December 2025

A very merry Christmas to you, Madam Deputy Speaker, and to everybody in this place. In a historic win against Chelmsford on 6 December—it is another football success story—Weston-super-Mare football club, for the first time in our history, reached the third round of the FA cup. Like many Westonians, I am really excited to head to Grimsby in January with the fans to cheer on the Seagulls and to show my hon. Friend the Member for Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes (Melanie Onn) how impressive our lads

Thank you, Mr Speaker. May I wish you and your brilliant team a very happy Christmas? The 2017 Lammy review looked at prejudice in the criminal justice system. Our now Justice Secretary said: “Juries are a success story of our justice system… juries are representative of local populations—and must deliberate as a group, leaving no hiding place for bias or discrimination”, and “This debate and deliberation acts as a filter for prejudice”. In 2020, he said, “Criminal trials without juries are a ba

I am not too sure that answered my question; I shall have another go. This month, the Minister’s colleague, the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull East (Karl Turner), wrote: “The erosion of jury trials not only risks undermining a fundamental right, but importantly, will not reduce the backlog by anything like enough”. He went on: “If this ever comes to the House of Commons, I will rebel and vote against it…The House and the public will not stand for the erosion of a fundamental right”. It would

Parliamentary appearance by Helen Grant

Parliamentary appearance by Dan Aldridge

I wonder whether the Secretary of State can assist me with this problem. The Supreme Court is at the moment seized of the issue as to the lawfulness of the declaration of incompatibility. The fact that the Government have withdrawn their appeal does not prevent the Supreme Court from ruling on it. Let us suppose that the Supreme Court rules that the declaration of incompatibility is void. The legal position is that the declaration of incompatibility would then be void, and therefore the basis on

Parliamentary appearance by Sir Geoffrey Cox

I beg to move, That this House has considered planning policy for quarries. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Murrison. I am grateful for the opportunity to bring the issue of planning policy for quarries to Westminster Hall today. I thank the Backbench Business Committee for granting this important debate. I would like to declare at the very outset that, like many hundreds of my constituents, I will be impacted by the development that I am going to refer to. My South Leicest

As the hon. Lady will hear in the remaining parts of my speech, I entirely concur with her comments. Given that the proposed quarry site is not allocated in Leicestershire county council’s minerals plan, which runs until 2031, we can understand why a group such as the concerned residents present today would try to seek the advice of a professional minerals planner to review the proposals, consider the data and write a report that the residents group could use as the basis for their representatio

I absolutely agree, and I sympathise entirely with the hon. Lady. I would go further. I made the point earlier about finding suitable experts who are able to apply their technical expertise to help campaign groups or MPs to rebut planning applications on a technical basis. They are simply not there, for fear of a conflict of interest given their commercial interests with large-scale developers. The hon. Lady makes an important point and has put it on the record. The UK has committed, through reg

To conclude, there is no doubt that quarrying plays an extremely important role in delivering the homes, roads and infrastructure that our country needs, as the Minister has said and I acknowledge. That cannot and must not, however, come at the expense of the health of the people of our country. The residents of Misterton, Walcote, Lutterworth and the surrounding villages, as well as all our constituents, are asking us to pay attention to the latest science and heed the lessons of the past, part

Parliamentary appearance by Alberto Costa

What message does it send to the British public when 33 hereditary peers defeat the Government by 24 votes on a manifesto promise? Some of the wealthiest are blocking measures on sick pay for some of the lowest earners, which will miss the April deadline. Should we not get on—go through the night if we have to—and get this Bill passed?

I know where this came from—the new deal for working people—and so do businesses and the trade unions. As the Minister pointed out, there have been discussions, and they came to that conclusion. What is it about protecting people from unfair dismissal that the shadow Minister has a problem with?

rose—

I thank the shadow Minister for giving way again; he is being generous with his time. Why does he not have a problem with people being often in insecure, low-paid work without any contract that gives them regular hours? Does he realise how difficult that makes it for young people—any person—to have any security in their life? That was what he presided over in his 14 years of failure, and that is why Labour was elected on this manifesto promise.

Parliamentary appearance by Angela Rayner

I am sure we will be interrupted by a Division any minute now, but it is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Butler. I am delighted to follow the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon), and I congratulate the hon. Member for Penrith and Solway (Markus Campbell-Savours) on securing this debate, aptly on International Human Rights Day itself. I declare an interest: I am the chair of the all-party parliamentary human rights group. Last week, I hosted our International Human Rights Day re

Parliamentary appearance by Fabian Hamilton

Let me say first that the people responsible for the murder of innocent people in Northern Ireland over many decades were the people who carried out those murders, and the organisations of which they were members. However, it is also clear, from these reports and from previous investigations, that elements within the British state worked hand in glove with loyalist paramilitaries as they murdered scores, indeed hundreds, of innocent people in the north of Ireland, and also that the IRA were ridd