Budget Resolutions

Tonia Antoniazzi Excerpts

Thursday 27th November 2025 Commons Chamber

[Tonia Antoniazzi (Gower) (Lab)]

I am really pleased that the Chancellor has announced that the Government are clamping down on illegal high street activity—let us call it “shop a shop”. My constituents Stuart Evans and his son, who run a fish and chip shop in Gorseinon, have raised concerns that other high street shops are exploiting cash-only operations, so I welcome the additional funding to support stronger and more joined-up enforcement against those who break the rules. I am looking forward to changes to the legislative framework, which currently limits trading standards enforcement capabilities; in fact, I am going to meet trading standards officers in Swansea very soon.

I also welcome the removal of the two-child benefit cap and the abolition of the rape clause, because 1,270 children in Gower will benefit, with 450,000 lifted out of poverty nationally by the end of the decade. I thank the Minister—my hon. Friend the Member for Swansea West (Torsten Bell), who is my constituency neighbour—for helping my constituents who used to work at the former 3M plant with the pre-1997 indexation issues that they had with their pensions.

I want to take this opportunity to raise a couple of other subjects that are very close to my heart, and I have had conversations with Front Benchers and the Chancellor regarding some of my concerns. I am the chair of the all-party parliamentary beer group— [Interruption.] I get all the fun gigs. We recently published a report following our inquiry into how brewing and pubs can help drive economic growth. I want to flag the report to the Minister, because it is really important. We have seen a change in the business rates, but we feel that the industry faces issues across many different departments. The sector is a key driver of local and national prosperity, and it plays such a crucial role in helping to get young people into jobs. That is why I think the apprenticeship stuff is really good, so I thank my Front Benchers for that. It is really key that we get young people working, create good jobs and revitalise our high streets, and I know that strengthening our communities is very much what we need to happen. I also welcome the reduction in energy costs.

I am going to keep my comments brief, but I want to bring up some issues in the Chamber. My Front Benchers know that my constituency is on the outskirts of Swansea. I have a large agricultural community, and I am really concerned about their wellbeing. No one in the agricultural community denies that we need to reform inheritance tax, and I genuinely welcome the small move that will help farmers—the spousal arrangements that allow widowers to transfer relief from their spouse—but the idea that farmers do not pay tax is nonsense; of course they do. However, that change does not address the impact on the elderly and terminally ill, and it also penalises divorced and single farmers. I gently urge those on the Front Bench and the Chancellor to look at the Finance Bill, consider the recommendations from my Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, the Welsh Affairs Committee and the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, and look at potential Government amendments to move things to a better place.

If we can remove the anti-forestalling clause, especially for lifetime gifts, I will not be having phone calls and conversations with people in the agricultural community who may be thinking of taking their own lives before 6 April next year, because those are the conversations people are having with me and other MPs across these Benches. I urge the Government to think about that, because this community feeds us—it feeds our nation—and it needs to have the ear of the Chancellor.