Commons
Westminster Hall
10 September 2026
Fathers and Positive Male Role Models
It is a pleasure to speak under your chairship, Mrs Hobhouse. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Bishop Auckland (Sam Rushworth) for leading this debate so brilliantly, and of course for securing it. I am sure every dad in this room has at some point been asked, “Are you so-and-so’s dad?” I have,…
Commons
Oral Questions
Housing, Communities and Local Government
7 September 2026
2 contributions
Planning: Green Spaces
1. What steps her Department is taking to ensure that the planning system provides green spaces for communities.
I warmly welcome the Secretary of State and her team to their places. It is fantastic to see my right hon. Friend back at the heart of Government.
This summer’s relentless wildfires have brought home to us in Cannock Chase the vital importance of green spaces and woodlands. However, I have heard fr…
Commons
Oral Questions
Church Commissioners
3 September 2026
2 contributions
Churches: Financial Viability
3. What recent assessment the Church of England has made of the potential impact of payments that churches are required to make to it on the financial viability of those churches.
Whether it is holding coffee mornings to bring people together, stepping in to provide activities for young people where council services have disappeared, or providing affordable spaces for community groups, our churches are part of the fabric of Cannock Chase, but what they do carries a cost. One …
Commons
Proceedings
3 September 2026
Bluetongue Virus in Livestock
Bluetongue is causing misery in my county of Staffordshire, which has seen the biggest growth in cases in our region. The more vociferous spread and longer season due to the heat this summer underlines the urgent need for disease outbreak preparedness to be a key plank of Britain’s adaptation to cli…
Commons
Westminster Hall
3 September 2026
Vaccination Rates: England
It is a pleasure to serve under you in the Chair, Mrs Barker. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Danny Beales) for securing the debate. I am the parent of two children who had plenty of vaccinations. One of them took it in her stride and the other made the biggest dram…
Commons
Oral Questions
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
9 July 2026
2 contributions
Agri-tech Sector
8. What steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to support the agri-tech sector.
The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee recently had the privilege of visiting New Zealand. We met an Innovate UK delegation promoting incredible British agri-tech innovations like cups that enable substrate-free hydroponics, vegetables that have 40 times the iron content, and AI analysis …
Commons
Westminster Hall
9 July 2026
Lobular Breast Cancer: Moon Shot Project
It is a real pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Hobhouse. Thank you for the reminder. I very sincerely thank the hon. Member for Horsham (John Milne) for leading the effort to secure this debate and for his incredibly powerful speech. His recounting of Susan’s final visit to Parliament and …
Commons
Debate
6 July 2026
Environmental Protection
Cannock Chase knows all too well the impact of waste crime, and especially that of fly-tipping. Residents of Norton Canes and Little Wyrley in particular find that our country lanes, easily accessible from Walsall and Wolverhampton, are blighted by illegal dumps that are often huge and dangerous. I …
Commons
Proceedings
1 July 2026
Points of Order
On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. I seek your guidance on how we can ensure that all Members of this House observe the courtesy of letting other Members know when they will be in their constituency. Last Friday, the hon. Member for Ashfield (Lee Anderson) was a keynote speaker at a Reform U…
Commons
Westminster Hall
24 June 2026
Farming: Financial Sustainability
I thank my hon. Friend the Member for North Northumberland (David Smith) for securing the debate. I have been applying for a debate on this subject for many months, so it is great that we are having one. I warmly welcome the new farming Minister to his place, too.
I recently had a catch-up with far…
Commons
Oral Questions
Treasury
23 June 2026
2 contributions
Household Budgets
14. What steps she has taken to help support households with the cost of living.
The Chancellor will know that I have raised the need to take action on the costs faced by farmers and families alike, both of which she has done. The great British summer savings scheme will be a brilliant help with the cost of giving kids a great school holiday, particularly the free bus travel for…
Commons
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister
20 May 2026
Engagements
Q6. Trump’s war in Iran means that the world will have to contend with a spike in inflation throughout this year. Many of my constituents struggle to afford their weekly shop, while our farmers struggle to make a living by producing what goes on the shelves. Labour Governments should always be on th…
Commons
Proceedings
23 April 2026
Allied Health Professionals
I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock (Jen Craft) for leading the debate and my hon. Friend the Member for Dudley (Sonia Kumar), who has done so much incredible work as a physiotherapist previously and a staunch advocate of allied health professionals since her first day in this House. I pa…
Commons
Oral Questions
23 April 2026
Business of the House
Type 1 diabetes with disordered eating, or T1DE for short, is a lethal combination of two conditions, but pilot sites set up to trial bespoke NHS services that bring specialists from both fields together have closed down due to funding coming to an end, including two earlier this month. The all-part…
Commons
Debate
26 March 2026
Business of the House
In recent weeks, I have heard from many fathers in my constituency concerned about the attitude they have encountered from the Child Maintenance Service and the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service, including assumptions that they are trying to shirk payments, absence of support wh…
Commons
Westminster Hall
26 March 2026
9 contributions
Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and Craniocervical Instability
I beg to move,
That this House has considered outcomes for patients with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and craniocervical instability.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Furness. Before I start my speech, I thank the Backbench Business Committee for granting us the time for this debate. I…
I completely agree with my hon. Friend. In this country, we are incredibly proud of our NHS and the care that it can give people who have very common or very rare conditions. However, as I will set out further, and as he has just said, so many people with these two conditions feel very unseen, and w…
+7 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
23 March 2026
2 contributions
Puberty Blockers Clinical Trial
It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mr Mundell. At the outset, I want to acknowledge the strength of feeling on all sides of this debate, and our responsibility in this House to provide clarity that is grounded in evidence and centred on the wellbeing of the young people we are talking about.
…
In the interest of time, I will not.
Although I respect the concerns that have led many to sign the petition, I urge colleagues to reflect on the consequences of the course of action it proposes. Cancelling research does not resolve uncertainty, but entrenches it. In doing so, it risks leaving vuln…
Commons
Debate
12 March 2026
2 contributions
International Women’s Day
It is a pleasure to speak in today’s phenomenal debate marking International Women’s Day, alongside so many remarkable women from across this House, including the hon. Member for Gorton and Denton (Hannah Spencer), who gave an inspiring maiden speech. Although she is no longer in her place, I partic…
I completely agree with the hon. Lady. Allyship across many different characteristics is essential, but I have always felt that anything that men can do to echo and raise up the voices of women is incredibly powerful. We should take that seriously and not shy away from it in debates such as this one…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
12 March 2026
Business of the House
Having heard that the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government will soon decide on the next round of Pride in Place funding, I would like to plug my constituency. It is my honour to represent proud communities, but many, like Chadsmoor and the Rugeley Springfields estate, were hit hard …
Commons
Oral Questions
Business and Trade
12 March 2026
2 contributions
Parental Rights at Work
22. What recent progress he has made on improving parental rights at work.
Many of us on the Labour Benches have long argued for a boost to paternity leave, which is one of the proudest achievements of the last Labour Government, but one group being let down badly is self-employed dads. Just one in six of them take leave after their children are born, and it is unpaid leav…
Commons
Oral Questions
11 March 2026
Royal Mail: Universal Service Obligation
Phil from Brereton told me that his wife’s jury service letter arrived too late for her to defer; Colin from Brereton had a hospital letter that arrived three days after the appointment; and Michael from Rugeley waited weeks for a new debit card. Those were first-class letters, so planned reforms to…
Commons
Debate
9 March 2026
Middle East: Economic Update
The Chancellor has taken decisive action to bring down energy bills, but as she noted, those who rely on heating oil are often the most exposed to sudden price shocks. Even in my fairly urban constituency, there are hundreds of households in that position, and some of them have been on touch with me…
Commons
Westminster Hall
9 March 2026
Type 1 Diabetes: Infant Testing
It is a pleasure to contribute to this debate with you in the Chair, Sir Alec. I warmly welcome the Minister to her new role.
Earlier this year, I was contacted by Michelle, the mum of a bright little boy called Toby who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when he was just 20 months old. Michelle to…
Commons
Debate
5 March 2026
Palliative Care
I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for York Central (Rachael Maskell) for securing this debate and, more importantly, for her work and advocacy on palliative care throughout her time in the House. Last August, I visited St Giles hospice in Whittington, just over the border in the Lichfield c…
Commons
Oral Questions
Education
2 March 2026
2 contributions
School SEND Provision
7. What steps she is taking to improve SEND provision in schools.
I have spoken with teachers and special educational needs and disabilities co-ordinators across Cannock Chase, so I know that many schools, such as Longford primary in Cannock and St Joseph’s primary in Rugeley, already have SEND hubs, but with no additional funding, they cannot offer the holistic, …