Commons
Debate
5 February 2026
Road Safety
I thank the hon. Member for Shipley (Anna Dixon) for securing this important debate.
Since 2018, there have been 1,506 casualties on our roads in South Cambridgeshire and 34 fatalities, which we all know is 34 too many. Road safety is often discussed in terms of behaviour, speed or enforcement—issu…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
5 February 2026
National Cancer Plan
This weekend, I got the devastating call about my brave and wonderful sister Dawn, loving mother and carer to Ella, who, after a dash to A&E, was diagnosed with late-stage pancreatic cancer and given just three to six months to live. What links less survivable cancers is their late diagnosis. Do…
Commons
Debate
28 January 2026
9 contributions
Education Funding: Distribution
I am grateful for the opportunity to raise the issue of the distribution of education funding, because it goes to the heart of what kind of education system we want. As Liberal Democrats, we want every child to be provided with the opportunity to succeed and reach their full potential. However, I am…
I agree with the hon. Member. It is exactly why we need this debate at the national level. I recognise the work undertaken by the f40 fairer funding campaign, which has provided comparative historical data for the whole country, exposing the huge variations in funding allocations per pupil by local …
+7 more contributions in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
21 January 2026
Warm Homes Plan
We have been asking for the warm homes plan for Christmas for the past two years. It is better late than never, but we have mixed feelings in unwrapping it. The Liberal Democrats have long called for an emergency home energy upgrade scheme with free insulation and heat pumps, and we have recently su…
Commons
Proceedings
8 January 2026
Business of the House
This past week, we have all been speaking about the need to respect the rule of international law, yet transnational repression in which authoritarian regimes extend their jurisdiction beyond their borders and powers is worryingly present on UK soil. My constituent Shahzad Akbar, who is a former hum…
Commons
Oral Questions
Energy Security and Net Zero
6 January 2026
Topical Questions
Brexit excluded us from the EU’s internal energy market, costing the UK a huge £350 million annually. Will the Secretary of State confirm how he will accelerate progress towards the UK-EU internal electricity trading agreement to bring down costs and ensure energy security in these volatile times?
Commons
Oral Questions
Energy Security and Net Zero
6 January 2026
Fuel Poverty
Thank you, Mr Speaker, and happy new year.
It is freezing outside and, tragically, more than 4,000 households in my constituency are living in fuel poverty. The Government’s decision to cut the energy company obligation, which was the key mechanism for delivering home insulation and energy efficien…
Commons
Debate
16 December 2025
Finance (No. 2) Bill
It is not only the VAT; the proposed hike in alcohol duty is yet another blow to pubs and breweries in my constituency. They include the Three Hills in Bartlow, which is reeling from a business rate increase of 123% as a result of the business rate valuation changes. Does the hon. Gentleman agree th…
Commons
Westminster Hall
9 December 2025
Water Scarcity
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Stuart. Along with many others, I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Horsham (John Milne) on securing this important debate.
Only last week here in Westminster Hall, I was highlighting the issue of water scarcity in my constituency in the c…
Commons
Westminster Hall
3 December 2025
3 contributions
Oxford to Cambridge Growth Corridor
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Jeremy. I thank my neighbour and colleague, the hon. Member for Cambridge (Daniel Zeichner), for securing this important debate.
Over the last 20 years our region has experienced unprecedented change and growth. According to the latest Office for …
No, I will continue, if that is all right.
Across Cambridgeshire almost 50,000 additional homes are forecast by 2041. The reason for this growth is that greater Cambridge, which constitutes the constituency of the hon. Member for Cambridge and mine of South Cambridgeshire, is one of the most econom…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
25 November 2025
COP30
COP30 was the first climate summit since the world experienced a full year of global warming above 1.5°C. That is a stark reminder of the urgency we collectively face. At home, due to extreme weather, our farmers faced their worst harvest on record and lost billions in income from arable crops, whil…
Commons
Oral Questions
25 November 2025
Topical Questions
T9. Two weeks ago, when I asked the Government whether they had had discussions with the Cambridgeshire integrated care board on the 16,000-strong petition to save beds at the Arthur Rank hospice, I was informed that it would not be possible to provide a response within the usual time period. I have…
Commons
Westminster Hall
25 November 2025
3 contributions
Immigration Reforms: Humanitarian Visa Routes
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Edward. I thank the hon. Member for Rushcliffe (James Naish) for securing this important debate on the potential impact of immigration reforms on humanitarian visa routes.
I am here to speak up for the individuals and families in my constituency o…
I thank the hon. Gentleman for that.
I want to turn to the punitive regimes that many of my constituents have fled in coming to this country through a fair system, and to speak principally about those constituents who are British nationals from Hong Kong. From 2021, Hongkongers were offered a human…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
28 October 2025
Topical Questions
T4. The UN Secretary General has warned that it is now inevitable that we will fail to keep global warming under 1.5°C, with the threat of devastating consequences, like the loss of the Amazon rainforest and its role in climate regulation. While the Conservatives and Reform continue to sabotage clim…
Commons
Debate
27 October 2025
North Sea Oil and Gas Industry
This is worrying news. Petrofac is one of the North sea’s largest offshore contractors, but it is entering administration today after years of financial difficulty. While I cannot share the desire of the hon. Member for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine (Andrew Bowie) to ditch the Climate Change Act…
Commons
Debate
22 October 2025
2 contributions
Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund
It is my huge privilege to be the MP for South Cambridgeshire, which is home to Europe’s largest biomedical campus and the UK’s world-leading tech and life sciences sectors, and one of the largest contributors to the UK economy.
The Liberal Democrats have long recognised that strategic investment i…
Absolutely. Investment in the life science sector in the rural economy is critical, and that is why we are concerned that this motion comes at a time when our life science sector is in crisis—and, frankly, I am not hearing yet from the Minister that the Government are grasping the scale of the crisi…
Commons
Westminster Hall
22 October 2025
3 contributions
Coal Tip Safety and New Extraction Licences
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Twigg. I congratulate the hon. Member for Caerfyrddin (Ann Davies) on securing this important debate, which brings together two deeply interconnected issues: the safety of coal tips and the prohibition of new coal extraction licences. Both go to the…
I definitely welcome that, and I hope that the Minister will ensure that we have the same powers in planning and all other legislation to follow that here in England.
Reform UK, in true Trump style, would destroy our green and pleasant land—and for whom? It would make oil and gas giants richer whil…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
21 October 2025
Public-private Partnerships
I meet regularly with GPs in my constituency, and they have highlighted that they do not yet have clarity or certainty about the role and resources that they will have in the roll-out of services from hospitals to communities and neighbourhood health services. Will the Minister meet me to provide th…
Commons
Debate
16 October 2025
Children’s Hospices: South-east England
My hon. Friend has brought forward a critical debate on children’s hospices. While we are looking at children’s hospices, let me say that this issue is also critical for adult hospices. In South Cambridgeshire, we have the fabulous Arthur Rank hospice, which at the moment is looking toward the cutti…
Commons
Debate
16 October 2025
3 contributions
Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Bill
It is a privilege to speak in support of this Bill. This is a hugely important step that, as the Minister laid out, will finally allow the United Kingdom to ratify the high seas treaty and play its full part in protecting our shared global ocean. That is something that I hope Members across the Cham…
With the leave of the House, it only remains to say that we have heard, across the Chamber, impassioned and professional expertise. We have also heard about the importance of working together, not only in terms of multilateralism— [ Interruption. ] I hope that Members on the Conservative Front Bench…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
14 October 2025
Topical Questions
Frighteningly, the Earth has already reached its first climate tipping point linked to global warming. We are now seeing warm water coral reefs going into irreversible decline, which is threatening nature and millions of people and their livelihoods. The climate crisis is a global emergency and need…
Commons
Oral Questions
14 October 2025
Reducing Energy Bills
I welcome the new Ministers to their place—I look forward to working with them—and I congratulate the Secretary of State and the Minister for Energy on holding on to their posts, which we are glad to see.
One of the best ways to bring down household bills is to help homeowners and small businesses …
Commons
Westminster Hall
14 October 2025
6 contributions
COP30: Food System Transformation
I beg to move,
That this House has considered COP30 and global food system transformation.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Harris. I appreciate the chance to have this debate, which is of critical importance, both globally and in our country, where the hottest summer since reco…
I thank my hon. Friend for that, and I applaud her constant advocacy in Parliament on behalf of farmers.
The second part of the debate is about the conference of the parties and how we can bring about legally binding obligations that translate into exactly the kind of measures my hon. Friend talked…
+4 more contributions in this session
Commons
Proceedings
16 September 2025
Points of Order
On a point of order, Mr Speaker. On 1 September, the hon. Member for Rutherglen (Michael Shanks), now Minister of State in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, issued a written statement on the contingent liabilities from the funded decommissioning programme and Government support packag…
Commons
Westminster Hall
8 September 2025
2 contributions
Indefinite Leave to Remain
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Jeremy. I congratulate the hon. Member for South Norfolk (Ben Goldsborough) and all who have successfully brought this petition forward. I rise today, as many others have, in support of the petition calling for Hong Kong British national overseas v…
The hon. Member makes a really important point. Delaying their settled status would leave many of these people unprotected when travelling abroad and raise the stakes in terms of their own and their families’ security. Many families are already financially stretched and, as we have heard, that is of…