Rupa Huq MP: speeches

Speeches

• 30 Jun 2026 · Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation · Hansard source

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  Within our ancient, unwritten constitutional democracy, e-petitions have quickly established themselves as a way for the public to have their voices heard. So imagine the shock of my constituent Jason when he was served with a scary legal notice to desist by one of the world’s largest law firms, instructed by a megabucks developer, for collecting signatures on Change.org against a local planning application. Will my right hon. Friend tell me when the legislation will be introduced? I know that the Prime Minister wrote in The Guardian in October 2024 that the rich and powerful should not intimidate the little guy through such legal processes. Right now, this feels for Jason like a bit of a slap in the face.

• 23 Apr 2026 · Ministerial Code · Hansard source

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  It is really great that Ministers have rapidly set about reforming the ministerial code so that never again will the public purse be forced to pay out £253,720 for ex-Ministers who were in post for less than six months, as happened in 2022 under the Tories. Now that we hear about Peter Mandelson, the payoff he wanted and the payoff he got, are the Government open to the logic of applying the same principles of the ministerial code to disgraced ex-political appointee ambassadors, perchance? That way, we can restore consistency.

• 12 Jan 2026 · Call for General Election · Hansard source

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  I think they all had to ask for permission. They should return for the concluding speeches, but we are finishing a bit earlier than we thought. We are already on the Front-Bench speeches. Usually, that would be 45 minutes before the end. I can inform the Chairman of Ways and Means and get some clarification for the future, because these things are always fluid. Anyway, I call the first of our Front Benchers, Lisa Smart.

• 12 Jan 2026 · Call for General Election · Hansard source

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  Order. We will suspend for 15 minutes for a Division in the House.

• 12 Jan 2026 · Call for General Election · Hansard source

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  Order. That is a bit on the long side for an intervention.

• 12 Jan 2026 · Call for General Election · Hansard source

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  When you were “in love with a beautiful woman”!

• 12 Jan 2026 · Call for General Election · Hansard source

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  We will resume with Kevin Hollinrake.

• 12 Jan 2026 · Call for General Election · Hansard source

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  Order. I am being told by the Clerk that this is getting way out of scope. We are debating a petition to have a general election.

• 11 Nov 2025 · BBC Leadership · Hansard source

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  I thank my right hon. Friend for her leadership on this. I wholeheartedly welcome her words that political figures should not be presenters of the news. Surely that should apply also to the arbiters of news standards. Could these reforms therefore look at the four-person editorial standards committee, given that two of them have resigned, leaving as its most senior member someone who has owned a newspaper in his time, breaching the Independent Press Standards Organisation guidelines—the ex-Conservative director of communications, Robbie Gibb?

• 30 Oct 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  As of tomorrow, the Lending Standards Board will be no more, because its funders—the banks—have pulled out. Will Minister meet me urgently to take forward the good work that the board was doing, particularly on the ethnicity code? That work exposed the fact that only 19% of minority businesses achieve loans, whereas 58% of standard applications do.