Budget Resolutions

Cat Smith Excerpts

Wednesday 26th November 2025 Commons Chamber

[Cat Smith (Lancaster and Wyre) (Lab)]

Follow that, I suppose! I cannot promise the same level of entertaining enthusiasm as the right hon. Member for New Forest West (Sir Desmond Swayne) as I rise to speak on today’s Budget.

I want to start by talking about the cost of living, which is my constituents’ major concern. When I have been speaking to them ahead of this Budget, it is the thing they have most wanted me to raise. I therefore welcome the really good measures that cut the cost of living, including the £150 off energy bills, the freezing of NHS prescription charges, and, for the first time in 30 years, the freeze on rail fares alongside the cap on bus fares, which will make a huge difference to people’s commutes.

I welcome the fact that the national minimum wage and the national living wage will rise, giving full-time workers a gross annual earnings increase of £900. One of my biggest asks of this Budget was the alleviation of the two-child limit. Basically, I became involved in politics because I want to eradicate child poverty, so the measures in the Budget to lift these children out of poverty are hugely welcome. The decisions by the last Government, which pushed more than half a million children into poverty, were a disgrace. I am pleased that this Labour Government are reversing that damage.

[Lizzi Collinge]

I know that my hon. Friend is aware of the report from North Lancashire Citizens Advice about child poverty in our area. Its top recommendation to combat child poverty was to scrap the two-child limit. Will she join me in thanking North Lancashire Citizens Advice for its fantastic work to help local people? Will she continue to work with me, as she often so generously does, to tackle child poverty in our area?

[Cat Smith]

My hon. Friend gives me the opportunity to put on record my thanks to North Lancashire Citizens Advice. We frequently end up referring constituents to Citizens Advice, and I thank its volunteers for all their work to support my constituents and those of my hon. Friend.

I do not buy into the idea that those who are in need of state support are in any way irresponsible or on the take. The real scandal in our country is the number of parents who are in work and in poverty. I do not believe it is ever morally right to punish a child for the decisions and choices of their parents, because that was the reality of the two-child benefit cap and its subsequent rape clause, which was abhorrent.

I am pleased that in my constituency of Lancaster and Wyre, the ending of the cap is expected to benefit around 1,550 children, who will be lifted out of poverty because of the measures in this Budget. That, alongside the expansion of breakfast clubs, such as the one at Grosvenor Park primary school, will go a long way towards transforming the life chances of children in my constituency.

One very small part of the Budget that is close to my heart is playgrounds. So far in this debate no one has mentioned the £18 million for playgrounds, but that money is incredibly important. The public space that we give to our children shows them how much we value them. If we value our youngest citizens, we should invest in playgrounds. I very much hope that Lancaster city council will receive some of this money. If it does, I will certainly be putting in a good pitch for the Ridge estate’s playground, which is in desperate need of refurbishment.

I have also been contacted ahead of the Budget by pensioners in my constituency who are understandably, like everybody, concerned about rising bills. I hope that they welcome today’s announcement of the 4.8% increase in the state pension.

[Chris Vince (Harlow) (Lab/Co-op)]

Members across the House will be disappointed that my mother has not yet been mentioned in the Budget debate. She has just been on the phone to champion the 4.8% increase in the state pension, which she claims will mean that she will have an extra £39 a month. Does my hon. Friend agree that this is good news for our pensioners?

[Cat Smith]

I am absolutely delighted for my hon. Friend’s mother. Will he please pass on my best regards?

It is not just the state pension increase, but the decision to restore the winter fuel allowance, that ensures that pensioners get the support they need. Will our Treasury Front-Bench team look at other measures to support low-income pensioners in particular, such as a national social tariff for water or enhancing the warm home discount scheme?

I represent many farmers, and I was listening carefully to the announcements today. I really do welcome the agricultural property relief now allowing 100% of that rate relief to be transferable between spouses. I am keen to continue working with Treasury Ministers to ensure that we can protect local family farms, because I feel that the thresholds are not quite in the right place yet. While I welcome today’s announcements, I am sure that many other rural MPs will also continue the dialogue with Ministers on this issue. I ask the Government to commit themselves to looking into the CenTax proposals, which would return the burden to those with the broadest shoulders—the large passive investors and the non-farming landowners, rather than our small family farms in Lancaster and Wyre. That is very much in line with our Labour values.

I was very pleased to hear the announcements about infected blood, but as an MP who has been very active in respect of another medical scandal—as I know you have, Madam Deputy Speaker—I urge the Government not to forget those who have been harmed by sodium valproate. It is nearly two years since the Patient Safety Commissioner presented her report on redress, and the families are continuing to wait. It would be remiss of me not to mention them today, and I hope that in the next Budget we can hear some welcome news for those who have campaigned for justice for many decades, while supporting their disabled children. This scandal dates to the 1970s, and I hope it will be this Government who can put things right.

I must now declare my interest as someone who is quite partial to a milkshake—although I do acknowledge that they are packed full of sugar, so I am fine with the extension of the sugar tax to my much-loved milkshakes. However, I want to ask a question about a drink that kills tens of thousands of people every year. In 2023 there were 22,644 alcohol-related deaths in England alone; the rates are going up year on year, and have been spiking since covid. The Government could, of course, tax the industry in a way that would enable the money to be put back into supporting those with addiction and reducing alcohol harms—not just the health harms, but the societal impacts as well.

According to research findings published in the last few months by the Alcohol Health Alliance, the Government could generate £3.4 billion over five years by introducing an alcohol duty escalator—a mechanism that would automatically raise the price of non-draught alcohol by 2% above inflation every year. That would also help to narrow the price gap between pubs and other hospitality venues and the supermarkets, where more alcohol is now being bought. Given the widespread evidence that supermarket-bought alcohol is the primary cause of alcohol harms, narrowing the price gap could also reduce those.

I realise that the Government have had to put our public finances on a more sustainable footing owing to the global uncertainty and the irresponsible decisions made by the last Government, but I have had had many emails from and conversations with my constituents about the issue of wealth taxes. The measures that they have been advocating include a wealth tax of 2% on assets amounting to more than £10 million, reforms of existing taxes such as capital gains tax, and closing the tax gap by properly funding and resourcing HMRC to enable it to tackle tax abuse.

I want to allow time for other speakers, so I will just say this in conclusion. I became active in politics because I wanted to fight poverty in my community and in my country. I am really pleased to be able to support this Budget, because lifting the two-child cap and the subsequent rape clause will make a huge difference to my constituents, and to all our constituents. This is a Budget that is anti-poverty and pro-children, and that is surely something we can all get behind.

Gaza: Humanitarian Obligations

Cat Smith Excerpts

Monday 24th November 2025 Westminster Hall

[Cat Smith (Lancaster and Wyre) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Ms McVey, and to be able to speak in this e-petition debate. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for North Ayrshire and Arran (Irene Campbell) on her opening of today’s debate. As the former Chair of the Petitions Committee, I know that the e-petition system engages so many of our constituents and gives us the opportunity to talk about the issues that matter to them. With nearly 200,000 people having signed this e-petition, it is clearly a very good example of the Petitions Committee acting at its best and giving us the opportunity to talk about the things that matter to our constituents.

This petition was signed by 278 of my constituents, but in the last two years I have had contact from well over 1,000 of my constituents on this issue, and that says to me that it engages, energises and impassions them. They see on their TV screens the suffering in Gaza and they want us, as parliamentarians, to do something about it. I place on the record my thanks to the many constituents who do not just contact me as their Member of Parliament about this issue, but regularly go out and fundraise. My constituents have raised money for various humanitarian charities through fundraising activities, concerts and regular collections right across Lancaster and Wyre, and many of them will be following this evening’s debate. In fact, I was so inspired by them and by the scenes, and the accounts that we get from aid workers, on the ground in Gaza that I signed up to run the Great Scottish Run in October of this year, and I raised £5,174 for Medical Aid for Palestinians. [Hon. Members: “Hear, hear.”] Thank you. Shortly after completing that run—I place on the record my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests—I had the opportunity, with the all-party parliamentary group on Christianity in the Holy Land, of which I am a vice chair, to visit the Holy Land and meet Christian organisations.

I will keep my remarks short, because I broadly agree with so much of what has already been said about access to humanitarian aid. I want to talk specifically about something that has not yet been touched on as much, which is the way in which the Christian community in Gaza has been impacted by events. The Holy Family church in Gaza was struck in July of this year. That killed three people who were sheltering there and injured 10 more. Following that attack, Patriarch Theophilos III and Cardinal Pizzaballa visited the churches in solidarity with the communities on the ground.

On the all-party group delegation visit earlier this autumn, we had the opportunity to meet church leaders in Jerusalem. We heard from them about the relationships they are trying to maintain with the Christian churches in Gaza, and how that is so challenging because of the ongoing war. All three of the Christian sites—the Holy Family church, St Porphyrius and the al-Ahli hospital—have been damaged multiple times since the start of the year. We know that around 600 Christians continue to shelter in the two churches.

While there has been an uptick in humanitarian support since the ceasefire came into effect in October this year, it is still small, and the community continues to suffer and to have difficulty accessing the absolute basics, as colleagues have touched on.

Very briefly, I call upon the Minister and the Government to hold relevant actors to account to ensure that the current ceasefire is bolstered, supported and maintained, and that an adequate flow of aid reaches local people in Gaza. I implore all parties to explore opportunities to offer economic support for rebuilding church-run hospitals, schools and charities, and to secure access to Gaza for the heads of churches. As I mentioned earlier, that has not always been easy for them. We must ensure that all Governments engage constructively with the churches as a partner in the interfaith dialogue that was put forward in point 18 of Trump’s peace plan. Although the Christian community is a minority community, it still has an important and significant role in the ongoing and long-standing peace in the region.

Finally, I ask the Minister what pressure he is putting on Israel to allow journalists into Gaza, because without journalists on the ground it is very difficult to know the full extent of what is going on. They are, of course, the eyes of the world, and we need free, unimpeded reporting about what is happening in Gaza. With that, I draw my remarks to a close and thank all those who have signed the e-petition and given us the opportunity to put on record our concerns about the situation in Gaza.

[Dawn Butler in the Chair]

Gaza: UK Assessment

Cat Smith Excerpts

Wednesday 14th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Falconer]

In this case, the International Court of Justice is clearly the correct authority. It has issued a set of provisional measures, which we support.

[Cat Smith (Lancaster and Wyre) (Lab)]

Civilians are starving to death in Gaza. Aid has been held for 10 weeks and used as a weapon against innocent civilians. My constituents are rightly outraged by what they are seeing, and so am I. While I welcome the Minister’s words, what further actions can the Government take to send a clearer message to Israel that this absolutely has to stop? Will the Minister look again at sanctions? Will he look at arms export licences? And will he recognise the state of Palestine?

[Mr Falconer]

I know my hon. Friend’s constituents will be concerned, just as my constituents in Lincoln and those across the whole country are concerned. I saw the situation with my own eyes when I went to al-Arish, where British aid was languishing while people desperately required it in Gaza. I saw the restrictions that were preventing aid getting in. I can assure her and her constituents that I have raised this personally in every way that I have thought I am able to do so, to try and make progress, and we will continue to do so. It is a source of continued personal frustration to me, and frustration to the Government, that we have not been able to get aid back into Gaza in accordance with international law.