Budget Resolutions

Dan Carden Excerpts

Wednesday 6th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Griffith]

We would have got a better answer from ChatGPT. The reality is that the Budget not only increased taxes in the outyears by £40 billion a year but increased borrowing by £140 billion over the course of the plans—yet despite that largesse, there was no room to fulfil the mandate of British researchers and continue to invest in the supercomputer and infrastructure that they need.

[Dan Carden (Liverpool Walton) (Lab)]

A Business Secretary in the last Government wrote an industrial strategy, but it was quickly binned. Under the Conservatives’ new leadership, what is their position on industrial strategy, because we went without one for many years?

[Andrew Griffith]

Forgive me if the hon. Member has been here for more than 120 days, but I fully support the sectors, and the industrial strategies that the Government have articulated for them, because the strategies continue on from, and are identical to, those of the previous Government. Not for the first time, we see what I call name-plating from this Government. A British business bank—the UK Infrastructure Bank—is being re-name-plated as a national wealth fund. The modern industrial strategy takes the existing science, technology and innovation framework, our plan for financial services and our creative industries strategy and re-name-plates them under a different banner. That is welcome. There is nothing quite as flattering as plagiarism, and I am delighted that those really important sectors of the economy will benefit from a degree of continuity.

The Budget has been absolutely crushing for business. If the Secretary of State is honest, he will know that from his engagement. The only thing that it has delivered to businesses across the country is more burdens. According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the increase in national insurance contributions amounts to a £25 billion tax on business. The reduction of the national insurance threshold by over £4,000 will keep small and medium-sized businesses up at night. Let us not equivocate: the measures in the Budget amount, in the words of the Chancellor herself, to a “jobs tax”. From industry leaders to shop owners, those in the retail, hospitality and leisure industries in particular will think back to what they heard during the election campaign.

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[Dan Carden (Liverpool Walton) (Lab)]

What a privilege it is to follow so many accomplished and particularly moving maiden speeches. I start by congratulating my right hon. Friend the Chancellor on her first Budget. It shows the first steps of this new Labour Government as the work of change really begins. I hope that it will mark a turning point from decline to investment, from instability to security and from self-interest to public service. The choices made in the Budget certainly turn the page on the last 14 years. They begin to restore our public services and improve the rights and rewards of low and middle-income earners.

In the short time that I have, I want to touch on three areas of particular concern to my constituents. First, I welcome the £25 billion-plus of investment to get our national health service back on its feet, cut waiting times and deliver 40,000 extra elective appointments a week. That move will give real hope to people worrying about their healthcare. It recognises our NHS staff across the service, such as those at Aintree university hospital in my constituency and in specialist facilities like the Walton centre.

[Ben Maguire (North Cornwall) (LD)]

Will the hon. Member give way?

[Dan Carden]

I will not. I also welcome the intention to shift the focus to prevention in healthcare. My constituency is one of the most deprived in the UK, and far too many suffer the health impacts of poverty, addiction and despair. I hope to work with the Government to address those long-term public health crises.

Next, and crucially, the Budget delivers some long overdue justice and fairness for those who have been failed by the state. It will transfer the investment reserve fund in the mineworkers’ pension scheme to its members, and will fund compensation schemes for the victims of the Post Office Horizon scandal and the infected blood scandal, including a number of my constituents. It gives me hope that the Government have shown a commendable will to right historical wrongs. I hope that in the months and years ahead, the Chancellor will also consider the claim of the Women Against State Pension Inequality—women born in the 1950s, including 5,000 in my Liverpool Walton constituency.

Finally, I want to mention the hospitality industry, which is central to Liverpool’s visitor economy. The 40% relief on business rates for retail, hospitality and leisure is welcome, but with costs continuing to rise, there remains a climate of uncertainty for far too many local businesses. We need to level the playing field between bricks-and-mortar businesses and the online global giants, and we need to prioritise our high streets and take the necessary steps to give relief to local businesses.

Oral Answers to Questions

Dan Carden Excerpts

Thursday 5th September 2024 Commons Chamber

[Jonathan Reynolds]

I am grateful to the right hon. Member for that question. The policy to which he refers—the zero emission vehicle mandate—and its penalties as we ramp up to the phasing out of petrol and diesel vehicles is actually a Department for Transport policy of the previous Government. We supported it, because there is no point in having an objective to phase out petrol and diesel vehicles without a corresponding ramping up of regulation to do that.

There is an issue with consumer demand, which affects all of Europe. We are working closely on that. Under the policies of the last Government, there are flexibilities—things that can be transferred from one financial year to the next. We keep everything under close review, but we are committed to the transition. That is essential to industry and consumer confidence and making sure that that happens. Every country in the world has similar policies. This is an ongoing transition, and we are absolutely going to make it work for British industry.

[Dan Carden (Liverpool Walton) (Lab)]

T10. I thank the Secretary of State for his visit to the Spellow library hub on County Road in my constituency in the days after the riots. He saw the challenges that the area faces. We need support to deliver a vibrant high street, big investment in new housing and delivery on skills and employment. Will he work with Cabinet colleagues and the local city council to ensure that, by the end of this Parliament, real improvement has been delivered for the residents of County Road?

[Jonathan Reynolds]

I thank my hon. Friend for his question and for hosting me when I visited after the riots. I extend all my sympathies to the businesses affected. There is no excuse under any circumstances for looting shops, or in this case burning down a library. I was very much affected by my visit. He knows that we work very much in collaboration with the Association of British Insurers to ensure that claims are processed quickly. By now, I hope that businesses are aware that if they are underinsured or uninsured, help is still available to them under the Riot Compensation Act 2016, the details of which are on the gov.uk website.

Trade (Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership) Bill [Lords]

Dan Carden Excerpts

2nd reading
Monday 29th January 2024 Commons Chamber

[The Minister for Trade Policy (Greg Hands)]

It is a pleasure to reply to what has been a wide-ranging and often well-informed debate. The Bill’s passage will enable the UK to meet international obligations on accession to the CPTPP, thereby unlocking the next chapter in the country’s proud tradition of trading freely with the world. Acting as a gateway to growth, the agreement will place the UK at the centre of a vast free trade area currently comprising 11 sovereign countries. For UK consumers, reductions in tariffs could lead to cheaper imports, better choice and higher quality products, all while protections in critical areas are maintained. With more than 99% of current goods exports to CPTPP parties being eligible for zero tariffs, businesses in every corner of the UK stand to benefit.

[Dan Carden (Liverpool, Walton) (Lab)]

I will lightly sidestep the party political debate. As the Minister knows, my interest is in Mexico—I have chaired the all-party parliamentary group on Mexico for five years, and am now proudly the Prime Minister’s trade envoy to Mexico—which is the world’s 16th largest economy and will be the ninth largest by 2030. That offers great opportunities, not least for my region, the north-west, which trades more with Mexico than any other region. Plenty of labour rights are included in the CPTPP; the question is how they will be enforced. For instance, every party to the CPTPP holds obligations under the International Labour Organisation. The question is how we trade more as well as raise protections through the CPTPP.

[Greg Hands]

I thought for a moment that the hon. Member was going to verge off into football. I was going to congratulate him on his constituency team, Liverpool, beating Fulham last week. In any case, I thank him. He was recently appointed the Prime Minister’s trade envoy to Mexico, which is a really important position. In general, Mexico presents a great opportunity. Our rolled-over trade deal with Mexico dates from a long time ago—about 2002-03.

The hon. Member will know that the CPTPP includes a comprehensive chapter on labour, with binding provisions on fundamental labour rights, minimum wage, hours of work and health and safety. All parties to the CPTPP are members of the ILO, and they are not allowed to derogate from their domestic labour laws to give them an unfair trade advantage. That is how the labour chapter in the CPTPP works. I look forward to discussions with him, and to doing everything we can to work together to boost trade with Mexico.

Before I extoll the benefits of the agreement still further, I will say that it is a pleasure to be back at the Department, and to see the further progress being made tonight towards the UK being the 12th party to the CPTPP. This is a tremendously exciting moment for both the UK and global trade policy—one that the Department and I personally have been building towards for many years. Back in about 2017, one of the earliest decisions in the Department under the then Secretary of State, my right hon. Friend the Member for North Somerset (Sir Liam Fox), was to explore accession to the trans-Pacific partnership, as the CPTPP was then known.

Pride Month

Dan Carden Excerpts

Thursday 15th June 2023 Commons Chamber

[Anneliese Dodds (Oxford East) (Lab/Co-op)]

I wish to pay my respects and offer my sympathies to Glenda Jackson’s family and friends, as others have done. I think any of us in this place would be proud of her record as an MP, serving her constituents and as a Minister. The fact that she also won two Academy awards and three Emmy awards during a truly illustrious acting career as well is genuinely awe-inspiring. Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, tor enabling me to say that.

I thank the Backbench Business Committee for granting this debate and pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Wallasey (Dame Angela Eagle) and the hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington (Elliot Colburn) for securing it. I also thank everyone who has contributed to the debate today in such an inspiring way and to those who have shared their personal experiences in particular. I am proud to be surrounded right now by so many trailblazing colleagues who have championed LGBT+ representation in this place and many other places during this Pride month. The speeches we have heard speak to the enormous contribution of the LGBT+ community in Britain that we are here to celebrate. I hope we will all feel joy and inspiration from that contribution at Pride events across the country this month.

Personally, I am really looking forward to being at London Pride again and I was absolutely delighted that Oxford Pride celebrated its 20th birthday this year. It was great to hear from my hon. Friend the Member for Brighton, Kemptown (Lloyd Russell-Moyle) about the history of Brighton Pride and the other amazing Sussex Prides. I was pleased to be at Hastings Pride last year, which was fantastic.

Pride celebrations present an opportunity to reflect on the progress we have made in furthering LGBT+ rights, but we have to be honest and open and say that that progress was incredibly slow. That is why we still celebrate and commemorate those who made it happen. To be the first to stand up and call for change is not easy at the best of times; to do so at a time when LGBT+ people were so demonised and ostracised was much harder.

One of the many awful examples of the way LGBT+ people were treated in the not-too-distant past, as has been mentioned by a number of speakers, is the ban on lesbians, gay men and bi people serving in the armed forces—a ban that endured for decades under Conservative and Labour Governments. Labour lifted the ban in 2000, as a first step towards delivering the justice that those brave servicepeople deserve but, 23 years later, we are looking forward to seeing the publication of the findings of the LGBT veterans independent review.

[Dan Carden (Liverpool, Walton) (Lab)]

I am sorry that I have not been here for the whole debate, but I caught many of the speeches on the television and enjoyed them all. The independent report was due to be published on 8 June this year, but it is facing a delay. Will my hon. Friend put pressure on the Minister to go back to Government and make sure that the report comes out before the summer recess, so we have a chance to ask questions in this place?

[Anneliese Dodds]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for making that important point. I am also grateful to him and many others in the Chamber for the work they have done on that issue, with the amazing organisation Fighting With Pride, which has worked so hard on it. I encourage the Minister to do all he can to ensure that that review is published, because we need to act on it and act urgently. Sadly, that injustice lasted for a long period, so we are talking about some people who are reaching their older years now. They need to see the outcomes of that review. They have been incredibly brave in talking about their experiences and, having heard some of their stories, the manner in which they have responded, despite appalling, traumatic experiences, has been incredible to behold. They need that resolution and support so that they can move forward and have at least a little closure, if not justice, on what happened to them.

The fact that that ban endured for so long reminds us how difficult it was for LGBT+ people. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney (Gerald Jones) for his reflections on what has changed, in one of many moving speeches we have heard in this debate. He referred to the 1985 vote for a resolution committing to lesbian and gay rights in the Labour party, and I was proud that Labour led the way in delivering a number of moves towards greater LGBT+ equality.

There are many people in this Chamber who pushed for and helped to deliver those changes. My right hon. Friend the Member for Exeter (Mr Bradshaw) detailed that record; in the interests of time I will not repeat his word, but I want to be crystal clear in saying when Labour is next in government, as I hope we will be, we will continue to stand up for LGBT+ people and build on that proud history of breaking down barriers for everyone. To any LGBT+ person who is watching this debate I say, “Labour will always have your back.”

It is important to say that because, as so many have reflected, these are worrying times for many LGBT+ people. There have been many reflections on the appalling rise in hate crime. Hate crime motivated by sexual orientation has risen by almost 500% over the past decade; crimes targeting transgender identity are up by over 1,000% and violent offences have increased sixfold across all five strands of hate crime over the same period.

Oral Answers to Questions

Dan Carden Excerpts

Thursday 18th May 2023 Commons Chamber

[Kemi Badenoch]

I thank my hon. Friend for his outstanding commitment to improving our trade relationship with Brazil in his work as trade envoy, and I wish him well on his upcoming trip to the country. Our bilateral trade with Brazil increased to £7.7 billion in the 12 months ending December 2022, and the signing of the UK-Brazil double taxation agreement in November represents a significant step in enhancing trade across all sectors. There is much we can do with Brazil—I intend to visit the country, hopefully later this year—especially around critical minerals. I look forward to working with the Brazilian Government in due course.

[Dan Carden (Liverpool, Walton) (Lab)]

As the UK crafts deeper and more comprehensive trade relations across Latin America, it is important to capture not just economic benefits but cultural benefits. In fact, student and language exchanges are a vital precursor to trade as they enable young people in both the UK and Latin America to have the mobility and skills to create those relationships and build businesses. Today, a major barrier preventing UK university students from studying in Latin America is the lack of mutual recognition agreements on qualifications. What assessment has the Secretary of State made of the merits of integrating mutual recognition of higher education qualifications into trade negotiations?

[Kemi Badenoch]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question, for the work that he does as the chair of the all-party parliamentary group on Mexico and for his interest in the region. We do look at mutual recognition for qualifications in trade deals, but most of the time they tend to be in separate agreements. Because of the nature of how free trade agreements are structured, we try to ensure that they are focused specifically on trade. We have an upcoming upgrade to our trade deal with Mexico, as we do with several other countries. If he has specific areas that he would like us to highlight, now is the time to tell us which qualifications in particular we should focus on.

Oral Answers to Questions

Dan Carden Excerpts

Thursday 23rd March 2023 Commons Chamber

[Kemi Badenoch]

The hon. Gentleman is right that our constituents are at the end of what the regulators are doing, so our reforms should build on their strengths and continue to reinforce the UK as a leading global destination for investment in utilities infrastructure, to the long-term benefit of all our constituents and consumers.

[Dan Carden (Liverpool, Walton) (Lab)]

2. What recent assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of businesses’ actions on corporate responsibility.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business and Trade (Kevin Hollinrake)]

The Government are rightly proud of the record of UK companies when it comes to corporate responsibility. The UK is home to 10 of the world’s top 100 companies, ranked by social responsibility. These standards are reflected in the UK being considered by business leaders to be the world’s third most important country for investment.

[Dan Carden]

The Government have recently taken action on deforestation in supply chains through the Environment Act 2021, and they have made progress on regulating British companies overseas through the Bribery Act 2010 and the Modern Slavery Act 2015, but I want them to go further. The Cerrejón coalmine in La Guajira, Colombia, has been responsible for widespread, persistent, harmful pollution, and for the diverting and polluting of many rivers, causing the displacement of more than 20 indigenous communities. The companies involved have ignored local court rulings. What more can be done to ensure that businesses registered in the UK uphold human rights and do not commit environmental damage? Will the Minister look again at this case?

[Kevin Hollinrake]

The hon. Gentleman raises an important case. The UK is a signatory to the OECD’s declaration on international investment and multinational enterprises, a voluntary set of standards intended to promote responsible business conduct worldwide. My Department is the UK’s national contact point on these guidelines, allowing anyone who thinks there are problems to make a complaint, which will then be investigated. I am very happy to work with him on that basis.

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[Kemi Badenoch]

For the benefit of my hon. Friend’s constituents, the CPTPP is the comprehensive and progressive agreement for trans-Pacific partnership, the new trade bloc we hope to join imminently. We have reached a great stage in negotiations, but, as he will have heard in answer to questions from across the House, trade negotiations are not easy and we need to make sure we protect UK food standards. There is a lot we are doing, and I think we will have some good news for him in due course.

[Dan Carden (Liverpool, Walton) (Lab)]

T9. I welcome the Secretary of State’s visit to Mexico last month. If she had the chance to do some shopping, she may know that the largest chain of department stores in Mexico is called Liverpool, founded in 1847 and named after my home city and port for all the merchandise that was shipped through it. There is huge potential for infra- structure building in Mexico, including in clean technology. What is her Department doing to link UK industry to those opportunities and that potential in Mexico?

[Kemi Badenoch]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question. I am afraid I did not have any time whatever during that trip to do any shopping. It was all about the UK-Mexico free trade agreement, which will do exactly what he wants. The negotiations are ongoing and continue to reflect the shared ambition for an agreement that is both modern and comprehensive. We talked in particular about services and investment in digital. We are aligned in the green chapters and in areas such as small and medium-sized enterprises, innovation and trade, and on gender equality.