Family Businesses

Nusrat Ghani Excerpts

Wednesday 26th February 2025 Commons Chamber

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

The Speaker has not selected the amendment. I call the shadow Chancellor.

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[Mel Stride]

rose—

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

Order. Before the shadow Chancellor responds, let me says that “a concern of yours” would mean a concern of the Chair’s. Let us start off today’s business in good form.

[Mel Stride]

Madam Deputy Speaker, I think that I should put it on the record that you have always been very pro-farmer, and that should never ever be brought into question by anybody in this Chamber.

I have always been extremely proud of our record of supporting farmers up and down the country. That has been the case ever since I first came into the House in 2010, representing a highly rural constituency right in the middle of beautiful Devon. This party should be very proud of the many schemes, financial support packages and so on that it introduced while in government.

[Mike Martin (Tunbridge Wells) (LD)]

I thought that I would let the shadow Chancellor make a little progress in his speech before intervening on him. It seems odd to hear a speech about the economy from the Conservative party without any mention of Liz Truss. Now we hear mention of trade deals. Let me ask him this very directly: does he think that the policies of Liz Truss—[Interruption.] The shadow Chancellor cannot hear what I am saying, because the Members behind him are shouting.

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

Interventions should be very short. Come to a conclusion quickly.

[Mike Martin]

Does the shadow Chancellor think that the policies of Liz Truss were good for business investment and confidence in the economy?

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[Wendy Morton]

The point that we are trying to make is that the Minister is looking only at one dataset, not the big picture. We have spoken a lot about farmers, but the business property relief is about the whole of the business community. Will he not go away and have another look at this, taking account of all the evidence that, hopefully, he has been listening to since the announcement of this reckless policy?

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

Order. Before the Minister continues, let me remind Members who have not understood the etiquette that they cannot just wander into a debate when someone is on their feet and try to intervene. They need to take part in the whole debate.

[James Murray]

I return to the point that I have made several times today: the way to understand how the policy on agricultural property relief and business property relief will work is to look at actual claims data—the claims as they relate to individual estates. The overall value of farms or businesses does not tell us exactly what the estate value will be through an individual claim. That is the correct way to approach it.

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[James Murray]

What I accept, as I said earlier, is that our difficult decision on employer national insurance contributions will have impacts on different businesses across the country. But the hon. Member should welcome—businesses across the country will welcome this—the extra support that we have provided through draught relief to support those pubs to succeed. That is an essential part not just of our economic activity across the country, but of our social lives and enjoying pints. I know that enjoying pints matters very much to Opposition Front Benchers.

I will try to make some progress, because there is quite a lot to cover in the Opposition’s motion. On employment, the motion seeks to undermine the Employment Rights Bill, so let me directly address those points. The Bill is the first phase in delivering our plan to make work pay, supporting employers, workers and unions to get Britain moving forward to bring greater predictability to the lives of working people. While I recognise that the flexibility offered by zero-hours contracts, zero-hours arrangements and low-hours contracts can benefit both workers and employers, without proper safeguards that flexibility can be one-sided, and it is far too often the workers who end up bearing all the financial risk.

That is why we have committed to ending this one-sided flexibility, to ensure that all jobs provide a baseline of security so that workers can better plan their lives and their finances. That includes ending exploitative zero-hours contracts. We will deliver the commitment through two measures: first, a right to guaranteed hours where the number of hours offered reflects the hours worked by the worker during a reference period; and secondly, new rights to offer reasonable notice of shifts, with proportionate payment for shifts that are cancelled, moved or curtailed at short notice.

I will try to draw this to a close. [Interruption.] Opposition Members might not want to hear it but, out of respect to you, Madam Deputy Speaker, I will bring my remarks to a close. The motion exposes a Conservative party that is happy to object to the difficult decisions that we have taken but totally unable to offer an alternative plan of its own. The debate has also allowed me to set out, on behalf of the Government, how we are moving fast to take the sometimes difficult but necessary decisions to deliver our plan for change.

We are taking the right decisions to fix our public finances, to restore stability and fiscal responsibility, and to ensure that both businesses and their employees can work productively and securely to drive economic growth. The changes that we have begun making are essential for economic growth, so we reject the Opposition’s motion. We are determined to move further and faster to make people across the UK more secure and better off.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

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[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

Order. As the Front-Bench contributions were so substantial and so many colleagues wish to contribute, there will be a time limit of five minutes.

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[Lincoln Jopp (Spelthorne) (Con)]

Will my hon. Friend give way?

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

Order. You have 10 seconds left, Mr Thomas. Do you want to finish?

[Bradley Thomas]

I will finish by saying that I will always be proud to stand up for small businesses in Bromsgrove and the villages, and across the country.