Backing Business to Create Economic Growth

Gavin Robinson Excerpts

Monday 18th May 2026 Commons Chamber

[Peter Kyle]

This Government have invested in industry up and down the country, from Agratas in the south-west, where we are investing in gigafactories, to Ineos in Scotland. We are investing in the industries that are keeping our country going, and we have put growth into the economy.

[Gavin Robinson (Belfast East) (DUP)]

The Secretary of State was kind enough to mention Harland & Wolff. Successive Governments have introduced a number of support measures, and have ensured that that company can thrive by itself. However, in taking at face value what the Secretary of State has said, does he recognise that if this Government continue to refuse to designate Programme Euston a defence project and open it to international tender, not only will they not support British business and yards like Harland & Wolff, but the project will be delayed by three years? If the Secretary of State wants to inject business growth and economic growth, he should designate it a UK defence project, and keep the work and the investment in the UK.

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[Gavin Robinson (Belfast East) (DUP)]

It is mildly eccentric that this is now the third day of a five-day debate on the King’s Speech when this Government are in crisis, but it is absurd to believe that this Government will be able to back business to create economic growth at all if their intention is to build on the legislative achievements—the stranglehold on our British economy—over the past two years. We were told just last week that incrementalism will not cut it, yet time after time, we have heard contributions from Labour Members suggesting that they are going to build on what has been achieved thus far. Well, thus far, what I hear from people in Northern Ireland and right across the country is families asking a very simple question: “Why are we now paying more and getting less?” They are working harder, they are taxed more heavily, and yet public services are under strain, businesses are being squeezed, and opportunity feels further out of reach.

While all this is happening, the Government appear to be more focused on internal drama and ideological priorities than on delivering. The people of this country are not interested in Labour personality contests—they want Government policies that address the pressures they are under. For four days last week, we engaged with thousands of people at the Balmoral show, all of them wondering, “Where’s the hope?” Where is the aspiration that Labour promised them over the last number of years?

[Jim Shannon]

I know that my right hon. Friend attended the Balmoral show for four days, and that others did likewise. Does he agree that the agricultural sector, in particular, needs some help—not just in Northern Ireland, but across the whole of the United Kingdom—and that this Government do not seem to have a policy for farming? Does he agree that it is time that that was changed?

[Gavin Robinson]

The agricultural sector does need help, as do many other sectors besides. Just this day, I had a conversation with a lovely young gentleman—a 14-year-old student from Broxbourne in England. He is a secondary school student, and he told me about his school and his classmates. They live in a Conservative constituency, but last year in a mock election, the majority of pupils his age were not interested in this Government; they were putting their store in the Greens. I wonder just how often Members in this Chamber engage with real people and understand their concerns. [Interruption.] Labour Members laugh, but they were not laughing two weeks ago, and I suspect they will not continue laughing.

Earlier in this debate, I raised the issue of defence spending in Northern Ireland. Do Labour Members know that the average spend per head of population is £300, but in Northern Ireland, it has been a fifth of that? I asked whether this Government recognise that Programme Euston, which could see investment in both Scotland and Northern Ireland, could be designated as a defence project. Again, officialdom is reticent. When I served on the Defence Committee with Labour Members for eight years, we fought those campaigns together and secured investment, but now that they are in government, they buy the same official line. There are things we can do to encourage investment, business and economic growth, but I am sorry to say that I do not see them.

We have heard colleagues talk about stability in the economy. I want to see stability in Northern Ireland. The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland was in the Chamber earlier. We are now two months into a financial year with no budget. Where is the clamour? Where is the concern? Where is the effort to ensure that our politics can work and we can stimulate business and growth? That has not been mentioned, and it is not a concern.

Labour’s big idea is the relationship with the EU. It is a big idea that seems to ignore a referendum that took place in 2016—its Members do not want it mentioned. Forget about betraying the people of this country and a referendum that decided our fate 10 years ago; the bigger concern among Labour Members is betraying the aspirations of their candidates, with one candidate letting slip their view so that the king of the north is left with no clothes. And yet, on a closer relationship with the European Union, what do we hear for Northern Ireland? Nothing. All are still content that laws for Northern Ireland, applying in Northern Ireland, are set in Brussels; for two years, this Labour Government have dishonoured their own position and dishonoured the pledges they made to the people of Northern Ireland to fix it. Talk about a closer relationship with the European Union: in the coming months, customs duties on parcels to customers in Northern Ireland—

[Ben Coleman]

Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?

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[Gavin Robinson]

I do not have time to give to the hon. Gentleman; as I do not get an extra minute, I am not giving way. I am too close to the end of my speech.

In three months’ time, we will see customs duties on parcels from one part of our United Kingdom to another; by the end of this year, general product and safety regulations that were dealt with last year will be back on the agenda again. Do we hear anything about it? Is there concern? No, sadly not.

I said earlier that it is mildly eccentric, but in fact it is a farce that we are going to have to hear more from a Government which needs nothing more than change itself.