Commons
Debate
26 March 2026
Transport Accessibility for Disabled People
The hon. Gentleman speaks with a great deal of experience. Marilyn is a blind lady in my constituency who has faced the issues of floating bus stops. During the design and implementation processes, her voice really was not listened to, and the views of blind people were not incorporated into the pro…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
26 March 2026
Palliative Care
I, too, welcome the Health and Social Care Committee’s statement and thank the hon. Member for all her work in leading the Committee. We all know that we have an ageing population. It is an issue that is going to increase, and we know that the pressures on our palliative care system will also increa…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
26 March 2026
Coastal Erosion
I thank the hon. Member and her Committee for this excellent report. I have the start of the Jurassic coastline in my constituency, and I share a coastline with my neighbour and hon. Friend—I will call him a friend—the Member for Honiton and Sidmouth (Richard Foord). Based on the Committee’s report,…
Commons
Debate
26 March 2026
Resident Doctors: Industrial Action
I thank the Secretary of State for his robust view and position on the BMA. In reference to what was said by the Liberal Democrat spokesperson, the hon. Member for North Shropshire (Helen Morgan), on the inflationary pressures that we will feel as a result of the conflicts in the middle east, do the…
Commons
Committee Stage
24 March 2026
11 contributions
Armed Forces Bill (First sitting)
I beg to move amendment 8, in clause 2, page 3, line 19, at end insert—
“‘due regard’ means that specified bodies should think about and place an appropriate amount of weight on the principles of the Armed Forces Covenant when they consider all the key factors relevant to how they carry out their f…
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Efford. Amendment 8, standing in my name and those of my right hon. and hon. Friends, is a straightforward but important amendment. Its purpose is simple: to place a clear and consistent definition of “due regard” on the face of the Bill. I know tha…
+9 more contributions in this session
Commons
Proceedings
18 March 2026
2 contributions
Student Loans
I say to Labour Members that we all want to get this issue sorted out. When I spoke to the Chancellor during the spring statement, she said that the way that she was going to control student loan interest rates was by controlling inflation, but we all know what is happening in the middle east at the…
We have heard the argument repeatedly that it was the Conservatives and the coalition Government that brought in these changes. I am someone with a plan 2 loan. I was in the generation that Blair told to go to university, and at no point did anyone in that Blair Government talk about how the jobs ma…
Commons
Westminster Hall
18 March 2026
6 contributions
Royal Mail: Performance
I beg to move,
That this House has considered the performance of Royal Mail.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Twigg. I want to ask everyone to go along with me for a few seconds by closing their eyes and visualising what the Royal Mail means to them. I picture the intrepid and ha…
I have been looking at the numbers over the last few years, and Royal Mail has gone from significant losses of about £400 million three years ago, to £200 million losses, to making a £14 million profit last year. Because it is a privately owned company—we will come on to that—it has cut a lot of fat…
+4 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
17 March 2026
Isles of Scilly: Transport
I appreciate the hon. Gentleman bringing this important debate to the Chamber. Exeter airport, which is one of the key transport nodes for the Isles of Scilly, is based in my constituency. My grandparents and great-grandparents on my dad’s side really enjoyed going down there on holiday, adding to t…
Commons
Oral Questions
16 March 2026
Strait of Hormuz
It is a known known that the Iranian regime will close down the strait of Hormuz in a period of conflict. Back in June 2025, I asked the former Foreign Secretary, now the Deputy Prime Minister, what contingencies we had in place to offset against that happening. He responded:
“I assure the hon. Mem…
Commons
Oral Questions
Defence
16 March 2026
2 contributions
Middle East: UK Armed Forces Personnel
British personnel in Cyprus, Bahrain, Iraq and across the middle east have been attacked by Iran and its proxies. In such circumstances, we must act quickly to protect our people and interests. Having served on Royal Navy vessels, I know it takes time to ready a ship, yet nearly two weeks passed bef…
This is an important point and, given the volatility of the international system, we must learn from our mistakes. In a written answer on 9 March, the Minister for the Armed Forces confirmed that discussions took place before the decision to deploy HMS Dragon. We know those conversations happened an…
Commons
Westminster Hall
4 March 2026
NATO and the High Arctic
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Huq. I echo the initial comments of the Lib Dem spokesperson, the hon. Member for Surrey Heath (Dr Pinkerton), in thanking the hon. Member for Halesowen (Alex Ballinger), a fellow former Royal Marine, for bringing this debate to the House today. Thi…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
3 March 2026
Spring Forecast
Blairite policies told 50% of my generation to go to university. Looking back at those conversations, we see that rarely did anyone ever talk about who would pay for those students to go to university, or how the jobs market would then take on that amount of graduates. It is clear that the student f…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
2 March 2026
Middle East
I think we can all agree that international law has an important role to play, but the world is changing and we must adapt to protect our national security. Given that international law is broad in nature and open to interpretation—we have seen that in the differing views of the Attorney General and…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
26 February 2026
Maccabi Tel Aviv Fan Ban
I thank my right hon. Friend for the work she and her Committee have done on this report. To my knowledge, this is the first time artificial intelligence has hallucinated and given a response that has been used by a public body to make a decision. To my right hon. Friend’s understanding, has West Mi…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
26 February 2026
Gibraltar Treaty
As a former Royal Marine, Gibraltar has a special place in my heart—we have “Gibraltar” emblazoned above our globe and laurel crest for the valiant efforts of former bootnecks in 1704. Having transferred seamlessly through Gibraltar on previous operations, I know how important it is to be able to tr…
Commons
Oral Questions
25 February 2026
Diego Garcia and British Indian Ocean Territory
I think the vast majority of Members of this House can agree that the arguments for giving away our Chagos islands have been threadbare at best, which leads one to believe that there must be sensitive elements to the deal. It was, then, interesting to read what the former FCDO special adviser Ben Ju…
Commons
Oral Questions
Defence
2 February 2026
Military Independence from US
The Government now admit that they cannot ratify the Chagos treaty without first amending the UK-US agreement on Diego Garcia. Currently, that binding agreement requires Chagos to remain under UK sovereignty until at least 2036. Can the Minister confirm that if the United States does not agree to am…
Commons
Westminster Hall
28 January 2026
Defence Industry: Environmental, Social and Governance Requirements
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms McVey. We all know the world is becoming more dangerous. We talk about it all the time. We have these conversations in Parliament. We have them at home with constituents, family and friends, but we all know that words and conversations alone will no…
Commons
Debate
26 January 2026
Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill
The former Foreign Secretary said very explicitly last year that if the United States does not like this deal, it will not go ahead. The US does not like this deal; it has been very explicit on that. Can the Minister tell us whether the now Deputy Prime Minister was telling the truth when he made th…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
20 January 2026
Mobile Phones and Social Media: Use by Children
I am so happy that the Government are finally waking up to this issue and how serious it is, and that there is a cross-party consensus on the need to ban social media for under-16s. Social media platforms are designed to be addictive; we all know that. Most adults cannot control themselves, so how c…
Commons
Debate
19 January 2026
Local Elections: Cancellation
The good people of Exeter want their elections to go ahead as planned in May, yet the Labour super-majorities both on Exeter city council and here in Westminster leave no realistic prospect of fighting the decision. Does the Minister agree that Exeter city council is quickly losing its democratic ma…
Commons
Proceedings
19 January 2026
Iran: Protests
Does the Minister’s Department assess that the Iranian regime can come back from this and move into a position of strength? If so, does he assess that the sanctions packages being put forward are enough to limit that happening?
Commons
Proceedings
19 January 2026
Business Rates: Retail, Hospitality and Leisure
I have heard from many struggling businesses across my constituency about the increasing pressures that they are facing. To give just one example, under the Government’s original plan, a small independent shop in Exmouth would have seen its rateable value rise by about 50%, wiping out the benefits o…
Commons
Debate
14 January 2026
Ukraine
To start, I reiterate the point that my hon. Friend the Member for Romford (Andrew Rosindell) made in his opening speech: we are at a major crossroads in this conflict and the stakes could not be higher. On the line is Ukraine’s sovereignty, the freedom of its people and the wider security of Europe…