Paul Holmes.

A steady Conservative loyalist, Paul Holmes has been most active recently on defence and rail policy. In the past fortnight he voted to support opposition motions pressing the government to accelerate defence spending, backed several amendments to the Armed Forces Bill on veteran welfare and service personnel support, and opposed the Railways Bill's rail renationalisation model — arguing specifically that giving Great British Railways control over track access while competing with open-access operators creates an unfair conflict of interest. None of these votes broke with his party; he has no rebel votes on record.

Holmes votes with the Conservative whip 100% of the time across 411 votes — a participation rate of 74%, slightly below the Commons average. His stance profile marks him out as firmly pro-business (96%), opposed to tax increases (100%), and supportive of parliamentary and Lords scrutiny (88% on both). He deviates from his party colleagues by voting less often in ways coded as supporting energy security or NHS funding, and more consistently against the private school VAT. His 924 speech contributions span local government, economy and jobs, housing, and fiscal policy — suggesting a generalist rather than a specialist brief.

Local news coverage over the past 90 days runs to 33 articles, though the average sentiment score is effectively neutral at 0.01. Crime dominates coverage. Earlier reporting captures constituency casework: lobbying against a study centre closure, pushing for station lift upgrades, and opposing a quarry development at Hamble Airfield — all locally focused rather than nationally prominent. Holmes sits on no select committees, limiting his formal parliamentary influence beyond the chamber itself.