Financial Services: Mansion House Speech
Debate between Amanda Martin and Tulip Siddiq(3 days, 16 hours ago)
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Tulip Siddiq
My hon. Friend knows this area well, having worked in the Treasury in a former life. We will absolutely make sure that we avoid the mistakes of a certain Liz Truss and work very closely with the TPR and the FCA to deliver all our reforms and ensure that we do not make any decisions that shake the stability of the economy, because we want to have a stable financial services sector and a stable economy to encourage investment and ultimately deliver on our growth mission.
Amanda Martin (Portsmouth North) (Lab)
Portsmouth people welcome the national wealth fund, the industrial strategy and the Chancellor’s Mansion House speech, as well as the stability that it offers our country and its much-needed economic growth. Does the Minister agree, though, that consumer protection is a vital issue that we must ensure does not get lost in our growth strategy? Will she say what the Government are doing on this agenda to ensure that?
Tulip Siddiq
Consumer protection is at the heart of anything that we do in financial services. As well as being a Minister, I am a constituency MP; every time I have one of my surgeries, I hear about people who have been either a victim of fraud or taken out a buy now, pay later product without realising the consequences.
We want to give enhanced consumer protections to people through the Financial Ombudsman Service, but we are very aware that it needs to be reformed, which is why the Chancellor mentioned it over and over in her speech. We plan to introduce legislation on that as soon as possible, because we want to deliver better protection for millions of consumers after years of uncertainty. I am also making progress on financial inclusion at the moment, and I can send my hon. Friend more information on that if she wants. We are setting up a financial inclusion committee, which is meeting next week, and I am happy to let my hon. Friend know what we are doing in that to protect consumers.