China and Japan

Esther McVey Excerpts

Monday 2nd February 2026 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I congratulate my hon. Friend’s son on his achievements. On SMEs and businesses, yes, we discussed how we can enhance our engagement and enhance growth and jobs right across all our constituencies, including my hon. Friend’s.

[Esther McVey (Tatton) (Con)]

Does the Prime Minister accept that in his rush to hoover up economic crumbs from President Xi because of his appalling handling of our economy, he is having to increase strategic dependence on Beijing? The public see the risks the Prime Minister is taking with UK security; does he?

[The Prime Minister]

The Conservatives crashed the economy, so lectures from them on the economy are not welcome. As I said in my statement, national security is at the heart of our approach to China, as it is to every issue that we take up. It is quite possible to have a discussion about the opportunities available to our country while also safeguarding our national security. That is what we are doing in a grown-up, mature way.

US Department of Justice Release of Files

Esther McVey Excerpts

Monday 2nd February 2026 Commons Chamber

[Darren Jones]

I agree wholeheartedly with my hon. Friend. The Cabinet Secretary is today reviewing the Government archives to see what information is available for that time, not just in relation to the sale of RBS assets to JP Morgan, as requested by the former Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, but, more broadly, during the time that Peter Mandelson was a Labour Minister in the then Government.

[Esther McVey (Tatton) (Con)]

Do the Government believe that Lord Mandelson should be stripped of his peerage, yes or no? If they do believe that, they should bring forward primary legislation to do just that. I am afraid the Minister’s excuse of a queue does not wash. Will they bring forward legislation for the disgraced Lord Mandelson, their friend? If they do not, and he keeps his title despite Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor being stripped of his, what rank hypocrisy that would be. How much further can this Government stain their tarnished reputation?

Chinese Embassy

Esther McVey Excerpts

Tuesday 20th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Dan Jarvis]

I am grateful, as always, to the right hon. Gentleman—

[Esther McVey (Tatton) (Con)]

No, you’re not.

[Dan Jarvis]

I genuinely am, because I respect the wisdom of someone who has served in this House for many years. The right hon. Lady questions my gratitude to the right hon. Gentleman. I can give her an assurance that I have a huge amount of respect—

[Esther McVey]

Answer the question!

[Dan Jarvis]

I am answering the question. I have a huge amount of respect for Members who have served for a long time, and particularly those who have chaired the ISC. We need to find a mechanism to ensure that Members like the right hon. Member for New Forest East (Sir Julian Lewis) have access to some of this information, so that they can make informed comments in this House. I take his point, although I do not agree with it, about mitigations. He understands that there are limits to what I can say on the mitigations. On his substantive point, I do not agree with him that this is a win for China, not least because I could not have been clearer about the importance of the consolidation of the estate. The Government have reached an agreement with China that the existing diplomatic footprint in London will be reduced in size from seven diplomatic sites to one. I am not sure that that constitutes a particularly big win in my book—

--- Later in debate ---

[Dan Jarvis]

I always listen carefully to the right hon. Gentleman, not least because I seem to remember that he was the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the then Prime Minister, Lord Cameron, whose Government had quite a different relationship with China from the one we have now. He will remember that very well, as do I. While I am grateful for his advice, I hope he has borne in mind the points I made about the consistency of the previous Government, including the one he served in.

[Esther McVey (Tatton) (Con)]

In the light of what you have said, Madam Deputy Speaker, I hope that you see this as short question and I hope that I get a short answer.

Does the Minister know if the security services have any concerns at all about the proposed new Chinese super-embassy—yes or no?

[Dan Jarvis]

The right hon. Lady has seen the letter that has been published today by the director general—

[Esther McVey]

Yes or no?

[Dan Jarvis]

I do not know how much time the right hon. Lady spends thinking about matters relating to national security or understands the nature of the—

[Esther McVey]

That is condescending!

[Dan Jarvis]

Not at all—I am seeking to explain to her that this Government, like the last Government, manage a range of national security risks. That would be the case whatever decision was taken around this proposal.

Oral Answers to Questions

Esther McVey Excerpts

Thursday 10th July 2025 Commons Chamber

[Georgia Gould]

I really welcome the House’s continuing enthusiasm and support for procurement. We have listened to that and are taking it seriously, which is why we set out, as I said a couple of weeks ago, further changes to procurement rules to respond to all those points about supporting SMEs, supporting British jobs and supporting British skills.

[Esther McVey (Tatton) (Con)]

Can the Minister confirm the amount of money that has been saved as a result of the changes I brought in to the equality, diversity and inclusion guidance in the civil service? Will he also say if he will be maintaining those changes, or does he seek to overturn that policy?

[Pat McFadden]

I am not seeking to overturn that, but we want to have a system where we uphold the equality law that applies to the civil service, just as it applies throughout the public sector.

G7 and NATO Summits

Esther McVey Excerpts

Thursday 26th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I am happy to remind the House that we had 2.5% of GDP on defence spending under the last Labour Government, and we will have it under this Labour Government. In 14 long years, the Conservatives did not do that.

[Esther McVey (Tatton) (Con)]

I welcome the increase in defence spending. Will the Prime Minister take this opportunity to explain where the money is coming from, particularly as his Government continue to weaken our economy and when another expensive benefit U-turn—on top of the winter fuel U-turn—is on its way?

[The Prime Minister]

The right hon. Lady must have missed the record investment in our country in the last 12 months of £120 billion, the four interest rate cuts, and the fastest growth in the G7 in the first quarter of this year. Every time we have increased defence spending, as we did with the 2.5%, we have at the same time set out where the money is coming from.

Oral Answers to Questions

Esther McVey Excerpts

Thursday 5th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Pat McFadden]

My hon. Friend will not be surprised to hear my strong enthusiasm for greater employment opportunities for young people in the Black Country. When we made the announcement about the relocation last week, we also announced a new apprenticeship scheme, because we not only have to change location; we also have to change recruitment patterns if we are really to get a civil service that speaks with all the accents of the country.

[Esther McVey (Tatton) (Con)]

When the Minister is moving civil service jobs outside London, may I remind him that there is much more to the north than just Manchester and Leeds? Why are the Government moving the Information Commissioner’s Office away from Wilmslow to Manchester, and what assessment has been done of the impact of that move on the economy of Wilmslow?

[Pat McFadden]

Mr Speaker, as you can see, this issue will prompt a lot of Members to stand up for their areas, and they are quite right to do so. As we do this, we will try to bring things together in a way that creates real expertise, and it is not just about cities; it is about other urban and semi-urban areas, too. The technology that allows us to move jobs outside London also allows us to do that.

EU-UK Summit

Esther McVey Excerpts

Thursday 22nd May 2025 Westminster Hall

[Tulip Siddiq (Hampstead and Highgate) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend will know my views on Brexit—I represent a constituency in which 87% of people voted to remain and I represent 22,000 EU nationals, who are part of the fabric of our community—but I want to ask her about young people, who she will probably mention at some point. The statistics show that there has been a 30% drop in the number of schoolchildren going to Europe on school trips, and that disadvantaged areas have been hit the hardest—

[Esther McVey (in the Chair)]

Order. I remind Members that an intervention is an intervention and not a small speech. Others have put in to speak, so can we get to the question please?

[Tulip Siddiq]

The UK is not part of the list of travellers scheme, which is why it is so hard for schoolchildren to go on trips. Does my hon. Friend agree that we should have better access to Europe, like we had when we were growing up?

--- Later in debate ---

[Ms Creasy]

I refer to the point about the protection of The Hague and where The Hague takes its judgments from. Ultimately, the decisions were made in the Court of Arbitration. It relies on those rulings. That is part of the process. I suspect the fact that the Member has decried that speaks to the need for us all to have more time to scrutinise and do justice to this issue. I suspect that when he makes his speech, he will continue to make the argument that we do not want to work with the European Court of Justice. The truth is that his Government brought in mechanisms that used the European Court of Justice as part of their framework—[Interruption.]

[Esther McVey (in the Chair)]

Order. We must have just one person speaking at a time.

[Ms Creasy]

As the Minister says, the Windsor framework does as well. It shows where and how it works, and I think our constituents deserve the honesty of how the processes actually work and what the rulings are, rather than the fantasy. The puffins are very real; the puffery is not.

Finally, I have some questions I wish the Minister to address in his summing-up, because there are questions arising from the summit and the deal that has been struck. He will be aware that many of us have been championing membership of the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean convention, because that is also about the rules of origin paperwork, which has been so harmful to our supply chains. Could he give us an update on whether there is an opportunity for us to be part of that mechanism again, to help British businesses with all that paperwork?

We also need to understand whether any progress has been made on the mutual recognition of conformity assessments and qualifications. We know the latter is in there, but the agreement matters for both. Finally, can he say a bit more about what will happen to our financial services, which have not been mentioned yet but are the primary driver of growth in our economy?

The new deal will help our constituents finally clear the fog of Brexit: the excessive paperwork, the partnerships that have been damaged and the personal opportunities lost. I welcome the Prime Minister’s commitment to use these summits to keep working on our relationship with our neighbours. It is an honest recognition that we can fight many things in life, but geography is not one of them. Our constituents have paid the price of a bad deal, as have many of us—some Opposition Members literally bankrolled the Brexit campaign. It is no wonder the hon. Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage) is not with us today; if I were him, I would not want to be here to admit what a botched deal has been done.

[Ms Creasy]

I do. We may be making Elton John unhappy in the main Chamber, but I hope that in this Chamber the Minister can make him very happy with progress on touring musicians. We welcome the chance to work across the House to fix this through proper scrutiny, debate and discussion. The world is a very uncertain place right now, and our constituents will consider the new deal to offer hope for their future. As much as there is chaos and confusion, we can be crystal clear that both cake and change are possible.

[Esther McVey (in the Chair)]

I remind Members that they should bob if they want to be called to speak, and that I will call the Front-Bench spokespeople just before 4 pm to allow Stella Creasy time to make a wind-up speech.

--- Later in debate ---

[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Esther McVey (in the Chair)]

I did not put a time limit on speeches at the start of the debate, but we have had so many interventions and feisty exchanges that have eaten into the time available. I suggest that speeches should take a maximum of eight minutes.

--- Later in debate ---

[Rachel Blake (Cities of London and Westminster) (Lab/Co-op)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms McVey. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Walthamstow (Ms Creasy) and the hon. Member for Boston and Skegness (Richard Tice) for securing this debate. I welcome this chance to move on and let it go, and to test and reflect on the outcome of the EU-UK summit. That foundation is also a chance to look to the future.

The Opposition have done their best to make me rack my brain back to the 1990s and the last but one time the Conservatives tore themselves apart over Europe, when they were fighting over whether we were rule makers or rule takers. But I will spend a tiny bit of time talking about the 2016 referendum, and how it uncovered and exacerbated division in our country.

It is fundamentally regrettable that the Opposition have used such divisive language: “surrender,” “stupidity,” “hate,” “suckers” and “dangerous.” That really is not a sensible way to talk about how best to work with our partners in the European Union, which is our largest trading partner. In stark contrast, the EU-UK summit that finished earlier this week was grounded in a pragmatic approach to moving forward. It reached out across our country to do the very best for the whole UK.

In terms of testing and reflecting on the outcome of the summit, the first question for me is whether it sticks to our red lines. In response to the most recent remarks from the hon. Member for Harwich and North Essex (Sir Bernard Jenkin), the outcome absolutely sticks to those red lines. There is no return to the single market, the customs union or freedom of movement. Does it support this Government’s missions, which were clearly voted for by the country in an election called a year ago today? Our missions are to secure growth, to support opportunity, to get our country healthy, to tackle climate change and to make our country safer. It addresses each and every one of those missions.

Does the EU-UK summit agreement work for the whole of the UK? Looking around the Chamber, I am proud of how many nations and regions of the UK are represented on the Government Benches, and every single one of us has been able to talk about how the EU-UK summit has benefited our own constituencies. I have been thinking about why the summit is so important for me: I represent an area with a vast number of small businesses that rely on the impact of the summit to reduce the cost of energy and the cost of working in the hospitality sector. That is significant for my constituency, one of the great engines of the UK economy.

As I look across the Chamber, there are ways in which the summit will help the constituents of all Members present. I would like to know whether there is really nobody in Spalding or Skegness who will benefit. Are there really no businesses—haulage businesses, for example—that will see the opportunity for reduced red tape as a result of the summit? I strongly doubt that.

The next test for me is whether the agreement fixes the foundations for the future. Has it put us in a good place to build on for some of the other businesses and areas where we need to see a bit more movement? I think it does; it is a strong first step. Does it make sure that we can get ourselves and our pets on holiday faster? Yes, it absolutely does.

I have spent several minutes on the past and on the present, and now I will look to the future. In another area of important vitality—[Interruption.] Is there an intervention?

[Esther McVey (in the Chair)]

That is for you to say.

[Sir John Hayes]

If I may say so generously, I choose to go for my holidays in north Norfolk and Whitby; I do not need a passport to go to there. It is very pleasant. I think the hon. Lady would be enriched by that kind of experience.

UK-EU Summit

Esther McVey Excerpts

Tuesday 20th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Our approach has been on the question of bringing our bills down, which is why the SPS agreement is so important, and of protecting and driving up jobs, which is why the EU, India and US agreements are all so important. That is particularly the case for car manufacturing, but equally so for pharmaceuticals, which are protected under our agreement. However, there is a bigger picture: these are three individual trade deals, but taken together they show that other countries want to do deals with the UK now in a way that they did not before.

[Esther McVey (Tatton) (Con)]

With youth unemployment higher in Europe—in countries such as France, Spain, Portugal and Sweden—I can see why the EU pushed for a youth mobility scheme: to help get its youth unemployment figures down. Can the Prime Minister tell the House what impact assessment he has done of his youth scheme? What effect will it have on youth unemployment among young Brits, particularly white working-class boys, who suffer the most? Can he also tell the House today what cap he has put on the number of people coming to the UK? If he cannot, this is a bitter betrayal of British youth.

[The Prime Minister]

The agreement gives young people in the United Kingdom the opportunity to work, to study and to travel in Europe. It will be a capped scheme of limited duration and with visas. This, again, is something that everyone said we could not negotiate, and we have negotiated it. As for the right hon. Lady’s question about what we are doing for young people in this country, she should look to the Trailblazer scheme that we set up to help young people back into work.

Civil Service: Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

Esther McVey Excerpts

Tuesday 14th May 2024 Written Statements

[The Minister without Portfolio (Esther McVey)]

The Government have a plan to deliver a brighter future for Britain, with long-term economic security and opportunity, where hard work is always rewarded, where ambition and aspiration are celebrated, where young people get the skills they need to succeed in life, where families are supported, where those who have worked hard all their lives have the dignity they deserve in retirement, and with security at home and abroad.

The civil service is crucial to the delivery of that plan. We want to cut waste and inefficiency so civil servants can better support our frontline services. In that light, this Government wish to ensure that all public spending on equality, diversity and inclusion is proportionate, meeting all statutory requirements, and represents value for money.

Last October, and reaffirmed by the Chancellor in the autumn statement, the Government commissioned a review of EDI expenditure across the civil service, to identify current spend on roles and activities, and to understand whether existing expenditure is effective and efficient.

The review found that across 95 civil service organisations total EDI expenditure for the 2022-23 financial year was £27.1 million. We do not believe that this represents value for money.

We have also been informed by the Inclusion at Work Panel’s report from March 2024 which found that many employers want to “do the right thing” but are implementing EDI initiatives without an evidence base, and many do not know the impact these initiatives are having or whether they represent value for money. In a growing number of cases, particularly relating to positive discrimination and protected beliefs, the report found that EDI interventions are proving to be counterproductive.

In response to these findings, today the Cabinet Office is publishing the “Civil Service EDI Expenditure Guidance”. This includes an end to all external spending on EDI activity, unless cleared and authorised by Ministers. In addition:

There will be centralised EDI guidance for Departments and arm’s length bodies and EDI learning will be regulated through the civil service learning framework unless authorised by Ministers through the spend control.

Stand-alone EDI roles will also cease to exist outside of HR as Secretaries of State and permanent secretaries are expected to consolidate them into existing HR teams.

Diversity content included in civil service job adverts will also be standardised to ensure diversity policy is clearly and consistently shared. This will enable civil servants to focus on their specific job role and on delivering for the taxpayer.

Support for disability will be excluded from these changes, recognising the particular needs of disabled staff. As set out in the Government’s 2021 “National Disability Strategy” and 2024 “Disability Action Plan”, we will continue to support them and give them the help to achieve their goals and excel.

We are also publishing guidance on diversity and inclusion and impartiality requirements. This meets the commitment made in action 62 of the “Inclusive Britain” report.

The guidance makes clear that civil servants must not allow their personal political views to determine their actions or any advice they give related to diversity and inclusion in any part of their employment. This includes when carrying out Government duties, such as developing policy, or engaging in learning and development or participating in staff networks. It will ensure civil servants can carry out their work while retaining the confidence of Ministers and the public, and uphold the political impartiality required by the civil service code.

Further guidance on diversity staff networks will follow, and we will seek to publish additional data on historical spending to assist transparency in this area. We will also consider how such best practice can be embedded across the public sector.

We want to ensure that everyone has the equal opportunity to go as far in life as their ambition will take them. As set out in the “Inclusive Britain” report, lack of opportunity should not be seen through the prism of identity politics. We do not believe that any group is less intrinsically capable than any other. We know that while ability is spread across the country that has not always been the case when it comes to opportunity.

That is why we have already moved over 18,000 roles out of London, including to new offices across the United Kingdom. Diversity in the civil service should never just be measured in terms of race or sex; it should also be about background and differences of opinion—and, above all, merit.

Increasing social mobility and ending geographical inequalities are core to levelling up. It is essential that we mirror this ambition across the civil service to ensure that those developing and delivering our policies reflect and draw upon the widest range of experiences and skills that exist across the populations we serve.

Copies of the associated guidance will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses, and published on www.gov.uk.

[HCWS464]

Oral Answers to Questions

Esther McVey Excerpts

Thursday 25th April 2024 Commons Chamber

[Sir Christopher Chope (Christchurch) (Con)]

Eight weeks ago, on 29 February, at first order questions, I asked the Minister without Portfolio what the Government would do to assist people who are adversely affected by the statute of limitations as a result of having been injured by covid-19 vaccines. My right hon. Friend said in response that she had taken the issue to the permanent secretary. Will she update us on what has happened with the permanent secretary over the past eight weeks?

[The Minister without Portfolio (Esther McVey)]

I thank my hon. Friend for asking that question. He is a tireless campaigner on this matter, on which he has met with me and the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. As I said to my hon. Friend, I am dealing with this matter with the permanent secretary; he will know that we have a new permanent secretary in the Department, and we are working at pace to resolve it.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

I call the SNP spokesperson.