Richard Foord MP: speeches 2026

Speeches

• 14 Apr 2026 · Crime and Policing Bill · Hansard source

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  There was a discussion earlier about the register of non-consensual intimate images, which is set out in Lords amendment 259. I want to share with the House the experience of one of my constituents, who was subject to the creation of a non-consensual abuse image by her husband while unconscious, having been the victim of spiking. Zoe Watts has chosen very bravely to speak with the media to help to secure legal change and public education, and she points out that there is a disturbing rise in pornography that depicts sex with somebody who is sleeping. Does my hon. Friend share my view that the depiction of non-consensual intimacy in sleep can encourage spiking and sexual abuse and should be banned?

• 13 Apr 2026 · North Atlantic Submarine Activity · Hansard source

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  The Minister talked about Government investment to deter adversaries in the north Atlantic, the Atlantic Bastion programme, extra money for P-8 aircraft and the additional service vessels on order, but unless I missed it, he did not say anything about plans for the AUKUS submarines that are in development with the United States. Will he comment on the future of the AUKUS programme?

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

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  The US navy began a blockade of Iran at 2 pm this afternoon. Has the US been granted permission by the British Government for the use of the deepwater port at Diego Garcia as a staging post for the imposition of that blockade?

• 26 Mar 2026 · Coastal Erosion · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member has given an impressive exposition of the report. I am curious about the mental health benefits of exposure to the coast, and in particular whether she and her Committee would recommend a particular type of coastal defences. In Sidmouth, there is talk of either breakwaters and recharging shingle on the beach or a splash wall, which the community is less keen on. Has her Committee looked into that question at all?

• 24 Mar 2026 · Oil and Gas · Hansard source

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  I agree with the hon. Member about the need for energy security, and certainly we do not want a supply chain that depends on the People’s Republic of China, which could lead to economic coercion. Does he share my view that the deduction is that we need home-grown manufacturing for renewable energy infrastructure?

• 23 Mar 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T6. Residents in Devon want visible community policing. The new towns taskforce recommended a new settlement called Marlcombe in east Devon. When new towns are built, how are additional police officers allocated to the area?

• 23 Mar 2026 · Middle East · Hansard source

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  The Secretary of State talked a lot in his statement about British hardware, but coercing an adversary also requires us to understand their war aims and their beliefs. In Iraq, we learned late about the need to develop cultural awareness. Martyrdom is central to Shi’a Islam and viewed as redemptive suffering. Alongside all the kit that the Secretary of State talked about, will the Government also invest in cultural capability?

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

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  The hon. Lady makes an excellent point. I recognise wholly the vulnerability of the line at Dawlish, which my hon. Friend the Member for Newton Abbot (Martin Wrigley) has also been campaigning on. I am sure that together, Devon and Cornwall MPs can keep up the fight. To conclude, reliable rail links are essential in keeping Devon connected and competitive with a convenient and clean form of transport that is fit for passengers.

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

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  I am grateful to the hon. Member for Shrewsbury (Julia Buckley) for securing the debate and for enabling me to speak in it. I would like to welcome once again the news announced at the spending review last June that funding has been allocated to reinstate the railway station at Cullompton. I was pleased to hear that reaffirmed recently in the Railways Public Bill Committee by the Under-Secretary of State for Transport, the hon. Member for Selby (Keir Mather), who is in his place ready to wind up this debate. Cullompton and Wellington are the two largest settlements on the line between Exeter and Taunton, so it is right that those towns should be afforded the means to enable the people who live there to walk or cycle to stations, giving them access to London via Paddington. A station at Cullompton will be key to its economic growth, enabling connections for work and education. I am glad the Government recognised that case. Today, I want to bring to the Minister’s attention the needs of the people of east Devon on the west of England line, which connects Honiton, Feniton and Axminster. Across south-west railways, 82% of trains arrived at their destinations within three minutes of their advertised time, but on the west of England line it was just 61%. Instead of the usual “leaves on the line” explanation, last autumn the culprit was “soil moisture deficit”. Robert Glen is a professor at Imperial College London who commutes from Honiton. He compares his experience of the west of England line with his experience in Hokkaido in Japan, where he sometimes works. Like Honiton, Hokkaido is also not very populated and far from the capital, but there he travels at 190 mph. We are not asking for the Devon Shinkansen—bullet train—even at HS2 speeds; we just want a route that connects Devon to London Waterloo at the same standard enjoyed by the rest of the country.

• 19 Mar 2026 · Banking Services: Accessibility · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to my hon. Friend for securing this debate, because so many people in my area of Devon, as well as his area of Cornwall, feel strongly about the issue. Not only are fewer services available when a bank closes its high street branch, but, if they are available a banking hub, they are available only one day per week rather than five. Does my hon. Friend agree that it is in the gift of the Government to reconsider the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023, and to look again at the ease with which banks are closing their high street branches?

• 11 Mar 2026 · Disability Equipment Provision · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Betts. I pay tribute to the hon. Member for Aberdeenshire North and Moray East (Seamus Logan) for securing this debate. Disabilities impact the lives of many people in the south-west of England, with older people some of the most affected. Age UK says that disabilities affect 40% of people over 60 but 75% of people over 80, and they are a particularly pressing concern for people in mid and east Devon, where a third of residents are aged 65-plus. Hearing loss is one such disability. It is all too common among older people and has some serious consequences. The Royal National Institute for Deaf People and SignHealth report how people with hearing impairments are less able to take advantage of other health treatments. Access to healthcare is obviously necessary for older people, and any obstacle is a great concern. Devon’s provision of hearing aids faced a major shake-up last year, when Chime Social Enterprise, which had been praised by its users, stopped providing NHS audiology services in Devon. Chime had provided rechargeable hearing aids, along with drop-in clinics for emergency repairs, based out of community hospitals. Since Chime’s departure, there has been frustration about the provision. A constituent in Honiton whose ears were damaged when he was doing national service with the Royal Artillery, wrote of being redirected endlessly to different bodies for a simple hearing aid repair. A constituent from Seaton told me that models offered by the new providers are “shoddy”. He has already had two hearing aids become unusable because the tubes slip out of the rubber mould. That would have been a simple £60 replacement with Chime, but now, he wrote, he wonders whether the “next stage is a conch shell”. I wish to draw particular attention to the case of Mary Dickinson. I met Mary last year at a remembrance service in Sidmouth. She is aged 92. She was an NHS nurse for most of her life and to this day volunteers at Sidmouth Hospice at Home. For those acts of service, she was awarded a lifetime achievement award by the British Red Cross. Mary, like many others, was provided by Chime with rechargeable hearing aids, which worked very well. She has paraesthesia and arthritis in both hands, so the idea that she should now be able to replace the batteries in her hearing aids is really quite wild. She said that if I wanted to obtain batteries for hearing aids, the best place I could look would be down the side of her settee, because there are many down there. The NHS stated that it cannot offer Mary the rechargeable hearing aids any more, despite them being the only ones that she can use at the age of 92. Mary is a pensioner with no savings, yet she was told that her only solution, if she was adamant that she wanted rechargeable hearing aids, was to buy them herself. Given that she is in receipt of only a small pension she appealed to the NHS board, but without success. Scrivens, the new provider in Devon, has likewise refused to offer her the rechargeable hearing aids. If Mary is sat with somebody in the course of her work at Hospice at Home, she wants to be able to hear them speak and to be able to speak with them, much as she has done with patients throughout her life. If NHS Devon in particular, and the NHS more broadly, wants to ensure that everyone has access to disability provision such as hearing aids, it must really ensure that the equipment it provides is appropriate each and every time.

• 9 Mar 2026 · Middle East: Defence · Hansard source

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  The Secretary of State made the distinction between permitting the use of British bases for offensive action and for defensive action. I understand the need to protect and defend British citizens in the middle east, but can the Secretary of State explain how he is seeking to maintain this distinction between offensive and defensive action, given that it would require a degree of control over US military activity that the British Government may not possess?

• 4 Mar 2026 · Healthcare in Rural Areas · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Dr Huq. I am grateful to the hon. Member for Mid Bedfordshire (Blake Stephenson) for securing this debate and for talking about the one-size-fits-all solution, which I completely recognise. He is right to say that neighbourhood health hubs need to apply to proper neighbourhoods—things that we would identify with. In rural areas we would identify with towns of 10,000, not 50,000. There are unique challenges associated with rural healthcare, and all too often it feels like those challenges are invisible from Westminster and Whitehall. Rural and coastal areas are not the same as urban areas. Last month, the Government said that tackling the gap between urban and rural healthcare would be a core focus of their 10-year health plan. That was very welcome, but after years of neglect by the Conservatives, it feels like rural communities, including those in Devon, are increasingly cut off from GPs, ambulances and cancer treatment, and the decline continues. The south-west already has the fewest GP practices of any region. It also experienced the largest percentage fall in the number of GP practices—2% of practices in the south-west closed between 2024 and 2025. The data for rural healthcare compares poorly with urban areas. Liberal Democrat research found that waiting times for life-threatening ambulance calls are 45% longer in rural areas. Waits of four weeks or more for cancer diagnoses are three times longer in rural areas. My hon. Friend the Member for Ely and East Cambridgeshire (Charlotte Cane) talked about accessibility in rural areas, and she is quite right to do so. Just getting to the GP takes longer—a third longer by car and twice as long by public transport. That disparity is set to rise if we continue to see bus routes curtailed and rail infrastructure left to crumble. Honiton and Sidmouth, which I represent, sits in the bottom quarter of constituencies in the country for access to healthcare by public transport, walking or cycling. For those outside the main towns, the situation is worse. The village of Stockland, for example, is in the bottom 0.2% nationally for transport access to healthcare. The hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) talked about accessibility issues in transport. He is quite right, but that is only part of the challenge. Rural areas also have older populations, which places a greater strain on already stretched services. My hon. Friend the Member for Tiverton and Minehead (Rachel Gilmour) was spot on about how older populations place so much greater a strain on health services in rural areas. Poor digital connectivity means that the shift to online healthcare and digital access often excludes older residents, many of whom have no desire to acquaint themselves with digital devices. They also suffer from isolation and loneliness, shaped by distance and limited local services. One example that I think illustrates this issue well is dementia in rural areas. In Honiton and Sidmouth 1.6% of patients have been diagnosed with dementia, whereas the national average is just half that—0.8% across England as a whole. My constituent Heather Penwarden is the chair of Dementia Friendly Honiton. She says that dementia care in Devon “seems at an all-time low”. She should know that, because she has been volunteering in this space for 16 years. One carer, through tears, asked Heather: “How bad does it have to be before I get some genuinely helpful and sustained support in looking after my dear husband through his dementia?” Heather’s group initially worked alongside community psychiatric nurses from the Devon partnership NHS trust. Dementia Friendly Honiton raised an incredible £350,000 to pay for an Admiral nurse through an embedded scheme. That nurse attended memory cafés, gave regular advice and prevented crises for those with complex cases, but due to a freeze on NHS recruitment and an apparently “outdated” model of fundraising and hosting, there is little chance of the role being filled again by the Royal Devon University hospital. The Liberal Democrats are calling for a rescue plan: recruiting more GPs and social care workers to provide proactive community support and ease pressure on ambulances, acute hospitals and A&E; creating a national care agency to provide consistent funding for free personal care; and creating a small surgeries fund to protect rural and remote services from underfunding. If we are serious about closing the disparity between urban and rural, we must recognise that rural communities have different health needs.

• 4 Mar 2026 · NATO and the High Arctic · Hansard source

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  In its negotiations with the United States, Denmark pledged to raise defence spending from 2.4% of GDP last year to 3% of GDP this year and next. Does the Minister think that the example Denmark is setting is a good one for the United Kingdom?

• 4 Mar 2026 · NATO and the High Arctic · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend knows a great deal about this subject; I am also grateful to the hon. Member for Halesowen (Alex Ballinger) for securing this debate. Yesterday, President Trump suggested that our current Prime Minister is no Churchill. Should we not add that the current President of the United States is no Franklin D. Roosevelt? FDR was a big supporter of the development of the United Nations and knew about the importance of sovereignty. Does my hon. Friend share my view—I think he will—that who governs their countries is a matter for the Danes and Greenlanders alone?

• 3 Mar 2026 · Spring Forecast · Hansard source

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  Many small and medium-sized enterprises add value to our towns and villages, but I am concerned about their survival. The Community Waffle House in Axminster is a community interest company that is struggling under the pressure of last year’s national insurance increases. Waffle Axminster boasts £3.9 million in public sector cost avoidance and value created, according to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport wellbeing valuation for reduced loneliness. Will the Chancellor consider VAT relief to take account of the public sector cost avoidance by that CIC and other hospitality businesses?

• 2 Mar 2026 · Middle East · Hansard source

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  In his statement, the Prime Minister explained his disagreement with the US President about UK participation in the initial strikes, and I commend that decision. When the UK refused to participate in US interventions in Vietnam and Grenada, Harold Wilson and Margaret Thatcher kept their disagreements private, but that is difficult to do with Trump. Crucially, though, in the cases of Vietnam and Grenada, the UK stayed out. Can the Prime Minister assure the House that in the case of Iran, the UK is not going to get dragged into this war on the basis of collective self-defence in support of allies in the Gulf?

• 25 Feb 2026 · Ukraine · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member makes an excellent point. That Ukrainian culture was on full display last night, at the Trafalgar Square rally. At the moment, we sometimes talk down NATO, and certainly its European parts. We should not, because in NATO we have the strongest military alliance that the world has ever seen. Putin should be in no doubt about the intent of NATO states to fulfil their NATO obligations, including to such members as Estonia and Latvia, which have Russian minority populations. At the rally yesterday evening, the right hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green reminded us of a quote from Churchill: “Give us the tools and we will finish the job”. He said that in 1941 to the British people, and indeed to allies across the water. That very much applies today. We need to think about how we can give Ukraine the tools that it needs to finish the job. More than that, we need to deprive Russia of tools, so that it can no longer wage this war of aggression against a people who want what we in this country have, and sometimes take for granted: democracy and liberty.

• 25 Feb 2026 · Ukraine · Hansard source

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  Last night, I joined the Minister for the Armed Forces and the former leader of the Conservative party, the right hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith), at Trafalgar Square for a rally for Ukraine. It was a really moving event. Hosts from across the UK and Ukrainian families—including children, mothers, wives and other relatives—were all gathered in Trafalgar Square, where on 8 May 1945, Brits welcomed victory in Europe. Today I will set out why we in the UK need to see Ukraine reach a victory in Europe. As I thank the Ukrainian people for their courage and determination, I want to talk about what we are not doing right here in the UK; for instance, we could go so much further on economic sanctions on Russia. But first, I want to address comments that former Prime Minister Boris Johnson made on “Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg”. He said there was “no logical reason that I can see why we shouldn’t send peaceful ground forces there to show our support, our constitutional support, for a free, independent Ukraine.” We do not have peaceful ground forces in the British Army; we have warfighters, because warfighters make the best peacekeepers, but be in no doubt that there is no distinction between a warfighter and a peacekeeper. The notion of peaceful ground forces is really for the birds. Rather, we need to double down on what we are doing currently, which is proving successful in keeping the Russians at bay. First, there is what we are doing through economic sanctions. Urals crude—Russia’s main grade of crude oil—now trades at a 25% to 30% discount compared with our Brent crude, and exports of it are at their lowest since 2020. In January, year-on-year oil and gas budget receipts for the Kremlin halved to just under 400 billion roubles. The British Government announced in October last year that they would ban all imports of Russian-origin crude oil products refined in third countries. Alongside that, the Chancellor of the Exchequer said: “We will hold to account all those enabling” Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. The Minister for Europe and North America has appeared before the Foreign Affairs Committee, and we talked about sanctions. The work that the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office does on identifying entities to sanction is good, but it could go so much further. The Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air has found that refineries in countries like India, Turkey and Brunei continue to use Russian crude oil, which continues to be exported to Europe and the UK. That said, the EU imposed a complete ban on imports from third countries on 21 January. The ban on direct imports, which came into force in the UK in 2022, has had a so-called refining loophole that enabled the import of £4 billion of jet fuel and other oil products made at refineries in India and Turkey, which run partially on Russian crude. The research centre estimates that £1.6 billion-worth of products imported from those refineries would have been made with imported Russian oil. Our constituents will hear those figures on the one hand, then look, on the other hand, at the £3 billion of taxpayers’ money that we are rightly giving to Ukraine every year at the moment, and will not be able to reconcile the two; nor should they. We have to properly sanction the Russian Federation. Finally, we must thank the Ukrainians for their courage and determination.

• 25 Feb 2026 · Ukraine · Hansard source

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  My specific concern is about the maritime services ban for the transport of Russian liquefied natural gas. It was announced by the Foreign Secretary last November, but it is not due to come into effect until the end of this calendar year. It is looking like it will take more than a whole year. Can the Minister explain why it needs to take so long?

• 25 Feb 2026 · Ukraine · Hansard source

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  The insurance industry is largely located in London. The British Government have talked about a maritime services ban, and about a timeline that might bring such insurance to an end in this calendar year. Does the right hon. Gentleman see any reason why a maritime services ban cannot come into effect until the end of this year?

• 25 Feb 2026 · Diego Garcia and British Indian Ocean Territory · Hansard source

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  I agree with the hon. Member for Clacton about the need for proper scrutiny of the vast sums of taxpayers’ money that the Government propose to send to Mauritius, yet I am puzzled that he would travel all the way to the British Indian Ocean Territory without a permit, given that Diego Garcia is a military base. The former leader of Reform UK in Wales is spending time staring at a security fence after pleading guilty to eight counts of bribery; does the Minister agree that the hon. Member for Clacton must be curious to know what it is to stare at a security fence?

• 24 Feb 2026 · Banking Hubs: Rural and Post-Industrial Communities · Hansard source

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  The Conservative Government passed the Financial Services and Markets Act in 2023, which gave the FCA powers to set up banking hubs and give access to cash. Does the Minister think that that was a missed opportunity at the time to prevent banks from closing high street branches in the thousands, as they have since continued to do?

• 24 Feb 2026 · Local Transport: Planning Developments · Hansard source

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  The West of England rail line runs from Exeter to London Waterloo via Feniton, Honiton and Axminster. Network Rail describes the line from Exeter to Basingstoke as “one of the worst-performing single-track sections nationally”. It is one of the most under-invested lines in England. In this place, it is a cliché to talk about a Cinderella service, but trains serving residents on the West of England line do provide a Cinderella service—in fact, people stood waiting for a South Western Railway carriage to travel from Feniton, Honiton or Axminster may wonder if they are waiting for a pumpkin. According to the Salisbury to Exeter rail user group, the line has examples of everything that the Secretary of State for Transport says is wrong with rail in this country. For example, the section between Salisbury and Yeovil Junction operates at an 88% capacity, well in excess of the 80% threshold needed for resilience. In May last year, the Minister stated that there were no plans to enhance the West of England line. Yet it is apparent to anyone who travels on it that there is a dire need for improvement. Between August and November last year, the service ground to a painfully slow pace during dry weather because of a so-called soil moisture deficit. During that period, the entire line was served by just one train every two hours, and when journeys were cancelled, passengers were left waiting for upwards of four hours for trains. The situation is particularly concerning in the light of proposed new housing developments in Devon. Exeter is the fastest-growing city in England by population. Over 1,100 houses are to be built across east Devon in each of the next five years, as demanded by the housing targets imposed on local authorities by the Government in Westminster. In the 2030s, a new town called Marlcombe is projected to be built; it would have 10,000 houses over the long term. Last November, the Housing Secretary announced that proposed developments within 15 minutes of railway stations could be given a default yes in the interests of promoting house building in so-called travel to work areas. Changes to the national planning policy framework are currently subject to consultation, but they lack restrictive criteria for those railway stations that are not deemed to be well-connected and could open up development in any village or town that has a railway station, apparently without restriction. New housing developments surely cannot be justified in this way when the rail infrastructure is substandard. That is raising significant concerns for residents of communities I represent such as Feniton, Honiton, Axminster and Cullompton. Thankfully, a vision for the line has been laid out by the Salisbury to Exeter rail user group, with six points agreed by key stakeholders including South Western Railway, Network Rail, Great Western Railway and Devon county council. The plan includes new rolling stock and power sources, signalling and the delivery of double track, and, at the very least, passing loops at Whimple and Tisbury. However, the funding is missing. The Rail Minister stated on the “Green Signals” podcast that “connectivity drives growth, jobs and homes”. He is right, but without investment and improvement the West of England line will not have that connectivity. In the absence of that investment, the line cannot be the basis on which new housing is justified. The message from people I represent is plain: “Infrastructure first, please.”

• 12 Feb 2026 · UK-EU Agritrade: SPS Agreement · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to the Chair of the EFRA Committee for laying out the top lines from this excellent report, and I also commend the Committee for its work on the inquiry into animal and plant health. My right hon. Friend spoke about the Cabinet Office Minister not appearing before his Committee, but the Minister did appear before the Foreign Affairs Committee in September, as part of our inquiry into the UK-EU reset, although that is of course not the place for detail on SPS arrangements. Any alignment with the EU on SPS policy needs to be phased in. Could my right hon. Friend expand on why the shift needs to be a transition, rather than an immediate removal of friction, given that the National Farmers Union has said it is critical that we avoid a cliff edge?