Commons
Westminster Hall
14 July 2026
Coastal Communities: Isolation and Hidden Deprivation
I thank the hon. Member for Isle of Wight West (Richard Quigley) for throwing the spotlight on the challenges that many of our communities face. More than 20% of Bexhill’s neighbourhoods are among the most deprived in England.
Many of the speeches this morning have focused on what central Governmen…
Commons
Oral Questions
Home Department
13 July 2026
Topical Questions
I want to begin by thanking Madam Deputy Speaker, my hon. Friend the Member for Sussex Weald (Ms Ghani), for securing a meeting with the Minister, local MPs, councillors and residents of Crowborough, where the Minister heard for himself reports of illegal working, groups of young men drinking on the…
Commons
Oral Questions
Justice
30 June 2026
2 contributions
Support for Victims of Abuse
One thing that we know children will contact victim support services about is the letters they receive telling them that their abusers will be getting out of prison earlier. Victim Support supports more than 814,000 victims every year, and its CEO, Katie Kempen, had this to say:
“Having already end…
I am in wholehearted agreement with the Minister that transparency is really important. One thing that would help Victim Support and other organisations to plan their response is knowing how many people are getting out and what offences they have committed, but like us, they are in the dark.
I than…
Commons
Proceedings
29 June 2026
3 contributions
Prisoner Early Release
(Urgent Question): To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will make a statement on the early release of rapists and child groomers.
Imagine being the victim of a serious crime—as serious as rape or child grooming—and receiving a letter saying that the perpetrator who harmed you is going to be let out of prison early. Appallingly, that is the experience right now for thousands of victims of crime, including the victims of some of…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Proceedings
23 June 2026
2 contributions
Defence Spending and Readiness
Shameful!
The challenge we have at the minute is that not only do we have a shadow Opposition, but we have a shadow Government—a whole set of Ministers who will soon be in place. We have someone who is potentially about to become Prime Minister, but we know almost absolutely nothing about his priorities on de…
Commons
Proceedings
15 June 2026
2 contributions
Defence Investment Plan
The former Defence Secretary knew what was in the defence investment plan, thought it was inadequate and resigned as a result. I am sure the Minister would not be so shameless and disrespectful to the House as to spend an hour defending that plan if he himself had not seen it in full, so I have a ve…
Have you seen it?
Commons
Oral Questions
Health and Social Care
9 June 2026
2 contributions
Primary Care: Non-digital Access
2. What steps he is taking to maintain non-digital access to primary care.
I understand why making use of the NHS app and online appointments is sensible and works well for many patients, but I cannot be the only MP to have heard from constituents—you may even have heard from your constituents, Mr Speaker—who struggle with that. They may not have a smartphone. I have met m…
Commons
Oral Questions
Energy Security and Net Zero
2 June 2026
2 contributions
Deep Geothermal Energy
2. What steps he is taking to help support the development of deep geothermal energy.
Deep geothermal has great potential for left-behind communities in this country, and it is a first-class transition industry for our oil and gas workforce. I welcome the Minister’s comments and the positive engagement with the Minister in the other place, who is a huge champion of deep geothermal, b…
Commons
Oral Questions
Justice
19 May 2026
2 contributions
Violence against Women and Girls
I welcome the new Minister to her post. For all the policies she might be glad to inherit, she is also inheriting a plan later this year to let out potentially thousands of the worst offenders against women and girls, including rapists and those responsible for sexual assault. The Government are ref…
I ask the Minister to think about a situation in which a victim of rape comes to her constituency surgery whose rapist is currently in prison but will now get out of prison earlier. I wonder what that victim would think about the answer the Minister has just given to a serious question about a serio…
Commons
Debate
28 April 2026
Referral of Prime Minister to Committee of Privileges
I refer the hon. Member to the words of Mr Speaker earlier. It is the Speaker who decides whether a privilege motion goes ahead. The hon. Member is criticising Mr Speaker for having allowed it.
Commons
Debate
27 April 2026
Public Office (Accountability) Bill (Carry-over)
Let me say at the outset that the Opposition continue to support the broad aims of the Bill, as we have done throughout its passage. We recognise the importance of candour, transparency and accountability in public life and recognise the long and determined work of those campaigners, including the H…
Commons
Debate
27 April 2026
3 contributions
Northern Ireland Troubles Bill (Carry-over)
Will the Secretary of State give way?
The Secretary of State will have to work extremely hard to secure the trust of veterans on both sides of this argument. If he cannot clearly condemn what are clearly outrageous remarks about our armed forces personnel, how does he expect them to trust him?
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Debate
27 April 2026
Lord Mandelson Humble Address: Government Response Update
I politely say that the Minister’s overly sincere, butter-wouldn’t-melt-in-his-mouth act is beginning to wear thin—the way he suggests that the process he is going through has not put a foot wrong. He has repeatedly failed to answer questions that I put to him with candour around Mandelson, despite …
Commons
Oral Questions
27 April 2026
2 contributions
Child Maintenance Payments: Non-compliance
7. Whether he plans to introduce curfew orders for parents who are non-compliant with child maintenance payments.
Every year, millions of pounds of child maintenance go unspent, not including deductions for money hidden away and parents who pretend they cannot work. As far as I am concerned, if someone has children and they can pay towards their maintenance, they absolutely should. Enforcement is not working, b…
Commons
Debate
20 April 2026
2 contributions
Victims and Courts Bill
There will be some back and forth about who wants what elements of this scheme and in what ways, but I think the Minister was wrong to say that our focus was on it being for everybody. I have been clear from the start that our focus was also on extending the provision for victims and their families,…
It is a pleasure to take part in this debate on the Lords message on the Victims and Courts Bill.
The Bill has been debated extensively in the other place. I thank the Lords for their care and consideration in trying to improve it, as we tried to do in the Commons. Members will know that, when the …
Commons
Debate
20 April 2026
Security Vetting
The Prime Minister is suggesting that the idea that the security services had concerns about this appointment was a bolt from the blue to him two weeks ago, despite the fact it had been on the front page of a national newspaper in September. However, my question is not about the vetting file, becaus…
Commons
Westminster Hall
15 April 2026
3 contributions
Cost of Heating Oil
I am grateful for this opportunity to talk about heating oil in my constituency. About 10% of its households are on heating oil and they have spoken directly to me, both by email and by filling in a survey—I am grateful to everyone who filled in that survey—telling me how much of an impact the issue…
On a point of order, Dr Allin-Khan. I should have declared an interest as a heating oil user and someone directly involved.
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Debate
14 April 2026
3 contributions
Dualling of the A21
It is a pleasure to have secured this Adjournment debate on the dualling of the A21 in my constituency. I thank the House authorities for giving me this opportunity, because the condition of the A21—the key strategic route serving the constituency of Bexhill and Battle—is incredibly important.
The …
First, will the Minister advise me on what to do if something is not even in the long pipeline? What does an MP have to do to get it put into the long pipeline? Secondly, if the Minister is not considering dualling, perhaps the next best thing in some of the villages that are particularly hard hit w…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Committee Stage
14 April 2026
47 contributions
Courts and Tribunals Bill (Fourth sitting)
The Minister is to some extent varying her argument. Earlier in the debate, she accepted that these things are a matter of gravity and of weighing up, and inherent in saying that is that the Minister must accept that there are less and more fair ways of doing things. The point the Minister is now ma…
The Minister is somewhat chopping and changing her arguments. I can stand up and say that if budgets and resources were no issue, I would prefer every case to go to a jury trial. I can say that; I can be consistent that that is my preference, because I think they are, in some respects, a superior fo…
+45 more contributions in this session
Commons
Committee Stage
14 April 2026
22 contributions
Courts and Tribunals Bill (Third sitting)
I beg to move amendment 38, in clause 1, page 3, lines 20, at end insert—
“, but see subsection (10).
(10) Notwithstanding the preceding subsections, the accused may elect to be tried on indictment if he demonstrates to the court that the circumstances of his case are such that to be tried on summ…
It is a pleasure to have you with us, Ms Jardine, and I look forward to this first of many Committee sittings. I am pleased to begin line-by-line scrutiny of the Bill, beginning with clause 1 and the Opposition amendment tabled in my name.
The clause is a helpful place to start our considerations b…
+20 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
26 March 2026
Local Government Reorganisation
Labour is causing chaos in local government in East Sussex. After firing the starting gun on tearing up our local government boundaries—something that no resident in East Sussex wanted and that was not in its manifesto—the Government now will not let us out the blocks. My residents are absolutely cl…
Commons
Westminster Hall
26 March 2026
Prison Officers: Mandatory Body Armour
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Betts. I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Member for New Forest East (Sir Julian Lewis) on securing this important debate. I also thank the hon. Member for Washington and Gateshead South (Mrs Hodgson) for the work that she has done in relati…
Commons
Westminster Hall
23 March 2026
Court and Tribunal Transcripts
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Pritchard. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Keighley and Ilkley (Robbie Moore) for opening the debate on behalf of the Petitions Committee. He is proving himself to be a consistent and doughty champion of victims and the issues that they rai…
Commons
Oral Questions
17 March 2026
2 contributions
Violence against Women and Girls
Right now there are potentially thousands of rapists, paedophiles and perverts, who are responsible for some of the worst offences against women and girls, who this Government are going to let out of prison earlier. That is a disgrace, and at the very least the Government should be transparent about…
I wish that the Minister got as angry about the fact that her Government are releasing thousands of rapists, paedophiles and perverts from prison early. If the Government will not tell us about the reality of the consequences, surely they should at least tell the victims. One of the worst aspects of…