Sorcha Eastwood MP: speeches 2026

Speeches

• 11 Sept 2026 · Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · Hansard source

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  It pierces my heart whenever cancer is mentioned in this conversation, and I am grateful to the hon. Member for West Lancashire (Ashley Dalton) for her advocacy. A person may have cancer, and a terminal diagnosis, and still want to live. We should support those people to live first, before we contemplate their death.

• 2 Sept 2026 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  The people of Northern Ireland are absolutely scundered. At the moment, we have poisonous parading disputes and border poll spats; meanwhile, the Northern Ireland Assembly has no budget. Prime Minister, whenever we met last week, I think there was an acknowledgment that we can either have an unreformed Stormont or we can have sound public finances in Northern Ireland, but we cannot have both. Alliance has led the way on calls for changing our broken system of government in Northern Ireland. This is the Prime Minister’s chance to leave a legacy of functioning government in Northern Ireland; will he act?

• 1 Sept 2026 · Direction of Government · Hansard source

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  It is hard to disagree with a lot of what the Prime Minister has set out, but I am going to make sure my conscience is clear. I worry. I worry about our economy. Whenever I hear the Chancellor refer to a continuity Starmer Administration, that is a red flag for me. My Lagan Valley constituents cannot pay their bills. They are struggling with life in a way that they have not known before. I believe that this Prime Minister is serious about wanting to reach those people. Believe you me, when we met in Northern Ireland last week, rest assured that I can guarantee this House is not interested in hearing about the stuff from our past. My constituents want to get on with life in the here and now—right here, right now. The VAT cut for electricity is soon to be engulfed by rising prices. Did the Prime Minister not have it right the first time, when he said that our people need a new economic model?

• 6 Jul 2026 · Civil Service Pensions · Hansard source

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  There has been a cost to the taxpayer in people’s lives. What can you do to restore confidence in the system?

• 6 Jul 2026 · Civil Service Pensions · Hansard source

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  I also must declare an interest, as my husband is a civil servant and is currently paying into a pension. Does the Minister agree that this is one of the best examples we have of the social contract falling apart? People who have literally worked for the state are now unable to be paid by the state. I really welcome your statement about insourcing. You have said that it is important that the taxpayer not have to foot the bill—

• 6 Jul 2026 · Civil Service Pensions · Hansard source

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  indicated assent.

• 6 Jul 2026 · Public Office Disqualification: Terrorism Offences · Hansard source

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  I would add that this is not complex, in so far as terrorism is always wrong. All communities in Northern Ireland knew and understood that throughout the troubles. When it comes to the wholesale rewriting of history, our job now, through the Representation of the People Bill, which we are taking through Parliament, and the debate on the petition today, is to ensure that those who continue to endorse and glorify terrorism are dealt with.

• 6 Jul 2026 · Public Office Disqualification: Terrorism Offences · Hansard source

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  I want to pick up on the Minister’s point that it is for the electorate to decide. In the case of Northern Ireland, we made the decision—it was a bitter pill—to allow people who were terrorists to get out of jail early as part of a wider peace process. Where some of those people have gone on to attain elected office, which is their right, we have seen a rewriting of history. Therefore, it is not just the people who are there to decide; we as a state retain the right to make sure that past terrorism is regarded as wrong and that those who continue to propagate it by other means are held accountable.

• 22 Jun 2026 · Spinal Muscular Atrophy: Newborn Screening Test · Hansard source

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  It a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Mundell. I welcome the fact that we are having this debate. I do not know what to say, other than that if I was one of those amazing parents and advocates in the Public Gallery, I would be absolutely seething with rage, not because of the beautiful, cherished, much-loved and incredible children who have been born, but because we have determined that it will take a significant number of years to get in place something that already works, as evidence shows, and, more importantly, saves a child. I want to talk about something a little wider than spinal muscular atrophy, because this could be any condition. I have written to the Minister about any number of childhood conditions, and the common factor—it is the same with SMA—is that we deem them not important enough. That is the message to the families behind me today—those incredible people who advocate so strongly, even when their hearts are breaking. We should not expect them to go through this. Whether it is SMA or childhood cancers, the theme is the same. Back in January of this year, as a result of the incredible advocacy and work that Jesy did on behalf of her two beautiful children, Ocean and Story Monroe, I tabled an early-day motion that carried the support of 34 Members from across the House, which was really significant. The one thing that people wanted to say whenever they reached out to me—not just in Lagan Valley or Northern Ireland, but across the UK—was, “Enough is enough. We need to be heard. Our voices matter and our stories matter.” I want to share some remarks from an incredible young woman I know from Northern Ireland. She is not my constituent, but if I did not say this, there is no way that she would forgive me. The incredible Michaela Hollywood is from Northern Ireland. She is not that young—I will not say her age, because she will shout at me—but she is living an incredible life. She says: “Honestly, I won’t take a break until every family gets what they need. It’s a strange feeling this week: I’m glad we have the exposure we need to save babies but I also want the world to know life is just as rich and full if you can’t walk”. Those powerful words from a long-term disability advocate and campaigner are at the heart of this as well. The hon. Member for Sunderland Central (Lewis Atkinson) spoke about the emotional and psychological cost to families, and also about the long-term physical and other impacts. We work all the time on improving PEG feeding for families, and families feel that they have to bash down a door just to feed their children, but here we have an option sitting in front of us that is proven to work. It will save lives and, whether it will be 2030 or 2031, we do not need to waste extra time having a debate about whether it is worth doing. We agree that it is worth doing and that it saves lives; we just need to get on urgently and do it.

• 3 Jun 2026 · Public Service Reform · Hansard source

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  The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland will not thank me for saying this, but whenever we have these discussions about the transformation of public services in Northern Ireland, it seems like we can have either good public finances or an unreformed Stormont, but we cannot have both. With three parties in Northern Ireland supporting reform proposals in the last number of weeks, when will the Government get serious about giving Northern Ireland the means to govern itself, and when will they get round the table to start discussions about the reform of Stormont?

• 13 May 2026 · Debate on the Address · Hansard source

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  I agree entirely with the hon. Member. To me, we have one of the most business-hostile environments. You made comments about young people not getting work. Do you agree that that is made worse by the national insurance hikes that have seen almost a generation being unable to get employment? Do you agree with me in that contention?

• 28 Apr 2026 · Referral of Prime Minister to Committee of Privileges · Hansard source

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  I want to put two things on record at the outset. The Labour party does not stand for election in Northern Ireland. We do not have elections next week or the week after, so everything I am about to say has got absolutely nothing to do with a so-called political stunt, and everything to do with the integrity of this House. By the way, I find patronising the idea that we should not be discussing these things because the Government of the day want to get on with discussing the cost of living. I have had two car bombs at the edges of my constituency in the past five weeks, so believe me there are much bigger things that I would prefer to be talking about. However, it is incumbent on everybody in this House to ensure that everything we are doing is completely above board. Last week, I said that I did not know why Mandelson was appointed. The Prime Minister said it was a mistake, but here is what I do not understand: everything about Mandelson that would have been a cause for concern was open-source material—it was out there. Peter Mandelson would not have survived the vetting for a kids’ football club, and rightly so. Yet we are expected to believe, by those on the Labour Benches, that “There is nothing to see here, we are going to do some process here and there; it’s a bit of a hoo-hah,” as if there has been a bit of opprobrium around the appointment of a local rotary club. This is the Government of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland; and we need to make sure that everything that is done here has the trust and confidence of the people we were sent here to represent. Something I am really passionate about is people being able to get on in life. The social mobility figures for the UK are declining steeply, which should be a concern for us all. But don’t worry about that—it seems to be “jobs for the boys”, going great guns over the road in Labour. Instead of a meritocracy, it is a chumocracy. That is the nub of this: we cannot get answers as to why this was done. Today, I am asking: will the real Prime Minister please stand up? Please stand up. Is it the man who wanted to tread lightly on our lives? Is it the man who promised a decade of national renewal? Is it the man who said he was going to do things by the book and better? Because in my nearly two years here, I have not seen that. I commend the hon. Member for South Shields (Emma Lewell) for her heartfelt words. This should not be about party politics—it should be about doing the right thing. I am here as the one Member of my party in Westminster, so I am aware that I am speaking from a place of privilege myself. But believe you me: there is a stink here, and the public smell it. If we are serious about getting better in terms of making our constituents’ lives better and proving that this place can deliver, every single person here today has a choice—make the right one.

• 28 Apr 2026 · Referral of Prime Minister to Committee of Privileges · Hansard source

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  Does that make it better?

• 27 Apr 2026 · Dunmurry Police Station Attack · Hansard source

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  I am sure the whole House will join me in sending a message that terrorism never succeeds—neither in the past nor in 2026. I too wish to put on record my thanks to the Police Service of Northern Ireland for the work that it does every day, keeping communities safe in the face of ongoing threats. In particular, I pay tribute to those police officers who were in Dunmurry police station on Saturday evening and who were helping to evacuate babies as the device detonated. I also pay tribute to the officers at Lurgan police station who were there on 30 March when a viable device was driven through the front gates of the station. My thoughts are also with the two delivery drivers, one of whom was held at gunpoint as their vehicle was hijacked. It is only by the grace of God that we are not dealing with fatalities. The people who commit these acts of terrorism have no support from the decent people of Northern Ireland—they do not now, and they did not in the past. This is not representative of who we are. National security is a reserved matter, so will the Secretary of State commit to ensuring that the PSNI is adequately resourced to deal with tackling Northern Ireland-related terrorism, along with the other categories of extreme right-wing terrorism, extreme left-wing terrorism, Islamic terrorism and those acting without ideology? Those are stated national security priorities. It is clear that the PSNI is already operating within a challenging budget, and I am sure the Government will want to ensure that it is adequately resourced to tackle this threat.

• 27 Apr 2026 · Dunmurry Police Station Attack · Hansard source

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  (Urgent Question): To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make a statement on the car bomb attack outside Dunmurry police station on 26 April 2026.

• 21 Apr 2026 · Middle East: Economic Update · Hansard source

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  Just so the Chancellor is aware, my constituents in Lagan Valley did not get £150 off their electricity bills. I am sure the Chancellor knows that that is because Northern Ireland is not in the same electricity market as the rest of the UK. Even if we add together the sums that we received through the Barnett consequentials, they do not total £150. We hope that her lack of knowledge does not reflect the importance of Northern Ireland when this Government come to tackling the cost of living crisis. When will the Chancellor meet my colleagues in the Northern Ireland Executive to discuss how to help us through this crisis?

• 21 Apr 2026 · Peter Mandelson: Government Appointment · Hansard source

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  The hon. Gentleman is getting to the nub of the issue. This is about fairness in society. We tell everybody else outside of here, who we make the rules for, to play by the rules, but when you are in here yourself and you are the chief man, you can do what you want. That is what flies in the face of what the vast majority of the public think. Does he agree?

• 21 Apr 2026 · Peter Mandelson: Government Appointment · Hansard source

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  As others have already said, we can almost feel like everything has been said at this point. However, one thing that strikes me in all this is that this place is called the House of Commons. Our job is to come here and represent the common person, yet this entire debate is so far removed from the common person. As I said last night, if one of my constituents in Lagan Valley is accidentally overpaid on a benefit, that is clawed back. No matter the human cost to that person, it is clawed back right away—no questions asked, no special circumstances. We see that writ large across our public life, and the reason is that we said that we valued a rules-based, ordered system. We wanted a society that was fair; we valued integrity and we valued trust. More importantly, we wanted to understand that the people who came to this House were going to act in a way that was beyond reproach—in a way that they expected everyone else across the UK to behave. I am dealing with the case of a guy who is disabled. He accidentally parked in a parking space but did not have his blue badge displayed, and he is getting hammered. Maybe he will get off—who knows? But we are dealing with a situation where the Prime Minister of the day is now saying that he regrets the appointment of Mandelson. I am not going to get into the whys and wherefores of DV, STRAP, CTC and everything else, because my people in Lagan Valley do not know what that means. A lot of people are banking on the ordinary man and woman on the street not knowing what that means, and on them stopping being curious and suspending their expectations because this is all highfalutin, serious stuff and we do not really know what that is. Maybe they did do right. Maybe they did not do right. People are bamboozled, but I am going to break it down for them. I would say this to the Prime Minister: what was it about the twice-disgraced paedophile-adjacent, self-styled prince of darkness that you found so attractive that you put him into this plum job—not just of Government but of the United Kingdom on the world stage? What was it, Prime Minister, that appealed to you about Peter Mandelson? We still do not have the answer. All I know is that my constituents are disgusted with all of this. And this is not the first time; it is not the second time and it is not the third time. It has been going round on the merry-go-round, no matter who it is. I am really glad that the hon. Member for Liverpool West Derby (Ian Byrne) is in the Chamber, because he has worked tirelessly to make sure that the issues at the nub of this are heard—the duty of candour and the obligation to be honest with the public, let alone with our colleagues and the entire Administration—yet we are telling families that they cannot access documents for another 100 years due to a technicality. How am I to make that make sense to them? I am indignant, and I am outraged. A lot of people in this building are expecting us to no longer be outraged. We will be outraged, because if we cannot prove that this works, we know who is going to step into the shadows. We know who is going to be out there setting the algorithms. We know who is going to be preying on the carcase of what was once a great democracy. We are seeing other democracies fail. Let’s not fool ourselves that the UK is immune from this. The No. 1 thing we can do, within our gift, is to show that we still value integrity. For those reasons, there is not a single excuse that this Government can come up with that I can sell to my constituents or myself that I will believe. For those reasons, I believe that the Prime Minister needs to go—not just for his own party but, more importantly, for the sake of the country.

• 20 Apr 2026 · Security Vetting · Hansard source

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  My constituents in Lagan Valley, and others across the Northern Ireland and throughout the UK, will be disgusted that we have spent such an amount of time discussing this issue, when it should have been put to the fore the first time it appeared in the press. Does the Prime Minister understand that every time we do this and go through this, we destroy the reputation of this place, no matter who is in the Government of the day? His party does not even stand for election in my neck of the woods, so this is not party political. It is about protecting the reputation of this place. Does the Prime Minister understand?

• 15 Apr 2026 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Two years ago, people voted for change, but what have they got? More of the same. But it is not they who have let down their end of the bargain. My constituents are working themselves to the bone, and let us be absolutely clear: they are working and still having to claim benefits. Whether it is farmers, care workers or students—you name it—there is not a single section of society that has not been let down, and I do not want that to be the case. We need to show that this House works for them, because actors will step into that space—people who would love nothing more than for our democracy to be toppled because we cannot show our people a better way of life. We used to say to people, “If you work hard, you’ll get on in life.” That has not been the case for years. Will this Government change economic and fiscal course and deliver for people in the worst cost of living crisis?

• 24 Mar 2026 · Endometriosis Services · Hansard source

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  I really value the hon. Member’s contribution, which has been heartfelt and personal. Does he agree that Endo Warriors Northern Ireland deserves credit and acknowledgment for the work that it has done for the women across Northern Ireland who are impacted by this postcode lottery?

• 10 Mar 2026 · Northern Ireland Hospitality Sector: VAT · Hansard source

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  I thank the Minister for his response. I have to declare an interest because I started a parliamentary petition exactly on a VAT cut for hospitality in Northern Ireland, the reason being that we have the Republic of Ireland with its very competitive VAT rate right up against us. Businesses saw the official Government response, because that petition got over 10,000 signatures, and they felt very despondent. I am sure that Treasury Ministers and the Chancellor will want to join me in trying to do everything we can to protect our hospitality sector. The Minister says this is complex to do, but would he agree with me that it is worth revisiting that idea?

• 9 Mar 2026 · Middle East: Economic Update · Hansard source

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  I welcome the Chancellor’s statement this afternoon. As she has outlined, Northern Ireland is uniquely exposed, with up to 70% of people across Northern Ireland reliant on home heating oil. Instead of meeting me, does she have plans this week to meet the Minister for the Economy and my ministerial colleagues in the Northern Ireland Executive to see how we can best support our people?

• 2 Mar 2026 · Middle East · Hansard source

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  People in Northern Ireland are entitled to be British, Irish or both. As such, many have travelled to the middle east on an Irish passport. We know that the FCDO has asked people to register. However, those Northern Irish citizens who have an Irish passport and are also UK nationals cannot register. Will the Prime Minister assure me that he will work to make sure that my constituents in Lagan Valley and across Northern Ireland will not be left behind?

• 2 Mar 2026 · Representation of the People Bill · Hansard source

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  Will the Secretary of State give way?