Commons
Proceedings
8 December 2025
Restriction of Jury Trials
The Government’s proposals on jury trials are causing concern and consternation in my constituency, and my mailbag is quite full of people’s messages opposing the Government’s proposals. Just so we understand where the Secretary of State is on this, could the Minister please explain to us what he is…
Commons
Oral Questions
Work and Pensions
8 December 2025
Topical Questions
Following the Budget, a furious Labour voter, 30 years old, texted me to say, “I am furious about the salary sacrifice thing. I give up a lot of things to put 20% of my salary into my pension. That’s going to cost me almost two grand a year for being responsible.” Why are the Government so keen on p…
Commons
Oral Questions
Cabinet Office
4 December 2025
Topical Questions
Last week, the National Security Adviser was due to appear before the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy. Did he? If not, why not?
Commons
Oral Questions
2 December 2025
2 contributions
China: Threat to UK Interests
8. What assessment she has made of the level of threat that China poses to UK interests.
I thank the Foreign Secretary for that answer. There is a rumour going round Whitehall that the Foreign Secretary is not the Foreign Secretary, and that the real Foreign Secretary is Mr Jonathan Powell. That could not possibly be the case, of course, because it would make a mockery of the ability to…
Commons
Westminster Hall
2 December 2025
9 contributions
Catapults and Antisocial Behaviour
I beg to move,
That this House has considered the matter of catapults and anti-social behaviour.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Desmond. I am going to give this speech backwards, inasmuch as I am going to start with the end and the ask. I ask the Government to introduce an ame…
I thank the hon. Member for his intervention, and for his faith in my knowledge of Northern Ireland-specific wildlife legislation—funnily enough, I am going to mention Northern Ireland in a moment. I certainly believe in robust enforcement of existing legislation, and I will come on to some practica…
+7 more contributions in this session
Commons
Oral Questions
1 December 2025
SEND: Funding
On 16 June I asked the Secretary of State what she understood to be the drivers behind the phenomenon of the exponential rise in the number of children with special educational needs. She replied:
“My Department, and the Department of Health and Social Care, are keen to understand…the drivers”. —[ …
Commons
Proceedings
27 November 2025
Right to Trial by Jury
I thank the Minister for coming to the Chamber to answer this urgent question. I have taken note of what she has said and, if I may, I will quote it back to her:
“a swift and prompt trial is a fundamental ingredient of fairness”,
a three to four year delay is “deeply demoralising”, and “justice de…
Commons
Debate
26 November 2025
10 contributions
Budget Resolutions
I completely agree with my right hon. Friend about the inherent contradictions. Would it be fair to characterise this Budget as the left hand not knowing what the further left hand is doing?
I am grateful to the hon. Member for giving way. What is his message to the people who have been made unemployed since the Labour party came to power?
+8 more contributions in this session
Commons
Proceedings
24 November 2025
Ministerial Code
I will try to speak really slowly and ask not multiple questions but just the one. How much cash did David Kogan give the Prime Minister?
Commons
Oral Questions
24 November 2025
Topical Questions
Is Surrey going to get a mayor?
Commons
Debate
18 November 2025
Northern Ireland Troubles Bill
The Defence Committee recently visited Canberra in Australia. For Members who do not know the geography of the place, the old Parliament building looks down a row of trees and across a lake to the national war memorial. When the new Parliament building was built in the 1980s, it was pushed back so t…
Commons
Debate
17 November 2025
Asylum Policy
A constituent wrote to me asking whether I could get a wriggle on with his EU settlement scheme application. We checked with the Home Office and it turned out that he was subject to a live deportation order. It was issued in 2017, and we did deport him. Somehow he got back into the country and made …
Commons
Oral Questions
Home Department
17 November 2025
Topical Questions
I understand that the permanent secretary at the Home Office recently appointed a single senior official to be responsible for asylum hotels. Will the Home Secretary please use her good offices to encourage that official to come to the Stanwell hotel in my Spelthorne constituency, so that they can s…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
13 November 2025
Police Reform
I thank the Minister for her statement, although it will have caused some consternation in my constituency. Spelthorne is in Surrey, which is being carved up into two unitary authorities, and recent so-called clarifications by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government have stated tha…
Commons
Debate
12 November 2025
7 contributions
Taxes
The hon. Member says that he does not really understand the contradictions. Would he like to state how much growth there has been in the UK economy since the last Budget?
The hon. Member is nickel-and-diming the debate. One big question faces the Chancellor: what to do about the two-child benefit cap, which costs £3.5 billion, so let us not worry about the odd £50,000 here or there. I would like to hear a clear statement from him: is he for lifting the two-child bene…
+5 more contributions in this session
Commons
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister
12 November 2025
2 contributions
Engagements
Q1. If he will list his official engagements for Wednesday 12 November.
I associate myself with the Prime Minister’s remarks about remembrance. I particularly remember being in west Africa in 1997, where I somehow managed to survive a bloody and violent attempted coup—if the Prime Minister wants any ideas on how to do that, he only has to ask. [ Laughter. ] Prime Minist…
Commons
Debate
11 November 2025
Remembrance Day: Armed Forces
This morning, eight four-star generals and an air chief marshal took the unprecedented step of writing to the newspapers. Their letter deserves to be heard in full and to be entered the public record. They write:
“Having held the honour of leading the United Kingdom’s armed forces, we do not speak …
Commons
Debate
11 November 2025
Prisoner Releases in Error
Kebatu was released in error on 24 October, which was a Friday. I was under the impression that in the last Parliament Simon Fell, the former Member for Barrow and Furness, passed a rather brilliant private Member’s Bill that became the Offenders (Day of Release from Detention) Act 2023. The Act sta…
Commons
Debate
5 November 2025
3 contributions
Employment Rights Bill
Would the hon. Member like to put his money where his mouth is and tell us whether his faith in the Employment Rights Bill is such that he is prepared to make a commitment to his constituents in Ellesmere Port and Bromborough that if, having passed this Bill, unemployment goes up, he will resign his…
Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Debate
3 November 2025
“Soldier F” Trial Verdict
The Secretary of State baulked at the word “equivalence”, so I will have a go with another one. Does he believe that Northern Ireland terrorists should be treated equally to Northern Ireland veterans? If he does, why does he not issue letters of comfort to those Northern Ireland veterans?
Commons
Oral Questions
Defence
3 November 2025
Topical Questions
Now that the Secretary of State has warmed up a bit by calling the SNP a threat to our national security, will he have another go and say whether China is a threat to our national security?