Commons
Ministerial Statement
20 November 2025
Migration: Settlement Pathway
Many migrant survivors of domestic abuse apply to settle in the UK permanently if their relationship has broken down because of domestic violence or abuse, and the right hon. Lady knows just how close this issue is to my heart. Will she reassure this House and survivors of domestic abuse that they w…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
20 November 2025
Business of the House
Today is Transgender Day of Remembrance, yet it is also the day when leaked Equalities and Human Rights Commission guidance on single-sex services has indicated, shockingly, that people could be challenged on their sex because of
“their appearance, behaviour or concerns by others”
and turned away …
Commons
Oral Questions
20 November 2025
Passenger Rail: Performance Improvements
After leading a town-wide campaign to reinstate the direct Eastbourne to London Bridge service, I am delighted to say that it will return on 15 December. However, many passengers and staff on those trains, including Louise and Rhiannon, on-board supervisors whom I have met, are concerned about the a…
Commons
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister
19 November 2025
Engagements
Q6. Eastbourne resident Pam was given a cheque for £125,000 by her terminally ill partner, which she went on to cash in. However, an error by the bank, Barclays, meant that only £125 was deposited. Barclays admitted the error, and then said it would compensate her with £250 for the inconvenience c…
Commons
Debate
17 November 2025
Asylum Policy
The Home Secretary has spoken a great deal about contribution, but one of the most powerful forms of contribution to our country is getting a job and paying taxes, which the Home Secretary will not allow people seeking asylum to do, despite the fact that it can be done in Denmark. She has said that …
Commons
Oral Questions
Home Department
17 November 2025
Violence against Women and Girls
The Government are right to abolish the role of police and crime commissioner—the Liberal Democrats have been campaigning for that for some time—but many victims’ organisations rely on the PCC core grant to fund initiatives that address violence against women. Will the Minister confirm that that cas…
Commons
Oral Questions
13 November 2025
Topical Questions
T3. Catastrophic failures at Southern Water’s water treatment works in Eastbourne have led to extensive sewage discharges, a stench stinking out our town, and, a matter of days ago, the accidental discharge of millions of plastic bio-beads into our sea. Will the Minister urgently meet me to discus…
Commons
Oral Questions
Business and Trade
30 October 2025
Topical Questions
Many small businesses rely on Facebook advertising to reach customers, but too many find that if they get hacked, it takes too long for Meta to let them back into their account. That has been the case for Andy Campbell, who runs ATR Carpet Cleaning. Will the Minister advise on how we can get the lik…
Commons
Oral Questions
Work and Pensions
27 October 2025
2 contributions
Benefit Sanctions: Neurodiverse Claimants
15. What steps his Department is taking to ensure that benefit sanctions are proportionate when considering neurodiverse claimants.
My constituent Ross has neurodiversities and is in employment, working at a garden centre, but his income is supplemented by universal credit. After inadvertently missing a telephone appointment with a job coach, he was sanctioned, losing out on two months-worth of rent, and he risked being made hom…
Commons
Oral Questions
Cabinet Office
23 October 2025
Topical Questions
Eastbourne is benefiting from some coastal defence scheme funding, the flood defence grant-in-aid, but it leaves heritage assets behind. Only residents and businesses currently qualify, which is leaving Eastbourne’s historic bandstand at risk of severe flooding. Will the Minister meet me and colleag…
Commons
Oral Questions
Cabinet Office
23 October 2025
Delivery of Government Priorities
The Cabinet Office co-chairs the flood resilience taskforce in order to deliver on its priority to bolster flood defences, but residents in Eastbourne at this very point in time on Wartling Road, Seaside and Whitley Road—and, earlier this week, on Macmillan Drive—have to wade through canals created …
Commons
Debate
21 October 2025
5 contributions
Sentencing Bill
I thank the Chair of the Select Committee for giving way. New clause 18 makes the point that the cost of administering the electronic monitoring requirements during the year should be released. Does he agree that that should include the size of the fine that is imposed on the provider? When I have a…
Will the hon. Lady give way?
+3 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
21 October 2025
4 contributions
Ending Homelessness
I thank the co-sponsors, the hon. Members for Harrow East (Bob Blackman) and for Liverpool Wavertree (Paula Barker), for securing the debate.
Although Eastbourne might be the sunniest town in the country, its light and sun also cast deep shadows on our town, including through the temporary accommod…
I agree that the Government must provide support, but local authorities must do so too. I will come to that point shortly.
This summer, I wrote to the Minister’s predecessor to ask what intervention the Government could make in relation to out-of-area placement policy. In response, the Government s…
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
16 October 2025
Children’s Hospices: South-east England
I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this debate. An amazing children’s hospice that serves constituents in my patch is Demelza, which has an amazing array of staff, volunteers and the rest, including Queen’s nurses such as Donna Mole. Will my hon. Friend congratulate Donna on being a recipient…
Commons
Oral Questions
Church Commissioners
16 October 2025
Community Relations: Impact of Church Leaders
Will the hon. Lady recognise the awesomeness of the Rev. David Harrigan at St Elisabeth’s church in Eastbourne? Working with the food bank, he has pioneered a partnership that has been featured by the Trussell Trust as an example of best practice for a relationship between a church leader and a food…
Commons
Debate
16 September 2025
4 contributions
Sentencing Bill
The last Conservative Government crashed our criminal justice system, and ever since it is victims who have been paying the price. The shadow Justice Secretary spoke today of surrender, but who was it that surrendered victims to years-long waits for trials? They did. Who surrendered victims to reoff…
I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his intervention, but should he look at the figures for 2015, he will see that all the things that I have described surged under the last Conservative Government. It is chaos and it cannot go on.
The Bill contains a number of measures that Lib Dems have proposed…
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
Justice
16 September 2025
Topical Questions
I would like to associate myself with the Deputy Prime Minister’s comments on the bravery of the Hillsborough families and pay tribute to them for the success that has been landed today.
Many of us across the House are deeply concerned that domestic abusers are weaponising the family court to perpe…
Commons
Oral Questions
Justice
16 September 2025
Probation Service
I welcome the new Justice Secretary and the Minister responsible for sentencing to their places. The Probation Service relies on an effective tagging system in order to keep our communities safe, but the £300 million contract that the last Government awarded to Serco has resulted in lots of failures…
Commons
Westminster Hall
15 September 2025
2 contributions
Children with SEND: Assessments and Support
Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
The hon. Gentleman can thank me for intervening. He talks about costs and legal requirements, but does he agree that in many areas hedge-fund-backed independent specialist schools are taking cash from our starving system? There is no cap on their profits, they do not have to report on their attainme…
Commons
Oral Questions
11 September 2025
Bus Services
Eastbourne district general hospital, where I was born, and the Hastings Conquest hospital are quite far apart. On a good day, it takes 45 minutes to drive from one to the other, and two hours by bus. More and more services are moving to the Hastings hospital, but we need better transport links, suc…
Commons
Proceedings
8 September 2025
Palestine Action: Proscription and Protests
Hundreds of peaceful protesters have been arrested this weekend in the name of national security, but in what way does a peaceful protester’s tactic of holding a banner compromise national security? If the aim of national security is fundamentally to ensure that we can live in a free society where o…
Commons
Oral Questions
Defence
8 September 2025
Cadets
Eastbourne’s mighty sea cadets celebrate their 115th birthday this year, but their future is being put under threat by rising energy bills, which are making running the operation less and less sustainable. It is the same with many other cadets across the country. Will the Minister share how the Gove…
Commons
Westminster Hall
3 September 2025
Pavement Parking
I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Epsom and Ewell (Helen Maguire) for securing this debate.
Whether it is on Seaside, Melbourne Road, Linden Close, Sydney Road, Heather Close or outside Oakwood, St Thomas a Becket or West Rise schools, it is unacceptable that pedestrians, especially those with …
Commons
Westminster Hall
3 September 2025
2 contributions
Duty of Candour for Public Authorities and Legal Representation for Bereaved Families
It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Mrs Hobhouse. I congratulate the hon. Member for Liverpool West Derby (Ian Byrne) on securing this debate. On behalf of my party, I too pay tribute to the Hillsborough families in this landmark debate.
After years of delay by the last Conservative Gove…
The point my hon. Friend makes is testament to the importance of parity of legal representation.
To continue, how many lives must be lost before we accept that the public deserve honesty from those in power? When will we get to the truth proactively, not just when institutions are dragged to the wi…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
1 September 2025
Borders and Asylum
As an Eastbourne boy born and bred, I am a proud Englishman. In Winston Churchill’s St George’s day speech in 1933, he said that his England was one where no one would think of persecuting a man on account of his religion or his race. Does the Home Secretary agree with Winston Churchill that our cou…