Electoral Resilience

Debate between Lisa Smart and Steve Reed

Tuesday 16th December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Steve Reed]

I am sure that the elections Minister would be delighted to meet my hon. Friend to discuss her concerns. The review will look at any foreign financial interference in our democracy, and I would expect the points she raises to be in scope.

[Lisa Smart (Hazel Grove) (LD)]

I warmly welcome the Secretary of State’s statement, and the establishment of the independent review, and I agree with colleagues across the House who talked about the importance of the resilience of our democracy as well as about its current fragility. I note that the Secretary of State does not seem keen to give us too many spoilers about what to expect in the elections Bill in the new year, but I my question follows those asked by my colleague from the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, the Chair of the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, and by my hon. Friend the Member for Guildford (Zöe Franklin). If the review recommended a cap on donations or restoring the independence of the Electoral Commission, would those be things that the Secretary of State would support?

[Steve Reed]

We certainly understand the risks posed to elections; for that reason, as we published in the strategy in July, through the elections Bill we will seek to strengthen the rules on donations to political parties. The findings of the independent review will inform what is in the Bill.

Storm Bert

Debate between Lisa Smart and Steve Reed

Monday 25th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Steve Reed]

The role of the floods resilience taskforce is to ensure not just that there is better co-ordination at national level and between national and local agencies, but that co-ordination happens far better at the local level in the way that he is describing and that there is much better communication with residents, so that they know who to contact, and can do so in a much simpler way, to get the support and help that they need both when floods are coming and as areas recover from the impacts of flooding.

[Lisa Smart (Hazel Grove) (LD)]

One of the ways in which my Hazel Grove constituents have been impacted by Storm Bert is as passengers facing severe delays and cancellations on our rail network, particularly the west coast main line. Will the Secretary of State please update the House on the conversations that he has had with colleagues in the Department for Transport on how to minimise the impact, and on how to ensure that we learn the right lessons, so that future flooding causes even fewer impacts?

[Steve Reed]

We are in close contact with colleagues in the Department for Transport, and safety must be the priority for both passengers and people who work as part of the crews on the trains or on the ground. The railway lines will be opened as soon as it is safe to do so. We are aware that further steps need to be taken to protect all forms of public transport and, indeed, all parts of the country from the increase in severe weather incidents.