Commons
Westminster Hall
26 January 2026
Key Stage 1 Curriculum
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Barker. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for South Cotswolds (Dr Savage) for opening the debate with such a well-argued and passionate speech that went to the heart of this debate. I commend Ruth Lue-Quee and all the petitioners for starting the p…
Commons
Debate
22 January 2026
Fishing Industry
As many Members may know, warmer sea temperatures brought unexpected numbers of octopus to the waters around South Devon last year, and my crab and lobster fishermen have seen their catch decimated. They have lost up to 80%, hauling empty pots for weeks on end. That means fleet members are now cance…
Commons
Oral Questions
Cabinet Office
22 January 2026
2 contributions
Emergency Preparedness
14. What steps his Department is taking to provide households with information on emergency preparedness.
As the Minister will know, a recent gas outage in my constituency left thousands of people without power, many for several days, and Cornwall has recently seen huge disruption from storm Goretti. Those incidents highlight how vulnerable households can be when essential services are disrupted. Given …
Commons
Westminster Hall
22 January 2026
International Day of Education
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Vaz, and I thank the hon. Member for Southgate and Wood Green (Bambos Charalambous) for securing this debate.
What is education for? It is about so much more than remembering facts to pass exams. It is about lighting a spark in our children, and fo…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
20 January 2026
Mobile Phones and Social Media: Use by Children
I recently visited the Fulham boys school, which, 18 months ago, introduced a complete ban on smartphones in school. That school and Kingsbridge community college in my constituency both talk about the transformative effect that a ban has had. The most compelling evidence for me is this: where a sec…
Commons
Westminster Hall
20 January 2026
2 contributions
Water (Special Measures) Act 2025: Enforcement
My hon. Friend is being very generous with his time. In 2024, storm overflows at Harbertonford waste water treatment works discharged into the Harbourne river for more than 3,500 hours. In other words, raw sewage was pumped into the river, which flows into the glorious River Dart, for 40% of the yea…
In May 2024, an outbreak of cryptosporidiosis in my constituency left 17,000 properties under a boil water notice for as long as two months. Although the incident is the subject of legal investigation, I would like to highlight my constituents’ frustration that the then CEO, Susan Davy, later picked…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
19 January 2026
Arctic Security
I welcome the Foreign Secretary’s statement and her commitment to Greenland, which is not for sale. President Trump’s threat of tariffs is an alarming escalation and strange behaviour from someone who the Foreign Secretary describes as a close ally. France and Germany have suggested imposing retalia…
Commons
Oral Questions
Education
19 January 2026
2 contributions
Teacher Retention
3. What steps her Department is taking to improve teacher retention.
A speech about teacher retention that I made in Westminster Hall recently has been seen by more than 135,000 people on Instagram, and there have been hundreds of comments from teachers. They speak of pay not rewarding experience and far too much time being spent on administration and tests, but it i…
Commons
Debate
13 January 2026
2 contributions
Finance (No. 2) Bill
Will my hon. Friend give way?
As his constituency neighbours mine, my hon. Friend may be aware that three much-loved venues—Wild Artichokes, the Old Warehouse and the Old Bakery—closed in the town of Kingsbridge last week. The owner of one of those venues told us that part of the problem was the cumulation of challenges faced by…
Commons
Debate
12 January 2026
Finance (No. 2) Bill
Following the initial decision to introduce new APR and BPR rates, farmers across the country rallied their tractors outside this place to get their voices heard. Other family-owned businesses have gone through the same agony over the last 14 months, but without the tractors and with perhaps less of…
Commons
Debate
12 January 2026
Social Media: Non-consensual Sexual Deepfakes
I welcome the Secretary of State’s clarity about these disgusting and illegal images on X. I have chosen my side—I deleted X from my phone on Saturday. Can the Secretary of State guarantee that Ofcom will have the powers, the teeth and the funding it needs to keep up with the tech bros as they inven…
Commons
Oral Questions
Energy Security and Net Zero
6 January 2026
Topical Questions
Happy new year, Mr Speaker. This weekend, 4,600 properties in my constituency had their gas supply cut off, on the coldest weekend of the year. I commend Wales & West Utilities, which worked tirelessly to get people reconnected, but its efforts have been hampered by the inability to communicate …
Commons
Debate
5 January 2026
Middle East and North Africa
It is quite difficult to know what to focus on in this wide-ranging statement—the rights of women and girls in Iran or the awful situation in Yemen—but I would like to focus on Israel banning 37 international aid organisations, such as Médecins Sans Frontières and Oxfam, from Gaza. The Minister used…
Commons
Debate
5 January 2026
Agricultural Property Relief and Business Property Relief
Happy new year, Madam Deputy Speaker. For 14 months, I have stood here alongside my colleagues and asked various Ministers to reconsider this policy. For 14 months, farming organisations up and down the country have campaigned relentlessly against the policy. Why did it take the Government so long t…
Commons
Westminster Hall
5 January 2026
Length of the School Week
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Hobhouse, and I wish you a very happy new year. I thank the hon. Member for Lichfield (Dave Robertson) for opening the debate. He obviously has a lot of experience in the classroom and has taken the themes behind the petition very seriously. I star…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
17 December 2025
Local Government Finance
I welcome the multi-year settlement, but I am deeply concerned that the statement made no reference to the particular pressures facing rural areas. Devon has the longest road network in England, so everything costs more—SEND, care, bus services and bin collections—and Dartmouth library is now facing…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
17 December 2025
UK-EU Common Understanding Negotiations
I warmly welcome the Erasmus agreement that the Minister has announced, which is a Christmas present for young people. Turning to the SPS agreement that he is negotiating, I hope that those negotiations will be just as successful because that is undoubtedly in the best interests of this country. Can…
Commons
Debate
16 December 2025
Finance (No. 2) Bill
The hon. Member will be very familiar with my constituency, as he is my constituency neighbour. Does he agree that the Minister might have got his figures wrong? I surveyed all the farms in South Devon—there are nearly 500 small farms—and 44% of respondents said that they would be hit with an inheri…
Commons
Proceedings
8 December 2025
Restriction of Jury Trials
I think we would all agree that it is a tragedy when any rape victim withdraws from the criminal justice system, but I do not buy the faux outrage from the shadow Secretary of State. I was the chief executive of a rape crisis centre when his party was in government, and every single day I heard vict…
Commons
Oral Questions
Work and Pensions
8 December 2025
Topical Questions
One of my constituents recently spent nearly two weeks calling the DWP every day to find out why his employment and support allowance had been stopped without warning. Each time he called, he waited for over an hour, only for the line to be cut off with no reply. Will the Minister explain to my cons…
Commons
Westminster Hall
8 December 2025
4 contributions
Digital ID
Will the hon. Member give way?
Will the hon. Lady give way?
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
4 December 2025
Camden Nursery Sexual Abuse Case
May I start by echoing the comments of the Secretary of State and all Members in saying that my thoughts are with the families affected by this awful case? There is a concerning lack of accountability once a setting shuts down, even if it is part of a chain. There is no mechanism to ensure that chai…
Commons
Proceedings
4 December 2025
Business of the House
Last week, I attended the impressive national emergency briefing on the climate and nature crisis, where 10 leading experts warned MPs about escalating risks facing the UK. The briefing was challenging and informative, but also encouraging, and it set out positive steps that we can take to mitigate …
Commons
Oral Questions
2 December 2025
Topical Questions
Prior to last week’s talks with leaders of the British overseas territories, concerning reports suggested that the Government were planning to cave in to pressure from the British Virgin Islands, the epicentre of billions of pounds of tax evasion, and allow it to restrict public access to a register…
Commons
Oral Questions
1 December 2025
SEND Pupils: Suspensions and Exclusions
In July, the Secretary of State promised a better SEND system, with strengthened support, improved access and more funding, yet even a charitable interpretation of the Office for Budget Responsibility’s analysis of the Government’s decision, announced at the Budget, to absorb SEND funding into core …