Commons
Ministerial Statement
13 October 2025
Manchester Terrorism Attack
I recently visited a synagogue in my constituency to celebrate Sukkot, but this year our celebration was drowned in sadness as we paid our respects following the terrorist attacks on two very brave men. We all condemn those attacks because, as the Home Secretary said, an attack on our Jewish communi…
Commons
Oral Questions
13 October 2025
Homelessness
Every night, over 1,000 children are homeless in my city; they are either in temporary accommodation, or even worse off. Does the Minister agree that this is totally unacceptable for a modern society, and that the Government must bring forward its cross-departmental plan to tackle youth homelessness…
Commons
Proceedings
10 September 2025
Qatar: Israeli Strike
We have witnessed the Israeli army massacre over 60,000 people in Gaza, 19,000 of whom were children. The blood-soaked tentacles of the Israeli army are now reaching closer to home, especially in my case. Yesterday afternoon in Doha, my niece and her daughter were having a lovely time together in a …
Commons
Westminster Hall
10 September 2025
Occupied Palestinian Territories: Humanitarian Access
It is a real honour to serve under your chairship, Mr Stringer.
Nine children lie in bloodstained, torn clothes. They were not fighters, militants, extremists or terrorists; they were simply queuing for water in what Israel itself has declared a safe zone, and yet the so-called most moral army in t…
Commons
Proceedings
8 September 2025
Palestine Action: Proscription and Protests
The more than 1,000 people who have been arrested include blind veterans, elderly people, NHS workers and even the children of Holocaust survivors, yet the Government are intent on aiding and abetting Israeli firms—51 of them will be exhibiting in London this week at the arms fair—alongside rolling …
Commons
Proceedings
4 September 2025
Business of the House
In the month of August alone, across our country mosques as well as women, children and families have been subjected to unacceptable levels of Islamophobic abuse and attacks—from a young Muslim mother with her young child being abused in a park in Yorkshire for simply wearing a niqab, to a young aut…
Commons
Oral Questions
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
2 September 2025
Gaza: Evacuation of UK Scholarship Students
Along with thousands of other children, my youngest son is today going back for his first day at school. Unfortunately, more than 660,000 Gazan children—those who have not been butchered or maimed irreversibly by the Israel Defence Forces—are being denied schooling for the third consecutive year. Th…
Commons
Westminster Hall
2 September 2025
Defibrillators
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Stringer. I thank the hon. Member for Bishop Auckland (Sam Rushworth) for securing this debate on what is literally a matter of life and death.
Last week, I was fortunate enough to unveil a new community defibrillator in the Evington ward of my con…
Commons
Proceedings
22 July 2025
Birmingham Bin Strikes
I, too, thank my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham Perry Barr (Ayoub Khan) for tabling this urgent question. I also thank the Minister for his answers, and I sympathise with his position, but replacing this workforce, policing the dispute and paying the legal fees has cost the already overstretc…
Commons
Westminster Hall
22 July 2025
Humanitarian Situation in Sudan
I thank the hon. Lady for securing this really important debate; it is often said that Sudan is the forgotten conflict. Does she agree that we must urge the United Nations to enforce its resolution 2736, which mandates lifting the siege, particularly in the city of El Fasher, and facilitating the de…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
21 July 2025
Middle East
Last week, as a Minister met Yair Golan, shaking hands, smiling and taking photographs, a Palestinian mother faced a dilemma: should she stay where she is and see the starvation of her children, or should she venture out and see the children being blown to pieces, adding to the 17,000 others who hav…
Commons
Oral Questions
21 July 2025
Topical Questions
Sadly, both universities in my constituency, De Montfort University and Leicester University, are on the verge of making hundreds of redundancies and even shutting down complete faculties. What financial commitment is the Department making to secure academic jobs, especially in subjects such as chem…
Commons
Proceedings
17 July 2025
Business of the House
Autism and other neurodiversity conditions in children present challenges to any parents, but sadly stigma and ignorance remain particularly high in some communities, including some parts of the South Asian community. This already adds deep emotional strain to families suffering and navigating compl…
Commons
Proceedings
17 July 2025
Strategy for Elections
According to the latest British social attitudes survey, 60% of the British public now support proportional representation. Given that mayors will be elected under this system from 2027 onwards, why does the Minister refuse even to consider that fairer system so that by the time the next general ele…
Commons
Oral Questions
Business and Trade
17 July 2025
High Street Businesses
I refer the House to my registered interest as a small business owner. Retailers in my constituency, including city centre retailers, tell me that they are on their knees, crippled by soaring costs, rising national insurance contributions, rising antisocial behaviour, expensive and poor parking, and…
Commons
Westminster Hall
17 July 2025
Freedom of Religion or Belief: UK Foreign Policy
I thank the hon. Member for the brilliant, nuanced speech that he is making about our role and its importance. Does he agree with me and with Amnesty International that there are more than 1 million Muslim Uyghurs in prison camps in the Xinjiang region of China, and that we can work effectively by e…
Commons
Debate
16 July 2025
Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life
I thank the hon. Member for giving way, especially as she is making such a powerful speech. Yesterday, I went to an event with Health Equals, which has shown that where a child is born can lead to a 16-year discrepancy in life expectancy due to poverty. Does she agree that some form of legally bindi…
Commons
Oral Questions
Housing, Communities and Local Government
14 July 2025
Topical Questions
A new report by Crisis shows that only 2.6% of rental properties in my area of Leicester South are affordable to those on local housing allowance. That is a real-terms cut as rents soar, because the Government have frozen housing benefit until 2026. Will the Secretary of State explain how that freez…
Commons
Westminster Hall
9 July 2025
5 contributions
Glaucoma Awareness
I beg to move,
That this House has considered glaucoma awareness.
It is a real pleasure to serve under your chairship for the first time, Mr Pritchard. I thank all right hon. and hon. Members for attending this important debate. First, I declare my registered interest as a practising optometrist f…
I could not agree more. If we achieve that one thing today, we will have achieved a great milestone. In its early stages, glaucoma has no symptoms, pain or warning signs—just a slow, silent theft of vision. By the time it is noticed, the damage is permanent; it is as if the fire has gutted the house…
+3 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
8 July 2025
Crown Court Backlog
The Crown court backlog stands at approximately 73,000 cases annually, and rape and sexual assault trials in Leicester Crown court face delays of up to three years. What steps is the Department taking to reduce that backlog and ensure that serious offences are brought to trial more efficiently to pr…
Commons
Debate
2 July 2025
2 contributions
Prevention and Suppression of Terrorism
Does the shadow Minister agree with me that, if the only acceptable form of protest is polite protest, that is not protest, but permission?
I came to this country as a child; it nurtured, educated and embraced me. I love this country for so many reasons, but for two reasons more than anything else, I suspect. The first is for its sense of fairness, and the second is for the freedom to express how we feel democratically. That is why I sp…
Commons
Debate
1 July 2025
Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill
I have been sitting here for over four or five hours, and there have been so many changes and concessions that I really do not know what we will be voting on. This is no way to bring in a Bill, when it is so important to people’s lives.
The independent alliance stands firmly against the Bill, becau…
Commons
Oral Questions
Defence
30 June 2025
Topical Questions
T2. In response to my written parliamentary question, the Minister for the Armed Forces said that the Ministry of Defence assesses support to foreign forces on “a case-by-case basis. UK training courses promote British values, including human rights…and…international humanitarian law.”How does that …
Commons
Oral Questions
24 June 2025
Topical Questions
Earlier this month, the US President ordered the brutal Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Los Angeles, and called those protesting against these raids “paid insurrectionists” and “criminal invaders”. A few days later, a gunman assassinated Democratic politician Melissa Hortman. In recent …
Commons
Westminster Hall
24 June 2025
2 contributions
War Memorials
It is a real pleasure to serve under your chairship for the first time, Mr Stuart. I thank the hon. Member for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy (Melanie Ward) for securing the debate.
Like everybody else, I will speak about the importance of war memorials, not just as statues but as living symbols of reme…
I agree: that local link with the community connects the past and the future.
As we remember, we must also reflect. It is painful to acknowledge that the stories that we tell through our war memorials have been incomplete for far too long. Animals that were sacrificed in the war efforts were rightl…