Commons
Oral Questions
20 November 2025
Topical Questions
Cross-channel rail was already mentioned this morning. Specifically, trains from Ashford to Paris were a massive boost for my constituents in the Weald of Kent and are much missed. It is fantastic news that Virgin would like to run trains again from Ashford and also from Ebbsfleet, but I know that t…
Commons
Proceedings
17 November 2025
Illegal Waste: Organised Crime
Hoad’s Wood, which was mentioned earlier by the hon. Member for Bicester and Woodstock (Calum Miller), is a patch of semi-ancient bluebell woodland in my constituency where criminal gangs have dumped 30,000 tonnes of waste. It took about six months for them to fell ancient trees and bring in lorry a…
Commons
Oral Questions
Home Department
17 November 2025
Violence against Women and Girls
In March this year, the then permanent secretary of the Home Office said that the strategy to tackle violence against women and girls would be published before the summer recess. In July, the Minister committed to September. My hon. Friend the Member for Rutland and Stamford (Alicia Kearns) wrote to…
Commons
Debate
12 November 2025
3 contributions
Energy
No industrialised country has ever been able to succeed without cheap, abundant energy. As my right hon. Friend the Member for East Surrey (Claire Coutinho) so rightly says, the Government must prioritise delivering cheap, abundant energy for households across the country. The plan that she laid out…
I thank the Member for his intervention, but we should still be investing in storage from the North sea; that is still the best storage that we have.
The real human cost of Labour’s plans on energy is that the cost of living crisis is being made even worse. And all the while, countries such as Chin…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
11 November 2025
2 contributions
Alcohol Duty: UK Wine Sector
I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Farnham and Bordon (Gregory Stafford) on giving us an opportunity to discuss this very important topic that affects so many people and businesses in the Weald of Kent, which proudly produces some of the finest wines in the country.
The principle of taxin…
It is not for me to speak for them, but it is reasonable to say that the system we have does not work very well. It would not be right to pretend otherwise on behalf of my constituents who have to deal with it every day.
The Minister’s predecessor also said that the new system benefits lower streng…
Commons
Debate
30 October 2025
2 contributions
Property Service Charges
I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Reigate (Rebecca Paul) on securing this debate in the House. Earlier this year, I wrote to hundreds of residents across the Weald of Kent to get a better understanding of how property management companies operate across our home. What I discovered was ver…
I am afraid so, and fairly regularly in fact. The legal action that the hon. Member mentions is important to reflect on because it can in some cases be deeply distressing and seem very aggressive for people just trying to get what they have already paid for, which in some cases does not even exist y…
Commons
Debate
28 October 2025
2 contributions
China Spying Case
My hon. and right hon. Friends have set out well how the Government’s account of how the case collapsed simply does not add up, so in the interests of time I will make just this one point. If, as many on the Opposition Benches and I suspect to be the case, the Prime Minister’s account of this situat…
I regret that I cannot; I promised to speak briefly.
Whatever the facts may be, this is not how serious countries behave. Regardless of our politics, we should all want our country to be respected by our friends and our adversaries. Under this Government, our friends see us as unreliable and our ad…
Commons
Oral Questions
21 October 2025
2 contributions
Employer’s National Insurance: GPs
9. What assessment he has made of the potential impact of the increase in employer’s national insurance contributions on general practices.
GPs surgeries across the Weald of Kent, including in Woodchurch and Charing, tell me how much they struggle with rising staff costs, and the national insurance increases in last year’s Budget put huge pressure on them. Alongside the investment that the hon. Gentleman just mentioned, what discussions…
Commons
Westminster Hall
20 October 2025
Asylum Seekers: Support and Accommodation
It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Sir John. I thank the Petitions Committee, my constituency neighbour, the hon. and learned Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Tony Vaughan), for presenting these petitions, and the hundreds of thousands of people who have made their voices heard by sign…
Commons
Westminster Hall
8 September 2025
4 contributions
Indefinite Leave to Remain
It is, as ever, a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Pritchard. I believe I am the first member of my party speaking in this place to welcome the Minister to his new place. I look forward to working across from him, socks and all.
I am grateful to the hon. Member for South Norfolk (Ben Gol…
I will make a little progress first.
It is particularly concerning that the vast majority who have come to Britain in the last few years, including many of those on the skilled worker route, are unlikely to contribute more in tax than they cost over their lifetimes through their use of public servi…
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
14 July 2025
2 contributions
Deprivation of Citizenship Orders (Effect during Appeal) Bill
I thank all Members for their contributions, Members who tabled amendments, and the Minister for his work and approach.
As has been set out, the Bill represents an important step towards tightening the existing rules on the deprivation of citizenship, as we discussed on Second Reading. This is a cr…
I start by thanking the Minister for his work on the Bill. It is always a pleasure to work across from him in defence of our great country and its people.
Keeping our country safe sometimes requires taking difficult decisions, including the decision to deprive a person of their British citizenship.…
Commons
Debate
11 July 2025
2 contributions
Unauthorised Entry to Football Matches Bill
I thank the hon. Member for Amber Valley (Linsey Farnsworth) for bringing the Bill forward and my hon. Friend the Member for Christchurch (Sir Christopher Chope) for his amendments. At this stage, is it correct that you wish us to speak only to the amendment, Mr Speaker? [ Interruption. ] Yes. We th…
I thank the hon. Member for Amber Valley (Linsey Farnsworth) for bringing the Bill forward. For many in this Chamber, the Euro 2020 final was a rollercoaster of ecstasy and disappointment, though I appreciate that certain Members from other parts of our United Kingdom may have felt a little less dev…
Commons
Oral Questions
7 July 2025
National Inquiry: Grooming Gangs
The comments from my hon. Friend the Member for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk (John Lamont) relate to the question of whether it will be a national inquiry, rather than a co-ordination of a few local inquiries. All the victims and survivors deserve justice, so can the Minister please confirm fo…
Commons
Proceedings
3 July 2025
Phone Theft
It should go without saying that law and order is the bedrock of a healthy society, but laws that we make in this House are only worth anything if they are enforced. In Britain today, this is all too often the story: a widening gulf between our laws and how they are actually applied. I can think of …
Commons
Debate
30 June 2025
Deprivation of Citizenship Orders (Effect during Appeal) Bill
I thank the Minister for his work and approach, today and every day. It is a pleasure to work across from him, against our enemies and in defence of our great country and its people.
Sometimes, fulfilling our duty to keep our country safe means taking action that we might otherwise wish to avoid, b…
Commons
Oral Questions
Transport
26 June 2025
Local Bus Services
As I mentioned to the Minister when he appeared before the Transport Committee, I sent a transport survey to every household in Weald of Kent and received hundreds of comments about our buses. Many are dismayed that villages such as Smarden, Egerton, Frittenden and Pluckley now have no bus service a…
Commons
Westminster Hall
25 June 2025
4 contributions
English Wine Production
I beg to move,
That this House has considered English wine production.
It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Dame Siobhain. I am grateful for the opportunity to bring forward this debate at a timely moment: the middle of English Wine Week. The theme this year is creating new traditions,…
The hon. Gentleman is a fantastic champion of our Unionist and one nation principles. The best thing that our friends, brothers and sisters in Northern Ireland can do is to purchase English wine and drink it. That is a win for all concerned.
British wines are now exported to 45 different countries.…
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
Health and Social Care
17 June 2025
Topical Questions
T3. The UK is desperately short of doctors, but thousands of applicants will be turned away due to a lack of training places. This is not a situation of the Minister’s making, but he has now been in post for a year. Can he assure us that nobody—no union, no Treasury Minister—will prevent him from …
Commons
Oral Questions
Home Department
2 June 2025
Violence against Women and Girls
On 28 April, the Minister was clear with this House that the framework for local grooming gang inquiries and Baroness Casey’s audit would both be published in May. It is now June. Presumably there is a new timeline for publishing them, so will the Minister share it with us, please?
Commons
Debate
21 May 2025
5 contributions
Immigration
As my right hon. Friend, the shadow Home Secretary, rightly said earlier, migration has been too high for decades and remains so. In every year since 1997, with the unsurprising exception of 2020, net migration was over 100,000 people. Every election-winning manifesto since 1974 has promised to redu…
I wish to make a little progress.
Fixing this broken system is the single biggest thing that we can do to restore trust in our politics. That means control of the borders and an end to mass migration; we need a system that works in the interests of this country and its people. Those who have come h…
+3 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
20 May 2025
4 contributions
Victims and Courts Bill
It is a privilege, as a Member of Parliament, to support our constituents in their hour of greatest need. All too often, that is when they are a victim of an appalling crime. Many of the constituents I speak to are at their wits’ end; they are desperate to be heard, helped and protected. They rightl…
I can only agree with my right hon. Friend. It is appalling that such transcripts are currently the only way to understand what has happened in these cases. Relatedly, as my right hon. Friend the Member for Newark (Robert Jenrick) has previously said:
“These aren’t just legal documents, they’re his…
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Proceedings
8 May 2025
Business of the House
Many members of the grooming and rape gangs that systematically abused white working class girls have never faced justice, and neither have the councillors, officials and police officers suspected of collusion and cover-up. Can we have a debate on the need for a national inquiry into these disgustin…
Commons
Westminster Hall
8 May 2025
Small Abattoirs
Over the past 50 years, abattoirs have rapidly vanished. More than 90% of them have closed. Across the country, family farms that once relied on local slaughterhouses now face round trips of over 100 miles just to kill a handful of animals to provide the meat for our tables. That drives up costs and…