July 2025

Parliamentary appearance by Claire Hughes

Parliamentary appearance by Claire Hughes

Parliamentary appearance by Lucy Powell

I can absolutely guarantee my hon. Friend that we will have that meeting. I appreciate the work that we have been able to do together, reacting to the media reports that initially surfaced. There is some clarity from the company, but not the full degree of clarity that we need. I will make sure that we get that meeting set up for him and his colleagues.

The levels of homelessness and housing need among our veterans is shocking and a wake-up call for all of us, and I will ensure that my hon. Friend has a meeting with the Minister. That is why we are taking steps to ensure that there is more housing provision for veterans and everybody else.

I thank my hon. Friend warmly for his question. I am excited about this. The strategic sites accelerator will prepare and accelerate sites for development by using Government tools, such as land acquisition, planning certainty and infrastructure support, to overcome existing barriers to investment on sites. It is designed to create jobs, to attract investment and to support our industrial and net zero priorities. It will work alongside other initiatives such as the connections accelerator servic

I am delighted by the hugely positive response that the industrial strategy has received. It is a plan to lift every part of the country, making it easier and quicker to do business and to invest. For north Wales, with its formidable prowess in advanced manufacturing, it is a very significant set of proposals. The same is true for Wales as a whole, as I demonstrated on Monday at Port Talbot at the groundbreaking of the new electric arc furnace, which will get the enhanced supercharger discounted

First, let me say that, as someone who used to spend their family holidays in Cornwall, I must protest: I have had two questions from Cornish colleagues and not a single invite to visit Cornwall over the summer holidays. I really think that is unacceptable. The economic history of Cornwall is particularly interesting—I have had this discussion with my hon. Friend the Member for Camborne and Redruth (Perran Moon)—and I recognise some of the specific issues that the hon. Member for St Ives (Andrew

I can give my hon. Friend that assurance. I was dismayed this morning to wake up and hear the Reform party actively arguing for less investment in Britain and telling businesses they should not invest in the UK. I find that absolutely absurd. There are a whole range of tools for local areas to shape their economies in the industrial strategy. Some relate to mayors, but many do not. It has the mix of tools that is required to unleash the potential of every part of the country, including his own.

Does the Secretary of State agree that the UK Labour Government are getting on with the serious business of delivering an industrial strategy that will support jobs in my Livingston constituency? That is in sharp contrast to the failing SNP Government, who have no industrial strategy, no plan for workers, and no plan to support Scotland’s key sectors.

This has been a year of real achievement for the Department for Business and Trade. From holding our record-breaking international investment summit, which saw £63 billion committed to the UK, to intervening decisively to save British Steel’s Scunthorpe site and all the shipyards at Harland and Wolff, we have safeguarded thousands of jobs. We have reformed the Competition and Markets Authority, changed the zero emission vehicle mandate, altered the remit of the Low Pay Commission and introduced

The business for the week commencing 21 July includes: Monday 21 July—General debate on the 80th anniversary of victory over Japan. Tuesday 22 July—The Sir David Amess summer adjournment debate. The subject for this debate was determined by the Backbench Business Committee. The House will rise for the summer recess at the conclusion of business on Tuesday 22 July and return on Monday 1 September. The business for the week commencing 1 September will include: Monday 1 September—General debate on

I was very pleased to announce the recess dates for the whole of the next academic year. That is one modernisation that I said I would bring in to give colleagues more certainty a year in advance, and I am pleased that we have been able to announce those dates today. As the House goes into recess next week, I join the shadow Leader of the House in thanking you, Madam Deputy Speaker, as well as Mr Speaker, the other Deputy Speakers and all the House staff, for all the incredible work they do for

My hon. Friend is a powerful representative for Cornwall and his constituency. I will not use that phrase for him, but I will ensure that a Minister gives him a more immediate response about when we can see action on the Cornish language.

I thank the hon. Lady for working with me over the last year in her role as the shadow Leader of the House for the Liberal Democrats. We work very closely together on the Modernisation Committee, the House of Commons Commission and a number of other Committees and boards, and I feel like she has been here for a long time, because she has really got into the detail of some of the issues, particularly the restoration and renewal programme. She has dedicated a huge amount of her time and energy to

My hon. Friend has given a very good audition for parliamentary pun of the year. It was probably better than most of mine—but that is not hard, is it? I absolutely join my hon. Friend in congratulating all those involved in the Braehead community garden project. It sounds like a really wonderful project, and he is absolutely right to say that gardening, and getting people outdoors and active, brings so much to our communities, in terms of wellbeing and tackling issues around food poverty and the

I thank the hon. Member for deputising for the Chair of the Backbench Business Committee. He and the Chair are both regular attenders; until today, I think the Chair had not missed any of my sessions, apart from the one after Tottenham won the Europa league, which was a once-in-a-lifetime event for him. The hon. Member is absolutely right to draw hon. Members’ attention to the Sir David Amess debate. I strongly recommend that those who were not in the House with Sir David look back through Hansa

I thank my hon. Friend for being a regular attender; she uses these sessions to great effect on behalf of her constituents. I am sorry to hear about the difficulties that her constituents face in accessing basic services such as routine blood tests; that is clearly not good enough. Our 10-year plan will expand the availability of appointments—we got in another 4 million GP appointments since the election last year—as well as opening hours and community diagnostic services. I hope her constituent

I am sorry to hear about the situation in the hon. Member’s constituency. It is one with which I am extremely familiar; in my constituency, dozens and dozens of buildings face many of the same problems. As he says, there have been very serious teething challenges for the Building Safety Regulator in processing its caseload. That is why the Secretary of State recently announced some quite big changes to its leadership, capacity and management; they were laid before this House two or three weeks a

I thank my hon. Friend for raising that incredibly important issue. I am really sorry to hear that she has had confusing, incorrect or slow responses to parliamentary questions or correspondence from the Department of Health and Social Care. I will certainly take that up for her. She is right that we need as many people as possible giving blood, especially from diverse communities, because we have blood supply shortages. We need to break down the barriers to doing so, which is why her question i