Commons
Westminster Hall
6 July 2026
2 contributions
Public Office Disqualification: Terrorism Offences
I do not wish to dwell too much on this point, because we will all come back to it later, but in the interests of accuracy I think it is also important to record that 90% of people in the Sparkhill ward did not vote for that candidate.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Allin-Khan. I congratulate the hon. Member for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk (John Lamont) on the thoughtful and able way in which he introduced this important debate, and I thank the 583 Birmingham Northfield constituents who took the time to …
Commons
Debate
6 July 2026
Employment and Training
At the outset, I draw attention to my membership of GMB and Unite, both of which organise workers in the engineering construction sector. It is a pleasure to speak in this SI debate, which may be auspicious as, depending on the Government’s future reform of the sector, we may be moving towards longe…
Commons
Debate
10 June 2026
Railways Bill
When privatisation happened, the Government of the day fought hard to keep state-owned foreign railways out of the running of the railways, but they were compelled to accept them by European Union legislation. In Committee, the hon. Gentleman described the involvement of state-owned foreign railways…
Commons
Debate
9 June 2026
Road Safety: West Midlands
I congratulate the hon. Lady on securing this important debate. It is striking how many of the issues she describes ring true for city constituencies as well. In Birmingham, the number of collisions has fallen over the past decade, but the number of people killed or seriously injured on the roads ha…
Commons
Westminster Hall
3 June 2026
Rail Freight
I congratulate the hon. Lady on securing this important debate. Rail freight moves everything from Tesco containers to Cornish clay on its way to Stoke through my constituency. I would like to raise the issue of the rail freight workforce, because drivers’ wages and employment conditions can be very…
Commons
Debate
3 June 2026
6 contributions
General Strike Centenary Commemorations
It is a great honour to bring this Adjournment debate before the House to mark the centenary of the general strike of 1926. Twelve years after the general strike, the Welsh miners’ poet, Idris Davies, asked,
“Do you remember 1926? That summer of soups and speeches,”
which was a reference to the bi…
I thank my hon. Friend for her intervention and for sending me a copy of the documentary on the Cramlington train wreckers ahead of this debate. It was moving to see those men in their later years. It is telling that the general strike tends to be remembered as local history, and there will be much …
+4 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
Business and Trade
21 May 2026
2 contributions
Employment Rights Act 2025
6. What progress his Department has made on implementing the Employment Rights Act 2025.
I draw attention to my membership of the GMB and Unite trade unions, and I welcome and acknowledge the Minister’s firm commitment to this area. The Department recently published its response to the trade union right of access consultation. Capping fines at £500,000 equates to a potential liability o…
Commons
Debate
20 April 2026
Security Vetting
Peter Mandelson’s conduct has disgraced himself and, by extension, brought shame upon the two Houses of which he was formerly a Member. Does the Prime Minister agree that the famous Armstrong memorandum on the conduct of the civil service was correct and holds true today, as it says that
“it is the…
Commons
Debate
15 April 2026
Strategic Defence Review: Funding
Will the Minister look at the sorry tale of Glenart Castle Mess in Longbridge, Birmingham? This is armed forces accommodation not from decades ago; it opened in 2017 at a cost to the taxpayer of £36 million. It was built with 95% flammable external cladding, and the fire defects within the accommoda…
Commons
Debate
26 March 2026
Resident Doctors: Industrial Action
I declare an interest as chair of the GMB’s parliamentary group. The week after next, there will be another strike, when GMB members of the BMA’s own staff go out on industrial action, as has already been referenced. Their employer’s offer is 2.75%, which is lower than the 3.5% for doctors that the …
Commons
Debate
26 March 2026
National Savings & Investments
I welcome the Minister’s statement and the way in which he has addressed the House. I want to pick up on the important question asked by my hon. Friend the Member for Carlisle (Ms Minns). The administration of a deceased loved one’s affairs is a lengthy and difficult process at the best of times. It…
Commons
Proceedings
24 March 2026
2 contributions
Oil and Gas
My hon. Friend is making an outstanding case. Does he also agree that gas is an important feed stock in a number of critical industries, such as the production of ammonia, which is essential in the agricultural sector?
The hon. Member talks of the national interest, but does he agree that it was disgraceful that Gazprom was allowed to acquire an interest in the North sea in the years after 2011, without a word of protest from his party when it was in government?
Commons
Proceedings
18 March 2026
2 contributions
Student Loans
The motion in the right hon. Lady’s name states that
“balances will never rise faster than RPI inflation”.
She was a senior Treasury Minister. Does she share my regret at the decision to suspend routine methodological improvements to the retail prices index, which led to the gap between the RPI an…
Is it not also the case that kids from working-class backgrounds were increasingly shut out of traditional apprenticeship routes under the previous Government because of the artificial entrance requirements, which employers said were blocking them from hiring the best? Employers said that those requ…
Commons
Oral Questions
11 March 2026
Royal Mail: Universal Service Obligation
It is clear that the NHS barcode prioritisation system broke down, but the problem is not limited to NHS letters. I want to highlight the Government’s Tell Us Once service following a bereavement. Many hon. Members will know the urgency and distressing nature of that correspondence, so will the Mini…
Commons
Westminster Hall
10 March 2026
Fur: Import and Sale
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Jardine. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Newport West and Islwyn (Ruth Jones) for securing this debate and for all her work to bring her private Member’s Bill to the House. It stands in the tradition of the private Member’s Bill of my right ho…
Commons
Westminster Hall
9 March 2026
Type 1 Diabetes: Infant Testing
Thank you for calling me to speak, Sir Alec. I am grateful to everyone who made the petition and the debate possible. In the short time available, the best service I can provide is to represent just some of the 181 Northfield constituents who signed the petition, in their own words. My constituent C…
Commons
Oral Questions
5 March 2026
2 contributions
Official History Programme
1. If he will commission new works under the Official History Programme.
I draw the House’s attention to my vice-chairship of the all-party parliamentary group for archives and history. I strongly welcome the statement that my right hon. Friend has just made to the House. For more than 100 years, the Official History Programme provided valuable insight on matters such as…
Commons
Oral Questions
Housing, Communities and Local Government
23 February 2026
Topical Questions
Does the Minister agree that Birmingham’s exit from section 114 status is an important moment for the city? Does she further agree that it is time to start scaling back the central Government intervention?
Commons
Committee Stage
5 February 2026
3 contributions
Railways Bill (Twelfth sitting)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Hobhouse. As in previous sessions, I draw the Committee’s attention to my membership of Unite the union. I will speak briefly on the amendments. I welcome the opportunity to talk about an area of narrowly gauged interest of long-standing, although …
If I have understood the hon. Member’s point correctly, the key is openness and transparency. We need some degree of understanding that, if GBR itself is responsible for delays, that information should be recorded so that improvements can be made. I am not convinced that GBR paying money to itself i…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Committee Stage
5 February 2026
Railways Bill (Eleventh sitting)
I am thinking about the hon. Member’s arguments about clause 64(3). Does she not think that there may be circumstances where higher charges actually help to get private investment into the railways? For example, GBR could agree to fund infrastructure improvements in exchange for an operator paying h…
Commons
Debate
4 February 2026
Construction Industry Training Board: Funding
I thank my hon. Friend for giving way, and I congratulate him on securing this important debate. I wish to draw the House’s attention to my chairship of the GMB parliamentary group and my membership of UNITE the Union, both of which organise workers in the construction sector. Quality of employment …
Commons
Committee Stage
3 February 2026
2 contributions
Railways Bill (Ninth sitting)
Would the shadow Minister follow the logic of his argument as far as to say that the Conservative Government that passed the Railways Act 1993 were ideologically motivated and acted in an ideological manner, given that that Act barred the public sector from taking on franchises?
Does the Minister agree that there is a comparison with the disabled persons railcard, the criteria for which have been significantly expanded? That change is due to be implemented over the coming months, and that has been possible only because there was not a restrictive statutory definition in pri…
Commons
Committee Stage
29 January 2026
3 contributions
Railways Bill (Eighth sitting)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Hobhouse. I will speak briefly and specifically on the attempt to introduce a passenger growth target. I think we have had the substantive discussion before, but it is worth briefly repeating the key points.
The railway, arguably, is already incen…
I am not sure that I follow the logic of the hon. Gentleman’s argument. Our job here is to look at the network and the service as a whole. This is an integrated, engineering, safety-critical industry of many parts, all of which interact with one another. This is a key point, and we have said it befo…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Committee Stage
29 January 2026
3 contributions
Railways Bill (Seventh sitting)
The Transport Act 1981, which privatised British Rail’s ferry operations, including the Sea Link service to the Isle of Wight, contained no passenger interest provisions of the type contained in this Bill. Does the hon. Member agree that such an omission was an oversight and an historical missed opp…
Will the hon. Member give way?
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister
21 January 2026
Engagements
Q2. NHS waiting lists in Birmingham are down by almost a quarter under Labour, and they are still falling. That is more than 28,000 people no longer stuck waiting for essential treatments. Yes, there are challenges still, but they are being addressed and progress is being made. Does the Prime Minist…