Commons
Ministerial Statement
13 July 2026
State of Climate and Nature
I express my gratitude to the Minister and to the Government for delivering this second nature and climate statement, as they promised to do during the conversations around the time of my Climate and Nature Bill last year. It may not be exactly what I had envisaged, but I welcome it none the less. P…
Commons
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister
8 July 2026
Engagements
Q8. My constituency is the ninth most sewage-polluted constituency in the entire country, with thousands of hours of sewage pouring into the Thames, Avon and Coln, but that metric of hours conceals the truth. It does not convey the actual volume, and clearly a trickle is very different from a gush. …
Commons
Oral Questions
Energy Security and Net Zero
7 July 2026
Topical Questions
T7. The Government recently shelved plans to require solar panels on new car parks, despite the significant potential to generate clean electricity, support electric vehicle charging and provide greater shade cover. What assessment has the Minister made of the impact of abandoning those proposals on…
Commons
Westminster Hall
23 June 2026
Environmental Sustainability: UK-Indonesia Collaboration
I thank the hon. Member for Bristol East (Kerry McCarthy) for her passionate opening speech, and for the many hours we spent in each other’s company on a long-tail boat when we were fortunate enough to visit Indonesia earlier this year. In honour of this debate, I am wearing my Indonesian jacket tha…
Commons
Westminster Hall
16 June 2026
6 contributions
Community Hospitals
I beg to move,
That this House has considered community hospitals.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Jeremy, and I am grateful to have secured this debate. I want to begin by thanking Jo Posnette and Dr Helen Tucker from the Community Hospitals Association, who have been an enorm…
My hon. Friend makes a good point. Not everybody can time their minor injuries to fall conveniently within the unit’s opening hours, so I absolutely sympathise with the challenge facing her local hospital.
+4 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
3 June 2026
Small Towns: Transport Links
One of my constituents had a stroke last year. While he jumped through all the hoops required by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency to get his driving licence restored, he was stranded in a rural village with no bus service, struggling to get to shops, medical appointments and so on. Does the h…
Commons
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister
3 June 2026
2 contributions
Engagements
Q1. If he will list his official engagements for Wednesday 3 June.
I echo the sympathies expressed by the Prime Minister for the families recently bereaved, particularly the family of Henry Nowak.
Corruption appears to be endemic in donations to British political parties. We have had years of Conservative cronyism. We have had allegations of embezzlement in Scotla…
Commons
Oral Questions
27 April 2026
Topical Questions
T7. We have already heard about the NEET crisis; nearly 1 million young people are being denied the opportunity to develop their potential through education, employment or training. The problem is even more acute in rural areas like the South Cotswolds, where we have the additional challenges of poo…
Commons
Westminster Hall
21 April 2026
4 contributions
Alternative Measures to GDP
I beg to move,
That this House has considered the potential merits of use of alternative measures to GDP within Government.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Alec, and an honour to introduce this debate on what I believe is a very important subject: alternative measures to GDP. G…
I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. I absolutely agree with, and will elaborate on, his points about what GDP fails to measure and how it must be complemented by other metrics.
So the crucial question is: if those five things are indeed what Governments are for, how well—or not—does GD…
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
15 April 2026
Cost of Heating Oil
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Allin-Khan. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for North Norfolk (Steff Aquarone) for initiating this very important debate.
South Cotswolds is one of the most rural, off-grid constituencies in England. About 20% of households rely on heating oil; t…
Commons
Westminster Hall
14 April 2026
Ground-mounted Solar Panels: Alternatives
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Stringer. I thank the hon. and gallant Member for Spelthorne (Lincoln Jopp) for securing this important debate. I have heard the statistic that for all the land allocations that have been set aside for housing, for growing food and for renewable ene…
Commons
Oral Questions
24 March 2026
2 contributions
Topical Questions
T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.
To go back to heating oil, 20% of households in my South Cotswolds constituency rely on heating oil—that figure is four times the national average—and many of them face high up-front costs. Will the Secretary of State consider supporting more flexible payment or credit schemes, and pooled purchasing…
Commons
Westminster Hall
24 March 2026
Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood
I thank the hon. Gentleman for bringing forward this important debate and for his very moving speech. I recently had the honour of meeting Eleanor Wroath, who is here in the Gallery today with her son Sam. Eleanor lost her daughter Miranda, aged 18 months, in 2008. Since then, she has been a tireles…
Commons
Debate
23 March 2026
Middle East
I remind the House that RAF Fairford is in my constituency, so it is with grave concern that I note the news of two missiles being aimed at Diego Garcia. The Prime Minister previously pledged that we will not be drawn into the wider war, yet we have already shifted from the defensive to the offensiv…
Commons
Westminster Hall
18 March 2026
Social Enterprises and Community Ownership
I thank the hon. Member for Leigh and Atherton (Jo Platt) for securing this debate, and for her inspiring opening speech.
At a time when the Government seem to have no money and rural areas often feel overlooked, social enterprises and community-owned assets are more important than ever. I will rel…
Commons
Westminster Hall
17 March 2026
Rural Roads
Potholes are dangerous, they are expensive to fix, and they are everywhere. In the South Cotswolds, we know that rural areas are different. Rural roads are narrower, darker, faster and less forgiving, yet they risk being de-prioritised compared with urban areas. That cannot be right or fair. Chronic…
Commons
Westminster Hall
16 March 2026
5 contributions
Member Defections: Automatic By-elections
I beg to move,
That this House has considered e-petition 737660 relating to automatic by-elections following Member defections.
It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Sir Roger. I thank those who have shown up for this debate; we may not have a large quantity here, but I am sure that we …
The hon. Gentleman makes an excellent and valid point. My main job today, on behalf of the Petitions Committee, is to present both sides of the argument, but the point about data on voting intentions, which we work so hard to glean on doorsteps, is a key factor in the debate.
Others raise concerns …
+3 more contributions in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
4 March 2026
Healthcare in Rural Areas
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Huq. I thank the hon. Member for Mid Bedfordshire (Blake Stephenson) for introducing the debate and doing such a great job of painting a picture of the bigger systemic issues—as I do not have very long, I will not repeat those, but will focus instea…
Commons
Westminster Hall
3 March 2026
Environmental Protection and Biodiversity
We are told that access to green and blue space improves mental health and could save the NHS more than £2 billion annually. We are told that urban nature provides around £823 million a year in air pollution removal benefits. We are told that England’s natural capital is valued at around £1.3 trilli…
Commons
Westminster Hall
3 March 2026
Small Charity Sector
I thank the right hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith) for leading this important debate.
The small charity sector plays a crucial role in supporting communities in my constituency and across the whole country. Some 86% of the small charities working in the south-wes…
Commons
Westminster Hall
3 March 2026
Community Cohesion
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Murrison. I thank the hon. Member for Rugby (John Slinger) for bringing forward this important debate on a subject that is dear to my heart.
Community cohesion is not just a nice to have; it is the foundation of our democratic infrastructure. When …
Commons
Debate
2 March 2026
Representation of the People Bill
The Bill makes important improvements to how our elections are run, but updating the machinery of elections is not the same as renewing our democracy, and we desperately need democratic renewal if we are to restore faith in the system.
The greatest weakness in our system is not administrative; it i…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
2 March 2026
Middle East
RAF Fairford is in my constituency. The Government have now authorised the US air force to use RAF Fairford for defensive operations. Residents have been contacting me today, understandably concerned for their safety, especially given the recent events at RAF Akrotiri. Given that the Prime Minister …
Commons
Westminster Hall
25 February 2026
Student Loan Repayment Plans
Just a couple of weeks ago, I was contacted by a constituent who graduated in 2021 and has already accrued more than £6,000 of interest on her initial debt of £41,000. I was one of the lucky ones: as the first in my low-income family to go to university, I had tuition and maintenance paid. That was …
Commons
Westminster Hall
24 February 2026
2 contributions
Local Transport: Planning Developments
It is a pleasure to serve under you in the Chair, Sir Desmond. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Harpenden and Berkhamsted (Victoria Collins) for her very insightful opening speech.
If the number of homes in an area is doubled but the roads, buses, rail capacity, flood protection and sewerage a…
I believe we need to challenge the automatic right for developers to connect to the sewerage network. In fact, they must be encouraged to work with public utilities to ensure that capacity is there before they put spades in the ground.
I realise I am slightly digressing from the key issue of transp…