When I was elected to serve the constituents of Sussex Weald, I would never have realised what a fulfilling responsibility it would be. It has been an absolute pleasure to meet people and businesses the length and breadth of the constituency. From the bustling market towns of Crowborough, Hailsham and Heathfield, to the rural villages of East Hoathly, Groombridge, Mayfield, and Wadhurst (to name but a few, there are so many more).
Being a Member of Parliament has given me an opportunity to support and advocate for so many locally-owned businesses, charities and community-led organisations. I receive thousands of request for assistance each and every year and do my best to respond and support every person who needs help.
Creating awareness, offering support, and where possible, securing funding gives local communities a chance to showcase their work and support our places to thrive. I am really pleased to have offered my personal advocacy, including a selection of causes below:
- Business Support: £65 million to protect local jobs during Covid
- Schools Campaign: Keep Fletching School Open; over £3m for Beacon Academy in Crowborough; over £500,000 for Uplands Academy in Wadhurst
- Public Transport Campaign: multi-million-pound accessibility improvements at Eridge and Crowborough train stations
- £297,000 for a new Health and Community Centre in Mayfield
- Sports Facilities: grants for sports facilities in Crowborough, Uckfield and Hailsham including £70,000 to improve the energy efficiency of Hailsham Leisure Centre swimming pool and a new all-weather exercise pathway at Horam recreational ground
- Community Improvements: delivering over £11.5m to support various projects, including the Cuckoo Trail
- Water Compensation: securing compensation for over 400 households following outages
- Better Broadband Campaign: delivering faster broadband to businesses & households
- Post Office Campaign: keep Ridgewood, Mayfield, Groombridge, and Hailsham post offices open
- Rural Life Campaign: Chairing the Government's Rural Affairs Group and working with farmers and the NFU.
As well as my local work, Members of Parliament often take on responsibilities within government, such as ministerial roles, and other jobs in 'the House'. One such role came available, when, in 2024 parliamentary colleagues elected me to the role of Chairman of Ways & Means and Principal Deputy Speaker. It truly was an honour and privilege, especially to be one of very few women and the only person of colour to hold such office and serve in 'the Chair'. I now hold the responsibility of presiding over the Budget as well as other significant parliamentary debates.
During my time as MP, I have also served in other government roles, including:
- Minister of State for Europe at Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (2024); with responsibilities including Europe, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, UK-EU relationship, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and Council of Europe, national security, and critical minerals.
- Minister of State for Industry and Economic Security at the Department of Business & Trade (2023-2024); with responsibilities including Ukraine reconstruction, Global supply chains, Critical minerals, Advanced manufacturing, Automotive, Aerospace, Sustainability and Infrastructure, Steel, Maritime and Shipbuilding
- Minister of State for the Investment Security Unit at the Cabinet Office (2023-2024); with responsibilities including Economic Security and Sanctions
- Minister of State for Industry & Investment Security at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) (2022-2023); with responsibilities including advanced manufacturing, including aerospace; automotive; infrastructure and materials, including steel, energy intensive industries, chemicals, construction; life sciences, including vaccine production; maritime and shipbuilding; critical minerals and critical mineral supply chains; Investment Security Unit and retained EU law and Brexit opportunities.
- Minister of State in the Department for Transport (2018-2020); where I oversaw a large portfolio as Minister for Maritime and Minister for the Year of Engineering, covering maritime, HS2, buses and taxis, as well as accessibility across all modes of transport.
In 2018, while responding to my first Transport Questions in the House of Commons, I became the first female Muslim to speak from the Despatch Box. A century after women got the vote for the first time, I hope that today young people can see that regardless of their background, faith, race, gender or sexuality, there will be a warm welcome on the green benches, and no matter where you are from you can achieve your dreams and ambitions.
I have also served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Home Office, Lord Commissioner at HM Treasury, Chair of the Prime Minister's Apprenticeship Diversity Network, and I led the Pickles Review of the Conservative Party's performance in the 2017 general election.
I was previously elected by colleagues to be a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee (2015-2017), the Foreign Affairs Committee (2017-2018) and the Business Select Committee (2020-2022). My work here covered issues such as security, policing, counterterrorism strategies and antisemitism. I also sat on the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, sharing knowledge and experiences of Westminster to develop and promote open and transparent democracy, focusing particularly on women's issues. Off the back of my work with the Home Affairs Committee looking at child sexual abuse, I led an independent inquiry into child abuse with the children’s charity Barnardo’s.
As part of the Business Select Committee, I scrutinised the Government's response to Covid-19, UK supply chains, private sector competition, industrial strategy and COP26. I also led an inquiry on supply chain transparency which exposed slave labour in UK value chains and the data harvesting of British consumers. For this, I was sanctioned by the Chinese Communist Party in March 2021, the only woman in Parliament who was, in an unprecedented move by the CCP to intimidate British MPs.
Since then, I have also been sanctioned by Russia for my tough stance on the invasion of Ukraine, and for her calls to set up a special tribunal to try those responsible for that act of aggression. This makes me the only woman in Parliament to be sanctioned by two countries.
I also led on the Genocide Amendment to the UK’s flagship Trade Bill, aiming to stop the British Government pursuing preferential trade agreements with countries committing real time genocide. For my work on Uyghur women in Xinjiang, I was nominated for the 2021 NATO PA Women for Peace and Security Award and came runner up to Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.
In addition to my work on the select committees, in 2020 I was appointed to the Panel of Chairs by the Speaker, overseeing Westminster Hall debates, as well as becoming a UK representative to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly (2020-2022). I was also elected by backbench Conservative MPs to serve as Vice-Chair of the powerful backbench Conservative 1922 Committee between 2021-2022.
