May 2026

I will try to give a short piece of advice, Madam Deputy Speaker. If I were in the Scottish Labour party, I would either say, “We are a separate party from UK Labour, and we make our own decisions”, or I would say, “We back the Prime Minister.” It is clear that Anas Sarwar, the leader of Scottish Labour, does not back the Prime Minister, and does not have confidence in him. He and many of his MSPs and MPs have said that Scottish Labour is a separate party, which makes its own decisions. I assume

Mr Speaker, two of my colleagues have been elected to Scotland’s national Parliament, so this is a bittersweet task for me. Ordered, That the Speaker do issue his Warrant to the Clerk of the Crown to make out a new Writ for the electing of a Member to serve in this present Parliament for the Burgh Constituency of Aberdeen South, in the room of Stephen Flynn, who, since his election for the said Burgh Constituency, has been appointed to the Office of Steward and Bailiff of His Majesty’s Manor of

Parliamentary appearance by John Glen

I recently hosted a screening of a short film called “The Orphan”, a dramatisation of a boy being caught up in county lines activity. It was directed by Leo Powell and supported by Stevenage borough council and across our local schools. I welcome the White Paper, particularly the new offence of child criminal exploitation and other early intervention measures, including the Turnaround programme. Will the Secretary of State say more about how that programme can help to tackle the disgrace of coun

Parliamentary appearance by Pam Cox

The Government’s White Paper represents a truly critical opportunity to transform the youth justice system and, importantly, reduce lifetime offending. We know that most offenders in our prisons today are repeat offenders and that persistent offending often begins early in life, with eight in 10 prolific offenders in England and Wales committing their first crime as a child. We must stop this chain of escalation, and the earlier we intervene, the better. Nowhere is that more applicable than for

I am pleased to speak in today’s King’s Speech debate, with the theme “Backing business to create economic growth”. I know from meeting businesses across my constituency in all fields—be it hospitality and retail, manufacturing, haulage, technology, agriculture and horticulture, or the creative industries—that they are ready, willing and able to play their part in achieving economic growth for this country. However, right now it is hard to see how that will be achieved given that businesses are

Regulating these companies effectively and putting a cap on excessive service charges, particularly when there is no evidence that the service is actually being delivered, would really change the game for a lot of people who feel trapped in their estates. I have met with the Housing Minister and shared my residents’ accounts with him, and I hope that the legislation being brought forward will start to address the issue. As has been seen throughout the country in the recent local elections and cu

Parliamentary appearance by Tom Gordon

Parliamentary appearance by Alicia Kearns

Parliamentary appearance by Chris Coghlan

Parliamentary appearance by Katrina Murray

Parliamentary appearance by Olly Glover

I used to work in the employment service, and Thatcher encouraged us not to sign people on, and to instead put them on the sick. The Conservatives created a whole generation of people on the sick, just to manipulate the numbers. How do you like those apples?

In the time that I have, I would like to touch on two important areas with regards to backing business and creating economic growth. The first is the tourist levy. London is the gateway to British tourism. Of the 38 million inbound visits to the UK in 2023, just over half were to our capital. I therefore welcome the Government’s announcement of this measure, but I would like to see a little more pace and progress. That legislation could do so much for boroughs such as Brent, which includes Wembl

Does my hon. Friend remember when a former Tory Prime Minister gave a guarantee to small businesses that there would be no paperwork to trade with the EU, because they recognised how much of a disadvantage and how problematic it would be?

As Chair of the Transport Committee, my remarks on the Gracious Speech will focus mainly on transport; if there is time, I plan to touch on some of the other areas where the Government’s proposed legislation will benefit many of my constituents directly. This debate is entitled “Backing business to create economic growth”, and our transport system is key to growth. Economic growth is central to the ambition of the £45 billion investment to deliver Northern Powerhouse Rail. That will start to add

The hon. Member is absolutely right. I am well aware of the concerns of drivers up and down the country, which are not about the improved licensing that the Government are talking about, which they welcome, but about some of those other threats, such as the processes that Uber is using at the moment and the impact of autonomous vehicles.

I very much welcome the work that the Minister for Roads has done on the proposed changes. I welcome the commitment to replace a patchwork of outdated rules with a single consistent framework, which will go a long way to addressing the out-of-area operations and problems that the hon. Member for Birmingham Perry Barr (Ayoub Khan) outlined, and it will fix a system that too often has failed passengers and drivers. Baroness Casey’s “National audit on group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse

As a fellow Committee Chair, does my hon. Friend agree that the Government could reconsider their relationship with Select Committees and provide more opportunities for pre-legislative scrutiny by Committees, which play such an important role in addressing legislation prior to it coming to its formal stages in this House?