Points of Order

Debate between Caroline Nokes and Carla Lockhart

Tuesday 21st April 2026 Commons Chamber

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

I thank the hon. Member for his point of order, and for giving me some notice of it. He will have heard my earlier response. The Chair is not responsible for ministerial answers, but Ministers should take their responsibilities seriously to make sure that answers are correct. I note that representatives of the Treasury Bench are still sat there. I am sure the message will be passed back to the Chancellor, but he will have heard her response to the hon. Member for Lagan Valley (Sorcha Eastwood). I do not intend to continue this debate via the Chair.

[Carla Lockhart (Upper Bann) (DUP)]

Further to that point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. I believe it is important to set the record straight. In response to my question, the Chancellor suggested that households in Northern Ireland got £150 off their energy bills in April. That is factually wrong and somewhat misleading, and I believe it is important that the record is set straight, because households in Northern Ireland will not see £150 off their bills like those in GB. The money received as a result of the Barnett consequentials is still sitting in the Sinn Féin Economy Minister’s departmental purse, and there has been a refusal to engage with the Treasury to get the money spent. Not only do we need the record to be set straight, but we need a plan to get the money to our constituents, who are hard pressed. Will you advise me on how I can progress this matter?

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

The hon. Lady will have heard my earlier responses. She has most certainly put the matter firmly on the record. As I have said, the Chair is not responsible for ministerial answers, but I am sure that those on the Treasury Bench have heard her and other points of order loud and clear this afternoon.

Finance (No. 2) Bill

Debate between Caroline Nokes and Carla Lockhart

2nd reading
Tuesday 16th December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Carla Lockhart (Upper Bann) (DUP)]

The Government have chosen to absolutely decimate family farms across the whole United Kingdom. The Prime Minister was questioned yesterday by members of the Liaison Committee, and he was told that farmers have said that they might be better off dying before this tax change comes in. I feel that we need to let the reality of that sink in. His response was that Governments have to bring about sensible reform, but sensible reform is not someone lying in an early grave to avoid the break-up of their family farm. He also claimed that this policy was not targeted, and was merely a change to the tax regime, but when this Finance Bill decimates family farms, it certainly—

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Caroline Nokes)]

Order. The hon. Lady’s intervention is far too long.

Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Debate between Caroline Nokes and Carla Lockhart

Friday 16th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Caroline Nokes)]

Order. I urge the few remaining Members who will get in to keep their remarks brief, please.

[Carla Lockhart (Upper Bann) (DUP)]

As I thought about today’s debate, I asked myself, “What more can I say than I said in the previous debate?” Yet there is much more, because as the Bill made progress through Committee, its intentions were exposed over and over again. Commitments, safeguards and kind words championed in this place have been set aside. On Second Reading, we were told that the Committee considering the Bill would be balanced and representative, yet its make-up did not reflect that intention: 55% of MPs voted for the Bill on Second Reading, but 61% of the Committee supported it.

The mask has slipped time and again. One of the biggest blows to the Bill, which the public listening today need to know about, relates to the need for approval via High Court judges. On Second Reading, that was laboured as the strongest safeguard, but that safeguard has been removed at a stroke. What is now being legislated for is a panel of psychiatrists—and a voluntary panel, at that. Impartial judges have been replaced by a voluntary panel, which could well be made up of enthusiasts for assisted dying, and the Royal College of Psychiatrists has now said that there are not even sufficient psychiatrists for such panels.

I want to be absolutely clear: this Bill is immoral. If it is passed at a future date, it will create a publicly funded, gold-plated assisted suicide service. That means that the state will have the ability to give a legal drug to end a life. It is immoral, and it goes against my strong Christian faith, and that of many of my constituents in Upper Bann and people across the United Kingdom.

European Union (Withdrawal Arrangements) Bill

Debate between Caroline Nokes and Carla Lockhart

2nd reading
Friday 6th December 2024 Commons Chamber

[Carla Lockhart (Upper Bann) (DUP)]

I commend the hon. and learned Member for North Antrim (Jim Allister) for his Bill. It is disappointing that I will not get to make a speech on it; I trust that you will show me a little leniency, Madam Deputy Speaker, in my intervention as I have deliberately not jumped up and down during others’ speeches.

Does my right hon. Friend the Member for Belfast East (Gavin Robinson) agree that those in this House underestimate at their peril the damage caused by the current arrangements? Unionism is reeling at the fact that our mother Parliament has sacrificed and continues to sacrifice Northern Ireland on the altar of political expediency. Unionism has had enough. Businesses and consumers have had enough. They cannot get plants, seeds or trees from GB. They cannot bring in farm machinery, just because it may have British soil on its wheels. They cannot bring seed potatoes from Scotland. All traditions in Northern Ireland—

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Caroline Nokes)]

Order. I think the hon. Lady has made her point. I call Gavin Robinson.