Commons
Committee Stage
24 March 2026
9 contributions
Representation of the People Bill (Fourth sitting)
I am grateful to the Minister for her explanation in response to my earlier questions. Clause 15 says that a local authority
“must take the steps the authority considers necessary”.
One of the challenges with that is that young people will be placed in different areas of the country. The Bill give…
Does my hon. Friend recall the evidence that we heard about the pilots in Wales? Auto-enrolment was implemented, and when that data was verified, a significant number of voters fell off who should never have been on the roll in the first place. That indicates that there is a risk that auto-enrolment…
+7 more contributions in this session
Commons
Committee Stage
24 March 2026
10 contributions
Representation of the People Bill (Third sitting)
My hon. Friend is making an excellent case. I was elected as a councillor for the first time at the age of 22; at that time, someone had to be 21 to stand in local elections, although they could vote at 18. Inevitably, I think, the Government accepted the argument that there was a serious inconsiste…
Does my hon. Friend recall the last Labour Government’s measures to raise the participation age? They took a very clear view that people at 16 were not mature enough to be trusted to leave school and start working life, and there was legislation compelling them to remain in education or employment-b…
+8 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
23 March 2026
2 contributions
Asylum Seekers: Accommodation
13. How many asylum seekers were in asylum accommodation on (a) 30 September 2025 and (b) 30 June 2024.
The figures published by the Home Office show around a 7% rise in the asylum and dispersal accommodation numbers. My Hillingdon constituents would know, because we have the highest number of asylum seekers per capita of any local authority area in the country, and it is putting huge pressure on the …
Commons
Westminster Hall
17 March 2026
3 contributions
Immigration Reforms
It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Stringer. I draw Members’ attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests: I host a researcher from an asylum charity in my office. I am sure that the Minister is glad to have a friendly face in this debate, so it is particula…
The hon. Member for Woking (Mr Forster) spoke about the absence of Members from certain parties from this Chamber. Those colleagues who we saw scuttling off to Reform have serious questions to answer about why, when given free rein in the Home Office, they failed to implement even the measures that …
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
Defence
16 March 2026
Topical Questions
My constituent, Vijay Odedra, has been telling me how his small business, CapnoTrainer, has been working with the Royal Navy to improve the fighting capacity and resilience of our sailors. While we wait for the defence investment plan, will the Secretary of State tell us what steps he has in mind to…
Commons
Westminster Hall
10 March 2026
Local Government Reorganisation: South-east
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Vickers. I draw the House’s attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests on my roles as an unpaid parliamentary vice-president of both the Local Government Association and London Councils.
I congratulate to the hon. Memb…
Commons
Westminster Hall
3 March 2026
3 contributions
Community Cohesion
It is a pleasure as always, Dr Murrison.
As well as congratulating the hon. Member for Rugby (John Slinger), I would like to say in opening how much value I place on the contributions from the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) and his colleague from Northern Ireland, the hon. Member for East…
I do not think there is any argument against the points that the hon. Member raises, and they reflect things that I am sure we have all heard as constituency MPs. When I visited one of my local synagogues on Friday, the people there talked about the difficulties that some of the children in that com…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Debate
2 March 2026
2 contributions
Representation of the People Bill
This has been a wide-ranging debate, some of which has focused on the generalities of our electoral system. Some Members may have forgotten that we had a referendum on the alternative voting system not so long ago, and the British people delivered a very clear verdict in favour of the existing syste…
I can hear voices challenging that, asking, “So a little bit of crime is okay?” We need to recognise a point similar to those made by Members across the Chamber about crypto. The world is changing. We have very significant and onerous duties for opening a UK bank account and proving our identity, bu…
Commons
Westminster Hall
2 March 2026
Power to Cancel Local Elections
It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Mundell, at a time when Parliament is very active in the world of local government, which shows how much it matters. We heard from my right hon. Friend the Member for Rayleigh and Wickford (Mr Francois) about his local government experience and the…
Commons
Statutory Instrument
25 February 2026
Draft Surrey (Structural Changes) Order 2026
It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Sir Roger.
I am sure we all recognise that when the proceedings in Committee Room 11 of the House of Commons are recorded in the annals of history, it will be noted that this was the afternoon when Surrey died, not with a bang but with a whimper, ins…
Commons
Oral Questions
Housing, Communities and Local Government
23 February 2026
Grey-belt Land
The Minister has set out clearly for the House the key plank of development strategy under the previous Secretary of State: re-designating large parts of our green belt as grey belt. Housing delivery is collapsing, but a recent report identified that London already has capacity for 460,000 additiona…
Commons
Oral Questions
Housing, Communities and Local Government
23 February 2026
Leasehold Reform
According to the Government’s own statistics, 84% of respondents to their consultation said they felt that the system for challenging unfair charges for managing agents and other lease arrangements was not fit for purpose. The Conservatives agree—that is why we legislated to address this in the Leas…
Commons
Debate
11 February 2026
14 contributions
Local Government Finance
The Secretary of State and I will have had long experience of working with Morgan McSweeney during the many days he spent as head of the Labour group at the Local Government Association. I think that influence is reflected in the very political speech we have just heard from the Secretary of State. …
My hon. Friend is absolutely spot on. The analysis produced by the County Councils Network makes a comparison between the funding pressure on statutory services facing the urban councils that are the beneficiaries of the Government’s largesse, which totals £180 million a year, and the budget gap fac…
+12 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
10 February 2026
Inner-London Local Authorities: Funding
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Murrison. I draw hon. Members’ attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. I am a parliamentary vice-president of London Councils and a vice-president of the Local Government Association. I would like to thank those org…
Commons
Debate
9 February 2026
2 contributions
UK-India Free Trade Agreement
Will my hon. Friend reflect on the view, which I hear a good deal in a constituency, which contains very many entrepreneurs both of Indian heritage and with connections to business in India, that this deal shows a Government who are not listening to the voice of business that has that level of exper…
My hon. Friend will recall that during the debates about post-Brexit trade agreements, the highest possible standards of animal welfare were raised frequently across the House on a cross-party basis. The matter my hon. Friend is talking about involves swapping prawns and other types of seafood caugh…
Commons
Oral Questions
Home Department
9 February 2026
Topical Questions
My constituents are concerned about the imminent closure of volunteer-manned Pinner police station, as part of a programme of closure by the Mayor of London that leaves the whole London borough of Harrow with no in-person access to the police. Thus far, the volunteers who man the front desk and I ha…
Commons
Statutory Instrument
21 January 2026
3 contributions
Draft Non-Domestic Rating (Chargeable Amounts) (England) Regulations 2026
It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Turner, for what I think is the first time.
As the Minister outlined, the purpose of the draft regulations is to round off the otherwise larger increases in business rates, but it is important to put that in context. A short time ago, we had a gen…
My hon. Friend has outlined in very clear terms what any of us in this room could on behalf of our constituencies. There will be different local dynamics, but everywhere is suffering as a consequence of the increased taxes on businesses. Government Members might not wish to hear such messages from O…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Debate
20 January 2026
2 contributions
Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill
Will my right hon. Friend give way?
If this is such a good deal, why does my right hon. Friend think that one of my local authorities is having to house hundreds of Chagossians who are fleeing to the UK to escape its consequences?
Commons
Ministerial Statement
19 January 2026
Public Office (Accountability) Bill
In my past life, I spent a good deal of time working on matters affecting victims of child sex abuse and trafficking, so I have a lot of sympathy with the Government’s desire to ensure that the Bill, in its final form, is workable, but it seems there is already a serious risk of ambiguity around the…
Commons
Oral Questions
Housing, Communities and Local Government
12 January 2026
Leasehold Reform
Leaseholders, like renters and prospective homeowners, have been made big promises by this Government. What assessment has the Minister made of the impact of botched local government reorganisation, cuts to the budgets of two thirds of England’s local authorities, delays to elections and the wholesa…
Commons
Proceedings
8 January 2026
Points of Order
On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. May I seek your guidance? The provision of social housing by the London borough of Hillingdon is important to the two thirds of my constituents who are served by that authority. They are therefore concerned that the House may have been inadvertently misled …
Commons
Oral Questions
Transport
8 January 2026
Topical Questions
T5. London tube fares are due to rise by 5.8% this year. Despite that, my constituents, train drivers and station staff are frustrated by ongoing disruption with the tube services to my constituency. The Piccadilly line was out of action for weeks due to leaves on the line before Christmas, and the …
Commons
Ministerial Statement
17 December 2025
Local Government Finance
It is no surprise that the Government sought to sneak this consultation out with the minimum level of attention, proposed, as it was, for simply a written ministerial statement at the last possible second. We can all see that poverty is rising, driven by a shrinking economy and rising unemployment, …
Commons
Debate
15 December 2025
Employment Rights Bill
We are addressing the specific issue of the removal of a limit on the cap. Of course, while this will have a big impact on businesses, it will also have a huge impact on our public sector. Large organisations that employ significant numbers of high-paid professionals, such as the NHS, will see their…
Commons
Proceedings
4 December 2025
3 contributions
Local Elections
(Urgent Question): To ask the Minister if she will make a statement about the cancellation of local elections scheduled for May 2026.
You and I both value local democracy, Mr Speaker. Last week, in response to a question from my hon. Friend the Member for Hamble Valley (Paul Holmes), the Secretary of State told the House that
“the Government’s intention is that all the elections scheduled for next May will go ahead next May.” —[ …
+1 more contribution in this session