Commons
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister
16 July 2025
Engagements
Q12. On 11 June, Alexander Dennis announced that it was planning to stop bus manufacturing in Scotland. My hon. Friend the Member for Falkirk (Euan Stainbank) and I have met the workers, the trade unions, the company and both UK and Scottish Government Ministers to see how closure can be averted. Al…
Commons
Debate
15 July 2025
Taxes
We live in a country where wealth is hoarded by the few while poverty is the fate of the many. Yes, the Government have taken some welcome steps, addressing non-dom status and imposing VAT on private school fees, and I make no apology for being ideological about that. Those are steps in the right di…
Commons
Debate
15 July 2025
2 contributions
Welfare Spending
Pessimism is understandable when brutality is overpowering. Just over a year ago, the British public tried to shake off that pessimism and emerge from the brutal reality of life in Britain after 14 years of relentless cuts that have torn apart the social safety net of our country. It is little wonde…
I thank the hon. Gentleman for that point, which I will come on to. He has clearly had advance sight of my speech.
The Government should of course lift the two-child cap immediately, and it was wrong of them not to make that a part of the King’s Speech.
The wording in the motion referring to a “be…
Commons
Oral Questions
15 July 2025
Topical Questions
More than 100 INEOS chemical employees are to lose their jobs at Grangemouth because the refinery has closed. The £200 million commitment to Project Willow does not help them in the here and now, and it is frankly an insult to the workers who are about to lose their livelihoods to talk about trainin…
Commons
Westminster Hall
9 July 2025
2 contributions
Glaucoma Awareness
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Pritchard. I extend my thanks to the hon. Member for Leicester South (Shockat Adam) for securing this important debate. When the time comes, I will welcome an intervention from him to help me pronounce the name of the eye operation that I had, becau…
That is not the first time I have heard that. I have another optician friend, who said that that has been a regular occurrence in his career. Someone may not know that they have glaucoma until it is too late.
I was prescribed eye drops. I went through a few options, with not much success, until I e…
Commons
Oral Questions
8 July 2025
Topical Questions
T3. PeoplePlus has just won the contract for prison education in Scotland and England. PeoplePlus was sold to Talent International, a subsidiary of swipejobs, in which US and Australian-based venture capital firm Clearsign Capital has a 40% stake, according to the University and College Union. Can t…
Commons
Oral Questions
8 July 2025
2 contributions
Prison Officer Morale: Pension Age
6. What recent assessment she has made of the potential impact of lowering the pension age of prison officers on prison officer morale.
The last Government hiked up prison officers’ pension age to 68, and then walked away from negotiations that were set up to partially reverse that unfair and unrealistic policy. This devastated morale, which is now worse than ever, especially with violence against staff at record highs. Are this Gov…
Commons
Debate
3 July 2025
Women’s State Pension Age: Financial Redress
I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Salford (Rebecca Long Bailey) for bringing forward this debate, and for her contribution, which was excellent, as usual. It was quite the sight yesterday to see female parliamentarians don green, white and purple sashes in commemoration of 97 years since women w…
Commons
Westminster Hall
2 July 2025
West Bank: Forced Displacement
It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Mr Turner. Thanks go to my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow North (Martin Rhodes) for securing this vital debate.
Sixty-one years ago, Tony Benn wrote:
“Of all the weaknesses that beset those in authority, blindness to reality is always the most cri…
Commons
Oral Questions
Treasury
1 July 2025
Topical Questions
T4. I want to ask about the £200 million national wealth fund commitment for Project Willow. How will it be accessed? What is the minimum and maximum amount that can be accessed by an applicant? If it is exclusively for businesses, will it be based on being positioned within the existing footprint o…
Commons
Westminster Hall
1 July 2025
5 contributions
Refugee Citizenship Rights
I beg to move.
That this House has considered refugee citizenship rights.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Butler. Refugees should not be reduced to statistics. After all, refugees are human beings, and every human being deserves to be treated with dignity, respect and compassion…
The hon. Gentleman is a champion on this topic, and his parliamentary record stands up there with the very best—although I did not vote for him to be my MP. I thank him very much for his contribution, and I agree with him.
It looks as though refugees will have to argue for an exemption to the blank…
+3 more contributions in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
30 June 2025
Prax Lindsey Oil Refinery
I am glad that the root cause of the problems that we face has been identified. We have touched on it, but this is what happens when private capital is in charge of such a key piece of infrastructure. We saw that play out at the Grangemouth refinery in my constituency, and it is good to hear my hon.…
Commons
Oral Questions
Transport
26 June 2025
2 contributions
Bus Manufacturing
8. Whether she has had recent discussions with Alexander Dennis Ltd on the potential impact of the proposed closure of its Falkirk and Larbert bus manufacturing sites on her targets for public transport decarbonisation.
I draw attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests, which details my membership of Unite the union.
Once upon a time, Scotland was an industrial powerhouse—we made things—but last week, Alexander Dennis started a 45-day consultation with employees. As it stands, hundreds o…
Commons
Oral Questions
24 June 2025
2 contributions
Arms Trade: Israel
7. What assessment he has made of the adequacy of the Government’s policy on arms trade with Israel.
The war criminals of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Government are carrying out the most vile human rights abuse and genocide. At the same time, the UK carries out the training of Israeli military personnel and facilitates almost daily spy flights that provide intelligence, and there is continued exporting of…
Commons
Proceedings
23 June 2025
2 contributions
Pride Month
As a straight man, I cannot speak from personal experience about the prejudice that LGBTQIA+ people have been the victim of, nor have I been a coalminer and experienced the feeling of having the source of my livelihood snatched away. However, in this Pride Month debate, I wish to share with the Hous…
I very much thank the Minister for that correction—I appreciate the intervention—and for subtly dropping in my mispronunciation of south Wales.
By the end of the strike, the LGSM had raised over £20,000. As the Welsh mining communities had made the Londoners feel so welcome, the LGSM organised a re…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
23 June 2025
Middle East
With his 25 years of parliamentary service, the Foreign Secretary will no doubt remember when Tony Blair told us that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and was a grave threat to international security. Of course, we then followed America into an illegal war in the middle east, and if the Prime Mi…
Commons
Westminster Hall
17 June 2025
2 contributions
Disabled People in Poverty
It is an honour to serve under you in the Chair, Ms Jardine. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Poole (Neil Duncan-Jordan) for securing the debate.
Fourteen years of austerity, followed by a global pandemic and then a cost of living crisis, has led to out-of-control inequality in Britain. People…
I completely agree. I am glad the hon. Gentleman brought up the subject of local authorities and the added burden on them of picking up the pieces from this horrendous proposal.
As I said, I will be voting for something else. I will be voting against the cruel welfare reforms that the Government ha…
Commons
Debate
11 June 2025
Sustainable Aviation Fuel Bill
My contribution comes from a slightly different angle compared with that of other hon. Members, but from the outset let me be clear: I welcome the Government’s plan for sustainable aviation fuel, and I thank my hon. Friend the Minister for his generous time discussing the matter. We can, however, ho…
Commons
Oral Questions
Energy Security and Net Zero
10 June 2025
Track-2 Acorn Cluster
Acorn would go some way to reindustrialising areas of Scotland, which is much needed. I welcomed the Government committing £200 million from the national wealth fund for future industry at Grangemouth in my constituency. To avoid us again being in the precarious position of having private-capital or…
Commons
Westminster Hall
10 June 2025
3 contributions
USAID Funding Pause
Good morning, Mrs Hobhouse; it is a privilege to have you in the Chair. I thank the hon. Member for Melksham and Devizes (Brian Mathew) for bringing this important debate to Westminster Hall today.
Internationalism is at the heart of the Labour movement. When it comes to solidarity with the oppress…
Yes, the hon. Member has my absolute agreement.
In all honesty, the UK is contributing to the growing danger that I described. We continue to sell arms to human rights-abusing states and further compound that awful act by cutting overseas development aid, which prevents conflict, builds peace, incr…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
Housing, Communities and Local Government
9 June 2025
Topical Questions
T7. There is no doubt about it; we face a climate emergency. What plans do the Government have to increase funding for the fire service to meet the increase and projected increases in wildfire and flooding incidents? If funding is to be increased, what will that mean for the Scottish Fire and Rescue…
Commons
Debate
3 June 2025
Dementia Care
All politics is personal, and I thank right hon. and hon. Members for sharing their personal experiences today. Three years ago, Clackmannanshire became home to the Alzheimer Scotland brain health and dementia resource centre. Alongside other local women, Debbie Cassidy—a constituent of mine—raised …
Commons
Oral Questions
3 June 2025
HMP Lewes
On the topic of prison operations, we need effective scrutiny of privatised contracts for prison maintenance because those contracts have been detrimental for prisons. Will the Minister release the last Government’s report recommending more privatisation of prison maintenance, suitably redacted if n…
Commons
Oral Questions
Treasury
20 May 2025
Topical Questions
To alleviate grinding penury for millions of people, the Chancellor could introduce an annual wealth tax on multimillionaires, which would raise approximately £24 billion per annum, yet she refuses to entertain the idea and considers cuts to welfare acceptable. Why do “tough political choices” alway…
Commons
Proceedings
14 May 2025
Gaza: UK Assessment
The truth is that there is no need for any organisation to tell the public that what is happening is genocide. After all, we have seen the attempted extermination of the Palestinian people televised live for over a year now. I put it to the Minister that this Government will be remembered as having …