Al Pinkerton MP: speeches

Speeches

• 10 Jun 2026 · Defence Investment Plan · Hansard source

  More

  I associate myself and my hon. Friends with the condolences paid to the families of the crew who died in the tragic helicopter crash last week. The defence investment plan is still not published, and after nine months, industry waits for certainty, our allies for clarity and our armed forces for the investment they were promised. At a time of acute threat, defence cannot be switched on overnight. We cannot rebuild industrial capacity, train personnel, modernise equipment or restore deterrence through vague promises about working at pace. Small and medium-sized enterprises are clear that investment decisions are delayed, expansion is on hold and our contracts are being lost overseas. British firms stand ready to grow and hire, but this delay is freezing procurement, paralysing the supply chain and creating doubt about Britain’s commitment to rearmament. Will the Secretary of State confirm whether he has assessed the economic damage caused to British businesses by the delayed defence investment plan? Given the apparent deadlock between the Treasury and the MOD, will he seriously consider our proposal to issue £20 billion of defence bonds?

• 9 Jun 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

  More

  The relocation of Frimley Park hospital in my constituency is a £1.8 billion project, but none of the costs of the essential infrastructure to enable the new site to go ahead have been costed or budgeted for. The chief executives of the hospital simply have said that those costs will have to come from the new hospital programme contingency fund. Does the Secretary of State agree that that is no way to start a project of such size, scale and significance, and will he meet me to address those concerns?

• 9 Jun 2026 · North Belfast: Violent Attack · Hansard source

  More

  The reports from Kinnaird Avenue are deeply distressing. My thoughts are with the victim and his family. I pay tribute to the residents who did the extraordinary thing of running towards danger, intervening to restrain the attacker and helping to protect another person’s life. I also thank the police officers and paramedics who responded with such speed and professionalism. Their actions almost certainly saved a life yesterday evening. What I know of north Belfast is that it is a community that has worked hard to build trust across long-standing divides, and residents will be as horrified by this attack as the rest of us. Will the Secretary of State reassure residents that they will be kept safe in the days ahead, confirm that the PSNI has the support it needs to maintain a visible presence, and make it clear that no one should exploit one individual’s actions to cast suspicion on a whole community?

• 8 Jun 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

  More

  My constituent, Richard, has been unable to work for four months because of Disclosure and Barring Service delays. Things are getting desperate at home, and he faces the prospect of defaulting on his mortgage this month. There has been a 10-month delay from the point of application to now. Will one of the Front-Bench team look at his case in particular, to help him out, but also try to take a hand of the DBS more generally?

• 2 Jun 2026 · Children: Development of Essential Skills · Hansard source

  More

  I have been contacted in the past week by pupils from Collingwood college in Surrey Heath—it is very close to Bracknell, but I can still claim it. They have been talking to me about mis- and disinformation, and they have said how important it is to receive citizenship education, which is excellently delivered at Collingwood. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that citizenship is one of the core, critical skills that gives children exactly the kind of awareness of mis- and disinformation that is vital as we approach the mid-21st century?

• 2 Jun 2026 · Armed Forces Bill · Hansard source

  More

  I should like to quote a few words from the hon. Member for Huntingdon (Ben Obese-Jecty), speaking just a couple of months ago in this Chamber: “This month marks 20 years since I returned from serving on Operation Telic 7 in Iraq. While I was there, we patrolled Basra in Snatch Land Rovers, and 34 British soldiers died in Snatch Land Rovers. They were called “mobile coffins” and “suicide wagons” for a reason. In 2006, it was highlighted to the Government that those vehicles were unsuitable, and it was not until years later that they were replaced.” —[ Official Report , 15 April 2026; Vol. 783, c. 842.] It was not the ECHR that put British soldiers’ lives at risk in Iraq, but it was the ECHR that provided the legal basis for the families of those victims to seek justice. I think that the right hon. Gentleman is looking through the wrong end of the telescope on this one. By seeking to remove us from the ECHR, he is potentially putting British service people at greater risk, rather than offering them protection.

• 2 Jun 2026 · EU Internal Electricity Market · Hansard source

  More

  10. What recent discussions he has had with his EU counterparts on the UK’s participation in the EU’s internal electricity market.

• 2 Jun 2026 · EU Internal Electricity Market · Hansard source

  More

  At a time of intense geopolitical instability, British households remain particularly exposed to volatile global energy prices. Indeed, Ofgem has announced a 13% rise in the energy price cap from July. Given that there are interconnectors with six European countries already, does the Minister agree with a coterie of esteemed energy economists that the single greatest thing that this Government could do to strengthen our energy security, drive long-term investment in renewable energy and bring down bills would be to recouple our electricity market with that of the European Union? [ Interruption. ]

• 1 Jun 2026 · Child Sexual Offender Data · Hansard source

  More

  A few moments ago, my hon. Friend mentioned data. The House of Commons Library has compiled some information from 2021 to 2025, which shows that the single largest ethnic group of perpetrators of child sexual abuse in the United Kingdom was white British men, who were responsible for 58.35% of all such incidents. I do not say that to reinforce points that have already been made; I do so to emphasise the second most prominent category of ethnicity, which is simply “Unknown”. That data shadow is shameful. It fails the victims of child sexual exploitation, but it also creates the space in which speculation and distrust have been allowed to flourish. Does my hon. Friend agree that we need not only to gather better data, but to robustly and systematically analyse it, in order to finally allow the truth about child sexual exploitation to be brought out into the light?

• 19 May 2026 · Family Courts · Hansard source

  More

  I am grateful for that response. My constituent Olivia is an extraordinary survivor of sustained coercive control involving psychological, physical and financial abuse—a set of abuses that continued even after her separation from her partner, because of child contact arrangements, which left her in persistent fear for both her safety and that of her child. What steps are the Secretary of State and his Front Bench team taking to strengthen safeguarding in the family courts and to protect domestic abuse survivors from re-traumatisation, particularly when perpetrators use mechanisms such as child contact arrangements to continue their abuse?

• 19 May 2026 · Family Courts · Hansard source

  More

  1. What steps he is taking to reform the family courts.

• 21 Apr 2026 · English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill · Hansard source

  More

  I congratulate the Conservative Lords on insisting on amendment 37. However, I wonder whether the shadow Secretary of State might have a word with the Surrey Heath Conservative Association, which has campaigned vigorously against parish councils in my area. It has described parish councils as gravy trains that allow most councillors to do very little—if anything at all—and collect a financial allowance. However, setting that inconsistency to one side, in the context of local government reorganisation in Surrey, where we will have a new West Surrey of 650,000 people that will be bankrupt on day one, parish councils actually represent an incredible receptacle through which to move key local assets so that they can be secured for the future. Does my hon. Friend agree?

• 20 Apr 2026 · Security Vetting · Hansard source

  More

  When the Prime Minister asked his officials in January 2025, as he surely did—perhaps with an element of surprise in his voice—“So, Peter actually passed his security clearance, did he?”, what was the scenario that then unfolded? Did Sir Olly Robbins declare, “I’m sorry, I can’t tell you, Prime Minister, I’m not at liberty to say”? Did he actively seek to mislead the Prime Minister by simply saying “Yes, Prime Minister”, or, as seems more likely, did that scenario never take place because the Prime Minister never thought to ask?

• 15 Apr 2026 · Strategic Defence Review: Funding · Hansard source

  More

  My question follows on perfectly from that of the right hon. Member for Dwyfor Meirionnydd (Liz Saville Roberts). Lord Robertson said that we are ill prepared for the threats of today, never mind tomorrow. While Britain may not be under daily attack from missiles and tanks—not yet, anyway—we are under daily assault by misinformation and disinformation from hostile actors who are targeting our institutions, democracy and social cohesion. The Minister has referred to the investments and operational changes that have been put into cyber and electromagnetic security. Given the foundational nature of the challenge to our democracy, is he convinced that the Chancellor is convinced of the urgent need to make huge investments in this area? This is a challenge we have never experienced before—a challenge that collapses the traditional idea of the frontline with the home front.

• 13 Apr 2026 · Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill · Hansard source

  More

  I genuinely thank the Minister for his statement, for advance sight of it, and for his long engagement with me on these issues. The process for negotiating this treaty has been, I am sorry to say, utterly shambolic, from its beginning under the previous Government to its demise under this one. [Interruption.] From a sedentary position, an hon. and gallant Gentleman says, “Why did we finish it?” I am sorry to tell him that they did not. There is no evidence at all that this statement was finished by the previous Government. As this Government shelve the legislation, they must now reckon with the litany of failures that have plagued the process, specifically their inability to secure fundamental legal guarantees from the US through the necessary exchange of letters; their reluctance to adopt measures that would enable genuine parliamentary scrutiny over the planned vast sums of money that would be sent to the Government of Mauritius; and their wilful reluctance to work with or to secure the rights of Chagossians, including but not limited to the right of return to the Chagos islands. Aside from the Government’s apparent ignorance of the legal prerequisites for the passage of the treaty, the most objectionable aspect of the process has been the woeful engagement with the Chagossian community. The British state has long denied Chagossians a meaningful say in their own future. The provisions of this treaty, shamefully, failed again to affirm those rights, so if the treaty ever does return to this House, the Government would do well to observe and understand the amendments tabled by the Liberal Democrats in the other place to secure genuine rights for Chagossians and help to buck the historical trend of that community being left out of decisions about its own future. I have one very simple question for the Minister. Given that the Government have now abandoned their proposed deal with Mauritius over the Chagos islands, can the Foreign Secretary set out what this means in practice for the long-promised right of return for Chagossians? Will the Government now commit to supporting resettlement under continued UK sovereignty? If so, how does the Minister assess the implications of that return for the evidential and legal basis underpinning the 2019 International Court of Justice advisory opinion? In conclusion, British citizens physically located on the islands would constitute a resident population who would be—

• 13 Apr 2026 · SEND Provision and Reform · Hansard source

  More

  I thank the hon. Member for Farnham and Bordon (Gregory Stafford) for calling this important debate. Like him, my inbox has overflowed since I was elected last year, with concerned parents writing to me about the state of special educational needs provision. They recognise that the system is broken, but also that the system that they experience in Surrey is perhaps more broken that almost anywhere else. I will start with one bit of good news and an acknowledgment: I thank the Department for confirming funding for the new Frimley Oak academy, which will open in my constituency in the near future and will cater to 170 people. It represents an important step forward in addressing a vital local need for children with special educational needs. The sad reality is that for too long, so many parents and children in my constituency have been failed, I am sorry to say, by Surrey county council. Surrey has had the highest recorded number of SEND tribunal appeals anywhere in the country for three consecutive years. That statistic is a symptom of systemic dysfunction and failure. Behind every one of those appeals are human stories. A constituent of mine recently wrote to me. Her opening words were simply: “Our life is crumbling right now.” Others described their children being stripped of their childhood, families being physically and mentally broken, and their finances being pushed to the brink. At a constituency surgery that I held recently, a parent described the process of navigating the SEND system as being like walking the yellow brick road, with every trial and tribulation thrown in their way, and then finally getting to the emerald city that might represent something a little better, only to pull back the curtain and find that there is nothing there—an EHCP with the wrong name, describing the wrong child, offering an inappropriate package of support. Sitting at the top of all this in Surrey are the senior leaders, who say that there is no problem with special educational needs in Surrey at all, just parents who are too articulate. They claim, outrageously, that there is not a problem; there are just parents who have too inflated an idea of their children’s wants. It is absolutely atrocious.

• 13 Apr 2026 · SEND Provision and Reform · Hansard source

  More

  I agree that with local government reorganisation there is an opportunity to get the processes right, but I recognise that there are enormous risks, particularly in Surrey, where the new unitary authority is likely to start its life with £4 billion of debt and an annual shortfall of £150 million in its operational budget. It could be a council in section 114 special economic measures from the moment of its creation. Given the level of need that I see described in my inbox, I am incredibly concerned that more parents and more generations of children will be let down. I think right hon. and hon. Members across Surrey will feel the same. I congratulate the Minister and the Government on their plans, which I think have the correct intention, but I am incredibly concerned that the necessary financial foundations may not be in place to ensure that children are looked after properly. Ultimately, this debate comes down to one simple question: will the Government’s proposed SEND reforms deliver meaningful change, or will they simply repackage a system that continues to fail families? Judging from the state of my inbox, we cannot allow any more families to be failed.

• 13 Apr 2026 · Middle East · Hansard source

  More

  The Prime Minister is right to suggest that the tremors provoked by this conflict will reverberate long after the kinetic fighting has finished. There is perhaps no better example of that than Cyprus, where Government officials, all the way up to the level of the Prime Minister, have questioned Britain’s continuing sovereignty over our sovereign base areas there. May I ask the Prime Minister what he has done to reassure the Cypriots and the Cypriot Government that Britain is a trusted and reliable neighbour and partner, and that our continuing sovereignty is immutable?

• 23 Mar 2026 · Middle East · Hansard source

  More

  From the first moments that the attempted rocket launches towards Diego Garcia were reported over the weekend there has been growing speculation, fuelled mainly by Israel, that Iran’s strike capacity now stretches far beyond what we previously conceived, and far beyond the Gulf region. Given what the Secretary of State said today when he confirmed that they were Iranian rockets—that goes beyond the NATO Secretary General yesterday—can he confirm how close those rockets or missiles came to Diego Garcia? What is now the MOD’s assessment about the effective strike range of Iran’s missile capacity? Does it stretch deep into Europe, and is the UK even now at risk?

• 17 Mar 2026 · Middle East · Hansard source

  More

  It is abundantly clear to any fair-minded geopolitical observer that the US-Israeli actions in Iran were commenced without the cover of law and without a plan to follow the initial impulse of kinetic violence. But it is equally clear that the United Kingdom was caught short in our responsiveness and preparedness, particularly in relation to the island of Cyprus. Following the drone attack on that particular hangar, the Cypriot Government expressed disappointment in the UK, and the Cypriot Foreign Secretary has openly speculated about the future of our sovereign base areas. What work has the Foreign Secretary or her ministerial colleagues done to repair the damage with Cyprus, which is, after all, an incredibly valuable diplomatic and defence ally?

• 16 Mar 2026 · Strait of Hormuz · Hansard source

  More

  Given the vital role of Lloyd’s of London in underwriting global trade and providing war risk cover to vessels currently stuck in the Persian gulf, what conversations has the Minister had—or what conversations is he aware of—with Lloyd’s to ensure that its extraordinary expertise in this area is factored into the Government’s developing thinking? What conversations have been had across Government to protect and defend the reputation of Lloyd’s against shameful attacks from the MAGA movement in the United States?

• 16 Mar 2026 · Defence: UK Allies · Hansard source

  More

  Following the drone attack at RAF Akrotiri earlier this month, there has been growing disquiet within Cyprus and the Cypriot community about the continuing existence of the sovereign base areas. Given the absolute necessity of this defence relationship between the United Kingdom and Cyprus, will the Minister update the House on the Secretary of State’s visit to Cyprus earlier this month? Could he also say what reassurance the Cypriot Government need from us to ensure not only that the base is safe but that the future security of Cyprus is ensured?

• 12 Mar 2026 · Business of the House · Hansard source

  More

  Frimley Park hospital in my constituency is due to be rebuilt as part of the Government’s new hospital programme, but it has recently transpired that the cost of upgrading vital local transport infrastructure has been neither costed nor budgeted for. The National Audit Office shares my concerns about escalating costs and slipping delivery times. I was told that the costs would have to come from a contingency fund for the scheme. Given that the scheme needs to be credible and command public support, can we have an urgent debate on this issue so that errors are not hardcoded into the process?

• 12 Mar 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

  More

  Yesterday I met representatives of the British Chambers of Commerce, who relayed the profound concerns of the UK automative industry that it might be excluded from the European Union’s proposed industrial accelerator Act. Nissan and Honda have already broken cover to say that their futures may be uncertain unless they are included in the “made in Europe” rules. What is the Secretary of State doing, with his Front-Bench team and across Government, to ensure that the UK automotive sector is not placed at a competitive disadvantage as a consequence of those measures?

• 12 Mar 2026 · Defending Democracy Taskforce · Hansard source

  More

  In 2019, an attempt was made to physically attack me during the general election campaign, when a beer glass was thrown at my head. That was intimidating, but I recognise that it was nothing compared with the experience of those who are commemorated on the walls of this House, or of many of the women who sit in this Chamber. I am very sorry to say that, less than 12 hours ago, the Conservative party put out social media posts that placed the Prime Minister’s face on the body of a slug, a worm or a snake on a £5 note. Several months ago, the Conservative party in Surrey Heath put out a tweet about me that suggested that I somehow supported rape gangs because I could not support the Conservatives’ reasoned amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. Does the Security Minister think that those social media acts elevate our politics and conform to the values that we are speaking about today?