Commons
Oral Questions
9 December 2025
Topical Questions
T10. The Government created the National Wealth Fund to encourage investment in innovation in critical sectors, such as clean energy and sustainable aviation fuel. How will the Chancellor make sure that the wealth fund uses different, and maybe even better, risk criteria than commercial banks and fi…
Commons
Debate
3 December 2025
Pension Schemes Bill
I welcome that the Government have tabled these amendments to strengthen the Pension Protection Fund arrangements. However, that will be of little use to those such as the AEA Technology pension campaigners, about whom I have met the Minister. Despite many Select Committee reports and National Audit…
Commons
Proceedings
2 December 2025
Budget Resolutions
I think everybody in this Chamber and in this House can agree that we need economic growth, but many question whether the Budget will really help with that. It prolongs Conservative underhand tactics, such as tax threshold freezes, which will have a comparable impact to more honest and up-front tax …
Commons
Oral Questions
2 December 2025
2 contributions
Alaa Abd el-Fattah
9. What recent progress she has made on helping Alaa Abd el-Fattah to return to the UK.
I am sure that the Minister will join me in welcoming Alaa’s recent release from detention in Egypt, and in thanking the many people who have campaign for and helped secure that over the years. This week, Alaa will miss the 14th birthday of his son Khaled, because the Egyptian authorities are not le…
Commons
Westminster Hall
26 November 2025
Young People not in Education, Employment or Training
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Dowd. I pay tribute to the hon. Member for Amber Valley (Linsey Farnsworth) for securing this debate and the powerful points that she made, especially about how young people are often lazily demonised as being an idle generation. That view fails to …
Commons
Oral Questions
20 November 2025
Topical Questions
The new railway between Oxford, Bicester and Milton Keynes has been open for more than a year, successfully running freight and charter trains, but passenger trains have yet to start. When will passenger services begin, and what does the Secretary of State feel are the lessons for her Department as …
Commons
Oral Questions
20 November 2025
Transport System: Economic Growth
For decades, rail fares have been subject to above-inflation increases, and many people feel that prices such as £7,780 for an annual season ticket from Didcot to the London travelcard area do not represent good value for money and hinder the railways’ potential to reduce congestion and contribute t…
Commons
Westminster Hall
17 November 2025
Parkinson’s Disease
My hon. Friend is quite right to highlight the importance of mental health support for people suffering from Parkinson’s disease. Will she join me in paying tribute to my constituent Peter Cook, who is doing great work as a trustee of the Parkinsons.Me charity, and also to Paul Mayhew-Archer MBE, wh…
Commons
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister
29 October 2025
Engagements
Q13. I recently had the privilege of visiting Fitzwaryn school, the only special school in my Oxfordshire constituency, to see the excellent care and education it provides. Given the urgent need for more funding for additional special schools and to enable special schools to spread their expertise t…
Commons
Westminster Hall
29 October 2025
Vehicle Headlight Glare Standards
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Harris. I join other hon. Members in commending the hon. Member for Crawley (Peter Lamb) for bringing this very important topic to Westminster Hall and, indeed, for his impressive efforts in getting media coverage before the debate had even occurre…
Commons
Westminster Hall
29 October 2025
6 contributions
International Baccalaureate: Funding in State Schools
I beg to move,
That this House has considered funding for the International Baccalaureate in state schools.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Roger. The international baccalaureate—which I will henceforth refer to as the IB, but I hate acronyms, so I wanted to say it properly to …
My hon. Friend makes a valuable point and articulately summarises the wide range of choice in schools that there is separately from the IB. He is right to mention the Europa School in Culham in my constituency; I will say more about that school later and explain why it is so important to the Governm…
+4 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
28 October 2025
Connected and Automated Vehicles
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Vaz. I thank the hon. Member for West Bromwich (Sarah Coombes) for bringing up this very important topic, which as a species we have been grappling with for a couple of decades, so that we can talk about how to deal with it in the UK. It was interes…
Commons
Westminster Hall
27 October 2025
3 contributions
Statutory Maternity and Paternity Pay
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Hobhouse. I commend the hon. Member for Burton and Uttoxeter (Jacob Collier) for his eloquent and emotionally intelligent speech. Just over a year ago, the campaign group The Dad Shift came the Parliament. I was grilled by teachers and students fro…
My hon. Friend makes the very liberal point that we should always remember that everyone’s individual and family circumstances are different; it is important that the British state recognises that individuality, rather than expecting everyone to fit on a convenient spreadsheet.
To make some of the …
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
22 October 2025
Heathrow: National Airports Review
I thank the Secretary of State for her statement, which made the Government’s intent of supporting the proposed third runway at Heathrow very clear. It was good to hear her recognise the complexity of all that will be needed to deliver it, including major diversionary works on two of the country’s b…
Commons
Oral Questions
21 October 2025
2 contributions
Patient Access to GPs
11. What recent steps he has taken to increase access to GP appointments.
Great Western Park has added 3,000 homes to Didcot, in my Oxfordshire constituency, and Valley Park, which is under construction, will add 4,000 more. However, the new GP surgery promised in 2008 remains a barren patch of land and existing facilities cannot cope. The integrated care board is support…
Commons
Debate
15 October 2025
5 contributions
Sustainable Aviation Fuel Bill
I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time.
Global demand for aviation continues to grow; it is projected to be two or three times bigger by 2050. In 2024, there was a record rate of increase in carbon emissions, according to the World Meteorological Organisation, and there was a new daily record for global aviation emissions in July 2025. Ne…
+3 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
14 October 2025
3 contributions
International Rail Services: Ashford
Given what the hon. Gentleman says about the decision to sell off the stake in Eurostar, does he feel that his own party—now very much in government—should reverse it and directly invest in international rail services?
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Desmond. I commend the hon. Member for Hastings and Rye (Helena Dollimore) for securing this important debate. She, along with nearly everybody in the room, rightly made clear the pride they take in Kent and East Sussex. She rightly highlighted the…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister
3 September 2025
Engagements
Q11. On a recent visit to the UK Space Agency, based in my Oxfordshire constituency, I learned of the huge value created by our space sector, generating more than £7 for every £1 invested. Given the Government’s decision to scrap the UKSA as an executive agency, will the Prime Minister guarantee its…
Commons
Westminster Hall
3 September 2025
Pavement Parking
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Hobhouse. I commend my hon. Friend the Member for Epsom and Ewell (Helen Maguire) for securing this important debate, which builds on some themes that were discussed in a Westminster Hall debate a few months ago on the subject of walking and cyclin…
Commons
Westminster Hall
15 July 2025
West Coast Main Line
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Murrison. I commend the hon. Member for Crewe and Nantwich (Connor Naismith) for securing the debate and for his wide-ranging introductory speech.
The hon. Member told us that 70 million passengers a year and 40% of freight use the west coast main …
Commons
Westminster Hall
14 July 2025
Northern Ireland Veterans: Prosecution
I join the hon. Member in paying tribute to our armed forces. He has made some very good points, but does he not accept that the Act that he is defending, and that the Government are committed to repealing, has been opposed by all major political parties in Northern Ireland? Is it not important, whe…
Commons
Proceedings
3 July 2025
Phone Theft
I thank the hon. Member for Brent East (Dawn Butler) for securing this debate and the Backbench Business Committee for granting it. Along with the hon. Members for Dewsbury and Batley (Iqbal Mohamed) and for Stratford and Bow (Uma Kumaran), she spoke eloquently of the emotional impact of a stolen ph…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
3 July 2025
NHS 10-Year Plan
I thank the Secretary of State for his statement and his previous answer on dentistry, but I will push him a little further. My constituency, along with all of Oxfordshire, is an NHS dental desert. Having met with dental providers, they say that the key to changing that is reforming the NHS dental c…
Commons
Oral Questions
3 July 2025
Topical Questions
T4. I recently visited the Cornermen project in my Oxfordshire constituency. Based at South Moreton boxing club, it provides professional mental health support for men in a sporting environment. Does the Minister agree that sports and leisure can open the door to mental health provision? What more c…
Commons
Debate
25 June 2025
3 contributions
Department for Transport
I praise and thank the hon. Member for Brentford and Isleworth (Ruth Cadbury) for her wide-ranging opening speech to this important debate. I also thank the Backbench Business Committee for giving time for it.
There is much to welcome in the spending review announcements for transport, particularly…
My hon. Friend is quite correct. Having previously worked on this subject in my past life, modelling of acceleration shows that electrically hauled freight is transformative compared with diesel, and it enables more to be hauled, making the most of the limited capacity that we have.
Let me give an …
+1 more contribution in this session