Commons
Westminster Hall
25 November 2025
Immigration Reforms: Humanitarian Visa Routes
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Edward, and I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Rushcliffe (James Naish) for securing this important debate.
Let me say at the outset that I will focus my remarks on the Hong Kong community in my Bolton West constituency. In Westhoughto…
Commons
Proceedings
24 November 2025
Ministerial Code
I commend the Minister for saying clearly, and quite rightly, that we should not be taking lessons from the Conservative party. What more can he say about the reforms that will follow the establishment of the Ethics and Integrity Commission to ensure that former Ministers cannot trade on their knowl…
Commons
Westminster Hall
18 November 2025
2 contributions
Flood Risk and Flood Defence Infrastructure: North-west England
The hon. Member is making a very good point. Does he agree that, notwithstanding the large drainage basins of rivers such as the Mersey, the Dee, the Kent and the Lune, which have systemic flood risk, there is also the issue of serious localised flooding across the region, which is often not tied to…
As my constituency neighbour, does my hon. Friend share the frustration that I and my Bolton West constituents sometimes have about identifying who is responsible for the existing infrastructure and its maintenance? For example, we struggle to understand whether United Utilities or the council is re…
Commons
Oral Questions
Home Department
17 November 2025
Topical Questions
T9. The Home Secretary will be aware of the existing asset recovery incentivisation scheme, which uses seized criminal assets to fund enforcement agencies in their work to tackle economic crime. There are, however, concerns about the lumpy nature of the funding model, which can lead to wild varia…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
13 November 2025
Business of the House
I was recently contacted by a constituent about Greater Manchester integrated care partnership funding an autism assessment for his son. After waiting eight months, my constituent was informed that his chosen provider’s funding had been cut by the ICP. With his GP’s help, he was able to transfer to …
Commons
Westminster Hall
5 November 2025
3 contributions
Financial Transparency: Overseas Territories
I beg to move,
That this House has considered the impact of financial secrecy in the Overseas Territories on UK communities.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Twigg. Before being elected to this place, I dedicated almost 15 years of my working life to tackling financial crime a…
I thank my hon. Friend for his passionate campaigning on this issue. He is absolutely right that we need more transparency to support our law enforcement agencies to tackle this issue, and I will come on to that now.
I pay tribute to the brilliant enforcement work undertaken by the National Crime A…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Debate
4 November 2025
Supporting High Streets
The hon. Member is speaking about the tax rate. Is it not also important to talk about the tax gap? That gap is £46.8 billion, of which £6.4 billion is linked to tax evasion. We are seeing a lot of that on our high streets up and down the country. What does he think should be done across Government …
Commons
Debate
3 November 2025
2 contributions
Public Office (Accountability) Bill
I welcome the Bill and commend Ministers for the work that has been done on it. In particular, I pay tribute to Merseyside colleagues, who have done so much to get us to where we are today.
This Bill is about restoring people’s trust in the people who serve them, whether that is in Westminster, Liv…
My hon. Friend speaks to the two new offences—clauses 5 and 11. It is vital not only that the Bill is passed, but that the authorities have the powers they need to ensure that the contents of the Bill are enforced.
When I speak to people, they want honesty and fairness, and for those in power to li…
Commons
Oral Questions
Defence
3 November 2025
2 contributions
Topical Questions
T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.
May I congratulate the Secretary of State on the Turkey deal last week? A year on from his signing of the Trinity House agreement with his German counterpart, can he outline what progress has been made on implementing that deal, in particular to boost industrial collaboration and drive greater inves…
Commons
Proceedings
30 October 2025
Business of the House
Bolton mountain rescue team, based in my constituency, provides lifesaving emergency support across Greater Manchester and Lancashire. Currently, voluntary search and rescue organisations like Bolton MRT must pay vehicle excise duty, costing the team £3,800 a year—money that could otherwise be direc…
Commons
Oral Questions
Business and Trade
30 October 2025
Topical Questions
T6. Horwich trailer manufacturer Indespension tells me that the post-Brexit regulatory system has significantly increased the approval cost for new trailer designs because of differing rules between GB, EU and Northern Irish markets. The business now spends more than £100,000 a year completing relev…
Commons
Proceedings
23 October 2025
Business of the House
I recently met one of my constituents, Toni Hibbert, who expressed concerns about the process through which parents of disabled children can become Court of Protection deputies when their child turns 18. The application process not only can take many months but requires parents to pay large sums thr…
Commons
Debate
20 October 2025
5 contributions
Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill
Is the simple truth not that this deal is cheaper than what was proposed by the Conservative party in government, and actually has more protections baked into it?
Will the right hon. Lady give way?
+3 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
20 October 2025
Asylum Seekers: Support and Accommodation
My hon. Friend is making an excellent point about the number of asylum seeker hotels being reduced from 400 to roughly 200 in the last two years, and an important point about profit making. Does he agree that firms such as Serco have an obligation to be accountable, transparent and responsive to ele…
Commons
Westminster Hall
16 September 2025
International Day of Democracy
My hon. Friend mentioned the unlawful constitutional vandalism wrought by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Having read recent reporting by The Guardian on his many commercial activities since leaving this place, does my hon. Friend agree that far stricter enforcement is required on the revolving…
Commons
Oral Questions
Home Department
15 September 2025
Topical Questions
T6. Members of the all-party group on anti-corruption and responsible tax, which I chair, had the opportunity to meet National Economic Crime Centre officers last week and discuss the work that NECC is doing to disrupt money laundering and tax evasion, including through its landmark Operation Machin…
Commons
Debate
9 September 2025
7 contributions
Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill
To go back to the point that the Minister was making earlier about control, can he confirm to the House that, contrary to the reasoned amendment in the name of the hon. Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage), we are not ceding control of the Diego Garcia military base, consistent with clause 3?
Will the right hon. Member give way?
+5 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
8 September 2025
Indefinite Leave to Remain
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Pritchard. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for South Norfolk (Ben Goldsborough) for opening the debate. I will focus on the issue of BNO visas; I declare an interest as a member of Labour Friends of Hong Kong. I have 403 constituents in Bolton Wes…
Commons
Debate
4 September 2025
8 contributions
House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill
The Father of the House mentions Conservative party policy in the 1920s and 1960s. Maybe he can recall better than me, but I do not believe there was any mention of House of Lords reform in the Conservative party general election manifesto last year. Will he illuminate the House on Conservative poli…
I will start by setting out some context for why the Bill, though small, is so important and why I am delighted to be speaking in its support. I will then address Lords amendments 1, 3 and 8 directly. As has been mentioned in the debate, in 2024, Labour promised to end the right of hereditary peers …
+6 more contributions in this session
Commons
Proceedings
4 September 2025
Business of the House
My constituents in Horwich are gravely concerned about unsuitable family homes being repurposed into houses in multiple occupation with little transparency about who is being housed there and when. To my immense frustration as the local Member of Parliament, I often hear about such proposals on soci…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
17 July 2025
Ukraine
As secretary of the all-party parliamentary group on Germany, may I take this opportunity to welcome Monday’s joint chairing of the Ukrainian Defence Contact Group by the Defence Secretary, alongside his German counterpart, Boris Pistorius? I also congratulate the Government on today’s landmark bila…
Commons
Proceedings
17 July 2025
Business of the House
I thank the Leader of the House for confirming the recess dates for the next 12 months, which my wife has already messaged me about to say thanks.
The Leader of the House will be aware that, despite important draft Government legislation banning single-use vapes, vape shops masquerading as candy st…
Commons
Proceedings
17 July 2025
Strategy for Elections
Having spent more than a decade tackling financial crime before I came to this place, I welcome the Minister’s remarks and the strategy on elections, which will protect our hard-won democracy from foreign interference and which also incorporates demands from the all-party parliamentary group on anti…
Commons
Proceedings
16 July 2025
Sudan
In response to an urgent question in April, the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for Lincoln (Mr Falconer) confirmed that the London Sudan conference included a commitment from the UK Government to provide a further £120 million of…
Commons
Debate
15 July 2025
6 contributions
Taxes
It is a pleasure to speak in the debate, and I do so on behalf of my constituents, who dutifully pay their taxes in the expectation that they will receive a fair deal in return. Today’s motion from the official Opposition implies that the efforts that this Government have undertaken to deliver that …
I will make some progress given the time limits that will be put in place on other Members.
That finally put us on a strong footing to move on from the irresponsible and reckless chaos of Liz Truss’s mini-Budget and the litany of unfunded spending commitments left behind by the previous Administrat…
+4 more contributions in this session