Commons
Proceedings
24 June 2025
Points of Order
On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. I seek your advice about the exchange that I have just had with the Foreign Secretary. After he had been incredibly partisan about the history of Huawei’s involvement in our telecommunications infrastructure, I pointed out that that involvement began under …
Commons
Ministerial Statement
24 June 2025
China Audit
I want to remind the Foreign Secretary that the Government that invited Huawei into our telecommunications network was actually the last Labour Government between 2003 and 2006. [ Interruption. ] Well, he has tried to be partisan about it. The ebb and flow of these issues and the mistakes go back qu…
Commons
Proceedings
24 June 2025
National Security Strategy
I note what the Minister said about social resilience. There is little point in strategising to defend our security and power in the world if we surrender our freedoms and culture without a whimper at home. Therefore, what will the Government do, for example, to stop the misuse of sections 4 and 5 o…
Commons
Oral Questions
24 June 2025
Topical Questions
What does it say to Britain’s allies, and to our enemies, when neither the Foreign Secretary nor the Prime Minister can bring themselves to say that the strikes again Iran were right and legal?
Commons
Westminster Hall
23 June 2025
Geo-engineering and the Environment
I am pleased to respond to this brief debate on geo-engineering and the environment, Ms Furniss. I congratulate the hon. Member for South Cotswolds (Dr Savage) on starting the debate. I agree that solar radiation management would be a reckless experiment that risks all our futures.
The hon. Member …
Commons
Debate
18 June 2025
7 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
Before I turn to my new clause, I welcome in particular new clause 7, on non-crime hate incidents, and new clause 150, proposed by my right hon. Friend the Member for Basildon and Billericay (Mr Holden), which would ban sexual relationships between first cousins.
This Bill presents an opportunity f…
I thank the hon. Lady for her contribution, but the point is that the courts are interpreting the law as they see it. If we in this place believe that interpretation to be wrong, it is our job to correct it through legislation, and I think the appropriate way to do so would be to extend section 29J …
+5 more contributions in this session
Commons
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister
18 June 2025
Engagements
Q6. The Home Secretary says that we should judge her success in smashing the gangs by whether the number of channel crossings falls, but under this Government the numbers are up by more than 30%. By which date should we judge the Home Secretary, and if she fails, will she be fired?
Commons
Westminster Hall
18 June 2025
Future of the Gas Grid
I am pleased to respond to this debate. I congratulate the hon. Member for Cannock Chase (Josh Newbury) on moving his motion just in time, and on his birthday. He gave an excellent speech, once he got his breath back, and I thought his warning about an overloaded electricity grid was very wise.
The…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
16 June 2025
Iran-Israel Conflict
The Foreign Secretary has said, and just repeated, that no military threat can prevent the Iranians from acquiring nuclear weapons, but surely that is not correct. Given the danger to us all from Iran, which the Foreign Secretary acknowledged in his statement, and its continued attempts to increase …
Commons
Ministerial Statement
16 June 2025
Child Sexual Exploitation: Casey Report
The official document published online by the Government says that the national inquiry will only
“co-ordinate a series of targeted local investigations.”
How many local investigations will the inquiry co-ordinate? Will it cover the whole of England and Wales—yes or no?
Commons
Debate
10 June 2025
Freedom of Expression (Religion or Belief System)
I beg to move,
That leave be given to bring in a Bill to make provision about freedom of expression in relation to religion or belief systems; and for connected purposes.
I do not believe that Mohammed was a Prophet sent by God. I do not accept the instructions he said he received from the Archang…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
10 June 2025
2 contributions
Nuclear Power: Investment
I thank the Secretary of State for advance sight of his statement.
The Conservative party is a pro-nuclear party and we welcome any decisions, backed by investment, that increase Britain’s nuclear capacity, because we cannot deliver cheap, reliable and secure energy without it. Although the investm…
Are you quoting Nick Clegg?
Commons
Oral Questions
Energy Security and Net Zero
10 June 2025
2 contributions
Decoupling Electricity and Gas Prices
Happy birthday, Mr Speaker. The Energy Secretary has said that there is a “principled case” for removing green taxes from electricity bills, and the cost being met by increases in green taxes on gas bills. That would be a net tax rise for every household—80% of the country—that uses gas. This was no…
If the hon. Member wants to talk about my constituency, he can talk about the betrayal of the Sunnica application, which is being imposed on my constituency by the Energy Secretary. The public will see that the answer was not a “no” from the Minister. Families across the country should be worried; t…
Commons
Debate
5 June 2025
3 contributions
Battery Energy Storage Sites: Safety Regulations
I am pleased to close the debate on behalf of His Majesty’s Opposition, and I hope to give a voice to your constituents, Madam Deputy Speaker, given the interest in this important subject in Romsey and Southampton North. I congratulate the hon. Member for Horsham (John Milne) on securing the debate …
The hon. Member will note the enthusiasm and ideological zeal of the Energy Secretary, which began, I think, in his very first week when he came to this House and announced that he was imposing masses of solar farms on parts of the country and, in the case of the solar farm in my constituency, compl…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
3 June 2025
Topical Questions
Yesterday, a man was convicted of a public order offence after burning a Koran outside the Turkish embassy. The judge said that the fact that the man was attacked was proof that he was guilty of disorderly behaviour. This is grotesque, and means that in effect, we have a blasphemy law. Does the Just…
Commons
Statutory Instrument
2 June 2025
6 contributions
Draft Contracts for Difference (Miscellaneous Amendments) (No. 2) Regulations 2025
I am delighted to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Hobhouse, and pleased to respond on behalf of His Majesty’s Opposition.
Today we consider the Government’s plan to go on subsidising Drax. Drax is of course not mentioned in the draft regulations, and Ministers had hoped to sneak through this con…
Forgive me, Mrs Hobhouse, although the main recipient of the subsidy that we are talking about is Drax itself.
+4 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
22 May 2025
2 contributions
Remote Betting and Gaming Duty: Horseracing
1. If she will produce an impact assessment for the proposed remote betting and gaming duty on the British horseracing industry.
The racing industry is getting a bit tired of the warm words and lack of action. At the last oral questions, the Secretary of State said that
“we need to treat different forms of gambling differently”, —[ Official Report , 3 April 2025; Vol. 765, c. 412.]
but the Government have since proposed a f…
Commons
Debate
21 May 2025
8 contributions
Immigration
The hon. Member for Burnley (Oliver Ryan) has just said, from a sedentary position, that my right hon. Friend was “race-baiting”. My right hon. Friend was simply reading out official statistics in contributing to an important debate about the future of our country. Does my right hon. Friend think th…
Will the hon. Lady give way?
+6 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
Treasury
20 May 2025
2 contributions
UK-India Free Trade Agreement
6. What assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the double contributions convention in the UK-India free trade agreement on levels of tax revenue.
I note that the Chancellor did not actually address the point of the cost to the Exchequer of the double contributions convention, which the Government has agreed with India. Indian workers sent here by their employers on intra-company transfers cost more in taxes than British workers, but that flip…
Commons
Debate
12 May 2025
4 contributions
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
Does the hon. Lady accept that, despite what she has just said, under the last term of the Conservative Government, record numbers of people came here through resettlement schemes, which are safe and legal routes?
And Afghans.
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
12 May 2025
Immigration System
In answer to the hon. Member for Vauxhall and Camberwell Green (Florence Eshalomi), the Home Secretary refused to say whether her proposals to reform indefinite leave to remain, briefed to the media as a tough new crackdown, will apply to immigrants who are already here. If it does not apply to peop…
Commons
Oral Questions
8 May 2025
Flooding: Protecting Vulnerable Communities
Next month, a planning application for a biodigester near Haverhill and Withersfield in West Suffolk will be decided. It is the wrong location for many reasons, not least the risk of flooding as the proposed site is on flood risk zone 3 land. What are the Government doing to prevent development on l…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
6 May 2025
Trade Negotiations
The Minister just admitted that this agreement means the expansion of some visa schemes. The Indian Government say that the agreement “eases mobility for professionals” such as intra-corporate transferees and their dependants and independent professionals like chefs. It also says that the new double…
Commons
Oral Questions
Business and Trade
1 May 2025
Topical Questions
According to reports in The Guardian , Government sources have said that issues around visas have been resolved as part of the Government’s free trade agreement negotiations with India. Will the Secretary of State rule out visa liberalisation as part of those negotiations?
Commons
Oral Questions
Business and Trade
1 May 2025
Exports: Small Businesses
Last year our trade deficit was £32 billion and, apart from during the pandemic, we have run a deficit every year since 1998. Does the Minister agree that the trade deficit brings severe economic consequences, and is it Government policy to reduce it over the course of this Parliament?