Commons
Debate
27 April 2026
Public Office (Accountability) Bill (Carry-over)
Ten years ago yesterday, the Hillsborough inquest jury delivered its historic verdict, concluding that 96 Liverpool fans who died at Hillsborough in 1989 were unlawfully killed. In the years since, the 96 have become 97. The families continue to campaign with dignity and determination for the Hillsb…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
22 April 2026
Pension Schemes
I welcome the Minister’s statement, especially the news of the termination of the Royal Mail pension scheme contract to Capita. As he knows, Capita’s management of the civil service pension scheme has been an absolute shambles. I have constituents who cannot meet their mortgage payments, are having …
Commons
Debate
20 April 2026
Victims and Courts Bill
I want to focus on one of the flagship measures in the Bill: clause 1, headed “Power to compel attendance at sentencing hearing”. This law has been fought for—and will today be won—by my constituent Cheryl Korbel. It will compel convicted criminals to attend their sentencing hearings, and will ensur…
Commons
Westminster Hall
25 March 2026
5 contributions
Waste Crime: Knowsley
I beg to move,
That this House has considered the matter of waste crime in Knowsley.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Efford. I am really pleased to have secured this debate on waste crime in Knowsley. I know this is something that my hon. Friend the Minister cares deeply abou…
I thank the hon. Gentleman for that intervention, which will come as a surprise to no one. Yes, I know that Labour’s waste-crime action plan addresses many of the concerns that he has raised, and I am sure that the Minister will go into that in more detail in her response.
+3 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
19 March 2026
Business of the House
Capita’s management of the civil service pension scheme—the latest in a string of failures—is a total disaster. My constituents are dealing with errors and delays, and are struggling to make ends meet, yet we are rewarding Capita by handing it another multimillion-pound contract. Can we have a debat…
Commons
Oral Questions
Work and Pensions
9 March 2026
2 contributions
Support for NEET Young People
21. What steps he is taking to support young people into employment, education or training.
Last week I met with Knowsley chamber of commerce, and we all welcomed the Government’s youth guarantee. Some 55,000 placements is a great start, but no scheme starts are currently planned in Knowsley, where the likelihood of young people not being in employment, education or training is higher than…
Commons
Oral Questions
Education
2 March 2026
2 contributions
National Year of Reading: Phonics
11. What steps she is taking through the National Year of Reading 2026 to improve phonics attainment at key stage 1.
As the Secretary of State said, 2026 is the National Year of Reading. This week, I am reading “Ghost Town” by Jeff Young. Reading changed my life, and in fact I read a book a week. In Knowsley, one in four children fail their key stage 1 phonics standards, so will the Minister tell me how the Nation…
Commons
Debate
11 February 2026
Local Government Finance
After 14 years of the Tories and coalition Governments, councils like mine in Knowsley were cut to the bone. When I was elected, my constituency was the third most deprived constituency in the country—we did not just experience pressure; we were absolutely stretched to breaking point—and deep and su…
Commons
Debate
4 February 2026
Lord Mandelson
Will the Minister clarify that the documentation will go to the ISC, and that the ISC, not the Cabinet Secretary, will be the decision maker on risk to national security and international relationships, and on what should be in the public domain?
Commons
Westminster Hall
4 February 2026
Civil Service Pension Scheme: Administration
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Lewell.
As so many colleagues have said, at the heart of this debate are people who have worked as public servants, many of them for decades. Everything that I am getting in my mailbox relates to hard-working people who have tried to do the righ…
Commons
Oral Questions
Justice
3 February 2026
2 contributions
Parole Board Hearings
8. What assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of Parole Board hearings on victims and their families.
Members of James Bulger’s family are my constituents, and they are yet again facing the agony of another parole hearing for Jon Venables, an ordeal that continues to retraumatise them more than 30 years after James’s horrific murder. While Parole Board decisions are rightly independent, the system m…
Commons
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister
28 January 2026
2 contributions
Engagements
Q1. If he will list his official engagements for Wednesday 28 January.
I associate myself with the remarks of the Deputy Prime Minister about Holocaust Memorial Day and that British serviceman.
This week, the BBC and “Good Morning Britain” have reported on the national disgrace of out-of-control waste dumps. For years, my constituents in Kirkby have lived with such a …
Commons
Ministerial Statement
19 January 2026
Public Office (Accountability) Bill
The response of the shadow Justice Secretary, the hon. Member for West Suffolk (Nick Timothy), while families are sitting with us in the Public Gallery, was one that he should be ashamed of. As the Minister knows, for me, this has always been about families first. It is crystal clear that the Govern…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
15 January 2026
Business of the House
After 14 years of Conservative austerity, councils like Knowsley have been left on the bones, with deep cuts and rising demand. I know that this Labour Government are committed to fixing a broken system and to funding councils based on their need. However, in Knowsley, where deprivation is driven by…
Commons
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister
14 January 2026
Engagements
Q2. I thank the Prime Minister for his commitment to delivering the Hillsborough law, but it has been proven that MI5 spent six years misleading the public and concealing information following the Manchester Arena bombing. There was no risk to national security because it was a closed hearing, so …
Commons
Oral Questions
Housing, Communities and Local Government
12 January 2026
Topical Questions
Will the Minister consider enabling all local authorities in the most deprived areas to have an above-average increase in core spending power in each year of the local government multi-year settlement, including in Liverpool city region?
Commons
Debate
11 November 2025
BBC Leadership
Robbie Gibb—faithful or traitor?
Commons
Debate
5 November 2025
2 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
I draw attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests regarding my membership of and financial support from the trade union movement.
I stand here as a proud trade unionist, with a couple of decades of work behind me standing up for the working class. I pay the truest of trib…
I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention and I absolutely agree with him about the work that my hon. Friend the Member for Middlesbrough and Thornaby East has done on this for over a decade.
This Bill brings changes that tip the scale in favour of working people and, taken together with the rest…
Commons
Debate
3 November 2025
2 contributions
Public Office (Accountability) Bill
Charlotte Hennessy, whose father Jimmy Hennessy was unlawfully killed at Hillsborough, has had conversations with the Prime Minister in which he has assured her that the law does not need to be watered down and will be delivered in its entirety. She is in the Chamber today. Will he make that promise…
That day in April 1989 will never leave us. Fans went to the match and never came home. They were not lost; they were unlawfully killed. Authorities protecting themselves; decades of denial, distortion, and lies; a press slandering the dead and the grieving; a cover-up and systematic failure of the …
Commons
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister
29 October 2025
Engagements
Q7. Reform says that it stands up for the working class, but the truth is that it never has—its Members voted to block the Employment Rights Bill again and again. Does the Prime Minister agree that only this Government are on the side of working people? It is Labour that is creating tens of thousand…
Commons
Debate
27 October 2025
Victims and Courts Bill
Before I begin, I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Bolsover (Natalie Fleet) for her bravery and for the remarkable work she has done in her short time in this place, including on this Bill with new clause 14. I am so proud to be on these Benches with her.
I am going to speak to a measur…
Commons
Westminster Hall
22 October 2025
Trade Union Workplace Access
I thank my hon. Friend for securing this really important debate; I refer Members to my entry in the register of interests. Does he agree that trade union access will increase collective bargaining, which drives up pay and conditions for our constituents?
Commons
Debate
20 October 2025
Post-16 Education and Skills Strategy
Nearly 6% of Knowsley’s 16 to 17-year-olds are not in employment, education or training—one of the highest rates in the country—so I very much welcome today’s statement. By the way, A-levels left not just my constituency but the whole borough of Knowsley under the last Tory Government, so we will ta…
Commons
Oral Questions
Education
20 October 2025
2 contributions
Higher-level Learning Target
6. What steps her Department is taking to ensure that it meets its target of two thirds of young people participating in higher-level learning.
I thank the Secretary of State for her response. In Knowsley, while we are making progress with work from the council and organisations such as the Brilliant Club, we still fall below average for young people going into higher learning. Barriers remain to continuing education, and to developing skil…
Commons
Oral Questions
Justice
16 September 2025
Topical Questions
I thank the Deputy Prime Minister for his announcement on the Hillsborough law. For decades, the families have carried the weight of injustice, and Governments have failed to act. Today, the Hillsborough law will be laid before this House, but it must not be another false start. Will the Deputy Prim…