Debate on the Address

Matt Western Excerpts

Wednesday 13th May 2026 Commons Chamber

[Matt Western (Warwick and Leamington) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Dewsbury and Batley (Iqbal Mohamed). I agree with the point he made about representing all our constituents, whether they vote for us or not.

I thank His Majesty for the Gracious Speech earlier, and I place on record my massive appreciation for the speech given by my hon. Friend the Member for Bradford West (Naz Shah). I think Members from all parts of the House would agree that it was a truly inspirational and uplifting speech. Likewise, I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Harlow (Chris Vince) for his typically amusing but informative speech. May I say just how well he represents the good people of Harlow?

In the last parliamentary Session the Government passed 50 pieces of legislation, including the Employment Rights Act 2025 and the Renters’ Rights Act 2025. We banned no-fault evictions, and brought four rail companies into public ownership. While we were doing all that and introducing much more legislation, we increased the minimum wage above inflation, reduced the number of children in poverty by 450,000, and brought NHS waiting lists down by 500,000. So much has been done, but people would not realise that from reading the papers or listening to the media. Let me just add that we also launched 676 family hubs across England, which are hugely welcome following the loss of the children’s and family centres that we had before.

I welcome the King’s Speech. It recognises the dangerous world in which we live, and the necessity of building security and resilience throughout our lives. I welcome the emphasis on security—economic, national, energy and defence—as well as the reform and renewal of public services: the NHS, the police, justice, immigration systems and, indeed, water. It also proposes long-term investment in housing and to strengthen infrastructure. It mentions 37 Bills that will improve the country in the long term. I was encouraged by the Prime Minister’s announcement about British Steel in Scunthorpe and by the legislation to be introduced for its nationalisation, which shows real ambition on the Government’s part; I hope it is an indication of where we will go in the future.

The Prime Minister referred widely to the status quo today, so perhaps I can start with how I think we got here. Let us first think back to nearly 20 years ago, and the 2008 global financial crash. That was followed by austerity, which I believe was the wrong political decision, and subsequently by the EU referendum; and then, of course, we had the pandemic. All those elements have contributed to a stasis in the UK economy. Let us now think back to what we had in the run-up to 2010, when the economy was beginning to emerge from the global financial crash, before the move to austerity frustrated the nascent growth in our economy. Austerity meant that investment was cut while interest rates were at record lows. Any investor worth his or her salt would have been investing in this country, in infrastructure, when we had interest rates at 0.5%. If I had had the money I would have been investing it, and that is certainly what the Government of the time should have been doing. When we look at the infrastructure today, after 14 years of austerity, we can see the cracks, and they are not just in the roads or the schools and hospitals.

Let me now say something about what happened to the economy following Brexit. UK in a Changing Europe has said:

“By 2025, we estimate that UK GDP per capita was 6-8% lower than it would have been without Brexit. Investment was 12-18% lower, employment 3-4% lower, and productivity 3-4% lower.”

Between 2009-10 and 2024, incomes grew by just 0.5% a year on average, or 7% over the whole 14-year period. Income growth over the 14 years prior to 2009-10 was more than five times as strong, at 38%. We can see the huge loss in real earnings that was suffered by citizens—by our workforce—as a result of austerity and then Brexit. According to the Office for National Statistics, average UK real household income has remained broadly unchanged between 2007 and 2022.

This has left the UK woefully unprepared to deal with the crisis that we face in a more dangerous world. War is raging in Europe and the middle east. The Iran war is forecast to cause a decline in employment of 0.4%, with construction and manufacturing the worst hit. J.P. Morgan has predicted that the price of Brent crude will average $96 per barrel throughout 2026, so there is no respite on the horizon when it comes to oil prices and, of course, the contribution that they make to all our costs, to the cost of living and to the economy.

Despite all that, we saw growth return when the Labour party returned to government in 2024 and through to the beginning of this year, and there was optimism. Consumer confidence was returning and business investment was improving, but then we got hit by the Iran war. Given the constraints of what is going on globally, the Government’s push to build closer relationships with Europe is so important. As I understand it, the legislation that is being proposed will see the introduction of a dynamic alignment mechanism to reduce trade friction and the burdens on business.

As I said, because of Brexit, UK GDP is now 6% to 8% lower than it would have been by last year, and employment and productivity are both around 4% lower. What is essential is that the partnership Bill will aim to reduce costs for businesses, and to increase trade and co-operation, and it will ultimately be better for consumers. Given that the EU accounts for 42% of UK exports, with automotive accounting for £29 billion of exports, the EU is a massive market for my constituency of Warwick and Leamington, which has a very large automotive presence. We have to think about the Bill in the wider sense of partnership through broader legislation, international law and maritime law, but as others have said, we also need to recognise how important some of the proposals are, particularly on the Erasmus programme and the benefits that it will bring to young people.

The energy independence Bill will be important to our resilience. We need to move our economy away from fossil fuel dependency, and setting more ambition on energy infrastructure and generation will improve our resilience. That is important for my constituency, and not just because National Grid is headquartered there and we have a major Siemens Energy operation, although they will clearly be beneficiaries of the ambitions that the Government are setting out on increasing grid capacity and the adoption of clean energy technologies. It is vital that we reduce our dependency and avoid external shocks, as we have seen most recently with the Iran war and over the last four years or so as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. That is really important not just for wider society but for businesses, because we have traditionally had such high energy costs.

The Government are looking to introduce a small business protection Bill, which will have a particular emphasis on late payments. I commend the Federation of Small Businesses for the work that it has done for many years on this front. Late payments cost the UK economy £11 billion per year and cause 14,000 businesses to close annually. The introduction of the Bill is fantastic news, and I really welcome it.

I am also impressed by what I am hearing about the SEND reform Bill. I held a roundtable on 5 September last year, where I listened to practitioners and families talking about their lived experiences and what we needed to do. I am encouraged by the proposals, including on the delivery of integrated SEND partnerships and tiered support models. The critical thing is that we should reduce waiting times and improve the quality of service that families currently experience.

I want to talk about the impact of cyber-attacks and cyber-security on businesses, which we have heard about. In the last year, we have seen significant impacts. The attacks on Jaguar Land Rover cost around £2 billion. They hit not just Jaguar Land Rover, but the UK economy. A year ago, Marks & Spencer and the Co-op were hit too. As we have heard, the number of attacks that we are suffering is huge. We are the third most cyber-attacked nation in the world, and the most cyber-attacked in Europe, and it is really important that the Government get to grips with it. The Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy, on which I sit, has identified this as a really important area for the Government to address.

In a similar vein, on defence and security, I welcome the Government’s comments in the King’s Speech. It is vital that we get the defence investment plan. I hope that, through bonds or an investment bank, we can get this plan going and get it the funding it desperately needs. We need to improve our security and increase our spend, but we also need to develop our sovereign capacity, with the fantastic businesses and partnerships that this country offers, with others, in some of the new spheres of defence.

On the Representation of the People Bill, I think the legislation that has been put forward is really encouraging. I have tabled some amendments to it, and I hope that we can create a very comprehensive piece of legislation, because democracy—not just here in the UK, but of course across the world—is under threat. It is really vital that we tighten up the Bill and put in protections to ensure that our democracy, which is a fragile thing, is defended.

I welcome the water reforms that the Government have been talking about. In my constituency, the River Avon and the River Leam are badly polluted as a result of the discharges made by Severn Trent Water. Through some of the proposals being made, including for the new integrated water regulator, I hope we will see such changes and a tightening up of the regulations.

I want to talk about the Leasehold and Commonhold Reform Bill. I understand that the expected provisions will cap ground rents at £250, reform the commonhold system and bring an end to forfeiture. This is so important because, on so many of the new estates built in recent years, so many residents are angry about what they have been mis-sold, as they see it, in buying those new properties.

More widely, on digital ID, I disagree with the hon. Member for Dewsbury and Batley (Iqbal Mohamed). We should seize this huge opportunity, as so many other nations have done, because of the advantages that digital ID is bringing. Ultimately, it has to be a good thing. The Northern Powerhouse Rail Bill is so important for rebalancing our country. Yes, the tourist tax is a good thing, but I hope the Government will also look at introducing a VAT break for tourists in this country, because at the moment we are losing tourists to other countries where they do get VAT breaks, and that is impacting on our tourism sector. I welcome the ban on conversion therapy practices and the private hire legislation being considered.

As the Prime Minister said earlier, UK economy and society have not been adequately prepared and are not resilient enough. We cannot continue with the status quo. We have to reform our systems and structures. We need to address reform in the NHS, and in our energy systems and water utility infrastructure. We must also hold the cost of living as the fundamentally central issue of the time, because that is what is really hurting so many of our residents, but also our businesses.

Last week’s elections really showed that there is impatience across the country—people believe that the system is not working for them—and we need to show greater urgency in the work being done. Once more, we are in yet another global economic and political crisis, after so many of them, as I illustrated earlier in my speech. We have two wars, but we have the social and security challenges more widely, so we have to seize the moment. We have to demand boldness of the Government and a more radical approach if we are indeed to build a better society, and I stress that we must do so as a matter of urgency.