Avanti West Coast Contract Renewal

Debate between Baroness Laing of Elderslie and Khalid Mahmood

Tuesday 25th October 2022 Commons Chamber

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

Order. What is the hon. Gentleman’s question?

[Mr Mahmood]

The question is that the Minister should not have agreed this six-month extension, but should start working on it now, and by December—

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

Order. That is a statement. Does the hon. Gentleman have a question for the Minister?

[Mr Mahmood]

Will the Minister put in place a programme now so that we can take charge of Avanti trains by December?

Afghanistan Policy

Debate between Baroness Laing of Elderslie and Khalid Mahmood

Monday 13th September 2021 Commons Chamber

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

I apologise to the hon. Member for Birmingham, Perry Barr (Mr Mahmood) for not having called him earlier. In all honesty, I could not see him because of this screen. Let us hope they do not have to stay here very much longer.

[Mr Khalid Mahmood (Birmingham, Perry Barr) (Lab)]

I have a constituent who landed just before the blockade. Her father-in-law has been shot. She has got to the border a number of times. I have communicated with the embassy and with the Pakistani authorities to try to let her come through, but to no avail because the Afghans will not let her through on a British passport. Can we get through the Foreign Office, or the Home Office, some sort of indication to help those people? If not, can we use other available embassies to guide and support those people who are there with British passports?

Points of Order

Debate between Baroness Laing of Elderslie and Khalid Mahmood

Wednesday 23rd October 2019 Commons Chamber

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

Once again, the hon. Lady is right to take the opportunity to raise the matter through a point of order in the Chamber. She has partially achieved what she wants to achieve, which is to bring the matter to the attention of the Chamber and of Ministers. I am sure that her points will have been noted by those on the Treasury Bench and that she will, like the hon. Member for Argyll and Bute (Brendan O’Hara), persist in asking such questions and acting quite properly on behalf of her constituent, for whom we all have very great sympathy.

[Mr Khalid Mahmood (Birmingham, Perry Barr) (Lab)]

On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. Will you guide me on how I can place on the record an inaccuracy in the question from the hon. Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman) to the Prime Minister? He stated that the demonstration on Kashmir on 27 October has deliberately been held to be in line with Diwali. It has not: 27 October is the day when India occupied the free state of Kashmir in 1947—that is historically correct.

The hon. Gentleman also mentioned—as my hon. Friends mention from the Front Bench—Pakistan being involved in this demonstration. As far as I am aware, a huge number of constituents across the country, including my constituents from Kashmir and of Kashmiri origin, are organising this on their behalf with the Sikh community and with a number of people, including Muslims from the Indian community and from other countries across the world, so it is not Pakistan—there are all sorts of people who believe in human rights and civil liberties, which are not being upheld for the Kashmiri community in Kashmir at the moment.

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his point of order, but it is an attempt to correct the facts as he sees them. I can make no judgment on which of these facts that have been mentioned, either at the Dispatch Box or by him, are correct. It is not for me to make such a judgment, but he has taken the opportunity to correct the record. I am sure that if he wrote formally to the relevant Minister his points would be taken very seriously. He has put them very courteously.

Parliamentary Constituencies (Amendment) Bill: Committee Stage

Debate between Baroness Laing of Elderslie and Khalid Mahmood

Tuesday 19th June 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Khalid Mahmood (Birmingham, Perry Barr) (Lab)]

The Government have wilfully plucked a figure out of the air, have manipulated the electoral register and taken 2.5 million people off it. The constituencies have no basis, so the Bill of my hon. Friend the Member for Manchester, Gorton (Afzal Khan)—[Interruption.] If the Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office, the hon. Member for Norwich North (Chloe Smith), Conservative Members wants to make a contribution, she can do so when I am not on my feet.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

Order. The hon. Gentleman cannot interrupt himself when making an intervention while referring to a sedentary comment from the Conservative Benches, but I will allow him to finish his perfectly reasonable intervention.

[Mr Mahmood]

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker; I have gained further knowledge.

My hon. Friend’s Bill tries to address this issue. Does my hon. Friend the Member for Walsall South (Valerie Vaz) agree that this is not about gerrymandering or taking powers away from this House, but about restoring those powers?