Commons
Westminster Hall
9 July 2025
LGBT Financial Recognition Scheme
I congratulate the hon. Lady on bringing this subject to the Chamber. Is she as mystified as I am by the fact that, when serving in the armed forces was at its most dangerous and there was conscription—namely during the second world war—people were only too happy for warriors of any sexuality to par…
Commons
Proceedings
8 July 2025
Points of Order
Further to that point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. I met Lord Tebbit only shortly after he had stepped down from this House, but even at that stage of his career he still had the inherent kindness and commitment to come to my constituency to support a relatively new Member of this House. Courage …
Commons
Ministerial Statement
8 July 2025
Post Office Horizon Inquiry: Volume 1
The Post Office Horizon scandal has often been compared with the contaminated blood disaster. By coincidence, this very afternoon the relevant all-party parliamentary group, led by the hon. Member for Eltham and Chislehurst (Clive Efford), has been having a meeting with the Infected Blood Compensati…
Commons
Debate
7 July 2025
2 contributions
Pension Schemes Bill
I am extremely grateful to the Minister for taking my intervention and for the very helpful letter he sent me on 30 June about schemes of this sort, and in particular the ExxonMobil pension scheme. His letter encouragingly states:
“Following our reforms, trustees will continue to consider the corre…
What if it is the other way round?
Commons
Proceedings
7 July 2025
Actions of Iranian Regime: UK Response
May I help the Minister share a little information with the House by asking him whether the Government know of any purpose for refining uranium-235 to 60% purity other than to build a nuclear weapon?
Commons
Oral Questions
7 July 2025
2 contributions
Small Boat Crossings
16. What steps her Department is taking to stop small boat crossings.
I agree with the Home Secretary that that would be a major step forward. Does she agree with me that, on average, well over 1,000 people have been crossing the channel each week this year, and that there is no way any form of court procedures can keep pace with that? Does she therefore agree that no…
Commons
Debate
3 July 2025
4 contributions
Women’s State Pension Age: Financial Redress
It is often said in times of financial crisis that some institutions are too big to fail. Unfortunately, in this case it is a question of some campaigns being seen as being too big to succeed. I am quite sure that the real reason why the Department for Work and Pensions is so resistant to this cause…
I do indeed. Of course, in any event, the women realise that they will not get anything like full compensation, but they want the symbolic acceptance and acknowledgement of the injustice that they have received. As we have heard from those on both sides of the House, this resistance puts at stake th…
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
3 July 2025
British Film and High-end Television
I congratulate my hon. Friend on the ingenuity of her statement. I am tempted to ask her if she is offering a prize to the first person to identify all the film titles she smuggled into it. Could she perhaps enlarge a bit on one of the more disappointing responses, as negative as it was, from the Go…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
3 July 2025
NHS 10-Year Plan
Does the NHS 10-year plan include an assisted dying scheme? If the present private Member’s Bill runs out of time at the end of this parliamentary Session, and thus falls, will the Secretary of State reintroduce the legislation as a Government Bill in the next parliamentary Session?
Commons
Debate
2 July 2025
Prevention and Suppression of Terrorism
I must say that I never thought the day would arise when I as a non-lawyer would be advising a Government of lawyers that they need to be sure of the legal basis for what they are doing. As I said in an intervention on this subject on 23 June,
“it would do the country and the Government no favours …
Commons
Debate
2 July 2025
2 contributions
Defence
Whenever my right hon. Friend and other members of the Conservative shadow defence team bring up the question of reopening this lawfare against our veterans, Government Ministers say, “We will be sure to give veterans maximum support.” To me, that implies not protecting them from the lawfare, but su…
On the point about not enjoying community support, when we were having these debates in great detail, the highly divided communities would always stand up and say how this was unacceptable and that was unacceptable, and then their representatives would quietly come up to us and say, “For goodness’ s…
Commons
Debate
30 June 2025
3 contributions
Deprivation of Citizenship Orders (Effect during Appeal) Bill
I have come to this debate without any prior knowledge of what is proposed, so I am making this point as a result of what I have heard so far. Am I right in thinking that what the Minister particularly has in mind is people with dual citizenship who might, for example, have gone abroad to fight for …
I have some sympathy with my right hon. Friend’s argument, but surely the effect of this change will kick in only if, in the end, the Government’s appeal succeeds. Therefore, it will be the case that the court previously was wrong; otherwise, the Government’s appeal against its decision will not suc…
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Ministerial Statement
30 June 2025
Welfare Reform
Does the Secretary of State agree that, while necessary at the time of covid, the removal of the requirement for face-to-face assessments was an opening of the door to potential abuse? If so, will she commit in principle to the reinstatement of face-to-face assessments?
Commons
Oral Questions
Defence
30 June 2025
UK Military Bases: Security
Almost by definition, RAF sites have to have very long perimeter fences, so it is understandable that they could be overcome at one point or another. Why were they apparently not fitted with sensors, at least, so that any intrusion would have sounded the alarm?
Commons
Ministerial Statement
26 June 2025
G7 and NATO Summits
After a worrying start, President Trump has now strengthened NATO, both by extracting promises of more money and with the positive comments he made at the end of the summit. Has the Prime Minister had a chance to assess whether that means that President Trump’s love affair with Vladimir Putin is beg…
Commons
Westminster Hall
26 June 2025
BBC World Service Funding
Thank you, Sir Jeremy, for calling me to speak, and it is a pleasure to endorse so much of what has been said today in such a unified way across party boundaries.
The value of BBC broadcasting is to be measured by the risks that people are prepared to take in order to listen to it, ranging from peo…
Commons
Proceedings
25 June 2025
Nuclear-certified Aircraft Procurement
May I encourage the Government not to be at all bashful about the fact that the decision on whether one of these weapons will be used—heaven forbid—will be an American one? There is a long tradition of American nuclear weapons being based in NATO countries, not least the Cruise and Pershing missiles…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
24 June 2025
China Audit
In his statement, the Foreign Secretary says that
“our approach will always be guided by the UK’s long-term economic growth priorities”.
As an example of that, he refers to our universities’ second largest source of international students being China, yet the Intelligence and Security Committee st…
Commons
Oral Questions
24 June 2025
Topical Questions
What practical steps can the Government take to support women and girls in Afghanistan who, after a period of being encouraged to liberate themselves, are now cast back into domestic servitude?
Commons
Westminster Hall
24 June 2025
2 contributions
War Memorials
Does the hon. Gentleman agree that something that makes the erection and maintenance of war memorials so much more poignant is that they are often paid for by the local communities themselves? They raise the money, and they continue to do so many years later. Only last weekend, I was at Marchwood vi…
Does the Minister agree that there is a particular importance of memorials to people who have no known grave but the sea? I believe I am right in saying that the three great Royal Naval memorials at Chatham, Portsmouth and Plymouth commemorate more than 66,000 Royal Naval personnel who lost their li…
Commons
Debate
23 June 2025
UK Military Base Protection
I must say that I am very surprised that the Home Secretary chose to put out a written statement, rather than making an oral statement, when we could have put to her some of these points about what exactly qualifies a group to be proscribed as a terrorist organisation.
I entirely agree with the sen…
Commons
Ministerial Statement
23 June 2025
Middle East
As usual, I agree with much of what the Foreign Secretary has to say, but I have to ask him this: how many times must a terrorist-funding, fanatical regime threaten to wipe another country from the face of the earth before a Government advised by Lord Hermer of Chagos acknowledge that military actio…
Commons
Oral Questions
Work and Pensions
23 June 2025
Topical Questions
Do Ministers agree with the Trussell Trust’s recent estimate that the weekly cost of basic essentials is £120 for a single person and £205 for a couple?
Commons
Ministerial Statement
19 June 2025
Warm Home Discount
Yesterday, as the Minister probably knows, food bank groups associated with the Trussell Trust lobbied—very effectively —Members on both sides of the House. My local group, the Waterside food bank, impressed on me the gap between the £92, which the Government believe a single person is estimated to …
Commons
Ministerial Statement
16 June 2025
Iran-Israel Conflict
Until the people of Iran rise up and overthrow the dreadful mullahs’ regime, it is obviously true what the Foreign Secretary says when he says that no military action can put an end to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, because even if its capacity was entirely destroyed, Iran could start rebuilding it. Havi…