International Update

Sorcha Eastwood Excerpts

Monday 12th October 2026 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I do want to visit Grangemouth, as soon as my diary allows, because I recognise some of the very difficult issues that my hon. Friend is dealing with, and we have to secure a good transition for industry in his constituency. I cannot give him a date today, but I give him a commitment that I will as soon as I can.

[Sorcha Eastwood (Lagan Valley) (Alliance)]

Northern Ireland voted to remain, and believe you me, no part of the UK has suffered more through Brexit than Northern Ireland. If there is a chance to make sure that my constituents in Lagan Valley have cheaper electricity, we are there. What assurance can the Prime Minister give me today that he is in live discussions with my colleagues in the Northern Ireland Executive to ensure that Northern Ireland gets the best out of any possible deal?

[The Prime Minister]

That is my intent, stated from this Dispatch Box. I hope that we can work with the hon. Lady and her colleagues to deliver what could be a very real change, felt by her constituents and many more.

Oral Answers to Questions

Sorcha Eastwood Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd September 2026 Commons Chamber

[Sorcha Eastwood (Lagan Valley) (Alliance)]

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?

[The Prime Minister]

I will work with the hon. Lady and her colleagues on precisely that. I was in Northern Ireland with the Northern Ireland Secretary last week. Our first responsibility is to get Stormont government up and running and functioning properly with a budget. I have empowered the Northern Ireland Secretary to go into talks to resolve that issue, and we can continue the conversation on the broader issues about reform once we have got that in place.

Direction of Government

Sorcha Eastwood Excerpts

Tuesday 1st September 2026 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to say that this should be a national mission. I talked earlier about a guarantee of a quality work placement between 16 and 18. We could look at doing more to support young people with transport costs, as we did in Greater Manchester. We need more youth apprenticeships—those went into decline, and we need to turn that around—and we need to see many more degree apprenticeships.

The point I am making is that we need to lay out a technical path from 14 for all our young people, so that we do not have a situation where it seems to them that the university route is the be-all and end-all—important as that is for those who want to go on it. Too many young people hit their middle teenage years, in year 10 and year 11, and cannot see where the path is going, and then they start to drop out. That is what I am determined to fix. I look forward to working with my hon. Friend on that.

[Sorcha Eastwood (Lagan Valley) (Alliance)]

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?

Civil Service Pensions

Sorcha Eastwood Excerpts

Monday 6th July 2026 Commons Chamber

[Nick Thomas-Symonds]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right.

[Sorcha Eastwood (Lagan Valley) (Alliance)]

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—

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

Order. I have not said anything. End your question quickly.

[Sorcha Eastwood]

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

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

Order. What can I do to restore confidence, or what can the Minister do? You mean the Minister?

[Sorcha Eastwood]

indicated assent.

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

Good.

Debate on the Address

Sorcha Eastwood Excerpts

Wednesday 13th May 2026 Commons Chamber

[Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (North Cotswolds) (Con)]

Madam Deputy Speaker, I am grateful to catch your eye in this important King’s Speech debate. I follow other colleagues in congratulating the hon. Members for Bradford West (Naz Shah) and for Harlow (Chris Vince) on their amusing and well-informed speeches.

One of the few things that this Government have got right in the King’s Speech is the expedited Bill to nationalise Scunthorpe steelworks in order to safeguard domestic steel production. The plant is costing the taxpayer £1 million a day, and therefore modernisation and future private and public investment under a Government-owned company need to be implemented.

However, our economy is in a very fragile state. It grew by only 1.3% in real terms in 2025, and the Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts that it will grow by only 1.4% in 2026—the lowest level of any G7 country. The United Kingdom is carrying one of the highest levels of borrowing in the western world. National debt is a staggering £2.9 trillion, which is equivalent to 93.8% of our entire GDP or £102,000 per household. Even more concerning is the fact that we are expected to spend—wait for it—£111 billion on debt interest alone to service that debt. If that were a Government Department, it would be the third largest.

We are heavily reliant on international markets, and our national balance sheet is highly leveraged. That leaves our economy dangerously exposed to external shocks, such as the war in Iran and the Ukraine conflict. As a result, our borrowing premium on that debt is one of the highest in the OECD; today, we are paying more in debt interest than Greece. A 1% rise in interest rates adds £1.3 billion in costs in the first year, and £12 billion by the end of the forecast period, as new, expensive debt replaces older, cheaper debt. Indeed, yesterday, 30-year gilts hit a 28-year high at 5.81%. That gives a clue as to what the international markets think of our economic standing.

On that note, I observe that one of the Labour leadership candidates does not have a clue how the bond market funding our enormous debt actually works. With inflation expected to rise again—some forecasters expect it to reach 6.7% next year—we face the very real risk of sliding into recession or a bond strike. If those very serious consequences were to occur, this country would be forced to take much more fundamental measures to cut our expenditure. A competent Government should already be doing so, to avoid any chance of this happening and to protect our reputation in the international markets.

I note that the Government have included a Bill to reform the welfare system. The fact that 1 million people could work but do not is causing unacceptable tax increases on the rest of the hard-working population’s earnings. On top of that, higher interest rates are leading to higher food prices, higher mortgage payments and higher business costs. No one in this country—especially poorer working people—will be protected.

Some of the issues we see today are avoidable. The current political instability is a major factor. It is not my job as an Opposition MP to tell Labour how to sort out its leadership problems, but whatever it does, it is important to convince the international community and the people of this country that there is a stable, well-thought-out economic policy and to give the markets confidence, in order to reduce the current borrowing premium. It is not the job of the Government to subsidise every business, but it is the duty of the Government to create conditions in which growth, prosperity, enterprise and investment can thrive.

The Government have included a Bill to target youth unemployment, which is welcome, but the fact that it has risen by 16% or by 100,000 compared with a year ago makes it very hard for youngsters now leaving university or further education to start their careers. Meanwhile, businesses—particularly in hospitality and retail—are being taxed into oblivion and are not hiring as many people. In my North Cotswolds constituency, we employ 3,700 people in hospitality, and the sector provides £220 million to the local economy. However, higher employer national insurance contributions, rising minimum wages, hugely increasing business rates and energy price increases, exacerbated by the Employment Rights Act 2025, are all making it harder to make profits and are stalling growth. Taxes are already at a post-war high and there are threats to hike them further. None of this environment is encouraging businesses to hire and take on more people and so reduce the high unemployment figures.

[Sorcha Eastwood (Lagan Valley) (Alliance)]

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?

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

Order. Let us start the Session as we mean to go on, with no “you” or “your”, because the hon. Member is not talking about me.

Peter Mandelson: Government Appointment

Sorcha Eastwood Excerpts

Tuesday 21st April 2026 Commons Chamber

[Richard Burgon (Leeds East) (Lab)]

I want to start with a point of inquiry which I hope the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister will be able to answer in his response later, so he has time to look into it if he does not know the answer already. Yesterday, I asked the Prime Minister whether his former chief of staff Morgan McSweeney

“passed all his security vetting and whether he ever handled documents for which he had anything other than the appropriate level of clearance?”—[Official Report, 20 April 2026; Vol. 784, c. 43.]

I am not sure that the House thinks we got a clear answer from the Prime Minister, but even if at some point Morgan McSweeney did get clearance, I am sure the House would be horrified if that happened long after he started working in Downing Street and after he was involved in the Mandelson appointment. It would be good to get a date for when Morgan McSweeney got his security clearance and to confirm whether he handled any materials prior to that for which he did not have appropriate clearance. If the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister cannot find an answer to that question by the time he responds, perhaps he could answer in writing by the end of the week, given the urgency of this matter.

The situation we are in of course raises questions about process, and process is important, but let us not make the mistake of thinking that this is not fundamentally political. Politics drove this: what was unusual about the appointment of Mandelson was that it was a political appointment. It is not standard for the ambassador to the United States to be a political appointment. Whatever Peter Mandelson is and was—I have my own opinions on that—he was not a career civil servant. He had been up to other things, so the security vetting was clearly very important indeed. The fact that this was a fundamentally political decision by the Prime Minister, driven as well by Morgan McSweeney, is evidenced by the fact that everyone here knows that the Prime Minister would not have signed off someone with Peter Mandelson’s record to stand as a Labour candidate for a town council. Yet he was eased into the incredibly important position of ambassador to the United States of America.

[Sorcha Eastwood (Lagan Valley) (Alliance)]

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?

[Richard Burgon]

I totally agree with the hon. Member; she makes a powerful point. That is why the public are so outraged.

It was a political appointment. The reason the Prime Minister was so grateful to Mandelson was the role that he and Morgan McSweeney had played, through the organisation Labour Together, in getting him to be the leader of the Labour party. What was it that made them think Peter Mandelson was such a wise political appointment? It was because of what Peter Mandelson represented. Peter Mandelson epitomised the idea that the role of the Labour party is not what it was set up to do—to be a voice for working-class people and the trade union movement, speaking truth to power and changing society in the interests of the many not the few—but to be, as an organisation, closer and closer to the super-rich and powerful. It was because of Mandelson’s proximity to the super-rich and powerful that he was appointed to the role.

That is what has led to decisions that have made the Prime Minister and the Government unpopular. That is what has led to decisions such as the cut to the winter fuel payment and the cuts to disability benefits. The vision Mandelson put forward is polluting our party. That is why we need a full and independent investigation into Labour Together, the organisation favoured by Mandelson and McSweeney, which has dragged this party through the gutter. We see certain nefarious practices, tested in our party in opposition, now brought into Government. That needs to change, because otherwise we will end up with despair, leading to the election of a Trump-style Government in this country led by Reform—something that no decent person in this House should want to happen.

--- Later in debate ---

[Sorcha Eastwood (Lagan Valley) (Alliance)]

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.

Security Vetting

Sorcha Eastwood Excerpts

Monday 20th April 2026 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

No. What I knew was that security clearance had been given by the Foreign Office, in the way that I have set out to the House.

[Sorcha Eastwood (Lagan Valley) (Alliance)]

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?

[The Prime Minister]

That is why I wanted to give the House all the relevant information, which I have given at some length this afternoon.

Middle East

Sorcha Eastwood Excerpts

Monday 2nd March 2026 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Yes, I can give my hon. Friend that assurance. This will be a concern for his constituents, and for so many of our constituents, and we will take every measure to protect them.

[Sorcha Eastwood (Lagan Valley) (Alliance)]

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?

[The Prime Minister]

I thank the hon. Lady for raising that point. I will get to the bottom of it and make sure that the concern she has raised is properly, fully and swiftly addressed.

EU Membership Referendum: Impact on the UK

Sorcha Eastwood Excerpts

Tuesday 24th February 2026 Westminster Hall

[Sorcha Eastwood (Lagan Valley) (Alliance)]

Will the hon. Member give way?

[Stephen Gethins]

I am not going to take too many interventions, but as I took one from the hon. Member for Strangford, I think I should take a viewpoint from the majority point of view in Northern Ireland as well.

[Sorcha Eastwood]

Yes, indeed—I thank the hon. Member for giving way. I remind colleagues that Northern Ireland voted to remain. It is regrettable that Northern Ireland has borne the brunt in all of this. I do not spend my time relitigating Brexit, because it tore my country apart, but for our community and voluntary sector in Northern Ireland, the legacy is that we have never had the European social funds replaced like for like by any Government since we left the EU, and that is a disgraceful legacy.

[Stephen Gethins]

I thank the hon. Member for her powerful point, and the respectful way in which she makes her case regularly. I was in this place at the time; Northern Ireland was consecutively overlooked, and its views disregarded.

I hope Members will forgive me, because I am going to try to make some progress, but I think it is incredibly important that the first two interventions, although from different sides, were from Members from Northern Ireland, which is overlooked far too often in this place, because the peace process was a price that others thought was worth paying—to a far greater degree than it should have been.

Let me talk about the economy. The National Bureau of Economic Research states that £90 billion has been lost in tax revenues, or £250 million every day. That means that the amount wasted, and not taken in tax, every 48 hours is the entire annual budget of the council of the city of Dundee, part of which I represent. Investment is lower than it would have been, too. Despite that, the UK paid out billions for the privilege of putting itself in this ludicrous situation. More seriously, small and medium-sized enterprises, which grow our economy and employ so many people, have found it harder to grow; for households, the cost of living has increased at a time when they can ill afford it—the Government know this, and they know how serious it is for households—and trade deals that we knew would do nothing to compensate for the loss continue to do nothing.

There is a human element, too, in the form of opportunities for young people. As politicians, we should all leave more opportunities for the generations who come after us than we enjoyed ourselves, but this place leaves fewer opportunities. My life was transformed by doing Erasmus at the University of Dundee. I am glad that the Government have belatedly come round and reintroduced it, but there is a lost generation of those who never had it, and who no longer have freedom of movement, which allowed our young people to live and work in the EU. Why on earth do Members think—I wonder if the Minister can tell me—there was such an explosion in those with Polish, French or, in my case, Irish ancestry seeking second passports?

--- Later in debate ---

[Sorcha Eastwood (Lagan Valley) (Alliance)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Desmond. I thank the hon. Member for Arbroath and Broughty Ferry (Stephen Gethins) for introducing the debate. I simply wanted to say that, for years, I watched from afar as a normal member of the public in Northern Ireland as this place discussed my, my family’s and my country’s future. I really meant it when I said that Brexit tore my country apart, because it did.

I stand here today as the only elected Member from Northern Ireland who is neither nationalist or Unionist. I am really proud of that, and of the decision that Lagan Valley made. No doubt, others may later say that I am simply a nationalist, or that I am just a vehicle for a populist argument. I find that really denigrating, because Northern Ireland did vote to remain, but that was across Unionist people, nationalist people and people like me who are neither of those things.

We will hear that there are issues with the protocol—of course there are. I sit on the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee; we discuss it regularly, and I table written questions regularly. I did not want to leave, because I am British, I am Irish, I am Northern Irish and I am European. I will never choose; do not make me choose. But that is what this did. It ripped away that umbrella of identity, and Northern Ireland has never recovered. Others simply will not let it.

Truth be told, it was such a great burden for so many that I am not sure what the way forward is. Others throw out simple referendums as the cure to it all. I do not believe them. I do not believe the others throwing out simple referendums about a united Ireland as the cure. I do believe that, as other Members have suggested, we have to have something for the UK as a whole, because we simply need to get closer. I just wanted to say that the referendum broke my heart and the hearts of many others, and it caused great unrest and strife. Many of us in Northern Ireland are recovering.

Lord Mandelson

Sorcha Eastwood Excerpts

Wednesday 4th February 2026 Commons Chamber

[Richard Burgon]

I agree with my hon. Friend’s important point. I say for the record that she was treated terribly by the party, by people around the Prime Minister and by people in the party bureaucracy, while those same people found reasons to turn a blind eye to or make excuses for what was known about Peter Mandelson.

[Sorcha Eastwood (Lagan Valley) (Alliance)]

Does the hon. Member agree that, at a time when trust across the UK is at a low, what the public—and victims and survivors—out there will see is the wagons being circled, no matter which party is involved? Trust is the real casualty today. Does the hon. Member agree that that is what is at stake?

[Richard Burgon]

I totally agree with the hon. Member’s powerful point. It is no wonder that trust in politicians is at an all-time low. This affair shines a light on the role of the rich and powerful, and the relationship between some at the top of politics and some of the richest and most powerful men in the world. Peter Mandelson has always had, I would say, an unhealthy fascination with the super-rich and the powerful. After all, it was he who said that he was

“intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich”.

In this serious debate, we need full honesty. As I alluded to earlier, one of the main reasons that Peter Mandelson was let off the hook and eased into one of the most important offices that he could be given by the Prime Minister was his role in internal Labour party factional affairs—that is just completely wrong. Let me quote Peter Mandelson:

“I work every single day in some small way to bring forward the end of his tenure in office.”

He was referring, of course, to the right hon. Member for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn) while he was leader of the Labour party, at a time when Lord Mandelson was a Labour party member. That is the reason Mandelson was let off the hook. People were so grateful for the job that he did again and again to kick the left of the Labour party that they—