Backing Business to Create Economic Growth

Debate between Desmond Swayne and Ben Coleman

Monday 18th May 2026 Commons Chamber

[Sir Desmond Swayne]

No. The hon. Lady has had her turn.

[Ben Coleman (Chelsea and Fulham) (Lab)]

Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?

[Sir Desmond Swayne]

No, I will not.

The reality is that Ministers are trying to have their cake and eat it by saying that the British economy would be performing so much better if it were a member of the European Union while at the same time trumpeting its performance.

[Ben Coleman]

Now will he give way?

[Sir Desmond Swayne]

I am with the hon. Gentleman—I believe the reality is that the British economy is performing in a lacklustre way.

But I put it to you, Madam Deputy Speaker, that the cause of that lacklustre performance is the huge imposition of regulation in the previous King’s Speech, and the delivery of new employment taxes on every enterprise in the land as part of that deal. The best King’s Speech that we could have had would have been a very, very short one, containing only a statute of repeal of all the impositions of the previous King’s Speech.