Commons
Westminster Hall
11 November 2025
Alcohol Duty: UK Wine Sector
It is a pleasure to serve under you, Mr Turner. I thank the hon. Member for Farnham and Bordon (Gregory Stafford) for securing this important debate. I was delighted that he broadened his comments beyond the wine industry because, of course, the lessons we can learn from the whisky industry will app…
Commons
Debate
3 November 2025
Public Office (Accountability) Bill
This Bill certainly is long overdue. I previously contributed to the excellent debate in Westminster Hall that was secured by the hon. Member for Liverpool West Derby (Ian Byrne), who has just made another fantastic contribution to the campaign. He has been a tireless campaigner for justice since th…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
30 October 2025
Infected Blood Compensation Scheme
On previous occasions, I have paid tribute to the Minister for his sincerity and hard work in this matter, and I add to that the collegiate and consensual way that he approaches all of this, particularly in his work with the devolved Administrations, including the Scottish Government. I previously a…
Commons
Proceedings
30 October 2025
Business of the House
This Government came to power on a promise to restore confidence in government, and ensure that Ministers are held to the highest standards. In the light of growing public concern about standards in public life, and with senior Government figures making headlines for all the wrong reasons almost wee…
Commons
Proceedings
29 October 2025
Points of Order
On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. On two separate occasions in July and September, the former Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the right hon. Member for Streatham and Croydon North (Steve Reed), made some very dubious claims from the Dispatch Box about water quali…
Commons
Oral Questions
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
28 October 2025
Topical Questions
Last week the Chancellor accepted that Brexit has caused huge damage to the economy. This week sources suggest that the Prime Minister is being advised to go further in his realignment with the European Union, as the Office for Budget Responsibility is reportedly forecasting a new black hole of arou…
Commons
Debate
27 October 2025
North Sea Oil and Gas Industry
I hear the Minister’s reassuring words, but surely he can understand the worry of the workers waking up this morning to the news that they heard. It is not just warm words that are causing the problem: it is policy, the energy profits levy and the ban on exploration. It is not just me saying that: t…
Commons
Oral Questions
Work and Pensions
27 October 2025
2 contributions
Child Poverty
8. What steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to reduce the number of children in poverty.
The Child Poverty Action Group estimates that because of this Government’s policies—especially the two-child cap—more than 100 children are dragged into poverty every day. That equates to almost 3,400 children between now and the Chancellor’s autumn statement at the end of next month. Here is a leve…
Commons
Proceedings
23 October 2025
2 contributions
Fishing and Coastal Growth Fund
(Urgent Question): To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the fishing and coastal growth fund.
I thank the Minister for her response. I would be failing in my duty to my constituents, and indeed to people across Scotland, if I did not reflect the anger, dismay and sense of betrayal that has greeted this set of fund allocations. On 5 March, ahead of the much-vaunted EU reset deal with the UK, …
Commons
Debate
22 October 2025
4 contributions
Devolution in Scotland
The hon. Gentleman is drawing attention to many issues that he says are the fault of the Scottish Government’s creating difference between Scotland and England. What would he say about the Brexit vote in 2016 creating such difference?
What I find distressing is how Labour Members are always talking down the health service in Scotland, but you avoid mentioning—
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
21 October 2025
Waiting Times: Online Services
Whatever the impact of these new online services, the Opposition Front-Bench team have drawn attention to the fact that waiting lists in England have risen for the last three months. I can inform the House this morning that waiting lists in Scotland are coming down. Would the Minister like to explai…
Commons
Westminster Hall
20 October 2025
3 contributions
Asylum Seekers: Support and Accommodation
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Murrison. I acknowledge the petitioners and their call for
“a cessation of financial and other support”
but I rise to challenge the petition. I thank the hon. and learned Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Tony Vaughan) for his very learned contr…
I thank the hon. Member for his intervention, but what he is describing is not quite the same thing.
Many asylum seekers have valuable skills and are keen to contribute to society and the economy; it is Home Office dogma inherited from the Tories and driven by Reform UK that prevents them from doin…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Proceedings
8 September 2025
Remote Coastal Communities
I thank the hon. Member for giving way and for securing this important debate. He is focusing on tourism and housing, but in my coastal constituency, there are many businesses—particularly in the fishing industry—that could benefit from investment to deliver economic growth. In May, the Government l…
Commons
Westminster Hall
3 September 2025
Duty of Candour for Public Authorities and Legal Representation for Bereaved Families
It is a pleasure to serve under you, Mrs Hobhouse, and I thank the hon. Member for Liverpool West Derby (Ian Byrne) for securing this important debate and for his excellent speech. Let me take ten precious seconds to point out that, apart from the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Bexhill and Bat…
Commons
Oral Questions
15 July 2025
Clean Power: Jobs
Tempted as I am to wax lyrical about the beauties of Aberdeenshire, I will instead ask the Secretary of State a very simple question. By this time next year, how many jobs will GB Energy have created in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire?
Commons
Ministerial Statement
14 July 2025
State of Climate and Nature
I rise not to call the Secretary of State an eco-warrior, as Members of this House are so keen on doing from time to time; in fact, I agree with him on the scale of the climate and nature emergency. I do not want to spoil the cross-party support here, but the fact is that when the Labour party was i…
Commons
Debate
10 July 2025
Electricity Market Review
Thank you for allowing my question, Madam Deputy Speaker. I must apologise to the House and the Front Bench for being a little late.
I appreciate the high-wire nature of the act that the Secretary of State and his ministerial team are trying to deliver, but there are two litmus tests in Scotland th…
Commons
Oral Questions
8 July 2025
2 contributions
Prison Officers: Terms and Conditions of Service
5. What progress she has made on reviewing terms and conditions of service for prison officers.
I was in correspondence with the Minister of State for Prisons, Probation and Reducing Reoffending last October, but he sits in the other place. In January, I was advised by the Minister in this place that the Secretary of State was awaiting advice about the range of terms and conditions issues for …
Commons
Oral Questions
7 July 2025
2 contributions
Temporary Worker Visas: Fish Processing Sector
9. If she will review the temporary worker visa regulations for the fish processing sector.
May I begin by acknowledging the passing of a giant of our movement, Mr Alex Sim from Peterhead, whose funeral is taking place at the moment?
On Wednesday 5 March the Prime Minister told me from the Dispatch Box, in answer to a question about the fishing industry in my constituency:
“We…want to ta…
Commons
Debate
3 July 2025
2 contributions
Women’s State Pension Age: Financial Redress
I congratulate the hon. Member for Salford (Rebecca Long Bailey) on securing this debate and on her tremendously eloquent speech, which removed much of what I had to say. In all honesty, though, eloquent speeches are just not going to cut it; they simply will not do the trick. We need action.
I not…
Earlier, the right hon. Member for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell) warned us that we might simply see the Government Front Bencher regurgitation the Government’s views today. Can the Minister clarify whether he has been sent here to defend the indefensible, or will he give us something new tod…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
3 July 2025
NHS 10-Year Plan
I thank the Secretary of State for his statement on his plan. I note the comments on the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, but the Scottish Medicines Consortium is the envy of the other three nations. I would like to offer …
Commons
Westminster Hall
1 July 2025
Refugee Citizenship Rights
Forgive me for interrupting the hon. Member’s excellent speech, but he will note the complete absence of Members from the official Opposition party, apart from the shadow Minister, and of Members from the Reform party. My inbox is flooded with queries about various aspects of immigration. Does the h…
Commons
Oral Questions
Treasury
1 July 2025
2 contributions
Barnett Formula: Scotland
1. Whether she plans to review the Barnett formula for Scotland.
We know that if the Government today pass their disgraceful, discriminatory and, some say, illegal cuts to disability support, that will almost certainly lead to a reduction in the Scottish budget as a result of the Barnett formula. That is a deliberate choice that Scottish Labour MPs will be making…
Commons
Debate
24 June 2025
Department of Health and Social Care
I rise to set the record straight in Scotland when it comes to the much-vaunted but false largesse of this spin-doctoring Labour Government.
After the autumn statement, the Government spent much time and energy telling the Scottish people how generous they were—the largest settlement in the history…
Commons
Westminster Hall
18 June 2025
2 contributions
Future of the Gas Grid
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairpersonship, Dame Siobhain. I thank the hon. Member for Cannock Chase (Josh Newbury) for securing this important debate and for his excellent and very well-informed contribution. I wish him not only a happy birthday but success with his new heat pump.
The fu…
I cannot let the hon. Gentleman get away with these continual references to Scotland. Of course, whatever the future constitutional arrangements—they are in some doubt—the gas network on this side supplies not only Ireland but, as I understand it, Belgium and part of the Netherlands. There is alread…