Commons
Oral Questions
24 February 2026
Topical Questions
Several weeks ago, I received a jaw-dropping email from a local Bromsgrove GP, who told me that a 10-month-old child nearly died after ambulance delays. Worse, the same day, another patient—a 66-year-old driving instructor—suffered a cardiac arrest during a driving lesson and died while being driven…
Commons
Oral Questions
Housing, Communities and Local Government
23 February 2026
2 contributions
Grey-belt Land
7. What definition his Department uses for grey-belt land for housing developments.
Bromsgrove golf course is in open countryside. It is a beautiful, green open space and one of the most popular golf courses anywhere in the country, and it contains more than 20,000 trees. Does the Minister really think that it is suitable for development, particularly at scale? Will he rule out dev…
Commons
Debate
12 February 2026
3 contributions
Rural Mobile Connectivity
I congratulate the hon. Member for North Shropshire (Helen Morgan) on being persistent and finally securing this very important debate.
Few phrases in modern Britain ring as hollow as “world-class connectivity”. Speaking plainly, rural mobile phone connectivity in this country is not merely patchy …
My hon. Friend is spot on. Constituents, particularly older residents, have contacted me because they have missed out on crucial calls from GPs and other supporting services that they require. It is about the safety and wellbeing of our constituents as much as it is about connectivity and the econom…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Proceedings
12 February 2026
Business of the House
Heritage buildings are much loved by many members of the community. They underpin our identity. Indeed, many of them are places of worship, including the fantastic St John’s church in Bromsgrove, the spire of which has just had a £500,000 renovation. Will the Leader of the House join me in congratul…
Commons
Oral Questions
Transport
12 February 2026
Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate
Last year, 9.7% of vehicles sold in the UK were Chinese-manufactured electric vehicles—a near doubling of the market share that they had the year before, which stood at 4.9%. What assessment has the Secretary of State’s Department made of the threat that this may pose to national security and to our…
Commons
Debate
11 February 2026
5 contributions
Local Government Finance
Will the Secretary of State give way?
I will keep my comments brief, and they will be focused on council tax. The reason they will be brief is that I was hoping to intervene earlier on the Secretary of State. He said that he did not want to dodge difficult topics and wanted to talk about promises, but he did not take an intervention fro…
+3 more contributions in this session
Commons
Committee Stage
5 February 2026
6 contributions
Cyber Security and Resilience (Network and Information Systems) Bill (Third sitting)
What consideration has been given to the potential conflict between data centres’ contractual obligation regarding customer confidentiality and mandatory rapid reporting? What assurance can the Minister give us that data centres will ensure that the conflict does not impact their future business?
On the growth of this industry, and with 78% of UK enterprises relying on cloud-based services, 96% of companies expected to use public cloud services, 35% of UK businesses outsourcing IT support and, as of last year, 63% of organisations planning to continue or increase their IT outsourcing over th…
+4 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
4 February 2026
4 contributions
Lord Mandelson
At the point immediately prior to Peter Mandelson’s appointment as ambassador, the UK had a respected ambassador to the United States already in Dame Karen Pierce. Given that fact, the known abhorrence of Jeffrey Epstein and the appalling previous judgment of Peter Mandelson, why did the Government …
Does my right hon. Friend agree that the public are sick and tired of people who appear to fail upwards in public life, simply for the reason that they appear to move in the right circles?
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Committee Stage
3 February 2026
8 contributions
Cyber Security and Resilience (Network and Information Systems) Bill (Second sitting)
Q What additional resources will you need in order to implement and enforce the requirements of the Bill?
Ian Hulme: Again, to contrast the ICO’s position with that of other colleagues, we have a much larger sector, as it currently exists, and we will have a massively larger sector again in the fut…
Q Are you able to quantify that in any way?
Ian Hulme: At the moment, to give you a few broad numbers our teams are around 15 people, and we anticipate doubling that. In the future, with self-funding, we will be a bit more in control of our own destiny. It is a significant uplift from our perspecti…
+6 more contributions in this session
Commons
Committee Stage
3 February 2026
5 contributions
Cyber Security and Resilience (Network and Information Systems) Bill (First sitting)
Q Picking up on what Jen mentioned about FTSE and publicly traded companies being within scope, is there a view on ensuring g that privately owned companies of a particular scale are within scope, and if so, how will you determine that? Might it be based on things such as turnover or number of emplo…
Q Two questions: first, for a bit of context, could the witnesses give us an idea of the objectives of cyber-attacks? Are we seeing objectives based around disruption or around extortion, either monetary or for intellectual property? Perhaps we could have a perspective on whether that differs depend…
+3 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
2 February 2026
China and Japan
The Prime Minister has failed to stand up for Britain’s interests. From what we have seen, he could not even make it across Beijing’s red carpet without being guided along the way. What did the Prime Minister expect to receive in return for approving the Chinese super-embassy, and did the Chinese gi…
Commons
Oral Questions
Defence
2 February 2026
Topical Questions
T9. The Government have said that we should be bolstering our preparedness for war. Can the Minister tell us when the defence readiness Bill will be ready and when he expects it to gain Royal Assent?
Commons
Ministerial Statement
29 January 2026
Business of the House
Last May, Reform pushed leaflets through the doors of homes in Worcestershire that said that it would cut taxes, but this year, Reform-led Worcestershire county council has sought permission from the Government to increase council tax by a staggering 10%. Does the Leader of the House agree that that…
Commons
Debate
28 January 2026
2 contributions
Youth Unemployment
The facts speak for themselves: the unemployment rate for those aged between 16 and 24 is 15.9%—that represents 700,000 people —and 946,000 young people aged between 16 and 24 are categorised as NEET. There has been an 11% drop in the number of job adverts in the 12 months between July 2024 and July…
The best welfare programme of all is a job; nothing else comes close, in terms of the earnings that people receive as recognition of and reward for their contribution, and the effect on their self-confidence.
During this debate, we have not heard much, if anything, about incentives for people to ta…
Commons
Westminster Hall
21 January 2026
Waste Collection: Birmingham and the West Midlands
I apologise for missing the first moments of the debate. This situation is having a profound impact, and what is going on is a travesty. There is a complete failure of leadership. This is bleeding out into the wider area. My constituency borders Birmingham, and we have streets of two halves—one half…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
20 January 2026
Mobile Phones and Social Media: Use by Children
It is quite clear that social media is causing a health and wellbeing crisis among young people. Parents are absolutely terrified about the content that their children are viewing and the amount of time that they are spending online. Just a couple of months ago, 14 and 15-year-olds in my constituenc…
Commons
Debate
14 January 2026
West Midlands Police
This has been a dark moment for policing in the west midlands. I thank the Home Secretary for her statement and for putting on the record her belief that the chief constable of the force should go. For the avoidance of doubt, I agree with her. This has always been about the police being able to fulf…
Commons
Proceedings
13 January 2026
Chinese Embassy
This is a complete farce, to be quite honest. We have seen reports in the media that there will be a secret room less than 1 metre away from sensitive cabling, and that since 2018, the Chinese authorities have been cutting off utilities to the UK embassy in China. National security should surely tru…
Commons
Westminster Hall
7 January 2026
4 contributions
Bromsgrove: Local Government
I beg to move,
That this House has considered local government organisation in Bromsgrove.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Western. The reorganisation of Worcestershire councils will be the largest local government reshuffle in more than 50 years. It represents a defining mom…
I agree wholeheartedly with the hon. Gentleman. The disaggregation and loss of access to sustainable services is a profound risk in any case of local government reorganisation, but particularly in rural constituencies.
I acknowledge the recent survey shared around Worcestershire, and thank those wh…
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
6 January 2026
Cyber Security and Resilience (Network and Information Systems) Bill
I start by putting on the record my broad support for the principles in the Bill. Cyber-threats are among the biggest threats that our country faces. We are living in the grey zone right now—every day, thousands of cyber-attacks take place on private companies, publicly owned companies and infrastru…
Commons
Oral Questions
Energy Security and Net Zero
6 January 2026
Topical Questions
On a point of order, Mr Speaker. In response to my question about whether bills in April 2026 will be lower than in July 2024, the Secretary of State claimed that they would be. However, the price cap would suggest otherwise: it was £1,568 in July 2024 and is projected to be £1,620 in April 2026. Ca…
Commons
Oral Questions
Energy Security and Net Zero
6 January 2026
Energy Bills Reduction
This Government’s promise to cut energy bills by £300 is dead in the water, as bills are now £190 higher than when they took office. Now their big idea is to pull the wool over the eyes of the British public by moving some of the costs of net zero from people’s energy bill to their tax bill. Can the…
Commons
Debate
5 January 2026
Agricultural Property Relief and Business Property Relief
After months of sleepless nights, fear and uncertainty, this partial U-turn is a victory for farmers—I pay tribute to farmers across the country, but particularly those in my constituency of Bromsgrove and the villages. Despite the U-turn, this policy should still be scrapped. What can the Minister …
Commons
Ministerial Statement
17 December 2025
Local Government Finance
Talking about local government finance, I was shocked to read in The Times yesterday that Reform-led Worcestershire county council has sought permission from the Government to increase council tax by a maximum 10%. Will the Minister take this opportunity to rule that out, and will she tell us if Lab…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
16 December 2025
Planning Reform
The Minister has said that the Government want to double down on the brownfield-first approach, that they have a presumption in favour of development in urban areas and that they are committed to protecting the green belt. Neither I nor my constituents can square that with the reality of what is hap…