Commons
Ministerial Statement
2 March 2026
Middle East
The Iranian regime is clearly abhorrent and no one would mourn its passing, but, as someone who fought in Afghanistan, I am grateful to the Prime Minister for saying that we need a viable, thought-through plan. Plainly the United States does not have that plan. President Trump said over the weekend …
Commons
Debate
25 February 2026
Ukraine
The hon. Member is making an excellent speech. While we want the war in Ukraine to end and, of course, for Britain to play a leading role in that, including, if appropriate, the provision of troops, does he not share my fear, when we zoom out and look at the geopolitical context, that putting the tr…
Commons
Debate
24 February 2026
Online Harm: Child Protection
That is exactly what is happening in Tunbridge Wells. The secondary schools there have moved together to be smartphone-free, and now the primary schools are having that conversation with the parents.
Commons
Debate
24 February 2026
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor
On this point about which Departments had which papers, I note that the Humble Address uses the words
“including but not confined to”.
Surely papers in the royal household that relate to this matter should also come under the scope of the Humble Address. Does my hon. Friend agree?
Commons
Ministerial Statement
23 February 2026
Local Government Reorganisation
This has been a shamefully incompetent episode, and perhaps the most shameful part of it is that the Government have been forced to use taxpayers’ money to pay the claimant’s costs. Could the Secretary of State tell us exactly how much taxpayers’ money has been given to the claimant? Perhaps if he c…
Commons
Debate
23 February 2026
Schools White Paper: Every Child Achieving and Thriving
I congratulate the Secretary of State on the White Paper. She clearly cares about this, which bodes well for the outcome. For too long, the cost of SEND support has fallen on local authorities, and that has had a knock-on effect on the other services they provide, such as libraries and roads. It now…
Commons
Proceedings
10 February 2026
Point of Order
On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. During Health and Social Care questions on 22 July 2025—over six months ago—the Minister for Secondary Care agreed to meet me to discuss accelerating patient discharges from hospital. I wrote to her on 28 July to arrange that meeting and received no reply. …
Commons
Westminster Hall
9 February 2026
2 contributions
Russian Influence on UK Politics and Democracy
Will the Minister give way?
The Minister is very generous. I have just come from the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy, where we were looking at these issues in our inquiry on defending democracy. He has been in front of that inquiry. When will the new elections Bill be coming forward or—perhaps an easier way t…
Commons
Debate
5 February 2026
Road Safety
That ambition is fantastic, and I wonder whether we could be more ambitious on the drive-drink limit. Pilots cannot fly if they have any alcohol in their system. Why is it not the same for drivers?
Commons
Ministerial Statement
5 February 2026
Economic Security
I thank the right hon. Gentleman and his Committee for an excellent report that speaks to some very real issues. We have an opportunity later this year when the defence readiness Bill comes before Parliament for consideration. Does he have any recommendations on what he would like to see in that Bil…
Commons
Debate
4 February 2026
6 contributions
Lord Mandelson
The Minister said that Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes were “unforgivable”. Does my hon. Friend think that the Prime Minister appointing said known paedophile was forgivable?
Thank you very much.
+4 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
3 February 2026
Transport in the South-East
On my hon. Friend’s point about National Highways, the A21 runs through my constituency. It is the road between London and Hastings, and it is single track for most of the way, between halfway through my constituency and Hastings. That is a problem and a bad investment. It is a well-trafficked road.…
Commons
Debate
2 February 2026
Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Bill
Like my hon. Friend, I have spent a fair amount of time on the ocean —not rowing but sailing. When sailing across oceans in a small boat, one cannot help but see the seas of plastic, whether left by fishermen or simply thrown overboard, that are carried on currents. Does my hon. Friend think the tre…
Commons
Westminster Hall
2 February 2026
3 contributions
Indefinite Leave to Remain
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Edward. On Saturday, I met with 200 members of the Paddock Wood Hong Kong community. You are probably wondering, Sir Edward, why 200 people would give up their early Saturday evening to see me. They did so because they were worried, for themselves …
I will not take any interventions, as so many hon. Members are seeking to get in. The combination of highly skilled individuals and three-generational families means that, quite rightly, not everyone in a family goes to work, so what about the carers, part-time workers, the elderly and students? If …
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Debate
26 January 2026
Armed Forces Bill
Far be it from me to speak in the Minister’s place, but surely the hon. and learned Gentleman has answered his own question. In forcing local authorities that are controlled by Sinn Féin to give due regard to veterans would we not be giving away the identity of those veterans to Sinn Féin controlled…
Commons
Oral Questions
Work and Pensions
26 January 2026
Topical Questions
My constituent Andrew co-founded Adzuna, a job search website built on artificial intelligence. Its research shows that existing AI tools could improve the DWP’s service and create 250,000 more jobs per year. However, it is reported that the new rebuild of the service is not going to include those A…
Commons
Oral Questions
20 January 2026
Topical Questions
T5. Reflecting on the balance of forces in Europe, both allied and Russian, will the Foreign Secretary articulate the risk that she thinks the UK is taking when it has such a small military and is committing several thousand troops, maybe tens of thousands, to Ukraine through the coalition of the …
Commons
Westminster Hall
20 January 2026
4 contributions
Water (Special Measures) Act 2025: Enforcement
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Allin-Khan.
I would like to start by thanking the Minister for all her support. I do not think we realised that we would spend so much time on the same Zoom calls with a vast collection of characters from across Kent and the water sector. I also th…
I offer two examples—surreal is the only word for them. I was standing at a water station in Tunbridge Wells, speaking to South East Water, and I was told, “The water station is open.” I looked around, and it definitely was not open. The problem is that South East Water has a contractor that sets up…
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
19 January 2026
Arctic Security
Trump is certainly an unreliable and unpredictable ally, and his comments yesterday about the Norwegian leadership make us all wonder whether he is of sound mind, but what can we do? We have to deal with him.
I am sure it has not escaped the Foreign Secretary’s notice that the messaging from Congre…
Commons
Debate
12 January 2026
Finance (No. 2) Bill
The Government’s figures were pretty shoddy when the policy was announced at the Budget. How confident is the shadow Minister that the Government’s figures are any better now?
Commons
Proceedings
12 January 2026
Water Supplies: East Grinstead
I thank the Minister for all the help she has given me and my constituents over the past month. Tunbridge Wells is yet again without water. We seem to roll from outage to outage. As we stand here today, 6,500 houses are without supply. Schools are closed, and even more are closing as more areas go o…
Commons
Debate
5 January 2026
Middle East and North Africa
I would like to pick up the theme of increased settlements and trade, which has been mentioned across the House. Along with the concerns expressed across the House, I have a particular concern that there are currently Israeli settlements that are trading with the UK but passing their goods off as co…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
5 January 2026
Venezuela
The US has abducted the leader of Venezuela yet the Government cannot say whether that is legal or illegal. Let us try an easier one: if the US were to abduct the premier of Greenland, would that be legal or illegal?
Commons
Oral Questions
22 July 2025
Electronic Patient Record Systems
Blocked beds cost Pembury hospital £18,000 every night, yet discharge teams have to manually phone care homes to place people there. My constituent Debbie has created a dashboard—it is basically like Skyscanner—to accelerate discharges by matching discharged patients to care beds. It has already rec…