Commons
Ministerial Statement
30 June 2026
National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation
I am not a doctor, but thank you so much, Madam Deputy Speaker. Perhaps I am a doctor from the university of life—who knows?
I pay tribute to Baroness Amos for this excellent report, and to my right hon. Friend the Member for Ilford North (Wes Streeting) for commissioning it. It is a remarkable pie…
Commons
Oral Questions
27 April 2026
2 contributions
Disabled People: Benefits Reassessments
10. What steps his Department is taking to ensure that disabled people are able to try work without automatically triggering a benefits reassessment.
I thank the Minister for that positive answer. Could he reassure my disabled constituents under the age of 22, many of whom are in education and low-paid work, that they will not lose their universal credit health payments? This financial support is vital to helping young disabled people, because th…
Commons
Debate
21 April 2026
2 contributions
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill
I thank the Minister for being so responsive to the concerns about strategic licensing that I and colleagues in London have shared with her. May I confirm that it is not the Government’s intention for an application to be treated as being of potential strategic importance solely by reason of its loc…
As my hon. Friend will know, my constituency neighbours his. In my constituency, the North End Road area of Fulham is a designated gambling vulnerability zone and has been identified as such by the council. It borders the Clem Attlee and West Kensington estates, which are both in the bottom deciles …
Commons
Westminster Hall
20 April 2026
Maternity Commissioner
I am most grateful to my hon. and learned Friend for calling this important debate. I am also very grateful to my constituent Louise Thompson for having the guts and the decency to parlay what was an absolutely horrible experience into a determination to make life better for women across this countr…
Commons
Oral Questions
14 April 2026
Topical Questions
Will the Secretary of State join me in welcoming the success of sickle cell bypass units in north-west London and across the country in reducing pressure on emergency departments, while improving care for sickle cell patients, who have historically been overlooked? Does my right hon. Friend recognis…
Commons
Debate
13 April 2026
4 contributions
SEND Provision and Reform
Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
I speak as one who, like many of my colleagues, has received many emails and other messages, and engaged in many conversations with parents of disabled children. I know that throughout the country parents are fighting battles to secure for their children the basic support that the law says they shou…
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
25 March 2026
8 contributions
Voluntary Groups and Community Centres
I beg to move,
That this House has considered Government support for voluntary groups and community centres.
It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms McVey. I am grateful for the opportunity to introduce this debate, because voluntary organisations and community centres are central…
It is indeed, and I am grateful for the opportunity to recognise Farnley Community Centre, which is being innovative in encouraging people not only to get their egg, but to take part in a community discussion about how to spend the money that this Government have made available across the country to…
+6 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
5 March 2026
2 contributions
Palliative Care
I am very grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for York Central (Rachael Maskell) for calling this vital debate.
As the right hon. Member for New Forest East (Sir Julian Lewis) did, I will talk about children, and I would like to start with Amy. Amy had Cockayne syndrome, which is a severe, fatal,…
Can the Minister confirm that the MSF will include targeted support for children who require palliative care?
Commons
Oral Questions
Education
2 March 2026
2 contributions
School SEND Provision
18. What steps she is taking to improve SEND provision in schools.
This plan is to be welcomed. It rightly recognises that families of children with SEND are absolutely exhausted from having to fight and battle for the support they need. I therefore strongly welcome the commitment to end that and to give over 1 million children, for the first time, legally enforcea…
Commons
Westminster Hall
25 February 2026
2 contributions
UK-German Relations
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Twigg. I have been passionate about strengthening ties between the UK and Germany for most of my adult life, ever since I spent two years living in West Berlin in the mid-1980s—vor der Wende—before the wall came down. I lived in Kreuzberg, a neighbo…
Not for the first time, my hon. Friend puts it much better than I could. Cyber-security is an absolutely key pillar of the Trinity House agreement, and AI, quantum and semiconductor investment should be things that Germany and Britain work on together, side by side, to defend our joint security and …
Commons
Westminster Hall
24 February 2026
3 contributions
EU Membership Referendum: Impact on the UK
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Desmond. Eighty years ago, just after the second world war, my great-uncle Zelia stood outside this Parliament building. He doffed his hat—everyone had a hat in those days—and he said, “She saved us all.” He was a Latvian Jew who lived in Paris; I …
I do. I congratulate my hon. Friend again on replacing Boris Johnson with a much nicer man, who definitely has much better hair. I absolutely agree.
We have to recognise that the swiftest path to growth for this country lies in tackling the red tape that Brexit introduced. I think of a small butche…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
15 January 2026
Food Inflation
I am most grateful to my hon. Friend for calling for this important debate. The Health and Social Care Committee are currently doing an inquiry into food, and supermarkets will be coming in shortly to talk to us about how they operate—we will have a lot of questions to ask. Obesity and nutrition are…
Commons
Westminster Hall
15 January 2026
Gambling Harms: Children and Young People
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for securing the debate. Gambling is one of the most pernicious public health issues of our times, as we have said on the Health and Social Care Committee. It has to be seen as a public health issue. Children who are bombarded with gambling ads on social media and who…
Commons
Westminster Hall
14 January 2026
UK-France Relations
I thank my hon. Friend for securing the debate. We talk about smoothing the relationship, so will he join me in welcoming the new entente amicale between the UK and France? Will he also join me in recognising how that is strengthened by the 11 French-English bilingual schools in our country, such as…
Commons
Debate
8 January 2026
2 contributions
High Street Gambling Reform
I am extremely grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Brent East (Dawn Butler) for securing this important debate. Gambling is a subject that the Health and Social Care Committee has looked at in some detail, and it is clear from what I have heard from witnesses, from talking to the National Gamb…
The hon. Member talks about the amount of money raised in tax from gambling companies. Can he also give us the figures for the amount of money that the NHS has to spend each year on the mental health issues and other problems that arise from gambling addiction?
Commons
Ministerial Statement
17 December 2025
UK-EU Common Understanding Negotiations
I congratulate the Minister as heartily as everyone else has on bringing the UK back into Erasmus and ensuring that people from all backgrounds, including university students, can once again enjoy the opportunities that the Tory Brexit took away. Part of my Chelsea and Fulham constituency ranks amon…
Commons
Debate
15 December 2025
2 contributions
Industry and Exports (Financial Assistance) Bill
I am most grateful to the Minister for his statement. I hugely welcome the Government’s determination to increase trade, especially in the aftermath of Brexit. That is what it is all about: expanding and clarifying the spending limit for UK Export Finance. As we have heard, UK Export Finance has a v…
I am immensely surprised to hear that intervention—almost as surprised as I was to see Liberal Democrat Members put forward the customs union idea the other day! We struck a deal with the EU in May. We need to implement that deal. We need to see through the deal we are negotiating on food and drink.…
Commons
Oral Questions
Cabinet Office
4 December 2025
2 contributions
EU Youth Experience Scheme
3. What recent progress his Department has made on negotiations with the EU on a youth experience scheme.
The Chancellor said recently that an “ambitious” youth experience scheme with the EU would be good for growth and good for business. The Centre for European Reform has estimated that such an agreement could add nearly 0.5% to UK GDP over 10 years. Can the Minister reassure my constituents that the G…
Commons
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister
26 November 2025
Engagements
Q14. My constituents tell me that our top national priority must remain as it is: economic growth. Does the Prime Minister agree that the swiftest way to achieve growth is for the Government to be even more ambitious in negotiating with the European Union to remove the new red tape and trade barri…
Commons
Westminster Hall
5 November 2025
3 contributions
Fresh and Nutritious Food: Inequality of Access
Just yesterday, the Government came out with new figures showing that the prevalence of childhood obesity in the most deprived areas is more than double the prevalence in the least deprived. It may surprise many hon. Members to hear that it is a significant problem in my constituency. Although Chels…
That is a very important point. The availability of fast food right outside schools needs to be looked at and curtailed. The food is cheap, but it is incredibly low quality, and it is not doing our children any good. And school food standards are not properly enforced. There is a lot of cheap school…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
28 October 2025
3 contributions
Obesity and Fatty Liver Disease
I suggest to the hon. Member that one of the principal reasons that non-alcoholic fatty liver disease has shot up so radically in recent years is the increasing prevalence of food that is simply bad for people and is causing them damage—in particular, food that is high in fat, sugar and salt. For th…
If I may bring the hon. Member back to childhood obesity, does she agree that there is a serious problem with sugar being pumped into so much baby food? Does she therefore welcome what the Government have finally done after many years of the issue’s sitting unaddressed? They are giving the industry …
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Debate
23 October 2025
6 contributions
Black History Month
My remarks will be influenced by my membership of the Health and Social Care Committee, and by the fact that I am the vice-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on black health. Also, like my hon. Friend the Member for Leyton and Wanstead (Mr Bailey), I have the pleasure of being a trade envoy:…
The hon. Member makes a very good point. I will run through a few more proposals from the maternity report, but they will not surprise Members; they are not radical or new. What would really be radical and new would be if one of these reports— I think I have read at least six reports about black peo…
+4 more contributions in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
22 October 2025
Heathrow: National Airports Review
Does my right hon. Friend recognise the severe concerns that my constituents in Fulham will have about aspects of this proposal, particularly the noise? They will hence take an interest in ensuring that the four tests are properly adhered to. Can she reassure me that she has no intention of watering…
Commons
Westminster Hall
16 October 2025
Health and Social Care Committee
As a member of the Health and Social Care Committee I have had the pleasure of working under the leadership of my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham Erdington (Paulette Hamilton) on this report. I have also been a member under her leadership as the vice chair of the APPG on black health. I thank …
Commons
Westminster Hall
15 September 2025
3 contributions
Children with SEND: Assessments and Support
It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Dr Allin-Khan. In my constituency, 158 families signed the petition. We have heard that too many disabled children, not just in my constituency of Chelsea and Fulham, but across the country, are being let down. Parents feel that they must fight every …
I am afraid I am running out of time—ah yes, I will happily give way.
+1 more contribution in this session