Gagan Mohindra MP: speeches

Speeches

• 23 Jun 2026 · Defence Spending and Readiness · Hansard source

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  In February 2025, the now outgoing Prime Minister told this House that Labour defence investment would deliver “a new approach to defence, a revival of our industrial base, a deepening of our alliances; the instruments of our national power brought together; creating opportunity, assuring our allies and delivering security for our country.” —[ Official Report , 25 February 2025; Vol. 762, c. 634.] In the many months that we have waited for the overdue defence investment plan, all that has been delivered is evidence of a Government lengthy on announcements and short on deliver for the security of our country. This has been at arguably the most globally turbulent time since the cold war and the second world war—a time when our defence industry needed certainty and support from the Government. The 2025 strategic defence review set out that Labour’s defence investment plan would be completed in autumn 2025. Repeated pushbacks have real impacts on defence acquisition, expenditure and military capability. Labour has weakened our defence industry, leaving our armed forces in need of modernisation and transformation to ensure their readiness for modern warfare. However, as has been rightly highlighted by the Chief of the Defence Staff: “recent circumstances…suggest the opposite. Further delay to the Defence Investment Plan, long promised ‘in the autumn’, risks sending damaging signals to adversaries.” Our adversaries will not wait for a Government capable of bolstering our defence, and the Labour party should not be allowed to get away with this. Even more concerning, when we finally receive the defence investment plan, it will confirm the intention to spend only 2.68% of GDP on defence and intelligence by 2027—an offer to uplift by only 0.08% of GDP to address a £28 billion blackhole in the MOD’s defence budget. To quote the then Labour Defence Secretary, the right hon. Member for Rawmarsh and Conisbrough (John Healey), that “falls well short of what is required for defence and the country at this dangerous time.” It will increase the risk to personnel on operations and could make the country less safe. A plan pushed back five times that does not address the problem it was designed to address is not a plan at all. It shows a corrosive complacency, characteristic of this Government’s failure to make the tough decisions they need to for our country. The Conservatives have always highlighted how serious this is, and we have taken the position that defence spending must increase to 3% by the end of this Parliament—a position recently backed by the former Defence Secretary. Conservatives called for Labour to repurpose funding from the official development assistance budget for defence, and Labour followed our advice. We are now calling on Labour to go further and commit to spending 3% of GDP on defence by the end of this Parliament—doing this by reducing the welfare bill, not through more taxes and borrowing—growing the regular Army, and creating a sovereign defence fund that would mobilise billions in public and private funding to overhaul the defence industry. This morning, the Chancellor told the House that the defence investment plan will meet the scale of the challenges facing our country, but we cannot defend against today’s adversaries with inadequate policies from this Government. Like many others in the House, I urge the Government to get on with it. We can no longer defend our nation with soundbites.

• 17 Jun 2026 · Rural Pubs: Fiscal Support · Hansard source

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  It is my absolute pleasure to do so—to be a bit cheeky, I think some of the blackouts might come a bit more frequently with this Government’s policy on energy prices. More widely across South West Hertfordshire, another constituent from South Oxhey told me about the Dick Whittington, which hosts free sandwiches on Wednesdays, a weekly OAP afternoon and a family Easter egg hunt. Other constituents in Kings Langley praised Pete, the landlord of the Saracen’s Head, and his staff for always being community-focused and creating a welcoming atmosphere. Michelle told me about the Coach & Horses in Rickmansworth: for decades, the pub has put on a complimentary lunch for the Watford Mencap pancake race that she organises and that I have had the honour to open for several years now, raising vital funds for those with learning disabilities. I have had the privilege of visiting those pubs in my pubs tour last year and hearing directly from publicans across South West Hertfordshire, but it was moving to hear from constituents about their favourite pubs. Some of the top key words mentioned were, “staff”, “atmosphere”, “community”, “welcoming”, “local” and “family”, but specifically “community.” It is probably worth mentioning what is sold in the pubs. Although we speak about beer a lot, a third of drinks sold in hospitality are spirits. Many people prefer gin and tonic to a pint. Pubs and the distilleries that supply them are suffering from excise duty increases of 17% in the last three years. I recently met Kate Nicholls from UKHospitality, whom many in this Chamber will know. She said that pubs are choosing to close on quieter days and operate shorter hours, making it more difficult to maintain exactly that community that we have been speaking about in this debate, where the pubs operate as the beating heart of our villages. In conclusion, the Conservatives would introduce a permanent 100% business rates relief for hospitality, retail and leisure, capped at £110,000 per business, funded through £47 billion of savings by cutting the ever-increasing welfare bill and the civil service. Publicans in South West Hertfordshire have been telling me that this Government are wringing pubs for cash instead of treating them as places we need to protect. That is especially true in our rural communities, in which the word “community” so often depends on the pub.

• 19 Jan 2026 · Sale of Fireworks · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Pritchard. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Keighley and Ilkley (Robbie Moore) on opening this important debate and thank the many petitioners who have brought this issue before Parliament. It is nearly a year since the hon. Member for Luton North (Sarah Owen) brought this issue up in the Chamber, and it is refreshing to see the Minister at the time, the hon. Member for Ellesmere Port and Bromborough (Justin Madders), here showing his continued passion for this topic. I wish to reflect the strength of feeling among my constituents in South West Hertfordshire that the balance between the enjoyment of and the disruption caused by fireworks is not being struck and that they are in fact causing harm. In the autumn and winter of 2025 alone, continuing into this year, over 200 of my constituents have contacted me directly to raise their concerns about the impact of fireworks in our area. Their concerns focus on the serious distress caused to pets, livestock and other animals, as well as the effect of loud and unpredictable fireworks on people with mental health issues including PTSD and heightened sensitivity to noise. My constituents are not calling for an outright ban. Instead, there is overwhelming support for alternatives such as quiet or low noise level fireworks, which preserve visual enjoyment while significantly reducing harm. Others have mentioned the replacement potential of drones. In South West Hertfordshire, 383 constituents have signed petitions calling for the maximum noise level of fireworks to be reduced from 120 to 90 dB. A further 293 people have supported limiting the sale of fireworks to councils or licensed events. My only word of warning about licensed events is about ensuring that displays advertised in posts on social media, including in Facebook groups, actually happen. I am conscious that over the new year and in the run-up to fireworks night, there were some fake posts suggesting that fireworks displays were going to happen and a lot of people were disappointed, although that happened in the midlands rather than in my constituency. Given the development and increasing availability of quiet fireworks, it is right to reassess the current balance between celebration and protection, including lowering the legal noise limit from 120 dB. Others have mentioned significant religious events; I represent a multicultural community, and sometimes there will be fireworks outside the normal cycle for things such as weddings and family celebrations. However, if we could mitigate the noise, no one would lose out: people could enjoy marking significant milestones in their lives without scaring the animals and the vulnerable in our communities.

• 8 Dec 2025 · Digital ID · Hansard source

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  The hon. and learned Gentleman is making an excellent contribution, as always. If this is such an important issue, why was it not in the governing party’s manifesto at the last general election?