Commons
Proceedings
15 January 2026
Digital ID
Another day, another U-turn. Have you ever seen a new Government so lacking in conviction? When they announced their plan for change, I do not think anybody in this place realised that it was a plan to change every single one of their policies. This is becoming a shambles.
The Liberal Democrats lac…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
13 January 2026
Business of the House
I thank the Leader of the House for his statement. The whole House wants to get the Bill right, and if a delay is what is required, I think the House will support that. I am glad that the Government have had the humility to withdraw it from tomorrow’s business, even at this late stage, in order to g…
Commons
Proceedings
13 January 2026
Chinese Embassy
I am exasperated by the Government’s response to this urgent question. They are treating this development as a mere wrinkle in a bureaucratic planning matter, which is simply not the case. If this embassy is granted, it will be one of the largest and most prestigious embassies held by any country in…
Commons
Debate
8 January 2026
High Street Gambling Reform
The hon. Member is making a really powerful speech. We had representatives from the gambling industry in front of the Treasury Committee recently, and that revealed to me that such stories are not tragic by-products of an industry that is actually okay, but actually part of the business strategy of …
Commons
Debate
8 January 2026
Human Rights Abuses: Magnitsky Sanctions
The hon. Member is making an excellent contribution to the debate. The Treasury Committee heard evidence last year about the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation. It appeared to me that it is far too small for the job that it has to do, especially compared with equivalents overseas in the US…
Commons
Proceedings
8 January 2026
Subsea Telecommunications Cables: Resilience and Crisis Preparedness
I thank the Committee for its work. The hon. Gentleman mentioned the restrictions of international law, but could he explain what evidence the Committee took about the need for international co-operation? It seems evident to me that the nature of subsea cables means that international co-operation i…
Commons
Proceedings
8 January 2026
Business of the House
Happy new year to you, Mr Speaker, and everybody in the House. To respond briefly to something the shadow Deputy Leader of the House said: I sincerely hope that Arsenal do not win the league.
Over Christmas, some people have had the unfortunate experience of finding themselves in their local hospit…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
17 December 2025
INEOS Chemicals: Grangemouth
The Minister mentioned in his statement the £200 million for projects in Grangemouth from the National Wealth Fund. I would like to raise with him a concern that was raised in evidence to the Treasury Committee, which is that the National Wealth Fund has to operate on the riskier end of project prop…
Commons
Proceedings
11 December 2025
Business of the House
Before I begin, I join the tributes to Lance Corporal George Hooley. His tragic death reminds us of the courage of all our armed forces in their determination to protect our country.
My inbox, like those of other Members, I am sure, has this week been full of correspondence from demoralised busines…
Commons
Proceedings
11 December 2025
US National Security Strategy
I do not think we should tiptoe around this issue. The section on Europe talks of “civilisational erasure”. It says that the continent will be “unrecognizable in 20 years”. It says that they want “Europe to remain European”, and that within a few decades NATO members will be “majority non-European”.…
Commons
Oral Questions
Business and Trade
11 December 2025
3 contributions
Topical Questions
T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.
Thank you, Mr Speaker. As you probably know, south London is wonderful, but you may not know that it is one of the UK’s largest regional economies. Last week my local council, the London borough of Sutton, launched its economic growth plan, inviting businesses to take advantage of opportunities in t…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Proceedings
4 December 2025
Business of the House
I join the Leader of the House in his tributes to Sir John Stanley and Paul Barwell. He referred to the Christmas spirit getting going in and around the House, and I ask him to spare a thought for the Lib Dem staffers clutching coffees this morning after their Christmas party last night. I cannot co…
Commons
Proceedings
1 December 2025
2 contributions
Budget Resolutions
The right hon. Member mentions that bet365 is based in Stoke. Could he explain to us why it is also based in Gibraltar and Malta?
When we cut through it all, the central choices in this Budget were to increase the fiscal headroom and spend more on welfare, and to pay for it via an income tax threshold freeze. I am not sure why Labour Members are reluctant to describe it in that way, because it does contain some legitimate poli…
Commons
Proceedings
27 November 2025
Business of the House
First, I associate myself with the comments made by the Leader of the House about the fire in Hong Kong. I have many constituents from Hong Kong who will be thinking about their family and friends. I also note that this is UK Parliament Week. I know you are very actively involved, Mr Speaker, and I …
Commons
Westminster Hall
25 November 2025
Pension Investment in UK Equities
I thank the right hon. Member for Salisbury (John Glen) for securing this debate. We are colleagues on the Treasury Committee, and I always find his contributions extremely thoughtful. He has the best interests of the country at heart, so I thank him for securing this debate.
We probably all agree …
Commons
Proceedings
24 November 2025
Ministerial Code
It seems that the urgent question has been in part fuelled by rampant pre-Budget briefing, but I would argue that it is a symptom of wider dysfunction in our Budget scrutiny process. Parliament is generally relegated to the sidelines and has no real power to challenge or amend the Budget, unlike in …
Commons
Ministerial Statement
20 November 2025
Migration: Settlement Pathway
I thank the Home Secretary for her confirmation about the five-year pathway for Hongkongers—that is a promise kept to them. The statement was otherwise a series of push measures. I am always fascinated by how much more difficult it gets, when it comes to the individual decisions made within the syst…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
20 November 2025
Business of the House
I join the Leader of the House in thanking Mr Speaker for the seriousness with which he is taking Chinese interference in our democracy. I represent many Hongkongers in my constituency, and they are deeply concerned about this issue.
It was a relief to hear confirmation that the Budget will be taki…
Commons
Proceedings
17 November 2025
Illegal Waste: Organised Crime
Residents in the Woodcote area of my constituency have been living with the misery of being opposite an illegal waste dump for years. Despite all the photographic and video evidence that they produce, nobody seems to be able to shut the site down. Can the Minister look into what level of proof is re…
Commons
Debate
17 November 2025
Budget: Press Briefings
The Minister is right to point out that speculation ahead of a Budget is not abnormal, but we have had speculation throughout most of this year. I wonder whether he will accept that part of the reason for that is how the Chancellor has both constructed and applied her fiscal rules. She set them up, …
Commons
Ministerial Statement
13 November 2025
Business of the House
Thank you, Mr Speaker. May I join the Leader of the House and the shadow Leader of the House in thanking you and all the staff for playing a role in organising the remembrance events of the past week?
I, too, would like to focus on Ukraine this week. Russia’s war is rumbling on and we are about to …
Commons
Westminster Hall
4 November 2025
2 contributions
Official Development Assistance Reductions
I declare an interest in that my wife works for Save the Children. Indeed, I met her while working in the sector almost 11 years ago to this day.
I start by setting out some context around the erosion of the budget, because it has not just been reduced in absolute terms but as a proportion. That ma…
The right hon. Lady is making an excellent case for international aid and is talking about the need for it to evolve and to be better and bigger in some ways. Why therefore is her party proposing cutting the aid budget to 0.1%?
Commons
Debate
30 October 2025
Property Service Charges
The hon. Lady is making some excellent points. I really think it is the radical solutions that we need to consider. I should probably declare an interest as a director of a right-to-manage company—we got so fed up with the freeholder failing to manage our building properly that we took back control.…
Commons
Proceedings
30 October 2025
Israel-Palestine Conflict: Government Response
I thank the Chair for her Committee’s report. She mentioned the possible determination of genocide and said that, in her personal view, that is what has taken place. Of course, a UN report has reached that conclusion as well. I am fairly certain that that should place certain obligations on the UK, …
Commons
Proceedings
30 October 2025
2 contributions
Business of the House
I associate myself with the comments about hurricane victims and, indeed, with the comments about Prunella Scales.
Earlier this week, we were treated to the delight of a Conservative Opposition day, and the main thing we learned is that the Conservatives do enjoy being in opposition. We had the sha…
Moving on to fraud—speaking of— I would like to focus on how fraud destroys lives. It eradicates people’s savings, it plunges people into debt and it diminishes people’s faith in human nature. Fraud is on the rise—it is up by almost a fifth—and it makes up nearly half of all crime in the UK.
I know…