Commons
Debate
22 July 2025
3 contributions
Sir David Amess Summer Adjournment
It is an honour to speak in this debate, named after the late Sir David Amess, to whom I wish to pay tribute. I also use this opportunity to pay tribute to the late Ian Gow, one of my predecessors as a hard-working Member of Parliament for Eastbourne, who was appallingly assassinated in 1990, and wh…
I will not take the hon. Member’s intervention, unless he is going to confirm my point. [Interruption.] Okay, I will take his intervention.
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
22 July 2025
Orgreave Inquiry
I came into the Chamber for this statement to hear and speak about the Orgreave inquiry, so it was pretty shocking to hear the shadow Minister use it as an opportunity to yet again play politics with child sexual abuse and exploitation. As a survivor myself, I find that particularly appalling.
The …
Commons
Oral Questions
22 July 2025
2 contributions
NHS Hospitals: Parking
10. What steps his Department is taking to improve car parking provision at NHS hospitals.
Parking at Eastbourne district general hospital, where I was born, is woefully inadequate. The car park is often full, so patients have to park way away up the Rodmill hill, and car park services are crumbling. More than that, lower-banded NHS staff now face a near doubling of car parking charges to…
Commons
Oral Questions
Business and Trade
17 July 2025
Topical Questions
T4. Eastbourne’s posties are legends, including Manuel, who covers my patch. Upstream issues in the Royal Mail, however, mean that constituents like Michaele are not receiving letters for medical appointments until after the appointment time has passed. Will the Minister meet me to discuss these a…
Commons
Oral Questions
Housing, Communities and Local Government
14 July 2025
Topical Questions
Eastbourne’s streets are being blighted by severely overgrown grass verges that attract litter, antisocial behaviour and crime. Will the Minister join me in urging Conservative-run East Sussex county council to urgently get a grip on verge maintenance in Eastbourne in order to help make our grass gr…
Commons
Proceedings
9 July 2025
Trial by Jury: Proposed Restrictions
In his urgent question, the shadow Secretary of State for Justice said that “the public knows best”. For once, I agree with him, which is why the public threw out the last Conservative Government after they crashed our criminal justice system.
Yesterday, I made the case for safeguarding the guarant…
Commons
Oral Questions
8 July 2025
Violence against Women: Criminal Justice System
I have a constituent who is a survivor of violent economic abuse, which has involved her abuser occupying one of her properties without consent and vandalising it with mounds of human excrement, rendering it unrentable at huge financial costs. The photographs are disgusting. Delays in civil court pr…
Commons
Oral Questions
8 July 2025
Crown Court Backlog
The Liberal Prime Minister William Gladstone was right when he said,
“Justice delayed is justice denied”.
He would look on the inheritance that this Government received from the Conservative Government as a matter for great shame. While creative solutions are required to tackle the backlog, the ju…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
30 June 2025
Welfare Reform
I decided to go into politics because I believed that luck played too great a role in shaping people’s course and their quality of life, but unfortunately the system that has been announced today leaves the fate of many disabled people down to luck—to whether they applied before November 2026, or af…
Commons
Oral Questions
Defence
30 June 2025
Topical Questions
During our last session of Defence questions, I asked the Secretary of State to join me in wishing a happy forthcoming birthday to Eastbourne’s last surviving war veteran, Eric Deach, who was shortly to turn 100. Unfortunately, tomorrow I shall be a pallbearer at his funeral; he did not make it. Wil…
Commons
Statutory Instrument
30 June 2025
Draft Criminal Justice Act 2003 (Suitability for Fixed Term Recall) Order 2025
It is great to serve under your chairship, Ms McVey. Liberal Democrats recognise the acute pressure on our prison system. We recognise, see and feel, as do many victims and survivors across our country, that the last Government allowed our prisons to reach breaking point. Victims and survivors are p…
Commons
Oral Questions
Transport
26 June 2025
Road Network: Condition
The Rapid Transition Alliance tells us that we can improve the quality of our roads if we support more people to use rail as a form of public transport. That is one reason why I am campaigning to restore the direct train between Eastbourne and London Bridge that was discontinued during the pandemic.…
Commons
Debate
25 June 2025
2 contributions
Criminal Justice
I thank the Chair of the Justice Committee, the hon. Member for Hammersmith and Chiswick (Andy Slaughter), working with the hon. Member for Amber Valley (Linsey Farnsworth), for making the pitch to the Backbench Business Committee to secure this debate. I join him in thanking the incredible staff wh…
I agree with the point that my hon. Friend makes. This is about much more than just the spend: it is about the efficiency of the spend. Taxpayers deserve far better than what they are getting at the moment from the Serco contract, under which, as I said earlier, many offenders are being left without…
Commons
Oral Questions
Science, Innovation and Technology
25 June 2025
2 contributions
High-speed Internet
1. What steps his Department is taking to improve the distribution of high-speed internet provision.
Project Gigabit’s stated aim is to ensure that no one is left behind, but that is not true for the residents of Mulberry Close on my home estate in Eastbourne, who have not been connected to full fibre despite bearing the brunt of invasive works on their doorstep. Will the Minister meet me, resident…
Commons
Oral Questions
24 June 2025
Middle East: British Nationals
Two of my constituents are currently in Tehran, but they say that fuel shortages, long queues and poor internet access, as well as closed airspace, have made it almost impossible for them to leave Iran. They urgently need clear guidance, they need a way to formally register their presence, and they …
Commons
Debate
20 June 2025
3 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
The Mother of the House, the right hon. Member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington (Ms Abbott), is absolutely right to stress the importance of giving a voice to the voiceless. That is a role that many Members in this House take deeply seriously, including proponents of this Bill. No one is more v…
The hon. Member will be aware that the Bill creates a criminal offence that would punish those who would coerce a relative in such a way. [Hon. Members: “Self-coerce.”] There are folks who talk about the concept of self-coercion, but others would frame such a decision as a choice. Self-coercion is a…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
16 June 2025
Child Sexual Exploitation: Casey Report
As a survivor of child sexual abuse myself, I stand in solidarity with the many victims and survivors the system has failed over many, many years. I can say that the horror, the trauma and the guilt never leave you, and I so hope that every survivor who is identified receives the mental health and o…
Commons
Oral Questions
Business and Trade
12 June 2025
Topical Questions
Eastbourne businesses Qualisea, Gianni’s and Gr/eat are up in arms, as I am, that East Sussex county council’s shambolic management of the Victoria Place pedestrianisation means that works will now fall in the summer, their busiest trading period. What provision will Ministers make to ensure that bu…
Commons
Westminster Hall
12 June 2025
Long-term Medical Conditions
It is a delight to speak under your chairship, Mr Efford. I thank the hon. Member for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket (Peter Prinsley) for securing this important debate.
Many of those living with long-term conditions are people who live happy and enriched lives. They are supported not only by wonde…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
11 June 2025
Spending Review 2025
Fellow Eastbournian Mark Tonra and I were gravely ill together in the same ward at Eastbourne district general hospital last year. Harrowingly, because of the outdated and outgrown hospital buildings at the DGH, Mark watched from his bay as a patient opposite him died, and other patients watched Mar…
Commons
Oral Questions
Housing, Communities and Local Government
9 June 2025
Leasehold Reform
Leaseholders at South View on Upperton Road in Eastbourne face an extortionate bill of up to £40,000 each to repair unsafe balconies. The communication from Morgans and Stredder Pearce, who are both responsible for fixing that, has been woeful, and delays are leading to costs spiralling further. Wil…
Commons
Oral Questions
Scotland
4 June 2025
Veterans
Scotland-born veteran Betty Gallagher joined the Army when she was 17, but eight months later she was dishonourably discharged for what were referred to as “lesbian tendencies”. Today, Betty runs the thriving BourneOut LGBT hub in Eastbourne and founded Eastbourne Pride. Will the Minister thank Bett…
Commons
Westminster Hall
4 June 2025
Swimming Facilities
It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Ms Jardine. I thank the hon. Member for Isle of Wight East (Joe Robertson) for securing the debate.
I learned to swim in Eastbourne Sovereign Centre. Locally, we are ambitious to protect the pool for the long term. That is why I am pushing the Treasury…
Commons
Oral Questions
3 June 2025
Topical Questions
Does the Secretary of State agree with the chair of the Prison Governors’ Association that the Conservative proposal to arm prison officers with lethal weapons is just “headline-grabbing nonsense”? Does she agree that, on top of providing body armour, the serious means to protect prison officers is …
Commons
Oral Questions
3 June 2025
Violent Offenders: Early Release
Between October 2023 and June 2024, the last Conservative Government released 10,083 offenders under their early release scheme, and refused to exempt domestic abusers from early release, to the horror of survivors and victims charities. The Government have made no such exclusion from their early re…