Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Stephen Flynn and Rachel Reeves

Tuesday 9th December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Reeves]

I thank my hon. Friend for that question. We are backing building and getting Britain building with the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, which passed yesterday—I think without the support of Conservative Members, but frankly, we do not need them. We are backing our automotive sector with changes to employee car ownership schemes, the electric car grant and so much more. We are backing the British manufacturing industry—automotives, buses, trains and everything else.

[Stephen Flynn (Aberdeen South) (SNP)]

Prior to the election, the Daily Record reported the Chancellor as having said that Labour will be as economically radical as Thatcher. With the closures at Grangemouth and Mossmorran, uncertainty over the Acorn project and 1,000 jobs being lost every month in the North sea, have I finally found a promise that this Chancellor has kept?

[Rachel Reeves]

As the right hon. Gentleman knows, we are backing Grangemouth and have put money into the Acorn carbon capture and storage project. We are taking £150 off people’s energy bills in Scotland. In England and Wales, NHS waiting lists are falling. I wonder why they are still increasing in Scotland.

UK-China Economic and Financial Dialogue

Debate between Stephen Flynn and Rachel Reeves

Tuesday 14th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Reeves]

What is really important is that we take decisions in Britain’s national interest. Taking decisions in the national interest means engaging with our trading partners all around the world, which is why, since being appointed as Chancellor, I have been to Brussels to reset our relations with the European Union, as well as to Washington and New York to welcome investment from overseas. I have secured £600 million-worth of benefits for UK businesses doing business in China.

[Stephen Flynn (Aberdeen South) (SNP)]

Will the Chancellor of the Exchequer do what the Prime Minister refused to do yesterday and rule out future spending cuts?

[Rachel Reeves]

I am not going to write five years’ worth of Budgets in the first six months of a Labour Government, but I am absolutely committed to meeting the fiscal rules that I set out in the Budget in October. We know what happens when Governments lose control of the public finances: they crash the economy and end up on the Opposition Benches.