Oral Answers to Questions

Liz Jarvis Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd December 2025 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Let me start by congratulating Rochdale football club on being top of the league for the time being. [Laughter.] Well, I say that because I know who is top of the premier league, but it will be in March and April that we find out who actually wins.

My hon. Friend is right. Thanks to the actions in the Budget, every household will see £150 off their energy bills, and because we have now extended the warm home discount to 6 million of the poorest households, they will save an additional £150. In the north-west, that benefits about 280,000 households. That is huge cost of living support for families alongside freezing prescription charges and rail fares and boosting the minimum wage.

[Liz Jarvis (Eastleigh) (LD)]

Q14. My constituent Tracey owns O’Briens, a lovely café in the heart of Eastleigh. She works tirelessly to make it a success, but spiralling costs including business rates, VAT and the hike to employer national insurance contributions mean that she has not been able to take a salary for four months. David, the owner of Steam Town Brew Co and Jayne, the manager of the Holiday Inn in my constituency, say that their businesses will be impacted by the Government’s stealth tax on our high streets. They feel let down. Will the Prime Minister look again at the Liberal Democrats’ call for an emergency cut in VAT for hospitality?

[The Prime Minister]

We put in place a strategy for small businesses, which was broadly welcomed by small businesses, because they contributed to it. That involves some of the key asks they made of us, including on late payments and greater flexibility when it comes to licensing for hospitality. We will always look at other measures that can help small businesses. We set out quite a lot of them in our small business strategy.