Commons
Oral Questions
5 February 2026
Farming Sector Productivity
Farming cashflows are under pressure, and farming businesses need clarity, certainty and clear policy direction from this Government now more than ever. However, with partial U-turns, continuous consultations, new taskforces, road maps, frameworks, reviews and now—finally—an announcement that the re…
Commons
Westminster Hall
21 January 2026
2 contributions
Animal Welfare Strategy for England
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Lewell. It is good to be able to discuss the animal welfare strategy after the Government announced it on 22 December—after Parliament had risen and just before Christmas—in an attempt to avoid scrutiny. I thank the hon. Member for South Derbyshi…
I am very clear: fox hunting was banned in 2002, and any fox hunting that is seen to be taking place is illegal. The fact that trail hunting has been included in the animal welfare strategy is an indication of the Government’s naivety about what is happening. This is not an animal welfare issue; the…
Commons
Oral Questions
20 January 2026
Topical Questions
A 14-year-old child, the son of my constituent Mr Greaves, has been detained by the French state for 440 days. He is a British citizen with no dual nationality. He has received no schooling and, most concerning of all, has not received even a single welfare visit by the British consulate, despite ha…
Commons
Westminster Hall
19 January 2026
27 contributions
Sale of Fireworks
I beg to move,
That this House has considered e-petitions 738192 and 732559 relating to the sale of fireworks.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Pritchard. It is a privilege to introduce the debate on these two petitions on behalf of the Petitions Committee.
It is not the firs…
I thank not only Robert Branch but the numerous deeply concerned constituents; I am sure we all, as Members of Parliament, have received plenty of correspondence about how tougher action must be taken on fireworks. In Riddlesden in my constituency, just before Christmas, fireworks had dramatic impac…
+25 more contributions in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
15 January 2026
Business of the House
In Ilkley, Labour-run Bradford council is shockingly set to remove the town’s free one hour of on-street parking, despite over 4,000 residents objecting to the proposals. That follows a local referendum in the town, in which 90% of residents rejected a blanket 20 mile per hour zone and speed humps, …
Commons
Proceedings
15 January 2026
Digital ID
We know that the Prime Minister was warned many times that voters would not believe the claim that introducing mandatory digital ID was about stopping illegal immigration, but he decided to push on regardless. Does the Minister think it was credible to argue that 67 million people—law-abiding citize…
Commons
Westminster Hall
15 January 2026
2 contributions
Food Inflation
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dame Siobhain. I thank the hon. Member for Hornsey and Friern Barnet (Catherine West) for securing this important debate, throughout which we have heard valuable contributions from Members rightly raising concerns on behalf of their constituents. We…
My hon. Friend makes an excellent point, and he must have known what I was coming on to in my speech. There are many other organisations and companies that are producing excess amounts of food. We need to reduce food waste, which is ridiculously high in this country, and utilise and redistribute hig…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
14 January 2026
Northern Powerhouse Rail
I have spent years fighting to ensure that Bradford is at the heart of the north’s rail network, so I very much welcome today’s announcement. However, after decades of empty promises for the north from Whitehall, my constituents also need clarity. We have seen 13 U-turns in 18 months from this Gover…
Commons
Debate
13 January 2026
Finance (No. 2) Bill
I rise to speak to clause 86 and new clause 26, tabled in the name of the official Opposition, which requires the Government to carry out a review of the impact of the increased level of alcohol duty on our pubs and hospitality sector. All these measures will have a cumulative impact on our hospital…
Commons
Debate
12 January 2026
5 contributions
Finance (No. 2) Bill
Can the Minister explain how we ended up in the bizarre scenario in which two estates—I use the term “estates”, because they need not necessarily be farming businesses; they could be any kind of family business estate—valued at £5 million could generate different amounts of tax for the Treasury, dep…
On practicalities, I would be interested to understand whether the Minister or the Treasury has done any analysis of the impact on the district valuer. There is a real challenge in that when a farm is valued, that value will be disputed by either the Treasury or the agent acting on behalf of the lan…
+3 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
12 January 2026
11 contributions
Call for General Election
I am sure that my hon. Friend will remember the Prime Minister saying that
“not a penny more on your council tax”
would be implemented by this Labour Government, yet constituents in the Worth valley, across Keighley and Ilkley, have experienced a rise of 14.99% in the past two years under Labour-r…
Will the hon. Member acknowledge that, in the history of petitions debates, the two most highly subscribed debates have been on petitions asking for a general election in this Parliament? Does he acknowledge that the fact that both those petitions were signed by more than a million people illustrate…
+9 more contributions in this session
Commons
Proceedings
8 January 2026
Business of the House
Hawarth village hall is a vital community asset in the centre of the Worth valley in my constituency, but it is in desperate need of repair, upgrade and maintenance. Under the last Conservative Government, over £1 million was allocated to this project back in 2021, but since then, the money has sat …
Commons
Oral Questions
Transport
8 January 2026
Topical Questions
The latest cost projection by Labour-run Bradford council for building a pedestrian bridge between Silsden and Steeton over a busy dual carriageway is now a whopping £24 million, and the proposed design looks like some bizarre Scalextric track. Will the Secretary of State meet me to get those ridicu…
Commons
Debate
7 January 2026
3 contributions
Rural Communities
It has been clear that this Government have been a disaster for rural communities. We have heard that loud and clear in the many excellent contributions from Opposition Members that have highlighted the deep concerns of many of our constituents. My right hon. Friend the Member for Skipton and Ripon …
I agree with the hon. Member, and I will come back to that, because it is ridiculous. My hon. Friends the Members for Beaconsfield (Joy Morrissey), for South Shropshire (Stuart Anderson) and for North Dorset (Simon Hoare) made the critical point that this Government should stop playing cat and mouse…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
6 January 2026
Less Survivable Cancers
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Efford. I thank the hon. Member for Wokingham (Clive Jones) for securing this important debate. It is clear that we have all been affected in one way or another by a person we love, or are fond of, being diagnosed with cancer and passing away.
W…
Commons
Debate
16 December 2025
13 contributions
Finance (No. 2) Bill
I am not quite sure whether the Minister believes what he is reading, because UKHospitality has already done the sums on the impact that this Budget is having on many hard-working hospitality businesses across Keighley and Ilkley. Indeed, it has calculated that over the next three years, hospitality…
Business property relief impacts many family businesses across the country. What does the Minister say to Fibreline in my constituency, which has worked out that its BPR liability is about £850,000? The company employs 250 people in Keighley whose jobs are potentially at risk as a result of the busi…
+11 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
16 December 2025
4 contributions
Quarries: Planning Policy
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Murrison. When I first supported my hon. Friend the Member for South Leicestershire (Alberto Costa) in applying for this debate, there was an ongoing planning application in Silsden in my constituency, to reopen a local quarry at Horn Crag. I am …
Will the Minister give way?
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Proceedings
11 December 2025
Business of the House
I pay tribute to five dads from Ilkley—Will, Sam, Martyn, Joe and Dan—who last week walked the entire 82-mile Dales Way, raising over £11,000 for the maternity and neonatal teams at our fantastic Airedale hospital. Between them, they have faced numerous challenges as fathers and are giving back to t…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
9 December 2025
Grooming Gangs: Independent Inquiry
I have an urgent plea for the Home Secretary and the new chair, Baroness Longfield, who I know will be watching. They will both know that, shockingly, Keighley and the wider Bradford district have never had a full independent inquiry despite Ann Cryer raising the alarm more than 20 years ago. I, lea…
Commons
Westminster Hall
9 December 2025
4 contributions
Water Scarcity
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stuart. I thank the hon. Member for Horsham (John Milne) for securing a really important debate on water security and resilience—a topic that has not had as much focus as it deserves for a long time. Water is a vital resource, but one that has ov…
As the hon. Member will know, it is down to the regulator to set how much a water company is able to spend on infrastructure projects. Ofwat has not provided water companies with the flexibility they need to provide the correct level of investment. There is significant frustration about that, and th…
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
8 December 2025
15 contributions
Digital ID
I beg to move,
That this House has considered e-petition 730194 relating to digital ID.
It is a pleasure to introduce today’s e-petition debate under your chairmanship, Sir Edward, and to open it on behalf of the Petitions Committee. I thank all the organisations and individuals I have met in prep…
I cannot agree enough. It raises the question: who is actually in favour of these proposals, other than the Prime Minister?
Despite the consistent opposition to identity documents, this is not the first time that they have been forced on the British public. The first ID card in this country came du…
+13 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
26 November 2025
2 contributions
Budget Resolutions
This Budget was dead on arrival. We were promised that the last autumn Budget was a once-in-a-generation event, but I suggest that the Chancellor may want to correct her record on that claim. Despite setting out to find growth, she has flatlined the economy and tanked employment. Indeed, we now know…
I absolutely agree. The fact that the Met police cancelled today’s pre-organised Budget day protest and rally at the last minute is an absolute disgrace. I was proud to be out on Whitehall today with many of our farming community and my Conservative colleagues. We share their anxiety and concern tha…
Commons
Oral Questions
18 November 2025
Topical Questions
T7. The Minister will know that our peatlands are a vital store of carbon, storing 26 times more carbon than UK forests. Would he therefore agree that green energy projects built on peatland must prove that they will mitigate more carbon than they will release through construction and disturbance of…
Commons
Westminster Hall
18 November 2025
6 contributions
Land Use Change: Food Security
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Murrison. I thank my right hon. Friend the Member for Aldridge-Brownhills (Wendy Morton) for securing this important debate. We have had valuable contributions from Members across the House. I thank everyone for contributing to this debate on lan…
Our position on the family farm tax is absolutely clear: the 100% relief on APR and business property relief needs to remain in place. That is why, as the Conservative party, we are absolutely clear that the family farm tax needs to be axed. When we come to the vote on the Finance Bill, I hope that …
+4 more contributions in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
13 November 2025
Business of the House
Earlier this week, there was a large accidental industrial fire on Pitt Street, in Keighley in my constituency. Nine fire crews attended, some coming from as far away as Mirfield in West Yorkshire. Unfortunately, one person was taken to hospital, and there was a huge amount of damage done to local b…