Commons
Ministerial Statement
23 June 2025
Middle East
The most in-depth study ever conducted of the casualties of the so-called war on terror was carried out by Brown University in America, which found that, directly or indirectly, more than 4.5 million people lost their lives partly because of what was voted for in this House. Does the Foreign Secreta…
Commons
Oral Questions
Work and Pensions
23 June 2025
Severely Disabled People: East Worthing and Shoreham
I refer the House to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests, as an officer of the all-party parliamentary group on eye health and visual impairment. A recent freedom of information request by the Royal National Institute of Blind People found that thousands of recipients whose prim…
Commons
Debate
20 June 2025
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
The hon. Gentleman is making a powerful point. Can he foresee a circumstance in which a child with anorexia turns 18, decides to get assisted dying, and the first time the family hear about it is after they have died?
Commons
Proceedings
19 June 2025
Business of the House
Last month, I met more than 20 business owners in the hospitality trade in Leicester city centre. They tell me that, due to the rise in national insurance and hikes in business costs, they are on their knees. That is compounded by antisocial behaviour, rising crime and a lack of parking. Will the Le…
Commons
Debate
18 June 2025
2 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
Can I ask the hon. Gentleman what he would like me to tell the family of Mohammed Saleem, the 80-year-old grandfather who was stabbed simply for being a Muslim?
I would like to speak briefly to the issue of live facial recognition and new clauses 21 and 22 in my name. New clause 21 calls for a ban on live facial recognition because it is not safe, lacks legal legitimacy and is an attack on the fundamental democratic rights of the British people. It is the c…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
18 June 2025
HS2 Reset
With a decade of delay, costs spiralling to eye-watering sums of anywhere between £60 billion and £100 billion and now credible allegations of fraud in the supply chain, will the Secretary of State say what steps the Government will take to recover hard-working taxpayers’ money from fraudsters, hold…
Commons
Debate
16 June 2025
Air India Plane Crash
When news of the tragedy came last week, it served as a real unifier in my great city of Leicester—it unified us in shock, absolute disbelief and mourning. I take this opportunity to remember the names of those who lost their life who were associated with my great city: Hardik Avaiya, Vibhooti Patel…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
16 June 2025
Iran-Israel Conflict
Last week, this House was united in supporting the long-overdue recognition of a Palestinian state, and we urged the Minister to advocate for that at the United Nations conference in Saudi. That has now gone up in smoke. We believed that the US-Iran nuclear peace negotiations were coming close to fr…
Commons
Debate
13 June 2025
2 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
Will the hon. Member give way?
Does the hon. Member agree that no matter how many new clauses we introduce, we cannot militate against people being vulnerable, particularly financially? According to the charity Mind, 2.7 million people in this country have considered suicide because of financial hardship. How could we militate ag…
Commons
Proceedings
12 June 2025
Business of the House
As a person of Gujarati heritage and an MP who represents a large number of Gujarati constituents, I, too, would like to express my shock, horror and sympathies over the devastating news coming out of India. Like the rest of the House, I pray and hope beyond hope for some good news. Recently, I have…
Commons
Westminster Hall
12 June 2025
Long-term Medical Conditions
It is a real pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Efford. I thank the hon. Member for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket (Peter Prinsley) for his learned and absolutely excellent speech. I will focus on my profession as an NHS optometrist and discuss the impact of sight loss from long-term conditi…
Commons
Westminster Hall
11 June 2025
3 contributions
Outdoor Education
Does the hon. Member agree that, as one in eight children living in urban areas does not have a garden, we should encourage some sort of exchange programme between rural and urban schools so that they can also enjoy the outdoors and benefit from it?
Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
10 June 2025
Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories
Ben-Gvir is so extreme that the Israeli Government themselves banned him from joining the army, and that was three decades ago. So if the Minister will please excuse me, I am not going to extend a warm welcome to this announcement. The fact is that this is a matter of trust. The Government tell us t…
Commons
Westminster Hall
10 June 2025
USAID Funding Pause
It is a real pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Hobhouse. I thank my the hon. Member for Melksham and Devizes (Brian Mathew)—who cut his teeth in the continent and the country in which I was born, Malawi—for securing this important debate.
We are seeing the dismantling of the world orde…
Commons
Westminster Hall
9 June 2025
Non-stun Slaughter of Animals
It is a real honour to serve under your chairship, Mr Dowd. Let me take this opportunity to thank Mr Osborne for bringing this petition to the House, allowing us to debate it in the respectful manner that it has been. I also thank the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross (Jamie Ston…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
5 June 2025
Free School Meals
Sadly, a local survey recently found that close to 20% of children in Leicester are worried about not having enough to eat. But, paradoxically, a quarter of the population of 10 to 11-year-olds in my city are clinically obese, and close to 40% have visual signs of dental decay. I warmly welcome this…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
4 June 2025
Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories
Ward Jalal is a six-year-old Palestinian girl who, last week, crawled out of a burning school, leaving behind her mother and two siblings, who burned to death. I mention Ward because she is Palestinian. Last month, there was Al-Haq’s case against the Government. By September 2024, 40,000 innocent Pa…
Commons
Debate
3 June 2025
Dementia Care
The hon. Member is being extremely generous with her time. Is she concerned, along with the Alzheimer’s Society, that more than 71% of carers for people with dementia have no formal training whatsoever, although dementia requires very specific care and training? Will she join me in calling on the Go…
Commons
Debate
2 June 2025
Arms and Military Cargo Export Controls: Israel
In the week before last, the Foreign Secretary said that we were suspending arms negotiations with the Israeli Government, yet just last week, we had a trade envoy—Lord Austin—visiting Israel and saying how wonderful it was to be there. Can the Minister please explain how those two matters do not co…
Commons
Oral Questions
Home Department
2 June 2025
Topical Questions
Leicestershire police has signed a reported £800,000 contract with Palantir—a company that has a worrying history of racial profiling and surveillance concerns in the USA. It has since removed all the contract details from the public record, and the Home Office holds no central records of such a dea…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
22 May 2025
Business of the House
A few short years ago, when I was a bright-eyed nine-year-old boy, I visited the Leicester City football training ground on Belvoir Drive. That was the first time I saw a young Gary Winston Lineker. He went on to be my sporting hero, as the top scorer at virtually every football club he played for, …
Commons
Proceedings
22 May 2025
School Teachers’ Review Body: Recommendations
May I raise concerns about our further education college teachers? There is a real shortage of skilled workers in this country, and one of the reasons for that is that we have undervalued and under-invested in our FE college teachers, who are paid £9,000 less than their peers. No wonder 50% of them …
Commons
Oral Questions
21 May 2025
2 contributions
Good Friday Agreement: Lessons Learned
5. What discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on lessons learned from the Good Friday agreement.
I recently visited the west bank and the Occupied Palestinian Territories with the hon. Member for St Ives (Andrew George). There we saw a systematic process of one community being taken over by another, with the Israeli Government building walls and fences to protect the settler community. The Secr…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
20 May 2025
Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories
I, too, cautiously welcome the Foreign Secretary’s passion and his statement, although they come a little late for 51,000 Palestinians. He has talked of the suspension of negotiations on new trade deals; would not a suspension of existing trade deals be more effective? If the Foreign Secretary does …
Commons
Debate
19 May 2025
Mental Health Bill [Lords]
It has been humbling to be part of this debate and to hear powerful contributions from hon. Members who have so much knowledge, in particular the hon. Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Dr Spencer) and the hon. Members for Dorking and Horley (Chris Coghlan) and for St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire (…