Commons
Committee Stage
2 July 2025
Secure 16 to 19 Academies Bill
It is a please to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Mundell. I congratulate the hon. Member for Cramlington and Killingworth on bringing forward this Bill. I have only one question for the Minister to answer in his summing up. On reducing the notice given to providers from seven to two years, I agre…
Commons
Oral Questions
Defence
30 June 2025
Defence Sector Exports
Ametek, a defence manufacturer in my constituency, has reported to me that the process of getting a defence export licence has almost ground to a halt in the past 12 months. Could the Ministry of Defence send someone sufficiently threatening round to the Department for Business and Trade—perhaps the…
Commons
Debate
26 June 2025
12 contributions
Floating Solar Panels
I am delighted to see the House so full for this Adjournment debate. I want hon. Members who are staying to remember who was here. Indeed, people in the Public Gallery might wish to make a note in their diary, too, because I hope that I will in some way blow the House’s mind with what I am about to …
My hon. Friend pre-empts one of the many benefits of floating solar that I will highlight to the House. He remembers his physics highers well, because the placing of floating solar reduces evaporation from the body that is covered by 70%. Given that the vast majority of the water in our reservoirs i…
+10 more contributions in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
26 June 2025
G7 and NATO Summits
The former Prime Minister has just welcomed the US military action against Iran at the weekend. Why cannot the Prime Minister bring himself to welcome it, too?
Commons
Ministerial Statement
26 June 2025
Business of the House
I do not know if the Leader of the House is aware that if we installed just 15% of floating solar panels on the man-made reservoirs in this country, we would double the installed base of solar power without having to put a single new solar panel on agricultural land. I know what she is thinking: “If…
Commons
Oral Questions
Transport
26 June 2025
2 contributions
Driving Test Backlog
11. What steps she is taking to reduce the backlog for driving tests.
The post-covid backlog in driving tests was trending down under the last Government. At the time of the general election, it had got to 521,000, which was still too high, but it was coming down. Since this Government took over, the number has rocketed up to 600,000, a new record high, meaning that c…
Commons
Debate
25 June 2025
2 contributions
National Armaments Director
My hon. Friend mentioned the equipment plan; does he share the Defence Committee’s frustration that the last time anyone was able to scrutinise that spending was in 2022? Is he aware that when Lord Robertson came to the Defence Committee to discuss the strategic defence review last week, he was surp…
When I gave my maiden speech just under a year ago, I took the opportunity to express my frustration that the Government had announced a spending review that would essentially buy the political cover to get to a defence spend of 2.5% of GDP. The frustration I expressed was that the dogs in the stree…
Commons
Proceedings
25 June 2025
Nuclear-certified Aircraft Procurement
I join Conservative Front Benchers in welcoming the answer to the urgent question, although maybe it should have been a statement. May I ask about autonomy and national sovereignty over the weapons system that will be deployed from this aircraft? There is considerable press reporting that it will be…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
23 June 2025
Middle East
I thank the Foreign Secretary for his statement in which he says that he has been crystal clear with the regime in Tehran. I hope he has been a lot clearer with them than he has been with the House today, but I will give it one more go, because I genuinely do not understand why he cannot answer this…
Commons
Debate
18 June 2025
2 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
Does my hon. Friend agree that it is not just about thefts from vans? This is about people’s whole livelihood and ability to work. Businesses can be struck down. Does he agree that this is therefore worthy of its own offence?
I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman, a fellow member of the Select Committee on Defence, for giving way, and I am proud to put my name to new clause 43 in his name. I also pay tribute to him for taking forward Greg Clark’s previous work in a very cross-party way for the benefit of the community. Doe…
Commons
Oral Questions
Women and Equalities
18 June 2025
2 contributions
Educational Outcomes for Boys
2. Whether she plans to take steps with Cabinet colleagues to develop a strategy to improve educational outcomes for boys.
Recent research by the Centre for Social Justice showed that at key stage 1, key stage 2, GCSEs, A-levels and T-levels, boys are underperforming girls. We simply cannot allow half a generation not to be allowed to reach their full potential. As part of her approach, will the Secretary of State consi…
Commons
Oral Questions
Health and Social Care
17 June 2025
Topical Questions
One of the ways in which the Secretary of State has reduced the waiting list is by turbocharging the use of the private sector since January, meaning that half a million people have been treated in irreducible spare capacity. Has that experience elicited any learnings that the Secretary of State is …
Commons
Committee Stage
17 June 2025
6 contributions
Football Governance Bill [ Lords ] (Tenth sitting)
Could the hon. Gentleman give us some sense of his assessment of how much money the new clause would take out of football?
I am listening with interest to the hon. Member’s comments, but does he think that link to home is diluted for American football or baseball when those leagues play a match in London?
+4 more contributions in this session
Commons
Committee Stage
17 June 2025
2 contributions
Football Governance Bill [ Lords ] (Ninth sitting)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship Sir Jeremy. I remind the Committee of my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. Unlike the hon. Member for Rushcliffe, I chose my tie with purpose this morning, to celebrate both the fact that this might be the last day of the Bill Co…
The Minister said that just because the Bill enables the regulator to consider parachute payments, that does not mean that it will. The Minister is in the unique position of being the person who is going to appoint the football regulator, because the Secretary of State has stood down from that decis…
Commons
Oral Questions
Education
16 June 2025
2 contributions
SEND Support: Children without an EHCP
8. What steps she is taking to support children with special educational needs and disabilities who do not have an education, health and care plan.
In the last 11 months I have visited nearly all the schools in my constituency, and wherever I have gone I have asked whether people understand why the number of children with special educational needs has been going through the roof. I have received various explanations, such as lockdown, diet, soc…
Commons
Oral Questions
Business and Trade
12 June 2025
Support for Small Businesses
Lky7 Sports is a small cycle and nutrition business in Ashford in my constituency. It has been hammered by the loss of small business rate relief, and wrote to me yesterday saying:
“The Government say that they are helping small business, but this is a joke when our business rates have gone from no…
Commons
Committee Stage
12 June 2025
9 contributions
Football Governance Bill [ Lords ] (Eighth sitting)
It continues to be a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Butler. I do not know whether the Minister has ever run a company that was approaching either administration or insolvency, but had she, she would know that a number of incredibly onerous and important duties are placed on the directors…
The shadow Minister is making a completely reasonable amendment. We have the emblem, colours and name. Does he agree that it would be helpful if the Minister explained why the name has been taken out for different treatment from the emblem and the colours?
+7 more contributions in this session
Commons
Committee Stage
12 June 2025
7 contributions
Football Governance Bill [ Lords ] (Seventh sitting)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Butler. I rise to support amendment 110. I suspect the Minister might say that we do not need to cover everything and that there is a general catch-all measure in the clause, so we do not need to make this amendment.
I will draw the Committee’s …
If a club has lost its licence, has it not therefore been taken beyond the purview of the regulator? How is the regulator still empowered to pursue the owner?
+5 more contributions in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
11 June 2025
Spending Review 2025
I thank the Chancellor for her statement, but I fear that she may have misunderstood the question that my hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Dr Spencer) asked about the River Thames scheme. He asked whether the scheme is included in the £4.2 billion TDEL—total departmental expenditu…
Commons
Committee Stage
10 June 2025
5 contributions
Football Governance Bill [ Lords ] (Fifth sitting)
The Minister mentioned the two criteria of the business plan and the personnel statement. I thought from our discussions last week that giving the regulator any form of information that the regulator so requested was an additional condition.
I am sure that the Minister realises that one of the variants in a club’s business plan is whether its matches are selected for being televised. It is an incredibly haphazard process and difficult to predict, because they are decided within season. What guidance will the Minister give, as the appoin…
+3 more contributions in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
9 June 2025
Winter Fuel Payment
I appreciate that the Minister did not get a chance to spend long on the Back Benches—such has been his accelerated rise up the ministerial pole—but would he like to spare a thought for his former Back-Bench colleagues and join me in thanking and congratulating the small band of Labour Back Benchers…
Commons
Proceedings
9 June 2025
Chinese Embassy Development
Is the planning officer who is considering this case cleared to receive top-secret information?
Commons
Debate
5 June 2025
2 contributions
Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy
I did serve in Afghanistan, including with the young major who is now the general that my right hon. and gallant Friend is referring to. He is an outstanding officer with unimpeachable credentials.
My right hon. and gallant Friend is making a compelling moral case. I have seen at first hand the ris…
The Minister’s civil servants will be proud of him. I think the point my right hon. Friend the Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith) was making was that when the computer says no and the Minister knows that the computer is wrong, does he not have an obligation simply to go …
Commons
Oral Questions
Cabinet Office
5 June 2025
Topical Questions
Mr Speaker,
“The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP”—
so said the controversial Ulster rap band who remain on the bill at Glastonbury. Given that is the case, can the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster reassure the House that no Cabinet Office Ministers will be attending Glastonbu…
Commons
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister
4 June 2025
Engagements
Q8. The Prime Minister told us during the general election that he is a socialist. What has been more surprising is to find out in the last couple of weeks that the leader of the Reform party might be one too. As the Chancellor locks down the spending review, will the Prime Minister please remind…