Commons
Debate
30 October 2025
2 contributions
Property Service Charges
To that point about councils not having yet adopted such things as the roads or pavements, I have the example of Pebble Beach in Seaton where I represent, where residents have been charged fees and even threatened with legal action before the estate has been handed from the developer to the property…
The hon. Member talks about secondary legislation when suggesting what should happen next. The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act provides protections for leaseholders on private managed estates; it enables them to go to a tribunal to challenge management charges. Does he think that that ought to exi…
Commons
Proceedings
30 October 2025
Israel-Palestine Conflict: Government Response
I am grateful to the Chair of the Committee for her statement. In this place, we use the phrase “two-state solution” very readily and often, so much so that it becomes a cliché. Our visit as a Committee to the Knesset revealed just how limited support for a two-state solution is there.
I was please…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
29 October 2025
UK-Türkiye Typhoon Export Deal
I warmly welcome this Typhoon export deal not only for entailing the strengthening of the NATO alliance, but for the jobs it will bring to the south-west of England. Plainly, these expensive Typhoon platforms will not be subject to re-export and are bound for Türkiye. However, given that UK manufact…
Commons
Proceedings
29 October 2025
Asylum Seekers: MOD Housing
The UK is spending a fifth of its official development assistance budget on hotel bills. Some of that money was previously used to prevent conflict and to help refugees find refuge in their own regions. I served with an Army training regiment at Crowborough, one of the two sites, and I consider that…
Commons
Proceedings
29 October 2025
Gaza and Hamas
The Israel Defence Forces said this morning that they had
“renewed enforcement of the ceasefire”.
The strikes are reported to have killed 20 women and 46 children following the death of one IDF soldier. President Trump’s peace plan makes provision for Arab states to commit stabilisation forces. I …
Commons
Westminster Hall
29 October 2025
2 contributions
Vehicle Headlight Glare Standards
It is an honour to serve with you in the Chair, Mrs Harris.
As the clocks go back and evenings grow darker, drivers in Devon are finding that dazzling headlights are no longer just a nuisance, but a real danger on our roads. This week, for the first time since summer, many of the people I represent…
I honestly do not think that we can make this the responsibility of every individual driver; it is our job to come here and legislate on collective problems such as this one.
The problem is especially serious in rural areas such as the one I represent, where the population tends to be older than ac…
Commons
Oral Questions
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
28 October 2025
Ukraine
The US President was willing to meet the Russian President in Budapest, in spite of the fact that we gave assurances in Budapest in that 1994 memorandum that have since been ignored. Although that meeting will not now go ahead, can the Foreign Secretary share the Government’s latest thinking about f…
Commons
Debate
27 October 2025
Prisoner Release Checks
The breakout from prison of Hadush Kebatu sounds less like “The Great Escape” and more like “Fawlty Towers”. It has helped bring to light that 262 prisoners were released by mistake last year and 115 the year before. On mistaken releases, what assurance can the Justice Secretary offer that the respo…
Commons
Debate
27 October 2025
North Sea Oil and Gas Industry
The United Kingdom’s electricity price is set by gas 98% of the time. By contrast, the electricity price in the European Union is set by gas less than 40% of the time. If the electricity price in the UK were set by the price of clean energy more often, would the UK not be a more attractive destinati…
Commons
Westminster Hall
22 October 2025
2 contributions
Korean War: 75th Commemoration
It is an honour to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Twigg. I am grateful to the right hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith). I am reminded that it was only last month that we heard him pay tribute to the courage of his father in the battle of Britain. It is in the same …
We absolutely must pay tribute to journalists who continue to report in some of the most dangerous circumstances. Even this year, hundreds of journalists have lost their lives in conflict.
Private Hamson was among those who did not return from the famous battle of Imjin river. His courage and sacri…
Commons
Westminster Hall
21 October 2025
Mandatory Digital ID
I have serious concerns about digital ID, based on civil liberties, data security and practical delivery. First, on civil liberties, we should remember that although we may live in a benign social democracy today, that cannot be guaranteed in the future. When bestowing new powers on Government, MPs …
Commons
Oral Questions
Education
20 October 2025
Free School Meals: Eligibility Criteria
Under the existing criteria for free school meals, university maths schools have an excellent record for widening participation. We know that 7% of A-level maths students across the country are eligible for free school meals, compared with 13% of students at university maths schools. Will the Govern…
Commons
Westminster Hall
20 October 2025
6 contributions
Asylum Seekers: Support and Accommodation
It is an honour to serve with you in the Chair, Dr Murrison.
I can entirely understand where the petitioners are coming from. After all, hotels are holiday accommodation, and for most people, the idea of spending a few days a year in a hotel is desirable—if probably unaffordable as things are at th…
My hon. Friend is entirely right. The Government have to speed up decisions, cut backlogs and return those asylum seekers who are unsuccessful in their applications and have no right to stay, and they must that so swiftly.
+4 more contributions in this session
Commons
Proceedings
16 October 2025
Official Secrets Act Case: Witness Statements
Leaders should delegate responsibility but not accountability. The argument at Prime Minister’s questions yesterday revolved around whether a Minister or a special adviser had influenced the collapse of the case, and it was established that neither Ministers nor special advisers had involvement in t…
Commons
Oral Questions
Church Commissioners
16 October 2025
Small Churches in Rural Constituencies
Under the Local Government Act 1972, parochial church councils may serve notice requiring parish or district councils to assume responsibility for the maintenance of closed churchyards. Local government reorganisation and the creation of unitary authorities is requiring parish councils to take on mo…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
15 October 2025
Ukraine
The Foreign Secretary mentioned that Speaker Stefanchuk of the Ukrainian Parliament—the Rada—was in the Gallery earlier today. He also met members of the all-party parliamentary group on Ukraine, when he drew a parallel between western sanctions packages and versions of the Apple iPhone: it feels li…
Commons
Debate
15 October 2025
Jhoots Pharmacy
We have heard again this afternoon the line from the Minister that pharmacy staff are employed not by the NHS but by pharmacy businesses, and that this is just a dispute between staff and the pharmacy business that should be raised in the first instance with ACAS. Holli Froggatt from Sidmouth, a for…
Commons
Debate
13 October 2025
Digital ID
I have been contacted by a contractor who worked on the last Labour Government’s ID card scheme. He wrote to me that
“it was a massive waste of money”
and suggested that it could be like
“writing Fujitsu a blank cheque”.
What sum are the Government setting aside for that cheque to the contractor…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
13 October 2025
Security Update: Official Secrets Act Case
In 2023 the Intelligence and Security Committee published a report on China in which it wrote that China was a “whole-of-state threat”. In their 2023 public response to the ISC report, the Government wrote that they recognised
“the committee’s concerns about the long-term strategic challenge”.
The…
Commons
Westminster Hall
13 October 2025
Bovine Tuberculosis Control and Badger Culling
That sounds like a case in the area I represent, where Rachel and Andrew Webber had TB found. They then introduced an additional 11 cows, but the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said they would be compensated for only 50% of the cost of those cows, given that they were introduced …
Commons
Debate
16 September 2025
3 contributions
Ambassador to the United States
I was with the right hon. Gentleman at those Foreign Affairs Committee meetings. We should also say that there was no opportunity for us to quiz Lord Mandelson in a public setting.
The UK has a proud tradition of appointing career civil servants as ambassadors. Our senior diplomatic service is respected worldwide and, while travelling with the Foreign Affairs Committee this year, I have heard high praise for our “Rolls-Royce civil service”. It is professional, reliable and glo…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
Justice
16 September 2025
2 contributions
Court Backlogs
15. What steps he is taking to reduce backlogs in the criminal justice system.
Of 221 people arrested for supporting Palestine Action, 162 were arrested under section 13 of the Terrorism Act 2000. This prohibits people from carrying articles in public which
“arouse reasonable suspicion that an individual is a member or supporter of a proscribed organisation.”
Even the protes…
Commons
Westminster Hall
16 September 2025
International Day of Democracy
I am grateful to the hon. Member for securing this debate on renewing our democracy. First past the post served Labour and the Conservatives well in the 20th century, but the blowing open of electoral politics by smaller political parties means that many more people are now feeling under-represented…
Commons
Debate
11 September 2025
3 contributions
Regional Transport Inequality
I was listening to Radio 4 yesterday evening, and I was hearing about transport problems in London. Let’s face it: when we hear about transport problems in London, we know exactly what they mean, but pity also the poor people in the provinces who rarely come to London but have to hear all about Lond…
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. He points to how it is much more affordable simply to dual a piece of track than it is to invest in new railway lines, as we talked about a lot in the last Parliament.
For students studying at Exeter college, for workers heading into Exeter and for businesses tra…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
11 September 2025
Biosecurity at the Border: Britain’s Illegal Meat Crisis
I should say to my right hon. Friend that I think it is an excellent report—I am amazed to hear that 235 tonnes of illegal meat were detained at the border. On 18 August, the Government announced they will pause the planned introduction of physical checks on live animals at the border with the EU to…