Commons
Debate
28 October 2025
10 contributions
Stamp Duty Land Tax
Ask any economist, or indeed most Members in the Chamber today, and they would say that stamp duty is a bad tax. It creates friction in the market, whether we are talking about someone in a one-bedroom flat who is trying to take the step up to a family home, but who finds that their savings goal is …
Surprise, surprise, I do not. I will come on to the reasons why.
Mortgage companies will lend around four times someone’s income, so we can see how big the problem is. A couple may stand a chance of getting a mortgage; someone on their own has no chance. The other problem with house prices accelera…
+8 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
Work and Pensions
27 October 2025
2 contributions
Access to Work Scheme
2. What steps his Department is taking to assess the effectiveness of the Access to Work scheme in helping to enable long-term career progression for disabled people.
A constituent came to my surgery the other week who felt pretty frustrated that the Access to Work scheme, which once supported him, was pulling the rug from beneath his feet as he progressed in his career. He has been a model example; he has not let his multiple neurodivergent diagnoses hold him ba…
Commons
Proceedings
23 October 2025
Business of the House
First, I associate myself with the comments made about Oliver Colvile’s passing and the Aberfan disaster.
I wonder if we can have a debate about rhetoric colliding with reality. Earlier this week, we had the Chancellor, after years of telling us that we can make Brexit work, finally concede that th…
Commons
Proceedings
16 October 2025
Business of the House
I thank the Leader of the House for his warm welcome—it is a warmer welcome than I received online, where somebody compared me to a failed contestant on “The Apprentice”, which is a good start. I share the right hon. Member’s sympathies expressed about the synagogue attack in Manchester, as well as …
Commons
Debate
13 October 2025
Baby Loss
I thank the co-sponsors for securing the debate and for all colleagues’ powerful contributions so far tonight. Many of those contributions have focused on preventable baby loss, calling for lessons to be learnt and for more to be done, which I fully support. However, I would like to take this opport…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
13 October 2025
Security Update: Official Secrets Act Case
I admire the Government’s attempts to pin this on the previous Conservative Government. It is an endeavour in which I would usually join them, but on this occasion I cannot, because the argument simply does not stack up. The argument seems to hinge on the Conservative Government’s classification of …
Commons
Ministerial Statement
15 September 2025
Official Secrets Act
China has broken international agreements with the UK. It has placed bounties on the heads of Hongkongers seeking refuge in this country. Today’s announcement that charges have been dropped will only embolden China in its efforts to interfere with our democracy. The Minister has mentioned the effect…
Commons
Oral Questions
Treasury
9 September 2025
2 contributions
Tax Reliefs: Zero-based Review
9. If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of undertaking a zero-based review of all tax reliefs before the autumn Budget 2025.
The Minister detailed that about 350 reliefs have been assessed, but my understanding is that more than 1,200 tax reliefs are on the books, amounting to hundreds of billions of foregone revenue for the Treasury. Given that the Treasury examined the spending of all Departments in detail over the summ…
Commons
Proceedings
8 September 2025
Palestine Action: Proscription and Protests
I hear the distinction that the Minister is attempting to make, but the fact remains that almost 1,000 largely peaceful protesters were arrested in London this weekend. I am sure that when we look back on this, we are going to conclude that it was not only a huge waste of police resources, but a chi…
Commons
Westminster Hall
8 September 2025
4 contributions
Indefinite Leave to Remain
My hon. Friend makes an excellent point about this being part of a promise that we made to the people of Hong Kong. When the route was introduced, the Chinese Communist party warned BNO applicants that they should not trust Britain. If we move the goalposts in the way we are now proposing, we may ha…
I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in this debate, and to stand alongside other hon. Members in defence of a promise that we made to the people of Hong Kong. Carshalton and Wallington is home to many Hongkongers. It is situated in the London borough of Sutton, which has become a bit of a go-…
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
4 September 2025
2 contributions
Adoption and Special Guardianship Support Fund
I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Sussex (Alison Bennett) for her passionate advocacy. There is sometimes a misunderstanding that adoption and kinship care are somehow the fairytale ending to a traumatic situation, but I know at first hand that that is not the case. When I moved into the car…
I absolutely agree, and that was the point that I was about to make. I am sure the Minister will tell me that money is tight, but I ask her over what time horizon she is considering this—five, 10 or 15 years? Families know that this is not a cost-cutting measure. They know how expensive it gets for …
Commons
Debate
17 July 2025
4 contributions
Global Plastics Treaty
I thank my right hon. Friend the Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr Carmichael) for securing this debate. Let me highlight one point that he made about the circular economy. He said that if we get the regulation and the incentives right, it would be good not only for the environment, but for busines…
I do agree; if we close our ears, we will miss these problems, frustrate the public and lose their support. If we listen hard, we can fix the schemes and rescue the action we want to take in this place to help the whole environment. If we do not do that, the other side will win the argument and shut…
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
Business and Trade
17 July 2025
Topical Questions
We have just had our fifth consecutive month of job losses announced, and research shows that as many as 17% of companies are considering redundancies. What is the Government’s analysis of why this is happening?
Commons
Ministerial Statement
16 July 2025
Financial Services Reform
The Chancellor announced quite a list of reforms yesterday. I note that many were on the shopping list of industry, so the Committee will examine them closely to make sure they also work for the consumer and for the long-term stability of the economy. One change in particular, on ringfencing, will w…
Commons
Westminster Hall
15 July 2025
2 contributions
Beer Duty
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Murrison. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Woking (Mr Forster) for securing the debate. Given all the Liberal Democrat interventions, it seems that we are firmly the party of beer and pubs.
My hon. Friends all made their contributions and they are all on the record; there is no disputing that we have won today—one-nil to us.
Pubs are central to communities, as we have heard from others, and Carshalton and Wallington is no different. One of my favourite things about living in the Carsh…
Commons
Debate
8 July 2025
2 contributions
Football Governance Bill [Lords]
Would the shadow Minister mind telling the House what these fashionable causes that football clubs should not speak about are?
I rise to speak in favour of the amendments tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Cheltenham (Max Wilkinson), specifically new clauses 3 and 4.
I will start by outlining why these fan-centric measures are important to this particular fan and why football is important to me. Football has been the …
Commons
Debate
7 July 2025
Government Performance against Fiscal Rules
The Government committed to one fiscal event a year in the name of economic stability, but by having an OBR forecast and these constraints, they had only one lever to pull: spending cuts. This time, disabled people paid the price, and the Government have since had to row back. Does the Government re…
Commons
Debate
1 July 2025
2 contributions
Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill
I cannot proceed with my speech without putting on record my admiration for the hon. Member for Penistone and Stocksbridge (Dr Tidball). She made a courageous and passionate speech, and I hope that all Members listened to it very carefully.
Let me start on a personal note. My dad is currently recei…
Will the hon. Member give way?
Commons
Oral Questions
Treasury
1 July 2025
2 contributions
High Net Worth Individuals
2. What assessment she has made of the adequacy of the data her Department holds on high net worth individuals.
The Minister will no doubt be aware of reports of the so-called exodus of millionaires. Those reports are from “high profile individuals” and city spokespeople, but there are rarely hard numbers behind them. Are Treasury Ministers able to verify the Tax Justice Network’s research that says that just…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
26 June 2025
Business of the House
I join the Leader of the House in congratulating the Deputy Speakers on their birthdays, and in celebrating our armed forces.
Earlier this year, when the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions announced the welfare reforms, her argument to this House was that they were all about getting people ba…
Commons
Westminster Hall
18 June 2025
Political Prisoners
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Western. I congratulate the hon. Member for Cities of London and Westminster (Rachel Blake) on bringing forward this debate on behalf of not only her constituent, but everybody who cares about freedom and democracy across the world.
The Liberal Dem…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
11 June 2025
Spending Review 2025
Last year, during the mayoral election, Sadiq Khan claimed that a Labour mayor working with a Labour Government would be a game changer for the city, but just now he has released a statement criticising the spending review for underfunding the Met police, failing to invest in our transport infrastru…
Commons
Debate
9 June 2025
Planning and Infrastructure Bill
The hon. Member has made some excellent points about the need to set a target for social homes. I believe that the destruction of council house stock is one of the most regressive actions that the country has ever taken, and that we need to replenish that stock as a matter of urgency. However, I fea…
Commons
Westminster Hall
4 June 2025
Disadvantaged Communities
My hon. Friend talked about communities being overlooked because they are contained within wealthier communities. My constituency is in the outer London borough of Sutton, which, by London standards, is on the wealthier end. We have two distinct communities in St Helier and Roundshaw, and those esta…
Commons
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister
14 May 2025
Engagements
Q15. The plans to upgrade St Helier hospital, including the delivery of a new specialist emergency care building, have been put back by 10 years. I am talking to the trust about a way to bring all or part of those plans forward, but in the meantime there is a very real fear that some of the building…