5,731 spoken contributions under 12 words (interjections such as “Will the hon. Member give way?”) are hidden. Show them

1. 18 Mar 2026·Parliament·Sir Julian Lewis

   Points of Order

   On a point of order, Mr Speaker. You have clearly explained that you are not responsible for the quality, or lack of it, in a Minister’s answers—or even a Prime Minister’s answers—but can you explain for the benefit of the House and the viewing public what Prime Minister’s questions is supposed to be about: namely, that the Opposition and other right hon. and hon. Members get to ask the Prime Minister a question about a subject of their choice, and that it is not an opportunity for him to then berate them for not asking a question about a completely different subject that he wishes had been asked?

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2. 18 Mar 2026·Parliament·Sir Julian Lewis

   Fuel Duty

   I like the Minister very much, not least because he represents the Welsh seat of my birth and upbringing, and because I have such respect for him, I am going to try to make the point to him that I have so far made with zero success to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, among others. It is all well and good to talk about the greatest increase in spending on defence since the end of the cold war if we are comparing the post cold war period with what is—shall we say?—a quiet defence period, but we are not. What we need to spend now is not to be compared with what it was like after the end of the cold war, but what it was like during the cold war, and during the cold war we regularly spent between 4.5% and 5% of GDP on defence. If he recognises that there is some merit in that argument, could he try to persuade his colleagues to stop making that false comparison?

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3. 18 Mar 2026·Parliament·Sir John Hayes

   Cheadle Train Station

   Order. I will call Tom Morrison to move the motion and then call the Minister to respond. I remind other Members that they may make a speech only with prior permission from the Member in charge of the debate and the Minister. As is the convention in these 30-minute debates, there will unfortunately not be an opportunity for the Member in charge to wind up.

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4. 18 Mar 2026·Parliament·Sir John Hayes

   Cheadle Train Station

   Before I call the Minister, I remind Members that we must conclude by 4.42 pm, when the next debate will begin.

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5. 18 Mar 2026·Parliament·Sir John Hayes

   Social Enterprises and Community Ownership

   Order. I see that lots of Members are bobbing. Given that I am going to call the wind-ups at 5.22 pm, Opposition spokesmen will have five minutes each and the Minister will have 10 minutes. You will appreciate that time is limited, so let us try to get everyone in. I suggest speeches of about three minutes.

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6. 18 Mar 2026·Parliament·Sir John Hayes

   Social Enterprises and Community Ownership

   Order. Members are getting two minutes each. Let us try to get everyone in.

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7. 18 Mar 2026·Parliament·Sir John Hayes

   Social Enterprises and Community Ownership

   Minister, will you leave a couple of moments for Jo Platt to sum up?

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8. 18 Mar 2026·Parliament·Sir John Hayes

   Points of Order

   On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Further to the point made by my right hon. Friend the Member for New Forest East (Sir Julian Lewis), and notwithstanding your ruling, Mr Speaker, “Erskine May” makes it clear that Ministers come to the House to answer questions, does it not? While the Standing Orders might need refining, do they not already make it clear that that is the purpose of the sessions that we have daily and, in the case of the Prime Minister, weekly?

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9. 18 Mar 2026·Parliament·Sir Jeremy Wright

   Engagements

   Q2. In January last year, I raised with the Prime Minister the issue of inadequate and inaccessible compensation for those injured by covid vaccinations. The Prime Minister undertook to look into it, along with the Health Secretary, but I am afraid that more than a year later no significant progress has been made. I know that the Prime Minister and the Government recognise the risk that this issue poses to public confidence in mass vaccination—all the more important given the Prime Minister’s opening remarks in this session—and, indeed, the pain it has caused to those who have been injured or lost loved ones for doing only what their Government asked them to do. Will the Prime Minister please re-engage with this issue and ensure that his Government make swift progress in resolving it?

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10. 18 Mar 2026·Parliament·Sir Iain Duncan Smith

    Freedom of Religion or Belief in China

    The agreement the Catholic Church signed allowed the Government to approve the bishops and the structure. One of the criticisms that many have made, myself included, is that in getting that agreement the Catholic Church in a way turned its back on all the other Christians in China. It got something—not something great—but to do that, it did not then represent them. As the senior Christian Church in the world, it does bear some responsibility to see Christianity prosper, not go the other way. Does my right hon. Friend agree?

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11. 18 Mar 2026·Parliament·Sir Iain Duncan Smith

    Freedom of Religion or Belief in China

    I owe you an apology, Ms Jardine, for arriving late to the debate. I am grateful for your chairmanship, and grateful to be allowed in, having been delayed. I congratulate the hon. Member for St Helens South and Whiston (Ms Rimmer) for securing the debate, and for being stalwart in all these issues about freedoms and rights of worship. I bow before her greater authority in this matter. Much of what I wish to say has already been said. Therefore, in the short time available, I will try to cover the issues that are at stake. We have talked consistently about the problems in China. There are of course many other countries in the world where Christians and Muslims are persecuted, but it is in China that the collective persecution becomes an absolute, state-inspired problem. The nature of what has been discussed already is quite remarkable. Look, for example, at the programme of Sinicisation of religion by law, and by deliberately abusive behaviour. Crosses must be removed from churches and domes, and the minarets of mosques must be demolished to make them look more like Chinese buildings. Pastors and imams are told to focus on religious teachings that reflect socialist values in line with those of China. Newly annotated versions of core religious texts, including the Bible, the Quran and others, have been issued back to places of worship, and what is left of the churches are regularly ordered to replace images of Jesus with pictures of Xi Jinping. Blatantly, boldly and in full view, China does not want to have any kind of worship beyond the worship of the communist, and in particular of Xi Jinping. In March this year, China approved a new law that codifies ethnic assimilation, in contravention of China’s own constitution and of international law. It mandates that all children must be taught Putonghua before kindergarten and—interestingly—that they will therefore avoid all aspects of other religions as a matter of doctrine. That brings me to two elements that I want to focus on. First, as has been said well by hon. Members in this debate, the Uyghurs are suffering a genocide. There is no question about it. The Chinese authorities find them a deeply troublesome group. They are not Han Chinese, and that is what most Chinese policy is about. At the core of the dislike of the Uyghurs lies their Muslim belief. What astounds me so often is that we know about this. We have campaigned on it. I was sanctioned because of the campaign on the Uyghurs. It is interesting how easily people have been allowed to forget the issue and not raise it. I would love all the mosques in the United Kingdom to raise the plight of the Uyghurs, because it is the right thing to do. I would love Christian churches to constantly talk of the plight of the Uyghurs. The Uyghurs have, in many respects, become forgotten. The persecution of the Uyghurs is appalling. Many hon. Members have talked about the nature of the re-education camps. When did we last hear about the concept of re-education camps? In Nazi Germany. It is astonishing. The women are persecuted and raped, and are now no longer having babies. The population of the Uyghurs has now collapsed because they are being forcibly sterilised, and the men are going off to forced labour—it is so obvious; millions have gone. By the way, to those who like the free market, I should underline the point that forced labour completely undermines the free market. How can anyone compete with a country that uses forced labour on a grand scale to make products and drive out competitors? There is, in every respect, an absence of tolerance to Christianity, Islam and Buddhism—we too often forget about the persecution of Tibetan Buddhists, nearly a quarter of a million of whom are in forced labour camps, rather like the Uyghurs. What is happening to the Uyghurs is a terrible travesty, but I also want to speak about Christianity and Christian churches. My right hon. Friend the Member for Gainsborough (Sir Edward Leigh), who I have a huge amount of time for, raised the issue of the role of the Catholic Church. I have to say to him that, since I set up the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, we have tried to extract from the hierarchy in the Catholic Church—I say this, by the way, as a Catholic—the text of what it agreed with the Chinese Government, and we have never been able to. It has never been published. We have never been able to refer to it. All we are asking for is that it be laid out in the open, so that we can see, first of all, whether the Chinese stick to their arrangements and, secondly, whether there was any provision for other Christians in China.

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12. 18 Mar 2026·Parliament·Sir Iain Duncan Smith

    Freedom of Religion or Belief in China

    I agree with my right hon. Friend completely. Openness sometimes is a far better disinfectant for a problem than keeping it behind closed doors. As we know, the reality, even under the agreement, is pretty appalling. The Chinese get to appoint the bishops they want. People cannot have church house meetings. All the Protestants and other free churches now suffer massive persecution; they can be closed down because the umbrella of the Catholic Church has moved away from them. What do we know about China? China is petrified about what happened to it, to Poland and eventually to the Soviet Union: the Catholic Church eventually broke down the whole adherence to communism in Poland; that infected pretty much the rest of the Soviet Union, which then collapsed. China is petrified that it will face the same. The only reason it did a deal with the Catholic Church at all was to try to put off the idea that it would be influential, and it has succeeded in that respect. I am very sorry that the previous Pope and the current Pope did not take it upon themselves to pursue this issue and sort it out. I take no pleasure in criticising the Church that I am a member of, but we have to be honest about this. The situation in China for Christians is appalling. We could have done more, and the Catholic Church could have done more, but we forget the Buddhists, we forget the Muslims, and we forget the others whose right to practise free faith has gone as well. Before anybody says that I am only on the attack against the Labour Government, I want to say that I am not: when my party was in government, I was as much a thorn in their side as I am now in the side of the Labour Government. It is just the reality, and we have to face up to the facts. The recent visit by the Prime Minister to China was a problem. I simply say this to the Government. When the Minister responds to the debate, he must understand what has already been said by one of his colleagues: does economics trump freedom, freedom of religion and freedom of speech? If it does, we have gone down a bad road. If it does not, then why are we doing this right now?

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13. 18 Mar 2026·Parliament·Sir Edward Leigh

    Freedom of Religion or Belief in China

    I congratulate the hon. Member for St Helens South and Whiston (Ms Rimmer) on her speech. Although I will talk primarily about the persecution of Christians in China, and particularly the intolerable position of the Catholic Church, I fully support what she and the hon. Member for Dewsbury and Batley (Iqbal Mohamed) said about the persecution of Muslims. What is happening to the Uyghurs is absolutely intolerable. In China, the institutionally entrenched ideological intolerance of Christianity and other religions stems back to 1949, and has continuously been perpetrated by the communist regime, often with extreme violence. An estimated 96.7 million Christians live in China; they are one of the largest Christian populations in the world. Religious groups are made to register with state-operated “patriotic associations”, and unregistered religious activity is illegal. Many Christians worship in unregistered house churches, which leaves them vulnerable to raids, fines and detention. China currently ranks 17th on the 2026 world watch list, with a persecution score of 79 out of 100. In many regions of China, children under the age of 18 are widely prohibited from participating in religious activities. The restrictions reported include the suspension of Sunday school programmes, schools discouraging religious belief among students, and students being pressured to report religious activity within their families, which is probably the worst of all—something out of George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-Four”. In September 2025, China introduced new regulations on the online behaviour of religious clergy. The rules require religious leaders to support the leadership of the CCP, promote socialist values and preach only on Government-approved online platforms. Let me say a bit about the position of the Catholic Church. Catholics were hopeful that the 2018 agreement between the Vatican and the People’s Republic of China would heal wounds caused by the Communist party’s attempt to suppress Catholicism. The promise of reconciliation has, alas, not been realised. In some dioceses, the divisions between the actual Catholic Church in China and the state-backed so-called patriotic Church has actually deepened. Bishops who stood aside in the interests of unity have been marginalised and placed under surveillance for refusing to take part in state structures. State-controlled religious apparatus remains coercive. The Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association exercises extensive control over Catholic life in the People’s Republic.

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14. 18 Mar 2026·Parliament·Sir Edward Leigh

    Freedom of Religion or Belief in China

    The devil is in the detail. When it comes to China, everything is very complicated; there are no simple arguments or solutions. This is not an outright communist regime like North Korea. In theory, if someone is a Catholic, they are allowed to practise their faith, which is why my hon. Friend saw the church overflowing, but they have to practise in a way that is approved by the state.

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15. 18 Mar 2026·Parliament·Sir Edward Leigh

    Freedom of Religion or Belief in China

    I agree entirely with my right hon. Friend. As I develop my speech, I will say that the Church and our leadership were perhaps naive in trusting the communist regime. The agreement is, frankly, proving to be worthless. That is often the case with China, as our own Government found in relation to Hong Kong. Clergy are more or less required to align with the state body—the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association—in order to function properly in their parishes. The patriotic association has many levers of power at its disposal to use against those who refuse to conform to it, like those principled people mentioned by my right hon. Friend the Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith) who for years were in underground churches. It is a case not of administrative oversight but of the direction of religion by the communist state. The Chinese Communist party has spent three quarters of a century attempting to effectively create an independent national church in China that will conform to the will of China’s secular rulers. The Vatican-China agreement has resulted not in liberalisation but in stricter controls. Its full details have not been released—it is unbelievable—which prevents us from knowing its actual provisions. We do know from Chinese Catholics on the ground that institutional surveillance is continuing and increasing. State officials are now embedded into dioceses to monitor church life and report on it. In some areas, children are even banned from attending mass and other services. Seminarians are subject to political vetting, and clergy who trained abroad are often required to submit to the approval of the authorities and to retrain. Priests and religious personnel are required to surrender their passports. Surveillance, harassment and even imprisonment are normal. The United Kingdom’s deal with China over Hong Kong gives us all cause for concern. The People’s Republic of China has continually run riot over it and made a mockery of it. Experience is showing that China is now doing the same with the Vatican’s agreement. We look to Pope Leo XIV for leadership and guidance. The agreement is up for periodic renewal. It has not been successful. We must be honest with ourselves and the world, even if that means not renewing the agreement. Chinese Catholics and fellow Christians, as well as other persecuted minorities in China, should not have to suffer at the hands of the state. The United Kingdom must be vigorous in raising these subjects in diplomatic conversations. I say to the Minister that this must not just be an obligatory embarrassing aside, but a headline item in our interactions with the communist Chinese state.

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16. 18 Mar 2026·Parliament·Sir Edward Leigh

    Freedom of Religion or Belief in China

    I am co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on the Holy See, and therefore I go regularly to the Vatican to talk to Archbishop Gallagher, the Foreign Minister of the Vatican. He is an extremely clever, subtle and charming man, but it is very difficult to understand, despite having those personal conversations, what has actually been agreed. My view is that the Vatican is full of principled people who live in a moral dimension, and they are up against intellectual thugs, frankly. We have been sold a pup with this agreement, and we should reconsider it.

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17. 18 Mar 2026·Parliament·Sir Edward Leigh

    Topical Questions

    T3. Will the Secretary of State commend the new nuclear fusion site at West Burton, just two miles from the town of Gainsborough, which, potentially, will unleash unlimited green energy as well as hundreds of millions of pounds of investment and thousands of jobs? Will she confirm that, when it comes to science and innovation, this country is not broken, but is leading the world?

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18. 18 Mar 2026·Parliament·Sir Desmond Swayne

    Student Loans

    The Minister’s hon. Friend, the hon. Member for Leeds Central and Headingley (Alex Sobel), asked a perfectly reasonable question about looking at the thing in the round, and her answer was that she would take the conversation forward. I think we need more than that.

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19. 18 Mar 2026·Parliament·Sir Ashley Fox

    Draft Further Education (Initial Teacher Training) Regulations 2026

    It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Huq. These regulations introduce four key obligations for institutions delivering specified initial teacher training for further educational courses. First, providers must register with the Secretary of State, who will maintain and publish an official list of approved institutions, ensuring transparency and accountability across the sector. Secondly, institutions are required to follow delivery guidance—in other words, they must have regard to Government recommendations on how these courses are taught, helping to maintain consistent standards in teaching practice. Thirdly, there is a requirement to follow curriculum guidance. Providers must consider Government advice on course content, ensuring that what is taught aligns with national expectations and priorities. Finally, institutions must meet data reporting requirements, which include supplying information on both current and completed students, supporting oversight, evaluation and continuous improvement. These regulations come from the Skills and Post-16 Education Act 2022, brought forward under the previous Conservative Government. Those reforms created more routes into skilled employment in sectors the economy needs, such as engineering, digital, clean energy and manufacturing, meaning that more young people can secure well-paid jobs in their local areas and support their local communities to thrive. Employers have been embedded at the heart of the skills system and colleges were given support to ensure that they could offer training places for all those 16 to 19-year-olds who wanted them. The Conservative record on education is perhaps our proudest achievement. We left the country not only with the best-educated children in the western world, but with an increasing number able to go into technical education. We will not oppose these measures, though we do wish the Government did more to uphold the significantly higher standards that we left them.

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20. 18 Mar 2026·Parliament·Sir Ashley Fox

    Fuel Duty

    Does my hon. Friend agree that small businesses, not only in Bridgwater but across the country, were hit last year by the Chancellor’s jobs tax and have been hit this year by the additional burden of the unemployment Act and higher business rates, and that the prospect of higher fuel duty in September is disastrous not just for families who use their car for personal transport but for every small business?

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21. 18 Mar 2026·Parliament·Sir Ashley Fox

    Flooding: Rural Communities

    Constituents of mine in Moorland and Fordgate live under the constant threat of flooding. This winter they have been very grateful to the frontline workers from the internal drainage board, the council and the Environment Agency for helping them out. Will my hon. Friend join me in paying tribute to those frontline workers?

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22. 18 Mar 2026·Parliament·Sir Ashley Fox

    Flooding: Rural Communities

    I was grateful for the Minister’s visit to Somerset, but does she accept that when the Environment Agency announces that it is withdrawing from main river maintenance and will stop dredging the River Parrett, that is exactly the sort of action that contributes to the devastating flooding that she witnessed?

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23. 18 Mar 2026·Parliament·Simon Hoare

    Fuel Duty

    We see you as responsible for everything, Mr Speaker! The Minister was clearly right to point out the inflationary cost pressures as a result of the Iranian situation. He might be reminded that the announcement the Chancellor made on the increase in fuel duty predates that situation. Were it not to have been made, and given the impact that we are seeing on, among other things, fuel costs from Iran, would he and the Chancellor be thinking that now is a good time to make an announcement about increasing fuel duty? The world has changed and surely this policy should change as well to reflect the immediacy of the situation.

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24. 18 Mar 2026·Parliament·Simon Hoare

    Fuel Duty

    There are a huge number of families up and down the country who manage their household budgets incredibly tightly. They will be thinking about whether they can afford a holiday this year and so on. I appreciate that August seems a long way away, but many of those people will be sorting out their budgetary plans now. I am not certain that those “just about managing” families, as we used to call them, can wait until August for any clarity or certainty. Do not play cat and mouse with the British people; take the sensible decision now, and press pause to reflect the dramatic change in circumstances we are seeing.

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25. 18 Mar 2026·Parliament·Simon Hoare

    Fuel Duty

    It is a pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Gordon and Buchan (Harriet Cross), who spoke with her usual passion on behalf of her constituents and a sector that is important to her local economy, and with the depth of knowledge that the House has come to expect from her. She raised the important theme—I touched on it slightly in an intervention on the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury, the hon. Member for Swansea West (Torsten Bell), as he opened the debate for the Government—of the Government’s lack of consistency or common sense as a starting point, and of fleetness of foot in responding to events as they materialise. My hon. Friend referred to the absurdity of the Government saying in one breath, “As we transition to a renewable, clean, green energy source, we will continue to need oil and gas in our economy, but we would prefer to buy it from a third country’s production even though we have it literally on our doorstep.” There is a lack of imagination and, as I said, fleetness of foot as the Government respond to pressures in the changing landscape. If the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury will indulge me, I invite him to consider what he would be saying about the proposals announced in the Budget to increase the main fuel duty rates if he were on the Opposition Benches or at the Opposition Dispatch Box rather than speaking for the Government. The point that I made to the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury was a simple one. I did not support the Chancellor’s announcement on fuel duty, but she had a common-sense approach to it and was perfectly within her rights as Chancellor of the Exchequer to make that rate announcement. It predated the events in Iran. I ask the Minister to consider what he would say if he were on the Opposition Benches and he faced intransigence from a Government who said, “We understand that costs are going up. We understand the volatility of the market. We understand the enormous pressures being placed on all households—in particular those with low incomes, the elderly, the vulnerable and the just about managing—but we are still going to plough on.” If they said that rather than, “We still want to increase fuel duty, and we may very well do so in the future, but now is not the time. We are going to pull the plaster off this thing and reverse the announcement. We are not going to increase fuel duty, because the tail of this fuel pricing crisis will be quite long, irrespective of whether the situation in Iran and the strait of Hormuz comes to a conclusion in the foreseeable future,” I think he would be jumping up and down, pulling his hair out and accusing the Government of being tin-eared and tone deaf. I hope that the Government Whips get the timing of this week’s debate right so that we do not have the ignominy of the Minister wishing he had spoken for a further 20 minutes and people dramatically falling ill in the Lobby but then miraculously, at the stroke of 7 pm, suddenly rising Lazarus-like from near deathbed experiences to get on with their parliamentary business. When he comes to sum up, I hope that he will reflect on the need for a rapid response in real time. On that theme, may I address one aspect of the amendment in the name of the Prime Minister? As the Minister probably knows, last week there was a hugely useful meeting with the Minister for Energy and the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Lord Livermore. Many of us who attended were pleased that it had taken place. We took away a variety of responses, but it certainly seemed that the Government were getting it. However, there is the perpetual repetition of the point that they are continuing to work with the Competition and Markets Authority on regulation of the heating oil market. That is a long-term solution; it will not solve the problems today. I do not think that is a crutch on which the Government can rest and presume that the House and our constituents will be satisfied. There must be two workstreams here, with future regulation in the medium to long-term and immediate help in the here and now. Fuel Finder, which is referenced in the Prime Minister’s amendment, can be useful. However, the Minister will probably know, or will have heard, that in rural areas we do not have a petrol station by every village green or on every corner, and in my constituency—I will deal in miles rather than the modernity of kilometres, as my hon. Friend the Member for Gordon and Buchan did—which is about 440 square miles, people are having to drive a 5, 10 or 15-mile round trip to fill up their cars. Therefore, Fuel Finder—welcome as the idea that sits behind it is—is really only of use to people who have a larger number of fuel stations where they can fill up their vehicles in close proximity to where they live or work. I want to say a word or two about heating oil. Thanks to figures produced by the House of Commons Library referencing the census data of 2021, we know that about 7.1% of households in the south-west of England use heating oil; the UK average figure is 4.9% and the figure for the North Dorset constituency is 13.71%. I understand that those figures do not include households using liquefied petroleum gas—they merely include traditional heating oil—and they certainly do not include the vital requirement of red diesel for the farmers of North Dorset. Not increasing the main fuel duty would help everybody in our country, but it would disproportionately benefit those whom we referred to at a certain time in our recent political history as “just about managing”. Those are not households that are supported by a raft of welfare state interventions and benefits, and they are not people who are disabled and unable to work. They are people who are doing their best and doing their bit—often couples working more than two jobs just to keep the roof over their head and food on the table. I am certain that when one is in the Treasury dealing with telephone-number sums day in and day out, an increase of 5p per litre does not sound like a vast amount, but when the household budget is so finely balanced that a couple of quid here or there makes all the difference, those 5p’s add up. I do not want to turn this into a rural versus urban debate, but it is important for urban Members of Parliament to hear about the reality of living in rural areas. We are lucky to live in rural areas—we have beautiful environment, lovely countryside and a slower pace of life—but every economist recognises that the cost of delivering services, the cost of produce and the cost of transport is greater in rural areas. That is principally for two reasons that result from sparsity of population: greater distances must be travelled to access them, and there are higher costs in getting to those rural markets because they are further away from the nexus of the transportation networks. All those things have a knock-on effect. If there was a choice and people could say, “Oh, I could jump on a tram, a tube, a bus or a light railway and forgo using my car or my van,” of course they would do so as a way of saving additional expenditure. It is depressing that although I think I am right in saying that at no time since 1966 has the Labour party in government had a higher number of Members of Parliament representing rural constituencies, unless those MPs are in deep camouflage this afternoon, they appear to be showing what I would describe politely as precious little interest in the welfare of their constituents. Maybe that is because they realise that those on the Treasury Front Bench have almost given up on rural Britain, probably promoted by a lack of knowledge and understanding, and certainly by a lack of curiosity to find out anything about what it is like to live in our rural communities. Maybe they have given up trying to persuade those on their Front Bench of the need for a change of heart. On the Conservative Benches, and on those of the other Opposition parties, we will not give up advocating the cause of our rural communities.

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26. 18 Mar 2026·Parliament·Simon Hoare

    Fuel Duty

    I do. My right hon. Friend is right to point to the universality of the negative impact of the proposal. As a good Yorkshirewoman who I know is always persuaded by the validity of common sense, I hope that she will accept the point that when everybody says that the impact on rural communities will be disproportionately felt, that is amplified when one recalls that, on average, the annual income of people living in rural areas is lower than that of those who live in urban or suburban areas.

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27. 18 Mar 2026·Parliament·Simon Hoare

    Fuel Duty

    I would probably suggest to my hon. Friend that a lie-down with a cold flannel in a darkened room might be a good idea for him if that is what he thinks they are doing. I think that they have broadly given up. Let us just make the point. I do not want to rub Government Members’ noses in it, but with the exception of the Whip, who has to be here, the Parliamentary Private Secretary, who feels that she has to pass important pieces of paper from the officials’ Box to her Minister, and the Minister, who has to be here whether he likes it or not, therein ends the interest of the governing party on this particular issue. Let me amplify a little further my point about necessity. North Dorset is predominantly an economy of micro and small businesses; a lot are family-owned, many are not. Medium-sized enterprises are often looked at as something to be aspired to, but it is predominantly micro and small. There are also a few large businesses such as Dextra, based in Gillingham in my constituency, and Hall & Woodhouse, a brewery that will be known to many colleagues across the south-west and the south—companies that I would classify as the larger employers of North Dorset—and they are seeing their costs go up. I know that some have used the phrase “white van man and woman”—I think of the Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, the right hon. Member for Islington South and Finsbury (Emily Thornberry), who once said it with a bit of a curl of her lip and a sort of snarl in her voice. I do not say it in that way. I admire white van man and woman, who have got off their backsides and set up a business, entrepreneurially, maybe employing one person. They provide vital services to communities and need that vehicle to either go and pick up kit and product so they may fulfil their jobs, or to travel many miles to their work to put food on their table. They are going to be hit. I think of my farming vets in North Dorset, who have to travel distances to attend to animal welfare issues. My constituency has a very high percentage of retired people—the highest in the county of Dorset—and I think of the carers who are having to use their cars to travel, to visit, to help and to make sure that those people are okay. I also think of my farmers, who, as the Minister will know, play a vital role in delivering not just environmental management but, crucially, food security. They are seeing prices rise as a result of current pressures, not just for the fuel that they use but for the fertiliser that they have to buy.

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28. 18 Mar 2026·Parliament·Simon Hoare

    Fuel Duty

    My right hon. Friend is right. It is important to relitigate this point: we froze fuel duty not merely because we could but because there was a reason so to do. It is why—I say this as a former Local Government Minister—we enhanced and protected and preserved the rural services delivery grant to reflect precisely the additional costs for local government of providing services in rural areas. Again, that was not just slashed but scrapped by the Government in the local government settlement. There are also the costs of the school run, and I am going to have to declare an interest as a parent of three daughters still at school. When my wife takes our three girls to school, it is a 22-mile round trip from home to school and back, and then again in the afternoon. Forty-four miles for no other reason than to transport three children to school to get an education and to fire up their ambition and aspiration. Hundreds of parents across the constituency do exactly the same, and they will be impacted negatively as a result of this increase. I think as well about those who are trying to get to hospital appointments. I live relatively close to the West Dorset border, but if a constituent living close to me has to go to Dorchester hospital, they perform something like a 40-mile round trip just to get to a hospital appointment. This is not just a tax increase in isolation; it comes on top of the other inflationary pressures that the Government have authored as a result of national insurance and business regulation and so on making things much harder for businesses, which means that all the costs of those in the business sphere will, by definition, be passed on to customers. I really hope that people do not decide to miss that hospital appointment, not because they no longer need it but because they feel that they cannot afford to travel to and from it. The Minister does not need me to tell him of the acute pressure that our hospitality sector is facing across the whole UK, and rural areas in particular. Pubs face great pressures, and many in the North Dorset constituency are closing, regrettably. If people cut back on their travel because petrol or diesel has become too expensive and they have reduced their travels to merely just what they would deem to be the absolute essentials, then leisure and relaxation purposes will be eradicated from their menu of choice. That, again, will have a negative pressure on a sector already hit. I always like to try and wind you up, Madam Deputy Speaker, by saying something like, “To bring my opening remarks to a conclusion”. You will be delighted to know, however, that I am bringing my overall remarks to a conclusion. Sometimes Governments move slowly because the process requires them to. Sometimes, as we have seen in other circumstances, where they have a will, Governments can move incredibly quickly. If the PPS could leave her Minister alone for just a moment, I would appreciate it if he listened to this.

    Hansard source
29. 18 Mar 2026·Parliament·Simon Hoare

    Fuel Duty

    This is a point I made to the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury. All these increases—in council tax, domestic and transport fuel, food prices and so on—are putting pressure on so many household budgets. The Minister knows that; he will see the data from his officials in real time. Families need to make plans—can they afford that holiday during the school summer holidays or to travel to visit a relative later in the year? I am sure that to the Treasury and to the broad, big-picture statistician, these small matters, individual cases, vignettes and cameos of people’s lives are slightly a nuisance, but these are real lives lived on a daily basis by our constituents. It would be indefensible, illogical and an act of self-harm for the Government to proceed as the Chancellor suggested that she would and increase main fuel duties from 1 September. Some tactical guy may well be looking at a whiteboard in No. 10, desperately trying to fill in the late summer grid when the House is not sitting, saying, “I know, in the third week of August, we will mention that we are not going to do it.” I can understand that in public relations or media management terms, but I say to the Minister, who is a common-sense man—I hope that he will get the common sense of this—that this has all the signs and hallmarks of an inevitable change of heart from the Government. It is not a question of whether but when. He will be sustained—I am sure there will be other calls on him to spend it—by a massive increase in VAT from heating oil from domestic uses over the next several weeks. If we can agree that it is a question of not whether but when, from the bottom of my heart, on behalf of my hard-working constituents of North Dorset, my farmers and those micro and small businesses, I urge the Minister to recognise the common sense, the necessity and that the landscape has changed in just those few short weeks since the Budget was delivered, to make that change and to announce it soon.

    Hansard source
30. 18 Mar 2026·Parliament·Simon Hoare

    Student Loans

    I must be suffering from some sort of political amnesia, because I was absolutely convinced that it was a Labour Government that introduced tuition fees in the first place. Maybe the Minister will correct me.

    Hansard source
31. 18 Mar 2026·Parliament·Simon Hoare

    Student Loans

    When I woke up this morning and sprang out of bed thinking about my upcoming 57th birthday, I was feeling quite young and sprightly, but having listened to the speech of the hon. Member for Kettering (Rosie Wrighting) I feel particularly ancient and amazed that I have managed to get to my feet to give this speech. The hon. Lady gave a compelling and interesting speech, which gave those of us of an earlier vintage when it comes to university experience much to think about. The House should be grateful to her for what she had to say. The Government’s prognosis is slightly odd. It seems to be, “It’s a terrible system—it’s broken and it’s not working. We will have a little think about it. I’m not quite sure what we’re going to do or when we’re going to do it. You’re at the back of the queue, but we’re not going to tell you how long the queue is.” It like one of those call centre things where we are told, “Your call is important to us—please wait,” and we are waiting and waiting in the queue, but we do not know for how long. Such policy issues require long-term, settled solutions. It cries out to me as something that would really benefit from cross-party working, which would give some solidity and sense to long-term policy making. I welcome the motion tabled by my right hon. Friend the Leader of the Opposition, because it starts to address a pressing issue in our inboxes that is of concern to our constituents. Should we go back to the idea of a graduate tax? I do not know. It is clear that all Governments and all parties should view money spent on education in the university sector and elsewhere not as expenditure but as an investment, from which the state and society should have an expectation of a return. It is crucial that we are sensitive on the point about controlling the number of places available. We do not want to reduce the evaluation of education to a utilitarian exercise, but clearly one has to look at value for money. Education is more than just the end of the process: it is an enriching, personal development, friend-making process providing us with all the keys to life’s doors as we face them. When I went up to university way back in 1987—I do not suppose that the mother of the hon. Member for Kettering had even thought about her then—one in eight did so. That was not a sustainable figure if we wanted to see a growing economy. I had gone to an ordinary state school in south Wales and was the first in my family to go to university. Is 50% of our young a sustainable figure when clearly the job market is changing? I welcome whatever anybody wishes to do to support vocational and technical education and apprenticeships. There are other ways. I say this—I suppose I must declare an interest—as someone whose eldest daughter is applying to university at the moment, but it is often my fellow sharp-elbowed middle-class parents who push their children towards university and fail to recognise the importance, value and use of apprenticeships and other forms of getting on in life. There needs to be a societal step change. We have to think seriously about that and particularly about supporting our FE colleges. Many of my young constituents attend Yeovil college, just over the border in Somerset. It is a first-class college with great ties to local businesses such as Leonardo, and it provides a good start in life for many young people in North Dorset. I echo the point made by the hon. Member for Kettering about the benefit of stability that a settled future—putting down roots, starting a family and so on—can bring. We should encourage our young to think like that, but also to understand the wide range of educational opportunities that exist for them. We cannot ignore this any longer. Too many of our university institutions are just about hanging on in there financially, many are tottering on the brink, and we have a model that we cannot sustain, the utility of which is proving even harder to demonstrate to our constituents. I say to the Minister that doing nothing and putting this at the back of the queue is not a sustainable solution.

    Hansard source
32. 18 Mar 2026·Parliament·Simon Hoare

    Student Loans

    What I do accept is that the hon. Gentleman is swiftly gaining a reputation in this place as the only Labour Member who would defend a policy of the slaughter of the firstborn. He will defend anything. I seem to remember that he was one of the only Labour Members who stood up and defended Lord Mandelson’s appointment to be ambassador to Washington.

    Hansard source
33. 18 Mar 2026·Parliament·Simon Hoare

    Student Loans

    No, I will not give way; one can be a useful idiot only so often in an afternoon. I say to the Minister: whether it is at the front of the queue, the back of the queue or the middle of the queue, this is an issue that cannot be put aside any longer.

    Hansard source
34. 18 Mar 2026·Parliament·Simon Hoare

    Student Loans

    I am just about to give up and I will not get an extra minute. I like the hon. Gentleman very much and in ordinary circumstances I would, but I will not. We need some urgency on this matter, and I urge some cross-party working to make sure that all our constituents, whether urban or rural, and whether first, second, third or fourth-generation university students, get the very best deal and start in life that they can as they begin their working lives.

    Hansard source
35. 18 Mar 2026·Parliament·Robbie Moore

    Royal Mail: Performance

    It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Twigg. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Exmouth and Exeter East (David Reed) for securing this important debate. The debate is particularly timely because, just yesterday, my office received three separate phone calls about three separate addresses in Fell Lane in Keighley, none of which have received their post for the last two weeks, despite those residents specifically expecting letters. I do, however, commend the work of postal workers across the country, without whom we could not function. Let me be clear that my contribution today is aimed not at them, but at the management structures that sit within Royal Mail. I have had various correspondence and meetings with Royal Mail—one in September last year, and two following on from that—specifically raising the cases of my constituents. One pensioner, for example, waited more than two weeks for a new bank card to arrive. In that time, she could not access her pension and do the basics of her weekly food shop. Another constituent waited 10 days for a hospital letter to arrive. He is undergoing chemotherapy, so ended up missing a vital appointment. Distrust of the postal service has become so bad that one of my constituents hand-delivers documents to the court herself, unable to trust the system after receiving papers late in the post. Royal Mail’s website still says that if someone buys a second-class stamp, they can expect that post to be delivered within two to three working days, or indeed on a Saturday, yet in my meetings with Royal Mail staff, they tell me that that is not internally the expectation of the delivery of their service. There is therefore a discontinuity between what they are telling the public and Members of Parliament and how they are operating internally. That must change, and I expect the Minister to hold Royal Mail to account on behalf of my constituents and those of all Members of Parliament here.

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36. 18 Mar 2026·Parliament·Robbie Moore

    Royal Mail: Performance

    On Royal Mail’s website today, it says that if a customer buys a second-class stamp, they can expect delivery within two or three days, including Saturdays, but since 28 July last year, delivery has not taken place on a Saturday. There seems to be an inconsistency between what Royal Mail is saying publicly and what it is actually delivering. What does my hon. Friend feel that the Minister should do to address this clear anomaly?

    Hansard source
37. 18 Mar 2026·Parliament·Robbie Moore

    Fuel Duty

    It is good to speak in this debate on a subject that is impacting on all our hard-working businesses, families, hauliers and those involved in the logistics industry—the rise in fuel duty. It is clear that Labour is planning to put up fuel duty for the first time in 15 years. Despite the conflict in the middle east, which is pushing up inflation and the cost of petrol at the pump, we have a Chancellor who said in her spring statement that this Labour Government have “the right economic plan” and boasted that households would be better off. She is doubling down on her plan to hike fuel duty, fund more welfare handouts and scrap the two-child benefit cap. That is not benefiting the grafters who are driving local economic growth across our constituencies. That is why increasing fuel duty for the first time in 15 years is such a negative approach, and it is impacting on all those across our constituencies.

    Hansard source
38. 18 Mar 2026·Parliament·Robbie Moore

    Fuel Duty

    Last autumn, my constituent Lesley O’Brien got in touch with me with serious concerns about the ramifications of any potential fuel duty hikes on the road haulage sector. As well as being a trustee of the Road Haulage Association and the founder of the transport forum Freight People, Lesley is the joint managing director of Freightlink Europe, a haulage company based in my constituency in West Yorkshire. It is a traditional, family-run business, based on the core values of honesty, respect and a dedication to provide the best level of service to customers. However, businesses such as Freightlink Europe, and the hard-working people who run them and are employed by them, face unprecedented difficulties. Many haulage companies and those involved in logistics have contacted me directly with their deep concerns. Through no fault of their own, the average profit margin for many of those businesses has been significantly reduced to only 2%, if not lower, and the cost of running a typical haulage business has increased by more than 22% in recent years.

    Hansard source
39. 18 Mar 2026·Parliament·Robbie Moore

    Fuel Duty

    My firm view is that the Government should be supporting all of those individuals to drive economic growth across the country. By removing the two-child cap, the Government are saying to those families who have worked out what their household spending power will be over a long period of time, “If you want to have more than two children, the Government will step in and pay for you.” That negatively impacts hard-working families that have made those hard fiscal decisions throughout. The reality is that increasing the level of welfare spending by taxing businesses such as those across my constituency—those involved in the haulage industry and the logistics sector that will now see a hike in the price of fuel—negatively impacts those who are driving economic growth, and therefore impacts everybody.

    Hansard source
40. 18 Mar 2026·Parliament·Robbie Moore

    Fuel Duty

    It is interesting that the hon. Gentleman has not turned up to this debate—a debate on an incredibly important issue that is impacting all of our constituents, including his—in good enough time to make a speech on the fuel duty increase, but wants to turn the debate back to a point that I answered in my response to the hon. Member for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy (Melanie Ward). That point still stands. If the Government increase taxes on the hard-working businesses and individuals across the country who want to drive economic growth in order to benefit only a very few people, they are not providing opportunity for many young people and hard-working families across all our communities.

    Hansard source