Carla Lockhart MP: speeches

Speeches

• 9 Dec 2025 · Northern Ireland Troubles: Operation Kenova · Hansard source

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  The Secretary of State needs to go further. Several Members have pressed him on this point, but he still has not explicitly told the House. Given the extensive scrutiny directed at alleged agents within the UK establishment, what demands has the Secretary of State made of the Irish Government to disclose the extent and details of agents operating within the republican movement, particularly in the light of the irrefutable evidence of collusion that enabled the murder of RUC officers, UDR members and Protestant civilians, particularly in the border areas? Unlike the Secretary of State, I am not prepared to accept their say-so when for decades they have covered up, housed and protected terrorists, and denied innocent victims truth and justice.

• 3 Dec 2025 · Veterinary Medicines: Northern Ireland · Hansard source

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  I commend the hon. Gentleman for bringing this issue forward. He is right in saying that it affects not just us, but vets, distributors and manufacturers. Over eight major organisations are saying that. Does he agree that there has been secrecy and a lack of transparency on the part of the Government and the Secretary of State, and that the Secretary of State needs to stop pretending that this is manageable and publish the full details? Over 40% of key products and pack sizes will be impacted, and that will ultimately affect animal health. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that it is not sufficient to say, “Stockpile and see how it goes”? The Government should deal with the issue immediately and unilaterally.

• 3 Dec 2025 · Veterinary Medicines: Northern Ireland · Hansard source

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  Forgive us for not looking at this through the rose-tinted glasses that the Minister has presented today. I feel that what we have heard is another Minister with their head in the sand, utterly tone deaf to what industry, manufacturers and distributors are saying in the public domain. They have put their heads above the parapet. Will the Minister today commit to publishing the list? No one has seen it or has any understanding of it. Will the Minister actually engage with those industry leaders and not just the Department in Northern Ireland, which also seems to have its head in the sand? These industry leaders are saying that we will be at crisis point come the end of this year.

• 3 Dec 2025 · Veterinary Medicines: Northern Ireland · Hansard source

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  Will the Minister give way?

• 3 Dec 2025 · Veterinary Medicines: Northern Ireland · Hansard source

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  The Minister just talked about what to do if I need to continue to raise my concerns. We need the message to go back very clearly that there has been a veterinary medicines working group and it has been absolutely useless when it comes to raising concerns. No concerns are taken on board by the very same Minister who this Minister just said went to Northern Ireland in the last few days. They have listened but not acted. There is no mechanism to raise concerns or for them to be taken seriously.

• 2 Dec 2025 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for his point. The poorest will become poorer while workers are asked to pay more to support people who come here from overseas and go straight on to benefits, with little incentive to work. The system means it is more lucrative not to work than actually to contribute. It is time that this Government put British citizens, British workers and British employers first. It is time for the Chancellor to get tough on tax avoidance and offer genuine support to the hard-pressed workers who are doing the right thing and paying their way. Perhaps the most appalling tax grab in this Budget is the attack on our family farms. The announcement making business property relief and agricultural property relief transferable is a meaningless gesture and an insult. The family farm death tax remains fully intact—farmers gain nothing. Across the UK, the picture is grim. The Government seem intent on taxing family farms beyond profitability. It is a tax on death and a tax on tragedy. What can be more immoral? This path will damage agriculture at its core. Farming is the backbone of our nation. Food security is national security. Undermine it, and food prices will rise and we will rely on lower-quality imports at higher cost. There is no good news for farmers in this Budget, and when we vote on that resolution later, I urge Members to do the right thing. Furthermore, the Budget does nothing to remove the trade barrier separating Northern Ireland from the rest of the United Kingdom. The £16.6 million package does not change the reality that businesses still face checks, paperwork, delays and extra costs when trading with Great Britain. If the Government remove the checks, they will save the £16.6 million immediately. We look with some envy at the Department of Government Efficiency in the United States, and wonder why the UK cannot match that level of waste reduction. There are quick, real-time savings available such as to cut excess immigration spending, make work genuinely rewarding, ensure everyone pays the tax they owe, pulp the costly madness of net zero and tackle waste across Government. This Budget offers presentation rather than substance. It fails workers, employers, farmers, policing, health, hospitality and our taxpayers. There is a clear solution: get tough on immigration, tough on crime and tough on tax evasion, and get our country back to being the envy of the world. That is where we belong.

• 2 Dec 2025 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source

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  Despite all the “lines to take” that the Labour Whips have handed their MPs in an attempt to sell the Budget as something positive, the reality is very different. The content of this Budget is deeply damaging to pensioners, employees, employers and the wider economy. This is a Government who, it appears, are making up reasons to take back double or treble. While the rise in pension is welcome, it is not a new policy. Yes, the protection for pensioners’ ISA savings is welcome, but it penalises those who have not yet reached pension age and limits their ability to save. Where do hard-pressed workers get the benefit to invest their money? At the same time, saving into pension schemes has become yet another tax grab. We have been consistently told of a £20 billion black hole, and for weeks we have been fed the line that it has ballooned into a £50 billion crisis in just one year, but now we hear that there is no black hole at all. The OBR has been keeping both the Prime Minister and the Chancellor updated on a bi-weekly basis in respect of their forecasts. We now know that when the Chancellor and other Labour Ministers were out in the media painting their stories of doom and talking down the situation, creating volatility in the stock market, the Government knew all along that their briefings were inaccurate. What we have in this Budget penalises those who work. I noted a quote yesterday from the Leader of the Opposition about how a working family needs to earn £71,000 per year to be as well-off as a family of three on benefits. This Budget is a burden on workers, and it is clear that Labour Members are not the friends of workers. For years in opposition, they made great promises to the nation that they would lead, but the reality has been very different, with broken promises and broken manifesto pledges, and they are slowly breaking our country’s workers, who cannot give any more. Looking closer at the Budget, the increase in the minimum wage is positive in principle, but it will mean little in practice when employers are hit with the double blow of the national insurance rise and higher wage costs. Retailers and other businesses will inevitably raise prices to cover these additional burdens, and perhaps have to make redundancies, wiping out the benefit for many workers.

• 2 Dec 2025 · Homelessness: Funding · Hansard source

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  I commend the hon. Member for bringing this subject forward for debate. Across the UK, a disproportionate number of homeless people are former military personnel. Does he agree that this Government need to get real about supporting those who serve this country in their hour of need? We cannot continue to abandon them.

• 2 Dec 2025 · Pandemics: Support for People with Autism · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member is speaking so eloquently about his constituent Ivan. Does he agree that children with autism were failed by school closures during lockdown? That was particularly difficult for children who rely on structure and routine. Research from Queen’s University Belfast shows that that measure harmed children’s rights to play, rest and leisure, with autistic young people reporting fear, uncertainty and isolation. Does he agree that any future response should avoid school closures?

• 2 Dec 2025 · Criminal Court Reform · Hansard source

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  We are supposed to have a legal system we are proud of, and the purpose of jury service is to ensure a fair and impartial justice system. Although there are dire backlogs in Crown court hearings in England, as well as delays in Northern Ireland, would the Lord Chancellor consider other options—such as fully funding and resourcing the system to address backlogs—as opposed to removing a civic obligation that people in this country believe in and have upheld for the sake of a fair judicial system?

• 26 Nov 2025 · 1994 RAF Chinook Crash · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Dowd. I thank the hon. Member for North Down (Alex Easton) for securing this debate and speaking so eloquently on the issue, which I know is close to his heart. This event, the tragic crash of a Chinook helicopter on the Mull of Kintyre in 1994, has left an indelible mark on the lives of many families in Northern Ireland and across this United Kingdom. Twenty-nine lives were lost that day, including 25 intelligence experts from the security services, the RUC and the British Army. The majority of the UK’s senior Northern Ireland intelligence and counter-terrorism experts were wiped out, along with four crew members. The loss shook not only their families, but the communities they served and the nation as a whole. Many of them served on the frontline, standing against terrorism in Northern Ireland at some of the most dangerous times. In recent months, I have been approached by families who continue to seek answers, clarity and recognition for the profound suffering they have endured. They are not merely questions about the past; they are urgent calls for justice and transparency. Families who lost loved ones were denied answers to their questions by successive Governments who hid behind the Official Secrets Act. Their grief and loss has not been adequately acknowledged or addressed, and I believe they deserve answers. The families are frustrated and angry at the continued lack of transparency. I recently spoke in Tesco to the wife of one of the gentlemen who lost their life, and it was plain to see that the pain is still as raw today as it was back in 1994. Their lives were changed forever on that day. Important Ministry of Defence documents remain sealed, limiting the public’s understanding of the decisions made that day. The families and, indeed, the wider public have a right to know what happened. It is not simply about accountability; it is about openness, honesty and their right to know the circumstances leading up to their loved one’s death. The cloak of secrecy has heightened suspicions.

• 26 Nov 2025 · 1994 RAF Chinook Crash · Hansard source

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  I will mention that later in my speech, but it is absolutely outrageous that families who had been seeking answers learned of it from the BBC and not from our Government. It is difficult to summarise the failings within a 90-minute debate. Despite the repeated claim that there have been six investigations, none had the legal powers of a full inquiry, none could compel documents or witness testimony, and all relied almost entirely on information controlled by the MOD and RAF—information we now know was incomplete, withheld or simply wrong. Early investigations wrongly blamed pilot negligence, only for those findings to be overturned some 17 years later, after the families of the pilots put up such a fight and campaign. It is right to mention Flight Lieutenants Richard Cook and Jonathan Tapper today. At the heart of the tragedy lies one central fact: the Chinook Mk 2 was officially deemed unsafe. MOD test pilots described its FADEC—full authority digital engine control—software as “positively dangerous”, and the aircraft was grounded. The release to service in 1993 falsely declared it airworthy, even though only one of its 60 regulatory components was fully compliant. Repeated engine faults, unpredictable flight control behaviour and warnings dating back to 1988 were never resolved, yet ZD576 was allowed to fly. And 29 people paid for that decision with their lives. Key evidence disappeared from the crash site. As has been said, we know through a BBC documentary that those documents remain sealed for 100 years—to find that out in such a way is absolutely outrageous. Senior figures, including Defence Secretaries and fatal accident inquiry participants, were not told about ongoing MOD litigation over FADEC failures at the time, but they were expected to deliver judgments on its safety. Today, we must ask: why were passengers placed on an aircraft deemed unfit to fly? Who authorised its use, despite unresolved technical faults? Why were MOD test pilots prohibited from flying the Mk 2, yet the 29 who lost their lives were not? Why were airworthiness concerns ignored, expertise overruled and evidence withheld? How can we prevent future disasters if the truth remains locked away? The families are not seeking blame; they are just seeking answers. They are calling for an independent, judge-led public inquiry with full legal powers to compel documents and testimony, review technical and regulatory failures, and recommend reforms to ensure such a tragedy never happens again. After 30 years, transparency is not just overdue; it is a moral obligation. Only a full inquiry can deliver justice for the 29 lives lost and restore public trust in military aviation oversight. I asked the Prime Minister for a meeting in a recent parliamentary debate on the duty of candour, and I am pleased that it has been confirmed to the families that they will receive a meeting with the MOD before the end of the year. That critical step is a recognition of the pain the families continue to carry, and a signal that their voices are being heard at the highest level of government. However, meetings and discussions alone are not enough. We must ensure that the families’ calls for a judge-led public inquiry are granted. We owe them a process that is thorough, independent and capable of uncovering the truth, unimpeded by bureaucratic delays or secrecy. It is essential to acknowledge the work of the Chinook Justice Campaign. The campaigners have fought tirelessly. They have come together, they have gelled and they are on a mission to get answers from this Government. By supporting their efforts, we reinforce the fundamental principle in a democratic society that no tragedy should be hidden and no family should be denied answers. The Chinook tragedy is not simply an historical event; it is a living wound for the families and friends of those who perished. They have now waited 31 years and counting for clarity, recognition and justice. It is our duty, as elected representatives, policymakers and citizens, to ensure that their voices are heard and that the process in place reflects fairness and compassion, and is one they can support. I urge the Government to act decisively. Let us ensure that the families have access to the information they need, that those who were involved in the aftermath are recognised, and that lessons are learned so that we safeguard our service personnel and communities in the future. In closing, I reiterate the simple truth that guides my engagement on this matter: these families have suffered unimaginable loss, and they deserve transparency and justice. Let us commit to supporting them, to honouring the memory of those lost, and to ensuring that no evidence is left unheard in the pursuit of truth. If I had time, I would read out the 29 names. I encourage every Member to read them, because behind every name is a family who remain broken because of unanswered truths.

• 25 Nov 2025 · COP30 · Hansard source

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  We all believe in keeping our planet sustainable and being good custodians of our environment. What most people do not agree with, however, is the madness of net zero, with its astronomical cost to the taxpayer for minimal impact on a global scale and the damage that unachievable targets are having on agriculture and manufacturing. Will the Energy Secretary tell us what he is doing to ensure sustainability, given the six tonnes of CO 2 he is supposed to have emitted as a result of two flights to Brazil to be part of COP30 along with 56,000 others, the £1,250-a-night hotels and the estimated £22,000 on flight costs? It would appear to most of the general public to be a case of, “Do as I say and not as I do.”

• 19 Nov 2025 · Suicide: Reducing the Stigma · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend will know that in Northern Ireland there are somewhere in the region of 200 suicides per year, which is deeply troubling and terrible for each family walking that difficult pathway. Online platforms and social media now play a huge part in some of those suicides. Does he agree that this Government need to go further in regard to platforms that are sharing information on how to commit suicide, and that we all need to play a role? Our mental health champion in Northern Ireland has said that by asking someone how they are, we are not likely to make the situation worse. There is a challenge for us all to reach out and ask people how they are, so that we can be more in tune with them and help them through difficult situations.

• 19 Nov 2025 · Myalgic Encephalomyelitis · Hansard source

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  Will the hon. Lady give way?

• 19 Nov 2025 · Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill · Hansard source

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  Does the Minister accept that despite his opening remarks and his words about Northern Ireland, the reality and the understanding of people in Northern Ireland is very different, given that we are subject to EU law in this space? This is a very real issue for people in Northern Ireland. They want zero tolerance of illegal entry and fast removal of those who are blocking up our public services, which are already stretched to capacity, so will the Minister go further and have this sovereign UK Parliament legislate for Northern Ireland to protect our borders?

• 18 Nov 2025 · Northern Ireland Troubles Bill · Hansard source

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  Absolutely. That was a point well made. This Bill speaks of inquests, and we firmly believe that every family deserves a full and fair investigation, but Loughgall—really? Not only has that event been before the European Court of Human Rights, where the UK was found to be justified, but there is to be a second inquest. How does that make innocent victims feel? There must be no more vexatious pursuit of the security forces, and this Bill does not protect them. Only 10% of troubles-related deaths were caused by the security forces, and almost all of those occurred in engagements with terrorists, yet the narrative we hear is deliberately inverted. There is no comparison—none—between terrorists and those who stood as a human shield in their path. The SAS soldiers who served in Loughgall deserve this Government’s full support. The Government have allowed the Irish Government an entirely disproportionate role in shaping legacy, while innocent victims in Northern Ireland feel sidelined. Let us be very clear: the Irish state has its own legacy—a dark, uncomfortable legacy—that it has yet to confront with honesty or transparency. That same state’s own tribunal, the Smithwick tribunal, found collusion between members of the Garda Síochána and the IRA on the murders of Chief Superintendent Harry Breen and Superintendent Bob Buchanan. Those two senior Royal Ulster Constabulary officers were ambushed and executed after information was passed by the Irish police to terrorists. It was the same with Ian Sproule, the 23-year-old from Castlederg. These are not isolated incidents. Across border areas, families have credible concerns about the Irish state’s failures—failures to arrest, to extradite, and to share intelligence, and failures that allowed terrorists to flee across the border and live openly. We will stand with every innocent family whose loved one was murdered. We will stand with the RUC, with the Ulster Defence Regiment, with our veterans, and with the SAS. Terrorism was wrong. It was never justified, and it cannot be sanitised.

• 18 Nov 2025 · Northern Ireland Troubles Bill · Hansard source

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  At the outset, let me restate unequivocally that we DUP Members will always stand with the innocent victims and survivors of terrorism in Northern Ireland. We will stand with the families whose loved ones were cut down by a ruthless and bloody terrorist campaign. Their pain has not diminished, and neither will our determination to defend truth, justice and moral clarity. We continue to hear attempts to justify or sanitise and romanticise terrorism. We hear repeatedly from Sinn Féin’s leadership, the self-proclaimed First Minister for all and Mary Lou McDonald, that there was somehow no alternative to the IRA’s barbaric campaign of violence, and that it was justified. Justified? That is an affront to every innocent family whose loved one was murdered. There was always an alternative to murder; there was always an alternative to placing bombs under cars; and there was always an alternative to shooting innocent men, women and children. I want to take the House back to two significant events in 1987: the IRA bombing of the service of remembrance at the cenotaph in Enniskillen, killing 12 people and injuring at least 60 more; and the Special Air Service’s engagement of heavily armed terrorists in Loughgall in my constituency. Which one of these incidents do Members think was granted a public inquiry? It was not the murder of innocents and the injuring of many more. Instead an inquiry was granted into the heavily armed terror gang, which was rightly engaged with and eliminated by the security forces, who saved countless lives in the process. Such is the subversion of the legacy process in Northern Ireland that the murder of innocents at Enniskillen has never had a public inquiry. In recent times, the Secretary of State visited Loughgall and heard directly from innocent victims of the IRA’s East Tyrone brigade, one of the most brutal, ruthless killing wings of the IRA. He spoke with two men whose families endured unimaginable suffering at the hands of some of the IRA’s most notorious killers, and their testimonies were powerful and deeply moving. The East Tyrone brigade were not freedom fighters, but a heavily armed terror unit. Having already killed hundreds of innocent people, they mounted a killing operation at Loughgall, intending to obliterate any RUC officer in that station. They never paused in their murderous intent. They did not stop to give any officer an opportunity to walk away. Terrorism must never be sanitised or justified. Those who defended the innocent must never be sacrificed to appease those who glorify violence.

• 11 Nov 2025 · BBC Leadership · Hansard source

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  Last week, we learned that the BBC upheld a complaint about presenter Martine Croxall. It is alleged that she changed—correctly —the wording of “pregnant people” to “women”. Somehow, the BBC found her eye-roll to have conveyed a personal view. There are two genders—male and female —and one of those genders can become pregnant: women. That is a scientific fact, and it is the view of the Supreme Court. Will the Secretary of State therefore ensure that the BBC leadership abides by the Court’s ruling, and does she agree that the BBC’s lefty, woke agenda is certainly not in step with the majority of right-thinking people, who want common sense at the core of broadcasting?

• 11 Nov 2025 · Remembrance Day: Armed Forces · Hansard source

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  Today, our nation paused together in quiet reflection. In doing so, we remembered those who stood firm in the face of fear, served with courage, and made the ultimate sacrifice so that we might live in freedom. As a daughter of Ulster, my thoughts turn to the fields of France—to the Somme—where so many young men from my homeland laid down their lives. On that terrible July morning in 1916, the 36th Ulster Division went over the top with unmatched courage. Within two days, thousands were killed or wounded. Captain Wilfrid Spender, who witnessed that charge, wrote that he “would rather be an Ulsterman than anything else in the world.” I commend the Ancre Somme Association and the Royal British Legion for continuing to educate and remember in my area. We in Northern Ireland know perhaps more than most what our armed forces mean for the safety of this United Kingdom. For decades, through some of the darkest times, they stood as a human shield between good and evil. They put on the uniform and went toe to toe with bloodthirsty terrorists in defence of innocent people. Alongside the Royal Ulster Constabulary, the Ulster Defence Regiment and other branches of the security services, they defended life and liberty in Northern Ireland. Too many paid with their lives. More than 1,400 members of our armed forces were lost during Operation Banner. Hundreds were murdered by terrorists simply because they wore the uniform of their country. Three hundred and two members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary were killed, along with 29 prison officers. We lost prison officer David Black as recently as 2012, and Constable Stephen Carroll in 2009—both were killed in my constituency. We remember them with gratitude that cannot be measured in words. Northern Ireland’s record of service to the Crown runs deep. Our people have time and again stepped forward when called upon. Today, that legacy continues in men and women like Air Chief Marshal Harvey Smyth of Lurgan, who is now Chief of the Air Staff of our armed forces. We also think of those who served in more recent conflicts—the Falklands, Iraq and Afghanistan. My thoughts today are with the families of Lance Corporal Stephen McKee of 1st Battalion, the Royal Irish Regiment, who was from Banbridge, and Lieutenant Neal Turkington, platoon commander of 1st Battalion, the Royal Gurkha Rifles, who was from Portadown. Remembrance must never be limited to the past; it must also be about the living and about ensuring that no veteran who served this nation is ever left without a home, a job or hope for the future, or subject to vexatious prosecution. There is no glory in war, but there is immense honour in service. There are acts of heroism that go unseen and sacrifices that go unspoken, yet they are the foundation upon which our freedoms rest. We will remember them.

• 11 Nov 2025 · Technology-assisted Child Sexual Abuse · Hansard source

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  Yesterday, the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland reported that the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s cyber-crimes team lacked the capacity and capability to manage the threat posed by prolific online sex offender Alexander McCartney, whose abuse led to the tragic death of 12-year-old Cimarron Thomas in 2018 and targeted at least 70 other children. Will the Minister confirm what steps are being taken to ensure that cyber-crime teams across the whole of the UK are properly resourced to deal with online child sexual exploitation?

• 5 Nov 2025 · Violence against Women and Girls · Hansard source

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  The Minister will know that I am unashamedly pro-life. While I strongly welcome the Government’s commitment to ending violence against women and girls, surely that must mean protecting women from harm and coercion in every setting. Given the serious safeguarding concerns and reports of coercion linked to abortion pills by post, will she commit to reviewing that policy to ensure that women are never put at risk?

• 4 Nov 2025 · Sudan: Government Support · Hansard source

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  The United Kingdom has always stood as a defender of human rights. I say this with deep conviction: how many burned churches and murdered worshippers in Nigeria and Sudan will it take before we call this what it is: namely, a campaign to exterminate Christians? British aid must never bankroll corruption or indifference. Will the Minister urgently press the Governments of Sudan and Nigeria to protect all citizens, but particularly Christians, and ensure that our aid goes towards addressing their needs?

• 4 Nov 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Asylum accommodation costs are set to quadruple in Northern Ireland, from £100 million to £400 million, and across the UK to £15.3 billion in the next decade. Before hiking taxes again, should the Chancellor not look at where the waste really lies, when we are funding an asylum system that is failed, chaotic and expensive? This is not racist or far-right; it is looking after our own citizens who cannot pay their bills.

• 4 Nov 2025 · Supporting High Streets · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member is making a very powerful speech. High streets across my constituency are struggling, and one additional burden that they carry is a parcels border in the Irish sea caused by the Windsor framework and the protocol. It cost a children’s clothes retailer over £200 to get a delivery from GB. Does the hon. Member agree that this is an extra burden that retailers should not have to carry, and that the Government need to do something about it quickly before businesses go out of business?