Commons
Oral Questions
4 March 2026
Economic Growth
Drinks producers warn that, because of the UK Government’s decision to allow Wales to include glass in a deposit return scheme, there is the threat of up to 90% of products being removed from shelves. Why have the Government taken the decision to allow a United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020 exclu…
Commons
Oral Questions
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
3 March 2026
2 contributions
Support for Ukraine
1. What diplomatic steps she is taking to support Ukraine to determine its future.
I thank the Secretary of State for that answer. As we mark the fourth anniversary of the illegal invasion of Ukraine, we salute the fortitude and bravery of the Ukrainian people. As we see conflicts open up elsewhere in the world, particularly the current situation in the middle east, how do we ensu…
Commons
Westminster Hall
3 March 2026
Small Charity Sector
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Roger. I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith) on securing this important debate. Few others—indeed, perhaps no one else in this place—have done more over the last 20 years to champ…
Commons
Debate
2 March 2026
Representation of the People Bill
The hon. Member talks about the legitimacy of the voting system and the votes nationally not being proportionately represented here. Is the example that he is using the current Government, which got 34% of the vote but has 63% of the seats in this House?
Commons
Ministerial Statement
26 February 2026
Business of the House
The England Beach Soccer association has an agreement with the Football Association, as its delivery partner into FIFA. However, beach soccer is not recognised as a stand-alone sport by Sport England, which means that it cannot benefit from funding, and it does not receive anything from the FA eithe…
Commons
Oral Questions
26 February 2026
Universal Youth Services
It is all very well for the Secretary of State to talk about her version of support for youth services, but that is of little consolation to young people who cannot get a job because youth unemployment is up under this Government. Will she relay that message to the Chancellor?
Commons
Oral Questions
24 February 2026
National Wellbeing Indicators
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has compared GPs’ salaries to that of the Prime Minister. I can understand why he is taking a keen interest in how much a Prime Minister is paid, but can the Government assure the House that the GP contract will include an increase in GP funding over…
Commons
Oral Questions
Transport
12 February 2026
Topical Questions
Hard-working men and women in the coastguard, such as Bembridge resident Martin Groom, do vital work securing our borders, including, in some cases, intercepting small boats. The coastguard treats them as volunteers, but the Court of Appeal has disagreed and said that they are workers. Will the Gove…
Commons
Oral Questions
Northern Ireland
11 February 2026
2 contributions
Economic Impact of Government Policies
2. What assessment he has made of the potential impact of Government policies on the economy in Northern Ireland.
The Government are giving a 50% reduction to the emissions trading scheme levy on ferries crossing between Northern Ireland and Great Britain in an apparent effort not to negatively impact the economy there. Scottish islands are getting a 100% reduction, yet the Isle of Wight is getting no reduction…
Commons
Committee Stage
5 February 2026
2 contributions
Railways Bill (Twelfth sitting)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Hobhouse. I have a short point to make. The Minister seems to be saying that it is important to restrict an appeals process to the judicial review principles, which is a more restrictive set of criteria by which a body or company can appeal. Otherw…
Channel your inner Jerome!
Commons
Committee Stage
5 February 2026
2 contributions
Railways Bill (Eleventh sitting)
This question is possibly better directed at the Minister, but does my hon. Friend think that the clause might be so restrictive because, in truth, the Government do not really want open access, despite what they say?
I note the Minister’s assertion that there is no intention to squeeze out other operators, but given the way in which the Bill and the clause are drafted, that surely is an inevitability regardless of whether he intends for that to happen. It is the outcome that matters. If it will not enable open a…
Commons
Debate
4 February 2026
3 contributions
Lord Mandelson
Perhaps I can rephrase the question asked by the hon. Member for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket (Peter Prinsley). How was the Prime Minister to know that the famous serial liar Peter Mandelson would lie to him?
My hon. Friend is making a powerful, wide-ranging speech, and I am sure that more details will come out. Does it not come down to the fact that the Prime Minister appointed Peter Mandelson as ambassador to the US despite knowing that he had had a long-standing friendship with a prolific convicted pa…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Committee Stage
3 February 2026
Railways Bill (Tenth sitting)
I do not wish to interrupt the shadow Minister mid-flow, but I hope the Government will take on board his amendments and new clause. If they do not, perhaps they might like to amend the name of the passengers’ council to the “disabled passengers’ council”, because, in effect, that is the work it wil…
Commons
Committee Stage
3 February 2026
Railways Bill (Ninth sitting)
The Minister says Great British Railways, not the Department for Transport, will run the railways. He says that is different from the set-up for the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England. Was that not exactly the reason NHS England was set up, albeit not by his Government: to run the …
Commons
Westminster Hall
3 February 2026
Transport in the South-East
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir John. I congratulate the hon. Member for Chichester (Jess Brown-Fuller) on introducing this important debate. I have a direct solution to her problem of traffic queueing up to access the wonderful beaches at the Witterings. There is an alternati…
Commons
Oral Questions
Defence
2 February 2026
Topical Questions
T4. Last year, the Government sold off our fishing rights in return for access to the EU’s Security Action for Europe defence fund, but they did not get a penny in return. The Prime Minister, who is in the Chamber, now says that he wants to renegotiate. Will the Secretary of State please explain wha…
Commons
Oral Questions
Business and Trade
29 January 2026
2 contributions
Hospitality Sector
8. What steps his Department is taking to support the hospitality sector.
What the Minister does not say is that the Government have also taxed those businesses and made it harder to employ people, which is why there are 100,000 fewer people working in hospitality since her Government came to power. Hospitality businesses in my constituency are hanging on to one thread of…
Commons
Committee Stage
29 January 2026
Railways Bill (Eighth sitting)
When the Minister talks about wasting money on people being employed to argue with each other about who is to blame, I think of what his colleagues are doing in the Department of Health and Social Care with NHS England, by removing that culture and not having two state organisations delivering healt…
Commons
Committee Stage
29 January 2026
3 contributions
Railways Bill (Seventh sitting)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Western. I want to speak in support of amendment 137, in the name of the hon. Member for Didcot and Wantage, and amendment 261, in the name of my hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Dr Spencer). The two amendments attempt to deliv…
I thank the hon. Member for his apology, if that is what that was; it is accepted. My argument for integration between rail and all modes of transport, although I will use ferries as a particular example, is important. The Minister is also the Maritime Minister, and is well aware of the specific iss…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Debate
28 January 2026
3 contributions
Youth Unemployment
Will the Minister give way?
Will the hon. Lady give way?
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Debate
28 January 2026
British Indian Ocean Territory
My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech, which contains more detail than the Government’s contribution. In a nutshell, is the fundamental problem not that when we give away British sovereign territory to another nation, we are vulnerable in perpetuity—whatever agreement we have sitting around i…
Commons
Oral Questions
20 January 2026
Topical Questions
T2. President Trump’s new version of the board of peace will apparently cost $1 billion to join, Trump will chair it for life and Putin will be invited to join and offer his views on peace making. I understand that the Foreign Secretary is still having conversations about it, but has she managed to …
Commons
Debate
19 January 2026
Local Elections: Cancellation
I refer to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests as a serving Isle of Wight councillor. Local government reorganisation in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight is a mess. Meanwhile, the Government propose to cut £13 million of funding from Isle of Wight council. We are due to have elec…
Commons
Oral Questions
15 January 2026
Improving Outcomes for Young People
The best thing the Government can do to support young people is to ensure they have jobs, but in the three months to October last year, unemployment for 18 to 24-year-olds rose by 85,000. What does the Secretary of State have to say to the Chancellor, who is over-taxing jobs, including for young peo…