Bell Ribeiro-Addy
MP for Clapham and Brixton Hill · Labour · United Kingdom
“We have a Black History Month as just one month to honour those who were clearly written out of our history books. Black History Month is intended to exist until such a time as those Britons are truly incorporated. It is a means to an end. It was never intended to be an end in itself.”
House of Commons22 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Friend the Member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington (Ms Abbott), has led many meetings in Parliament on this issue, including when I worked for her. Lord Paul Boateng continues to lead the charge in the other place on the restitution of artefacts and human remains. My old history teacher, Mr Melvin Smart, passed earlier this year.”
House of Commons22 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“This year, our community lost Professor Jason Arday, the youngest black professor in Cambridge’s history, my constituent and my friend. How he died is a matter for the coroner—I will say nothing that gets in the way of that—but how he was treated is a matter for all of us.”
House of Commons22 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Online hate is rising, and foreign billionaires such as Elon Musk pour time, money and energy into far-right movements, such as the one led by Tommy Robinson. Racism is no longer whispered; it is amplified, monetised and making its way into our politics. That is why this debate is not a nicety, but a necessity.”
House of Commons22 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Money is perhaps the smallest part of it, because there would be no point in giving any individual or any country a whole heap of money if we were not first going to repair the institutions and the relationships, because otherwise things would not change.”
House of Commons22 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I hope Members have heard that and will encourage that, as he was the person who led on this. I was pleased to hear the Opposition spokesperson, the hon.”
House of Commons22 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
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“I know that we cannot sell people the world, and systematic changes need to be made to facilitate reforms, but we cannot solely offer that and then tell people that their lives have been changed, especially not after the very clear message that the electorate delivered to us last week. People may call me unrealistic, but I would say that I am ambitious for what we can achieve in government right now in this parliamentary Session. Labour Governments have always accompanied radical transformational change in our society. This is the change that the electorate want—they made that very clear—and it is the change that we promised them, but I do not believe that this legislative agenda goes far enough to achieve it for them. The public are demanding more, and I believe that we can do more to give them that.”
House of Commons13 May 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Even at these difficult times, we remain one of the richest countries in the world, so why do we have such a huge cost of living crisis? Why are people skipping meals, rationing heating and working themselves into the ground doing multiple jobs just to stay afloat? This does not happen by accident. It happens because those in power decided it was acceptable. For the avoidance of doubt, we are the ones in power. The question is not really affordability; it is whether we have the courage and the will to take on such a transformative policy. At the moment, it feels like we are offering piecemeal change and minor tweaks. They may be necessary, but I do not believe they will excite anyone or make the tangible change that we need.”
House of Commons13 May 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I have raised this subject again and again in this House—just about every single year—and I was guaranteed that there would be some changes. I do not like being misled, inadvertently or otherwise, on such issues. Whatever our differences on migration, people right across this House agree that these children are not migrants, yet we continue to treat them like that and to price them out of their rights. I acknowledge the fact that there are measures in this King’s Speech to tackle the cost of living crisis but, frankly, successive Governments have been skirting around this issue for years, making minor tweaks that slightly ease the pressure but do not go far enough. It is time to be bold and to consider the merits of a universal basic income. This is not a radical idea; it is a logical one. Poverty is a political choice.”
House of Commons13 May 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“It would have been relatively straightforward to end this practice, but the Government have no plans to close this loophole and implement such legislation. As I said, I understand that these things take time, but there are some simple things that we could just get done. It feels like the Government may be inclined to capitulate to the right and row back on some of their climate goals, but I remind them that we lost more votes to the left of us than we did to the right of us; if we carry on doing the bare minimum on climate issues, this could only get worse. I would also have welcomed steps to strengthen the citizenship rights of children who were born here or have grown up here, and to address the extortionate fees that block them from becoming citizens.”
House of Commons13 May 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“We can now all stop pretending that Brexit was in any way a good idea. Watching the disastrous impact that it has had, I feel vindicated, but I would also advise the Government that, with all the Henry III clauses in that legislation, we could do so much more and faster, and we could do it in a way that would quickly benefit our nation. I understand that some things take time, but other things are not hard. I would have liked to see steps to address the continued private sale of human remains. At the start of this year, I presented a simple Bill that ought to have ended the vile practice of human remains, many of which have unknown provenance, being bought and sold by private individuals.”
House of Commons13 May 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I would have liked to see greater acknowledgement of the biggest existential crisis we face as a species, nationally, by reducing the planning burdens on solar farms and on offshore wind. If the Government really want to help people with their energy bills, we need to be switching to renewables much faster. Internationally, I would have liked to see steps to introduce debt cancellations for those climate-vulnerable nations who are fighting the crisis with their hands tied behind their backs. If we want to reduce the numbers of people seeking asylum, we need to work with allies to tackle the biggest causes of displacement. As the only Labour MP to vote against the Brexit implementation agreement, I was very pleased to see measures on the strengthening of our relationship with the EU.”
House of Commons13 May 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“We acknowledge that those living in social housing need their rents capped and regulated, yet we disregard the thousands of low-income households and young people left at the mercy of the private rental markets. I had also hoped to see a second employment rights Bill announced today. While the first one deserves significant praise, it does not go far enough. We need a Bill that will restore sectoral collective bargaining, give basic rights to the self-employed and gig economy workers, and commit to greater insourcing. The nationalisation of British Steel is welcome, but this should have been accompanied by the nationalisation of rail, mail, water, energy and other essential services. These are not mere industries; they are lifelines. They should never have been handed over to shareholders, and it is long past time we took them back.”
House of Commons13 May 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I do not believe that my constituents will hear this and think, “My life will be better when Labour introduces digital ID, replaces the water regulator and instigates another top-down reform of the NHS.” At a time of great turmoil and difficulty, with global uncertainty hitting households in their pockets, people need policies that will ease the financial pressure they are under today. Building on the successes of the last legislative Session—and there were successes—I would have liked to see an extension of renters’ rights and the introduction of rent controls, especially in major cities where private rents are beyond extortionate.”
House of Commons13 May 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“It seems that we have put the handbrake on offering change, and that we are wasting political capital on divisive measures that were not even in our manifesto, such as ID cards and curtailing the rights of asylum seekers. I want to be clear that I am not in any way objecting to the King’s Speech. I am pleased to see measures like the Bills on conversion practices, on votes at 16, on tackling antisemitism and on reforming leaseholds, as well as the Hillsborough law and many other key measures, but why are we not doing more? What is there to shout about? Last week, the electorate sent our party a clear message that they were dissatisfied with the Government, and I do not believe that this is a King’s Speech to inspire them back to us.”
House of Commons13 May 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“In 2024, the public voted for change, for an end to Tory chaos and for a Government who would transform their lives. That summer, our Government set out a King’s Speech to deliver that. In the past two years, in spite of everything, we have begun to make truly transformational changes, including ending no-fault evictions and finally scrapping the two-child benefit cap. Those are things that have changed lives, but today’s offering pales in comparison, perhaps because we have heard so much of it before, but definitely because it lacks the urgency and the radical transformation that we need. I do not believe that this is the “further and faster” that we have been hearing so much about.”
House of Commons13 May 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Establishing a maternity commissioner will make it someone’s job not just to monitor the problem but to actually fix it. We cannot continue to fail women in this way; it has to be somebody’s sole responsibility to fix this issue.”
House of Commons20 April 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“They could drive the implementation of the recommendations that have been sitting in reports for years; they could ensure that trusts are training staff to recognise and challenge racial bias in clinical settings. They would have a mandate to bring together disaggregated data collection, so that the disparities cannot be buried in averages. This is about accountability, and about setting clear direction and focus. What I have realised over the years when challenging these issues, particularly in black maternal health, is that without a dedicated focus, black maternal health remains everyone’s concern and nobody’s priority. I have often said that addressing the racial disparities in maternity care will improve the state of maternity care for all women and babies.”
House of Commons20 April 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“During last year’s Black Maternal Health Week debate, the responding Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for West Lancashire (Ashley Dalton), insisted that the Government were working towards setting an evidence-base target, but she was not forthcoming about when one would be announced. I hope the Minister will give some indication of that today. The call for a maternity commissioner is about accountability. A dedicated maternity commissioner would, for the first time, create a single accountable authority, with the mandate, resource and institutional weight to confront the systemic failures driving the black maternal health crisis. Right now, we are seeing a situation where the responsibility is completely diffuse—a commissioner would change that.”
House of Commons20 April 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“As we have heard many times in this debate, however, it cannot just be another report where we wring our hands and recommendations are produced that are simply ignored. In this country, in 2026, we cannot keep reeling off these statistics in debates such as this one. It makes no sense that a country like ours should be experiencing these issues and that so many women and their babies should be dying. Can the Minister specifically inform the Chamber whether a clear target to end the racial disparities in maternity care is expected to be included in the recommendations from the forthcoming report—something that appeared in our Labour party manifesto? Was the investigation tasked with offering advice on an attainable target, or will the Government develop a target based on the report’s findings and recommendations?”
House of Commons20 April 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The survey also said that 23% of black women did not receive the pain relief they requested, and just one in five women had been informed of how to make a complaint, with only 8% going on to pursue a formal process. The report has many more harrowing findings and I encourage Members to read it. I recognise the fact that action is being taken to address the overall crisis in our maternity care, and I welcome the Government’s national maternity and neonatal investigation, led by Baroness Amos, which I was pleased to feed into with the APPG for black maternal health. It is a much-needed investigation that I hope will provide some understanding as to why our maternity services are failing so many mothers and babies, as well as give clear recommendations to improve the state of maternity care.”
House of Commons20 April 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Although the disparities remain unacceptable, I recognise the work that is being done by NHS trusts to identify some of the shortcomings and address racial bias. As Members know, it is not just the death rate where racial disparities exist. Last year, Five X More conducted its second black maternity experiences report, a large-scale survey collecting the experiences of black women during their pregnancies and childbirth. Of the 1,000 respondents, 54% experienced challenges with healthcare professionals, 28% of women reported discrimination, mostly racial, and 49% stated that their experiences during labour and birth were not properly addressed. I cannot stress enough how deeply concerning it is that women are going through this intensely vulnerable experience and when they raise concerns they are being dismissed or ignored.”
House of Commons20 April 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“This week is Black Maternal Health Week, so I will speak about the continuing racial disparities in maternity care and why a commissioner would work to address them. Each Black Maternal Health Week, I usually start by addressing the statistics around black maternal health, which make for grim listening. When Five X More, the secretariat of the APPG, was first founded, black women were five times more likely to die in pregnancy and childbirth than white women. Now, the most recent MBRRACE-UK report shows that black women are three times more likely to die at that time. Although awareness has made an impact, unfortunately that statistic is not necessarily because less black women are dying but because more of all women are experiencing that horrible situation. Black women are still twice as likely to experience stillbirth and baby death.”
House of Commons20 April 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Alec. I thank my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Tony Vaughan) for expertly introducing the debate, and the petitioners, Louise Thompson and Theo Clarke, who I was pleased to work with on the birth trauma inquiry, for their continued work on these issues. As many hon. Members will know, maternity care is an issue of great importance to me. It is also of great importance to my constituents, as demonstrated by the hundreds who signed the petition. I wholeheartedly support the call for a maternity commissioner; as I am the chair of the all-party parliamentary group for black maternal health, I am sure that that will surprise no one.”
House of Commons20 April 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Here is the truth: we have made it cheaper to menstruate, but we have not made it safe to admit that someone is struggling because of it. Menstrual stigma continues to socially condition people to conceal their pain, push through it and stay silent at work. The cost of that silence is not abstract; for those living with endometriosis, dysmenorrhoea, adenomyosis or premenstrual dysphoric disorder, that silence means working through debilitating pain or losing earnings when they cannot, and in some cases losing jobs altogether. Those are real conditions. They are painful and often severe, and they exist within a system where female reproductive health has been chronically under-researched, underfunded and far too often dismissed.”
House of Commons13 April 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“We already see where progress has been made and where things have been championed in this House. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Erith and Thamesmead (Ms Oppong-Asare) on the ten-minute rule Bill she introduced recently and her consistent campaigning for improved endometriosis care. I also congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Bathgate and Linlithgow (Kirsteen Sullivan) on her work as the chair of the APPG on endometriosis. All that work matters and it is making a difference. Scotland became the first country in the world to legislate for free menstrual products, and across the UK we rightly abolished VAT on sanitary products in 2021, finally ending the so-called tampon tax. Steps like those matter, but they are not the end of the journey—not by a long way.”
House of Commons13 April 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“We pass around tampons and pads as if they are some sort of contraband that no one should see. That evasion is not accidental: it is the product of centuries of conditioning that told women their bodies were problems to be managed in silence and shame. Listening to my fellow hon. Friends speaking about their own experience, all I keep thinking is that, if young women had been flagged when they had painful periods, things would have been different for a lot of the conditions we are talking about, certainly in terms of the length of time to diagnosis. I am really pleased to contribute to this debate and support statutory menstrual leave, not as a radical policy but as a practical, compassionate and long-overdue step towards a fairer and healthier working society.”
House of Commons13 April 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Mundell. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Colne Valley (Paul Davies) for his opening remarks, and for his compassion and solidarity. He is absolutely right that every man should have a say in these issues and challenge them. As well as the fact that nearly half the global population will menstruate at some point in their lifetime, and on any given day 850 million people across the world are menstruating, we are all here because a woman somewhere had a menstrual cycle, so it is a concern for absolutely everybody. For something so universal, menstruation remains shrouded in coded language, embarrassment and unnecessary shame. We call it “the time of month”, “the painters are in”, “my cousin has come to stay”—anything but what it actually is.”
House of Commons13 April 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“In every case, the answer was not to abandon the protection, but to make the legal framework strong enough to prevent the discrimination. That is what we have to do here too. The ultimate goal is job security, wellbeing and genuine equality. Menstrual leave alone will not get us all the way there, but it is a serious, evidence-backed and compassionate step in the right direction. I urge this House to take it.”
House of Commons13 April 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The policy also offers vital protection for those who are too often overlooked, including transgender men and non-binary and gender-diverse people who menstruate. For many, disclosure of menstrual status can expose them to discrimination or worse. A clear statutory framework would provide safety, privacy and the reassurance that their needs were seen and protected by law. There are those who argue that menstrual leave would undermine women in the workplace, and that employers would discriminate against people who menstruate when hiring. I take that concern seriously, but that argument has been made against every single piece of workplace equality legislation in history: it was made against maternity leave, it was made against equal pay, and it was made against flexible working.”
House of Commons13 April 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Crucially, it would also begin to normalise the conversation and to challenge the stigma rather than reinforce it, because the answer to workplace discrimination is never to remain invisible. As we have heard, menstrual leave policies already exist across the globe: in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, China, Indonesia, Zambia, Mexico and, most recently, Portugal. They are not fringe experiments, but functioning workplace policies in countries with vastly different cultures and economies. The evidence that this is workable is already there. Here at home, our Employment Rights Act has introduced major reforms, including a day one right to sick pay. Menstrual leave would sit naturally alongside those changes if we were to implement it; it is consistent with the direction of travel and is the next logical step.”
House of Commons13 April 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Everyone should look at them when they can; they are shocking in comparison with what is spent on certain things in men’s and women’s health. Let us be honest about what that under-investment has cost us: endometriosis alone affects around 1.5 million people in the UK, taking an average of nearly nine years to diagnose, as we have heard. That is not a gap in the system, but a failure of the system; it is a failure rooted in a long-standing tendency to deprioritise women’s pain. Statutory menstrual leave would allow someone to take time off when they were genuinely unable to work due to menstruation, without fear of judgment, without risking their job security and without having to lie about why they are absent.”
House of Commons13 April 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I say that as someone who lives with endometriosis and constantly experiences that pain, thinking about what I can and cannot do, and what I will be able to manage this week or that week. I know what it is to sit in a meeting, stand through our many votes and carry on a role that demands my full presence when my body is screaming otherwise. I know from listening to other Members and so many different women speaking about it that I am far from alone. It is not a competition of who receives more health funding, but we have to say that men have won consistently. When my hon. Friend the Member for Milton Keynes Central (Emily Darlington) was speaking, I looked up some figures for the amount of investment into things such as Viagra.”
House of Commons13 April 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Inter-city rail fares in England remain eye-watering. London to Birmingham costs £72 on the day, London to Manchester £172 and London to Liverpool £179, but flying the same route can cost as little as £80. In Spain, rail reform drove up passenger numbers by 107% on comparable routes, with tickets as low as €12. The rail fare freeze is welcome, but fares remain unaffordable for many people. The Railways Bill promises powers to regulate fares, so how will the “reasonable” criteria be defined and enforced?”
House of Commons26 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The Good Friday agreement recognised the importance of addressing the suffering of victims of the troubles. Legislating for that remains unfinished business, as does the implementation of a border poll, for which there is significant support in the north. As we approach the anniversary of the agreement, does the Secretary of State agree that it is time to take action on both of those?”
House of Commons25 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urge the Government to issue a full and meaningful apology, on behalf of the UK government, for Britain’s role in African chattel enslavement and colonialism, and establish an All-Party Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry for Truth & Reparatory Justice. And the petitioners remain, etc.] [P003179]”
House of Commons25 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“And the petitioners remain, etc.” Following is the full text of the petition: [The petition of residents of the United Kingdom Declares that the Houses of Parliament and the UK government have not yet apologised for Britain’s role in African chattel enslavement and colonialism; further declares that the “deep sorrow and regret for our nation’s role in the slave trade” as has been previously expressed by former Prime Minister Tony Blair, does not constitute a meaningful apology for the enslavement, trafficking, genocide and extensive colonial crimes that our country engaged in; further declares that an official apology in our country’s name and the establishment of an All-Party Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry for Truth & Reparatory Justice can be the beginning of action to address its legacy; and further declares that once an apology has been offered, the UK can begin to engage with those nations and communities affected on discussions of reparatory justice, which can extend beyond monetary payment.”
House of Commons25 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Expressions of sorrow and regret are not an apology; nor are they befitting the crimes committed or Britain’s role in one of the gravest crimes in human history. We cannot begin to address the legacy of this injustice without first having the courage to acknowledge it. Atonement must start with truth. The petition states: “The petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urge the Government to issue a full and meaningful apology, on behalf of the UK government, for Britain’s role in African chattel enslavement and colonialism, and establish an All-Party Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry for Truth & Reparatory Justice.”
House of Commons25 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I rise very deliberately today, on 25 March, as it is the UN’s International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, and the very day on which a UN resolution formally declaring that slave trade is a crime against humanity is being debated. It is yet to be confirmed whether the UK will support that resolution. Further to the online petition of the all-party parliamentary group for Afrikan reparations, which has received almost 2,000 signatures, I present a petition on behalf of British residents who are outraged that the Government have never issued an unequivocal apology for Britain’s central role in African chattel enslavement and colonialism.”
House of Commons25 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. Tomorrow is the UN’s international day of remembrance of the victims of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade. The Ghanaian Government’s resolution declaring the transatlantic slave trade a crime against humanity, which is backed by the African Union, the Caribbean Community and a growing global coalition, will be debated. Given our nation’s central role in the trafficking and enslavement of African peoples, a vote against that resolution would be a betrayal of every life it consumed. The House has never debated this. How can we be certain that our UN vote reflects the will of this Parliament and, more importantly, the will of this country? How can we ensure that decisions of such magnitude taken in our name receive the democratic consideration they deserve before a vote is cast?”
House of Commons24 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“They put down roots based on the rules that they are given when they apply. Those families are attempting to live and work in this country based on the promises that were made. We will drag people into an endless cycle of visa applications and unpredictable fees, sitting alongside an asylum and accommodation system where private providers make millions from Government contracts despite repeated reports of mismanagement, abuse and dangerous conditions. In turn, we turn around and blame those who are the most vulnerable—those seeking asylum—and change their conditions.”
House of Commons17 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The fee is not an administrative cost; it is a revenue-raising exercise targeted at children, and it results in tens of thousands of children who have a legal right to British citizenship being priced out of it. They do not discover the consequences of that until later in life. Members may be wondering why I am still talking about this issue, given that the Government made a commitment in the House to reduce the financial burden on families and to address the issue specifically, but in all the proposals, I have not heard anything about it, and the fee remains the highest in Europe. The Government are also proposing to double the qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain. The idea that we would apply it retrospectively undermines the foundation of trust on which people make decisions when they come to work in the UK.”
House of Commons17 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I thank the hon. Member for Perth and Kinross-shire (Pete Wishart) for leading this debate. My Government came to power promising a fairer Britain, so I have to ask plainly, who exactly are all these immigration proposals for? They are not designed for the people I represent, who help to keep this country running. I want to start with the thousands of children and young people who have grown up in the UK and who are being pushed to the margins of the immigration system. They are being made to pay child citizenship fees of £1,214 to register as a British citizen. The Home Office’s own figures show that it makes a profit of £840 on each application.”
House of Commons17 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“My hon. Friend is absolutely right. How far have we fallen if we renege on those commitments that we have made, particularly those under the refugee convention? Removing such status or forcibly removing people who have lived here lawfully for a number of years would be in direct contravention of our values as a country. The Government cannot claim to support integration while pricing children out of citizenship. They cannot talk about fairness while extending the ILR pathway. They cannot promise compassion while allowing profiteering in the immigration system, while reneging on commitments and demonising asylum seekers. We need to build an immigration system that reflects not just our economic priorities, but our values as a country. These reforms do neither.”
House of Commons17 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The Trussell Trust’s recent “Hunger in the UK” report highlights the startling reality of food insecurity. It has found that rates are higher for private renters in receipt of housing benefit, either through local housing allowance or through the housing element of universal credit. Private renters on the lowest incomes cannot keep up with the rising cost of living, and maintaining the freeze on local housing allowance risks driving even more people into hunger and homelessness, because private renters receiving LHA will likely see an average shortfall of £243 a month. The Government have taken meaningful steps towards tackling food insecurity, but will the Chancellor build on this by lifting the freeze on local housing allowance?”
House of Commons10 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Does my hon. Friend agree that after enduring 14 years of Conservative government, now is the opportunity to implement the Lammy review in full?”
House of Commons10 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“As learned Friends know, courts could be instructed to prioritise rape cases and have them heard in a set period of time, such as six months. As my brave hon. Friend the Member for Warrington North (Charlotte Nichols) asked, where are the specialist courts? None of these things require legislation. We need to address the backlog in our criminal courts, but any steps taken should never jeopardise equality or access to justice.”
House of Commons10 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“While there is lots to welcome in the Bill, I fear it has been completely overshadowed by plans to restrict jury trials. This is not what victims are asking for—they need changes that are backed by evidence and that will result in genuine improvements to the criminal justice system. Jury trials are not what has led to the backlog, and these reforms will not reduce it. I have a close friend who is a survivor of rape, and she is alarmed by this proposal. After a three and a half year wait for her trial, the delay made her suicidal. She desperately wants action on court backlogs, but she opposes these plans and is outraged that her trauma and that of thousands of survivors is being used to justify what she sees as effectively a cost-cutting exercise.”
House of Commons10 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“To quote Ife Thompson, one of the brilliant lawyers who was protesting outside Parliament today, “In a justice system that already produces racially discriminatory outcomes, removing juries means removing one of the few spaces where ordinary people and some real diversity still exist in the courtroom.” We all have to have red lines, and racism in our justice system has ruined so many lives in our communities. I cannot support this measure, and if it is not removed from the legislation, I will not be supporting this Bill.”
House of Commons10 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The wholesale change that we ought to be considering today is the complete reversal of the austerity measures introduced by the coalition Government, which led to this mess, but that has been overshadowed by the proposal to restrict jury trials. Finally, racial bias in our criminal justice system is well documented. Any reforms should address this head-on, but to conduct a post-legislative review on discrimination is deeply insulting to those communities that are impacted. As I said earlier, this Bill was our opportunity to fully implement the Lammy review; instead, we will have a situation where there is no automatic right to appeal, when black women are 22% more likely to be convicted.”
House of Commons10 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“We should provide greater flexibility for hearings and allow virtual courts, so that more cases are heard; permit all available judges, including those who have retired but are below the age of 75, to sit as many days as they are available; invest in more court staff and support; and list trials from Monday to Thursday, so that all short matters can be dealt with on one day—namely, Friday—minimising disruption for all other court users, such as jurors, witnesses and defendants. These are all simple changes that would significantly maximise sittings while preserving the basic foundations of our criminal justice system.”
House of Commons10 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“My hon. Friend is absolutely right. She will have heard people talk many times in this Chamber about the lack of diversity in our judicial system. Last July, I met the Bar Council, because when a sector has issues we should talk to the workers—more often than not, they have the solutions. In my view, that has always been the Labour way. They had a number of recommendations that should be considered—for example, that defendants who are awaiting trial should be remanded at a conveniently located prison close to the court, because Serco, the company tasked with prisoner transportation, persistently fails to transport prisoners in good time. This wastes the court’s time and results in a new court date having to be set. We should end that privatisation and bring prisoner transportation back in-house.”
House of Commons10 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I welcome the Foreign Office’s preparation for a potential evacuation of Britons currently in the middle east and the Prime Minister’s commitment to their safety. However, among them will be a number of British residents who may have gone there for work or leisure—I have not heard them mentioned specifically today—who live their whole lives here and have their families here, like many of the 12,000 non-UK Commonwealth citizens who currently serve in our armed forces. People are concerned given the negative rhetoric surrounding those with indefinite leave to remain at the moment. Will the Prime Minister therefore confirm that all UK residents, and not just citizens, will be included in any evacuation? They are our people, too.”
House of Commons2 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“This is the Representation of the People Bill; it should seek to strengthen and improve the representation of British people by giving the electorate greater power to hold their MPs to account. The Bill is a great starting point for strengthening our democracy, and I hope the Government will not shy away from going further.”
House of Commons2 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“That can take years, and during that time their constituents are not getting the representation they deserve. Unlike recall procedures in other countries, the Recall of MPs Act 2015 does not allow constituents to initiate proceedings, instead relying on criminal criteria being met. Even then, a high threshold of petitioners is needed for a by-election to be triggered. Over a number of years, MPs have been investigated for criminal offences or gross misconduct, and Members have failed to behave in a standard that is befitting of an MP. They have disgraced themselves, our profession and this House and, most importantly, they have failed their constituents. With trust in politicians at an all-time low, we need to show that we are willing to put it right.”
House of Commons2 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I ask the Minister when they respond to outline what the Government have planned. I very much welcome the provisions in the Bill that will introduce automatic voter registration, which is an important step to improve voter turnout. I would also like to see the Bill go the way of Australia, where everybody who is eligible to vote has a legal obligation to do so. Finally, I would like to see the Bill offer more power to the electorate to recall their Members of Parliament—yes, you heard that right. I suspect this is not a suggestion that will make me popular with my colleagues, but I think we should all be more concerned about what our constituents think. At the moment, for an MP to be recalled, they must be convicted of a criminal offence that makes them eligible and they must have exhausted the appeals process.”
House of Commons2 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗