Commons
Proceedings
19 January 2026
Business Rates: Retail, Hospitality and Leisure
I welcome the assurance that half of businesses will see their business rates flat or falling, and that is even after the end of the covid-era support and the post-pandemic review initiated by the previous Government. Research by the Music Venue Trust estimates that 600 grassroots music venues may s…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
14 January 2026
Northern Powerhouse Rail
I very much welcome this generational investment, which will benefit not just rail in the north of England but the whole country through economic growth and regeneration. I particularly welcome the investment going to Sheffield, which is a city used by my constituents not just as a destination but a…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
7 January 2026
Ukraine and Wider Operational Update
I welcome the Secretary of State’s statement and the generosity of his answers at this late hour. I express my sincere gratitude to the British forces men and women who have helped seize this tanker—part of the Russian shadow fleet being used to fuel Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine. I also thank this…
Commons
Westminster Hall
6 January 2026
BBC Charter Renewal
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Harris. The BBC is one of Britain’s finest institutions. Although it has undoubtedly had its problems, as many institutions have—including this place—it makes a significant contribution to our national life. However, the BBC must change to ensur…
Commons
Debate
5 January 2026
Northern Ireland Troubles Bill: Armed Forces Recruitment and Retention
This Government have a very strong story to tell when it comes to recruitment and retention in defence, whether that is about investing in homes for our forces people, providing free travel over Christmas, or delivering a 6% pay rise last year and a 4.5% pay rise this year. I know that those efforts…
Commons
Debate
5 January 2026
Agricultural Property Relief and Business Property Relief
It was very welcome news that the Government had revisited the issues of business property relief, which will help family businesses in my constituency, and agricultural property relief, which means that up to £5 million can be passed on by a qualifying couple. It was also right that the Government …
Commons
Oral Questions
Home Department
5 January 2026
Rural Crime
In my constituency, we have both rural and urban areas. I have had numerous people from rural areas contact me about theft from commercial vehicles, including in Quarndon. As we move forward with our police recruitment plans to get 13,000 more police officers by the end of this Parliament, may I ask…
Commons
Debate
10 December 2025
Conduct of the Chancellor of the Exchequer
After the global financial crisis, which hit every country in the world, the Conservatives inherited a growing economy in 2010. I remember that it said it would wipe the deficit by the end of the 2015 Parliament, but that simply did not happen. We acknowledge the huge pressure that covid put on the …
Commons
Debate
8 December 2025
Child Poverty Strategy
When I was growing up in the ’90s and ’00s, I had never heard of a food bank; they simply did not exist. There are now more than 3,000 in the country, including Hope for Belper in my constituency. Does my right hon. Friend agree that when the Conservatives talk about cutting £47 billion from public …
Commons
Westminster Hall
20 November 2025
2 contributions
Unpaid Carers: Inequalities
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Vaz. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Shipley (Anna Dixon) for securing this important debate and colleagues for sharing their powerful personal insights. I fully acknowledge the work carried out by unpaid carers across my constituency and t…
The shadow Minister is making a very powerful speech. He raises the issue of national insurance, and I know that change was very difficult in the last Budget, but it was to get over £20 billion into the NHS, which I hope will improve respite care. We saw huge cuts to local authorities under the last…
Commons
Westminster Hall
18 November 2025
6 contributions
UNESCO: 80th Anniversary
I beg to move,
That this House has considered the 80th anniversary of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Dowd. I thank the Backbench Business Committee for allowing time for this debate. It is a…
I know the intangible heritage there is in Stoke-on-Trent and I encourage my hon. Friend to join the all-party parliamentary group on UNESCO world heritage sites, of which I am the chair, because that might be a vehicle to progress the bid. She is very welcome to speak to me about that.
The Derwent…
+4 more contributions in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
5 November 2025
Curriculum and Assessment Review
This review is hugely welcome because it begins to help us address what we have known for a long time: the creative subjects in our schools have been in decline. That is bad not just for young people, but for society and our national life. May I first urge the Secretary of State to learn from this r…
Commons
Debate
27 October 2025
Prisoner Release Checks
The erroneous release of this individual was an appalling error. I am grateful that he has been caught and that the Justice Secretary will take steps to get to the bottom of what went wrong in this case. I will be grateful if he comes back to the House in due course to report on his findings.
When …
Commons
Debate
15 October 2025
Jhoots Pharmacy
I am pleased that this urgent question has been secured, because I have written to the Minister about this company. I am also grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for North Somerset (Sadik Al-Hassan), who has given me advice in the matter. I am pleased that the Government are taking regulatory acti…
Commons
Westminster Hall
15 October 2025
Educational Assessment System Reform
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Lewell. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Hertford and Stortford (Josh Dean) for securing the debate. Leaders at the Derby college group told me that some of their students, including some with special educational needs, get trapped in a seem…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
14 October 2025
Middle East
The world held its breath over the past few days as a glimmer of hope was on the horizon. I thank the Prime Minister, Ministers, the Government and British officials for the progress that they have made with the United States to bring about this progress. Peace will be embedded and sustained only if…
Commons
Debate
13 October 2025
Heritage Sites: East of England
I thank my hon. Friend for her generosity in giving way at this late hour. I am not an east of England MP, but I am the Chair of the all-party parliamentary group on UNESCO world heritage sites, so this is an issue about which I care passionately. On the point my hon. Friend has just made, I ask the…
Commons
Debate
4 September 2025
2 contributions
House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill
Does the shadow Minister think that the Order of the Garter, the Order of the Thistle and the Order of the British Empire are not sufficient to recognise such people? The House of Lords should be a working Chamber shaping our public life.
Lords amendment 1 seeks to gradually reduce to zero the number of excepted hereditary peers in the other place by ending the elections by which they are replaced. Our rich constitutional democracy has benefited from centuries of gradual evolution, and our democracy has thrived because power is not c…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
4 September 2025
Early Education and Childcare
Sure Start was one of the proudest legacies of the last Labour Government. We must be grateful to Tessa Jowell for her contribution in making that happen. I am pleased that we are recapturing the spirit of Sure Start through such initiatives as free breakfast clubs, including at Morley primary schoo…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
8 July 2025
Road and Rail Projects
I thank the Secretary of State for her statement and the Minister for the Future of Roads for her generous engagement with me regarding the expansion of the A38 in Derby, which has been greenlit today. Many residents and businesses will welcome the expansion of the A38, which is a significant bottle…
Commons
Debate
8 July 2025
Government Resilience Action Plan
I thank the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster for his statement. I was pleased to hear him reference the £370 million that the Government are investing to secure our telecommunications network. Will that extend to our undersea network of cables, which face perpetual threats from the Russian shado…
Commons
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister
18 June 2025
Engagements
Q10. Derbyshire’s Derwent valley is the home of the industrial revolution and it is also now a UNESCO world heritage site. That community showed a Victorian sense of purpose that delivered improvements to people’s everyday lives. Can my right hon. Friend set out how the Government’s £39 billion inve…
Commons
Debate
13 June 2025
3 contributions
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
Does the hon. Member share my concern that the impact assessment associated with the Bill says:
“The safety and efficacy of those substances used for assisted dying is currently difficult to assess”?
Will the hon. Lady give way?
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
10 June 2025
Nuclear Power: Investment
Today’s announcement that £2.5 billion will be invested in the small modular reactor programme is fantastic news for the country. It will help bring energy bills down, power homes and create jobs. It is amazing news for Derby, too, because the technology behind the SMRs has its roots in the technolo…