Oral Answers to Questions

Chris Law Excerpts

Thursday 11th December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Chris Bryant]

Look, we want to back British entrepreneurs and investors. That is why we addressed some of the key issues in our small business strategy, which we published earlier this year, in particular late payments. The Conservative Government refused to tackle that in any serious way across their 14 years. It is why we are also looking at access to finance. One thing we know about a business is that if it exports, it will be more resilient, more likely to grow and more successful in future years. To enable that, I asked UK Export Finance this week not just to focus on big contracts around the world, but to ensure that it provides specific support for SMEs.

[Chris Law (Dundee Central) (SNP)]

The Scottish Chambers of Commerce has said that this Labour Budget

“falls short of reassuring business owners”

and that SMEs in Scotland are being left “on the brink”. I have met a range of businesses in the Scottish whisky and hospitality sectors and the crucial energy industry, and this Budget is a missed opportunity to reverse cack-handed Labour policies, such as national insurance contributions, which are hurting our SMEs. Will the Minister explain to Scottish businesses why Labour has gone out of its way to let them down so badly?

[Chris Bryant]

First of all, we have given £5 billion more to the Scottish Government; I sometimes just wish they would stop whining and moaning, and get on with delivering what they can with the budget that we provided to them. Secondly, I have met the Scotch Whisky Association frequently since I came into this post at the beginning of September. It is delighted that we are delivering trade deals around the world. The trade deal with India, in particular, will reduce tariffs in India from 150% to 75% and, in 10 years, to 40%. That will make a radical difference to the ability to export Scotch whisky around the world.