Commons
Westminster Hall
2 September 2025
Eating Disorders: Prevention of Deaths
I thank the hon. Member for Isle of Wight West (Mr Quigley) for securing this important debate. My constituent Katie is mother to a daughter who, at the age of 14, became unwell from anorexia in the aftermath of the covid pandemic. She identified the warning signs early, but when she sought help, ea…
Commons
Westminster Hall
2 September 2025
6 contributions
The Battle of Britain
I beg to move,
That this House has considered the matter of commemorating the Battle of Britain.
Thank you for chairing this debate, Sir Desmond; it is an honour to serve under your chairship. I thank all those who will contribute to this debate and the Veterans Minister, whose presence is always …
The hon. Member speaks acutely to the point of this debate, which is that we must not forget what this country both suffered and achieved, and that we must support our current generation in the challenges it faces.
One toils to resolve any other historic snapshot that so well encapsulates the Briti…
+4 more contributions in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
1 September 2025
Borders and Asylum
Our country should be proud of the fact that in the 1930s we welcomed 10,000 Jewish children from Europe on the Kindertransport. Alas, our predecessors would not countenance bringing across those children’s parents, and we know that the cost of that decision was the massacre of those parents in the …
Commons
Debate
21 July 2025
Extending the Ukraine Permission Extension Scheme
I thank my hon. Friend for bringing forward this debate. Only last month I had a resident in my constituency office desperate to renew urgently the visa of the Ukrainian she was hosting. I am sure my hon. Friend will join me in saying that while the heroes of Ukraine fight Putin, for us as much as f…
Commons
Debate
21 July 2025
2 contributions
Victory over Japan: 80th Anniversary
For the avoidance of doubt, this speech comes from a place of deep appreciation for post-war Japan and for the enrichment it has given so many of us through its automotive and technological innovations and through global cultural phenomena such as “Godzilla”. It is starkly different from the Japan f…
As a Member of Parliament who benefits from the contribution of 300 or 400 Gurkhas and Nepalese people, can I just say that I am very much enjoying the hon. Lady’s speech and I cannot wait to hear the rest?
Commons
Ministerial Statement
21 July 2025
Middle East
Since 2023, the Israel Defence Forces have killed a record number of journalists and killed a record number of humanitarian workers. They continually murder starving children as they queue for aid. An Israeli soldier outed his commanders for their illegal orders to arbitrarily kill civilians. That i…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
21 July 2025
Independent Water Commission
My constituent campaigners at SafeAvon and Tewkesbury Friends of the Earth will be delighted to see that, at length, the Government have implemented a core Liberal Democrat manifesto pledge: the abolition of Ofwat. Will the Secretary of State now go further and implement a second pledge to put those…
Commons
Proceedings
21 July 2025
Asylum Hotels: Migrant Criminal Activity
I look forward to the swift deportation of anybody who takes advantage of our hospitality by breaking our laws and attacking women and young girls. In July 2024, I warned my constituents not to throw away their futures, as the far-right lynch mobs threatened to spread to Gloucestershire. Once again …
Commons
Westminster Hall
16 July 2025
4 contributions
RAF E-7 Wedgetail Programme
The hon. Member mentions the battlefields of Ukraine, which are key because the RAF has a large fleet of aircraft that covers all the fundamental air power roles, but our intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capability is particularly important to NATO. Does he recognise as I do that this g…
The reduction in the number of Wedgetails, which seems to have been a mistake, feels very reminiscent of the coalition Government’s cutting of the Nimrod programme despite having already spent billions of pounds on it. That left us without a maritime patrol aircraft, and we had to go cap in hand to …
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
15 July 2025
Welfare Spending
Two weeks ago, the House came together to watch the Labour party tear itself apart over to what extent it would remove welfare support from some of the most vulnerable in society, including, but not limited to, those with Parkinson’s and dementia.
It is not all bad news, though. Jeff got married in…
Commons
Debate
9 July 2025
Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill
Tewkesbury is not a coastal constituency, although once a year at least it feels as though it is, but my hon. Friend’s constituency shares a lot of the issues faced by my rural constituency. What he is getting at—and this is why I will be voting against the Bill—is that it does not present the means…
Commons
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister
9 July 2025
Engagements
Q14. Following a week of internal conflict, the Prime Minister will be well prepared if he wants to join me this weekend at the Tewkesbury medieval festival, which includes Europe’s largest re-enactment, or perhaps next weekend he will don his leather jacket and turn it up to 11 at the Tewkesbury …
Commons
Westminster Hall
9 July 2025
3 contributions
Early Years Providers: Government Support
I wholeheartedly agree with my hon. Friend. Does she have any thoughts on how we could attract more men to the industry?
The Liberal Democrats welcome investment in early years. One way in which I hope the Government will ensure that children with SEND and neurodiversity requirements are not left behind is by implementing systems in early years provision that enable SEND and neurodiversity to be identified and address…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
8 July 2025
Road and Rail Projects
Improved rail links are vital to support the planned developments around Ashchurch and Northway in my constituency, including a garden community and an outlet centre that opens next week. Current services to Ashchurch for Tewkesbury station are limited and unreliable, with the nearest arterial road …
Commons
Oral Questions
Treasury
1 July 2025
2 contributions
Supporting Economic Growth
20. What steps she is taking to help increase economic growth in north Gloucestershire.
North Gloucestershire is ready to jump-start economic growth, with its existing advanced engineering and defence industries ready to drive the UK toward economic and defence objectives. Babcock, GE Aerospace, Moog and Safran are already developing world-leading technologies, and the Garden Town proj…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
30 June 2025
Welfare Reform
Welcome back, Madam Deputy Speaker. The Government’s recent compromise with their own MPs secures PIP for existing claimants, but not for those who come hereafter—a distinction born not of compassion, nor apparently of economics, but to secure the Government’s own political footing. If I am wrong, w…
Commons
Oral Questions
Defence
30 June 2025
2 contributions
Defence Spending: Cross-party Talks
10. If he will make an assessment of the potential merits of holding cross-party talks on increasing defence spending to 3% of GDP by 2030.
There is a great deal of experience across these Benches, and most of us recognise the imminence of the need to hit 3%. My expertise is in force protection, and I know, among other things, that Brize Norton cannot draw support from the Military Provost Guard Service under the land top level budget, …
Commons
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister
25 June 2025
Engagements
Q4. In 1957, my constituent Ronald Clark was among 22,000 UK personnel exposed to nuclear testing on Christmas Island. Those veterans and their descendants have suffered various cancers, crippling illnesses and deformities, but the Ministry of Defence has never accepted liability. I note the Deputy …
Commons
Debate
24 June 2025
2 contributions
Department for Education
Parents with SEND children across Tewkesbury represent one of the demographics who most consistently contact me. I regularly hold surgeries with desperate parents who feel that they have nowhere left to turn. I have spoken with parents whose children have missed years of education and whose ability …
I am afraid I will not.
This is a growing, nationwide crisis being experienced by schools and families, and it has secondary effects on the Department for Work and Pensions and the Treasury. Responsibility for SEND provision currently falls to local authorities, but councils across the country are …
Commons
Proceedings
24 June 2025
National Security Strategy
I echo the comments made by the right hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith) about the Chinese Communist party. The national security strategy recognises that UK security is tied to that of our allies. Do the Government acknowledge that lasting peace in Europe means ter…
Commons
Debate
23 June 2025
UK Military Base Protection
I am not sure that this question is appropriate any more, Mr Deputy Speaker. Ironically, on Saturday the hon. Member for Boston and Skegness (Richard Tice) demonstrated his ignorance of RAF force protection by tweeting that Group Captain Louise Henton’s background in human resources led to last week…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
23 June 2025
Middle East
I thank the Foreign Secretary for the gravity with which he is treating this important topic. One week ago, he told me that he had “huge confidence” in our ability to defend our middle eastern assets from Iranian strikes, but within two days, two strategic assets were vandalised by a couple of civil…
Commons
Debate
17 June 2025
2 contributions
Crime and Policing Bill
The hon. Gentleman is making very important points, in particular on the Jehovah’s Witnesses cult. One of the methods Jehovah’s Witnesses use to ensure that issues like this do not escape from the organisation is threatening individuals with the act of disfellowshipping—being cut off from all commun…
Let me say, in the spirit of openness, that as a young man I perhaps did not always drive as responsibly as I do now. Although the hon. Lady is making an important point, there is an educational component to this. Will she join me in commending the work of the Under 17 Car Club and its Pathfinder in…
Commons
Oral Questions
Health and Social Care
17 June 2025
Under-18s Sunbed Ban
Until his recent death, my constituent Luke Webster had lived with alternating hemiplegia of childhood. His life was short and he spent much of it being moved between different care facilities, to the frustration of his family. At one such facility, Luke was abused. Will the Minister meet me and Luk…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
16 June 2025
Iran-Israel Conflict
I welcome the Foreign Secretary’s statement. The Iranian regime is a malignant international force—who knows how many British lives have been lost to its sponsorship of international terrorism. The Iranians have explicitly stated a threat towards our assets and our people in the middle east. How muc…