Helena Dollimore

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234 held · 227 searchable for Helena Dollimore. The searchable lines are below in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 2 of 5.

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1. “The Bayeux tapestry exhibition at the British Museum will be the exhibition of a generation, and I want children from 1066 country to see it and feel pride in knowing that the story it tells began in the place they call home. When I go into our local schools, our young people are proud to be from Hastings. They must not be priced out of a ticket and a chance to celebrate the legacy of our town on the national stage. I urge the British Museum to guarantee places for schoolchildren from Hastings and the surrounding area, and to support the cost of travel so that access is not determined by how well off our local schools are. My challenge to the British Museum is for it to live up to its name and to truly be the museum of Britain, ensuring that young people from Hastings and 1066 country get to visit.”

   House of Commons25 February 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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2. “Yet although we have often found ourselves at the centre of historic events, we have not always felt the benefits. Across Hastings, Rye and the villages, over 60% of young people leave school without a level 4—the equivalent of grade C—or above in English and maths GCSE. The Sutton Trust has said that we are in the bottom 10 places nationally for social mobility, and our life expectancy is below the national average. We may be a similar distance from London as Brighton, but our train takes twice as long. Our infrastructure has suffered from 14 years of neglect and our roads are riddled with potholes. All that is symbolic of how we have too often been forgotten by Westminster, Whitehall and London cultural circles.”

   House of Commons25 February 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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3. “William the Conqueror’s landing on our Sussex shore is a story familiar to every schoolchild in Britain. The date 1066 is etched into our national consciousness, and the battle of Hastings was a defining moment in British history that continues to shape who we are today. While historians—and, indeed, sometimes Members of the House—may disagree on exactly where the battle took place, a millennium later the clash between the Saxons and the Normans still resonates across our land. In fact, Hastings and the surrounding area—I see other hon. Members who represent it here in the Chamber—is known as “1066 country”, so inseparable is our identity from the events immortalised in the Bayeux tapestry. Many streets in Hastings bear names referencing Saxon, Norman, William and Harold, and even our local hospital is aptly named the Conquest hospital.”

   House of Commons25 February 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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4. “No other work of art is as entwined with our island’s story as the Bayeux tapestry, which quite literally wove my constituency of Hastings, Rye and the villages into our national history. The tapestry’s return home after spending nearly 1,000 years across the channel is a triumph for Britain, and it is testament to this Labour Government’s success in strengthening our relations with our closest European neighbours. This loan is a symbol of our shared history with our friends in France. I pay tribute to all those involved in arranging it, and in particular to Antoine Verney, the director of the Bayeux Tapestry Museum who sadly passed away earlier this month. I also thank everyone involved on both sides of the channel, including the British Museum and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.”

   House of Commons25 February 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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5. “We might be tucked away on the south coast, but we punch well above our weight in our visitor and tourist experience. From Hastings museum to Hastings castle, Hastings contemporary gallery, Rye heritage centre, Camber Sands, Rye harbour nature reserve, Hastings country park and many more, we have so much to offer people wanting to visit. With next year marking the 1,000th anniversary of the birth of William the Conqueror, we will celebrate this Year of the Normans with special events across Hastings, Rye and the villages. I would like to see one of the many replicas of the Bayeux tapestry put on display in Hastings. I cannot think of any better place to be named the UK’s town of culture, which Hastings hopes to be named next year.”

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6. “I am urging many of our transport providers to make sure that we can make it easier for tourists to visit 1066 country during this important moment, and that includes urging Southeastern to look at how it can make it quicker for tourists to visit our area by train. This also extends to visitors from abroad, and that is why I have been campaigning to bring back international trains to Ashford International, to encourage our European neighbours across the channel to visit us in 1066 country and in Hastings and Rye, and to make that visit easier. Hopefully, this time they will be armed with buckets and spades rather than bows and arrows, and they will certainly receive a much warmer welcome than they did in 1066. Not only is 1066 country rich in history, but it is rich in landscape, heritage and culture.”

   House of Commons25 February 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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7. “The hon. Member is right that schoolchildren must be able to access the exhibition. They should not be put off by the price of a ticket to the exhibition or a train ticket—or even a flight in his case. It is really important. I speak as someone who went to local state schools and was lucky enough to go on and study history at university. Who knows who we could inspire by allowing schoolchildren to see the exhibition? We want schoolchildren to see the exhibition, but we also want to encourage visitors to the exhibition in north London to take a further step back in time and visit 1066 country, the place where it all happened.”

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8. “Although there may be other beautiful places in the UK that we compete with, this is a one-in-the-eye for them and our big chance to showcase everything that Hastings, Rye and the villages have to offer. The return of the Bayeux tapestry will be a national moment that belongs to the whole country, but it must have a special place for the people of 1066 country, where this story began.”

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9. “I thank my hon. Friend. Indeed, we have many replicas of the tapestry. There is the one he mentioned in Reading museum. There is also one that Hastings borough council has in storage, and I am urging it to take it out of storage and put it on show in time for the big moment later this year. I am also aware that the hon. Member for Bexhill and Battle (Dr Mullan) will speak later about another one that is under way. As I have said, much of our area relies on the tourist economy, which supports one in five jobs in our region. We have a wealth of small, fantastic independent pubs, restaurants and hotels, which work exceptionally hard to give our visitors a warm welcome. This has to be a big moment for them, when they too feel the benefits.”

   House of Commons25 February 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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10. “I thank the Minister for his commitment to helping the children of Hastings to get to see this exhibition. Does he recognise that schools that are not as well off need help getting children to the British Museum in north London, whether by coach or train? They simply do not have the spare funds. Anything that he can do, in discussion with the museum, donors and other supporters of access to the arts, would be much appreciated.”

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11. “I want to raise a case in Hastings, where £150,000 of levelling-up money was given to Lubov Chernukhin, the Conservatives’ biggest female donor, who is married to a former Finance Minister in Putin’s Russia. She took the levelling-up money, and the building—Owens in the town centre—closed after a matter of weeks. It was boarded up and the staff were not paid. Last April, I asked for that money back. I am still waiting to hear from her. Does my hon. Friend agree that the Conservative Front-Bench spokesperson should address that in her response to the debate?”

    House of Commons9 February 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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12. “I thank the hon. Member for highlighting the importance of access to play. Something that many children and parents have raised with me in Hastings and Rye is how many playgrounds have closed or fallen into disrepair in my constituency. I have done an audit of all the playgrounds and found that eight have closed since 2015 and more than half need upgrading. Many of them are run by housing associations that neglect their duty to maintain them. Does she agree that we have to do better and ensure that the playgrounds, often in the most needy parts of our constituencies, are properly maintained so that children can enjoy them?”

    House of Commons26 January 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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13. “The measure of introducing MOTs on broken water infrastructure will also be critical for preventing that kind of thing from happening. One of the things that I campaigned on is having clear guidance in the event of an outage and on the conditions that water companies must comply with—not just bottled water, but hygiene facilities and portaloos. Indeed, the Committee has also recommended that. Will the Secretary of State look at that request so we can be better prepared if outages occur?”

    House of Commons21 January 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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14. “Those of us in this House who sit on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee and grilled the water bosses know all too well how broken this industry is, so I welcome the Government’s commitment to addressing the failures of the industry with these important reforms. As the Secretary of State knows, in Hastings and Rye, we have faced major water outages. In May 2024, the main pipe supplying Hastings burst, leaving 30,000 homes without water for days. It also burst this Christmas, leaving people without water on Christmas day. We have since found out that Southern Water received planning permission in 2007 to replace the pipe but sat on its hands instead. This month, it begins the work to replace the pipe because of the pressure that I and this Government have put on the water industry.”

    House of Commons21 January 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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15. “Many of my constituents do not understand why we have an inefficient, duplicative, confusing system of two-tier councils at the moment. They are looking forward to this process going ahead and to having one council. As we await the process, it is really important that the councils we have remain responsive to our constituents’ needs. To give one example, I am organising a meeting next month about local bus services. I have invited East Sussex county council, run by the Conservatives, as the responsible transport authority, but it is currently refusing to send anyone to the meeting. Does the Minister agree that is unacceptable, particularly because it has been given a record amount of money by this Labour Government—over £10 million—to improve our bus services and my constituents want to tell it their experiences of buses?”

    House of Commons19 January 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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16. “The people I represent are fed up with Southern Water, when it comes to everything from sewage and broken pipes to water outages, even on Christmas day. In November, millions of plastic beads washed up on our beaches, and we discovered that they came from a Southern Water treatment plant. I am campaigning for water companies to stop using this outdated plastic bead method, and to bin the beads. We are really concerned about the impact on wildlife, and have a massive clean-up operation on our hands. More than 5,000 people have already supported my campaign with the Sussex Wildlife Trust. Does the Prime Minister share my horror about this dereliction of duty by Southern Water, and will he join me in calling for it to face the full force of the law for that terrible pollution incident?”

    House of Commons14 January 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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17. “The Minister will be aware that in a number of places in Sussex and Kent—including in your Sussex Weald constituency, Madam Deputy Speaker—people are still without water as a result of the power outages that occurred during the storm. The power supply to waterworks is interrupted briefly, but then the water supply goes off for days, if not longer, which is a really serious interruption for people. The national risk register, which the Cabinet Office oversees, currently ranks loss of water supply as the lowest form of risk—one out of five—which I think many of us who have constituents living without water for days would struggle with. Will the Minister have a look at whether it is ranked correctly in the national risk register, and what preparations there need to be for major incidents such as this?”

    House of Commons13 January 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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18. “When we are building the new homes that we desperately need, it is important that we think about playgrounds and access to play. I have just audited all the playgrounds in Hastings and Rye. I found that many parents and children have to walk for over 20 minutes to get to a playground, particularly in new build estates, and housing associations have shamefully closed many playgrounds in recent years. Will the Minister meet me to discuss these findings, how we can ensure that new house building includes access to play and how we can put pressure on housing associations to live up to their duty to provide play?”

    House of Commons12 January 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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19. “The report outlined the need for more water stations, the need to consider the weight of six 2-litre bottles for people who are disabled and on the priority list, and the fact that those learnings are not being taken into account by the water companies, as well as the need for hygiene: several days into a water outage, people cannot wash their hands, they cannot clean and prepare food and they cannot have a shower. What are the Government doing to put pressure on the water companies to heed the findings and the learnings from each of these outages in our constituencies, given that the lessons do not seem to be being learnt every time?”

    House of Commons12 January 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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20. “My constituency was affected by the water outage over the Christmas period, and I thank the Minister for her support over that period—for keeping me updated, and for briefing the water company. I really feel for the people who are experiencing these outages. The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee has been trying to learn the lessons from the incidents in my constituency, but it seems that the mistakes are still being repeated.”

    House of Commons12 January 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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21. “I really welcome the return of Erasmus and the opportunity for young people in Hastings and Rye to study and train in Europe again. As a coastal town, we also want to see the return of our closest link with our European neighbours through bringing back international trains to Ashford International, which this Labour Government support. [Hon. Members: “Hear, hear!”] I hear many south-east colleagues echoing that call. Could the Minister, in his discussions with European colleagues, encourage discussions with Eurostar and urge Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Trains, which will soon be running trains on the line, to stop at Ashford International?”

    House of Commons17 December 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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22. “I recognise that the Minister cannot comment on the live investigation by the Environment Agency, but does she agree that the Environment Agency must look at the use of these beads, and at how we can prevent such an environmental catastrophe from ever happening again?”

    House of Commons17 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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23. “I thank the hon. Member for Bicester and Woodstock (Calum Miller) for bringing forward this urgent question. As the Minister knows from her visit to my constituency last week, millions of plastic beads recently washed up there. After initially denying any involvement, Southern Water has admitted that it was responsible, and that they came from its waste water treatment plant. This is a huge environmental catastrophe, not least because we know that the beads pose a serious risk to wildlife, and we are awaiting further investigation of just how toxic they could be. At my public meeting on this issue last week with over 100 residents, Southern Water admitted that the use of these beads is outdated, and that there are better modern methods.”

    House of Commons17 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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24. “Will the Minister also remark on the fact that 11 UN staff are still being held hostage in Yemen by the Houthis—another example of attacks on health and aid workers across the world?”

    House of Commons5 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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25. “I share the view of Members across the House that the crisis in Sudan is simply not getting enough focus from the world. I thank the Minister for his leadership in this area. The situation in Sudan is absolutely horrendous. In last week’s attack on the maternity hospital in El Fasher, almost 500 civilians were killed. In the words of the UN relief chief, “women and girls are being raped…mutilated and killed—with utter impunity”. We know that this is an increasing trend across the world: more aid workers and health workers are being killed. What are the Government doing to ensure that aid workers and health workers are not targeted? What we are doing to tackle rape and sexual violence in conflicts?”

    House of Commons5 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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26. “The hon. Member is talking about the importance of high streets. In Hastings town centre, £150,000 of levelling-up money was provided to renovate the old Debenhams building and open a family fun factory. Sadly, that closed after a couple of weeks, the staff were not paid, and the building was boarded up. That taxpayer money was given to one of the biggest Conservative donors, Lubov Chernukhin. She has left with the money, and has not replied to my letter asking for it to be given back to the people of Hastings. Will the hon. Member, or perhaps the right hon. Member for Witham (Priti Patel)—who received £70,000 from that donor last year—help me to get a response about where our money is?”

    House of Commons4 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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27. “The Minister is talking about the Conservative party’s record of damaging our high streets. As I mentioned earlier, in Hastings, £150,000 of levelling-up money was given to a Conservative donor, who ran off with it and left a boarded-up shop in our town centre. I did not hear from the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Arundel and South Downs (Andrew Griffith), whether the Conservative party will refuse to take any donations from Ms Chernukhin after she ran off with that money.”

    House of Commons4 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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28. “I thank the hon. Member for securing this important debate on independent lifeboats and their support. In my own constituency of Hastings and Rye, we have the Pett Level independent rescue boat, which does amazing work saving lives at sea all year round. They are all volunteers and all the money they raise comes from public donations. Will the hon. Member join me in paying tribute to them, as well as our local RNLI in Hastings and Rye harbours?”

    House of Commons29 October 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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29. “In that time, my constituents have been stuck in damp and mouldy housing and subject to section 21 evictions, and many children have been growing up in temporary accommodation, because of the delays to the legislation in the other place. Opposition parties whose Lords placed so many amendments should be ashamed for slowing down the legislation.”

    House of Commons22 October 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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30. “Let us be clear: the Bill is the biggest uplift to renters’ rights in a generation. It will make a huge difference for so many people in my constituency. Before I come to the amendments, I place on the record my thanks to the Minister stewarding the Bill through Parliament, and to my right hon. Friend the Member for Ashton-under-Lyne (Angela Rayner) for her remarks as a champion of renters and social housing in this country. I also place on the record my anger that the Bill has taken so long to pass through Parliament. It is an absolute disgrace that it has been slowed down—bogged down in amendments—by the other place, which has delayed these vital rights reaching my constituents. Opposition parties tabled 450 amendments, so our colleagues in the other place had to sit for a very long time to get the Bill through.”

    House of Commons22 October 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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31. “Jules Fielder is a young woman from Hastings who has tragically been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer after doctors repeatedly missed the early symptoms. Jules is now channelling her personal tragedy into action and campaigning to raise awareness of early symptoms, and she wants shops like Boots and Superdrug to use their shelf space to raise awareness. Will the Minister join me in paying tribute to Jules’s amazing campaigning work?”

    House of Commons21 October 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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32. “May I add my congratulations to the new Archbishop of Canterbury? I wrote my thesis on the campaign for women’s ordination in the Church of England, so it is brilliant to see a woman go to the highest office for the first time, and I place on the record my thanks to the women and men who campaigned for women’s ordination in the first place. Will my hon. Friend join me in celebrating the role that women are playing in the Church of England at all levels across our country?”

    House of Commons16 October 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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33. “I really welcome the £21.5 million of extra funding for Hastings, and I am delighted that hundreds of residents have been in touch with their ideas about how to spend it. As the Minister said, it is better spent on people’s priorities and not wasted as in previous schemes under the Conservative party, like the £150,000 wasted on Owens in Hastings. Public money was also spent on reopening the Bridge community centre in Ore, which has sadly been closed for seven years, so many in Hastings were shocked to hear that Parchment Trust, which was given the centre for free, plans to sell it on the open market for £650,000. Does the Minister agree that Parchment Trust should look at how it can return the centre to public hands and take up the Charity Commission’s offer to meet to discuss that?”

    House of Commons15 October 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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34. “It is clear those objections are less about capacity and more about protecting an unfair monopoly. I urge the regulator to grasp this opportunity for growth; its decision will be a key test of whether regulators can live up to our Labour Government’s call for a pro-growth regulatory regime.”

    House of Commons14 October 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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35. “The Government have been clear with potential new operators that this neglect cannot continue, and their willingness to restore services at Ashford will weigh heavily on how the regulator views the decision. Just this weekend, Italian train operator FS—Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane—publicly affirmed its commitment to reopening Ashford International station, a ringing endorsement of our area and of Britain as a place to invest. Other operators have left the door open to bringing back trains to Ashford International. I urge them to make the same firm public commitment as FS in their plans. In response to the prospect of competition, Eurostar has argued to the Office of Rail and Road that there is no space in the depot to accommodate other operators.”

    House of Commons14 October 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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36. “A recent report by leading think-tank, the Good Growth Foundation, found that reopening the station could bring in an extra half a million visitors a year to Sussex and Kent. That would bring in more than £2.5 billion to our local regional economy over the next five years. It would cut hours off a trip from Hastings to Paris or Paris to Hastings, and provide a massive boost to our region. The Labour Government are serious about delivering for our area. We are building prosperity in towns and cities that have been starved of investment for too long. The Labour Government will not allow our communities in Sussex and Kent to fall behind any longer. Eurostar should not have a monopoly on this track, which is why I have urged the rail regulator, the Office of Rail and Road, to allow rival operators to run on the line.”

    House of Commons14 October 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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37. “As another local company said to me, “when the trains stopped, so did a lot of our business.” The now abandoned terminal was once a gateway between Britain and Europe, full of promise for investment, tourism and stronger ties with our closest European neighbours. It is now a symbol of decline and neglect, leaving tens of millions of taxpayers’ pounds sitting idle. It is communities such as the ones I represent in Hastings, Rye and the villages that have suffered the consequence of that decision. The visitor economy has been slower to recover from the pandemic than in other areas, and the indefinite cut-off from international rail has hit tourism. We do not have to accept that decline.”

    House of Commons14 October 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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38. “Local residents and businesses also understand that international services from Ashford were more than just a transport link; those services meant a huge amount to our local economy, our connectivity and our identity as a region. Many local businesses in my constituency of Hastings and Rye have raised with me the lost link at Ashford International. One local hotel owner said she has seen fewer guests coming from Europe since losing the link. Another business that trades extensively with Europe finds it harder to do those deals without the clear connection from Ashford. It has a real impact on our local economy.”

    House of Commons14 October 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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39. “My constituents in Hastings, Rye and the villages have to travel up to St Pancras from Ashford, only to come back down the same line. It is particularly depressing to pass through the deserted terminal just before entering the channel tunnel—sometimes people even see their car that they parked there earlier. A one hour 50 minute journey from Ashford to Paris now takes upwards of four hours for my constituents, and even longer if they are coming from Hastings or Rye. The cost of the journey has doubled, and for some it has tripled or quadrupled, because they have to factor in the cost of an overnight stay in London for an early morning train. It is expensive, it takes longer, and it does not make any sense.”

    House of Commons14 October 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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40. “Her answers were lacking, and the truth is that Eurostar used covid as an excuse, having run down the service at Ashford International for years before the pandemic, with fewer trains stopping there. It was clear from our conversation that Eurostar has failed to do any kind of serious business assessment of Ashford’s potential, and it instead prefers to pile passengers into an already-packed St Pancras terminal. Anyone who has taken the train from St Pancras recently can tell us how chaotic the check-in is. Why add more passengers to a terminal that is already stretched to its limits, as Eurostar says it plans to do? For our constituents in Sussex and Kent, using the Eurostar now takes much longer than it used to, and it costs more.”

    House of Commons14 October 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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41. “It was strange to be back in the terminal this summer, with the abandoned check-in desks and the seats wrapped in plastic, but what struck me was that everything is still there—ready to go. It is an absolute no-brainer to get Ashford back into use. Earlier this year, I, along with many Members in this room from both sides of the House, met the chief executive of Eurostar to stress the importance of her company returning international services to Ashford. I reminded her that Ashford International terminal was opened with significant taxpayer investment, and that Eurostar has not only a business case to return these services, but a moral responsibility to the areas that it promises to serve.”

    House of Commons14 October 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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42. “I loved going on what I then called the “yellow-nosed train” and having a whole continent on our doorstep. Today, however, Ashford International is a ghost station. During the pandemic, Eurostar decided that its trains would no longer stop at Ashford between London and Paris—or anywhere else for that matter—making the service much less accessible for those of us halfway along the track, like my constituents down on the south coast and the constituents of many other Members who are here with us today. The terminal at Ashford has been completely abandoned. The announcements and signs when people go through the station may still say “international”, but the two international platforms stand completely unused and empty.”

    House of Commons14 October 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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43. “I beg to move, That this House has considered the potential merits of returning international rail services to Ashford. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Desmond. When the channel tunnel first opened in 1994, it was rightly celebrated as a triumph of engineering and ambition. It showed that Britain was open for business, and our communities in Sussex and Kent continued their centuries-old role as gateways to Europe in a new modern form. When the international rail terminal was built two years later, Ashford became a hub of opportunity, with trains running directly to Paris—including to Disneyland—Brussels and beyond. One of my earliest memories when I was about five years old is boarding the Eurostar to France from Ashford International.”

    House of Commons14 October 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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44. “As I said, I urge the regulator to grasp the opportunity to support ending Eurostar’s monopoly when it makes its decision. That is an opportunity we cannot afford to miss. In Hastings, Rye and the villages, we know how much our area has to offer and how much we could gain from the restoration of international service. Thousands of my constituents have signed my petition calling for that vital link to be opened again, and I will keep working with the Labour Government and train operators to push for that to happen.”

    House of Commons14 October 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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45. “Member said that the issue under discussion might not affect his constituents too much, but actually we are in a time when air travel could be disrupted—we saw the ash cloud interruption a decade ago, which caused huge disruption—and we do need back-up options for travelling internationally. We have recently seen a number of incidents in the channel tunnel in which unexploded world war two bombs have caused massive disruption, and the fact that we have only two places on the line—the Gare du Nord and St Pancras—where passengers can be decanted during major interruptions is a significant risk to the line’s resilience. Opening up Ashford and providing more resilience on the European line would also improve services and resilience for our country.”

    House of Commons14 October 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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46. “I totally agree that having good, international rail travel is important, not just because it is often cheaper and easier, but because it is better for the environment. At a time when we need to consider climate change, we must have more options for people to travel to our closest European neighbours. Since Eurostar stopped the service at Ashford International, many people in our constituencies are not making the journey to St Pancras because it takes too long and costs too much. They are instead driving and taking the channel tunnel, or parking at Gatwick and taking a flight. We know it will be better for the environment to have services restored at Ashford International. There is also an important point about resilience. The hon.”

    House of Commons14 October 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗

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47. “My hon. Friend, like me, represents a constituency that the Sutton Trust has ranked one of the lowest for social mobility and opportunity. Does she agree that reopening the link would provide a massive boost to young people and opportunities for them in our area?”

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48. “I thank the hon. Member for making the case for international rail. Does he therefore agree with me that it is a great shame that the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition Government sold this country’s 40% stake in Eurostar in 2015, during their time in Government? As a result of that sale, we lost our seat at the table when Eurostar makes decisions about where it will stop. Looking back—I know it was a Government that he was not part of—does he also accept that his party made a mistake and will he apologise to our constituents for selling our country’s shares in Eurostar?”

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49. “Thousands of my constituents have backed my own campaign; my constituency neighbours have run similar campaigns as well. People really miss that close link with our European neighbours, and we need to see it back. We know it will boost jobs, tourism and opportunities for young people. International rail travel is greener, cheaper and faster. Restoring the service is a complete no-brainer. All the infrastructure is sitting there ready to go at Ashford International. Let us not let it gather more dust; let us bring back international trains. I urge the train operators and the rail regulator to make it happen and bring back international trains to Ashford. Question put and agreed to. R esolved , That this House has considered the potential merits of returning international rail services to Ashford.”

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50. “I thank the Government for their firm commitment to restoring international trains to Ashford International. It is a great shame that the Conservative and Lib Dem Government sold our 40% stake in Eurostar, losing our constituents a seat at the table in making decisions. With the work we are doing, I hope that we can continue to keep the pressure up. It is great that we have had cross-party support today for restoring services to Ashford. We have even had support from across the country, as far as Northern Ireland and York. It is really welcome to see that, although I am disappointed that we have seen no Members from Reform or the Green party taking part in today’s debate on a cross-party basis and adding their voices to this call. We know that the issue has huge support from our constituents.”

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