Commons
Oral Questions
16 March 2026
GP Contract
The new contract has stated that GPs must offer on-the-day appointments for urgent requests—which they already do—and unlimited access during opening hours up to 6.30 pm, with no definition of “urgent”. Katrina, a constituent who messaged me today, said, “This will mean that those with complex needs…
Commons
Oral Questions
Women and Equalities
11 March 2026
Endometriosis: Workplace Rights
One in 10 women have endometriosis, seriously impacting their ability to work. What plans does the Minister have to ensure that employers have clear guidance about the reasonable adjustments that they should be offering, not just for endometriosis but for all gynaecological issues that impact women’…
Commons
Debate
9 March 2026
Middle East: Defence
We all agree that it is important to protect our overseas bases and personnel deployed on operations, and that must include Ukraine. Over the weekend, the MOD posted a video on social media from a British-run military repair facility in Ukraine. It has been taken down, reportedly because it revealed…
Commons
Oral Questions
Work and Pensions
9 March 2026
Support for NEET Young People
When the Secretary of State and I last met like this, he lauded the roll-out of youth hubs and the introduction of the youth guarantee as the solution to tackling the scale of young people not in education, employment or training. Since then, however, apprenticeship figures have been updated. The la…
Commons
Debate
5 March 2026
4 contributions
Commonwealth Troops: First World War
I congratulate the hon. Member for Ilford South (Jas Athwal) on securing the debate.
“Their name liveth for evermore”—
Those words are carved on to each stone of remembrance in large Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries and memorials right around the world. Today’s debate, ahead of Common…
The hon. Member is making a powerful speech. Does he agree that this is where the role of the public engagement co-ordinators at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission is so important, as they go out to tell those stories? We have graves right around the country of Indian, Muslim, Hindu and Sikh ser…
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Statutory Instrument
3 March 2026
Draft Industrial Training Levy (Construction Industry Training Board) Order 2026
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms McVey. I rise to speak on behalf of the official Opposition.
The draft order that we are debating will allow the Construction Industry Training Board to raise one more year of levy on the construction sector for the specific purpose of funding t…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
2 March 2026
Middle East
Over the weekend, I heard from families in my constituency whose loved ones—also constituents of mine—are among the 300 service personnel in Bahrain who were within metres of the Iranian missile strike. Given that we have known for some time about the build-up of US forces in the region, why did the…
Commons
Oral Questions
Education
2 March 2026
Free Breakfast Clubs
The roll-out of free breakfast clubs and the Government’s wider child poverty strategy are supposed to be driven by data, yet the Department does not even hold information on which councils in England have implemented auto-enrolment for free school meals. If the Government do not hold that basic dat…
Commons
Westminster Hall
24 February 2026
3 contributions
Foster Care: Recruitment and Retention
I beg to move,
That this House has considered foster care recruitment and retention.
It is, as always, a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Jeremy. I want to start by talking briefly about why this subject matters to me personally. By the time I was 18—I had left home—my parents had st…
It makes a huge amount of sense that foster carers are considered a key part of that process. I am sure that in certain parts of the country they are, but it sounds from the hon. Member’s question like there are other parts where some work is needed.
Independent fostering agencies are responsible f…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Debate
23 February 2026
7 contributions
Universal Credit (Removal of Two Child Limit) Bill
I will speak in part to amendments 1 and 2, although we will not vote on them this evening. Essentially, I am speaking because we do not believe that scrapping the two-child limit and lifting it in this way is the way to tackle child poverty.
When the Conservatives introduced the two-child limit in…
We know that poverty decreased under the last Government; I will make some progress.
True compassion for families in poverty means offering sustainable solutions, not just sticking plasters. We need to tackle the root causes of poverty, rather than masking the symptoms. That means dealing with stru…
+5 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
23 February 2026
Schools White Paper: Every Child Achieving and Thriving
Schools right across my constituency already have inclusion bases, but often there is already tension between the schools and the parents, who want better support through EHCPs, which they are having to wait for. What is the Secretary of State’s thinking on ensuring that the relationship between sch…
Commons
Oral Questions
Transport
12 February 2026
2 contributions
Bus Fare Cap
8. Whether her Department plans to reinstate the £2 bus fare cap.
Young people in my constituency, many of whom have to travel long distances from rural areas, are concerned about the cost of bus fares, especially since the increase from the Conservative £2 bus fare cap to a £3 bus fare cap under Labour. In fact, many are supportive of the Transport Committee’s re…
Commons
Debate
11 February 2026
Local Government Finance
Does my hon. Friend agree that one of the problems with the current process for local government reorganisation is that there has been no direction on how the funding will work out? We have some proposals on the table that would leave enormously vast rural communities in constituencies such as mine …
Commons
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister
11 February 2026
Engagements
Q2. Last year, Plymouth was named the national centre for marine autonomy and given a defence growth deal. However, the small and medium-sized enterprises in the unmanned surface vessel sector, many of which are based at Turnchapel Wharf in my constituency, are having their work held back because of…
Commons
Debate
10 February 2026
Pensions and Social Security
I wish to reassure the Minister about something that I said in last week’s debate on the two-child benefit cap. I shared something of my story, and said that we had lost child benefit as a result of the Labour Government coming into office in 1997. I was convinced I had said “family credit”, which w…
Commons
Committee Stage
5 February 2026
19 contributions
Railways Bill (Twelfth sitting)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Hobhouse. There is not much to say, except that the hon. Member for Didcot and Wantage raised a question about our amendments and what he called phantom paths. I think he may have been referring to ghost trains, as opposed to phantom trains—if y…
I thank the Minister for that. Yes, absolutely; I believe our amendments are much more about the infrastructure that GBR has responsibility for and about operators not having to pay if they are un able to operate their services. A natural disaster is probably a bit too extreme, but if, for example, …
+17 more contributions in this session
Commons
Committee Stage
5 February 2026
15 contributions
Railways Bill (Eleventh sitting)
I beg to move amendment 79, in clause 59, page 33, line 19, at end insert
“in addition to a subsequent right to appeal to the ORR”.
This amendment would enable a subsequent right of appeal to the ORR after going through the dispute resolution process.
It is a privilege to work under your chairmanship, Mr Western. I start by conveying the apologies of my hon. Friend the Member for Broadland and Fakenham, who is not able to be present today. Instead, I am standing in on his behalf.
The clause sets out that Great British Railways must issue documen…
+13 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
4 February 2026
2 contributions
Construction Industry Training Board: Funding
Does the hon. Member agree that losing the skills and expertise of local training groups, such as the Plymouth Construction Training Group, which was formed in 1977 and has been funded by the CITB, and instead having centralised delivery from CITB in London, would be a retrograde step that risks us …
I welcome the funding that the Minister has just outlined. Reference has been made to mayoral strategic authorities, but vast parts of the country do not have one yet and are unlikely to have one for some time. Indeed, my constituency and that of the hon. Member for Exeter (Steve Race) are in one of…
Commons
Debate
3 February 2026
9 contributions
Universal Credit (Removal of Two Child Limit) Bill
Is the hon. Gentleman aware that the Trussell Trust was founded in this country in 2000, under a Labour Government, and that the Department for Work and Pensions did not recommend that it be offered as a solution to families in need at the time? It is one thing to talk about food banks, but it is im…
Well, without having the statistics in front of me right this second— [ Interruption. ] No, let me finish. We had the global pandemic, when there was a huge need for food banks. In fact, it was the Conservative Government who invested hundreds of thousands of pounds in food banks to ensure that nobo…
+7 more contributions in this session
Commons
Committee Stage
3 February 2026
6 contributions
Railways Bill (Ninth sitting)
My hon. Friend’s comments provoke the question, is it a concern that the lack of flexibility for the Secretary of State will mean that there is no space for private sector companies in this role in the future? Ultimately, given the measures set out in the Bill, and that the opportunity to give acces…
I echo what my hon. Friend the Member for Broadland and Fakenham said on amendments 46 to 50. I too am surprised that the Government are not seeking to enshrine the right to a veterans railcard on the face of the Bill. While it is laudable that they want to ensure that those long-fought-for discount…
+4 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
Defence
2 February 2026
2 contributions
Topical Questions
T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.
Ministers stress how keen they are to remove obstacles hampering defence innovation, and nowhere is that more important than in my South West Devon constituency, which is home to the majority of Plymouth’s national centre for marine autonomy. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency has spent the past 12 …
Commons
Oral Questions
Business and Trade
29 January 2026
Topical Questions
T4. Charmaine from Cox and Co Salon in Plymstock in my constituency has been in contact because Government business decisions are making it incredibly difficult for her business to stay afloat. The National Hair and Beauty Federation has highlighted the fact that business rates remain the largest fi…
Commons
Committee Stage
29 January 2026
11 contributions
Railways Bill (Seventh sitting)
It is a privilege to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Western. I will speak to a few of the amendments and new clauses, including those tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Broadland and Fakenham, as well as some of those tabled by the Liberal Democrats, because some of their ideas are worth not…
Yes, absolutely. Indeed, amendment 260, tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge, would require the forthcoming rail strategy to have specific regard to level crossings. Fortunately, I do not have anything like what my hon. Friend the Member for Broadland and Fakenham describe…
+9 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
Work and Pensions
26 January 2026
Youth Hubs
It strikes me as odd that rather than extolling the virtues of the Government’s flagship youth guarantee, we have had a number of Labour MPs asking about youth hubs. Is that because it is easier to defend the setting up of some youth hubs than feeding back on the roll-out of the youth guarantee? Sin…
Commons
Westminster Hall
26 January 2026
Key Stage 1 Curriculum
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship today, Mrs Barker, and I thank the hon. Member for South Cotswolds (Dr Savage) for presenting this petition on behalf of the petitioners.
Hopefully, I will not take four minutes to speak, because I am no expert on this topic. I am here today because…