Oral Answers to Questions

Julian Smith Excerpts

Tuesday 11th October 2022 Commons Chamber

[Chris Philp]

I am obviously not going to offer any kind of running commentary on the ongoing internal discussions. I have said that the normal ordinary statutory process is ongoing, but the Government are mindful of the cost of living pressures that people are facing. I would draw the hon. Member’s attention to the large increase in the national minimum wage—I think about 7%—that took place last April or May, and there are now more vacancies in the economy than there are people on unemployment benefits.

[Julian Smith (Skipton and Ripon) (Con)]

Can the Minister confirm that the Government will not balance the forthcoming tax cuts on the backs of the poorest people in our country?

[Chris Philp]

The Government’s first objective is to ensure that the economy is growing. That will help to lift wages and to create new jobs and a sustainable tax base for our public services, but as we make the decisions that my right hon. Friend refers to, we are going to balance considerations of fairness and the cost of living pressures that people suffer with the interests of the taxpayers who are working hard to pay tax.

Future Relationship with the EU

Julian Smith Excerpts

Tuesday 9th June 2020 Commons Chamber

[Penny Mordaunt]

I thank the hon. Lady for her commitment to helping us deliver a good deal. The key aspect of why we cannot let these negotiations go on is that prolonged uncertainty. We believe that our asks are very reasonable. There are precedents set. They are upholding our rights in international law, and we will continue to ask for them. What is required is for the EU to understand that we are a sovereign equal in these negotiations, and I hope that that happens in the coming weeks.

[Julian Smith (Skipton and Ripon) (Con)]

I welcome the Minister’s comments on speed. We need to give people and businesses notice as soon as possible about the changes that they need to prepare for. On guidance, may I urge her to look at the fact that many businesses have not realised the consequences of coming out of the single market and the customs union? We can start preparing them for that reality. On the Northern Ireland protocol, there are businesses reporting to me that they are now moving jobs to the Republic. What progress has been made on implementing and discussing the checks and other measures that businesses will have to prepare for in Northern Ireland?

[Penny Mordaunt]

I thank my right hon. Friend for that important question. In addition to shortly being able to talk more about border operations and how we envisage things working in the future, we are already in discussion with businesses in every part of the UK. The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland has led some of those discussions. We have received a great deal of submissions from businesses in Northern Ireland, and those views are being taken into account as we design what the future will look like.

Energy BILL [ Lords ] (Fifth sitting)

Julian Smith Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd February 2016 Public Bill Committees

[Dr Alan Whitehead (Southampton, Test) (Lab)]

The end of this morning’s proceedings was a little like an episode of “Neighbours”.

[Julian Smith (Skipton and Ripon) (Con)]

A great show.

[Dr Whitehead]

Indeed, but one in which we do not get to know the dénouement until the next episode. The dénouement is, as the Minister will know, that the commitment in the Conservative manifesto was to end any new public subsidy for onshore wind. The question is whether that means new public subsidies, or public subsidy that previously existed but applies to new projects. Clearly, the renewables obligation is a long-standing subsidy and unless one places a very specific interpretation on that manifesto pledge, it is about new forthcoming subsidies and we should bear that in mind in our discussions.

Housing and Planning Bill (First sitting)

Julian Smith Excerpts

Tuesday 10th November 2015 Public Bill Committees

[Chris Philp (Croydon South) (Con)]

May I likewise draw the Committee’s attention to my declarations in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests?

[Julian Smith (Skipton and Ripon) (Con)]

Likewise, I draw Members’ attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests.

[Seema Kennedy (South Ribble) (Con)]

I draw Members’ attention to my declaration in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests.

Amendment of the Law

Julian Smith Excerpts

Thursday 19th March 2015 Commons Chamber

[Ed Balls (Morley and Outwood) (Lab/Co-op)]

It is an honour to open today’s Budget debate. Less than 24 hours after the Budget statement, the truth is becoming clear. For all the Chancellor’s hubris, yesterday’s Budget has changed nothing for working people in our country. He spent an hour telling people that they have never had it so good, but working people are still, on average, £1,600 a year worse off after five years of the Tories. Our national health service is still in crisis, but he had nothing to say about the NHS.

The Chancellor started the day with plans for extreme spending cuts, and he ended the day with plans for extreme spending cuts: cuts to spending even bigger in the three years after the election than those of the past five years; deep cuts that go way beyond balancing the books; and deep cuts that can be delivered only by another Tory rise in VAT or by putting our NHS at risk. It was a Tory Budget from a Tory Chancellor who gives with one hand and takes much more with the other—an out-of-touch Budget that made twice as many references to Agincourt as it did to our NHS.

I will examine all the Chancellor’s claims and set out the truth behind the spin and hubris, but first I want to set him straight on one issue. I applaud the £1 million he announced to commemorate the battle of Agincourt, but before he goes any further with those plans I have to correct his rather shaky understanding of the battle. I know he has a degree in history, and that I have a mere A-level in mediaeval history, but I suggest he stick to the period he knows. For a start, the Chancellor should be aware that not a single Scottish soldier fought on the French side at Agincourt. Indeed, if he reads Shakespeare’s version of the battle, he will see that there were representatives of Scotland, Wales and Ireland, all fighting as captains in King Henry’s army.

The story of Agincourt was one of an arrogant and complacent king who, rather than fight the battle himself, sent his weak and ineffective right-hand man to defend an impossible situation. He got his tactics wrong, he lost control of the situation, and he became bogged down in mud. He was no match for the stout yeomen on the other side. They may have lacked money, horses and noble blood, but they outfought their opponents on the battlefield. We stout yeomen will be happy to join in the commemorations of Agincourt. As fans of hand gestures, if anyone can think of any famous hand gestures traditionally associated with Agincourt, we will be happy to use them towards the Chancellor again and again at every stage of this debate.

It was fitting that the Chancellor chose to invoke Shakespeare in his Budget speech. He has, after all, been a poor player these last five years. Yesterday he strutted and fretted his final hour upon this stage, and after May he will be heard no more. Yesterday was a Budget full of sound and fury, ultimately signifying nothing.

[Julian Smith (Skipton and Ripon) (Con)]

rose—

[Ed Balls]

To give way or not to give way, that is the question.

[Julian Smith]

On the subject of sound and fury, will the shadow Chancellor clarify what he would do to stick to the commitments he made when he signed up to the charter for budget responsibility only a few weeks ago?

[Ed Balls]

People say that empty vessels make the loudest noise. I will set out clearly our approach to deficit reduction, but before I do let us go back to the ineffective right-hand man, who apparently is now standing in front of Downing street holding a yellow Budget box—less reality, more “Midsummer Night’s Dream”. What a shambles! Yesterday we had the Budget, today we had the farce of the alternative Budget from the Chief Secretary, the Liberal Democrats’ new economic spokesman, and now, with the Business Secretary shortly to come to the Dispatch Box, I presume we are to get the alternative alternative Budget from the man the Chief Secretary displaced from the job.

One has to feel sorry for the Business Secretary. He lost a job and still has to turn up to give the speech, sitting there beside one of his Treasury nemeses, with the other outside Downing street. Another Shakespeare quote comes to mind:

“Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.”

How true. Let us not forget that the Business Secretary and the Chief Secretary served with the Chancellor in the Cabinet for five years. Together all three of them voted to put up VAT. The Liberal Democrats voted with the Tories to raise tuition fees to £9,000. They voted with the Tories for the hated and iniquitous bedroom tax. The fault is not in their stars, but in themselves, and the British people will not let them forget it.

Future Government Spending

Julian Smith Excerpts

Wednesday 4th March 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gauke]

If the Labour party will not meet our spending plans and is going to borrow more—it is giving itself more wriggle room, even though it has signed up to the charter, which commits it to £30 billion of fiscal consolidation—where is the money coming from?

[Julian Smith (Skipton and Ripon) (Con)]

Small businesses across north Yorkshire are really worried about the fact that Labour has not yet ruled out a jobs tax, should it be elected. Are they missing something?

[Mr Gauke]

That is the key to the matter. The truth is that there will be either a tax bombshell or a borrowing bombshell if the Labour party is in office. It fought the last general election campaigning for an increase in the jobs tax. I have a strong suspicion that a future Labour Government will look at precisely that to fill the gap.

Tax Avoidance (HSBC)

Julian Smith Excerpts

Monday 23rd February 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

I said in my statement that the proper procedures had been followed for the appointment of a Minister, and that the Cabinet Secretary and the director general of ethics in the Cabinet Office had been involved. I am not privy to the tax affairs of any individual citizen, and it would be a gross abuse of our constitution if I were. Our procedures allow HMRC to talk to the House of Lords Appointments Commission, and it did so on this occasion, so those procedures were followed. Any Labour Members who ask questions about our appointment of Stephen Green to the post of Trade Minister could be asked questions about their decision to appoint him as chair of the Prime Minister’s business council, and to retain him in that post after the revelations that appeared in the Financial Times in 2009.

[Julian Smith (Skipton and Ripon) (Con)]

Many small businesses and taxpayers in north Yorkshire will be shocked by the time line that the Chancellor has just described. Will he clarify once again what the last Government knew and when?

[Stephen Pound (Ealing North) (Lab)]

What a creep!

Tax Avoidance (HSBC)

Julian Smith Excerpts

Monday 9th February 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gauke]

I think the hon. Gentleman has just made the point that my hon. Friend the Member for Wellingborough (Mr Bone) raised in the previous question.

[Julian Smith (Skipton and Ripon) (Con)]

Last week, Bill went missing. This week, it is Ed, who had sole responsibility for these issues in 2007. Why does the Minister think that no substantive action was taken in those years?

[Mr Gauke]

That is a very good question for the shadow Chancellor. It is a pity he is not here today.

Autumn Statement

Julian Smith Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd December 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

The Labour Chancellors in the last Government who came from Scotland in the end gave this country the highest budget deficit in its peacetime history. They left a country with high unemployment, and questions were being asked about Britain’s ability to pay its way in the world. We have turned that around: unemployment has fallen across the United Kingdom and in Scotland, and the part of our UK that is seeing the fastest rate of job creation at the moment is Scotland.

[Julian Smith (Skipton and Ripon) (Con)]

The Chancellor’s northern powerhouse vision is seeing the greatest transfer of powers and money south to north for generations. Will he confirm that in doing more to devolve powers to northern cities, rural and county areas will not lose out?

[Mr Osborne]

I can give my hon. Friend that assurance. This is a policy not just for cities, but for the shire counties that surround them. Rather like him, I represent a shire country seat outside a great northern city. This is about strengthening the transport links between the shire counties and the cities; it is about making sure that superfast broadband is available in our rural areas; it is about supporting towns and not just cities in the north of England. It is about ensuring that the whole thing is connected up in a way that it has not been before, so that the north of England has the economic clout of a great global city. I think we are well on the way to developing that.

Oral Answers to Questions

Julian Smith Excerpts

Thursday 1st May 2014 Commons Chamber

[Sajid Javid]

I can tell my hon. Friend that the rural broadband programme is making good progress. I accept that it is patchy in certain parts of the country, but a number of projects have gone live as the roll-out has begun. I will examine the issue that he raises, but the current evidence shows the rate of connectivity rising and suggests that the match funding programme is progressing well.

[Julian Smith (Skipton and Ripon) (Con)]

9. We are grateful for the Government funding for superfast broadband in North Yorkshire, and we are well on the way to getting high penetration across the country. One way in which we can reach our most remote areas is through technology, and BT has a new, smaller fibre box, but it needs special regulatory approval. What can the Secretary of State do to help us move that process on so that we can deliver to our most remote areas?

[Sajid Javid]

My hon. Friend rightly highlights the significant role that BT plays as a huge stakeholder in rolling out superfast broadband around the country. I have already had a meeting with BT in my new role, and I look forward to having further meetings to see how the process can be taken forward.