Commons
Oral Questions
19 March 2026
2 contributions
Flood Preparedness: Esher and Walton
11. What steps she is taking to support flood preparedness projects in the Esher and Walton constituency.
The Thames runs the length of my constituency, making flooding a significant issue. The Thames Ditton flood group has brilliantly secured funding for temporary flood barriers but cannot deploy them because, despite its efforts, it is unable to obtain public liability insurance. It has contacted Floo…
Commons
Oral Questions
Defence
16 March 2026
2 contributions
Iran: US Plan for Sustainable Peace
11. What assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of the US plan for sustainable peace in Iran.
My constituents are deeply concerned about further escalation in the middle east and the UK being pulled further into a conflict with no clear objective. They are also concerned about the impact on their energy bills, inflation and interest rates. President Trump is attempting to pull us into his wa…
Commons
Debate
5 March 2026
Palliative Care
The hon. Member is making such a powerful speech. I wish to draw attention to Princess Alice hospice in my constituency. It receives 20% of its funding from the Government, and the rest through selling woolly jumpers. Most constituents are not aware of this, but the hospice says that it can provide …
Commons
Debate
5 March 2026
2 contributions
Commonwealth Troops: First World War
I thank the hon. Member for Ilford South (Jas Athwal) for securing this important debate. I, like him, want to start by sharing the story of Khudadad Khan for his extraordinary courage in holding off wave after wave of German infantry in 1914. He became the first soldier of Indian origin to receive …
The hon. Member is entirely right, and I will shortly come on to the forgotten stories of this war.
From the mud of Flanders to the deserts of the middle east, from the jungles of East Africa to the mountains of the Balkans, Commonwealth soldiers were present in almost every theatre of the conflict…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
5 March 2026
Consular Assistance
The illegal war started by Trump and Netanyahu has now engulfed the entire middle east, and Iran’s reckless retaliation against our partners in the region is putting British lives at risk. There are 300,000 Britons still in the region, yet only 140,000—less than half—have registered with the Governm…
Commons
Debate
4 March 2026
2 contributions
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
I want to express my thanks to the FCDO and officials for their hard work helping British nationals overseas during the conflict in Iran and the middle east, including helping my own constituents get home.
This debate comes at a moment of extraordinary global crisis. More than 130 conflicts are act…
I would love to, and I will come back to the hon. Member with those at another point, but I am up against the clock at the moment. As I go through my speech, there may be some examples.
Aid is not charity, as the Minister for International Development suggested to the International Development Comm…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
2 March 2026
Middle East
Will the Prime Minister confirm the exact limits of defensive operations and guarantee that those limits will not change, and will the UK withdraw consent to use our bases if there is proof that they are being used by the US to carry out offensive missions?
Commons
Oral Questions
Education
2 March 2026
School SEND Provision
Children with SEND do not conform to neat packages and definitions, and those with complex needs require fluctuating levels of support. There is real fear among my constituents that the Government’s proposals will downgrade the level of support available to those with high needs, and may not be flex…
Commons
Debate
25 February 2026
Ukraine
Any contribution to this debate must surely start with a tribute to the remarkable courage of the Ukrainian people. Four years ago, at the start of Vladimir Putin’s brutal full-scale invasion of Ukraine, many people expected Russian tanks to be on the streets of Kyiv within days. They did not come b…
Commons
Debate
24 February 2026
2 contributions
Online Harm: Child Protection
The hon. Lady is making a powerful speech about the evolution of social media platforms. I have four children; the first was born in 2004 and the last was born in 2011, so their births have spanned that evolution. Facebook began in 2004; TikTok began in 2016. If that evolution was the industrial rev…
I was interested in the hon. Member’s survey. I have done my own very unscientific survey of young people, and all of them seem to want some form of regulation. With that in mind, we must hurry up—does the hon. Member agree?
Commons
Debate
24 February 2026
5 contributions
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor
My right hon. Friend is talking about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s role as a trade envoy. When I was working overseas for the British Council, Mountbatten-Windsor came to an exhibition I had put on about Dolly the sheep, which was a fine example of British scientific innovation, but he stood up in f…
I want to speak about transparency and accountability in public life and how the system we find ourselves in has been maintained and got us to where we are.
In the early noughties, I was working overseas with the British Council, as I have said. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor visited us as part of his …
+3 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
24 February 2026
Gaza Healthcare System
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Jeremy. I thank the hon. Member for Stroud (Dr Opher) for securing the debate and for bringing his expertise to this issue.
More than two years of devastating conflict has left Gaza in ruins. Over 70,000 Palestinians have lost their lives. More th…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
5 February 2026
Sudan
The situation in Sudan is the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis. I welcome the increased funding and the sanctions, which are long overdue, but why do the sanctions still fall short of the EU action? Why do they still fail to target the heads of the SAF and the RSF? Why has it taken this long? Wil…
Commons
Westminster Hall
4 February 2026
Armed Conflict: Children
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. I thank the hon. Member for Hyndburn (Sarah Smith) for securing this vital debate. As we have heard, today one in five children live in areas affected by armed conflict, displacement or related violence. Such children face a daily threa…
Commons
Debate
2 February 2026
US Department of Justice Release of Files
I asked the Prime Minister in this Chamber, on behalf of my constituents who were asking the same thing, why Peter Mandelson had been appointed our most senior ambassador at all, given the knowledge of his links with Epstein. By September, it was clear just how close that relationship had been, yet …
Commons
Debate
2 February 2026
China and Japan
I noticed that the mention of Japan took the Prime Minister one minute—the last minute—of a 10-minute speech on China and Japan. Japan is not only the largest inward investor into the UK, apart from the EU and US, but a vital liberal democracy in the Indo-Pacific and a key security partner in mainta…
Commons
Westminster Hall
22 January 2026
2 contributions
International Day of Education
It is a pleasure to serve under you chairship, Ms Vaz. I pay tribute to the hon. Member for Southgate and Wood Green (Bambos Charalambous) for securing this debate to mark the International Day of Education this Saturday. I pay tribute to our hard-working teachers and our schools in the UK, especial…
I agree 100%, and let us not forget that children are left behind in our country too. In my Esher and Walton constituency, we found that 1,800 children were missing school because of special educational needs and disabilities. Pupil referral units do brilliant work in bringing children back into mai…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
20 January 2026
Mobile Phones and Social Media: Use by Children
I have had almost 1,800 emails from constituents urging for something to be done about this. I declare an interest as the mother of four young adults and teenagers. Local headteachers and campaigners tell us repeatedly about the mental health issues and harmful algorithms, but the tech companies mus…
Commons
Oral Questions
20 January 2026
Gaza and the West Bank: Humanitarian Situation
There are reports that this morning Israeli security forces arrived at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency compound in Sheikh Jarrah, in occupied East Jerusalem. Security guards were forced out of the premises, bulldozers subsequently entered the compound and began to demolish UNRWA buildings…
Commons
Proceedings
19 January 2026
Iran: Protests
The Iranian Government are massacring civilians, and brave young protesters are risking their lives for freedom and dignity against a violent and corrupt regime. The Minister has spoken about the thousands of people who we fear have lost their lives, and The Times is reporting that up to 16,000 peop…
Commons
Proceedings
19 January 2026
Business Rates: Retail, Hospitality and Leisure
Perhaps the Prime Minister, on his much-heralded cost of living tour, might like to visit the pubs and cafés in my constituency of Esher and Walton, if they let him in. They are being squeezed to breaking point by this Government, while constituents watch their wallets because of tax rises. Hospital…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
13 January 2026
Iran
When the US President tells the Iranian protesters that
“help is on its way”,
as he has just done, does that include British help? Will the Government rule out the UK taking part in any planned US military intervention without multilateral authorisation?
Commons
Oral Questions
Transport
8 January 2026
Economic Growth: Transport System
My constituency is the highest contributor to the Exchequer of any constituency outside London, and most of the people who pay those huge taxes commute into London on South Western Railway, which is London’s least reliable train network. A major cause of that poor performance is an outdated signalli…
Commons
Westminster Hall
8 January 2026
Myanmar: Religious Minority Persecution
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Betts. I thank the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) for securing this debate, and for all his work. I also thank all the hon. Members, from across the parties, who have spoken in this debate with such clarity and conviction, and so powerf…
Commons
Debate
7 January 2026
Jury Trials
Trial by jury is not a luxury; it is one of the oldest and most fundamental protections in this country and a key safeguard of liberty. Yet under this Government, it is being treated not as a principle to be defended, but as a system to be rationed. We all agree that there is a crisis in the crimina…