Speeches by Heylings.

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms Vaz. As we have heard, British manufacturers face some of the highest industrial electricity prices in the world, so it is right that the Government recognise the pressure on sectors such as steel, chemicals and glass. I hope we will hear from the Minister that he is c…”

“I am grateful for the opportunity to raise the issue of the distribution of education funding, because it goes to the heart of what kind of education system we want. As Liberal Democrats, we want every child to be provided with the opportunity to succeed and reach their full potential. However, I am sure that the Gover…”

“I agree with the hon. Member. It is exactly why we need this debate at the national level. I recognise the work undertaken by the f40 fairer funding campaign, which has provided comparative historical data for the whole country, exposing the huge variations in funding allocations per pupil by local authority. Nowhere i…”

“I could not have put it better myself. That issue is symptomatic of and a causal factor in the problems. We are seeing the gap between funding and spend widening year after year. In my area, that is compounded by rapid population growth. Cambridgeshire and Peterborough are forecast to grow by a further nearly 17% betwe…”

“My hon. Friend makes a hugely important point, and we have just heard agreement from across the Chamber about the importance of both the geographic distribution of funding and to which age groups it is distributed. The underfunding interacts directly with the crisis in special educational needs and disabilities provisi…”

“Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. Everyone now needs to know what will happen to the debt in 2028 when the Government centralise the funding, as they have announced that they will. If it is not absorbed or absolved by the Government, Cambridgeshire, like many other councils, could be approaching section 114 bankruptcy t…”

“That goes to the heart of it. All children, no matter where they live, deserve the right to, and the opportunity of, the best education they can have. Let me return to the issue of the debt, and the deficit that the council is holding as a result of the statutory override. Independent analysis suggests that by 2028, th…”

“I completely agree. What does this mean for our schools? It is no surprise that 37 primary schools across Cambridgeshire are operating in deficit. Schools do not have any headroom left; they cannot absorb further pressures without making damaging choices about staffing, class sizes and support. I have heard from the sc…”

“I am sorry to hear what has happened with that school, but I think we need to look, in the round, at what is happening to all schools and all school funding. I appreciate the hon. Gentleman’s mention of the statutory override, and I will come to it later in my speech.”

“I have some key questions for the Minister about exactly that point. A stark reality keeps county councillors and their finance officers awake at night. Cambridgeshire’s overall dedicated schools grant deficit stood at £62.8 million at the end of 2025. Forecasts show that the high needs block deficit will rise to about…”

“I am pleased to present this petition on behalf of Elisabeth Spain and the South Cambridgeshire Climate and Nature Group in my constituency. The petition states that peaceful environmental protesters are being criminalised through excessive charges, harsh sentencing and negative media treatment, and that the Public Ord…”

“We have been asking for the warm homes plan for Christmas for the past two years. It is better late than never, but we have mixed feelings in unwrapping it. The Liberal Democrats have long called for an emergency home energy upgrade scheme with free insulation and heat pumps, and we have recently submitted proposals fo…”

“This is about closing what is really quite a small loophole that is left over from the 2019 moratorium on fracking. As we know, Labour’s manifesto committed—and since then, the Prime Minister, Ed Miliband and Minister Shanks have all said that they are committed—to no fracking: a complete ban. However, although the Gov…”

“Thank you. Josh Newbury made representations”

“Yes.”

“There have been a couple of debates in Westminster Hall, one in which this was addressed almost tangentially and one in which it was addressed openly. With the Minister saying that it is worthy of debate, I think it is now time for it to go to the main Chamber.”

“We definitely have plenty of support from Members, so I could come back with another name, yes. That is a possibility. The interest in this is huge both from the Liberal Democrats, as the third party, and from other parties.”

“This past week, we have all been speaking about the need to respect the rule of international law, yet transnational repression in which authoritarian regimes extend their jurisdiction beyond their borders and powers is worryingly present on UK soil. My constituent Shahzad Akbar, who is a former human rights lawyer, ca…”

“Brexit excluded us from the EU’s internal energy market, costing the UK a huge £350 million annually. Will the Secretary of State confirm how he will accelerate progress towards the UK-EU internal electricity trading agreement to bring down costs and ensure energy security in these volatile times?”

“Thank you, Mr Speaker, and happy new year. It is freezing outside and, tragically, more than 4,000 households in my constituency are living in fuel poverty. The Government’s decision to cut the energy company obligation, which was the key mechanism for delivering home insulation and energy efficiency, without any detai…”