Commons Chamber

Thursday 12th June 2025

(began 6 months, 1 week ago)

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None Portrait Q8. What progress his Department has made on developing an industrial strategy. (904561)
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Question number eight Mr Speaker.
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None Portrait Topical questions: Business and Trade
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are going to topicals. Topicals. Since the last oral questions, we
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None Portrait Business Statement: Business Questions to the Leader of the House
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We now come to Business Questions, shadow leader of the house. With the Leader of the House of us the forthcoming business?
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Jesse Norman Portrait Rt Hon Jesse Norman MP (Hereford and South Herefordshire, Conservative)
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Thank you Mr Speaker. As the House will know we have incoming use of this terrible disaster with the flight out of Ahmedabad in India. I know the leader will want to say a few words let me just say that from our side I'm sure all members of the house wishing everyone involved the very best to them and their families. It would be a bad day this week if I did not mention the fantastic news of the knighthood to Sir Billy Austin.

It is nice to be able to do that. I hope you will admire my restraint in not mentioning your birthday and therefore not giving any incentive to any other member of the house to mention it in their remarks today. As you did, I had the dubious pleasure of listening to yesterday's Spending Review in this chamber. It brought to mind President Abraham Lincoln's immortal line in managing to compress the greatest number of words into the smallest amount of content. I am afraid the statement was somewhat worse than that.

It was both in its design and delivery and exercise distraction and sleight of hand. Document not of economic strategy but political evasion. We should be clear from the outset, this was a Spending Review and not a budget. Therefore, it was not subject to scrutiny by the Office for Budget Responsibility. The Chancellor's figures have not been externally verified, assumptions have not been stress tested, the projections are not an independent review. She was not required to publish the full fiscal information will give the embarrassing numbers in her own remark.

Of course she did not. Even within the confines of departmental budgets, the presentation was I'm afraid to say somewhat disingenuous. A final year outside the actual spending review period was included filled with speculative figures designed to suggest rigour and restraint in budgetary control. This is the illusion of discipline without the reality of delivery. It is on page 13 of the document. Elsewhere, baseline figures were conveniently shifted, comparisons began from the year 2023/24, not the current year, which had the effect of inflating the scale of the increases.

Sizewell C is a classic example. The document trumpets a near 16% increase in investment. Truth, spending over the period is falling by 3.7%. That is on page 44. Similarly police funding, Chancellor was very careful in her language to say that there would be an increase in police spending power. What she meant of course is that there would be an increase in the local authority precept. In plain English, a tax rise. The same obfuscation was at work with the Overseas Development Aid.

The Chancellor has away said that ODA cuts were needed to fund defence was not the reality is that defence increases are almost entirely capital spending while ODA cash. Far from funding our national defence, what has happened here is that Overseas Development Aid has been cut to prop up other departments day-to-day budgets. The most obvious case I'm afraid to say is defence itself. We were told in grand rhetoric defence spending would rise to 2.5% related to 3% of GDP at some undefined moment when fiscal circumstances allow.

In fact it is unlikely that even 2.5% will be reached this Parliament. The 2.6% quoted includes the single intelligence account suggests the numbers below 2.5% full stop the actual plan that will release the money, the defence investment plan, is unlikely to appear to the end of the year. That is nearly 18 months after the 2024 general election. This at a time of war in Ukraine. China potentially positioning itself a conflict over Taiwan 2027 for top a conflict over Taiwan 2027 for top on Monday the NATO Secretary- General, echoed no less by Lord Robertson himself said unless NATO was raised spending to 3.5% with an additional 1.5% in wider support, we may as well " Start learning Russian.

" That is the strategic context. The government response has been to dither and delay. The Chancellor's U-turn on Winter Fuel Payment badly damaged whatever credibility she ever had. Yesterday's statement has compounded the problem for her and for the government. No mention was made of the estimated 5% annual council tax in now expected as flagged by Paul Johnson of the IFS. No admission is that this will add £140 million in new borrowing. An extra £10 billion each year in interest payments by the end of the period at current rates.

Meanwhile the supposing efficiency savings are widely regarded as illusory. As the Chancellor herself said about the Spending Review, these are her choices. The truth is plain. There will be a tax cut for the people of Mauritius. For the rest of us, the Spending Review was that gigantic spec list of splurge of spending presented via smoke and mirrors

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which will end up as it was thus with Labour with higher taxes. And British taxpayers will have to bear the impact. Leader of the House.
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Lucy Powell Portrait Rt Hon Lucy Powell MP, Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons (Manchester Central, Labour )
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Leader of the House. Thank you Mr Speaker. Can I start by saying that the thoughts of the by saying that the thoughts of the whole House and the government will be with the families of those travelling on flight AI171 from Ahmedabad. In India to London Gatwick which has reportedly crashed. This is an unfolding story and it will undoubtedly be causing a huge amount of worry and concern to the many many families and communities here and those waiting for the arrival of their loved ones.

We send our deepest sympathy and thoughts to all those and with the government will provide all the support it can to those in India and those in this country as well. Can I those in this country as well. Can I also congratulate the gentlemen for receiving a knighthood for his services to rugby league, coming in your birthday week Mr Speaker. I know as a former patron of rugby league that you felt very strongly indeed that it was about time rugby league was recognised in this way.

You might want to mention that later I'm sure. Given that I know it is of great interest to the house, I'm pleased to update colleagues on the ratification of the BB NJ Ocean Street E. Our oceans are dying. Without urgent action they will be irreversibly destroyed. I am proud to confirm to the House today that this Labour government will introduce legislation before the end of the year to ratify the high seas treaty and protect marine life We were all shocked by the film about bottom trawling and the damage it causes which was made by David Attenborough.

I'm happy to update the right honourable gentleman on the economy. He used to be a Treasury minister and is well read and he knows that the UK economy, for many years, has been defined by law growth and stagnant living standards due to the comparatively low productivity. That is because we have had years of underinvestment in our infrastructure and in services and in our region, our people. That is what this Labour government is finally putting right with a 10-year renewal plan to rebuild Britain and address that productivity gap.

I'm not sure of the Conservative Party understands these economics because they are showing no sign of that and in my part of the world, your part, this has been particularly true. Towns and cities across the north and Midlands have been held back by woeful transport infrastructure which would be unacceptable to people in the south, held back by the lack of job opportunities nearby where they live and by insecure and costly housing and because they are not getting the training and skills that they need and because low chances are lower because of deep- seated inequality.

Addressing this will not happen overnight and we are not pretending it will but we have a long-term plan for renewal which includes the biggest investment in affordable and social housing in 50 years with nuclear and renewable infrastructure are transforming communities around the country and the North finally getting rail connectivity and every community getting better policies. Schools and hospitals rebuild for the 21st century not based on fiction but actual plans to deliver them and we are addressing the cost of living crisis with the plan to bring down bills, extending free school meals and breakfast clubs and free childcare with a cap on bus fares and increasing the wages of the lowest paid with which is coming up more and the first 10 months of this government in 10 years of the previous one.

We continue to push the NHS which has resulted in waiting lists coming down month after month. He wants to talk about choices. Let's talk about this. We could not have set this out without To tax which were made in the budget last year. He seems to want more spending for police and Defence but does not want to make the hard decisions about where money will come from. He raises yet again the 2.5% spending in defence that this government is delivering. He might want to remind himself when in the last 20 years Defence spending reached 2.5%.

Was it any of the 14 years his government was in office? It was not. It was Fred Labour was last in government that we reached 2.5%. In contrast to fantasy economics from them, the spending allocations yesterday were all within the envelope that we had In the Budget last year and so we are clear of where the money is coming from. As ever, the economic argument is incoherent. On one hand they are saying we are spending too much and on the other that we are not spending more on police and Defence.

They criticise us on growth but do not want the investment to turbocharge activity and growth. We are the party with the plan and have a plan to renew Britain and raise living standards across the country and get public services back on their feet and give people the security that they need in their homes.
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Bob Blackman Portrait Bob Blackman MP (Harrow East, Conservative)
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One third of constituents are affected by the crash and saw my thoughts and prayers are with those concerned about the plight of the 232 passengers on the flight and I understand that the plane came down as a residential area and so people living there will be affected. I thank the Leader of the House for announcing this and the Estimate Day is and we welcome the obligations and they will close tomorrow at the rise of the House and we will consider obligation for debates in the meeting on Tuesday at 4:15 and anyone applying should be presented to present their case.

We are intending to allocate three debates each day, with a preference given to those that are unsuccessful in the Estimate Day. In addition to the business and thence, Westminster Hall next week, on Tuesday, there will be a debate on hydrogen powered aviation and on Thursday a Select Committee statement from the Select Committee followed by debates on improving social mobility and Down syndrome regression disorder. On June 24, there will be a debate on the right to maintain contact in care settings.

On Thursday the right to maintain contact in care settings. On Thursday, June 26, there will be a Select Committee statement from the Joint Committee on Human Rights followed by debates on the role of the RAF reconnaissance unit, followed by a debate on funding of the BBC World Service. In recent weeks, I have raised the plight of Hindus in Bangladesh and also the atrocities that are taking place but now things have come home to this country. Only this week, three young Indian boys were playing cricket in a park in my constituency and were approached by three men, slightly older, and an altercation took place and the three young boys were hospitalised with one with a fractured eye socket.

We understand the police are dealing with this is an aggravated racial assault. It took place between young assault. It took place between young Hindu boys and older Muslim men. The police are appealing for witnesses to come forward to see who the perpetrators are and community leaders are trying to take down the temperature so that we don't get escalation. If this type of religious hatred is going to come to this country, we desperately need the Home Secretary to make a clear statement about what the government is going to do to prevent this from happening and I have asked the

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leader to facilitate that next week. First of all, I sent my thoughts
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Lucy Powell Portrait Rt Hon Lucy Powell MP, Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons (Manchester Central, Labour )
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I am sorry to hear about the testing facility in his constituency close to the previous government despite previous commitments to it. despite previous commitments to it. He would be aware that we will soon be setting out the 10-year NHS Strategy and these questions can be put to the Secretary of State. put to the Secretary of State. Authoritarian regimes must be set up to run the world and that includes to run the world and that includes the Hong Kong government.

There are 19 activists in Excel including 10 resident in the UK. The father of resident in the UK. The father of one of those activists will attend the hearing to help with finances and there are funds from a life and there are funds from a life insurance policy and this family has been arrested. Can we have a statement from the government about statement from the government about how we will legislate to recognise and criminalise these acts of oppression? oppression? You will know, I am sure, that the Foreign Secretary, Prime Minister and many others raise issues of human rights with the Chinese authorities on many occasions and that we have given safe sanctuary to those in this country and I am very proud of that and I think the contribution of that is something we should celebrate and in terms of the case he describes, I will make sure he gets a full response.
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