Phil Brickell MP: speeches

Speeches

• 14 Jan 2026 · Ukraine · Hansard source

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  Will my hon. Friend give way on the topic of sanctions?

• 14 Jan 2026 · Ukraine · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is a tireless champion for the UK-Ukraine relationship, including through the 100-year partnership. Does he agree that it is worth commending the Government for the action that has been taken in the past month on issuing a licence through the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation to move the £2.5 billion of Chelsea football club proceeds that have remained frozen for four years now? That money could be used to support the victims of conflict, including in Ukraine. Will he join me in calling on the Government to move faster on unlocking the more than £700,000 of assets that belong to Petr Aven, one of Putin’s closest oligarch friends? They have been frozen for quite some time now by the National Crime Agency and could also be used to support the Ukrainian people.

• 13 Jan 2026 · Universities: Statutory Duty of Care · Hansard source

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  Can the Minister confirm that the taskforce will look at the effectiveness of the OfS as the regulator for the sector in driving better student outcomes and preventing student harm?

• 13 Jan 2026 · Universities: Statutory Duty of Care · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Christopher. I will focus on recent goings-on at my local institution, the University of Greater Manchester, where over the past year there have been credible, detailed and publicly available allegations of fraud, bribery and corruption involving senior executives and the university’s Centre for Islamic Finance. Greater Manchester police’s major incident team has investigated. The first detailed reports emerged in February 2025, but it was only in December that the Office for Students finally confirmed that it was opening an investigation into governance at the university. Students, staff and taxpayers are all entitled to ask why it took 10 months. Why did it take a police investigation to trigger regulatory action, and why did that happen six months later? How many students were left exposed while the Office for Students hesitated? The delay is indefensible. The OfS’s condition E governance requirements exist to protect students and ensure public confidence in the sector, yet these allegations raise questions about whether governing bodies were aware of, or fully understood, commercial arrangements that appear to benefit insiders at the expense of the institution. When millions of pounds are potentially being paid out in opaque deals, we must ask: were students served, or were they being treated as a revenue stream to be monetised without proper oversight? People across Bolton are watching events at the university unfold, wondering out loud what the regulator is doing and when it will act. They are crying out for certainty, which is why in my letters to the OfS chief executive and the Education Secretary I have called for urgent, transparent action—

• 8 Jan 2026 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  For years, solicitor Andrew Milne has been bullying, threatening and harassing leaseholders, including my Horwich constituents, into buying freeholds off him at massively inflated prices—sometimes as much as £25,000—yet the Solicitors Regulation Authority has done nothing to stop his outrageous behaviour, which has caused immeasurable pain and suffering to my constituents. Homeowners in Bolton West should not have to live in fear of being ripped off by crooked lawyers, so will the Leader of the House set aside Government time for a debate on the lack of action by the Solicitors Regulation Authority in cracking down on lawyers like Milne, who continue to act with impunity?

• 8 Jan 2026 · Human Rights Abuses: Magnitsky Sanctions · Hansard source

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  Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. Transparency is the name of the game here, so will the Minister confirm whether his Department has looked at publishing comprehensive data on assets frozen within UK jurisdictions, broken down by asset class, including assets held by individuals, state- owned enterprises and states themselves? The reason I ask is simple: Parliament cannot assess the effectiveness of our regimes if it cannot see the full picture. Let me end with this. Magnitsky sanctions are one of the most powerful tools we have to defend human rights, but they work only if they are used consistently, enforced rigorously and connected clearly to accountability and reparations. If the UK wants to be a global champion of human rights, it must stop being a safe haven for those who abuse them and start ensuring that sanctions mean something on paper and in practice.

• 8 Jan 2026 · Human Rights Abuses: Magnitsky Sanctions · Hansard source

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  I thank the right hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith) for securing this important debate and I am pleased to see the Minister in his place. He has already heard plenty from colleagues in the Chamber on sanctions, and I hope that today’s debate will provide further food for thought. Effective sanctions regimes for human rights violations and corruption speak to who we are as a nation—a nation that stands up for the rule of law, that respects international law and that says, “Wherever and whoever you are, if you persecute individuals, plunder your country’s resources or embezzle from your own people, there will be consequences.” The reason we are having this debate today to my mind is not to call for some shiny new instrument to hold the world’s criminals and the corrupt to account; rather it is to call for better use of the world-leading tools that we already have to deny the human rights abusers and kleptocrats access to our financial system, professional services and property market. I want to focus on two particular threats: first, what I see as the inconsistent and inadequate use of Magnitsky sanctions against serious human rights abusers, particularly in Georgia and Hong Kong; and secondly, the failure to enforce sanctions properly, allowing evasion, secrecy and professional enablers to undermine the entire regime. Let me begin with Georgia, because Georgia is a country that should be moving closer to Europe, not sliding backwards into authoritarianism for the benefit of Moscow. Yet since the highly disputed parliamentary election of 26 October 2024, that is exactly what we have seen: all branches of government and state institutions now captured by Bidzina Ivanishvili and the Georgian Dream party; civic space crushed; independent media and civil society organisations targeted under a new foreign agent law—legislation that comes straight out of the Kremlin playbook; and peaceful protests met time and again with violence. The UK has rightly sanctioned some individuals responsible for violent attacks on journalists and protesters, and that is very much welcome, but as the Minister knows, I do not feel it is enough. The omissions are glaring. Most notably, the UK has failed to sanction Bidzina Ivanishvili, the individual widely regarded as exercising decisive influence over Georgia’s political direction.

• 8 Jan 2026 · Human Rights Abuses: Magnitsky Sanctions · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is quite right about the spheres of influence that Russia seeks to exert across central and eastern Europe. Ivanishvili could be sanctioned under any number of our regimes—Magnitsky, global anti-corruption or even the Russian sanctions regime given his reported links to the Kremlin and his blatant kowtowing to Moscow. Just this morning, I was made aware that Georgian Dream has increased state financing for the Kulevi oil refinery, which Reuters has reported received its first shipment of Russian oil last October. The refinery itself is linked to Vladimir Alekseev, first deputy chief of Russia’s GRU. That seems to be an obvious route for sanctions violations, and I hope it will be added to Ivanishvili’s rap sheet. I know the Minister will be unable to comment on individual cases, but can he at least confirm that Ivanishvili’s supposed status as too big to fail due to his alleged personal importance to the Georgian economy does not preclude him from being sanctioned by this country? I will come to the United States later, but our allies across the Atlantic sanctioned Ivanishvili on 27 December 2024 for undermining democratic processes on behalf of, or for the benefit of, Russia. I certainly do not suggest that we follow the US in every aspect of foreign policy, but it is correct in applying that designation. Sanctioning cronies and underlings can make an impact, but let us be clear that the fish rots from the head. My fear is that our silence on Ivanishvili sends the wrong message to would-be kleptocrats around the world. Let me turn to Hong Kong and the ongoing repression there, which is of keen interest to me and the valued community of Hongkongers across my Bolton West constituency. The dismantling of Hong Kong’s freedoms is unacceptable. Since the imposition of the national security law, we have seen the systematic criminalisation of dissent: independent media shut down, civil society organisations dissolved, elected opposition figures jailed, and fundamental freedoms erased in all but name. This is textbook human rights abuse. The case of Jimmy Lai, who has already been mentioned, symbolises that injustice—a point I was reminded of by constituents of mine who used to work with him back in Hong Kong. As a British national, a publisher and a peaceful advocate of democracy, Jimmy Lai has been imprisoned for years for exercising rights that we regard in this place as fundamental. He now faces the prospect of spending the rest of his life behind bars under a law designed to silence free speech, not to deliver justice. Of course, I welcomed the Foreign Secretary’s strong condemnation of Jimmy Lai’s sham trial last month, but words alone do not protect political prisoners. If Magnitsky sanctions are to retain any credibility, they must be used against those responsible for the erosion of Hong Kong’s autonomy and for the persecution of individuals such as Jimmy Lai. That includes officials who designed, implemented and enforced the national security law and those who have overseen its use to crush free expression and political participation. That brings me to a wider point. We are entering a period in which the United States cannot always be relied on to apply evidence-based sanctions. In that context, the UK cannot simply wait for Washington to lead. We must be prepared to act where the United States will not. We should also not be afraid, as critical friends, to point out where the US gets it wrong. I asked the Minister earlier this week at the Foreign Affairs Committee for his response to Trump’s sanctioning of two British citizens for seeking to, as Secretary Rubio sees it, “coerce” American tech platforms into suppressing free speech. Does the Minister agree that that is dangerous nonsense? That brings me to my second theme: enforcement. Increasing designations alone is not enough. Sanctions without enforcement are no sanction at all; they are just suggestions. We now have a vast and complex sanctions architecture—Magnitsky sanctions, Russia sanctions and anti-corruption sanctions. Since Putin’s barbaric invasion of Ukraine, we have had a massive boost in our own sanctions capacity and seen a huge undertaking in the private sector to keep up, yet enforcement in the UK remains worryingly weak. We know that sanctions are being evaded. We heard earlier about Roman Abramovich reportedly transferring his UK property empire to his children just weeks before being sanctioned—the very same individual who is now being represented by the Conservative shadow Attorney General over a dispute with the Jersey Government on the source of his wealth. As my hon. Friend the Member for Kensington and Bayswater (Joe Powell) outlined forensically, if the Opposition are serious about standing by Ukraine, they cannot have him as their top Law Officer, serving in the other place and attending shadow Cabinet meetings. It is simply incredible. Does the Minister agree that Lord Wolfson’s position in the shadow Cabinet and attendance of those meetings is now completely untenable? The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation has concluded that it is “almost certain” that UK lawyers, estate agents and property service firms have helped clients evade asset freezes. As my hon. Friend the Member for South Dorset (Lloyd Hatton) outlined, in the past year OFSI has imposed just three fines for breaches of the UK’s sanctions regime, totalling just over £622,000. That is a rounding error compared with the scale of wealth at stake, and it is simply not a credible deterrent. All the while, there have been no breaches of Magnitsky sanctions in the past year. This issue is acute in the British overseas territories, where low policing capacity and high financial secrecy create ideal conditions for sanctions evasion. There have been some laudable efforts in the OTs to enforce sanctions. However, I have too often been made aware of civil society organisations submitting detailed evidence of Magnitsky sanctions breaches in the overseas territories but receiving no meaningful response at all from those jurisdictions. Will the Minister assure me today that he will ensure that British overseas territories that receive such detailed allegations will act on them? We must tackle head-on the scourge of corporate secrecy in offshore financial centres linked to the UK. If we are to ensure that our sanctions bite as much as possible, there is an urgent need for those overseas territories that continue to drag their feet—including the British Virgin Islands—to finally adopt fully public registers of beneficial ownership, as they have promised time and again but failed to deliver. As an interim step, the Minister will agree that individuals with a legitimate interest, including journalists and civil society, must have meaningful access to beneficial ownership information. Without that transparency, asset freezes cannot be enforced effectively. I look forward to the update on this issue promised earlier this year in the Government’s new anti-corruption strategy, but can the Minister provide any further information on timelines—

• 8 Jan 2026 · High Street Gambling Reform · Hansard source

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  I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Brent East (Dawn Butler) on securing this debate and on her campaigning on this issue over the years. That includes this week’s letter to the Prime Minister, which had nearly 300 signatories and which she co-ordinated. She was quite right to say that our high streets are being hollowed out by a surge of betting shops, with local people left seemingly powerless. It seems to me that this issue should sit squarely with this Labour Government’s Pride in Place programme. I am not suggesting that we should have no betting shops—I recognise that the industry provides jobs and tax revenue—but local to where I am, there are three betting shops within walking distance of my office in Horwich, a town of fewer than 20,000 people, and there are two more nearby in Westhoughton town centre. The current situation is not conducive to fulfilling the Government’s manifesto pledge, which I proudly stood on in 2024, to tackle gambling harm, which is sadly a lived reality for far too many families in Bolton and Greater Manchester as a whole.

• 8 Jan 2026 · High Street Gambling Reform · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member makes a valid point. We see that on high streets in my constituency time and time again, all too often, in the context of vape shops. As an aside, we all know that gambling today is no longer confined to a once-a-week trip to the bookies; it is on people’s phones, in their pockets and available 24 hours a day. Online slots are among the highest-risk products, as they are fast, repetitive and designed to encourage long sessions and binge play. I commend the Government on the introduction of stake limits for online slots. Those limits matter, because harm increasingly happens not just on the high street, but on our phones, anywhere and at any time. Let me go back to the high street. As we have already heard many times in this debate, the clustering of betting shops remains a serious and unresolved problem, particularly in deprived communities. I received assurances from the gambling Minister last year that cumulative impact assessments on gambling licensing will be introduced to strengthen councils’ ability to influence the density of gambling outlets, but this measure is pending parliamentary time—that much-dreaded phrase. I urge the Minister not to let this important measure get crowded out. It is a new year, and with new years come new year’s resolutions. How about a resolution to prioritise addressing what is a far too liberal regime for managing gambling harms? We know that where gambling outlets cluster, harm increases, from debt and mental ill health to family breakdown and homelessness. According to the Government’s gambling-related harms evidence review, the north-west has some of the highest rates of at-risk gambling in England, with around 4.4% of adults experiencing elevated risk. Even more worrying is the fact that the north-west has one of the highest proportions of people harmed by someone else’s gambling—partners, children, parents and friends all pay the price. I welcome the steps already taken by the Government. Frankly, the introduction of the statutory gambling levy to raise around £100 million a year for research, prevention and treatment is the least that the industry could do. While acknowledging the issue is always the first step, I know that the Minister, as a former councillor himself, will recognise it is no good leaving councils powerless to tackle the physical concentration of gambling premises on our high streets. If we are serious about reducing gambling harm, we must accelerate reform. Our high streets should offer opportunity, not addiction; our laws should protect people, not profits.

• 7 Jan 2026 · Advanced Brain Cancer: Tissue Freezing · Hansard source

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  I want to pay tribute to my constituent, Alex Davies, who sadly passed away last November, the day after his 50th birthday, two years after his glioblastoma diagnosis. He is survived by his wife Emma and their two daughters. Alex volunteered to have his brain tissue frozen after two surgeries, for ongoing research at the Christie hospital in Manchester. Does my hon. Friend agree that the Government’s national cancer plan should include more and better-used funding for research and more clinical trials, particularly for poorly understood cancers such as glioblastoma on which she has campaigned tenaciously over many years?

• 5 Jan 2026 · Venezuela · Hansard source

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  My constituents do not mourn the removal of Nicolás Maduro, who oversaw the violent repression of his people, a fraudulent presidential election and horrific human rights abuses for many years, but they are alarmed about the unilateral regime change sought by the Trump Administration in order to access Venezuelan oil resources. Two wrongs do not make a right. What measures is the Foreign Secretary taking to support Opposition leaders, including 2025 Nobel prize winner, María Corina Machado?

• 17 Dec 2025 · UK-EU Common Understanding Negotiations · Hansard source

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  As a former Erasmus student, I congratulate the Paymaster General on the steely resolve, the pragmatism and the significant progress he has been able to achieve. Only a few weeks ago, two fellow Erasmus students from the UK who I studied with in Germany were in this place. I was with them for the first time in 13 years, and they have messaged me today to congratulate the Government. Does my right hon. Friend agree that it is most important to deliver on the concrete commitments agreed with our EU partners at the May summit, as opposed to heeding Lib Dem Members’ siren calls about a supposedly bespoke customs union?

• 15 Dec 2025 · Sudden Cardiac Death in Young People · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is making a powerful speech and giving an extensive list of recommendations to the Government. He talked earlier about defibrillators. There is an important point about access to defibrillators and where they are sited in constituencies. Does he agree that it is also important to ensure that those who need to use defibrillators have the training, knowledge and skillset to confidently do so in a safe manner?

• 11 Dec 2025 · Fairtrade Certification · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member is making an important point about young children in schools. Last month, Joshua, Leyla and Elizabeth from St George’s primary school in my constituency wrote to me about their campaign to promote sustainable palm oil labelling. They are carrying on a fine tradition in Bolton, where one of the first Fairtrade shops in the country, Justicia, opened in 1985. Does the hon. Member agree with Joshua, Leyla, Elizabeth and myself that sustainable palm oil labelling is crucial for informing consumers and promoting ethical businesses, alongside greater Fairtrade initiatives?

• 11 Dec 2025 · Foreign Interference · Hansard source

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  I congratulate the hon. Member for Lewes (James MacCleary) on securing this important debate. At a time when our country faces profound geopolitical uncertainty, when hostile states are probing every weakness in our democratic and economic systems, and when the US national security strategy talks about “cultivating resistance to Europe’s current trajectory within European nations”, one truth stands out above all others: as the Government’s anti-corruption strategy published earlier this week recognises, Britain’s security is the foundation of Britain’s prosperity. Before I progress any further, may I take this opportunity to commend the leadership of my hon. Friend the Member for Barnsley North (Dan Jarvis)? As the Security Minister, he has worked closely with the Government’s anti-corruption champion, the noble Baroness Hodge, and with staff at the Home Office’s joint anti-corruption unit. Together, they have done excellent work in completing the anti-corruption strategy. I wish to focus my speech on foreign interference in our politics and elections, and how it goes to the heart of our much-cherished democracy. First, let me talk about paid access by foreign actors. Today, the greatest threats to our security do not always come in the form of tanks or missiles. Increasingly, they come through money, influence and covert networks operating quietly inside our financial system and even our politics. Before coming to this place, I dedicated my professional life to tackling corruption. I have to say that I was therefore appalled to see a former British Member of the European Parliament charged and recently sentenced to 10 and a half years in prison for offences under the Bribery Act 2010. I take no pleasure in mentioning Nathan Gill, but I have a duty to be candid, honest and frank with Members of this House, so let us not forget that Mr Gill was paid bribes by Oleg Voloshyn—to parrot “meticulously scripted” Kremlin lines in Brussels, according to Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb’s sentencing remarks—and that Voloshyn, Gill’s handler, is a former Ukrainian MP whom we sanctioned in March 2023 for “using his position of influence to promote…the spreading of disinformation and pro-Russian narratives which support Russia’s actions in Ukraine.” Let us remember that Nathan Gill even hosted Oleg Voloshyn and oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk in the European Parliament, supposedly to talk about free speech in Ukraine. Medvedchuk is known in Ukraine as “the grey cardinal”, in a nod to his low profile and closeness to the Kremlin, and Vladimir Putin is the godfather of Medvedchuk’s daughter. Let us also remember that Medvedchuk flew to Moscow the day after his meeting with Gill to boast, in a one-to-one meeting with Putin himself, about the extent of Russia’s influence operation among western politicians, and that the Medvedchuk-Putin meeting was then broadcast on Russian television. Medvedchuk and Voloshyn’s work was a clear influence operation to spread Kremlin narratives, undermine western support for Ukraine and subvert our democracy by paying a British politician to parrot their lines. Gill, Voloshyn, Medvedchuk, Putin—there is a straight line from a former Reform UK politician to the Kremlin. Putin’s coterie of cronies is exploiting our democracy, using useful idiots along the way to amplify its messages and undermine our institutions, yet Reform has the audacity to claim to be the party for patriots. It is nothing of the sort. On lobbying, our regime is desperately in need of reform. Nothing shows the need for urgency more severely than the recent scandal involving an undercover reporter from Democracy for Sale posing as a Chinese AI investor, who gained access to political events, MPs and decision makers with seemingly no meaningful checks. The reporter was not who he claimed to be, yet he got far too close to the heart of our democracy. This should be the final warning that we need mandatory transparency for all lobbying activity; stronger revolving-door rules, so that privileged access cannot be immediately turned into private profit; and a modern foreign influence registration scheme that brings covert activity into the daylight, including activity linked to China. The anti-corruption strategy confirms that the Government will keep the transparency of lobbying under review, including considering recommendations from the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee. That work must lead to concrete reform, not another cycle of scandal and regret. Influence without transparency is a security vulnerability. As the fake AI investor case shows, hostile states can exploit vulnerabilities that we leave open. On political donations, the Government’s July elections policy statement set out important measures to limit foreign interference. That work is welcome, but we must go further. As a former financial crime compliance officer, let me be crystal clear: we should ban cryptocurrency donations outright. Crypto is the perfect vehicle for covert foreign funding—fast, opaque and hard to trace. In my mind, there is no democratic justification for allowing it. It is a solution in search of a problem. There is only one reason why political parties would encourage donations in crypto: to conceal their origin. I refer Members to recent reporting that Reform UK—I notice it is unrepresented in the Chamber today—became the first party to start taking such donations. I have recently returned from a visit to Montenegro with the Foreign Affairs Committee. Our focus has been on looking at misinformation and disinformation, and how it is spread like a cancer by those who wish to undermine our institutions. While there, several local politicians and officials raised with me their concerns about British national George Cottrell, a well-known figure in the crypto world. Back in 2016, Cottrell was indicted in the US on 21 counts for crimes including money laundering, fraud and blackmail. He served eight months in prison for wire fraud after being caught in an FBI sting offering his services to undercover agents posing as drug traffickers. He is currently being investigated for his tax affairs by His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. He was once described by the hon. Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage) as being “like a son”. Cottrell’s unlimited company, Geostrategy International, pumps out dubious polling and Reform UK talking points, but it does not file accounts or publish its clients. It is not a member of the relevant trade body and so is not signed up to the polling industry’s ethical codes. It claims to have offices in London, Montenegro, Switzerland and the US, where it is registered in the secrecy jurisdiction of Delaware. Companies with such little transparency should simply not be able to flood money into our politics, yet they seemingly could do so at the drop of a hat. Given that Cottrell has been accused of illegally financing a political party in Montenegro—accusations that he denies—I am deeply concerned about his proximity to Members of this House. It is a great shame that the hon. Member for Clacton is not here to explain the conduct of his right-hand man. It is clear to me that Reform wants nothing more than to strip back the vital safeguards protecting our democracy from the long hand of dictators such as Vladimir Putin. Let us not forget, as has been mentioned, how the hon. Member for Clacton described Putin as a man whom he “admires”. That is one of many reasons why we need to ensure that the forthcoming elections Bill guarantees the independence of the Electoral Commission. If we are to have a genuinely independent electoral regulator, we need the commission to be free from ministerial direction, free from political pressure and properly resourced. It was Boris Johnson’s Conservative Government that stripped the Electoral Commission of its independence in the Elections Act 2022. That followed the commission’s investigation into Johnson’s Downing Street refurbishment, its fining of the “Vote Leave” campaign for breaking spending limits in the run-up to the 2016 referendum, and a number of donation scandals involving Russian-linked individuals. Political financing is a cross-party issue, but it should be this Labour Government who restore Electoral Commission independence, ensuring it can fulfil its obligations in the service of the British people. Across Europe, we are seeing active attempts by hostile states to manipulate elections. Britain must not be complacent. We must build a system that is resilient, transparent and modern. Foreign interference succeeds only where democracies are asleep at the wheel. Britain cannot afford to be one of them.

• 27 Nov 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  I thank the Leader of the House for his warm remarks about my campaign to exempt search and rescue services vehicles from vehicle excise duty. Will the Leader of the House join me in celebrating this coming weekend’s 25th anniversary of the passage of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, which was a landmark achievement by the last Labour Government in opening up the countryside for all to enjoy? Can we have a statement from an Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Minister about what further measures the Government are taking to ensure that there is a uniform, responsible right of access on land and on water across England?

• 27 Nov 2025 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source

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  rose—

• 27 Nov 2025 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source

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  I warmly welcome the Chancellor’s Budget. It will improve the lives of my constituents by putting £150 back into the pockets of working people through removing levies on energy bills and by lifting 2,570 children out of poverty. This is a Budget with fairness at its core; it reduces child poverty, has more funding for the NHS and has more investment in school libraries. After the chaos of the 2022 Truss mini-Budget, the Chancellor has shown what real fiscal discipline looks like: inflation falling, growth prioritised and proper headroom restored. I am particularly pleased that the Chancellor has stared down the sloganeers at both extremes. She has rejected the failed trickle-down instincts of the populist right, which bequeathed this Government with a legacy of failed austerity and profligate wasting of taxpayers’ money on dodgy PPE contracts during the pandemic. She has also dismissed unevidenced calls from the left-wing populists for a wealth tax, when it has no answers to the hard questions about capital flight, offshore assets or our overburdened enforcement agencies. All the while, she has increased the burden on those with the broadest shoulders, including via the new high-value council tax surcharge on homes valued at more than £2 million, ensuring that homeowners in mansions are not paying less in council tax than someone living in a mid-terrace in Blackrod. I thank the Chancellor for heeding my calls by introducing new measures to tackle high street tax dodging and organised crime. The National Crime Agency estimates that some £12 billion in criminal cash is generated in the UK every year, including in the suspicious vape shops we have all clocked while walking round our constituencies. Those suspect enterprises not only erode the civic pride we have in our high streets, but undercut genuine businesses looking to provide a service and make ends meet. I welcome the Chancellor’s commitment to a cross-Government taskforce to tackle tax abuse and money laundering on our high streets, backed by £50 million every year over the next three years, which is funded by an increase in the economic crime levy paid for by the banks and other professional services firms. That is despite the platitudes from Lib Dem Members saying that banks are not being asked to pay more, when actually they are. I will bring the issue of tax dodging on our high streets to life with an example of just how egregious some of these wheezes truly are. In the brief time that I have, let me talk a little about the world of snails—snail fornication, snail gestation, snail feed and snail cannibalism. London Centric’s Jim Waterson recently published an investigative report on this topic. It details how former Lancashire shoe salesman, Terry Ball, runs elaborate snail-based tax avoidance schemes that are costing councils millions of pounds simply by placing boxes of snails in vacant office buildings in an attempt to exempt them from business rates. The scheme, perfected over many years to prevent the snails from eating one another and stop mass snail fornication, allows unscrupulous individuals to claim that empty warehouses are being used for agricultural purposes. In turn, landlords are granted a business rates exemption. If the firms in question are challenged by the local council, they are simply liquidated. They hold no assets, so no business rates can be claimed back, and they magically reappear under the guise of another mollusc-based enterprise registered at Companies House—it is taking shell companies to the extreme. One local council has reported a loss of £370,000 in tax receipts just because of this specific mollusc-based wheeze. This is not just a quirky anecdote; it is a hard-edged example of how loopholes in our system are being exploited, made all the easier by the Tories’ decision in the last Parliament to abolish the Office of Tax Simplification. Indeed, the very same council is reporting losses of £10 million a year due to non-payment of business rates. I welcome the further steps announced by the Chancellor yesterday, such as rewards for informants of high-value tax fraud, extra funding for trading standards, enhancing tax transparency on real estate, 350 new criminal investigators to tackle fraud and illicit tobacco and vapes, and a boost to HMRC to go after tax dodgers and their unscrupulous advisers. We need to do a lot more, but I commend the Chancellor. I urge her to continue in the same vein by reforming reliefs, strengthening enforcement and sending a message that Britain no longer tolerates tax gimmicks—whether involving snails, shell companies, or slimy advisers.

• 25 Nov 2025 · Immigration Reforms: Humanitarian Visa Routes · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Edward, and I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Rushcliffe (James Naish) for securing this important debate. Let me say at the outset that I will focus my remarks on the Hong Kong community in my Bolton West constituency. In Westhoughton, Lostock and across Bolton, Hongkongers have enriched our schools and supported local businesses, and they continue to make a meaningful contribution to local life. I pay particular tribute to my constituent Po, who is a fantastic champion in the community. She has done tremendous work not only to assist Hongkongers in my constituency but to speak with folk across Westhoughton and further afield about her experience and that of others who had to flee persecution and the crackdown on human rights in Hong Kong. I welcome the Government’s commitment to retaining the five-year route to settlement via the BNO via. That is the right course of action and I am pleased that the Government have heeded my concerns and those of many hon. Members in this House. I fully back the Government’s determination to reduce irregular and unlawful migration. But the BNO scheme is not a standard immigration pathway. It was created in response to a political crisis in Hong Kong, reflecting our historical responsibilities and moral obligations. Families in Bolton took life-changing decisions in good faith, leaving jobs, uprooting their children and starting again, based on the rules as they were. Altering any rules now would be retrospective and, frankly, could undermine trust. The proposed requirements in the Home Office’s immigration White Paper could fall hardest on the most vulnerable: home-makers, who are often women caring for children or elderly relatives, and students who came under the original terms but could be disadvantaged. The BNO route was never intended to filter visa applicants by income, qualification or employment. It was designed as a safe, fair and non-discriminatory avenue for people seeking stability and safety—nothing more. The Hong Kong community in Bolton has more than fulfilled their end of the bargain. They have paid the full immigration health surcharge, moved at their own expense and contributed through work, volunteering and entrepreneurship. My constituents have concerns about the proposed changes, especially, as we have already heard today, about the raising of the English language requirement from B1 to B2 level and—quite understandably—the introduction of an earnings threshold of £12,570 for three to five years. With the political situation in Hong Kong deteriorating, uncertainty here in the UK only adds to the pressure that families already feel. I will press the Minister on three points. First, will he definitively rule out any retrospective changes to the BNO settlement pathway? Secondly, will he recognise BNO holders as a distinct group, who have deep historical ties to the UK? Thirdly, will he offer transitional arrangements for those forced to come here via alternate routes due to the political pressures they faced in Hong Kong? The Hong Kong community in Bolton West placed their trust in the UK. We must honour that trust with integrity, by ensuring that the promise we made is the promise we keep.

• 24 Nov 2025 · Ministerial Code · Hansard source

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  I commend the Minister for saying clearly, and quite rightly, that we should not be taking lessons from the Conservative party. What more can he say about the reforms that will follow the establishment of the Ethics and Integrity Commission to ensure that former Ministers cannot trade on their knowledge through the revolving door and—with the scrapping of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments, which had been derided as a toothless regulator—that there are far stronger safeguards on former Ministers taking up jobs in the private sector.

• 18 Nov 2025 · Flood Risk and Flood Defence Infrastructure: North-west England · Hansard source

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  As my constituency neighbour, does my hon. Friend share the frustration that I and my Bolton West constituents sometimes have about identifying who is responsible for the existing infrastructure and its maintenance? For example, we struggle to understand whether United Utilities or the council is responsible for localised flooding by Old Station Park and on Chorley New Road in Horwich, or on Lostock Junction Lane, and the source of the flooding.

• 18 Nov 2025 · Flood Risk and Flood Defence Infrastructure: North-west England · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member is making a very good point. Does he agree that, notwithstanding the large drainage basins of rivers such as the Mersey, the Dee, the Kent and the Lune, which have systemic flood risk, there is also the issue of serious localised flooding across the region, which is often not tied to major drainage basins but connected to sewerage or groundwater?

• 17 Nov 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T9. The Home Secretary will be aware of the existing asset recovery incentivisation scheme, which uses seized criminal assets to fund enforcement agencies in their work to tackle economic crime. There are, however, concerns about the lumpy nature of the funding model, which can lead to wild variations in financial support year on year for the likes of the Crown Prosecution Service, local police forces and the Serious Fraud Office. Will the Minister therefore meet me to discuss the merits of introducing a ringfenced, multi-year funding pot for law enforcement agencies tackling economic crime?

• 13 Nov 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  I was recently contacted by a constituent about Greater Manchester integrated care partnership funding an autism assessment for his son. After waiting eight months, my constituent was informed that his chosen provider’s funding had been cut by the ICP. With his GP’s help, he was able to transfer to a different provider, whose funding has also been cut, and his application is now on hold, with no timetable for a resolution. Given the current NHS waiting times for autism assessment, can we have a debate in Government time on the steps being taken to ensure that children get the reviews they need?