March 2026

I beg to move, That this House has considered the proposed visitor levy in England. It is a great pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mr Efford. It is also great to see the Minister in her place; we have a very highly regarded Minister to respond to the debate. She is a Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government Minister, but she will be responding on behalf of the entire Government, as Ministers always are when responding to debates in Parliament. This subject touches on a number of De

That is one of a number of worries I have about this proposal; I am grateful to the hon. Member for putting it in such a rational and straightforward way. I was coming on to say that international inbound tourism scores even more highly because, counterintuitively, tourism into this country is an export. In classical Keynesian economics—if I may appeal to the Government side of the House in that way—it is an injection into the circular flow of the economy. It is not spend that is displaced from

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms McVey. I thank everyone who contributed to this important debate. I begin by thanking my hon. Friend the Member for Chelsea and Fulham (Ben Coleman) for securing the debate. He is a great representative for the voluntary sector, having held many voluntary roles in the past and maintaining his role as a trustee for a local community centre in addition to his duties as the local MP. We have had some brilliant contributions today, highlighting j

I would be very happy to join the hon. Member on that visit. He makes his case powerfully and rightly pays tribute to the brave men and women who serve in our police. I am sure that the Executive will have heard his case for the PSNI as well.

We are all indebted to the men and women who serve in our police force, who work day in, day out to keep our communities safe. I know that the Police Service of Northern Ireland purchased the site in the hon. Member’s constituency last year. He will know that policing and justice is devolved, so the next steps are for the PSNI and the Executive to discuss a way forward.

My hon. Friend mentions community. Does he agree with me that pool users’ groups are crucial to keeping up standards in our ageing facilities? Would he also agree that we must target younger children so that they can swim lifelong in what is often very cold water, and that school swimming is crucial?

Parliamentary appearance by Nigel Huddleston

I do agree; the hon. Member makes some very good points about national insurance contributions, which I will go on to talk about further. He also makes some very good points about looking at the set of taxes as a whole—we cannot just look at a bed tax or a tourism tax without thinking about all the other taxes. However, if I may, I promise him that I will come on to those matters later. Inbound tourism is something that we are rather good at as a country. How could we not be, when we have great

The Minister is making an excellent point about prevention. The other thing that Swim England always emphasises is the importance of 11-year-olds being able to swim when they leave primary school. As a former teacher, does he agree with that?

Parliamentary appearance by Alex Davies-Jones

I do not know if the hon. Gentleman heard the earlier intervention by the hon. Member for Torbay (Steve Darling), who made the point—quite rightly—that we cannot look at a single tax in isolation. I will come on to discuss that point, and I will invite the hon. Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Danny Beales) to look at the maths on what happens when we add up all the taxes together and compare the cities that he has just mentioned with cities in this country. We have lost market share, and

The hon. Gentleman is a wise man, and he anticipates a point I will come to very shortly. Under the previous Government, candidly, there were increases to air passenger duty, rises in visa charges, the introduction of the electronic travel authorisation at a price of £10, and of course the loss of VAT-free shopping for tourists. The new Government are not just carrying on with those things, but adding cumulatively to those costs at a significantly greater rate. They are doubling the price of the

The hon. Gentleman knows the answer!

Parliamentary appearance by James Naish

That was my next sentence!

Q4. May I associate myself with the Prime Minister’s remarks on the terrible Golders Green attack? Rebuilding trust and integrity in our democracy matters deeply to my constituents in Southampton. Shamefully, it does not matter at all to some, particularly the senior Reform UK politician who has been convicted of taking bribes from Russia. Does the Prime Minister agree that there has never been a more urgent need to defend our country from hostile forces that would try to undermine our democracy

Parliamentary appearance by Amanda Hack

Q Thank you for your testimony so far and for your bravery. Morwenna, you mentioned that you waited two and a half years before your court date. My apologies for going into the detail, but can you go through the stresses and strains of that wait and its impacts on your life and possibly on other victims as well? Morwenna Loughman: Absolutely. One thing that kept me going—I was so close to pulling out multiple times—was that I had this sense that he had done it before. In fact, what I was later t

Parliamentary appearance by Sam Rushworth

Worthing lido recently celebrated its centenary. It is a symbol of our wonderful seaside town’s history, but it has been unloved for some time. I am delighted to be working with my hon. Friend the Member for Worthing West (Dr Cooper), Worthing’s Labour council and the local community to restore our lido to its former glory as a community space, and hopefully, in the long term, to build a tidal pool nearby. Does my hon. Friend the Member for Peterborough (Andrew Pakes) agree that lidos should not