Commons
Westminster Hall
14 July 2026
Coastal Communities: Isolation and Hidden Deprivation
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Alec. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Isle of Wight West (Richard Quigley) on securing this debate.
I represent the lovely seaside town of Southport, and like many coastal MPs, I know that our lovely towns can be deceptive because …
Commons
Oral Questions
Home Department
13 July 2026
2 contributions
High Streets Organised Crime Unit
7. What assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the high streets organised crime unit.
The criminals on the high street move quickly, but the Government response has tended to be too slow over many years. When will the current pilots finish, how will success be judged, and when will all towns in Britain be able to say that they benefit from what works?
Commons
Westminster Hall
2 July 2026
2 contributions
Heart Disease and Stroke: Premature Deaths
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dame Siobhain. I congratulate my near-neighbour and hon. Friend the Member for South Ribble (Mr Foster) on securing this important debate. I wish him well. I also congratulate the right hon. Member for Rayleigh and Wickford (Mr Francois) on achieving t…
It will have been very important to place that on the record once the right hon. Gentleman gets home this evening, I imagine.
The Government’s aim to reduce premature deaths from heart disease and stroke by 25% over the next decade is welcome, ambitious and absolutely necessary. Cardiovascular dise…
Commons
Westminster Hall
30 June 2026
High Street Regeneration and Unlawful Storefronts
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Vaz. Our local high streets are the beating heart of our towns and our country, but they have faced profound challenges in recent years. We have seen the rise of online retail, changing consumer habits and years of under-investment in our town centr…
Commons
Westminster Hall
16 June 2026
4 contributions
Lifelong Learning: “University of the Air” White Paper
I beg to move,
That this House has considered the impact of the University of the Air White Paper on lifelong learning opportunities.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Desmond. I am grateful for the opportunity to lead this debate marking the 60th anniversary of the White Pape…
I agree entirely, and will make similar points later in my speech. The hon. Gentleman and I are very much on the same page.
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
Justice
19 May 2026
2 contributions
Victims Code
9. What progress his Department has made on a new victims code.
In my constituency, an acknowledged victim of violent crime is being alleged to be contributorily negligent in the civil courts. That is retraumatising, and appears to be contrary to natural justice. Will the Minister meet me and my constituents to discuss this further, and see what measures can be …
Commons
Oral Questions
27 April 2026
Topical Questions
T4. The shadow Secretary of State has recently claimed that the Government could save getting on for £2 billion from the welfare bill by bringing in face-to-face assessments. I find this ironic because the Conservatives were the ones who reduced face-to-face assessments to almost zero when they were…
Commons
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister
22 April 2026
Engagements
Q3. In contrast with the preoccupations of the Leader of the Opposition, my constituents are more concerned with the NHS and waiting lists. Thanks to this Government, across England, waiting lists are coming down. In my part of the country, waiting lists have fallen by 13,000 in the past year alone.…
Commons
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister
15 April 2026
Engagements
Q9. I thank the Prime Minister for his words in relation to the horrific attack in my constituency, and for the work that the Government are doing as a result. The families affected do not want their lives to be defined by the attack, and we must not allow my great town to be defined by it either. T…
Commons
Oral Questions
14 April 2026
Topical Questions
T10. What more can the Government do to ensure that social enterprises delivering NHS services get the same support as internal NHS trusts, and play a bigger role in NHS reform?
Commons
Westminster Hall
18 March 2026
2 contributions
Social Enterprises and Community Ownership
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir John. My hon. Friend the Member for Leigh and Atherton (Jo Platt) said that ownership matters. She is spot on. Ownership affects who makes decisions and who benefits from those decisions. For too long, we have had too little ownership of commercial…
I neglected to declare an interest in my capacity as the chair of the all-party parliamentary group on the social, co-operative and community economy. Does my hon. Friend agree that all Members at this debate should attend the annual general meeting of the all-party group on Wednesday 25 March at 5.…
Commons
Debate
17 March 2026
Youth Unemployment
Under the previous Government, as the Secretary of State mentioned in his statement, youth employment never reached pre-financial crash levels in any single year, so the country had suffered a long period of stagnation. Crucially, some young people, unlike a bloke my age, have never known what an ac…
Commons
Oral Questions
Defence
16 March 2026
2 contributions
Ukraine Air Defence: UK Support
4. What steps he is taking to increase air defence support to Ukraine.
The Prime Minister’s leadership on Ukraine has been exemplary. Does the Minister agree that that leadership has helped to secure US commitments on security for Ukraine, and that this demonstrates the importance of the US-UK defence relationship to international security?
Commons
Oral Questions
5 March 2026
2 contributions
Co-operative Sector
7. What steps he is taking through the Office for the Impact Economy to help increase the size of the co-operative sector.
Given the Government’s commitment to growing the co-operative sector, will the Minister commit to working across Government, specifically with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, so that high street rental auctions actively prioritise community-owned and co-operative models, a…
Commons
Westminster Hall
3 March 2026
Small Charity Sector
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Roger. In the interests of time, and given your advice, I have cut a huge chunk from my speech, in the hope that we can get more colleagues in. I wish to commend two charities in my constituency, and then make two requests of the Minister.
Firs…
Commons
Debate
2 March 2026
3 contributions
Representation of the People Bill
There is much in the Bill to welcome. Extending participation, improving voter registration and strengthening the integrity of our elections are all steps in the right direction, but in the time available, I want to concentrate on one thing that this Bill could do but does not. While it improves asp…
The hon. Member makes a valid point, and I hope the House listens.
It is not healthy for our democracy to be like this. I am not suggesting that individual Members lack legitimacy, but that the system itself is losing the confidence of the people we represent. It is for those reasons that there is …
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
10 February 2026
6 contributions
Place-based Employment Support Programmes
I beg to move,
That this House has considered place-based employment support programmes.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Murrison. I am very pleased to have secured this debate. Discussions of employment policy can sometimes feel very abstract in this place; we talk about things…
That is one in a long line of things that place-based employment initiatives can do well, so I thank the hon. Member for his intervention.
The Recruitment Junction, which works up in the north-east, mainly in Newcastle, places people with criminal convictions into paid work. It works with local emp…
+4 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
5 February 2026
Business of the House
I take this opportunity to commend the outstanding work of the team behind Coopers bar in Southport for all the work they do to support the grassroots music scene in the town. They are now further strengthening their contribution by expanding their offering, with a new venue on West Street due to op…
Commons
Oral Questions
5 February 2026
2 contributions
Topical Questions
T1. If she will make a statement on her departmental responsibilities.
As you will know, Mr Speaker, Southport is a lovely seaside resort and one of the nicest places to visit in the whole of the country, so what recent discussions has the Minister had with United Utilities about reducing sewage discharges, which affect Southport and the wider north-west coast?
Commons
Oral Questions
5 February 2026
2 contributions
Flood Preparedness
9. What steps she has taken to help protect communities vulnerable to flooding.
Farmers in my constituency report that watercourses are not being sufficiently maintained, there is not enough investment in drainage infrastructure, and there is a limited ability to deal with changing rainfall patterns and rising water tables. They tell me that the creation of an internal drainage…
Commons
Westminster Hall
2 February 2026
Indefinite Leave to Remain
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Lewell. I want to keep this simple: the issue today is whether or not the Government should change the settlement rules for people who are already here. I wish to add my voice to the chorus who are saying that they should not. The Government can …
Commons
Oral Questions
Women and Equalities
28 January 2026
2 contributions
Children in Poverty
7. What steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help reduce inequalities experienced by children in poverty.
Earlier this week, I visited the Bishop David Sheppard school in my constituency and saw at first hand the difference that breakfast clubs are making to children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Will the Minister explain how the Government’s commitment to expanding breakfast clubs will tackle child p…
Commons
Westminster Hall
28 January 2026
Ivanhoe Line: Restoration
What my hon. Friend is talking about reminds me of an issue that affects my constituents. The line between Liverpool and Preston crosses the line between Southport and Manchester. Up until the 1960s, the two lines were linked by two curves at the town of Burscough, just outside my constituency. For …
Commons
Oral Questions
Work and Pensions
26 January 2026
2 contributions
Youth Hubs
3. What steps he is taking to support the roll-out of youth hubs.
Will the Minister join me in recognising the work of the Big Onion, which provides skills training, employment support and related services in my Southport constituency? It has supported more than 1,400 young people into careers across the wider borough. Will the Minister also set out what further s…
Commons
Westminster Hall
26 January 2026
Animal Rescue Centres
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Alec, and I thank my hon. Friend the Member for North Ayrshire and Arran (Irene Campbell) for securing the debate. I pay tribute to the campaigners, who are with us today, for the opportunity to raise this issue, which is of deep concern to many…