Commons
Westminster Hall
9 July 2026
2 contributions
Lobular Breast Cancer: Moon Shot Project
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship today, Mrs Hobhouse. I am grateful to the hon. Member for Horsham (John Milne) for securing today’s debate, and to the Members from across the House who have given their voice to this campaign over a number of years. It is entirely right that Parliam…
The hon. Gentleman is right; there is collective support for doing more on this issue. That starts with getting the research right. Without the research, we do not know how to plan for the treatments of the future. I will move on to the other points, but he is also entirely right that this is not a …
Commons
Proceedings
6 July 2026
Rochdale Grooming Gang: Offender Deportation
I have a great deal of respect for the Minister, and he has adopted the tone of the House, which is united on tackling this issue; but there is clearly a lacuna in the law as it stands. It will take time, however fast the Government work, to get that change on the statute books. In the interim, is t…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
30 June 2026
Defence Investment Plan
In response to the DIP, the noble Lord Hutton, a former Labour Defence Secretary, said that
“the centres of resistance across Whitehall to extra defence spending have been allowed to prosper and they haven’t been overcome.”
He went on to say that, as a consequence, our armed forces will not be war…
Commons
Oral Questions
Cabinet Office
25 June 2026
2 contributions
National Resilience Planning
9. What steps his Department is taking to improve cross-Government co-ordination on national resilience planning.
Space has a crucial role to play in our national resilience. Responsibility for it cuts across Government Departments. With that in mind, and given the Cabinet Office’s role in cross-Government co-ordination, can the Minister confirm when the National Space Council will next convene?
Commons
Proceedings
25 June 2026
Sudan
This brutal conflict has resulted in more than 14 million people being displaced. Around 5 million of those have been displaced over the border, but 9 million are displaced in Sudan itself. Will the Minister set out what practical steps the Government are taking to support those who are displaced in…
Commons
Debate
25 June 2026
Neuropsychiatric Conditions: PANS and PANDAS
It is a privilege to respond to the debate on behalf of His Majesty’s loyal Opposition. I pay tribute to the hon. Member for North East Fife (Wendy Chamberlain) for securing the debate and for setting out the landscape facing those with PANS/PANDAS in the UK, as well as recognising the lack of knowl…
Commons
Proceedings
15 June 2026
Defence Investment Plan
Last week, the former Defence Secretary said that the Prime Minister was unable and the Chancellor unwilling to fund the resources needed to tackle the threats facing our nation. Does the Minister agree with that assessment, and if not, why not?
Commons
Oral Questions
Home Department
8 June 2026
Topical Questions
I listened carefully to the Minister’s response to my hon. Friend the Member for Broadland and Fakenham (Jerome Mayhew), but the reality is that every day shopkeepers are facing abuse and threats and being stolen from. A direct consequence of the presumption in the Sentencing Act 2026 that those wit…
Commons
Oral Questions
Solicitor General
4 June 2026
2 contributions
Jury Trials
4. What advice she has provided to the Government on the potential impact of restricting the right to jury trials on the rule of law.
Imagine a scenario in which two individuals are both charged with the same offence and the factual matrix of each case is identical. However, the first defendant has a string of previous convictions, whereas the second has none. Under the Government’s proposal, the first defendant would be able to e…
Commons
Oral Questions
Defence
1 June 2026
2 contributions
Defence Readiness Legislation
6. Whether he plans to introduce a defence readiness Bill.
The Government’s constant refrain is that they are “working at pace”, but the reality is that our adversaries are doing exactly that. In an increasingly unstable world, the lack of a defence readiness Bill is a significant disadvantage. Will the Minister set out when the Bill will be published, and …
Commons
Oral Questions
Justice
19 May 2026
Topical Questions
T8. I think it is fair to say that the Government and I do not see eye to eye when it comes to the policy of curtailing trial by jury. However, if the Government are determined to go down that route, their own impact assessment sets out that a significant number of magistrates need to be recruited—t…
Commons
Oral Questions
23 April 2026
Business of the House
Phoenix shops are a blight on many of our high streets, including in my constituency of Solihull West and Shirley. Councillor Karen Grinsell, the leader of Solihull metropolitan borough council, recently brought forward a motion to have greater statutory powers to close down these stores. Will the L…
Commons
Debate
20 April 2026
Security Vetting
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? As the Prime Minister will know, that means “Who guards the guards themselves?” With that in mind, and on the subject of holding those in power to account, can he explain why he took almost a week to come to this House, when the public will have been expecting answers …
Commons
Westminster Hall
16 April 2026
2 contributions
NHS Federated Data Platform
I was expecting a promotion there, Dame Siobhain. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship. I congratulate the hon. Member for Newton Abbot (Martin Wrigley) on securing the debate. He has brought forward an issue that sits right at the centre of how we shape the future of our national healt…
If the hon. Gentleman will forgive me, I will not. I want the Minister to have sufficient time to respond to the multiple contributions there have been today.
I ask the Minister the following questions. How are the Government ensuring that the NHS is not locked into a single supplier over the long …
Commons
Committee Stage
14 April 2026
3 contributions
Armed Forces Bill (Fifth sitting)
I beg to move amendment 18, in clause 25, page 43, line 23, leave out paragraph (a) and insert—
“(a) must require that, before a victim is asked to express a preference regarding jurisdiction—
(i) the victim is provided with a standardised explanation of the service justice system and the civilian…
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship this afternoon, Mr Efford. I will speak in support of amendments 18 and 19 and, in doing so, will address clause 25 more broadly.
At its heart, clause 25 concerns one of the most sensitive and important decisions in the entire service justice framew…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Committee Stage
14 April 2026
9 contributions
Armed Forces Bill (Fourth sitting)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Efford. I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in support of new clause 12 and offer broader support for clauses 5 to 9, which represent a significant strengthening of the protective framework in the service justice system.
It is worth setti…
I will confine my remarks to amendment 6, tabled by the hon. Members for North Devon and for Tunbridge Wells. Although I have real sympathy with its purpose, I am hesitant about its drafting, and recognise that, in this place, we sometimes develop what could be described as an unhealthy instinct to …
+7 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
13 April 2026
SEND Provision and Reform
I am grateful to my constituency neighbour for giving way. I was in the same meeting, and one of the big concerns was the loss of the special school planned for Tamworth Lane. Does my hon. Friend agree that that not only detracts from parents and pupils who would benefit, but puts additional pressur…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
13 April 2026
Middle East
The Prime Minister is absolutely correct to praise the service of our armed forces personnel, and I join him in doing so, but they are being let down by the failure to deliver the defence investment plan. That failure can only be the result of either inertia or incompetence within the Government. Wh…
Commons
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister
25 March 2026
Engagements
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. On 21 November last year, Robert Clancy, a hugely valued and much loved member of my staff, took his own life. He was 29. While successive Governments have done a great deal to deal with the scourge of suicide in this country, there is much more that can be done. Will the Pri…
Commons
Committee Stage
24 March 2026
14 contributions
Armed Forces Bill (First sitting)
It is an enormous pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Efford.
I want to focus my remarks on amendment 8, which, as my hon. Friend the Member for Exmouth and Exeter East set out, seeks to provide a clear and practical definition of due regard in the Bill. If Parliament is placing a legal d…
I am grateful, as always, to my right hon. Friend for his intervention, because he has hit the nail on the head. This is not something novel; it is merely codifying—formalising in the Bill—what has already been written in evidence to us, which seems eminently sensible.
It is important to consider t…
+12 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
Solicitor General
19 March 2026
2 contributions
Courts and Tribunals Bill
8. Whether the Attorney General has advised the Lord Chancellor on the potential impact of the Courts and Tribunals Bill on the rule of law.
The contentious element of the Courts and Tribunals Bill relates to the proposed changes to jury trials. It has united the legal profession, the Opposition Benches and a significant number of Government MPs. To avoid the embarrassment of Government MPs coming out and defending the policy only to fac…
Commons
Proceedings
18 March 2026
3 contributions
Student Loans
Education is one of the few forces of life that allows a person not only to imagine a different future but to reach it. It is more than a qualification. It is more than a certificate. It is more than even a career. It is the moment where circumstance loosens its grip and possibility takes hold. A go…
If the hon. Member does not want to tackle the problem of the inadequacy and inequality between a high earner on £150,000 who will pay off their debt of around £46,000 over an 11-year period, and a lower or middle-income earner on £50,000 who will pay off their debt of around £80,000 over a much lon…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
17 March 2026
Meningitis Outbreak
I know from my time in medicine that all those involved in combating this outbreak will be working at pace, and they have our utmost respect. However, there will be concern about the report in The Independent in the last hour or so that certain pharmacies in the region are running out of or running …
Commons
Oral Questions
17 March 2026
2 contributions
Jury Trials
11. What assessment he has made of the potential impact of his proposed changes to jury trials on the criminal justice system.
The Government’s case for curtailing trial by jury is based on an impact assessment that rests on assumptions, rather than hard evidence. Is it not the truth that the Government are asking Parliament to give up and weaken a fundamental safeguard on the basis of hearsay alone?
Commons
Oral Questions
16 March 2026
Strait of Hormuz
The Iranian regime will be carefully studying our actions here in the UK. Only last month, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office officials attended an Iran national day celebration hosted in London by the Iranian embassy. That was at precisely the same time that thousands of Iranians were bei…