Ben Maguire MP: speeches

Speeches

• 21 May 2026 · Family Justice System: Domestic Abuse and Safeguarding · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship today, Ms Furniss. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Wokingham (Clive Jones) for securing this really important debate. I congratulate him on his excellent speech. I also welcome the new Safeguarding Minister to her place. I thank the hon. Member for Gravesham (Dr Sullivan), who reiterated calls for domestic abuse specialists to be embedded in our family courts. My hon. Friend the Member for Woking (Mr Forster) spoke movingly about the case of his constituent Sara Sharif, and about how the family court in that case did not question children’s services and the appalling culture that was described. I thank the hon. Member for Scarborough and Whitby (Alison Hume), who described the case of a paedophile and an abuser accessing legal aid to use the court system against his ex-partner and effectively continue that abuse. I also thank the hon. Member for Hammersmith and Chiswick (Andy Slaughter), who highlighted the value of the FDAC’s role in domestic abuse cases and the way it proactively supports victims to break cycles of abuse, but also the fact that it needs expansion and long-term and more secure funding. As many Members have pointed out, the family courts are in serious need of reform. The Domestic Abuse Commissioner, Dame Nicole Jacobs, has worked tirelessly to ensure that children are recognised and understood as victims in their own right. The statistics alone are staggering. The crime survey for England and Wales for the year ending March 2025 estimated that in the past year alone around 3.8 million people in England and Wales experienced domestic abuse. At the same time, one in five children in the UK experienced domestic abuse, with only one in 10 child victims receiving any support, according to Women’s Aid. That reinforces wider findings that despite the introduction of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, children are too often overlooked as victims of domestic abuse by police, social care and health services. As other hon. Members have set out, perpetrators continue to manipulate loopholes in the Child Maintenance Service system to further coerce and control victims emotionally, economically and physically. I entirely support colleagues calling for urgent reshaping of the CMS system and for the Ministry of Justice to fully implement the findings of its own 2020 harm panel report. That report identified harmful practices including a pro-contact culture, adversarial court processes, resource constraints and siloed working between agencies, all of which allowed abuse to go unnoticed or even continue through the system itself, as we heard earlier. I wish to focus on economic abuse, which my hon. Friend the Member for Wokingham highlighted so well. Research by Surviving Economic Abuse has found that a third of UK women with a child under 18 have had child maintenance payments deliberately blocked or manipulated by an ex-partner, despite that ex-partner being able to afford those payments. Meanwhile, the National Audit Office estimates that CMS arrears could reach £1 billion within five years. That is only one example of where change is urgently needed. The Government’s child poverty strategy promised an overhaul of the system, yet there is still no clear timeline for implementation, and our children are the ones suffering. We Liberal Democrats welcome the continued roll-out of child-focused courts, which have shown reductions in case length and therefore in the re-traumatisation of victims who are forced through drawn-out proceedings. I sincerely hope that the Government fulfil their promise to expand those courts nationally. I also recognise the important steps that have been taken in recent months, on which I will take this opportunity to congratulate the Government. The removal of the long-criticised presumption of contact established under the Children Act 1989 finally places children’s voices and experiences back at the centre of decisions that affect them. However, survivors now need clarity on its implementation. When will the repeal come into force? Before the Minister claims that some of these matters fall outside her direct remit, I would like to make it clear that I and organisations including Surviving Economic Abuse, Rights of Women, Women’s Aid and Refuge have jointly written to her to underline the urgent need for a practical, cross-departmental action plan to protect and support victims of domestic abuse. The violence against women and girls strategy must be matched by that cross-Government delivery. Economic abuse frequently involves perpetrators controlling finances, restricting access to income and withholding key documents. As a result, many victims are unable to provide the evidence required under the legal aid system, and are therefore excluded from support precisely when they need it the most. That heavily ties into the safeguarding aspect of today’s debate. Victims feel completely at a loss and deserted by the justice system. There is also a significant cliff edge for working victims of domestic abuse. Many individuals earning slightly above the eligibility threshold are deemed to be ineligible for legal aid, yet cannot realistically afford legal representation without sacrificing substantial portions of their income. That gap risks deterring victims from pursuing protection, or even from resolving cases safely through the courts. Even when the grant of legal aid is technically possible and victims make the means test cut, access to justice is again undermined by the severe shortage of family law legal aid solicitors. In rural communities such as mine, the legal aid deserts are among the worst in the country. I would welcome further discussions with the Minister and the Justice Minister responsible for legal aid, the hon. and learned Member for Finchley and Golders Green (Sarah Sackman), on increasing legal aid fee rates in line with inflation, similar to the increases that we have already welcomed for immigration and housing law. Only then will we attract more legal aid solicitors to where they are most needed. That is particularly important given that legal aid was mentioned only fleetingly in the Government’s 2025 violence against women and girls strategy, despite legal representation often being one of the most important protections that victims have when facing their abusers in court. The Law Society and the Legal Aid Practitioners Group have long called for urgent improvement in this area. From my constituency casework, I know that many victims face severe bias once they enter the family court system, even when they are represented. I therefore echo Women’s Aid in calling for all family court professionals, including judges and court staff, to receive high-quality, mandatory and regularly updated domestic abuse training. This issue cuts across every aspect of domestic abuse within the justice system. Around 75% of child arrangement cases in the family courts involve allegations of domestic abuse. Although much of the issue falls within the remit of the Ministry of Justice, I must take the opportunity to reinforce Refuge’s demand that the VAWG strategy should explicitly reflect plans to improve the response of the family justice system to domestic abuse. As we have heard, too many victims still feel that the courts minimise their experiences and fail to understand the realities of coercive and controlling behaviour. We cannot continue with a system where victims are forced to act as litigants in person because they cannot access or afford legal representation. I therefore share the disappointment expressed by many VAWG charities and organisations regarding the lack of substantive focus in the recent King’s Speech on protecting women and girls in practice. Warm words are not enough. Victims deserve a justice system that protects them, listens to them and enables them to access safety without traumatisation and without financial ruin. I urge the Minister to ensure that this year’s violence against women and girls strategy is accompanied by meaningful cross-departmental implementation, including vital action on legal aid, family court reform, judicial training and economic abuse.

• 20 May 2026 · Processed Russian Oil Products: Sanctions · Hansard source

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  Rocketing fuel prices are hitting rural families in constituencies like mine, but the answer can never be to play directly into Putin’s hands by weakening sanctions, just as Ukraine is finally pushing back against Russia’s war machine. Does the Minister agree that we can both stand firmly with our Ukraine allies, maintaining sanctions on Russian jet fuel and diesel that is refined in third countries, while also supporting rural households through a temporary VAT cut on heating oil and a 10p cut to fuel duty, which could be funded through a levy on big banks’ eye-watering profits?

• 19 May 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.

• 19 May 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Cornwall continues to face some of the UK’s worst legal aid deserts, with rurality and lack of transport adding to the postcode lottery. According to the Law Society, a third of domestic abuse survivors were forced to represent themselves in court, as even when advice is available, eligibility criteria often stand in their way. Will the Secretary of State meet me to discuss raising the income threshold for the legal aid means test in line with inflation and removing the capital assets requirement altogether to ensure that victims of economic abuse can access justice?

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

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  I will keep my contribution brief and speak once again on Lords amendments 98 and 98A, to allow other hon. Members to speak. Along with many of my constituents, I was very disappointed last Tuesday that the Minister failed to mention Cornwall once in her closing speech, despite my pointing out the dangerous powers that the Government are still trying to instil into law—powers that could be used by this Government or a future Government, which could force Cornwall to merge with another authority without the consent of the Cornish people. Cornwall still faces the prospect of having no legal protections in the Bill. Liberal Democrats have made efforts here and in the other place to secure protections that would take our national minority status into account under the European Framework convention for the protection of national minorities. I fear that my constituents are being held to ransom by this Government, who say, “Accept our terms, effectively give up your national minority status, be forced into a merger with another region, and we might give you more money—and if you don’t accept our terms, we have the powers to force you to do so in two years’ time anyway.” In my eyes, that amounts to nothing more than economic coercion against a national minority. The Minister keeps repeating, as she did last week, that the Government have already committed not to use these powers for two years. How does that provide comfort for my constituents? Either a future Government or this one could use that power after two years. I therefore hope that all my Cornish colleagues and Members from across the House will join me this time to vote against the Government’s latest attempt at blocking Lords amendment 98. Let us please not hand this Government or future Governments this unlawful power to combine authorities against the will of local people—our constituents. To the Minister, I say again that she has not considered Cornwall’s national minority status, contrary to the European framework convention, and so she will likely expect a legal challenge if the Bill becomes law.

• 23 Apr 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T8. Successive Governments have handed public contracts worth hundreds of millions of pounds to the US tech firm Palantir, including the Ministry of Defence and NHS England, for a procurement process that many clinicians and other experts say completely lacks transparency. That is not to mention Palantir’s horrifying surveillance of Palestinians on behalf of the Israel Defence Forces, as well as its unethical involvement with United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Does the Minister accept the huge risks of outsourcing our sensitive information contracts to such amoral American data leeches, and when will the Government prioritise more secure British-based alternatives?

• 23 Apr 2026 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Some of the most shocking stories that I heard during the general election campaign on doorsteps throughout North Cornwall were of people pulling out their own teeth because they could not afford the high cost of private dental care. This week, all parties at Cornwall council unanimously passed a Lib Dem motion to tackle the urgent dentistry crisis we face by focusing on prevention, outreach services and workforce shortages. The Lib Dem sponsors, Councillors Rosie Moore and David Garrigan, emphasised urgent action over more talk. If Cornwall council can come together cross-party and act with such urgency, why can’t the Government? Will the Leader of the House please commit to a debate in Government time on fixing the NHS dentistry crisis in rural and coastal communities, like mine in Cornwall?

• 22 Apr 2026 · Mountain Rescue · Hansard source

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  I fully endorse and support what my hon. Friend is saying. My brilliant Cornish search and rescue team have asked me to attend this debate to make exactly the same point, that if they are not exempted from that CQC registration requirement, they will face thousands of pounds in costs and lots of time in bureaucracy. Frankly, many of them would not continue in the search and rescue service, and we would see a huge gap. They provide a valuable service, as we have heard, so I join my hon. Friend in urging the Minister to look again at that. If she cannot provide an assurance to us, to our constituents and to our brilliant search and rescue and mountain rescue teams, I hope that she and her colleagues can come back to us later.

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

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  I will briefly speak to Lords amendment 98. When it comes to regions such as Cornwall and my constituency of North Cornwall, this Bill neither respects nor gives due consideration to our unique national minority status. In a letter sent to the leader of Cornwall council in November last year, the Secretary of State said that he recognised Cornwall’s “distinct local identity” and said that the Government were “minded, on an exceptional basis, to work” with the leader to explore a bespoke deal for Cornwall. Five months later, the Bill has progressed through both Houses and still we have nothing in writing about that bespoke Cornwall-only deal, or even provisions to allow for one. Instead, we see efforts by this Government to undermine Lords amendment 98. The Secretary of State plans to force his MPs to vote against that vital amendment, which would prevent the Bill from giving overreaching powers to Ministers, through which they could essentially force local authorities to combine, against the will of local people. On 24 March, on Report in the other place, the Government Whip responded that discussions are “positive and ongoing” and urged my Lib Dem colleague in the other place, Lord Teverson, to withdraw his amendments that were specifically designed to provide appropriate legal protections for Cornwall. The Minister in the other place said: “While the United Kingdom is a proud signatory to the charter and the framework convention, accepting these amendments risks creating uncertainty over the status and interpretation of those treaties in domestic law.” —[ Official Report, House of Lords, 24 March 2026; Vol. 854, c. 1413.] Instead, the Government seem to have chosen to completely ignore the European framework convention and charter for languages, which opens up the Bill to potential legal challenges. Our national minority status in Cornwall has been completely ignored, and now risks being ignored by future Governments as well. This essentially means that the current or any future Secretary of State could force Cornwall to combine with other authorities, and disregard its national minority status. Let me be clear: Cornwall does not want that, and my constituents regularly urge me to make this point. We do not want to be dragged kicking and screaming into a combined authority with Plymouth or any other wider south-west authority. Without Lords amendment 98, we risk having a diktat from the Westminster Government that tells us what to do. That is not devolution. I urge Members from across the House to vote against the Government’s attempt to disregard this vital amendment, and I respectfully ask the Minister to come to the Dispatch Box and set out what protections for Cornwall’s national minority status the Government will bring forward, and when.

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

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  Will the Minister give way?

• 21 Apr 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T5. Last week marked three years since the start of Sudan’s ongoing civil war, which has sparked a disastrous famine affecting an estimated 34 million people, while about 14 million have been displaced. What are the Government doing to combat the reported obstruction of aid delivery by the Rapid Support Forces, the Sudanese armed forces and the other warring factions that is further worsening the monumental humanitarian crisis?

• 25 Mar 2026 · Victims and Courts Bill · Hansard source

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  This Bill returns to us from the other place, where my Liberal Democrat colleagues tabled a number of crucial amendments that come before us today, which concern changes to the unduly lenient sentence scheme, the victims code, access to free court transcripts and more. I am really pleased to hear the Minister support those amendments in principle, and to hear her commitment that she will take them away with her team to make sure that they are workable before bringing them back to this place. Of course, the Liberal Democrats will hold the Government to account on all those amendments and make sure that they are implemented as quickly as possible for the sake of victims. On Lords amendment 1, I am proud that my colleagues in the other place have been building on the successes of my hon. Friend the Member for Richmond Park (Sarah Olney), who has fought a long-running campaign for free court transcripts for victims. The amendment would give victims a right to receive court transcripts of the route to verdict, and of bail decisions relating to their particular case, free of charge. At present, such transcripts are available to victims only where a defendant has been convicted of an offence. We Liberal Democrats will vote for the amendment in order to build on this Bill and to make further much-needed progress by extending the current scheme. I urge all colleagues from across the House to join us in doing so. On Lords amendments 5 and 7, we Liberal Democrats, led by Baroness Brinton in the other place, have sought to clarify and amend the unduly lenient sentence scheme. The scheme ensures that victims who feel that an offender’s sentence is unduly lenient can appeal to the court. However, in practice, many victims are completely unaware that this mechanism exists, and are often told about it after their short 28-day appeal window has closed. Some of these cases involve families of victims who have faced some of the most horrific crimes, including brutal murder cases, with harrowing details about what has happened to them or to members of their family laid out before them in court, in full, for the first time. Understandably, this can put them through severe emotional strain and trauma, and have other distressing effects. For many families of victims, the last thing on their mind are procedures such as appeals. Once they reach a stage where they have processed their grief, the short 28-day window has sometimes already passed—and they may not have even been aware that they could appeal. To address this issue, the new clauses tabled by the Liberal Democrats seek to make allowances for the 28-day timeframe to be extended in exceptional circumstances, and to place much greater responsibility on criminal justice agencies to ensure that victims are fully aware of their rights to appeal and of how quickly they must do so. For example, greater awareness of victims’ rights in relation to the unduly lenient sentence scheme could form part of a judge’s sentencing remarks following a trial, rather than being left as an afterthought that might not be covered at all. Lords amendment 2 relates to changes to the victims code. It would require the Secretary of State to outline how the rights in the victims code apply to the families of those killed as a result of murder, manslaughter or infanticide outside the UK. The amendment follows the outstanding work of my hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead (Mr Reynolds), who pushed for these changes at an earlier stage of the Bill’s passage. Although I understand that it would be unreasonable for us to mandate other countries to enforce the UK’s victims code, we are seeking to afford the families of such victims the same rights and to treat them as victims under the code. I am therefore very pleased that our colleagues in the other place have given this sensible and much-needed amendment a chance in this place once again. I urge all colleagues to vote for all these excellent Lords amendments, which are incredibly important to victims and their families. I hope the Minister will come back to the House to confirm precisely when they can be brought forward by the Government in workable legislation. For the record, I commend the work of our colleagues, both in this House and in the other place, on these issues, which are so vital to victims’ rights and to our justice system as a whole.

• 23 Mar 2026 · Rail Connections to London: Rural Towns · Hansard source

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  I thank the Minister for giving way right at the end of the debate. My constituency does not contain a single mainline station. The six Cornish MPs would also love to meet the Rail Minister. We have a plan called “Kernow Connect”, and we have huge economic potential, with critical minerals and one of the world’s deepest ports in Falmouth, but we do not have the capacity for freight on our railway. I would appreciate the Minister’s help in setting up that meeting and moving this forward.

• 19 Mar 2026 · Violence against Women and Girls: Prosecutions · Hansard source

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  First, can I ask the Solicitor General to please follow up on her kind offer to chase the Justice Minister responsible for legal aid, the hon. and learned Member for Finchley and Golders Green (Sarah Sackman), about meeting me to discuss support for domestic abuse victims? The 2024 domestic abuse joint justice plan aims to improve early co-ordination between police and the CPS. I am aware that a review was conducted as part of the plan, highlighting concerns about the quality and timeliness of police referrals and CPS decision making. However, based on recent cases I have heard about from my North Cornwall constituents and from other Members, I am rather concerned that the plan’s focus on high-risk victims does not ensure accurate identification of those genuinely at high risk. Professionals could misinterpret or overlook risk factors, meaning that some of those high-risk cases might be wrongly assessed and their severity underestimated. Does the Solicitor General agree that while the plan has improved investigations and prosecutions, a needs-based approach is absolutely essential, especially to show victims that coming forward is worthwhile and the justice system will not fail them?

• 18 Mar 2026 · Domestic Abuse Survivors: Government Support · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for that excellent point—I will come on to accommodation issues and the impact on children. I recognise that really important steps have been taken in recent months, on which I congratulate the Government. For instance, many people will agree that the removal of the presumption of contact puts children’s voices and experience back at the heart of contact decisions, which is a genuine step forward for their safety. The 2025 statutory reforms to the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 updated the terminology to align with the Domestic Abuse Act 2021—replacing “domestic violence” with “domestic abuse”, and “financial abuse” with “economic abuse”—and recognised that abuse against an individual may consist of behaviour directed at another individual, such as their children. However, from speaking to my North Cornwall constituents and the charity sector, I realised that the VAWG strategy does not yet place arguably the most crucial protection for victims at the centre of its aims. Of course, societal change is urgently needed to prevent so-called normal people becoming perpetrators of abuse, but what about those victims who are caught up in the cycle of abuse now? How can we help them and free them from harm?

• 18 Mar 2026 · Domestic Abuse Survivors: Government Support · Hansard source

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  I beg to move, That this House has considered Government support for domestic abuse survivors. It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairmanship in this important debate, Mr Twigg. I thank all Members for attending the debate and standing up for survivors of domestic abuse in their constituencies. I also thank the excellent women’s rights campaigners, some of whom have joined us today. Without their relentless research, activism and day-to-day support for victims, we would be unable to fully represent domestic abuse survivors. I must open today’s debate with a sad reality: according to Refuge, an estimated 2.2 million women and 1.5 million men have experienced domestic abuse in this country in the last year alone, and according to a 2025 report by the Office for National Statistics, this issue is far from niche. Refuge also found that, on average, one woman is killed by an abusive partner or ex-partner every five days in England and Wales. The fact that we use words like “on average”, “approximately”, and “estimated” on such a serious topic beckons us to acknowledge that those numbers still suffer from severe under-reporting, highlighting just how much more work we have to do. In the light of International Women’s Day having just passed, and with the Government’s long-awaited violence against women and girls strategy still fresh in our minds, I want to take this opportunity to assess how Government support for domestic abuse survivors holds up in practice.

• 18 Mar 2026 · Domestic Abuse Survivors: Government Support · Hansard source

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  I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on being such a champion on this issue, and I completely agree with his condemnation of Travelodge’s frankly despicable response. His point regarding Airbnb is interesting, and I have been making the same point recently, because it crosses over with the Travelodge issue. I am sure that many Members have heard from survivors in their constituencies who tell them they have spent all their savings on legal fees or they have accrued tens of thousands of pounds worth of debt. We know that survivors often face crippling financial barriers when trying to protect themselves and, in many cases, their children. Would the Minister tell me why the review period for the threshold has not yet been changed and why the gap between those who are eligible for legal aid and those who can afford to pay for legal services has not received closer scrutiny during the means test review? The previous Government completed their review in 2022 and then proposed new criteria in 2023. Implementation was later delayed and, as far as I am aware, the current Government have not yet indicated that they intend to progress the work. I would therefore appreciate an update from the Minister on the status of the legal aid means test review. I welcome the Government’s steps to include economic abuse in the Domestic Abuse Act, but claiming that if a victim can prove they are economically abused, they will become exempt from the means test is a bit like asking victims who are under a severe threat to their health—in the most vulnerable state of their life—to sift through a haystack to find a purposefully and impossibly well-hidden needle. The £100,000 capital exemption recently introduced for the means test has been powerfully rejected by Women’s Aid and domestic abuse charities, which say that it does not go nearly far enough. Sitting on a £1 million property that is co-owned with their perpetrator, who—guess what?—will not sell, excludes someone from any legal support. Such trapped capital should not be included in the financial eligibility calculation. I would go as far as stating that such inaccessible capital should be exempt from the means test, particularly as many victims are too afraid to leave their homes with their children as they are not certain that the family courts will bring them a positive outcome, as I have highlighted in Louise’s case. According to the Surviving Economic Abuse 2026 report, almost 1 million women in the UK who experienced economic abuse last year said that the abuse prevented them from leaving their dangerous abuser. In the worst-case scenario, that decision, which is forced on them via our systematic failure to understand the reality of domestic abuse for victims, can be fatal. Another recent study covering a 12-year period, which included 400 homicide reviews, found that one person died every 19 days in cases that involved economic abuse. In other words, every three weeks a victim dies because an abuser uses economic abuse as a tool of control. Refuge recently evidenced how 75 women were killed as a result of domestic homicide in the year ending 2025. Those numbers should spark outrage across our society. This final act of violence could have been prevented had there been proper legal resources in place for victims, or proper housing support that meant victims could be safe. Too many victims are forced to return to their perpetrators because they do not receive the levels of legal support needed to continue with the legal process. That means that many are unable to obtain things such as protective orders against their perpetrator, or obtain safe child contact arrangements. Victims could even end up homeless. Those brave victim survivors who do leave their homes and apply for urgent homelessness protection can receive immediate legal support, but they end up having to go through the legal aid means test. If they are seen to have an income above the threshold, they have to support their own legal representation, when it is actually their abuser who has forced them out. Victims therefore become stuck between staying in their family home and enduring their suffering, or ending up potentially homeless—due to, again, this destructive means test. A Cornish women’s protection centre recently reached out to me, detailing the following case that it was dealing with—for which I have again changed the name. Katy’s ex-partner abused and controlled her, both during and after their relationship ended. The ex-partner controlled contact with their children and locked Katy out of their property, resulting in her sleeping on the streets. During the family court process, which lasted 18 months, Katy had no legal aid or legal advice, and minimal support throughout the court proceedings, representing herself at the family court. Eventually, the judge granted a non-molestation order, an occupation order, a prohibited steps order, and a full care order for the children. However, after achieving that without any access to legal advice, Katy and her children have still not been given access to their home and remain homeless. Reporting by Women’s Aid reinforces this reality. Survivors frequently cannot secure a legal aid solicitor due to the combined effects of eligibility barriers and a national shortage of legal aid providers. That leaves many women unable to challenge refusals, missing deadlines and remaining in unsafe or unsuitable accommodation because they cannot navigate the process alone. All of that continues despite official homelessness data showing that large numbers of households become homeless or are threatened with homelessness due to domestic abuse, which means they should be treated as vulnerable and properly protected, not forced through a rigid financial test that was never designed for people fleeing violence.

• 18 Mar 2026 · Domestic Abuse Survivors: Government Support · Hansard source

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  I thank the Minister. Perhaps she can follow up on that point in her speech. I ask the Government urgently to reform evidence requirements for economic abuse in favour of more accessible evidential criteria. The lack of clarity regarding acceptable forms of evidence causes already limited legal aid solicitors to pre-emptively refuse to take on survivors’ cases. Having discussed and highlighted countless reasons to reform the legal aid means test for victims of domestic abuse, I must ask why legal aid is barely mentioned in the VAWG strategy, despite it being such a vital tool for victims to seek justice and crucial support. The Justice Secretary in the previous Government, Alex Chalk, is acknowledged by many in the women’s rights sector to have been open to committing to reform the legal aid barriers that victims face. I am sure, and hopeful, that the Government will be open to working with all of us to fix the legal aid means test, which, as I hope I have set out clearly, is the biggest obstacle to so many victims. I recently launched a petition to reform the means test, and I hope to widen the campaign further. How much more loss—how many more needless deaths—do we as a country need to endure? How many more debates are needed in this place for the Government to consider the issue properly? Until they commit to removing the legal aid means test for all domestic abuse victims and survivors, including those who are not currently accessing universal credit or fleeing the abuser, I hope to see urgent implementation of the delayed legal aid reforms, as pushed for by the VAWG sector. Those include the mandatory disregarding of inaccessible capital for victims of domestic abuse; the raising of the income threshold, which needs to include an annual review of the means test; and reformed evidence requirements when trying to prove economic abuse. I will end my speech there, in the hope that, by the time of the next Westminster Hall debate on domestic abuse, we will have seen tangible progress to show survivors that we stand with them, we fight with them and we will do everything we possibly can to change the system for them.

• 18 Mar 2026 · Domestic Abuse Survivors: Government Support · Hansard source

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  I completely agree; I have actually had some similar casework. I will come back to that point. In a deeply troubling case brought to me by a wonderful Cornish advice clinic, a female client, who I will call Louise for this debate, was refused legal aid on the basis that she supposedly had too much disposable income and assets, despite the reality that, at the time, she was sofa surfing, effectively homeless and earning only minimum wage. Although she may have passed the merits test, she failed the means test, because she was not paying rent and was not on benefits, so the system deemed her ineligible for legal support. After Louise fled her partner, who had reportedly abused her, both parties applied for residential custody of their child. Although the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service recommended that the child live with their mother, the judge awarded custody to the ex-partner, arguing that the mother had not followed the correct legal route when she fled from home. She is now permitted to see her child only by travelling hundreds of miles back to the area from which she fled, and the ex-partner refuses phone contact altogether. She is terrified of returning to a family court and knows from experience how one-sided the system can be, especially as her ex-partner has the money and the legal representation, while she would be forced to represent herself. How many women consider the reality that Louise currently faces and, as a result, end up staying with their abuser? The legal aid Minister assured me that an eligibility waiver is available for victims of domestic abuse who are applying for urgent protections, such as non-molestation orders, yet a survey commissioned by the charity Surviving Economic Abuse found that more survivors had to represent themselves in legal proceedings than were able to access legal aid. The Ministry of Justice’s own harm report found: “The most important and frequently mentioned form of structural disadvantage was lack of access to legal representation.” Most cases I have reviewed end with a victim—whose abuse has not yet reached so-called dangerous levels—applying for a child protection order, anti-stalking order or non-molestation order, which means they do not qualify to skip the legal aid means test. On the contrary, victims will be assessed on their income through a test that has not been uprated with inflation since 2009. An applicant is not eligible for legal aid if their monthly disposable income exceeds £733. That threshold is clearly blind to reality. So far, the Government have chosen to ignore rising food and energy costs, as well as the huge debts that can be caused by an abuser. Even if someone has £750 left at the end of the month including those costs, which is farcical, the fact that solicitors can cost anything from £120 an hour to £400 or £500 an hour speaks volumes about the poorly executed calculations that are applied to the legal aid means test threshold.

• 18 Mar 2026 · Domestic Abuse Survivors: Government Support · Hansard source

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  I acknowledge and appreciate the Minister’s point about this not being the responsibility of the Home Office. I will say, though, that I excitedly awaited the VAWG strategy to see a cross-departmental approach to this vital issue—not action by one Department or another, but a whole-of-Government approach. I hope that she might agree with me on that point.

• 12 Mar 2026 · Defending Democracy Taskforce · Hansard source

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  I thank the Minister for his statement; it stood in very stark contrast to the response from the Opposition, which was chilling. Many Members have referenced the horrific online abuse that we see on a daily basis, which often originates, as has been said already, from foreign states. What steps are the Minister and the taskforce taking to protect our democracy from foreign interference, which is often subversive, especially following the recent arrests based on allegations of spying for China?

• 11 Mar 2026 · Finance (No. 2) Bill · Hansard source

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  I wholeheartedly endorse what the hon. Member is saying in support of new clause 11 tabled by the Liberal Democrats. Lots of my farmers in North Cornwall are constantly telling me that they are pleased with the Government’s decision to change course on the family farm tax, but it is essential that they keep rising prices in mind, exactly as the hon. Member says.

• 10 Mar 2026 · Courts and Tribunals Bill · Hansard source

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  Will the hon. Member give way?

• 10 Mar 2026 · Extreme Climate and Weather Events: National Resilience · Hansard source

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  I met constituents in Boscastle last week who reminded me about the terrible events of 2004, when there were huge floods that were devastating. The hon. Member mentioned the one hour of battery back-up, which is absolutely farcical and totally inadequate, but it was explained to me that even if someone had a back-up battery in their house, they could have problems, because the internet service provider’s unit and the street unit could be completely without power. Even if those battery back-ups had unlimited usage hours, people would still not have internet access in those emergencies.

• 24 Feb 2026 · Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for making that powerful point. That is a really important consideration; I hope that the Minister listened and can respond to it. These concerns naturally lead to further questions. What did those around Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor know? What did police protection officers, civil servants and officials who accompanied him, travelled with him and were present during official duties observe? What did they record? What did they raise? Crucially, what was dismissed and what was ignored? These are not trivial matters; they speak directly to how an individual in public office was able to behave in ways that would never be tolerated from anyone else and how the institutions around him seemingly completely failed to act.