Commons
Debate
12 November 2025
10 contributions
Taxes
The Minister seems to be telling us that we can expect debt cutting measures in the Budget. Will he also confirm from the Dispatch Box that there will not be measures to increase national insurance, taxes on hard working people, or VAT?
When we are just two weeks away from a Budget where the Chancellor is preparing all sorts of unpleasantness for families and businesses, is the hon. Member not just a little concerned that the hon. Member for Richmond Park (Sarah Olney) is quizzing him about a Budget from three years ago? Does he no…
+8 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
5 November 2025
Ferry Services (Integration and Regulation)
I beg to move,
That leave be given to bring in a Bill to make provision about the integration of ferry services with other transport services; to make provision about the regulation of ferry services; and for connected purposes.
Our great nation, the United Kingdom, is a nation of islands. This co…
Commons
Debate
4 November 2025
2 contributions
Supporting High Streets
My hon. Friend is speaking eloquently about pubs. Does she agree that one of the best ways to support pubs is to give them a fair excise regime, and that that falls on the Government?
The British Retail Consortium has warned that £7 billion of costs have been put on to businesses because of national insurance contributions levied by this Government, and the Chancellor’s attitude was to say, “Well, the NHS is working.” Does she really think that the hospital budget should rest on …
Commons
Oral Questions
4 November 2025
2 contributions
Employer National Insurance Contributions: Business Impact
16. What assessment she has made of the potential impact of the increase in employer national insurance contributions on levels of employment.
According to the British Retail Consortium, the Chancellor’s last Budget caused a £7 billion cost to retail, leading to shop closures, declining high streets and job losses. If the Chancellor will not acknowledge the damage she has caused, how will she go about rectifying it? Can I recommend that sh…
Commons
Westminster Hall
3 November 2025
2 contributions
Video Games: Consumer Law
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Mundell. I am grateful to the Members who have spoken passionately about this issue, in particular the hon. Member for South Norfolk (Ben Goldsborough), who led the debate, and to the people who signed the petition.
Video games are a significant…
The hon. Member makes a perfectly valid point with which I sympathise. It is certainly true that there are a number of different games providers and some are backed by large amounts of money and debt. We have to distinguish clearly between the variety of games providers out there; I will go on to sa…
Commons
Oral Questions
Cabinet Office
23 October 2025
2 contributions
Civil Service Recruitment
7. What assessment he has made of the effectiveness of civil service recruitment.
The Government are restricting applications to the civil service fast stream summer internship programme in favour of those kids who they deem to be from working-class backgrounds. What does the Minister have to say to the children of hard-working nurses, police officers and teachers who will now no…
Commons
Oral Questions
21 October 2025
NHS Trusts: Performance
I see the Health Secretary is having a bust-up with the Chancellor over who pays his £1.3 billion redundancy bill for breaking up NHS England. Will he guarantee that, once he has resolved his differences with the Chancellor, not a single penny will be taken from delivering frontline health and socia…
Commons
Oral Questions
Education
20 October 2025
Topical Questions
Schools on the Isle of Wight have some of the most serious challenges to levels of attainment. The Isle of Wight council is a small unitary authority with unique challenges in an area disconnected from the UK mainland. What will the Government do to better support education on the Isle of Wight, rat…
Commons
Debate
16 September 2025
2 contributions
Ambassador to the United States
Will my right hon. Friend give way?
My right hon. Friend is being very generous. At the weekend, the Secretary of State for Business and Trade appeared to say that the Government believed it was “worth the risk” of appointing Lord Mandelson from the outset. As I heard it, what the Business Secretary was saying was that for the positiv…
Commons
Oral Questions
Home Department
15 September 2025
Topical Questions
T4. The Attorney General has claimed that we need the European convention on human rights and the European Court to solve the illegal migration crisis—an extraordinary claim. Will the Minister please explain, therefore, how Australia managed to tackle its migration problems and how the US is managin…
Commons
Debate
11 September 2025
3 contributions
Regional Transport Inequality
Will the hon. Lady give way?
I agree with the points that my hon. Friend’s is making. The train to my constituency runs through his constituency, and he has referred to it already. Unfortunately, my constituency is reliant on entirely privatised ferry companies in order for us to get there. Does he agree that if this Government…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
11 September 2025
2 contributions
Integrated Public Transport Strategy: Ferries
6. What steps she is taking to include ferry services in the integrated public transport strategy.
I welcome the new maritime Minister to his place—it comes to something when Isle of Wight ferry company Red Funnel is operating ferries that are older than the new Minister. Will he speak to his new colleague in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, the Minister responsible for …
Commons
Debate
10 September 2025
Bus Services (No. 2) Bill [Lords]
On the point about financial risk for local authorities, does my hon. Friend agree there is absolutely nothing in the Bill that local authorities such as mine, the Isle of Wight council, would possibly want to touch when it comes to franchising for buses across my constituency? The risk for small un…
Commons
Westminster Hall
10 September 2025
Stockton and Darlington Railway: 200th Anniversary Festival
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. I thank the hon. Member for Newton Aycliffe and Spennymoor (Alan Strickland) for securing this debate and for speaking with such knowledge and passion, not only about the Stockton and Darlington railway but about railways more generally…
Commons
Oral Questions
Solicitor General
4 September 2025
Support for Victims of Crime
As the Solicitor General knows, I have been campaigning to support victims of spiking. I thank her for meeting me before the recess, but unfortunately the correspondence from her office subsequent to that meeting seems to entirely miss the point and does not follow at all the conversation we had. Gi…
Commons
Westminster Hall
4 September 2025
Future of Terrestrial Television
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Twigg. I want to begin by thanking my right hon. Friend the Member for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale (David Mundell) for bringing us this debate and for speaking so eloquently. It is always good to see colleagues from across the House, …
Commons
Debate
3 September 2025
Hospitality Sector
My hon. Friend referred to the Minister’s representations to the Chancellor, but I think the Minister said he was not going to make any representations to the Chancellor.
Commons
Debate
2 September 2025
2 contributions
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
How does my right hon. Friend think my constituents on the Isle of Wight feel about being fused under a combined mayoral authority with Hampshire without having a single say?
As I am sure all Members in this place do, I support the principle of devolution and empowerment—two of the words on the face of the Bill—but this Bill is about centralisation and disempowerment. For the Isle of Wight, it is about fusing our island with Hampshire under a combined mayoral authority, …
Commons
Ministerial Statement
22 July 2025
Music Streaming: Label-led Principles
May I invite the Minister to congratulate Isle of Wight band Wet Leg on reaching the top of the albums chart, a particular achievement given that it has beaten Oasis, which I know has personally disappointed my hon. Friend the Member for Old Bexley and Sidcup (Mr French)?
Commons
Oral Questions
22 July 2025
10-Year Health Plan: Prevention of Ill Health
The Minister talks about her 10-year health plan, with “Fit for the Future” splashed across the front cover, but really, it is a plan from “Back to the Future”, with no new ideas that have not been discussed since Alan Milburn tried to do this in the year 2000. It will only be successful if the Gove…
Commons
Oral Questions
10 July 2025
2 contributions
Plan for Change: Tracking Dashboard
14. What progress he has made on publishing a tracking dashboard for the plan for change metrics.
Given that the Government’s plan for change tracking dashboard is still in development, can I ask the Minister to include a column or facility to track all the U-turns—or, as the Government may prefer to call it, “The Changes to the Plan for Change (Subject to Change)”? That way, the public can see …
Commons
Ministerial Statement
8 July 2025
Road and Rail Projects
As the Secretary of State knows, the biggest connectivity issue for the Isle of Wight is its ferry services. I welcome her engagement on that issue. Might she consider cross-Solent ferry services to be part of the UK’s road and rail network? The Isle of Wight’s roads and rail are connected to the re…
Commons
Oral Questions
8 July 2025
Topical Questions
The backlog of cases in the Isle of Wight coroner service is the worst in the country, causing pain and distress to too many families, some of whom are waiting 800 days to find out what is happening to their loved ones. Will the Minister offer any comment or support to those families, and will she a…
Commons
Oral Questions
7 July 2025
2 contributions
Asylum Accommodation
15. What steps her Department is taking to reduce the use of asylum accommodation.
The Government may not be buying hotels, but it is filling them up with asylum seekers. The number has gone up in the past year, not down, yet the Government say that they will reduce them to zero by the end of this Parliament. Will the Minister confirm whether the commitment to end the use of asylu…
Commons
Oral Questions
Transport
26 June 2025
Transport: Economic Growth
My local economy on the Isle of Wight is entirely reliant on ferry services for the movement of people, the delivery of products and, in the case of tourism, for customers. Will the Minister acknowledge just how important unregulated ferry services are for the entire economic wellbeing of the Isle o…