Commons
Debate
17 March 2026
Youth Unemployment
The message from this Dispatch Box is clear: apprenticeships, apprenticeships, apprenticeships. This Government will meet the challenges that we face today with fantastic careers for the next generation, so thank you. SMEs in Darlington are huge engines of growth across the country. Many of the busi…
Commons
Debate
12 March 2026
International Women’s Day
The Minister is making a brilliant speech that lots of us will be feeling very emotional about. Does she agree with me and Members across the House that although increasing the minimum wage is really important, as it disproportionately affects female workers, we also need to restructure how we value…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
12 March 2026
Defending Democracy Taskforce
I put on record my personal thanks to the Minister for the support that he has given to many Members of this House, including newly elected Members like me, and I welcome a newly elected female Member, the hon. Member for Gorton and Denton (Hannah Spencer), to the House today. Will the Minister elab…
Commons
Oral Questions
11 March 2026
Royal Mail: Universal Service Obligation
I would like to put on the record that, despite testimony to the contrary, it is Darlington’s postal workers who are the best in the country. They deliver their service to the best of their abilities, and they also provide a social service; their visit is often the only one that residents get. I wan…
Commons
Debate
9 March 2026
2 contributions
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
I would like to talk to the social media element of the Lords amendments. The argument for stronger protections for children online has been won, not least because of the appalling harms that have come to so many children because of the lack of proper, functioning legislation. I will use my time, wh…
I am interested in the idea of licensing functionalities and new developments before they come into children’s lives, which is not happening at the moment—at the moment it is happening after they have been used for a long time. We are age-analysing and risk-assessing them retrospectively, which seem…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
5 March 2026
Consular Assistance
I thank the Minister for all his work on this ever-changing situation. The Samuels and their two children, who are constituents of mine, are in Dubai at the moment. They are not able to get proper advice from the airlines about the options available to them. Will the Minister elaborate on the work h…
Commons
Debate
24 February 2026
Online Harm: Child Protection
I wanted to ask the hon. Lady about the register and the ranking of age-appropriateness for content. We have sat opposite each other on many occasions discussing this matter. I have grave concerns about who will register those individual self-published bits of content and who will manage it and pay …
Commons
Oral Questions
24 February 2026
Topical Questions
As the Secretary of State knows, Darlington Memorial hospital is part of the County Durham and Darlington NHS foundation trust, which has recently been marred by the scandal of over-operation in breast services. We know that many women came to harm as a result of those failures, but we are yet to fi…
Commons
Westminster Hall
10 February 2026
3 contributions
Young Children’s Screen Time
My hon. Friend—my actual friend—is giving a brilliant speech. I pay tribute to him: he is a brilliant advocate for our generation of parents and also a wonderful dad. Does he agree that parents today are in desperate need of such guidance? I recently met Jonathan Haidt, the author of “The Anxious Ge…
As I said, my hon. Friend is giving a brilliant speech. Does he share my concern that relying solely on parental intervention in relation to this huge swathe of technological advances is not enough? We do not want children to start hiding things from their parents; we want to ensure that they are no…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Debate
3 February 2026
Fish and Chip Sector
If the hon. Member is paying £6 for a coffee, he should come to Darlington where it definitely is not £6. We also have the best plaices for fish and chips, with Yarm Road Fish and Chips and Cockerton Fisheries both winning awards. Please do consider a visit to Darlington to try some really pukka fis…
Commons
Westminster Hall
3 February 2026
2 contributions
Town and City Centre Safety
My hon. Friend is making a great speech, outlining the need for more youth services. In Darlington, I have called for the council to apply a public spaces protection order, which would allow them to remove balaclava-wearing people who commit anti-social behaviour. We are seeing an escalation in such…
My hon. Friend is eloquently making a point about the funding given to the police to eradicate e-bike crime. Does he agree that we would be in a better position if we had more bobbies on bikes? Perhaps the Minister will talk about that in her speech.
Commons
Ministerial Statement
14 January 2026
Northern Powerhouse Rail
We on the Labour Benches are from the north and fight for the north, and this Labour Government will deliver the economic justice that we deserve in the north. As the Secretary of State will agree, I am sure, Darlington is the home of the railways, with our proud industrial history of British rail m…
Commons
Debate
12 January 2026
Social Media: Non-consensual Sexual Deepfakes
I welcome the Secretary of State’s swift action—all power to her. Long before this Grok app was invented, I met a father whose daughter had taken her own life after an overly sexualised fake image was circulated of her at school. That is the impact of these unregulated actions by anonymous people. W…
Commons
Westminster Hall
6 January 2026
Therapeutic Play and Children’s Healthcare
I thank my hon. Friend for the really interesting and informed speech he is giving—he is giving it quickly, so I will be quick with my intervention. Does he agree that just as play is essential in hospitals, it is also really important for parents? Therapeutic play can have a large impact on post-na…
Commons
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister
17 December 2025
Engagements
Q4. Merry Christmas to you, Mr Speaker, and all your fantastic staff. The year 2025 has been momentous for Darlington—Britain’s best town—but there is much more to do. I met a lovely woman when I was out door-knocking recently, who works 12-hour night shifts at a care home in the town. Her colleague…
Commons
Oral Questions
16 December 2025
Topical Questions
Earlier this year, a man was convicted by a jury of sexual assault of a child under the age of 13. This vile perpetrator was given a suspended sentence, with his mental health cited as the reason. He was spared prison and, crucially, his mental health had no impact on his culpability for this horrib…
Commons
Westminster Hall
15 December 2025
3 contributions
Online Safety Act 2023: Repeal
My hon. Friend is making a clear and coherent speech. I surveyed 1,000 young people in my constituency, and the forum leads of my online safety forum said that they had found graphic and disturbing content, which they had never searched for, regularly fed to them through the algorithms. Does the hon…
I thank my hon. Friend for giving way and for being so generous with his time. Can we also pass on to the Minister that, going forward, there is a possibility to brand bots? That would require the Online Safety Act to be amended to make sure that any profile that is a bot—generated by AI—is explicit…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Debate
26 November 2025
2 contributions
Budget Resolutions
Does the hon. Member therefore agree on the point in this Budget around investing £16 million in a cutting-edge science, technology, engineering and maths centre in my constituency to enable us to repair the post-Conservative scarring that we felt as a community, as we saw the hollowing out of our m…
I wholeheartedly agree with the hon. Member that the child maintenance system needs reforming. Does he agree that, in 2010, it was wrong of the Conservative and Lib Dem coalition to introduce a £50 access fee for people who were trying to get the money that the absent parent of their child was refus…
Commons
Debate
27 October 2025
Victims and Courts Bill
I thank my hon. Friend for giving way in a crucial part of her speech. In the work that she is doing, I implore her to remember my constituent, whose sister Rita Roberts was brutally murdered in 1992 and not formally identified until 2023. Rita has still not had justice, as she was murdered abroad, …
Commons
Westminster Hall
27 October 2025
2 contributions
Statutory Maternity and Paternity Pay
Will the hon. Lady give way?
I have raised many times in this Chamber the inequality of paternity rights when it comes to unfair dismissal. Addressing that would not cost the taxpayer or businesses anything, because protection is already in place for those who take shared parental leave, maternity leave and adoption leave. Will…
Commons
Oral Questions
Church Commissioners
16 October 2025
Small Churches in Rural Constituencies
St John’s church in Darlington, an iconic church that makes up the skyline of our great town, has recently been put up for sale. Will the Commissioner meet me to discuss exactly what criteria the community needs to meet to ensure that we can repurpose the church as a building of social value?
Commons
Westminster Hall
15 September 2025
Children with SEND: Assessments and Support
The system facing children with additional needs and their parents is badly broken. I have heard truly horrific stories of deep failures of duty to vulnerable children. Many hon. Members have covered the same points, so I will use my limited time to outline the reforms that parents at my Darlington …
Commons
Ministerial Statement
11 September 2025
Business of the House
I welcome the Leader of the House to his new role and hope to see him being as generous with Government time as he was with his own time in his previous role. As he knows well, this month our country will celebrate 200 years since the world’s first passenger railway journey took place on the Stockto…
Commons
Oral Questions
Treasury
9 September 2025
Employer National Insurance Contributions: Economic Growth
This month, we see an expansion of childcare that will benefit families in my constituency to the tune of £7 million, which will go back into their pockets. What assessment has the Minister made of how that spending power will benefit growth across the economy and productivity?
Commons
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister
3 September 2025
Engagements
Q10. Prime Minister, last year, my online safety forum of children and young people from every secondary school and college in Darlington found that 71% of our year 10s and 12s had been contacted by a stranger online, a shocking failure that our Online Safety Act will hopefully prevent going forward…