Commons
Westminster Hall
19 November 2025
4 contributions
Specialist Manufacturing Sector: Regional Economies
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Harris. I welcome today’s debate. Plymouth and the surrounding area boast some of the finest examples of British advanced manufacturing. Babcock refits the Royal Navy’s frigates, maintains our nuclear deterrent and assembles the Supacat Jackal a…
Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
17 November 2025
Parkinson’s Disease
Does my hon. Friend agree that the current pathway for innovative technology to be licensed is both costly and time consuming, meaning inventions that would help his constituents, such as BeechBand, which uses vibrotactile stimulation to decrease symptoms, face delays in testing and potential introd…
Commons
Westminster Hall
11 November 2025
2 contributions
Autistic Adults: Employment
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Turner. I congratulate the hon. Member for Hazel Grove (Lisa Smart) on securing this afternoon’s very important debate, and I likewise welcome her constituents to the Chamber.
It is clear that we all have the privilege of representing autistic a…
I seek clarification on those numbers. When I have heard them in the main Chamber during questions and statements, I have wondered whether those people are new members of staff or existing members of staff who have moved into a slightly different role. When we say that there are 1,000—or the other n…
Commons
Debate
5 November 2025
Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill
I begin by echoing the thanks expressed to Members in all parts of the House and in the other place who have contributed to the Bill. In particular, I pay tribute to the excellent work of Baroness Finn, Viscount Younger and Lord Vaux, whose detailed and constructive engagement made the Bill stronger…
Commons
Debate
4 November 2025
5 contributions
Welfare Spending
I want to start the debate by acknowledging the fact that many Members here do not know that much about me. The debate so far, with this caricature of Conservatives who do not care, has saddened me. Like my right hon. Friend the Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith), who is…
I am going to make some progress, if I may.
Youth unemployment had fallen by nearly 380,000, giving far more young people the security of a meaningful career. However, under this Government, the unemployment rate is set to reach 5% by next year, compared with 4.1% a year ago. We have already heard …
+3 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
4 November 2025
2 contributions
Supporting High Streets
Will my hon. Friend give way?
Napoleon’s famous remark that “England is a nation of shopkeepers” was meant as an insult. However, for many of us up and down these isles, the high street and its many small businesses are a source of immense pride. My constituency is home to one of the highest concentrations of small businesses in…
Commons
Debate
3 November 2025
Care Leavers
I congratulate the hon. Member for Doncaster Central (Sally Jameson) and everyone who has intervened. I will keep my remarks even briefer than I said I would. We have already heard a huge amount about supported lodgings, and that is what I wanted to speak about briefly, as much as anything to highli…
Commons
Oral Questions
Defence
3 November 2025
Defence Sector: Economic Growth
The Minister rightly promotes our world-class maritime sector in the south-west, where considerable private investment is being made, including a new resilience factory opening in my constituency next week. Such innovative young companies live or die on the pace of Government contracting, but we con…
Commons
Oral Questions
Wales
29 October 2025
2 contributions
Asylum Seeker Accommodation
5. What discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for the Home Department on the adequacy of accommodation for asylum seekers in Wales.
Under the Welsh Labour Government, waiting lists, educational standards and opportunities for young people have all ground to an abrupt halt. It is therefore shocking that the Welsh Labour Government are not prioritising issues that would make a real difference to the people of Wales. Instead, Labou…
Commons
Debate
28 October 2025
5 contributions
Stamp Duty Land Tax
The hon. Member talks about broken dreams, but no Government Member has spoken about the hard-working families in the middle—not the ones struggling to buy their first home and not the so-called rich people at the top who in the Government’s world this will benefit, but the hard-working families, wh…
I am just perplexed as to where the hon. Lady is going with this. Ultimately, the statistics that she has just quoted would have saved her constituents £5,000, but if the Government do not scrap stamp duty, anybody who aspired to buy a slightly bigger house with that increased income would not be ab…
+3 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
Work and Pensions
27 October 2025
Child Poverty
Every Member in this Chamber shares a commitment to lifting people out of poverty, especially children; we just have different views on how to go about it. Children in workless households are nearly four times more likely to live in poverty than those in households where adults work. We know that wo…
Commons
Westminster Hall
27 October 2025
4 contributions
Statutory Maternity and Paternity Pay
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Hobhouse. I thank the hon. Member for Burton and Uttoxeter (Jacob Collier) for so competently introducing the debate, with an excellent speech, and I thank everyone else who has contributed to it.
I was particularly struck by the comments made …
On what the Leader of the Opposition said, I am not 100% sure of the quote, so I am not going to comment on that. I think it was taken quite significantly out of context. On the Bill Committee, I will continue saying it— [ Interruption. ] At the end of the day, I am the one here speaking this aftern…
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister
22 October 2025
Engagements
Q9. Last week, I invited the Prime Minister to match the Conservative pledge to scrap business rates for our high streets. However, he declined. Instead, he pointed me towards the small business strategy. Since then, businesses have been in touch to tell me that the strategy will make little or no d…
Commons
Oral Questions
21 October 2025
2 contributions
NHS Reorganisation
6. What recent progress he has made on reorganising the NHS.
Yesterday I met Lila, a sixth-form student at Coombe Dean school, who raised the issue of long waiting lists for mental health services for children and young people across Devon. What action has been taken as a result of the Government’s policy of reorganising the NHS to reduce the unacceptable del…
Commons
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister
15 October 2025
Engagements
Q5. Later this afternoon I will be launching a small business survey so that the 3,000 small and medium-sized enterprises in my constituency, which employ thousands of my constituents, can have their say about what is like to run a business under a Labour Government, and what their concerns are ahea…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
13 October 2025
Manchester Terrorism Attack
Clearly, how antisemitism is tackled by the police in our communities is key, so I would be interested to hear from the Home Secretary what specialist training our police forces and the Crown Prosecution Service—I appreciate that this is a bit off-piste; maybe she might put on her Justice hat for a …
Commons
Petition
15 September 2025
Proposed expansion of Plymouth City Council into the South Hams
Further to a similar online petition of just under 1,800 signatures, I present this petition.
The petition states:
The petition of residents of the United Kingdom,
Declares that Plymouth City Council’s proposed expansion into 13 parishes in the South Hams is strongly opposed by local residents; f…
Commons
Oral Questions
11 September 2025
Transport: Economic Growth
Previous Conservative Governments were committed to repairing the railway line at Dawlish, which is vital to Devon and Cornwall’s economic growth, yet this Labour Government have said that they will complete the rail resilience programme only if and when survey work shows that it is needed. Given th…
Commons
Debate
3 September 2025
2 contributions
Hospitality Sector
There are over 300 hospitality businesses in South West Devon, and even though that may not be the highest number in a single constituency, considering the areas of countryside in mine, where the only residents are cattle and sheep, it is a hefty number. There are 316 venues, including the Woolwell …
I will come on to that exact point in my remaining few minutes, but absolutely, they are a crucial part of our community.
Why does that all matter? As hospitality businesses across the country bring financial and social value to our communities, they are critical to a thriving tourism sector. They …
Commons
Oral Questions
Housing, Communities and Local Government
14 July 2025
Topical Questions
It is my understanding that South Hams district council is in an arguably more sound fiscal position than the neighbouring Plymouth city council. What can the Secretary of State say to reassure me that local government reorganisation will not mimic either a forced marriage or a bad marriage where th…
Commons
Oral Questions
10 July 2025
2 contributions
Plan for Change: Tracking Dashboard
17. What progress he has made on publishing a tracking dashboard for the plan for change metrics.
The Government are clearly very happy to claim that all is rosy after their first year in power, yet on the ground in my constituency and around the country, the opposite story is being told. The Government’s policies are hitting my constituents hard—whether it is the impact of increased national in…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
8 July 2025
Road and Rail Projects
I thank the Secretary of State for her statement, but I am really disappointed that the TavyRail scheme has received a red light. We have heard quite a lot about the investment in Devon and Somerset. The Government are delivering a huge amount of investment in Plymouth, which is welcome, but without…
Commons
Debate
7 July 2025
Pension Schemes Bill
It has been a privilege to hear so many well-informed and considered speeches this evening. I am sure we would all agree that there is clearly significant expertise in the Chamber.
The heart of this Bill is people doing the right thing by preparing for their future and saving into their pension pot…
Commons
Oral Questions
3 July 2025
Creative Industries Sector Plan
Last week, I spent time at the Box museum in Plymouth, before heading to Plympton in my constituency for the unveiling of a blue plaque to honour the life of Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, who was the first director of the National Gallery and chair of the commission to procure art for the new Palace of…
Commons
Oral Questions
Defence
30 June 2025
Topical Questions
Last week, I asked the Chief Secretary to the Treasury what happened to the £4 billion earmarked for autonomous systems, including in Plymouth. That line was in the Chancellor’s spending review speech, but not delivered on the day. The Chief Secretary did not know. Can the Secretary of State confirm…