Budget Resolutions

Lara Bird Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd November 2026 Commons Chamber

[Lara Bird (Arbroath and Broughty Ferry) (SNP)]

There has been quite a lot of chat about future generations throughout this Budget debate. I feel like I have aged a lot over the last four months in this place, but I want to speak today on behalf of a younger generation and, more importantly, the young people who live in my constituency.

Although he is not in his place any more, I would like the Secretary of State to put himself in the shoes of a young person in my constituency—a young person who has come to me in the last few days to tell me that since the Chancellor’s announcements last week, they are feeling not hopeful, but fearful. I would like the Secretary of State to imagine that he is a young person who has been to university, worked hard and made personal sacrifices to do everything that he was told he was supposed to do. I would like the Secretary of State to understand what it feels like to be a 21-year-old today, and to try to see how much breathing space there really is for entire generations of young people, who feel more hopeless than ever before, who have been let down time and again by successive UK Governments, and who, in my constituency, despite Scotland voting overwhelmingly to remain in the EU, were dragged out against their will, and so have come of age in broken Brexit Britain.

Let us imagine that this young person in my constituency studied for their undergraduate degree in an English or Welsh university and took out the standard tuition and maintenance loan. This young person might now have £60,000 of debt—an amount that they will watch rise year on year, even after they start paying it off, because this Government have changed the terms of a contract that young people signed in good faith. Because the Chancellor has failed to reverse the cruel repayment threshold freeze implemented by his predecessor, young people face the reality of paying off their student loans for the entirety of their working life. Many young people, my peers included, have said that they feel that they will never be debt-free, and I want the Secretary of State to understand how it feels to be a young person at the beginning of their career, staring at that much insecurity and financial instability.

In Scotland, we do not punish people for pursuing higher education, but our young people who choose to study elsewhere in the UK face consequences that were previously unimaginable. Debts have moved past stifling, and are now simply oppressive. To me, that speaks of a Government who are comfortable targeting low-income graduates for tax revenue, squeezing young people’s disposable income and making it impossible for them to save.

If this young person finds a job—perhaps in hospitality, for which Labour has refused to cut VAT—and they are paid the minimum wage, they will earn enough to make student loan repayments, at 9% of their earnings. Given the ever-rising cost of living, there is almost no chance that they will be able to make savings. They likely find it near impossible to get to the end of every month in credit. Because of Labour’s personal allowance freeze, that young person will see a larger chunk of their income eaten by taxes, without gaining any purchasing power. I want the Secretary of State to imagine how it feels to be a young person who, on payday, instead of feeling financially secure, feels despair.

Many young people across Scotland and my constituency, and further afield, cannot rely on financial support from their family. If that young person is renting a flat, they are likely to see their energy bills increase again in January, taking the total to more than £1,000 more than Labour initially promised, and dwarfing any minuscule changes made by announcements last week. In Scotland, that young person might be one of the 800,000 Scots now paying higher gas bills to subsidise English taxpayers, or one of the 150,000 Scots relying on heating oil who receive no support at all for that—this Labour Government so often forget about rural communities. That young person will be watching as the Resolution Foundation predicts that the disposable income of the average household is set to fall by £1,000. For a young person who is already struggling to put fuel in their car, that is a terrifying concept.

For a young person on the cusp of their adult life, who has done nothing but work hard, but who is staring in the face of job insecurity, the fear of never receiving a state pension, and the certainty that they will never be able to afford a house, and who has lifelong student debt hanging over their head and monthly costs that completely consume their earnings, the Budget is cold, hard confirmation that the new iteration of a Labour Government is no better than the last. Young people in Scotland deserve to feel hopeful, and to have ample opportunities to learn, save and work. That is not what they get from this Labour Budget.

Oral Answers to Questions

Lara Bird Excerpts

Thursday 2nd July 2026 Commons Chamber

[Chris Bryant]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right, not least because in the most recent figures, our trade in goods with Europe has fallen by 2% in the last year, whereas our trade in services has grown by 7%. All of this shows what a shockingly appalling, shameful, despicable deal was done by the previous Government with the European Union. It was bad enough leaving, but the terms on which they left were absolutely appalling for British businesses. We are determined to turn that around, and we will.

[Lara Bird (Arbroath and Broughty Ferry) (SNP)]

Ten years on, Brexit continues to have a detrimental impact on Scottish businesses to the tune of almost £4 billion in lost revenue per year. Forty per cent of businesses say that Brexit is the main cause of trade difficulties. One of the worst hit sectors is farming, and lots of farmers in my constituency have written to me—even in the last two weeks since I was sworn in—to tell me that Brexit continues to put up barriers to business and trade, including through labour shortages, trade friction and long-term uncertainty over subsidies. At a time when food insecurity and the cost of living cannot be disentangled from the experience of farmers, what is the Minister doing to support farmers in my constituency to produce the food that we need at this crucial time?

[Chris Bryant]

I want to recruit the hon. Lady to my campaign to make sure we end up with a better deal with the European Union, so that UK farmers can export easily and readily into the European Union and we can get goods from across the rest of Europe into the UK easily. So many sectors are affected. I sat down yesterday with Tracy Emin, one of the world’s greatest artists, who explained to me the problems since Brexit in bringing artworks in and out of the European Union from the UK. Resolving those problems is an important part of ensuring that we remain the second biggest art market in the world—again, part of the creative industries, which we should be supporting.