Commons
Debate
15 September 2025
2 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
I am a former teaching assistant, and many teaching assistants were working under a form of zero-hours contracts. Does my hon. Friend agree that this Bill, as well as bringing back the negotiating body for teaching assistants and support staff at school, will greatly help them by taking away the zer…
I refer the House to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. I, too, was a Unison rep, and I have taken contributions from Unison and other unions towards my election expenses. The point my hon. Friend makes is very real in Cornwall too. Migrant care workers were left on a bench in…
Commons
Debate
11 September 2025
Regional Transport Inequality
Since I was elected last July, I have become closely acquainted with the long-distance London Paddington to Penzance line, which a number of my colleagues have mentioned. There was a big storm in 2014, and we were properly cut off for eight weeks; we could not get in or out of Cornwall by rail, beca…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
11 September 2025
Biosecurity at the Border: Britain’s Illegal Meat Crisis
As a member of the Committee, I attended the trip to Dover where we saw just how much meat could have been coming in in the white vans that were flooding in. Border Force is very busy and has numerous duties, and the powers and hours for the Port Health Authority were far too limited; it was obvious…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
11 September 2025
Business of the House
I congratulate Cornwall on being in wave one of the Government’s innovative roll-out of the neighbourhood health services. We are one of 43 areas making that shift and we have provided services locally, such as community health and wellbeing workers, which have been very well received and which make…
Commons
Westminster Hall
10 September 2025
Occupied Palestinian Territories: Humanitarian Access
The IPC has declared only four famines since it was established in 2004. In August, it declared one in Gaza City. It said:
“this Famine is entirely man-made, it can be halted and reversed”.
The non-governmental organisations I have spoken to have been unable to get any aid into Gaza since March. S…
Commons
Proceedings
8 September 2025
Remote Coastal Communities
Does my hon. Friend agree that the Government’s fair funding review is right to take into account the sparsity and rurality of coastal areas and visitor numbers into the new calculations? For example, a hotel in Cornwall in the winter can cost £53, but in the summer it can cost £100, and county coun…
Commons
Westminster Hall
8 September 2025
Indefinite Leave to Remain
It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Sir Jeremy.
When the Government’s immigration White Paper was published with the proposal to increase the qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain, I received numerous emails from constituents in Truro and Falmouth who could be affected. My con…
Commons
Debate
22 July 2025
Sir David Amess Summer Adjournment
How do I follow that? It is an honour to speak in the David Amess debate. I start by congratulating Falmouth town council and Source FM in my constituency for the opening of the resource project this weekend, which will bring community radio and a community café to everybody in Falmouth. Thank you a…
Commons
Oral Questions
Housing, Communities and Local Government
14 July 2025
Topical Questions
The “New life for city buildings” project in Truro is breathing new life into empty high street buildings and redeveloping them. I would love for the Minister to be able to see this for himself, so will he consider coming to Truro and attending our growth summit on 18 September?
Commons
Westminster Hall
8 July 2025
5 contributions
Military Helicopters: Blood Cancers
I beg to move,
That this House has considered military helicopters and blood cancers.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Jeremy. I am here because of someone who joined the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm at the age of 19 because he had always wanted to fly. He always had the vitality…
I agree absolutely. The health of our serving personnel is and always must be paramount. I will move on to previous cases shortly.
I know of 180 cases with solicitors of crew working on military helicopters who have contracted cancers, many like those of the two people I mentioned. They worked on t…
+3 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
7 July 2025
2 contributions
Pension Schemes Bill
Does my hon. Friend agree that it is good that, in the local government pension scheme, representatives of both employers and employees can sit on the pension committees, and that we often have trade union representatives on the committees as well?
Having been lucky enough to chair a local government pension scheme committee and sit on a pool oversight board—purely because I was the only person left on the committee after the election, I think—I would like to talk about the Bill’s impact on local government pension schemes.
The Bill would con…
Commons
Oral Questions
7 July 2025
2 contributions
Qualifying Period for Settlement: Impact on NHS Staffing
4. What discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on the potential impact of the proposed increase to the standard qualifying period for settlement on NHS staffing levels.
I have been contacted by constituents working in health and social care in Truro and Falmouth who are concerned about the proposed changes to the standard qualifying period. Dr Mohamed Abdelazim works as a doctor at the Royal Cornwall hospitals NHS trust and has not quite completed the five-year eli…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
3 July 2025
NHS 10-Year Plan
The Secretary of State mentioned community health teams in Cornwall taking services directly to people, even in their homes. I am so pleased with the focus on how to deliver healthcare in sparsely populated rural and coastal areas. Can the Secretary of State confirm that this focus will run through …
Commons
Ministerial Statement
3 July 2025
Business of the House
Falmouth, a densely populated area on a peninsula, lost its swimming pool in 2022, when the Conservative council allowed the contractors to close it for financial reasons, and schools in Falmouth are struggling to arrange swimming lessons elsewhere. Tregony school football pitch needs resurfacing. C…
Commons
Oral Questions
Church Commissioners
3 July 2025
2 contributions
Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme
8. What steps the Church plans to take to support listed places of worship with repairs and renovations after the conclusion of the listed places of worship grant scheme.
I have been visiting places of worship in my constituency, including St Probus and St Grace church, with the tallest church tower in Cornwall, and St Gerrans church, with its distinctive tower and spire. Both need extensive and expensive works to keep them watertight, so all that good work with food…
Commons
Oral Questions
Treasury
1 July 2025
Economic Growth: Rural Areas
As one of the most deprived regions of northern Europe, Cornwall benefited from objective 1 structural and sustained prosperity fund funding. Can the Minister confirm that, under this Government, Cornwall will not lose out on funding for economic growth and the investment that our communities deserv…
Commons
Westminster Hall
1 July 2025
3 contributions
Hospitality Sector
I thank the hon. Member for Kingswinford and South Staffordshire (Mike Wood) for leading today’s debate on a subject that is important for all regions in the UK, but particularly for mine. For Cornwall, the visitor sector is still an important core industry. Cornwall is a top UK tourist destination,…
As I recall it, we did not specifically consider Scotland—or I certainly did not. The Government did prevent a business rates cliff edge in April 2025 in England by extending business rate relief at a rate of 40% for 2025-26. I would welcome the Minister’s confirmation that those permanently lower r…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Proceedings
19 June 2025
Business of the House
Falmouth is a thriving town in my constituency, but it is struggling with a deployable neighbourhood policing team that is at only 44% of the minimum recommended capacity. Tregony has just had its police office shut—the only one in a large rural area. This Government have invested heavily in our nei…
Commons
Debate
18 June 2025
Post-industrial Towns
Will my hon. Friend agree to include post-industrial towns in places like Cornwall which used to mine and have been post-industrial for longer than many other towns in this country? Now, with opportunities in renewables and critical minerals, they could be rich again under this new industrial strate…
Commons
Westminster Hall
11 June 2025
NHS Funding: South-west
I was not expecting to be called first, but thank you very much, Dr Huq.
Each year, Cornwall, which has a population of 650,000, welcomes around 4 million visitors, drawn by our beautiful beaches and coastline. Tourism is a key part of our economy and provides a livelihood for many, but the downsid…
Commons
Westminster Hall
11 June 2025
Space Industry
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Betts. I thank the hon. Member for Wyre Forest (Mark Garnier) for securing this debate, which is really important, particularly to the people of Cornwall.
Cornwall’s unique geography gives us an advantage in a range of industries, and space is no e…
Commons
Proceedings
5 June 2025
Business of the House
Thank you, Mr Speaker. Can the Leader of the House grant a debate in Government time on a more robust range of censure and sanction options for serious breaches of the local government members’ code of conduct, including suspension and removal of councillors? I know of recent incidents in which, des…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
4 June 2025
Regional Growth
Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I welcome the transport investment, which is needed in those city regions and spreads the wealth out. Cornwall also has ambitious transport plans, but does not have a large city region for 175 miles. It is very difficult to get public transport to our airport or a di…
Commons
Westminster Hall
4 June 2025
Swimming Facilities
Falmouth is a town of young people which juts out into the Atlantic on a finger-like peninsula, so it is vital that people there learn how to swim, yet statistics from a primary school in Falmouth show that the percentage of young children who are unable to swim 25 metres has shot up dramatically, f…
Commons
Westminster Hall
4 June 2025
Disadvantaged Communities
On the question of barriers to opportunity, the potential for growth in some areas is high, but access to funding and education—particularly further education—can be difficult, as it is in Cornwall. Does my hon. Friend agree that, as a result, the people who live in an area cannot always take advant…