Commons
Ministerial Statement
15 June 2026
Social Media Ban for Under-16s
It sounds like the Secretary of State is hearing a fairly unanimous view from members of the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee, which is good. Today’s ban is a welcome start, but it is only a start and is not sufficient. Does the Secretary of State agree with me and the Committee that, in…
Commons
Debate
3 June 2026
2 contributions
Lord Mandelson: Response to Humble Address
Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?
I was trying not to interrupt his flow—[Interruption.] Until I did.
Throughout the files there are mentions of Palantir and Peter Mandelson, including a memo in which he tries to introduce Peter Thiel to No. 10 staff in June last year. Even though Mr Louis Mosley has written to me today suggesting …
Commons
Debate
20 May 2026
Defence Readiness
We have had a very interesting debate, with interesting speeches from many Members. I, too, am fully behind the rapid increase in funds for defence and I wish to add my thanks to our serving personnel.
Defence readiness requires a whole-society response and sovereign capability. Across a wide range…
Commons
Westminster Hall
28 April 2026
Park Home Owners
I thank the hon. Member for securing this valuable debate. I have a good number of park home sites in my constituency. Not only do they suffer the 10% commission, poor maintenance levels and high service charges, but they have atrocious service on the utilities that they have to buy through the park…
Commons
Debate
21 April 2026
Peter Mandelson: Government Appointment
Yesterday, I asked the Prime Minister about the security vetting condition that required Peter Mandelson to be accompanied when visiting previous clients. Does my right hon. Friend agree that we need to find out whether the lack of accompaniment when visiting Palantir in Washington with the Prime Mi…
Commons
Debate
20 April 2026
Security Vetting
I understand that Peter Mandelson’s vetting clearance was conditional on his being accompanied to meetings with former clients, such as Palantir. Will the Prime Minister clarify why there is no record of his and Peter Mandelson’s meeting with Palantir in Washington, and will he tell the House what i…
Commons
Westminster Hall
16 April 2026
Neuroscience and Digital Childhoods
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Butler. I thank the hon. Member for her report from our Select Committee, which I particularly enjoy working on. I find it very useful to bring people such as the social media companies before the Committee. We had a very—shall I say—vibrant meeting…
Commons
Westminster Hall
16 April 2026
7 contributions
NHS Federated Data Platform
I beg to move,
That this House has considered the NHS Federated Data Platform.
We are at a key time for the NHS as it changes from analogue to digital, and data is key to achieving better health results for all our constituents, as well as to the future of the NHS. AI analysis of scans can spot pa…
I agree with the hon. Lady entirely. The secret meeting in 2019 between Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings and Peter Thiel—the founder and chair of Palantir—that started this whole thing, for which there are no minutes, must be clarified as well.
I ask the Minister to consider using the contract re…
+5 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
15 April 2026
Access to Work Scheme
In the light of the previous intervention, I draw the Minister’s attention to the fact that the case just mentioned is not unique. Many such cases are happening in my constituency. People are not getting into work, and firms have gone out of business because work coaches are not being paid. Will the…
Commons
Westminster Hall
25 March 2026
Public Baths and Lidos
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Efford. I, too, congratulate the hon. Member for Peterborough (Andrew Pakes) on obtaining this debate and on the delightful picture he painted of the Peterborough lido. It is concerning to hear from the Members who have spoken so far about the preci…
Commons
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister
18 March 2026
Engagements
Q5. Yesterday, the Chancellor announced £2 billion of funding for UK sovereign artificial intelligence and quantum capabilities. The Science, Innovation and Technology Committee was told that Government procurement will adapt to encourage UK companies to develop sovereign AI systems for Government…
Commons
Debate
11 March 2026
Lord Mandelson: Response to Humble Address Motion
In my investigations into Palantir, it has been brought to my attention that 20 years ago Peter Mandelson was lobbying the Government very hard to take on board a strategic supplier from the United States that was not an obvious choice at the time. That sort of decision is something that a financier…
Commons
Debate
10 March 2026
Extreme Climate and Weather Events: National Resilience
I congratulate the hon. Lady on bringing this really important debate to the Chamber. Does she agree that the railway is a key part of the infrastructure and communications she is talking about, and we must focus on getting the final phase of the Dawlish rail resilience programme completed, along wi…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
10 March 2026
Digital ID: Public Consultation
May I thank the Chief Secretary for his inclusion of the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee in the work so far and for his removal of the mandatory nature of digital ID? That is what caused so many of my residents in Newton Abbot to write to me and complain about it. Will he commit to cont…
Commons
Westminster Hall
10 March 2026
Technology Sovereignty
I thank the hon. Lady and Chair of my Select Committee for giving way. Does she agree that a definition of sovereign tech is something that a foreign power could not switch off, so that the systems on which we rely could not be pulled out from under our feet, much as the Microsoft ones were for the …
Commons
Debate
2 March 2026
4 contributions
Representation of the People Bill
Not long ago, as part of the armed forces parliamentary scheme, some of us went down to the commando training centre at Lympstone to see the Royal Marines’ passing-out parade. One of the brave young people there was just 17, and at the end of the parade he was told, “Marine, go off and do your duty.…
Does my hon. Friend not agree that if the single transferable vote system is good enough for selecting Select Committee Chairs and the alternative vote system is good enough for mayors, they should be good enough in other elections, too?
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
2 March 2026
Middle East
I welcome the removal of the abhorrent Iranian regime, having seen its beginnings 47 years ago, when my father was a serving officer in the British embassy. We knew the Americans who were taken hostage. I add my thanks to our serving personnel, who are putting their lives at risk. Since the pre-empt…
Commons
Debate
25 February 2026
Ukraine
On the subject of Ukrainians living in the valleys, I was visiting some Ukrainians who are on the Homes for Ukraine scheme in Dawlish in my constituency, and I met a senior Ukrainian naval officer who was extremely grateful and very relieved that his family were safe and secure in Dawlish. I thank t…
Commons
Oral Questions
Transport
12 February 2026
Topical Questions
T4. Roadworks in my constituency are causing traffic hell, and residents have had enough. With the two-year closure of the A382 for much-needed work, utilities companies are taking advantage by doing roadworks everywhere, and the county council is powerless to cause them to co-operate and co-ordin…
Commons
Debate
11 February 2026
2 contributions
Storm Chandra Flooding
I thank my hon. Friend for securing this essential debate. Her speaking of 2014 reminds me of the previous great storm, which took out the railway lines in Dawlish. This January, we had three storms in quick succession, as we did last January, so there appears to be more of a pattern now —it seems t…
I deeply thank the Minister and my hon. Friend the Member for Glastonbury and Somerton (Sarah Dyke) for highlighting the dreadful things that have happened in Somerset, and I join them in thanking all those who have responded.
I very much welcome what the Minister says about ensuring that the Envir…
Commons
Oral Questions
10 February 2026
Ministry of Defence: Palantir Contracts
The Select Committee said that DSIT was in the loop when it came to buying things, so I challenge the Minister’s statement that it was purely the Secretary of State who made the decision about the contract. This contract with Palantir is nearly three times the value of the previous contract with it.…
Commons
Oral Questions
5 February 2026
Business of the House
In yesterday’s debate about Lord Mandelson, we heard a lot about the despicable crimes of Jeffrey Epstein. We also heard about Mandelson’s lobbying through his Global Counsel organisation, through which he introduced the Prime Minister to the chair of the company Palantir. Yesterday the Cabinet Offi…
Commons
Westminster Hall
5 February 2026
5 contributions
Sustainable Drainage Systems
I beg to move,
That this House has considered sustainable drainage systems.
It is a pleasure to serve under you today, Mrs Barker.
Flooding is a topical issue. In Devon, it feels like it has been raining for about a year; in fact, it probably has been since the beginning of the year. Every day we…
I absolutely agree and will go on to quote the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management, New Civil Engineer and a body that I discovered only recently: the Association of SuDS Authorities. I did not even know that it existed, but there we go.
We have one more estate, in Kingsteig…
+3 more contributions in this session
Commons
Committee Stage
3 February 2026
6 contributions
Finance (No. 2) Bill (Sixth sitting)
I fully appreciate taking action against those who promote such schemes, but there is an inherent approach here that may be new. By prosecuting the person who promotes the scheme, are we turning those people who have taken advantage of the scheme into tax avoiders, or victims, or somewhere in betwee…
I take the Minister’s point that HMRC is not a regulator that looks at the quality of tax advice; however, it has every other aspect of a regulator that one might find. I used to work for a regulator in telecoms, and some of the powers in these measures are exactly what we had in that regulator. It …
+4 more contributions in this session
Commons
Committee Stage
3 February 2026
2 contributions
Finance (No. 2) Bill (Fifth sitting)
Vaping is a difficult issue, particularly when it comes to recycling. I understand that vape shops are expected to take them back, but local authorities have real problems with the disposal of used vape canister things—I do not know what they are called—with batteries in them. Will the Minister cons…
I am afraid that my training was as an engineer, rather than as a lawyer, so I apologise if I get points of standard law wrong. However, it is fascinating to read the Bill in such detail. In clause 126(3), it says,
“It is a defence for a person charged with an offence under this section to prove th…