April 2026

On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. During the winding-up speech on the Pension Schemes Bill, I understand that the Minister for Pensions made specific reference to me. I was elsewhere at the Treasury Committee, but I am told that he referred to a Westminster Hall debate on 25 November, and depicted me as arguing for the mandation of pension investments. In that debate, I explicitly said that mandation would be an “overreach”. I went on to say: “I hope that the Minister will reflect a lit

I am not going to do it now. It is lovely, but it is not the only part. To learn an instrument or create a painting takes massive amounts of hard work; to play in an orchestra or act in a play takes discipline, so the creative arts are about both soft and hard skills. We are told that in this age of artificial intelligence we need creative thinkers, as well as those with hard skills. Increasing the visibility of cultural news would stimulate interest among the public in becoming a spectator, a p

And in my hon. Friend’s constituency. It is time that more people heard about this—heard about what is going on nationally, regionally and locally. Creative arts bulletins would help to bring about the mind shift needed throughout society to normalise, celebrate and promote participation in the creative arts and help to embed them ever more deeply in our national consciousness. Question put and agreed to. Ordered, That John Slinger, Adam Jogee, Jess Brown-Fuller, Cat Eccles, Bambos Charalambous,

Parliamentary appearance by Tim Roca

I beg to move, That this House has considered Government support for the cost of heating oil. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dr Allin-Khan. It would be fair to say that North Norfolk is quite rural. We are proud of that, and we enjoy the beauty and tranquillity that it affords those of us lucky enough to live there, but in the decades I have lived there and all the time I have been campaigning and working for the people of North Norfolk, I have seen too many ways in which we see

Parliamentary appearance by Suella Braverman

My constituents welcomed the fall in energy prices at the beginning of this month. Does my right hon. Friend agree that the best way to reduce energy prices in Scotland is not to pursue more constitutional divides but to secure our energy independence by progressing the Government’s clean power mission as quickly as possible?

The Conservatives are clear that we need to get Britain drilling and unlock the potential of the North sea, cutting bills, saving Scottish jobs and making us more energy secure. Apparently, the Secretary of State for Scotland is running the election campaign for the leader of the Scottish Labour party, so he presumably agrees with the leader, who said, “The balanced approach that we need to take is supporting our oil and gas sector.” That also presumably means that the Secretary of State disagre

My constituents George and Areti are in the Gallery. Their story is one that no parent should ever have to go through. Their 15-year-old son, Chrisopher, was an active and outgoing young man with a bright future ahead of him. One night in January 2022, Christopher was in his room playing video games. He clicked on a pop-up link and was tricked into sharing personal information about himself and his family. Just moments later, he began to receive messages from an anonymous stranger, threatening t

Gladly. [Laughter.]

Apologies.

I am so pleased that my hon. Friend mentioned that, as I briefly did earlier, because I do not mean to diminish the work of many federation representatives. There are many brilliant federation representatives and leaders in some parts of the country. This debate is very much about the national organisation and whether it can reform itself. The federation says that officers having choice of representation “would weaken, not strengthen, the voices of police officers” but it is hard to believe that

I completely agree. As I said, these homes vary widely, as do the families that live in them, but what connects all these places and people is a unique and worrying exposure to oil price shocks impacting their daily lives. Running a home on heating oil means buying energy in advance, in bulk and irregularly throughout the year. Households know that even half-filling an oil tank will cost them hundreds of pounds. They expect and budget for that. But since the outbreak of Donald Trump’s war in Ira

I surely will, and I will explain why very shortly.

I particularly thank my hon. Friends the Members for Stevenage (Kevin Bonavia) and for Dagenham and Rainham (Margaret Mullane) for their support for police officers. I know that the effectiveness of the Police Federation is not necessarily a debate that most MPs are engaged with, so I really appreciate their coming here today and advocating on behalf of police officers in their patches. I also thank other colleagues for sharing the experiences of police officers, and for talking about Northern I

I have listened carefully. The Minister knows full well that committing to spend 3% or 3.5% tomorrow does not mean that the Government cannot commit to commissioning that expenditure now. He is aware that the delivery pipeline can often take five to 10 years in any case, and therefore the defence investment plan becomes vitally important. He has evaded answering the question of when, but surely he can put to us a deadline date by which the defence investment plan can be delivered. In doing so, c

I must say that I am slightly surprised by the shadow Minister’s speech. I understand that Pensions UK agrees with the asset allocation, and has welcomed the change that has been announced, which is in line with the amounts prescribed in the Mansion House accord. The accusations about the Government stealing pensioners’ money are just scaremongering. [Interruption.] If my hon. Friend the Minister wishes to intervene to point out how ludicrous that is, I am happy to give way to him. This is dange

Parliamentary appearance by Jodie Gosling

Again, I agree, for reasons I will come on to. I will just note that the ministerial meeting for Members early on in this crisis, which was very welcome, featured a really interesting profile of Members from across the House. Rural and coastal Members often find themselves together, and Northern Ireland Members such as the hon. Gentleman were well represented at the meeting. As I said, since the outbreak of war, the price of heating oil for my constituents has skyrocketed far beyond the gradual

I wholeheartedly agree, which is why I was so glad to be granted this debate, and I am sure other Members share that view. There is a long-term discussion to be had about Government action on retrofitting and reducing the fuel poverty gap, but right now the urgent issue is the price today. I was pleased to see progress on some of these concerns in North Norfolk. Local heating oil delivery company Goff agreed to honour the prices it had agreed before the global price increases, which meant that m