Commons
Debate
17 November 2025
Budget: Press Briefings
I host a regular business forum with Cheltenham constituents, who tell me that the late date of the Budget and the speculation around it have undermined their ability to make decisions, in particular on investment. They also note that there has been nearly no speculation about pro-business measures …
Commons
Oral Questions
Home Department
17 November 2025
Topical Questions
Ahead of the Budget next week, the Labour Chancellor departed from years of silence on the matter by admitting that Brexit has been a disaster for our economy. Will the Labour Home Secretary follow the Chancellor’s lead by admitting that Brexit has also caused significant harm to this country’s abil…
Commons
Oral Questions
Home Department
17 November 2025
2 contributions
Asylum Policies: Danish Model
On the point of asylum policy, the Liberal Democrats recently defeated an attempt by the hon. Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage), backed vociferously by the Conservatives, who he is trying to kill, to rip this country out of the ECHR.
Metaphorically trying to kill, yes.
Leaving the ECHR would do nothing to halt small boat crossings but it would deny British people hard-won rights: free speech, the Hillsborough inquiry and protections for older people. The Government have announced that they are reviewing certain articles of the …
Commons
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister
12 November 2025
Engagements
Q13. Maternity services are a vital part of women’s healthcare, but sadly too many women are being failed. At Cheltenham general hospital, the Aveta birth centre was temporarily closed for labour and births back in 2022. Last week we learned that there will be no decision about a potential plan fo…
Commons
Debate
3 November 2025
Huntingdon Train Attack
This attack has left 11 people in hospital, one of them a member of the train staff, who is in a critical but stable condition. My party’s thoughts are with all those affected: the victims, their loved ones and everyone who witnessed such a shocking event. We also want to thank the emergency service…
Commons
Proceedings
29 October 2025
Asylum Seekers: MOD Housing
We share the Minister’s concern about the approach of the official Opposition. Clearly, they left us with this mess and now they feign outrage. It appears that this Government’s proposal, sadly, is to decant asylum seekers from one kind of unsuitable and costly accommodation to another. Instead, the…
Commons
Debate
28 October 2025
China Spying Case
We congratulate the Conservatives on bringing forward this debate. Given recent news headlines about their own weaknesses on this issue, doing so is what Sir Humphrey would describe as a “courageous decision”. As the third party spokesperson, I feel obliged to play the role of a marriage counsellor.…
Commons
Proceedings
21 October 2025
Rape Gangs: National Statutory Inquiry
It has been four months and longer since the Home Office announced the national statutory inquiry into group-based child sexual exploitation. I know that Ministers will have wanted quicker progress. We on the Liberal Democrat Benches do, too. We still have no chair, no terms of reference and, most i…
Commons
Proceedings
20 October 2025
Alleged Spying Case: Home Office Involvement
What a mess. We have three questions for the Minister. First, what conversations has he had with all relevant parliamentary authorities—that might include the Speaker’s Office—about plans to tighten vetting or ongoing monitoring of researchers and staff to ensure this does not happen again?
Secondl…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
13 October 2025
Security Update: Official Secrets Act Case
I thank the Minister for advance sight of his statement. Over the weekend, Sir John Sawers became the latest former intelligence chief to express disbelief at the collapse of this espionage case, and our intelligence allies are now also questioning whether the UK can be trusted to counter China’s gr…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
13 October 2025
Manchester Terrorism Attack
I thank the Home Secretary for advance sight of her statement. This is my first duty as my party’s home affairs spokesperson; I only wish that it was not in response to such a tragedy. My party’s thoughts are with the families of Adrian Daulby and Melvin Cravitz, who were tragically killed. Our thou…
Commons
Debate
16 September 2025
Ambassador to the United States
Does the right hon. Gentleman share my concern about the possibility that the Prime Minister will discuss this issue with President Trump later in the week? The Prime Minister has to have influence over President Trump for very good reasons, but if the issue of Lord Mandelson’s relationship with Jef…
Commons
Oral Questions
11 September 2025
Transport: Economic Growth
Junction 10 of the M5 on the edge of my constituency is a key piece of transport infrastructure that can unlock growth, thousands of new jobs—it is adjacent to GCHQ, and so can support national cyber-security and intelligence work—and housing growth, which the Government have made a key priority. As…
Commons
Westminster Hall
10 September 2025
2 contributions
Stockton and Darlington Railway: 200th Anniversary Festival
It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Mr Stringer, and I thank the hon. Member for Newton Aycliffe and Spennymoor (Alan Strickland) for securing this important debate.
Railways are a hugely important part of our national story, and an important factor in the economic success of Britain and…
Thank you, Mr Stringer. Then I shall skip over my anecdote about the excellent Pullin’s Bakery fruit cake served on Great Western Railway services—I hope colleagues in the north also enjoy such delicacies.
I have spent many hours on heritage railways, and I believe they give us the important points…
Commons
Westminster Hall
9 September 2025
5 contributions
Free-to-air Broadcasting: Cricket Participation
I beg to move,
That this House has considered the impact of free to air broadcasting on cricket participation.
It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Ms McVey. I don’t like cricket—I love it. How could I not love a sport that has given me the joy of the 2005 Ashes series, an England victor…
Yes, I will congratulate Somerset. As a Gloucestershire fan, I can tell the room that I was a member at Somerset as a student. It was an excellent deal, and we used to travel from Weston-super-Mare to sit in the ground at Taunton. I spent many fun days there. It is a pity that Somerset triumphed ove…
+3 more contributions in this session
Commons
Proceedings
8 September 2025
Palestine Action: Proscription and Protests
Nobody would support the violent actions of some of the people in Palestine Action, of course, but the number of arrests is placing huge pressure on our police. The demographic of those arrested is clearly absurd. The nature of what they are doing is holding a placard in response to the horrors they…
Commons
Westminster Hall
4 September 2025
Future of Terrestrial Television
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Twigg. I congratulate the right hon. Member for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale (David Mundell) on securing this important debate.
Who can forget the historic moments that we saw on terrestrial television? We watched the fall of the Berlin …
Commons
Ministerial Statement
22 July 2025
Music Streaming: Label-led Principles
I welcome this industry-led approach—that is the right thing to do—but we also need to bear in mind the artists who need remuneration at the end of it. They are not doing it for the money, but they do deserve to be paid. What plans do Ministers have for the independent monitoring of the implementati…
Commons
Westminster Hall
22 July 2025
2 contributions
Black Country Day
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Vaz. It is also a pleasure that someone else who is not from the Black Country, the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon), has contributed to this debate. Liberal Democrats get slightly uneasy talking about the Black Country, as I believe we have…
And one of the best matches in the country, I am told. As a non-league groundhopper myself, I look forward to attending it at some point in the future. These are the kinds of clubs and fixtures that the Liberal Democrats have been fighting to protect through our support for, and amendments to, the F…
Commons
Oral Questions
15 July 2025
2 contributions
Household Energy Bills
23. What steps he is taking to help reduce household energy bills.
I congratulate Ministers again on embracing the principles of the sunshine Bill campaign, run by me and many others to ensure that solar panels are included on the roofs of all new houses. In the heat of recent weeks, people in my constituency have been sweltering in beautiful old regency buildings,…
Commons
Debate
8 July 2025
7 contributions
Football Governance Bill [Lords]
We welcome this Bill, as did Members across the House until a few short months ago. [ Laughter. ] Indeed, some of those Members even came up with the idea. Like many in the Chamber today, we are disappointed that the consensus remains broken, after an apparent direction from the Leader of the Opposi…
A huge amount of money is already going around in football, and we know that when we get to contract negotiations with the broadcasters and the leagues, these things are chunked up into packages. And when the next contracts are up, this would be one of those packages. I do not see that there would n…
+5 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
3 July 2025
British Musical Acts: International Promotion
May I associate my party with the words said about Diogo Jota? It is a tragic loss to the world of football.
A few weeks ago, we stood in this place and talked about the UK-EU reset deal. My party welcomed the moderate progress, but we think the Government should go further, particularly on touring…
Commons
Oral Questions
Treasury
1 July 2025
2 contributions
Supporting Economic Growth
21. What steps she is taking to help increase economic growth in Gloucestershire.
The industrial strategy was right to highlight the potential for the National Cyber Innovation Centre in my constituency. If we are going to deliver that, we will need to make sure that junction 10 of the M5 is also done to enable the traffic to get around that development. This is a development of …
Commons
Ministerial Statement
30 June 2025
Glastonbury Festival: BBC Coverage
We welcome the Secretary of State’s statement. Sadly, rather than devoting our attention today to how this House can push for a just and sustainable resolution to the horrors of the conflict in the middle east, we are talking about something else. On this occasion—there have been past occasions, too…