Polly Billington

Lab

69 parliamentary sessions on record in this archive

69 sessions page 3 of 3
Commons Ministerial Statement 14 July 2025
State of Climate and Nature
I welcome the statement, in particular the importance and emphasis that my right hon. Friend places on how climate change and nature loss are fundamentally linked and contribute to each other. I also remind the House that after the national health service, the thing that this country loves the most …
Commons Ministerial Statement 3 July 2025
NHS 10-Year Plan
It is thanks to the Secretary of State and, indeed, our Chancellor that we already anticipate a £10 million state-of-the-art health hub in Thanet, which is opening this autumn. That will have a community diagnostic centre, expanded GP services, podiatry, cardiac and respiratory teams, MRIs and suppo…
Commons Debate 1 July 2025 3 contributions
Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill
I thank the Secretary of State for the improvements she has made to the Bill, which are extremely reassuring for my constituents, 9,000 of whom are on personal independence payments and are now reassured. Some, however, are concerned about the number of adults who could be put into poverty, followin…
Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons Debate 13 June 2025 3 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
Will my hon. Friend give way?
I am interested in what the hon. Lady says about the safety of those drugs. Does any adverse event data exist globally to quantify how much harm and suffering could be caused while inducing the dying process?
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons Ministerial Statement 10 June 2025
Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories
I welcome these sanctions, which need to be seen in the context of £129 million of extra aid, the refunding of UNRWA, sanctions on settlers, the suspension of the arms trade and, importantly, the suspension of trade negotiations. That is the context of the action by this Government. However, the suf…
Commons Oral Questions Energy Security and Net Zero 10 June 2025
Decoupling Electricity and Gas Prices
I think we all agree that it is important for us to protect all consumers from the volatile oil and gas prices that my hon. Friend has mentioned. However, while we shift and undertake that reform, has the Minister considered the benefits of having an energy social tariff, to protect customers now fr…
Commons Ministerial Statement 9 June 2025
Winter Fuel Payment
Would my hon. Friend help clear something up? The opposition parties seem to be claiming that they urged us to make this decision, but that is not true, is it? They actually urged us to give winter fuel payments to millionaires at the expense of our public services.
Commons Westminster Hall 4 June 2025 3 contributions
Disadvantaged Communities
It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Sir Roger. State failure can come in many different forms. When he was Leader of the Opposition, the Prime Minister said, “we must restore the sense that this is a country that can rectify injustice, particularly when carried out by institutes of the …
Is the hon. Gentleman prepared to accept responsibility for the significant increase in child poverty caused by the two-child benefit cap that was introduced by the last Tory Government?
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons Debate 3 June 2025 2 contributions
Data (Use and Access) Bill [Lords]
Will my hon. Friend give way?
I thank my hon. Friend for giving way, and I understand that he is being extremely patient in these circumstances. May I draw his attention to something that happened before 2010? I know that that was a long time ago, but both he and I are old enough—and, indeed, ugly enough—to remember those times.…
Commons Debate 22 May 2025 3 contributions
Data (Use and Access) Bill [Lords]
I thank my right hon. Friend for his tone and for the direction of travel that he is setting out. Bearing in mind that he is talking about “the most rapid fashion possible”, why are the Government refusing to put notice of backstop powers for transparency in the Bill? That is what the creative indus…
rose—
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons Ministerial Statement 22 May 2025
Independent Sentencing Review
What does the Secretary of State make of the extraordinary admission by the former Lord Chancellor last year that the previous Government chose not to take action on the prison crisis because “you have to win votes”? Fortunately, the Conservatives did not win any votes in Margate, Broadstairs and …
Commons Westminster Hall 19 May 2025
Gender Self-identification
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Mundell. I am struck by not only the Supreme Court ruling, but the interim guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which is causing extreme distress for a number of my constituents. I am having to rely on Margate Pride’s own advice t…
Commons Debate 16 May 2025 3 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
It is welcome that new clause 10 seeks to protect more individuals, but can my hon. Friend say why she has still not chosen to make provision for hospices and care homes to opt out without having their funding threatened?
Will my hon. Friend give way?
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons Proceedings 15 May 2025
Business of the House
My right hon. Friend will be aware that mums and babies have been badly failed in the past by maternity services at Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother hospital in my constituency. I am sure she will share my delight that the unit has now been rated “good” by the Care Quality Commission. That improveme…
Commons Proceedings 15 May 2025
Recalled Offenders: Sentencing Limits
This situation is one of the most egregious examples of state failure and a consequence of the worst chaos and incompetence of the last 14 years. The Lord Chancellor has been clear that, given current levels of demand, we cannot build our way out of this crisis. Does the Minister agree that we have …
Commons Debate 14 May 2025 4 contributions
Data (Use and Access) Bill [Lords]
Will my hon. Friend give way?
I thank the Minister for giving way; he is being extremely generous with his time. The Minister is talking about the possibility that the amendments put forward would not do anything today, but there is an urgency in the creative industries because the stuff that they create is being scraped now. W…
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons Proceedings 14 May 2025
Gaza: UK Assessment
I thank my hon. Friend for all his work—it must sometimes feel very lonely on that Front Bench—and particularly welcome the urgent session that we managed to secure at the United Nations, but things have become more difficult in recent days, and we must ask whether we are doing enough with our allie…
Commons Oral Questions Work and Pensions 12 May 2025
Young People not in Education, Employment or Training
Over the weekend I was shocked, but not surprised, to see the new statistics for young people in Thanet who are not in education, employment or training—having hit 11.6%, the figure is the highest in the south-east. Some 3% of young people in Thanet also experience support for special educational ne…
Commons Debate 7 May 2025 2 contributions
Data (Use and Access) Bill [Lords]
One of my colleagues had a conversation with representatives of the AI sector. She was very enthusiastic about the idea that there would be an enormous amount of growth in this country if they were able to adopt what they wanted, so she asked, “What would you like?” They replied, “We want the BBC ar…
I observe that there is an issue of territoriality here. We have actually managed to get carve-outs and protect this country from deepfakes, for example; if something is made abroad, it cannot be used in this country. Does my hon. Friend agree that we should be able to have similar carve-outs for cr…

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