Commons
Westminster Hall
14 January 2026
UK-France Relations
My constituency was home to the Free French forces during the second world war, and that is representative of the kind of security relationship our countries have had in the past. May I urge the Government, through the hon. Gentleman, and in the spirit of strategic futures, to get back round the tab…
Commons
Debate
13 January 2026
Nigeria: Freedom of Religion or Belief
I am hugely grateful to the hon. Gentleman for giving way and for his excellent speech. He is giving a powerful evocation of the significant crisis that exists within Nigeria in terms of intolerance and faith-related death. Can he indicate—this is a genuine question of inquiry—to what extent there a…
Commons
Debate
13 January 2026
Finance (No. 2) Bill
Back in November, the Chancellor promised to support the great British pub by introducing permanently lower tax rates in more than 750,000 retail and hospitality properties. In my constituency, the Half Moon will experience an 157% rise in business rates, the Inn at West End an 87% increase and the …
Commons
Westminster Hall
13 January 2026
Arctic and High North
Prior to our brief interruption, the Minister described a part of the world that is undergoing considerable change and turbulence, not least from climate change. Will he reflect on how UK procurement and military doctrine might have to go to a similar scale and rapidity of change in order to respond…
Commons
Westminster Hall
13 January 2026
Airport Drop-off Charges
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Vaz. I thank the hon. Member for Bolton South and Walkden (Yasmin Qureshi) for securing this debate. We have had unanimity across the House, with a real feeling of injustice at the rising charges that we see at almost every airport that has been …
Commons
Oral Questions
Housing, Communities and Local Government
12 January 2026
Leasehold Reform
May I take the Minister back to the circumstances of constituents who are living in retirement communities? I have a community of constituents who live at Mytchett Heath, owned by Cognatum Estates. They are experiencing very high service charges, and I have written to the Minister about that before.…
Commons
Westminster Hall
12 January 2026
2 contributions
Call for General Election
Will my hon. Friend give way?
I am grateful.
More than 1,800 of my constituents have signed the petition that has prompted today’s debate. It would be arrogant for me to assume that those people are necessarily indicating their support for an EU customs union, although it would be sensible if they did. But what I hear from them…
Commons
Debate
8 January 2026
Human Rights Abuses: Magnitsky Sanctions
I thank and congratulate the right hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith) on securing this important debate. I seem to remember that he once referred to himself as a “quiet man”, but he has had a loud voice on this issue. I also congratulate the other excellent speakers…
Commons
Westminster Hall
6 January 2026
Future of Thames Water
My hon. Friend describes the tankering of sewage from his constituency. In 2023, those tanks arrived in my constituency and the sewage was stored in open tanks on a Thames Water site for an entire summer, casting a stinky pall over the whole of Camberley town centre. It was an environmental crime an…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
5 January 2026
Venezuela
There is an old warning from Benjamin Franklin: “If you do not hang together, you will hang separately.” Given the events in Venezuela in recent days, and given the active threats against Cuba and Mexico, in the past against Canada, and today against Greenland, I ask the Foreign Secretary, where is …
Commons
Ministerial Statement
17 December 2025
UK-EU Common Understanding Negotiations
We welcome the Minister’s announcement. As a recovering academic—a distinction that I think I share with him—I have witnessed at first hand the impact of our exiting the Erasmus scheme on university student intake. Welcoming students from across the EU into our education institutions and giving our …
Commons
Proceedings
17 December 2025
Northern Ireland Troubles: Legacy and Reconciliation
The introduction of a remedial order is welcome and necessary, even if its timing is potentially vexed. The order promises to finally end the policy of conditional immunity that was integral to the 2023 legacy Act—a policy that may have had benign intentions, but that put us at odds with our interna…
Commons
Westminster Hall
17 December 2025
Housing Development: Cumulative Impacts
In my constituency we have had a 113% increase in our housing targets. A seven-year land supply has now dropped to little over three and a half years, making us susceptible to the very speculative developments that the hon. Gentleman mentioned. Does he share my concern that in the circumstances in w…
Commons
Proceedings
16 December 2025
Africa: New Approach
The Government are absolutely right to say that the United Kingdom needs a new relationship with Africa. Many Members in this House had hoped that that partnership would be sustainable, strategic and built on mutual trust. Africa, after all, has one of the youngest populations in the world and incre…
Commons
Proceedings
16 December 2025
Chagossians: Trust Fund and Resettlement
The Liberal Democrats have been clear from the start: nothing should be happening to the Chagossian people without the full democratic input of Chagossians themselves, who, in the custom of other overseas territories citizens, we should recognise as a self-governing and self-determining people, even…
Commons
Westminster Hall
16 December 2025
Grassroots Cricket Clubs
I thank the hon. Member for Welwyn Hatfield (Andrew Lewin) for securing this important debate, despite what may be happening down under at the moment.
Grassroots cricket plays a fundamental role in shaping us as individuals. Although such cricket clubs clearly help to keep us fit and healthy, their…
Commons
Debate
9 December 2025
UK-EU Customs Union (Duty to Negotiate)
I beg to move,
That leave be given to bring in a Bill to place a duty on the Secretary of State to enter into negotiations with the European Union to agree a customs union between the United Kingdom and the European Union; and for connected purposes.
Up and down the country, businesses know it, th…
Commons
Westminster Hall
8 December 2025
Digital ID
The hon. Gentleman and I represent different political traditions, but I am glad to know that we are bound together by a shared sense of what a liberal society looks like. The only purpose of having an ID of this kind—a mandatory ID—is to enable people to ask for it. When we enable the conditions to…
Commons
Debate
4 December 2025
2 contributions
War in Ukraine
The hon. Member mentioned the hon. Member for Paisley and Renfrewshire South (Johanna Baxter). Recently, she was good enough to organise an extraordinary showing of a film called “Children in the Fire” in one of the Committee rooms. It explained in detail, through some very personal stories, the dev…
I thank the hon. Member for Harwich and North Essex (Sir Bernard Jenkin) for securing this very important debate. There have been plaudits and praise enough for all the speeches made by Members across this House—they have been an extraordinary collection of speeches and thoughtful interventions that…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
4 December 2025
Northern Ireland: Legacy of the Past
I thank the Chair of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee for her report. It has been a pleasure to serve under her chairship on that Committee for the past year, and it is a personal sadness that I no longer serve on it. She mentioned that the Committee received evidence about a collective loss o…
Commons
Oral Questions
Cabinet Office
4 December 2025
2 contributions
EU Relations
16. What progress his Department has made on implementing the agreement made with the EU in May 2025.
On “The News Agents” podcast yesterday evening, the Deputy Prime Minister, when asked about a UK-EU customs arrangement, said
“that journey of travel…is self-evident”.
Given that the botched Brexit deal is costing the UK Exchequer £90 billion a year, can I ask what that self-evident journey means …
Commons
Debate
3 December 2025
2 contributions
Pension Schemes Bill
I have been contacted by many Surrey Heath constituents who often worked for very large American companies such as Atos. These companies are refusing to offer the pre-1997 uplift, and from what I understand, the pensions fall outside both the PPF and the FAS. Can the Minister offer any reassurance t…
The hon. Lady mentioned Atos. I have several constituents who worked for that company who find themselves in precisely the situation she describes. I thank her for the speech she is making and, on behalf of my constituents, I hope that those on the Front Bench are listening to her suggestions.
Commons
Oral Questions
2 December 2025
2 contributions
UK-EU Relations
12. What discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on strengthening the UK’s relationship with the EU.
With growing Chinese espionage, Russian aggression on the European continent and a capricious President in the United States, it is more important than ever that we deepen our security co-operation with our European allies. Can I ask the Minister explicitly whether he recognises, as I do, that the U…
Commons
Westminster Hall
26 November 2025
9 contributions
Driving Test Availability: South-east
I beg to move,
That this House has considered the availability of driving tests in the South East.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship this morning, Mrs Harris. I extend my gratitude to all right hon. and hon. Members for participating in this important debate on a topic that occupie…
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his observations. I also have constituents who have caring responsibilities and find themselves unable to fulfil those to the fullest capacity that they would like to because of those restrictions.
Of course, on Budget day we also think about economic growth and …
+7 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
20 November 2025
World COPD Day
It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Efford. I congratulate my dear friend, the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon), on securing this debate and on his long advocacy for both COPD and other respiratory conditions, which I know he does with his chairman for the APPG for re…