Speeches by Mohamed.

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir John. I congratulate the Father of the House, the right hon. Member for Gainsborough (Sir Edward Leigh), on bringing this important debate. I will cut down my speech to the bare bones and focus on the rights of the Palestinians as attributed to them by the Government …”

“Nonsense!”

“I rise to gently follow up on a critical request for urgent help that I made in November. In September 2023, Kirklees council temporarily closed Dewsbury sports centre for safety reasons due to reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete. The centre remained closed until 5 November 2024 when the council unilaterally decided…”

“I am grateful to the Secretary of State for her answer to the urgent question. We all agree that the genuine inaccuracies and misrepresentations in this documentary, and in all reporting, must be addressed, and that steps must be taken to prevent them from reoccurring. We also all agree that there is no place for antis…”

“My apologies, Mr Speaker. What steps is the Secretary of State taking to investigate and address the unacceptable and biased anti-Palestinian and pro-Israel reporting by the BBC since 7 October, so that it can be trusted by those in this House and by the licence fee payers who fund its existence?”

“I would definitely have stood, knowing what I know now. Nothing changes that fact.”

“Thank you very much, Chair. My name is Iqbal Mohamed, the absolutely proud independent Member of Parliament for Dewsbury and Batley in West Yorkshire.”

“For somebody who has never run for office and only ever visited Parliament once in my life, it was a very new experience. I did find the current training programme was positive and helpful. Going through some of the training with all the new MPs was really positive. I love meeting people, so to mix with the new MPs acr…”

“Yes, it was spread over—there were about four separate sessions across two days in that first week. If I may add one specific point to Shockat’s points, it is a simple thing. You come in and your constituents are waiting for you to deliver your maiden speech. On the rules around the maiden speech and what you can do be…”

“I concur with what Shockat said. I am in there quite a lot when I think I need to speak and represent my constituents. I have not felt ignored or not called. Yesterday, because the time was very tight and there were lots of people bobbing, I did not get a chance. However, while I do not take that as anything about me, …”

“I have not applied. I have not learnt the process yet. I mentioned earlier about the inductions to the key elements of an MP’s role and the processes that we can participate in to apply for debates and speaking opportunities or to raise issues. I will learn it and when I am ready, I will submit. One of our colleagues g…”

“I have relied mostly on being in the Chamber and bobbing, and I have been quite successful in getting called to be able to put a relevant question. I get questions and information from constituents in real time on an evening the day before or on a morning and, coincidentally, they know which Minister will be at the Dis…”

“We do not get a place on any Select Committees. It is not even an option. We cannot lobby for it; we cannot apply for it; we cannot express interest in it. We have quite a wide breadth of experience across the alliance. I have my specialist knowledge, and I would absolutely want to contribute the maximum I can as an MP…”

“I spoke on the Data (Use and Access) Bill before recess, where the Minister proposed or encouraged people—not just me, but other speakers who had suggestions for improvements—to put their names forward to participate in the Bill Committee. Until that point—maybe that is on me—I was not aware that I could volunteer or e…”

“I was not aware.”

“I would definitely have stood, knowing what I know now. Nothing changes that fact.”

“I was not aware of either of those things.”

“There are two parts. One is to know that you can put yourself forward to provide evidence to an inquiry, but the other part is: what is the process for suggesting areas of inquiry to a Select Committee? There is an EDM form, there is a questions form, but I did not find anything that says, “Do you have something that y…”

“As a single person, I am an independent MP. That is what my constituents elected me as and that does not change until or unless they want that to change. It was finding, thankfully, four other independents who overlapped and aligned on pretty much the majority of issues, challenges, policy areas, principles and our int…”

“I did benefit from the expertise of the different Members’ officers and staff, and we could co-ordinate around EDMs and questions and other things. Out of Chamber, out of Committee Room co-ordination helped me a lot but—similar to what Shockat said—I do not have any evidence to know if it would have been different had …”