March 2026

Parliamentary appearance by Andrew Rosindell

Parliamentary appearance by Andrew Rosindell

Parliamentary appearance by Lauren Edwards

Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent host excellent tourism hotspots and venues, and my constituency plays a key part in that. Will the Leader of the House join me in congratulating all the businesses in Burton and Uttoxeter that won in this year’s Visit Staffordshire tourism awards, including: Uttoxeter racecourse; Denstone Hall farm shop and café; George Lowe and Lowe’s on Carter Street; and the Duncombe Arms in Ellastone?

Tommy’s Lounge in Huddersfield is a dedicated drop-in support hub for veterans and their families. It provides peer support, mental health signposting and community connection. However, the service is facing a funding shortfall. The Government have announced Operation Valour to build a national network of recognised veteran support centres. Will the Leader of the House ask Ministers what emergency funding is available for established community veteran support organisations such as Tommy’s Lounge

This week, I was shocked to hear about the unacceptable living conditions that my constituents are enduring at Haynes Park Court in Hornchurch. Leaseholders and tenants paying substantial service charges report rat infestations, black mould, damp and water leaks, alongside concerns about antisocial behaviour throughout the estate. Despite repeated attempts to engage with the managing company, London and Quadrant, about these issues, residents feel ignored, neglected and completely let down. Does

On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker.

People will ask whether this is an act of gross gerrymandering and political opportunism or an act of gross incompetence and stupidity, but I can inform the House that it is both. There is no mandate for this; there was nothing in Labour’s manifesto. It is an imposition from Whitehall. If the Government were so proud of this work, why did they try to sneak it out in a written ministerial statement and have to be dragged to the Dispatch Box to justify their decisions? Unlike the hon. Lady, I have

This Government are taking significant action to make journeys safer and smoother, while helping motorists to save money. We are investing £27 billion in motorways and trunk roads, and a record £7.3 billion to fix potholes and resurface local roads. We have extended the fuel duty freeze, launched a fuel price finder and introduced a £2 billion grant to support motorists who want to go electric. I know that events in the middle east will be unsettling for many, but I can assure the House that we

In one of our evidence sessions, we heard clearly from a KC who said there were almost no examples of personation prior to the introduction of mandatory ID. We also heard, quite alarmingly, that about 1.7% of people—potentially enough to swing an election—were turned away at polling stations under the current system. Clearly, this is about getting the balance right. Does the hon. Gentleman honestly feel that the balance is currently right, given the evidence we heard in that session?

The hon. Gentleman has quoted the official figures, but we heard from election volunteers that they believe that the official figures are not accurate, because that is only the people who made it to the clerk’s desk. They saw lots of evidence of people being turned away at the door because they were arriving without identification.

(Urgent Question): To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government if he will make a statement on local government reorganisation.

It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mr Betts. I thank the right hon. Member for New Forest East (Sir Julian Lewis) for bringing this very important debate to Westminster Hall. Even though the prison system is largely a devolved matter, I would like to speak about things from a Scottish perspective. I regularly speak about prison officers’ working conditions in this place, in both Chambers and as a member of the Justice Unions Parliamentary Group. I am fortunate to know many serving and rec

I thank the hon. Member for Tewkesbury (Cameron Thomas) for the way he introduced this debate. In particular, I think the whole House is grateful for the detailed description he gave of the very gallant service of Ghanendra Limbu and his experiences serving in the Falklands. The contribution of the Gurkhas to the Falklands is a story not told as frequently or as loudly as it should be, and I am grateful to him for putting that on the record. I am standing in today for my colleagues the Minister

Let me indulge in an example. The hon. Gentleman is a persuasive man; he has knocked on a door in Hamble Valley on 2 May ahead of the local authority elections on 7 May, which he has talked about. At that point, the deadline for registering for the free ID has passed. The person who he has visited might have been busy—they might be in their early 20s working shifts—so they were not aware of the option to get free ID and that window has passed. In that circumstance, the bank card might be the onl

The hon. Member is right to call us friends, but let us be honest: we are unusual people who were involved in politics at a young age. That perhaps reflects many of us on the Committee. I ask the hon. Member again to reflect on the example of a busy shift worker. Their door was knocked a few days before the election. They cannot get the ID. They were not aware. Does the hon. Member accept that he has not quite addressed that challenge?

The hon. Gentleman cited the example of his constituency, but I have looked at the data, and there have been only three convictions in a six-year period in all elections. Now, that is three convictions too many, and I agree that we need to increase security, but can he not see that going from a system in which literally nothing is needed to vote to a person needing to acquire their neighbour’s bank card to vote in their name is a significant added measure of security, and that it might bring thr

Can the Secretary of State tell us what the Government are doing to address the problem of number plate fraud? Number plates are being falsely registered to wrong addresses by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, vehicle number plates are being cloned, and false number plates are being used, all of which is contributing to an increase in petrol theft from our forecourts. What are the Government doing about it?

Eighty-four per cent of the people in Christchurch voted against being forced into a unitary merger with Bournemouth and Poole, and they are still living with the consequences of that merger; a formerly debt-free council is now burdened with enormous debts and inefficiency. This year, the Minister agreed that it could increase its council taxes by even more than 5%. That is what happens when areas are forced into unitary reorganisation, against the wishes of the local people.

I understand the hon. Member’s point about the 0.08%, but does he accept the evidence that we heard about that figure most certainly being at the lower end? There are people who do not go out on polling day because they realise that they do not have the correct ID, and there are people who get turned away before they make it to the clerk’s desk, so that figure is certainly an underestimation. I also accept that there is a way for people to acquire ID that does not have to cost them money. None t