Shadow Secretary of State for Transport
Conservative MP for Basildon and Billericay
I beg to move, That this House declines to give a Second Reading to the Railways Bill because it prioritises putting the rail system under state control, rather than prioritising passengers and taxpayers, and the effective and efficient running of the railway; because it significantly reduces the role of the independent regulator, the Office of Rail and Road, whose duties it transfers in...
My hon. Friend makes an important point. It was interesting to hear Government Members saying, “Yes, yes,” while he spoke, because that is exactly what they did: they threw money at the transport unions. It is particularly interesting that the Secretary of State said today that the railways will face a £2 billion-a-year subsidy for the foreseeable future, because that is not what the...
We can all see the ideology at play today. I think the hon. Gentleman’s constituency is in Greater Manchester, where the mayor is calling for a concessionary model—a partnership between the state and the private sector that is directly opposed in the Bill that he will support this evening. The hon. Gentleman is quite far off the mark. The number of passengers on our railways doubled in...
The previous Government did a huge amount to improve access to stations throughout the country. I would like to see more of that.
I totally agree with my right hon. Friend on that issue. Earlier, he made the important point that people want to see through-trains running, because there is nothing that benefits disabled passengers more than the through-train services such as from his constituency, which would be available with open access. I believe that the Department for Transport has opposed that for the service he...
The hon. Gentleman, along with some of his colleagues, has not been listening to what I have been saying, because we put forward the Williams-Shapps review to deliver a new concessionary model. Some of the funding he mentioned was delivered through modernisation, and it was delivered under the last Government. Let us be clear about what is happening with SWR: under this Government, his...
I totally agree with my hon. Friend. It is clear that when it comes to modernisation, access and new trains, that is exactly what we want to see delivered, and there is no mention of that in the Bill. We have tabled our reasoned amendment today because a Bill with no independent regulator, no protection for competition or taxpayers’ money, no passenger growth duty and no credible...
The real issue here is hiding in plain sight. It is on the annunciator. This is all about bearing down on inflation, because this Government have already catastrophically failed to keep it at 2%, where the Conservative party left it at the time of the general election. That is having an impact on the cost of living up and down the country. From every single business I visit, and every single...
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she plans to extend the child Air Passenger Duty exemption to Premium Economy cabins.
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate her Department has made of the fiscal cost of Benefit-in-Kind rates for zero-emission company cars, including (a) the cost of the 3 per cent rate in 2025–26, (b) the revenue forgone when the rate was 0 per cent and 2 per cent, and (c) any comparable figures for plug-in hybrid and ultra-low-emission vehicles.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to help ensure that British investors and pension funds are not prevented from challenging harmful actions by Chinese actors in Cayman Islands courts.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the recent ruling on 51Job, Inc. by the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands, what steps he is taking to ensure that Cayman Islands institutions have the (a) capability and (b) willingness to protect (i) British investors and (ii) pension funds from harmful actions by Chinese actors.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, in light of the recent ruling on 51Job, Inc. by the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands, what steps she is taking to ensure that Overseas Territory courts comply with Privy Council rulings in cases involving (a) British investors and (b) pension funds.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the cyber-attack on the Legal Aid Agency’s digital systems on the finances of legal aid firms; how many providers have received (a) partial and (b) emergency contingency payments since that incident; and what additional financial support he plans to provide to firms undertaking legal aid work...
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to encourage healthy eating habits in young people, separate from Out of Home Calorie Labelling Regulations.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 21 November 2025 to Question 93455, whether it ceased to be her department's policy that 50% of journeys in towns and cities should be walked or cycled by 2030 when the second Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy ended in March 2025.
