Commons
Proceedings
8 July 2026
Maritime and Coastguard Agency
I, too, refer the House to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests in respect of the GMB, and also declare that I am a supporter of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.
I thank the right hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr Carmichael) for asking the urgent question, and pay…
Commons
Westminster Hall
15 June 2026
Brain Cancer
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Barker. It is great to see Members in the Chamber in such great numbers. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Mitcham and Morden (Dame Siobhain McDonagh) for her determination in this area. Through her sheer force of nature, she has raise…
Commons
Oral Questions
Health and Social Care
9 June 2026
Accountability in the Health Service
Jules Fielder from Hastings was diagnosed with stage 4 terminal lung cancer after doctors missed her symptoms, mistaking them for tennis elbow. As a non-smoking young woman, she did not meet the stereotype of what lung cancer patients often present with, but she was determined to channel her own tra…
Commons
Proceedings
8 June 2026
Water Companies
In Hastings, Rye and the villages we have had sewage dumped in our sea, two major water outages—lasting five and nine days—Hastings town centre flooded and, last year, as the Minister knows, 300 million plastic beads washed up on our beaches all thanks to Southern Water. Its failures are making peop…
Commons
Debate
2 June 2026
Armed Forces Bill
My hon. and gallant Friend is talking about the support that the Government are giving to veterans, and about improving their housing situation. In my constituency, the East Sussex Veterans’ Hub, which provides really valuable support for local veterans, has just received a grant of half a million p…
Commons
Debate
13 May 2026
New Developments: Unadopted Roads and Public Amenities
My hon. Friend raises the issue of the facilities on new housing estates, and playgrounds in particular. One of the new estates in my constituency, the Ashdown House development, has been developed by Chartway homes and funded by Legal & General. A playground was promised as part of the developm…
Commons
Oral Questions
16 April 2026
Business of the House
We have a pothole epidemic in Hastings, Rye and the villages, and that is why the Government gave East Sussex county council a record £21 million to tackle it—more money than ever before. So, I was absolutely furious when I uncovered figures that showed that it actually planned to spend £18 million …
Commons
Debate
14 April 2026
Dualling of the A21
I thank the hon. Member for Bexhill and Battle (Dr Mullan) for securing this important debate about improving the A21. This is an issue that we work on together and with colleagues who represent constituencies along the road, which runs from London down to Hastings and through his constituency.
We …
Commons
Oral Questions
19 March 2026
Business of the House
The Queensway Gateway Road works were a shambles from start to finish. They were meant to last weeks, but dragged on for almost a year, causing gridlock and losing local businesses millions. We have just found out that Conservative-run East Sussex county council overspent by £5 million on those sham…
Commons
Petition
18 March 2026
Use of Biobeads in Wastewater Treatment
I present this petition on behalf of the 9,915 people who have supported my campaign calling on the water companies to end the use of plastic beads in wastewater treatment. A few months ago, I had no idea that plastic beads were used in wastewater treatment, and then 300 million of them washed up on…
Commons
Proceedings
18 March 2026
3 contributions
Student Loans
I must declare an interest as someone in the first year group to have a plan 2 student loan under the broken system introduced by the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats that we have today. Will the right hon. Member apologise to my generation for £9,000 tuition fees, for the broken system she c…
The right hon. Lady talks about making the system fair. Will she comment on what her party did in government? The Conservatives abolished the maintenance grant, which means that low-income students have bigger debts and have to pay back more. This Labour Government have acted to bring back the maint…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
16 March 2026
GP Contract
It has been really hard to get a GP appointment in Hastings and Rye, so I welcome the bold action that this Government are taking to tackle that 8 am scramble to get a GP appointment: more funding for GPs; changing the funding formula to better support coastal towns, like ours; and requiring GPs, as…
Commons
Debate
10 March 2026
Extreme Climate and Weather Events: National Resilience
My hon. Friend and I worked together on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee to push for the inquiry on extreme weather events to which her debate refers. The fire service is often the first agency on the scene after flooding, a storm, a landslip or a wildfire, but under the previous Go…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
26 February 2026
Business of the House
We have a pothole epidemic in Hastings, Rye and the villages. After years of the Conservatives slashing council budgets, this Labour Government have given Conservative-run East Sussex county council a record cash injection of £21 million to fill those potholes. Despite that, potholes are causing cha…
Commons
Proceedings
25 February 2026
4 contributions
Bayeux Tapestry Exhibition
No other work of art is as entwined with our island’s story as the Bayeux tapestry, which quite literally wove my constituency of Hastings, Rye and the villages into our national history. The tapestry’s return home after spending nearly 1,000 years across the channel is a triumph for Britain, and it…
The hon. Member is right that schoolchildren must be able to access the exhibition. They should not be put off by the price of a ticket to the exhibition or a train ticket—or even a flight in his case. It is really important. I speak as someone who went to local state schools and was lucky enough to…
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
9 February 2026
Russian Influence on UK Politics and Democracy
I want to raise a case in Hastings, where £150,000 of levelling-up money was given to Lubov Chernukhin, the Conservatives’ biggest female donor, who is married to a former Finance Minister in Putin’s Russia. She took the levelling-up money, and the building—Owens in the town centre—closed after a ma…
Commons
Westminster Hall
26 January 2026
Key Stage 1 Curriculum
I thank the hon. Member for highlighting the importance of access to play. Something that many children and parents have raised with me in Hastings and Rye is how many playgrounds have closed or fallen into disrepair in my constituency. I have done an audit of all the playgrounds and found that eigh…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
21 January 2026
Water White Paper
Those of us in this House who sit on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee and grilled the water bosses know all too well how broken this industry is, so I welcome the Government’s commitment to addressing the failures of the industry with these important reforms. As the Secretary of Sta…
Commons
Debate
19 January 2026
Local Elections: Cancellation
Many of my constituents do not understand why we have an inefficient, duplicative, confusing system of two-tier councils at the moment. They are looking forward to this process going ahead and to having one council. As we await the process, it is really important that the councils we have remain res…
Commons
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister
14 January 2026
Engagements
The people I represent are fed up with Southern Water, when it comes to everything from sewage and broken pipes to water outages, even on Christmas day. In November, millions of plastic beads washed up on our beaches, and we discovered that they came from a Southern Water treatment plant. I am campa…
Commons
Proceedings
13 January 2026
Storm Goretti
The Minister will be aware that in a number of places in Sussex and Kent—including in your Sussex Weald constituency, Madam Deputy Speaker—people are still without water as a result of the power outages that occurred during the storm. The power supply to waterworks is interrupted briefly, but then t…
Commons
Proceedings
12 January 2026
Water Supplies: East Grinstead
My constituency was affected by the water outage over the Christmas period, and I thank the Minister for her support over that period—for keeping me updated, and for briefing the water company. I really feel for the people who are experiencing these outages. The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs C…
Commons
Oral Questions
Housing, Communities and Local Government
12 January 2026
New Homes
When we are building the new homes that we desperately need, it is important that we think about playgrounds and access to play. I have just audited all the playgrounds in Hastings and Rye. I found that many parents and children have to walk for over 20 minutes to get to a playground, particularly i…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
17 December 2025
UK-EU Common Understanding Negotiations
I really welcome the return of Erasmus and the opportunity for young people in Hastings and Rye to study and train in Europe again. As a coastal town, we also want to see the return of our closest link with our European neighbours through bringing back international trains to Ashford International, …
Commons
Proceedings
17 November 2025
Illegal Waste: Organised Crime
I thank the hon. Member for Bicester and Woodstock (Calum Miller) for bringing forward this urgent question. As the Minister knows from her visit to my constituency last week, millions of plastic beads recently washed up there. After initially denying any involvement, Southern Water has admitted tha…