Shockat Adam MP: speeches 2026

Speeches

• 3 Jun 2026 · Improving the UK Visa System · Hansard source

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  Does the hon. Member agree that it is not simply unfair but un-British to change the rules for people who were told that they could qualify for settlement if they stayed in this country for five years, by moving the goalposts to 10 years?

• 3 Jun 2026 · Improving the UK Visa System · Hansard source

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  Is there not a real threat of politicising immigration at a time in which universities in my constituency are really struggling because there is a lack of international students, who are no longer willing to come to this country? The amount of money they bring to our economy is phenomenal. Pursuing this type of policy will disrupt the foundations of our universities.

• 2 Jun 2026 · Milburn Review: Interim Report · Hansard source

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  We say we are going to listen to young people, but one young person recently said that they should be labelled as LEETs, not NEETs, because they are looking for education, employment and training. Positive framing is essential, especially as AI reshapes the labour market and we have the boss of Standard Chartered calling them “lower value human capital”. Does the Minister agree that we must rethink pathways into work, invest in new models of education, and provide a stronger safety net so that technological changes create opportunities, not exclusion?

• 2 Jun 2026 · Household Energy Bills · Hansard source

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  The typical annual dual fuel bill is 40% higher today in real terms than it was in 2021. After accounting for inflation, that means it is £511 more per household. The bad news does not stop there, with Ofgem announcing that the crisis is going to get worse, with a 13% increase to the energy price cap. My constituents in Leicester South were already suffering. Labour promised to fix that, but the cost of living is just getting worse. The Minister says that the only way to protect our country is through clean, home-grown power, so what is he doing to decouple the bills from gas prices and when will my constituents feel that?

• 2 Jun 2026 · Household Energy Bills · Hansard source

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  8. What recent steps he has taken to help reduce energy bills for households.

• 2 Jun 2026 · Community Pharmacies · Hansard source

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  It is always a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Jardine. I thank the hon. Member for Tiverton and Minehead (Rachel Gilmour) for securing this debate. She, the hon. Member for North Somerset (Sadik Al-Hassan) and all colleagues have dispensed some great ideas today. [ Laughter. ] Sorry, but it does not end there. The Minister and Members may be aware—I might not have mentioned it enough—that I am one of the only practising optometrists to be a Member of Parliament, and optometrists share many of the concerns and challenges that our pharmacy colleagues face. I surpass the hon. Member for North Somerset in having been a community-based optometrist for nearly three decades. I want to address many of the points that have been made. First, our GPs are facing real burnout. There is a lag in the number of GPs who are qualifying and taking up positions. In lower socioeconomic areas, of which there are many in my Leicester South constituency, there are 1,985 patients per GP. There are 300 more patients per GP in those areas and, as has been mentioned, pharmacists really do plug the gap, saving 38 million GP appointments and doing incredible work. The Government’s 10-year health plan is built on the bold premise of shifting care out of hospitals and into our communities. We all support that ambition—of course we do—but we cannot deliver care in the community if we are not allowing community infrastructure to thrive, and that is precisely what is happening to pharmacies at the moment. Since 2017, England has lost more than 1,400 bricks-and-mortar pharmacies, which is a net loss of 15% of the entire network. In Leicester, five pharmacies have shut down in the last calendar year alone. There are now fewer than 10,000 pharmacies open in England, and nearly 64,000 opening hours a week have disappeared since 2022. Between 2021 and 2025, the sector lost 3,000 full-time equivalent pharmacists. Funding was cut in 2016 and held flat for eight years, and the sector has absorbed real-terms cuts of 30%. Pharmacies, unlike other businesses, cannot pass on their costs to their customers. They cannot manage demand by extending their waiting lists, and 90% to 95% of their income comes from the NHS. They are, in effect, trapped. We all welcome the £340 million uplift announced for 2026-27 and the decision to begin integrating independent prescribing into Pharmacy First and the Pharmacy Contraception Service. Those are welcome steps, and everything of that nature is going in the right direction. However, NPA analysis shows that 8.9% is needed simply to allow pharmacy budgets to stand still—to absorb the national living wage, employers’ national insurance contributions, inflation and business rates. The settlement is just 1.3 percentage points above that threshold; it does not close the £2 billion funding gap that the NHS’s independent review identified a year ago. Much of the uplift will be swallowed by costs before a single patient sees any benefit. I am not just here to outline the problems, as there are positives. Community pharmacies represent one of the greatest untapped opportunities in modern healthcare, and I say that as someone who has seen community-based clinical practice at work. Independent prescribing is, as the sector rightly calls it, a generational opportunity. Pharmacists already have the clinical skills. With the right framework and investment, they can manage long-term conditions, initiate and adjust medicines and take pressure directly off GPs—not as a stopgap, but as a genuine, permanent part of the primary care team. Beyond prescribing, pharmacies are ideally placed to deliver integrated healthcare and lifestyle services, such as smoking cessation, weight management, hypertension case-finding and alcohol interventions. In my experience in community eye care, the closer we embed clinical services in high street settings, the better the uptake by patients who would never otherwise engage with the NHS. Pharmacies are trusted, accessible and visited regularly—far more than any GP surgery. Medicine optimisation is another point. With an ageing population on complex polypharmacy regimes, pharmacists conducting structured medication reviews can reduce harm, cut millions of pounds in waste and improve outcomes. This is not aspirational; it is proven. We are simply failing to fund it at scale. I have a repeat prescription for the Minister. First, publish a road map to close the pharmacy funding gap with above-inflation increases—not in one year, but as a sustained multi-year commitment. Pharmacies cannot plan, invest or recruit without it. Secondly, match investment in retained margins with real action on medicine pricing. The UK is an unattractive market for global suppliers, and medicine shortages flow directly from that. That is a patient safety issue. Thirdly, be genuinely ambitious on independent prescribing. The autumn roll-out into Pharmacy First is a start, but we need a shared vision of what full deployment looks like in this Parliament, with the funding to match. Finally, address the workforce crisis by setting out concrete steps to grow the pharmacy workforce in parallel with any expansion of services. New services on the backs of a depleted workforce will fail.

• 2 Jun 2026 · Murder of Henry Nowak · Hansard source

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  Henry’s heartbroken father has said that Henry’s family do not want his murder to “be used to create further division, hatred or tension.” I pray that we all heed those words in this House. This heinous crime is made worse by the shocking police response, and lessons must be learnt. What will the Home Secretary do differently to crack down on the epidemic of knife crime, such as creating a dedicated knife crime Minister? What steps will she take to ensure that our Sikh community, who are overwhelmingly peaceful and integrated, are not held collectively responsible by those who wish to divide us?

• 1 Jun 2026 · Health Bill · Hansard source

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  We all cherish the NHS, and all of us in this Chamber have a duty to ensure that anybody who does not believe in the basic principle that care should follow need, not wealth, must be nowhere near the jewel in our crown that is the NHS. I begin with primary care—or, indeed, the glaring inequality in primary care. Practices in the most deprived areas carry, on average, 300 more patients per fully qualified GP than those in the least deprived. That gap has grown by 50% since 2018. In Leicester—my constituency and my home—there are 1,985 patients per GP, which is significantly above the national average. The Bill introduces a statutory duty to reduce health inequalities and, under clause 24, to produce neighbourhood health plans, but a plan without the workforce to deliver it is a plan in name only. I must also declare my interest as a practising optometrist. Clause 14 gives integrated care boards new responsibilities over primary care services, and the Bill transfers commissioning of NHS sight tests from a national framework to individual ICBs. I completely understand the logic of localisation, but I have already seen what happens in practice. In Coventry and Warwickshire, a community urgent eye care service that was diverting more than 13,000 A&E attendances per year was withdrawn at the end of 2025. In Hampshire, community glaucoma schemes have been moved back into hospitals. This is the postcode lottery in action. Glaucoma affects approximately 700,000 people in the UK, with about half of them walking around undiagnosed. It causes irreversible sight loss, it increases the risk of falls, and it carries serious long-term costs for both the NHS and social care, and we now have the technology to address it more efficiently than ever. The iStent inject device can be inserted during routine cataract surgery in a single procedure, treating both conditions simultaneously. This is exactly the kind of innovation that the 10-year health plan calls for, yet uptake is inconsistent because there is no national commissioning guidance. I urge the Government to ensure that the single patient record supports consistent clinical decision making across the glaucoma pathway, and that integrated care boards are required, not merely permitted, to commission those procedures. The Bill also abolishes NHS England, and we have heard much about that. History gives us cause for concern, especially when it comes to private finance initiative arrangements, which have cost the NHS tens of billions of pounds over decades. Let me end by saying something about the Palantir question. The creation of a single patient record is welcome, but the vessel matters as much as the vision. The £330 million NHS federated data platform contract, awarded by the last Government and inherited by this one, raises serious and unresolved questions, and it must be addressed.

• 1 Jun 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Israel’s illegal invasion of Lebanon is continuing unabated. Millions have left their homes, and millions of refugees have fled to the north. It is happening all over again: people are suffering and civilians are dying. What is the Secretary of State doing to suspend all military co-operation with Israel so that it stops the Gazafication of Lebanon?

• 20 May 2026 · Defence Readiness · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Portsmouth North (Amanda Martin), who gave a very powerful speech. I want to use my time to address the issues that matter to the defence of our country and its future from a very domestic perspective. If I have time, I will touch on the historical waste in the defence industry. Following what was said by the former Health Secretary, the right hon. Member for Ilford North (Wes Streeting), sadly around 50% of young people today say that they would not defend our country. The question is, why? Is it because we do not build a strong country by making poor people poorer, and we do not build a strong Army from an unhealthy, under-educated and economically broken population? The two things are not in competition; they are connected. An argument has been made today that we must sacrifice welfare for warfare—strip the safety net to fund the military—but my argument is this: the things that make people feel safe at home are exactly what make us worth defending. We talk endlessly about threats abroad, but the things that lead to instability—poverty, inequality, failed public services and communities being left behind—are right here. Just this weekend, on Saturday, at the march to allegedly “Unite the Kingdom”, we saw vile Islamophobic rhetoric and shouts, with organisers and speakers on stage calling for Muslims to be deported from this country and from this place where we sit. Members of parties across the board were openly told to go back home, despite being born and brought up here. These are the things that are going to destroy our nation; these are the things that we really need to worry about. I would also like to highlight the colossal waste of money in previous defence projects, given that many people jump to say that we must spend on defence and sacrifice welfare, which they say is such a waste of money. The Ajax armoured vehicle programme costs £5.5 billion; it is still not ready and is running over a decade late. The Bowman radio cost £2.5 billion; it was 25 years late and still does not work properly. The Type 45 Daring class destroyers are £1.5 billion over budget, and the majority are now being maintained in a dock, despite being less than 15 years old. I turn now to the economy and, more specifically, the businesses that sit at its heart. Small and medium-sized enterprises are the backbone of British prosperity. In my constituency of Leicester South, as in constituencies across this country, the employers, the innovators, and the anchor institutions of our high streets and industrial estates, are being hammered by the increased cost of living, whether it is energy and business rate rises, increased costs to staffing budgets, or national insurance contributions. The Office for Budget Responsibility found that the changes to national insurance contributions caused a 2% hike in payroll costs for employers last year alone, while the confidence of chief executive officers has fallen more in recent years than during the pandemic. The Government’s spending on defence must come from the bottom up. We must invest in the future rather than pile costs on to our own businesses, and thereby allow corporations to run riot. That is why it has been very pleasing to hear many Members speak about apprenticeships, which are a perfect example of investing in the future. I welcome any ambition to expand opportunities for young people, but warm words must be followed by structural change. University was once the most favoured destination for economic growth, but for many, that is economically out of reach. Still, the journey of an apprenticeship is a renewed ticket to economic growth and the skilled defence workforce this country urgently needs, including engineers, manufacturers and technicians. We cannot build frigates or maintain fighter jets with a generation who have been left behind. I will quickly turn to an example that illustrates precisely what backing businesses ought to look like in practice, and where Government procurement could—if the Government choose—make a transformative difference. I have spoken to local textile business owners in Leicester, the city that used to clothe the world. At one stage, it was the second richest city in Europe because of its industry; unfortunately, it is now on its knees because contracts are being given to foreign companies, such as those in China, instead of to young, hard-working British entrepreneurs. Awarding defence uniform contracts to Chinese manufacturers is not simply an economic error, but a strategic one. It creates supply chain dependency on foreign nations at the precise moment when the Government are asking us to take defence seriously. Leicester’s textile sector exists, the capability exists, and the security case for buying British has never been stronger. The NHS is the largest employer in the country and one of the largest procurers of textiles, from uniforms to bedding and from surgical gowns to staff clothing. The potential is enormous. Not only would a targeted commitment to NHS procurement from UK manufacturers—and Leicester manufacturers in particular—support local jobs and local supply chains; it would reduce carbon emissions from long-distance shipping, strengthen our supply chain resilience, and build exactly the kind of productive, skilled employment base that the Government say they want to create.

• 19 May 2026 · Lord Mandelson: Government Response to Humble Address · Hansard source

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  In 2021, the Prime Minister wrote an essay in which he said, “Where the current Tory government has muddied the waters of transparency…I want to make it easier to hold government to account.” He said that a Labour Government must “play its role in restoring honesty, decency and transparency in public life”— and yet here we are. Does the Minister agree that after all the redacting of messages, it is not only the Labour party that is being damaged, but democracy itself?

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

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  The truth of the matter is that despite spending over £103 billion of taxpayers’ money, my son has laid more rail track from his Lego set than the previous Government did under the HS2 programme. But seriously, whistleblowers have alleged that costs were deliberately hidden from Parliament, documents were shredded and staff who spoke out were sacked. Before another penny is spent by the British taxpayer, how will the Secretary of State ensure that in the future there are accountable binding mechanisms to stop contractors and executives from misleading the House again?

• 19 May 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  What assessment has the Minister made of the report concerning communication between the former Foreign Secretary, Lord Cameron, and the International Criminal Court prosecutor, Karim Khan, regarding the court investigation into war crimes in Gaza? What steps is he taking to uphold the independence of the international judicial institutions that we set up?

• 28 Apr 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Leicester South has a home ownership rate of just over 40%—nearly 23 points below the national average—in a city where the average house costs 8.5 times average local earnings. My young constituents work very hard and save responsibly to get on to the housing ladder, yet the tax system offers them absolutely nothing, while incorporated landlords deduct full mortgage interest through a company structure. Canada and Nordic countries are offering targeted tax relief for first-time buyers. Has the Chancellor considered introducing a similar relief here to ensure that young people are supported by the tax system, not left behind?

• 27 Apr 2026 · Apprenticeships · Hansard source

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  Leicester college, a further education college, is facing a funding crisis that is putting apprenticeships at risk. The Government have a noble commitment to building 1.5 million homes and training 60,000 construction workers, but young people wanting construction apprenticeships are being turned away. No bricklayers, no electricians and no plumbers means no homes. In Leicester, the rate of young people who are not in education, employment or training is nearly 6%—five times higher than the national average. We have the employers and we have the demand, but without proper funding, we cannot deliver the skilled workforce that this country desperately needs. What real-terms funding increase will the Secretary of State commit to in order to ensure that young people have the opportunity to access skills via the apprenticeship scheme?

• 22 Apr 2026 · Government Procurement Strategy · Hansard source

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  I appreciate much of the statement that the Minister has made regarding procurement. I will deflect his attention to textile procurement, especially as the Ministry of Defence has contracted £37 million-worth of military gear to foreign factories, including in China. Some £23 million-worth of NHS personal protective equipment is manufactured abroad. All the while, my constituency has factories and a workforce, and we are ready. We are suffering with a cost of living crisis, so can I ask the Minister to consider onshoring textile procurement?

• 21 Apr 2026 · West Bank: Illegal Settlements · Hansard source

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  While atrocities are being committed against Palestinians in the west bank every single day, including the killing of hundreds and hundreds of children, it is disgusting to learn that British citizens are being offered Palestinian land, which they can purchase with virtually the same ease with which they do their everyday online shopping. Declassified UK has found that Israeli charity Shivat Zion is helping British citizens to move to illegal settlements. That breaks international law; and, to rub salt in the wound, British taxpayers are implicated, as the charity claims UK gift aid. Will the Secretary of State assure the House that she will look into the matter urgently and sanction any organisation, charity or otherwise, complicit in Israeli illegal land grabs?

• 20 Apr 2026 · Security Vetting · Hansard source

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  My concern is that this Prime Minister will run out of buses before he runs out of people to throw under them. The issue is this. The Prime Minister has said: “I never turn on my staff and you should never turn on your staff.” Well, we have Sue Gray scapegoated, Tim Allan canned, Sir Chris Wormald forced out, Morgan McSweeney axed and now Olly Robbins sacked. Will the Prime Minister accept that the buck stops with him? This is his fault. He should do the honourable thing.

• 16 Apr 2026 · World Cup: Support for Fans · Hansard source

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  I am sure that we are all looking forward to the world cup this summer, and that we all want the home nations to do well. When England finally brings it home, I am sure that we will all be delighted, including our friends from north of the border— I know my office staff member will be. On a serious note, I am deeply concerned about the number of British citizens who have already been impacted by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement detentions and the threat of visa restrictions for international teams, amid lots of illegal wars—started by the FIFA peace prize winner, ironically. Furthermore, we have now learned that UK nationals may be required to surrender five years of personal social media data simply to obtain entry into the United States. Will the Secretary of State tell us urgently what she doing to ensure that British fans can travel to America safely, enjoy the games safely and get back home safely?

• 16 Apr 2026 · World Cup: Support for Fans · Hansard source

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  7. Whether she has had recent discussions with FIFA on support for fans attending the world cup.

• 16 Apr 2026 · NHS Federated Data Platform · Hansard source

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  Let me be clear: as a practising optometrist, there is nothing more wonderful than touching a button and a patient’s data going to the right people, and I am sure that the Minister will agree. The patient can then be treated appropriately and on time. However, the Darzi and Sudlow reviews, which were published last year, confirmed that our health data system is broken and fragmented, which costs patients dearly. The public overwhelmingly supports better data sharing and so do I. In my opinion, the question is not whether we need data sharing, but who is responsible for this modern-day oil? As has already been said, Palantir was named after the seeing stones from the book “The Lord of the Rings”, the palantíri. Those stones possessed enormous power. However, I want to be fair about them. The stones themselves were not good or evil; they were powerful instruments of vision. In the right hands, they brought clarity and wisdom. The problem, as Tolkien understood it, is never the stone itself; it is who is holding it. Let us have a look at who is holding these stones. As has already been mentioned, Alex Karp said this year that Palantir wants “to scare our enemies and on occasion kill them.” The co-founder of Palantir, Peter Thiel, has written that he no longer believes that freedom and democracy are compatible. He has said that the NHS is making people sick and that the British public’s love for the jewel in our crown—the national health service—is a form of Stockholm syndrome. Those are the stated beliefs of the men at the top of a company that we have handed £330 million to, and a £1.5 billion strategic partnership with the British state. And Palantir’s ambitions do not stop there. Its chief operating officer has spoken of a future where Palantir software is inside every missile and every drone. In Gaza, Amnesty International has named Palantir as a contributor to the war crimes and genocide being committed there. In fact, when a protester confronted Palantir’s CEO about the killing of Palestinians—100,000 and counting—in Gaza, he replied that the dead were “mostly terrorists, that’s true.” Over 20,000 children have been killed in Gaza and the CEO of the company that holds our NHS data calls them “mostly terrorists.” It is not just the NHS that is affected. Palantir is the second largest AI supplier to the UK public sector by contract value. It has contracts with the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government, the Cabinet Office, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, local authorities and local police services, including those in Leicester South. The Palantir contract review comes in early 2027, so the window is still open. I want to share a scan with a specialist and get an answer before my patient leaves the room; every clinician in this country wants that and every patient deserves it. But the seeing stone is only as safe as the hands that hold it. Choose those hands carefully.

• 14 Apr 2026 · Knife Crime · Hansard source

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  I welcome the Minister’s statement, and I send my deepest sympathy to the families of everyone who has been affected, especially the family of Khaleed Oladipo, a 20-year-old young man who was stabbed in my constituency just a few weeks ago and sadly lost his life. I also pay tribute to grassroots organisations and individuals with street experience, such as Ditch the Knife, for the vital work that they do. I am glad that the Minister is aware of the work being done by De Montfort University on round-bladed knives, because in 2025 alone 95 lives were lost to kitchen knives. Will she commit to ensuring that grassroots organisation and those with real-life street experience are empowered to play a greater role in delivering lifesaving work?

• 14 Apr 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Over the weekend, it was my pleasure to attend the Beat the Odds event in my constituency, which amalgamated 36 grassroots mental health organisations that support people from all backgrounds and of all ages and help those who have sadly fallen through the cracks. The message from those organisations was overwhelmingly clear: they need more financial support. What steps is the Minister taking to ensure that grassroots organisations receive funding to deliver frontline services that save lives?

• 13 Apr 2026 · Local Youth Services · Hansard source

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  There is a direct link between youth services and housing in communities. In fact, it has been shown that once we invest in our youth services, there is reduced homelessness and fewer young people in temporary accommodation. However, the cut in real terms—close to £1 billion—means that the whole sector has been decimated. Does the Minister agree with me that when we lose our youth services and our centres, our whole community suffers? How are this Government going to make youth working a viable career going forward?

• 13 Apr 2026 · Middle East · Hansard source

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  Oxfam has warned that the Gaza playbook is being repeated. The Israeli military is demolishing villages in the south of Lebanon, displacing more than 1.3 million people, killing more than 2,000 and injuring more than 6,400. Journalists are being killed by the Israelis. NGO workers are being killed by the Israelis. United Nations peacekeepers are being targeted by the IDF. It is all well and good for the Prime Minister to say it is wrong, but what tangible action will he take to stop Israel’s war machine in its tracks this time, and when will he do what he failed to do during the genocide in Gaza and say no to Israel and no to Benjamin Netanyahu?