Commons
Westminster Hall
10 February 2026
Young Children’s Screen Time
The hon. Member is giving a brilliant speech, and I am so pleased that he opened his remarks with, and spoke again just now about, the role of parents and parents’ use of mobile phones. I have recently met paediatricians, GPs and headteachers, who all say that they are observing bad use of phones in…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
9 February 2026
Standards in Public Life
This is not about process; it is about the judgment of the Prime Minister, and we cannot legislate out the poor judgment that has been in evidence today. Perhaps the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister has considered our calls for an office of the whistleblower, but does he agree that, in order to…
Commons
Oral Questions
Home Department
9 February 2026
Asylum Seekers: Hotels
In her response, the Home Secretary noted the speeding-up of processing times, but I wonder whether enough is being done on that. Surely, making sure that asylum seekers are processed as fast as possible is the route to closing the hotels.
Commons
Westminster Hall
3 February 2026
Transport in the South-East
My speech is significantly shorter than six minutes, so we should be good. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir John, and I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Chichester (Jess Brown-Fuller) for bringing us a debate that is really timely, particularly at this time of year, because …
Commons
Ministerial Statement
29 January 2026
Business of the House
Madam Deputy Speaker, I am sure that your constituents, like mine, were absolutely shocked this morning to discover that their water bills from South East Water will go up by 7%, while the company is being investigated by Ofwat. The water industry is a failed industry. Will the Leader of the House m…
Commons
Debate
26 January 2026
Armed Forces Bill
I am pleased to hear the Secretary of State’s comments about social care, but an awful lot of care in this country is provided by family carers, who can often be serving personnel or the children of serving personnel. Does he consider that the Bill as currently drafted does everything possible to su…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
22 January 2026
Local Government Reorganisation
I thank the Secretary of State for advance sight of the statement. I refer the House to my declaration in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. Today’s announcement raises three questions about waste, incompetence and trust in democracy.
First, on waste, councils across the country have alr…
Commons
Oral Questions
Cabinet Office
22 January 2026
Topical Questions
T6. May I please push for a clearer answer to the question by my hon. Friend the Member for Hazel Grove (Lisa Smart)? Will the Cabinet Office set up a European relations Select Committee?
Commons
Oral Questions
Cabinet Office
22 January 2026
2 contributions
UK-EU Relations
20. What steps he is taking to help strengthen the UK’s relations with the EU.
A close and strong relationship with our European partners is vital to our interests. Mid Sussex is home to high-tech life sciences companies such as CSL Behring and Roche Diagnostics. The regulatory and trade barriers put up after Brexit have made business harder for them. With a mercurial Administ…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
21 January 2026
Water White Paper
I thank the Secretary of State for her statement, in which she talked about new reforms for regional planning supporting housing growth. Right across the south-east, we have both very high housing targets, but a totally unreliable fresh water system, as I know the Secretary of State experienced hers…
Commons
Westminster Hall
21 January 2026
UK Wine Industry
I know the hon. Member trained as a teacher. Plumpton college educates many students in Mid Sussex and last year, it pledged £500,000 of fully funded training in the wine sector. Does he agree that to grow the wine industry, the Government also need to support skill development in rural economies an…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
20 January 2026
Mobile Phones and Social Media: Use by Children
Anna is a child development doctor in my constituency. Every day, she sees children who have been harmed by excessive screen time. The Secretary of State says that she wishes to come to a clear position before the summer. When we come to that clear position, how urgently will change happen? How long…
Commons
Westminster Hall
20 January 2026
Water (Special Measures) Act 2025: Enforcement
My hon. Friend is right to discuss the problems of sewage in our waterways, but as my hon. Friend the Member for Tunbridge Wells (Mike Martin) and I, and the hon. Member for East Grinstead and Uckfield (Mims Davies), have all experienced in recent weeks, it is not just about sewage in waterways; it …
Commons
Proceedings
13 January 2026
Storm Goretti
I was very grateful to receive a phone call from the Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the hon. Member for Coventry East (Mary Creagh), on Friday afternoon warning that, because of Storm Goretti, Haywards Heath in my constituency might lose its water supply. In the ev…
Commons
Proceedings
12 January 2026
Water Supplies: East Grinstead
I sincerely thank all the Ministers for all their work over the past four days, supporting me and my constituents. My constituency has by no means had the worst outages, but a secondary school has been closed, multiple villages are out of supply, a hospital was out of supply overnight and 1,200 home…
Commons
Petition
7 January 2026
Elections to West Sussex County Council
This petition is accompanied by an online petition. It calls for elections to West Sussex county council to go ahead this year. Were those elections not to go ahead, sitting councillors would serve for six years rather than the usual four, which makes a mockery of our democracy.
The petition states…
Commons
Westminster Hall
6 January 2026
Poverty and Welfare Policies
The Carer’s Leave Act 2023, introduced by my hon. Friend the Member for North East Fife (Wendy Chamberlain), was passed in the last Parliament. At the moment, carers in work are entitled to unpaid leave from work, which helps them to stay in employment. Does the Minister agree that making that leave…
Commons
Oral Questions
16 December 2025
Topical Questions
Survivors’ Network supports all victims of sexual assault and abuse in Sussex. When my hon. Friend the Member for Chichester (Jess Brown-Fuller) and I met representatives of the network at the start of the month, they told us that, owing to the rising costs of national insurance contributions and in…
Commons
Debate
15 December 2025
NHS: Winter Preparedness
Next week, families such as mine will be coming together across the generations to celebrate Christmas, and there will be a mix of people who have been vaccinated and those who have not, whether by choice or by default. Teenagers and young adults are struggling to access vaccinations, and they canno…
Commons
Oral Questions
Business and Trade
11 December 2025
Topical Questions
I welcomed with interest the Minister’s earlier comments about support for the aviation sector. Let me give an example of how Brexit is damaging aviation in my constituency. CAE trains pilots, but at the moment it cannot bring in all the examiners it needs, so instead it has invested in Vienna. When…
Commons
Oral Questions
9 December 2025
Topical Questions
T9. The Government seem set on pushing on with the family farm tax, despite opposition from the Liberal Democrats—and indeed from Labour Members. Will the Minister at least revisit the forestalling clause, which would help older farmers in Mid Sussex and across the country to avoid the consequence…
Commons
Westminster Hall
9 December 2025
2 contributions
Water Scarcity
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stuart. I thank my neighbour, my hon. Friend the Member for Horsham (John Milne), for securing this important and timely debate.
Over the past week, my constituents in Mid Sussex have watched the appalling situation in Tunbridge Wells—families l…
Does the Minister support Liberal Democrat calls, including those of my hon. Friend the Member for Tunbridge Wells (Mike Martin), for the chief executive of South East Water to resign over this issue?
Commons
Proceedings
4 December 2025
Local Elections
I draw the House’s attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. I am a district councillor.
This is such a shambles. We have a local government sector on its knees as a result of decisions made by the Conservatives and, now, the Labour party. So much time and resource has …
Commons
Westminster Hall
4 December 2025
2 contributions
Seafarers’ Welfare
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Christopher. I thank the hon. Member for Thurrock (Jen Craft) for securing this important debate, and for setting out why this issue matters.
Three years ago, the country watched in disbelief as P&O Ferries carried out one of the most disgr…
I thank the right hon. Gentleman for that reassurance.
An issue too often overlooked while talking about seafarers is their mental health, as the right hon. Gentleman drew to our attention in his contribution. We know that life at sea can be tough, isolating, demanding and physically and psychologi…