds very similar to mine. I do not blame the Minister, as she has inherited a system that has been in place for decades, but what confidence can local people have in maintaining high standards when they are not in the guidance? What confiden…
+6 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
10 December 2025
Conduct of the Chancellor of the Exchequer
As usual, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury is out here defending the Chancellor. I feel quite sorry for him. He has reeled off a number of policies that his Chancellor and his Government have made a choice about, but before the election, the Chancellor said that those choices would be on the back…
Commons
Debate
10 December 2025
2 contributions
Seasonal Work
Like me, the shadow Secretary of State will have been out in the constituency speaking to small businesses, and I am sure that Labour MPs will have been doing the same over the weekend. A local publican told me that that she would have to lay off staff in January because of the extra taxes that the …
I thank the hon. Lady for giving way; she is being characteristically courteous. She is entirely correct in outlining the choices and some of the policies that her Government have made, but does she not agree that those choices and policies will be delivered on the back of higher taxation? As a resu…
Commons
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister
3 December 2025
Engagements
Q7. In 2020, the Justice Secretary said:“Criminal trials without juries are a bad idea”,and the Prime Minister himself has said that there should be “a right of trial by jury in all criminal cases”,but now they want to scrap trials by jury. With a Chancellor who cannot count and a Justice Secretary …
Commons
Westminster Hall
3 December 2025
Oxford to Cambridge Growth Corridor
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Jeremy. I congratulate the hon. Member for Cambridge (Daniel Zeichner) on securing this important debate on the Oxford-Cambridge growth corridor, an area of enormous potential, world-class institutions and a genuine capacity to drive innovation …
Commons
Proceedings
2 December 2025
2 contributions
Budget Resolutions
Will the Secretary of State give way?
I am grateful to the Secretary of State for intervening, but this is my intervention, not his. Why was he part of a Cabinet that stood by and punished his colleagues for voting against the two-child benefit cap? Why do we now see this sudden conversion and revisionism? Why does he think that most pe…
Commons
Proceedings
1 December 2025
Budget Resolutions
My hon. Friend is right. My constituency on the south coast has Oil Spill Response Ltd, which tackles oil spills. At a recent event, the vice-president of a very big oil company said that it was essentially closing up its operations in the UK and moving 50 miles up the road to Norway. Has she found …
Commons
Oral Questions
1 December 2025
2 contributions
Free School Applications
13. What her planned timetable is for decision on existing free school applications.
Parents and pupils deserve a school system that builds on success, not one that holds it back. The coalition Government opened 24 free schools in 500 days, yet this Government have spent over 400 days reviewing 44 already-approved schools. Free schools outperform non-selective state schools at every…
Commons
Debate
24 November 2025
26 contributions
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
I echo the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Harwich and North Essex (Sir Bernard Jenkin). In Committee, the Minister outlined that she wants this process to be a happy one, but may I ask her to confirm one point on the Floor of the House? If local authorities do not wish to go through loc…
May I begin by welcoming the Minister to her place? We spent a long time together on the Bill Committee, working cross-party, along with many other Members on both sides of the House. They included the Statler and Waldorf of the Committee, the hon. Member for Camborne and Redruth (Perran Moon) and t…
+24 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
24 November 2025
2 contributions
East Sussex County Council: Elections
The Secretary of State really needs to do better than that. With local government reform not being in the Labour party manifesto and with the Prime Minister last week refusing to rule out further cancellations of local elections, will the Secretary of State now rule out—not “intention” but rule out—…
Here we go again: it is the Secretary of State’s “intention”. I remind him that he actually leads his Department and can set the legislation going forward. He needs to accept that the uncertainty created by this Government in relation to local government reorganisation, on sizes and funding, has mea…
Commons
Debate
4 November 2025
Supporting High Streets
The hon. Lady is right to recognise the advances made as a result of our having named neighbourhood officers. Will she therefore congratulate the Conservative police and crime commissioner, Donna Jones, who brought in that policy before the hon. Lady’s Government did?
Commons
Oral Questions
Defence
3 November 2025
2 contributions
Drone Procurement
23. What steps he is taking to reduce the time taken to procure drones for the armed forces.
I refer the House to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests.
The Minister may be aware of Domo Tactical Communications, a drone manufacturer in my constituency that I have raised in written questions before. Will he uphold the visit that was due to take place by his predecessor be…
Commons
Westminster Hall
29 October 2025
7 contributions
Independent Lifeboats: Government Support
I beg to move,
That this House has considered Government support for independent lifeboats.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Harris. I am grateful for the opportunity to introduce this important debate to Westminster Hall, and grateful to hon. Members attending the debate for…
I thank my hon. Friend, who is nearly my constituency neighbour. He is absolutely right to pay tribute to Hayling Island RNLI lifeboat and the coastguard rescue team based in his constituency. It is important to realise, as I will discuss later in my speech, that although the RNLI does an amazing jo…
+5 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
21 October 2025
Children’s Hospices: Ringfenced Funding
This funding is welcome, but hospices such as Mountbatten in my area are still making cuts because of the budgetary choices that the Chancellor made and ICB practices. This is a multi-year funding settlement, but multi-year funding settlements need to be longer. Will the Minister commit to including…
Commons
Debate
20 October 2025
3 contributions
Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill
Reports today suggest that China and India are entering into negotiations to sign leases to islands surrounding those on which British military operations will continue under the proposed lease agreement. Does she think that connection to China would be a risk and pose a threat to national security?
Does the right hon. Member share my dismay that, despite a Government majority of over 170 and the fact that there are over 400 Government MPs, on an issue of national security only one Government Back Bencher spoke in this debate? Does he think that is an indication of how the Labour party views na…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
13 October 2025
Homelessness
I welcome the Minister to her place. Youth and overall homelessness have increased since the Government took office, and charities have been harmed by policies such as the national insurance rises imposed by the Chancellor. We welcome the additional money that the Government have allocated for tackl…