Gregory Campbell MP: speeches

Speeches

• 2 Jul 2025 · Investment: Technology Businesses · Hansard source

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  Tech businesses in Northern Ireland could take advantage of a Heathrow logistics hub. Ballykelly in my constituency has a large available land base, a seaport close by, an airport next door to it, and a railway line that runs through it. Does the Minister think that is an excellent location for such a hub and tech business?

• 1 Jul 2025 · Business Energy Supply Billing: Regulation · Hansard source

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  I congratulate the hon. Member on securing this debate. She is raising what sounds like outrageous treatment of a customer and consumer. Does she agree that the Ofgem report was very clear that suppliers should treat domestic and—particularly in this case—non-domestic customers fairly and give them support? It would appear that, in the instance she is outlining and some others that I have had experience of, they are not doing so.

• 30 Jun 2025 · Glastonbury Festival: BBC Coverage · Hansard source

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  I thank the Secretary of State for her statement and the sentiments contained therein, but would she agree that in the run-up to the festival it was clear to many of us, given the track record of some of the participants, that this, or something like it, was going to happen? The Government were aware that something was going to happen, as was the BBC, yet still it happened. Where does the sanction lie, who is going to implement the sanction, and when are we going to know what it is?

• 25 Jun 2025 · Health Science and Innovation · Hansard source

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  The Minister will be aware that the life and health sciences launchpad in Northern Ireland has so far funded 32 business-led projects. That is good news, but 23 of the projects are in the Greater Belfast area. Will the Minister join me and others in our efforts to ensure that there is greater knowledge about the launchpad across the whole of Northern Ireland so that we can all benefit from this very worthwhile project?

• 24 Jun 2025 · War Memorials · Hansard source

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  I congratulate the hon. Member on securing the debate. Does she agree that the desecration of such memorials almost defies belief? It was reported to me today that a granite memorial to the men who died at the battle of Somme, which we commemorate next Tuesday on 1 July, was stolen from a small memorial garden in Coleraine in my constituency. Will she join me in condemning that? I hope that we can get across what the men at the Somme did to get freedom, and that that will have some minor impact on people whose knowledge of those contributions appears to be zero.

• 24 Jun 2025 · War Memorials · Hansard source

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  Oh, I am sure they do.

• 24 Jun 2025 · VAT Registration Threshold: SMEs · Hansard source

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  Does my hon. Friend agree that in recent years, because of inflation, even small businesses in the retail trade that try to maintain a level just below the threshold find that they must pass on rising prices to the consumer? That means they will inevitably come to or above the threshold, and even an attempt to keep below it will often fail.

• 24 Jun 2025 · VAT Registration Threshold: SMEs · Hansard source

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  I do not know if the hon. Member is aware, but just this morning the Federation of Small Businesses in Northern Ireland released a report about the complications that the Windsor framework is creating for small businesses in Northern Ireland. Does he agree that SMEs are the backbone of the UK economy in all regions and that we need to try to do whatever we can to reduce bureaucracy rather than increase it, which is what the Windsor framework has achieved?

• 24 Jun 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Can the Foreign Secretary declare from the Dispatch Box that an Iran with no nuclear weapons is now a more likely prospect as a result of the actions of the Israeli and American forces over the past 10 days?

• 23 Jun 2025 · UK Modern Industrial Strategy · Hansard source

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  The Secretary of State will be aware of the future towns funds, one of which is in Coleraine in my constituency. I want to see many more apprenticeships created through that fund. Will the modern industrial strategy that he has unveiled today be flexible enough to allow funds like that to utilise it to get additional resources, to make them even more successful than they have been so far?

• 19 Jun 2025 · People Smugglers: Prosecution · Hansard source

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  Does the Solicitor General understand the frustration, annoyance and anger of many people in the United Kingdom about the fact that we are paying the French authorities many millions of pounds to do what appears—at the moment anyway—to be very little to smash the gangs that we keep being told will be smashed?

• 19 Jun 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  Electronic travel authorisations were first introduced in Northern Ireland just six months ago. Despite having put down several written parliamentary questions, I cannot seem to establish from the Home Office how many people have not had a valid ETA in the past six months. May we have a debate in Government time to establish the veracity of the numbers of ETAs that have been issued and of those who have not had them in the past six months?

• 19 Jun 2025 · Public Bodies: British Produce · Hansard source

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  Many GB-based horticultural companies, as well as other companies, want to supply British produce into Northern Ireland, but have difficulty with the bureaucracy and paperwork required by the procedures implemented some years ago. Will the Minister operate in concert with his colleagues in Cabinet and Government to eliminate the bureaucratic problems that are preventing those companies from supplying UK citizens in Northern Ireland?

• 18 Jun 2025 · Future of the Gas Grid · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend talked about Phoenix, and the other company is Firmus Energy. Consumers want to see more competitive pricing. In Northern Ireland, there is some degree of competitive pricing, but because the two companies operate in separate parts of Northern Ireland, they do not compete directly with each other. Consumers want prices to be driven down, but it seems to take a long time for Phoenix and Firmus to reduce their prices—they do not always change rapidly—when international gas prices fall.

• 18 Jun 2025 · Political Prisoners · Hansard source

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  As the right hon. Lady is posing her questions to the Minister, perhaps she will come to this one, but if she does not, will she agree to add that the Government need to get together a coalition of international Governments who are on our side—she has already named some—to put significant pressure on the Chinese authorities to do the right thing and release Jimmy Lai?

• 10 Jun 2025 · Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme: Capital Disregard · Hansard source

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  I congratulate the hon. Member on securing this debate. I and many others have watched the film. Does he agree that although many of us are very critical of the media—I am among them—on this occasion, a matter was brought to wider attention that otherwise might not have been? We owe a debt of gratitude to all those who were involved in the broadcasting of such a film.

• 10 Jun 2025 · Warm Home Discount: Extension · Hansard source

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  Happy birthday to you, Mr Speaker. The Government are targeting measures based on people’s income, but will they look at the issue of rural homes? Many thousands of people live in poorly insulated homes in isolated areas; families there are left in the cold in the winter.

• 10 Jun 2025 · USAID Funding Pause · Hansard source

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  On the NGOs and the other groups helping people at home, the House of Commons Library summary indicates that over a quarter of UK aid has been spend on refugees based in the UK. Does my hon. Friend agree that that would be better deployed overseas to try to assist the economies of developing countries, because of the concern about massive immigration into the UK? If those economies were helped and assisted, it would do more to reduce the numbers of people coming to the UK and offset the problems that we occasionally see on our streets.

• 10 Jun 2025 · USAID Funding Pause · Hansard source

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  On the question of whether the Government’s decision was driven by financial motivations, does the hon. Member agree that whether it is 0.7% or 0.3%, the key is that UK GDP must rise, as her own Chancellor has said? If our economy shrinks, the 0.7% figure becomes almost irrelevant because it is 0.7% of a much smaller budget. All that matters overseas is the amount of cash they get, not the percentage of our domestic product, so we must drive the economy first before we try to deliver the mechanism that I am sure most of us are in favour of.

• 4 Jun 2025 · Disadvantaged Communities · Hansard source

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  On lower educational attainment areas, does my hon. Friend agree that young men in particular find it difficult to go back to education after leaving school, and that apprenticeships can be used to address poverty in the areas that he is describing?

• 2 Jun 2025 · Decriminalising Abortion · Hansard source

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  The hon. Lady mentioned Northern Ireland, and I accept that there are fundamental differences between our positions. She introduced the Northern Ireland legislation, but does she accept that the views there—among both the general public and their representatives—are quite different from those in Walthamstow?

• 21 May 2025 · Economic Growth · Hansard source

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  Economic growth will be supported by physical connectivity. One example is the new Grand Central station in Belfast, where there is some controversy over Irish language signage. The Secretary of State has commented that there are “so many more important things” in which to be involved, but, setting that view to one side, can he confirm that if there were no Executive at Stormont, he, as Secretary of State, would be in a position to make decisions on that and other equally important issues?

• 20 May 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  The roll-out of banking hubs is helping to a small degree, but what plans do the Government have to increase the number of banking hubs beyond those in the pipeline?

• 20 May 2025 · UK-EU Summit · Hansard source

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  The Prime Minister has spent the past hour and a half indicating the benefits that he sees from the deal. Does he recognise that a potentially toxic side effect of the deal is that some on the left of UK politics will see this as the first step towards rowing back on what the people voted for nine years ago, while those on the right of UK politics will see a determination to stop them? Rather than the deal bringing people together, it could therefore cause toxic division.

• 20 May 2025 · Points of Order · Hansard source

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  On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. You will be aware that I and other colleagues have been raising the issue of UK residents in Northern Ireland, many of whom have lived here for decades as taxpayers and voters, but who were born a few miles across the border in the Irish Republic. They have not been able to avail themselves of a UK passport in the same way as others who live in Northern Ireland can obtain an Irish passport. This was brought to a head by my right hon. Friend the Member for Belfast East (Gavin Robinson) exactly one year ago this week, when his Bill received Royal Assent and became law. Despite my repeated parliamentary questions to the Home Secretary, I have been unable even to get a date by which the first UK passports will be issued to people in Northern Ireland. Has the Home Secretary or a Home Office Minister indicated to the Speaker’s Office their intention to make a statement to the House, to finally announce when this injustice will end?