Commons
Oral Questions
Cabinet Office
23 October 2025
Strengthening National Security
There are reports that Jonathan Powell wrote a box note to the Prime Minister on the China spy trial. When No. 10 was asked about this, the official spokesman said that it was for the Cabinet Office to answer, and as Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, the…
Commons
Oral Questions
Education
20 October 2025
Free Schools: Application Decisions
One year ago, the Education Secretary paused plans to open 44 approved free schools. In January, she said that she was “working rapidly” to make a decision. That was nine months ago—enough time to make a baby, but not enough time for her to make up her mind. When will our Ministers tell those free s…
Commons
Oral Questions
Education
20 October 2025
Higher-level Learning Target
On higher-level learning, universities have spent at least £2.5 million since the attacks of 7 October on additional security for anti-Israel protests and the clean-up operations that follow, yet many of the disciplinary cases against those disrupting study have been dropped. Will the Secretary of S…
Commons
Proceedings
16 October 2025
Official Secrets Act Case: Witness Statements
I am slightly baffled by the answer that it is not the job of Ministers to vet witness statements when they are made on behalf of the Government. That is exactly the point; they are accountable. The Prime Minister said that the evidence that was relevant to the case was the previous Government’s Chi…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
15 October 2025
Pride in Place
I welcome the Minister to her new position. I enjoyed shadowing her on the energy brief. I really welcome the inclusion of Lakenheath in this announcement, and I look forward to working with her, and with residents and councillors, on making sure that the funds are well spent.
I want to ask the Min…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
13 October 2025
Security Update: Official Secrets Act Case
The Minister has comprehensively taken on several strawman arguments, answered questions that have not been asked, and stuck to his carefully constructed sentences. One example was: “Ministers and special advisers did not take decisions about that evidence, and they were not sighted on the contents.…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
13 October 2025
Manchester Terrorism Attack
Section 12 of the Public Order Act already allows a senior police officer to place conditions on a protest march, for instance by rerouting it if the march will be noisy, disruptive or intimidating, so can the Home Secretary clarify her comments about section 12? When she talks about addressing the …
Commons
Oral Questions
Home Department
15 September 2025
Topical Questions
T8. The 2018 definition of Islamophobia by the all-party parliamentary group on British Muslims said that the debate about rape gangs was a form of “anti-Muslim racism”. Among other alarming things, it said that raising concerns about entryism into government by extremists, which is an established t…
Commons
Debate
2 September 2025
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
The Government talk about devolution, but that is not what is going on with the Bill, or with local government reform. Power is not being handed down by central Government, but being sucked up from district councils to unitaries and from councils to mayoralties, governing enormous and very diverse t…
Commons
Proceedings
21 July 2025
Asylum Hotels: Migrant Criminal Activity
I have been fobbed off with ridiculous non-answers to my written questions on this subject and an insulting letter from the Immigration Minister, the hon. Member for Feltham and Heston (Seema Malhotra), so I do not want to be promised yet another evasive letter that ignores the question. Will the Mi…
Commons
Debate
17 July 2025
Global Plastics Treaty
On this important point about the capacity of different countries to hit certain standards, the hon. Gentleman may have reprocessors—companies that take plastic waste and repurpose it—in his constituency. An important part of this debate has to be about packaging recovery notes and packaging export …
Commons
Proceedings
17 July 2025
Strategy for Elections
The Prime Minister has previously talked about extending the franchise to include additional foreign nationals. Will the Government take this opportunity to rule out ever extending the franchise to foreign nationals beyond existing rules?
Commons
Oral Questions
Business and Trade
17 July 2025
High Street Businesses
Labour-led West Suffolk district council now charges cafés and restaurants £500 for pavement licences for tables and chairs in front of their premises. Their justification for the cost is that the process for granting a pavement licence is more complex than it may initially appear as it involves a n…
Commons
Oral Questions
15 July 2025
Energy Costs: Businesses
When the price cap fell last month, the Labour party boasted, “£129 off your bills, delivered by Labour”. The Minister knows that energy bills fell as wholesale gas prices fell, and she knows that her policy is to take the country off gas and keep increasing policy costs on bills. That is why she re…
Commons
Oral Questions
Housing, Communities and Local Government
14 July 2025
Topical Questions
Can the Deputy Prime Minister guarantee that no Muslim Brotherhood affiliates will participate in the consultation on the definition of Islamophobia?
Commons
Statutory Instrument
14 July 2025
3 contributions
Draft Warm Home Discount (Amendment) Regulations 2025
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Dowd. I am pleased to respond to the draft regulations on behalf of His Majesty’s Opposition. Let me start by saying that if the Minister thinks that progress stalled under the last Government, this Government’s abolishing and then reinstating th…
rose —
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Proceedings
9 July 2025
Trial by Jury: Proposed Restrictions
Over the weekend the Prime Minister rather pathetically told the BBC that he was “a hard bastard”. I think members of the public would find it surprising that letting criminals out of prison early is a way of showing that he is.
The Minister has said, not unreasonably, that she wants time to consid…
Commons
Debate
7 July 2025
Government Performance against Fiscal Rules
I find it highly alarming that the Chief Secretary to the Treasury does not seem to realise that the cost of Government borrowing is higher now than at any time since the last Labour Government. All of this comes back to decisions about spending, so why, when Labour’s manifesto said that it would li…
Commons
Proceedings
3 July 2025
Phone Theft
Will the Minister give way?
Commons
Ministerial Statement
3 July 2025
Business of the House
The rigged Government consultation on Islamophobia is overseen by supposedly independent people who have already declared their support for a definition that will kill free speech in this country. An invitation to participate in the consultation was sent only to hand-picked organisations, the identi…
Commons
Westminster Hall
1 July 2025
3 contributions
Business Energy Supply Billing: Regulation
I am pleased to respond to the debate on behalf of the Opposition. I congratulate the hon. Member for Tamworth (Sarah Edwards) on securing it. She gave a serious and passionate speech about the injustices experienced by too many businesses, and I commend her campaign and encourage all small business…
The Minister, as Ministers do, made a point about the volatility of gas prices. When wholesale gas prices fell and the price cap was lowered, the Labour party put out posters saying, “Labour have just cut your energy bills.” Will she accept that it was wrong for the Labour party to do that, when tha…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
30 June 2025
Welfare Reform
Is the problem for the Government not the failure of the Prime Minister to even seek a mandate for what he is trying to do? He said that he would limit spending increases to £9.5 billion a year, but he has increased spending by eight times as much, and the effect on the fiscal rules is the root caus…
Commons
Statutory Instrument
30 June 2025
3 contributions
Draft Contracts for Difference (Miscellaneous Amendments) (No. 3) Regulations 2025
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship this sweltering evening, Mr Swayne.
Sir Desmond—I apologise; I will announce my resignation later this evening.
I am pleased to respond to the draft regulations for the Opposition. Under this legislation, the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero will be given new powers to view anonymised CfD bids before setting the bu…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
26 June 2025
G7 and NATO Summits
Under the 5% defence investment pledge, resilience spending appears to include energy infrastructure. Given the evidence about Chinese-made cellular internet modules and kill switches, will he say categorically that China must be kept out of all critical infrastructure, including wind turbines and s…