Debate on the Address

Ben Spencer Excerpts

Wednesday 13th May 2026 Commons Chamber

[Dr Ben Spencer (Runnymede and Weybridge) (Con)]

I pay tribute to the opening speeches from the hon. Members for Bradford West (Naz Shah) and for Harlow (Chris Vince). However, context is key. The backdrop to the Gracious Speech is a Labour party engaged in open warfare—we heard something of that in earlier speeches—and a huge amount of uncertainty over what will happen in relation to the leadership of the Labour party and the current Prime Minister, and that uncertainty is playing out in the financial markets. The message that I want to convey to Labour Members is this: “Whatever you are going to do, please just do it quickly, because we need to move on.” The country needs leadership, and there are a great many important things that we need to be getting on with.

As Labour Members are mulling over their options, I want to give the House some feedback from my constituency on a couple of issues affecting its residents. The message from the constituency is that small and medium enterprise is the backbone of our economy, but it is now under intolerable pressure. Let me give a couple of examples. I received a letter from One Cobham—a business improvement district covering Cobham, in my constituency—which was co-signed by 50 other BID members, that raised the issue of business rates in particular, but also rises in rent, wages and utility costs. Two companies have already gone bust recently, and this is putting intolerable pressure on the high street and individual businesses.

[Iqbal Mohamed]

Does the hon. Gentleman agree that there needs to be a different model of business rates for small businesses that is linked to profitability and that has a maximum cap, rather than their having to pay the flat rate regardless of what they are making or not making?

[Dr Spencer]

In a different world, we would have a very different King’s Speech. We would have the alternative Conservative King’s Speech from the Leader of the Opposition—soon, hopefully, to be the Prime Minister—which would scrap business rates for those with rateable values of up to, I think, £110,000. I ask Members please to look at the details.

In recent weeks, I have visited another company, in Egham in the north of my constituency. It is a very specialist logistics company, which transports medical devices to be used in pathology investigations. In fact, it has probably supplied the pathology department at St Tommy’s across the river. The company has been operating for 40 years, but when I met its representatives, they told me that it faced going to the wall because of the increases in business rates and tax burdens. I hope to God that the company will be OK—that the Government will change course and that it continues to be successful—but if it does go to the wall, all the jobs and livelihoods of the people who work for it will go with it.

That is a story that affects businesses and organisations across my constituency. In Chertsey, Addlestone, Weybridge, Woodham, Row Town, New Haw, Oxshott and Stoke D’Abernon—in all the different parts of my constituency —businesses are struggling, and free enterprise is under pressure. It is dying, and it is dying because of the tax and regulatory burdens that are being imposed on businesses by this Government. For all the great words in the King’s Speech, the fundamental problem is the Government’s tax and spend approach and the intolerable pressure that is being placed on free enterprise and business.

This is my final message to Labour Members: “As you agonise over the direction of the Labour party leadership over the next few days, please just remember that you cannot tax a company that has gone bust.”