Rupa Huq MP: speeches

Speeches

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

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  2. What steps his Department is taking to tackle strategic lawsuits against public participation.

• 15 Jun 2026 · State Pensioners: Personal Allowance · Hansard source

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  Order. You are chuntering from a sedentary position, Minister.

• 15 Jun 2026 · State Pensioners: Personal Allowance · Hansard source

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  Will Members please bob if they wish to speak? Okay—not the most popular debate. It usually goes back and forth, but by process of elimination, I call Alison Griffiths.

• 15 Jun 2026 · State Pensioners: Personal Allowance · Hansard source

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  You have read my mind.

• 15 Jun 2026 · State Pensioners: Personal Allowance · Hansard source

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  Order. It is at my discretion whether I allow you to speak, Sir John, as you were not here at the start of John Lamont’s speech. Theoretically, I could be mean and say no, but I will be nice.

• 15 Jun 2026 · State Pensioners: Personal Allowance · Hansard source

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  Your time is near.

• 15 Jun 2026 · State Pensioners: Personal Allowance · Hansard source

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  Order. I am not sure that this is entirely appropriate—

• 1 Jun 2026 · Equality Act 2010: Code of Practice · Hansard source

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  I cannot be the only Member to have had dozens of emails from constituents who are dismayed that, under this guidance, the vague, ill-defined and highly subjective term “discomfort of service users” becomes the litmus test for excluding people from essential services. I heard what the Minister said about associations, but can we be clear whether public spaces will still be able to provide trans-inclusive services? If that is not the case, I feel that this guidance is simply unreasonable, unfair and unworkable.

• 21 May 2026 · Ticket Reselling · Hansard source

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  Indeed—reflections of you. Will Ministers meet me to discuss the solution? My meticulously researched, widely backed ballot Bill from 2024 is ready-made and ready to go. It deals with this issue by among other things banning the bots that hog tickets for resale, so that we can stop this rip-off without delay.

• 19 May 2026 · High Speed 2 Reset · Hansard source

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  I welcome the honesty and clarity, after years of sitting opposite the Conservatives and not knowing whether HS2 was happening at all, or where it would start and stop—it was going to be a Y-shape in the beginning. This is good news, in a way. I echo the praise for Mark Wild, who has met with my residents, and for Lord Hendy in the other place. However, for my residents in Old Oak Common—this fabled area that was once going to be the terminus—the ever-lengthening timeline is disappointing. Will the Secretary of State consider opening the Elizabeth line station a bit earlier? Some new builds, such as Oaklands Rise, were promised that there would be a brand-new station in 2026, so surely there should be something in it for them before 2039.

• 20 Apr 2026 · Security Vetting · Hansard source

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  I thank the Prime Minister for his heartfelt statement and—if we are judging parties on actions, not words—for reviving the post of anti-corruption tsar. It was vacant for years and years under three of his predecessors, starting with Boris Johnson’s lockdown breaches. Now that we have the heavyweight Margaret Hodge in post, what plans does the Prime Minister have for this broader policy area?

• 16 Apr 2026 · BBC · Hansard source

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  Thankfully, the BBC is nothing like the public service broadcaster in Hungary—I was there monitoring elections; the winner, Péter Magyar, said that it is like North Korean propaganda. To protect Auntie Beeb, will my right hon. Friend reconsider the anomaly that, despite being a fixed-income public body—I am ex-staff myself—the BBC has not been given relief from the 2% rise in employer national insurance contributions, unlike schools and hospitals, leaving a yearly £20 million black hole at a time of falling licence fee income? Can the BBC be granted a partial or total waiver, so that we can keep getting good quality output and stop staff cuts?

• 17 Mar 2026 · Croydon Area Remodelling Scheme · Hansard source

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  Order. I will call Natasha Irons to move the motion and then I will call the Minister to respond. Other Members can make a speech with prior permission from the mover of the motion, which I think on this occasion has already been secured. As this is one of those 30-minute wonders, there is no time for a winding-up speech at the end.

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

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  This is a popular debate, so there will be a time limit of three minutes to begin with, but it might drop down. The first exemplar of perfect timing will be Samantha Niblett.

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

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  We have done the maths; we can allow Members two minutes and 30 seconds.

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

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  Order. Potentially the final three-minute speech will be Henry Tufnell, and then we might have to drop the time limit to two minutes.

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

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  I call Blake Stephenson to wind up in 20 seconds.

• 25 Feb 2026 · Electronic Travel Authorisation: Dual Nationals · Hansard source

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  After 40 years in the UK, it was the proudest moment of Petra Gartzen’s life when she obtained British citizenship. She is on holiday in Spain, and was shocked to discover that she will not be able to re-enter with her normal German travel document, because she is a dual national. Up until now, she has never needed a British passport or a certificate of entitlement, and she is ineligible for an ETA. She has done the right thing and applied for a British passport from Spain, which is a Kafkaesque bureaucratic nightmare in itself. What would the Minister suggest that she does if the passport does not turn up in time for her flight home on 6 March?

• 13 Jan 2026 · Iran · Hansard source

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  After the false dawns of the Arab spring and the “zan, zendegi, azadi” movement, I ask my right hon. Friend to stand firmly with the Iranian diaspora here—many of whom came after the ’79 revolution—against this brutal, repressive and tyrannical regime, particularly those who are critical of it from here? The TV station Iran International—which is all the more needed at a time like this—had to move from its Chiswick headquarters because of kidnapping and threats to its journalists. It is at a fortress-like undisclosed location now that there is a communications blackout.

• 17 Dec 2025 · Palliative Care: North Derbyshire · Hansard source

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  This is a 30-minute debate so, as I said in the preamble, a wind-up speech is prohibited, but the two of you can confer after the debate.

• 5 Nov 2025 · Fresh and Nutritious Food: Inequality of Access · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is painting a fascinating pen portrait of his area. Is he aware that, for people with coeliac disease, the weekly shop is 35% more expensive? Even the cheapest loaf of bread is six times more than a standard loaf. Does he agree—and maybe the Minister is listening—that people should not be penalised for their health conditions?

• 22 Oct 2025 · Financial Inclusion · Hansard source

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  As this is a 30-minute wonder, there will be no time for a concluding speech from Martin Rhodes. I remind other Members present that they cannot make a speech; they can only intervene, with permission from the Member who has the floor.

• 15 Sept 2025 · Children with SEND: Assessments and Support · Hansard source

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  Order. I think the hon. Member means “many hon. Members”, not “many of you”.

• 15 Sept 2025 · Children with SEND: Assessments and Support · Hansard source

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  Order. I would usually ask Members to stand and bob so that I know they want to speak, but not everyone has a seat. I think people are already doing this, but once Members have spoken, could they vacate their seat so that someone else can speak, because they have to be on the mic for the broadcast? I will try to get everyone in by setting a formal time limit. The clock will count backwards from two and a half minutes.

• 15 Sept 2025 · Children with SEND: Assessments and Support · Hansard source

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  Order. The word “you” keeps creeping in. A lot of people have said it during this debate, but “you” means me, and I certainly have not done any of those things. Can we refer to each other as hon. Members or hon. Friends? The next speaker, who will be exemplary in this, is Greg Stafford.