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1. 28 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Dame Meg Hillier

   Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

   I count the hon. Gentleman as a friend, because he serves on the Treasury Committee and is indefatigable in his attempts to ensure that the Government are listening about research and development in defence and across wider sectors. It sounds as though, between us, the Government have heard that message. Before I move on to the main thrust of the Budget, I want to address the Leader of the Opposition’s comment about plan 2 student loans. The Treasury Committee looked at this issue, which is having a very big impact on that generation of young graduates—the engine room of Britain, and the people who will be funding and growing our economy in the years to come, and making sure that the ageing population is supported. We need to do everything we can, and intergenerational fairness is a big strand of the Treasury Committee’s concerns, but let us be clear: who set up plan 2 student loans? It was the previous Government. I talk a lot about slow politics. Governments should make decisions that will stand the test of time in 10 or 20 years, as well as dealing with the challenges of today and the catastrophes that might occur, either globally or locally, next week. Plan 2 student loans were designed by the Conservative Government and left as a ticking time bomb for this generation to pick up. Although I am saddened that we have not seen a change to the threshold at which repayments are made, I hope that the Chancellor will consider that as part of his longer-term plans, to make sure that this generation has one fewer burden. I hope that we will see some talk about that in the weeks to come. Before the Chancellor rose to his feet it seems that some bank shares increased in value. I am concerned about that and, with the permission of the Treasury Committee, I will write to the Financial Conduct Authority to see if there is any evidence of leaked market-sensitive information that may have led to that movement, because that would be a very serious issue. On that point, I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Chancellor on his very strong clampdown on speculation and leaks ahead of this Budget. He knows, as we all do, that stability is so important. He cannot completely halt wild speculation, but clamping down on leaks from the Treasury and the wider system is very important. Despite the headwinds, the debt forecast has only slightly worsened. We have seen a Budget that pushes stability, and I welcome some changes in particular. The Treasury Committee looked at cash ISAs and the changes that were proposed in last year’s Budget, and as we said then, it was not the right approach. Building societies use cash ISAs to lend to home purchasers, and they were going to be particularly badly hit. Most people have much less than £20,000 in a cash ISA, and many never get anywhere near £12,000. The average is between £3,000 and £7,000, depending on how we cut the figures, so it is right that the Chancellor has made changes. I look forward to seeing the starter ISA for investors, and the Committee will examine the changes in detail, but the previous proposal had overcomplicated the system. The ISA is a trusted brand, and the Chancellor has taken a good step. On the subject of building societies and mutuals, in a hidden corner of the Red Book is the announcement that my hon. Friend the Member for Peterborough (Andrew Pakes) has been appointed as the Government’s co-ops and mutuals champion. I commend him for achieving that position following his many years of hard work in this area. As the chair of the Co-operative group of MPs in Parliament, I am delighted that the Government are further leaning into the progress they have already made in supporting co-ops and mutuals. That is important for getting growth and the involvement of people in every community up and down the country, because this is a way of people owning and having a say in the shaping of their services and their outcomes, whether it is a credit union, a food co-op or a childcare co-op—the list goes on. There are many opportunities. I welcome the reform of lifetime ISAs—again, something that the Treasury Committee produced a report on. The removal of the penalty payment seems like the only just approach to that. We have a challenge when products such as ISAs are created but do not work as well as they could, so I welcome the Chancellor looking at that. I am delighted to see some changes in housing. In my constituency, house prices are rocketing through the roof, rents are high and thousands of people are living in temporary accommodation, and those in housing are often severely overcrowded. Every weekend I visit people who are living with three children in a one-bedroom flat—a very typical picture—with no freedom or agency to move, because the cost of housing is too high, the cost of rent is too high, and we do not have enough social housing. Indeed, it is cheaper to buy back from a leaseholder who is selling their property than it is to build new houses, so the VAT reduction for housing associations is a welcome first step.

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2. 28 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Dame Meg Hillier

   Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

   The hon. Gentleman anticipates a further area of my speech. I believe very firmly in devolution, but there are some caveats. That is something that we may consider. Of course, I chair the Treasury Committee, but I do not make all the decisions for the Committee—it is not an autocracy, unless its members choose to make it that way—so we will discuss that issue. On housing, there are areas that are too detailed to go into the Budget, but I hope there is some discussion in the forthcoming spending review about system-built housing. In Murray Grove in Hoxton, in my constituency, some millennium products built by Peabody still stand the test of time. They were system-built offsite, which reduces the cost of construction and makes it faster, but we do not have enough throughput in the factories that do this for them to survive and thrive. That is a potential opportunity for us in the UK. The Chancellor has a huge challenge. We are facing very difficult fiscal circumstances, but the wider picture is that we are seeing some green shoots of hope. According to early estimates, the economy grew by 1.8% year on year in the three months to August—the fastest pace since the country was rebounding from the pandemic in 2022. GDP has grown at an annualised pace of 2.7% so far in 2026, with early estimates indicating that growth has continued into the third quarter, and productivity has grown by more than 1% per worker in every quarter since the end of 2024. There is a degree of hope that if we keep stability and keep focused, we will meet some of the challenges.

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3. 28 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Dame Meg Hillier

   Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

   The hon. Gentleman is a good campaigner for his constituency and raises these issues repeatedly, but there has been some support from the Government on that issue. The Treasury Committee will be poring through the detail of what the Chancellor has announced today, so he may take my plaudits today, but we will go through that detail to see how much this delivers cumulatively for a household, which I know is the mission of the Chancellor and the Prime Minister. On that point, we will wait for the detail, but there is a limited pot of money, and it must be targeted at those who need it most, notwithstanding the challenges the hon. Gentleman’s constituency faces. There are choices to be made.

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4. 28 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Dame Meg Hillier

   Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

   I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Harlow (Chris Vince)—I say that just to up his constituency’s mention count. Around 48,000 households in my constituency households will benefit from the council tax rebate for those in bands A to D. I am assuming the Government took this approach because it is a simple way of getting the money into people’s pockets, but how that works will need a lot of unpicking. It is an instructive figure, in fact, because people think that London’s streets are paved with gold, but one in two children in my constituency are living in poverty, it is among the top three for the pensioners deprivation index, and it has a very high level of deprivation overall, while there are also challenges with the cost of living.

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5. 28 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Dame Meg Hillier

   Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

   As the hon. Gentleman rightly highlights, I have not had time in the moments since the Chancellor sat down to go through every graph in the Red Book or, indeed, the OBR’s forecast. Obviously, the Chancellor laid out the figures very clearly at the Dispatch Box, and we will be raising these issues in the Committee. It is easy to pick one measure that has gone down, but sometimes the figure will go up in a later year, and despite the headwinds, there is some room for optimism. Let me let me be very clear—I think the Chancellor would expect me to say nothing less, as Chair of not only the Treasury Committee, but the Liaison Committee—that Chairs of Select Committees see our role as robust scrutineers of the work of the Government of the day, whichever party is in power and whichever party we are from, as a core part of what we do. There will be nowhere for the Chancellor to hide when he comes before us on 11 November, but I am sure he is robust enough to be prepared and to take on all comers.

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6. 28 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Dame Meg Hillier

   Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

   The hon. Gentleman raises quite a detailed point, but we know that AI can add about 0.2% to productivity in the economy overall. I do not have direct figures for the NHS, but my sister Committee—the Health and Social Care Committee, ably led by the hon. Member for Oxford West and Abingdon (Layla Moran)—will no doubt be looking at these issues. As he knows, the Committee corridor is examining the power of AI, covering both the costs and the opportunities, and I am sure the House will continue to discuss the opportunity to improve productivity in various guises and to scrutinise the Government very robustly on that. What is interesting about the Budget is that some of its measures are for today, but it is clearly rooted in longer-term reforms, which I welcome, because we need to be thinking about the long term. One of those measures is devolution, and I am a firm believer that power should be devolved to the most appropriate level. In fact, when I was a baby councillor with the now chief of staff to the Prime Minister back in 1994, he and I were both responsible for devolving powers to areas within pram-pushing distance. I should say for younger Members that this was before the days of the internet, which perhaps dates me too much. Giving people a say over spending in their own local area can be a really powerful way of engaging people with the decisions that are made—not seeing politics as something distant and remote, but very much part of their communities.

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7. 28 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Dame Meg Hillier

   Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

   I have given way several times, and a lot of Members are waiting to speak. Whitehall is often just too distant—not just physically and geographically, but in attitude—from communities and towns up and down the country. I always say that we should not make decisions about people without people. However good our civil service is—and I pay great tribute to the many civil servants I have quizzed over the years about public spending—there will still be a challenge if we do not have the right people around the table, and that may be because they just do not know what is going on in a geographical area. Our mayors have a very important role, but if money is to be devolved to them, there needs to be very strong local accountability. Of course, the last Government abolished the Audit Commission, which I think is a great sadness, and we have seen huge challenges in local government audit. The Mayor of London has the strongest accountability, with 25 London Assembly members able to challenge him openly and regularly about his spending, and powers to delve into the detail, but mayors in other areas do not have that. I would say to the Government and the mayors that there is very good reason to have very strong accountability. First, a mayor will want to prove to their constituents that they have spent money effectively, and to be transparent about that, so that when they come up for re-election, people know that their mayors are not frittering away their hard-earned tax pounds and that they are delivering the things they want. Secondly, if a mayor spends money well in their area, they might prove to the Government that they can get more bang for the taxpayer pound than Whitehall achieves by doing it from a distance. Dare I say it, but there may even be times when the Government of the day do not give quite enough money to deliver what was promised, and mayors need the figures to prove that they have been short-changed. In all those circumstances, we need a stronger accountability process, and I hope that we do not go so fast in the drive towards devolution that we do not have those checks and balances in place. I am very pleased about the moves on cheaper energy and clean power. The Chancellor mentioned GB Grid, which is a start, but about 400 projects are needed to upgrade the grid, and I believe that GB Grid covers 10 or 11 of them, so there is still a huge challenge to get the grid up to speed to meet the target of net zero by 2050. I think the pledge to buy and build only when new technologies will lower bills and be connected to the grid may be an important driver in that area. We may want to quiz the Chancellor about that—as, I am sure, our sister Committee, the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee, will want to do with the relevant Ministers in due course. I welcome the energy cost reductions for businesses, because I think all Members across the Chamber have heard that businesses have been really struggling in that regard. I have also been pushing for the closure of the loophole on VAT for online marketplace sales, so I am pleased to see that. On the face of it, this Budget looks as though it has done a good job, but the devil is of course in the detail, so I again put the Chancellor on warning that we will be looking through that detail over the next few weeks. We have the Office for Budget Responsibility before the Treasury Committee next week, alongside other economists, and we will have the Chancellor himself on 11 November, when we will have had a chance to go through all the figures in detail and can challenge him on what he has promised today and the promises for the future. Overall, I think we must see cross-party support for the approach to support households in these challenging international times, when a lot of the things that buffet the Government are very difficult for them to control. We must support small businesses. Quite rightly, we all are lobbied a lot by our small businesses. People invest their energy in their businesses, and they need support. We need a long-term vision. Part of our challenge as scrutineers of the Government on the Committee corridor is to hold them to account for their 10-year plan—which we have yet to see—for reshaping the state and devolution. I again warn all Ministers sitting on the Front Bench that the Budget may feel good after the statement today, but we will be challenging them in detail about the money they are spending, whichever Committee they appear before.

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8. 28 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Chris Vince

   Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

   The House will be determined to know how this Budget is going to benefit Harlow. Does my hon. Friend agree that the £100 direct payment into the bank accounts of Harlow residents will make a huge difference this winter? By the way, it will help over 39,000 households in council tax bands A to D.

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9. 28 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Chris Kane

   Oil and Gas Sector: Jobs

   For many of my constituents in rural Stirling and Strathallan, energy security also means being able to afford the heating oil they rely on to live and to run businesses from home. What discussions has the Secretary of State had with Cabinet colleagues about ensuring that support for jobs in the oil and gas sector is mindful of the need to deliver the affordable and secure energy that many rural homes and jobs rely on?

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10. 28 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Chris Hinchliff

    National Scheme of Delegation of Planning Functions

    I suspect I am doing neither the right hon. Lady nor myself any favours by saying I absolutely agree with her. It is our duty as MPs to robustly defend local democracy. Does she agree that, when the communities we represent and their directly elected councillors oppose speculative development, the answer is not to silence their voices but to secure genuine public consent with a higher standard of development that meets local needs and hopes for the future?

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11. 28 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Chris Evans

    Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

    Thank you, Mr Speaker, for coming especially to hear my speech; I am most grateful to you. We have seen the rise today of a new political philosophy. It is called miserablism. They are so miserable about everything. The Chancellor could have stood at that Dispatch Box and said anything—he could have awarded £1 million to every single person in the country—and still the Opposition would have complained, because all they ever do is talk about prescription, rather than what they would do instead. When I first came into this House, all I ever heard about was deficit reduction. I heard Members who have spoken today say, when we were on the Opposition Benches, that we should apologise. We hear no such apology now. The very tenet of miserablism is to ignore the good news, such as the fact the deficit is coming down. The Chancellor has said that we will be back in the black within three years, despite economic headwinds that we have no control over in Ukraine and the middle east. The fact is that, on the ground, people are seeing the change. I will talk about three things in the limited time I have. First, on small businesses, my constituency is full of independent small businesses run by hard-working, innovative people. They add to our vibrant high streets and town centres, creating a sense of community. Small businesses will find it easier, thanks to this Budget, to serve their communities and provide local jobs. The increase in the threshold required to pay business rates, from £12,000 to £18,000, will lift 70,000 properties in the UK out of paying business rates and will help so many businesses in Caerphilly. If anybody wants to see the good news in Caerphilly, just look at what has been happening in Caerphilly borough, which in September was announced as having the fastest business start-up rate in the whole of Wales. Caerphilly has experienced a 49% increase in business start-ups during the first eight months of this year compared with the same period last year. That is a testament to Jamie Pritchard, the leader of our Labour-controlled council. People want to come to Caerphilly to do business because they believe in what we are doing there. Alongside that, the UK Government are channelling investment into south Wales, which has helped to unlock £23 million for Norgine, a leading European pharmaceutical company in my constituency, to develop its Hengoed facility, which is expected to create 44 new jobs. If I was going to talk about one thing that does affect most people—if I had to take a straw poll in my constituency—it would be energy bills. Extending the VAT cut to July will help so many people. Not just householders will benefit from that. I remember visiting a business in my constituency, Rees Gym, which was worried about energy costs. The new British industrial competitive scheme will cut costs there as well. Gas standing charges will be removed from household bills. There will be a payment of £100 into people’s bank accounts if they are in council tax bands A to D, and the Plaid Cymru-led Welsh Government have already said that they will honour that in Wales, although they have also complained about some sort of cut. Miserabilism has found its way across the channel as well. I also want to say something about the miners. I come from a mining family. My grandfather was a miner. He was buried under three tonnes of coal and was invalided out of the mines. He was an example of the hundreds of thousands of people who built our society and who sacrificed their life and their health to keep this country moving. That is why I am so pleased that 100% of the surplus of their pensions will now go to them. It is only the beginning, and yes, we need to talk about future bonuses, but I am heartened and I genuinely believe that the Chancellor is a good man. He comes from working-class stock, as I do. He will speak with the National Union of Mineworkers and we will come up with a deal that will be satisfactory to all sides. I want to say to all those ex-miners who live in my constituency: we are on your side, we hear what you are saying and we will continue fighting for you until you get the justice you deserve. Finally, in the last couple of seconds, I want to talk about defence. It is all very nice and warm to say, “Let’s hit 3.5% of GDP by 2030”, but that only scratches the surface. I am looking at the right hon. Member for South West Wiltshire (Dr Murrison), who was a Defence Minister; he will know the same things that I know. The Ministry of Defence is a uniquely failing Ministry. It is wasting money. If we want an example, let us look at Ajax. The MOD has already spent £5.5 billion on an armoured vehicle that is still not in service. That £5.5 billion could have been used on other things such as training exercises or equipment. I make this appeal to the Chancellor. When he was the shadow Secretary of State for Defence and I was the shadow Defence Procurement Minister, we came up with a policy that said that the Comptroller had to look at the way the Ministry of Defence spent its money. I hope he resurrects that idea and sends the National Audit Office in to make sure that every penny piece is accounted for, because that is the only way forward.

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12. 28 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Chris Evans

    Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

    My hon. Friend is making an important point about the mutual sector. Does he agree that credit unions should be part of that, and that managing credit unions to become building societies would be a way of rebuilding our mutual sector in this country?

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13. 28 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Catherine West

    Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

    It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Epsom and Ewell (Helen Maguire). There is much to be welcomed in today’s Budget speech. For me, it was solid but not flashy—it was from the man who has HP Sauce on his sandwich, rather than pesto alla Genovese or tapenade aux olives. It is a really good Budget for the everyday, supporting households, helping small business and doing all it can for our fantastic start-ups. Today’s debate takes place in the context of the IMF having said that the fundamentals of the UK economy are solid: unemployment is down by 26,000 among the working-age population and productivity has improved. However, the cost of a barrel of oil today is $114. I do not think any other Budget over the past few years has faced that sort of impact on every single thing we consume as a country, so the timeliness, tone, careful presentation and panache with which it was delivered were a real pleasure. In my speech on the Budget last year, I reflected on Attlee’s 1945 Labour Government. Labour rebuilt the country, built the welfare state, built the NHS and built council homes up and down the country, but this year, the more appropriate leader to reflect on is the Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson. He once said: “I want to show that as a government we are sensitive to little points which may be trivial in the context of government policy but carry a disproportionate weight in people’s minds.” That is the paternity cover for white-van employees that my right hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North (Liam Byrne) mentioned. It is the help that the children at Coppetts Wood primary school are getting with their breakfast clubs, on top of the school meals provided by the Mayor of London and Barnet council. It is also the use of empty office buildings. Harold Wilson once proposed the nationalisation London’s Centre Point; that building ultimately gave its name to the homelessness charity Centrepoint, which is still going from strength to strength today. What price can we put on bringing somebody in from the cold to be given a night away from those freezing temperatures and served by people in our constituencies? Those people do not necessarily work for the council; they may be from the Museum of Homelessness in Finsbury Park in my constituency, the Muswell Hill community kitchen or the street kitchen on the Harringay ladder. All those volunteers do brilliant work with those experiencing street homelessness, and they have been in touch to say how much they like the style of our Prime Minister and the solid style of our Chancellor. I am pleased to see that £39 billion has been earmarked to deliver 300,000 homes from 2026 to 2036. I know that there is a bit of gloom around the Chamber, but we can be positive about the fact that when the cost of a barrel of oil was down at $70 a barrel just six months ago, things felt a bit more hopeful. One of the things that is implied in this Budget is the redoubling of effort by the Foreign Secretary to use our might abroad to bring people around the table to talk about the link between conflict and household budgets. Even if we did not see a total cessation of violence, but at least people were talking to each other, we might move towards $70 a barrel again, as compared with $114 today. That would see things turn around, as the fundamentals of our economy are strong. I welcome the Your First Home scheme, backed by £4.7 billion. Both Haringey and Barnet councils will be pulling out all the stops to ensure that everyone has a safe, secure and affordable home, and they will be working on those ever longer lists of homeless individuals. I also welcome the statements about assisting councils with the fiscal devolution road map, as it is being called. I look forward to Dame Louise Casey coming forward with her plan. I hope that councils will be pump-priming their adult social care departments so that, together with the NHS and social care partnerships, we can see that national care service become a reality much more quickly. Barnet’s Labour-run council earned dementia-friendly status and has worked with residents on an engagement and co-production charter for adult social care, working closely with Unison and other trade unions. That is the sort of co-operation we want to see. I have talked about why we need good housing and good social care. The final piece of the puzzle is good, well-paid jobs. I am incredibly pleased to hear that the minimum wage is set to increase once again under a Labour Government for 2.3 million of our lowest-paid workers. We often hear in the media, from different quarters, about the damage that the minimum wage or the London living wage are doing. We rarely hear from people who have had a pay rise, who think, “That really helped me this week.” I welcome that rise, particularly for people in entry-level jobs. They might have hoped to get on a career ladder, but through a twist of fate in their own lives, are on the minimum wage or the London living wage for their entire career until they retire. For those workers, these increases are crucial. In 1967, Harold Wilson applied for Britain to join the European Economic Community. In my constituency, 81% of people voted to remain in the European Union, and they want me to point out how important it is to the UK economy that we get closer to Europe. We know that Brexit hit our economy, making it 6% smaller, and we all know the importance of allowing the Prime Minister to go to Brussels next month with as free a hand as possible. Let us not hold Britain back. What about our children and young people who want to look forward to travelling abroad and having experiences where they learn a language and meet other people in their region? They will then get to know the difficulties in Europe and understand what it means to defend Europe, and they will appreciate the opportunities that are out there. For our future prosperity and for our children, we need to be at the heart of that European debate. Finally, today’s Budget speech laid out timely, carefully presented interventions, with families and small business at their heart. I like the style of the Chancellor. It felt safe and it felt like the right thing for today. As we see, I hope, an improvement in the international conflict picture, we will see an improvement due to the good fundamentals that this Labour Government have produced since 2024.

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14. 28 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Catherine Fookes

    Causing Death by Dangerous or Careless Driving: Sentencing

    I thank my hon. Friend for securing this important debate. I want to raise the really sad case of Sophie Brimble, which was brought to me by her sister. Sophie was killed as a passenger in a car with her boyfriend, who was driving at three times the speed limit. The driver was found unfit to plead and therefore walked out of court without having to face justice. The unfit to plead law dates back to 1836. Does my hon. Friend agree that reforming it is long overdue?

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15. 28 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Cat Smith

    Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

    It is a pleasure to follow the right hon. Member for East Antrim (Sammy Wilson) and to speak again in a Budget debate. Often in debates on the Budget, I have heard announcements, as a Lancashire MP, about pots of money that my area has not been eligible for because we do not have a devolution deal, so I was really pleased to see in today’s Budget that we are now in the final stages of agreeing a devolution deal in Lancashire for a mayoral strategic authority. That opens up the opportunity for my constituents to have the same options as the rest of the north of England, which already has these deals. The indication is that Lancashire will now be able to access good growth funding worth £7.27 million, which will unlock prosperity in my constituency and right across the red rose county.

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16. 28 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Cat Smith

    Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

    I do agree with my hon. Friend, and I wish her well in Stafford with the situation at her local council. I urge local leaders in Lancashire to get this deal over the line. I hold my hands up and confess that I was perhaps the least enthusiastic of the Lancashire MPs when it came to the prospect of having a mayor, but I recognise that, without that, my constituents will be left behind. Therefore, we all need to work together in Lancashire to make sure we can access this funding. The biggest issue my constituents raise with me— I was recently out doing street surgeries in Scale Hall in my constituency and was approached by several people who raised this same issue—is energy bills, so I suspect my Scale Hall constituents will be particularly pleased to see the £100 energy support payments, which should benefit over 37,000 households across Lancaster and Wyre in council tax bands A to D. On top of the extension of the 0% VAT on electricity bills until June next year and the abolition of the standing charges on gas, that will come as welcome relief to families right across my Lancashire constituency. I regularly meet the business community, and recently met representatives from the Lancaster business improvement district, who made the case to me about the challenges facing the retail and hospitality sector. I am pleased to see the retail, hospitality and leisure business rates freeze, which is estimated to benefit 638 properties in Lancaster and 640 properties in the Wyre council area of my constituency—hundreds of businesses in my constituency will benefit. Constituents have also raised with me the challenges on the high street. Increasing small business thresholds and removing eligibility for vape shops and adult gaming centres will go down really well with my constituents. I welcome that; it will mean that high streets, like those in Garstang and Lancaster, will thrive and be places where people want to spend time and money supporting our great local businesses. There were also announcements in the Budget to cut fertiliser tariffs to give farming businesses more room to breathe. That will certainly go down well with my farming constituents. The rise in fuel prices is disproportionately affecting users of red diesel, so Lancaster and Wyre farmers will welcome the extension of the 3.7p cut to duty on red diesel for a further six months. That keeps the rate at its lowest level for 20 years. My final contribution to this debate is about a missed opportunity. The economic cost of alcohol harm in England is estimated to cost us £27.4 billion annually. That includes costs to the NHS, the justice system, the wider economy and social services. The financial burden on the NHS alone stands at £4.9 billion, which is enough to pay the salaries of almost half the nurses in England. The culprit is the very strong, very cheap alcohol that is available everywhere in this country, from supermarkets to corner shops—and increasingly from the delivery services that will deliver it to the door, day and night. This situation often makes vulnerable people drink far more than is safe and creates the ideal conditions for escalating alcohol harm. That harm that can be reduced by introducing minimum unit pricing—something that is already in place in Wales and Scotland, and has seen reductions in harm there. Millions of people are consuming alcohol at levels that increase their risk of serious health conditions. The severity of harm rises as alcohol consumption increases, and cheap alcohol drives higher consumption. At a time when the NHS is under immense pressure and health inequalities continue to widen, there was a significant opportunity today for the Government to have taken an evidence-based approach to tackle alcohol harms. That approach makes economic sense and would rapidly improve public health and save lives. I want to stress that minimum unit pricing does not damage pubs, restaurants or the wider hospitality sector. It is specifically designed to target the cheapest, strongest alcohol sold through supermarkets and off-licences—the products most associated with serious alcohol harm. We have to remember that alcohol-related deaths have remained high since the pandemic; they have not been coming down. I believe that we need to take radical action. Introducing minimum unit pricing would benefit the economy and save lives. The measure has support across the hospitality sector, which recognises the distinction and sees cheap off-trade alcohol as a broader market concern. I leave the Front Bench with the concerns that I have around not addressing alcohol harms, and the benefit that minimum unit pricing could have for the economy and public health. I welcome the Budget overall. It offers breathing space for my constituents in Lancaster and Wyre.

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17. 28 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Bill Esterson

    Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

    It is a great pleasure to follow the right hon. Member for Godalming and Ash (Sir Jeremy Hunt). He gave a very thoughtful analysis—when he was not selling his book, but I am not going to accuse him of that being his primary reason. He mentioned breathing space. I do not think he was saying that it was not important to people, and he acknowledged that. The breathing space gives a direction of travel and, to answer some of what he was saying, that is the context for the Budget. It was very much a Budget for energy and cutting bills. It was very much a Budget for tackling growth challenges and for showing how important growth is, as set out by my right hon. Friend the Member for Hove and Portslade (Peter Kyle), who has left his place. That is for a very good reason: we are in the middle of the second big energy shock in a few years. To the right hon. Member for Godalming and Ash’s concern about mortgage rates, I add my concerns about the impact of inflation if we do not tackle the costs of energy and the impact on prices more widely. That is true for consumers and it is true for businesses and the wider economy. Bringing down the cost of energy had to be a fundamental part of this Budget, and that is exactly what it was. Progress has been made and will continue to be made. I note in the Red Book that gas now sets the price of electricity 60% of the time. Just two and a half years ago, that figure was 98%, so huge progress has been made. It is also the case that opportunities are available for people to switch to electricity. It is up to nine times cheaper to drive an electric vehicle compared with diesel, and not all of that is due to the exceptionally high prices that we have at the moment. However, these things point in the same direction: that the energy transition is in our interest, through ending our dependence on the uncertainty, the danger and the threat that we face from having to import oil and gas. I know there are people who will claim later in this debate that it can all be got from the North sea, but it simply cannot. There would not be enough of it, even if we were to increase production. The announcement on Jackdaw is welcome. It will increase by a relatively small amount the amount of gas coming ashore to the UK to be used here, but it is a welcome amount. As well as the challenges around costs, there are huge challenges on how we move on from here, including challenges around how to build out the grid further. The Budget’s announcements mark the start of how to address the challenge, and I will come back to one or two of them later. The Budget contained a range of measures on bills, and I think they are about more than breathing space. They include the VAT cut that was confirmed by the Chancellor today, and the council tax cut of £100, which will benefit 32,200 households in my constituency alone. We should be welcoming these proposals. The ending of standing charges for gas will help some of the people in the greatest fuel poverty around the country, and I welcome the announcement of something similar to come on electricity standing charges. It must be right that, at this time, in this scale of crisis, the priority is to help people with their energy bills and to use the bank surcharge for a year to do so. It is also welcome to see no more policy costs on bills, and the announcement of a longer-term commitment there is very much in that vein, too. We heard earlier in the week about the use of loans in the warm homes plan to make it easier for people to take advantage of the technologies in moving to electrification. To the point about the reduction in the amount of time gas sets the price on the system, the increase in renewables on the system is, as the Red Book sets out, closing the gap between electricity and gas prices. It is crucial that it is made as attractive as possible for people to move to electricity, in transport and in home heat, and that is one of the things the warm homes plan will help with. The more people can take advantage of these things, the cheaper it will be for them and the greater will be the opportunities for industry. The warm homes plan is a confidence builder for industry to invest in the installation of technologies such as solar, storage, heat pumps and other forms of electric heating and, potentially, hybrid heating. My Committee will be looking at that in our inquiry on the subject, which we are about to start. This builds on the £150 off from scrapping the energy company obligation scheme and the moving of the renewable obligation to the Exchequer, as well as the £50 million of help for homes that rely on heating oil for their heating. On the subject of energy security, there are good commitments in the Red Book on the expansion of renewables, and also on nuclear. I welcome the statement on the need to review and reform the institutions—the National Energy System Operator, Ofgem—the way the Department operates and the uncertainty and confusion over where the networks fit into the picture. This is absolutely essential if we are to roll out the grid faster, to make the most of the opportunities in the new technologies, and indeed to move ahead with nuclear. I note the recommitment in the Red Book to the application of the findings of the Fingleton review. This is something my Committee has called for, because we need to have certainty on the siting of the next large-scale nuclear power stations after Sizewell C and Hinkley Point C, and also on what comes next after Wylfa with SMR2. There will be good support from the British industrial competitiveness scheme, with 10,000 energy-intensive businesses benefiting. My Committee will also be asking about the cost control framework and the reforms to the market. We certainly need to know more about what they are. As has been pointed out, more detail is needed, and my Committee’s role will be to try to identify exactly what is going to come next. There is a strong link between the new generation of electricity and cutting bills. There is also a commitment to continuing to break the link between the price of gas and the price of electricity, especially by fixing the price for new renewable projects, which will provide protection against volatile gas prices and the uncertainty that we all face now. I see this Budget as an important next step in the commitment on energy. I see energy as a fundamental part of the growth agenda, as well as recognising the importance of delivering energy security. The Government have taken a pragmatic approach. We heard an intervention earlier about the energy wealth fund. It is a huge shame that the then Conservative Government did not set up a sovereign wealth fund in 1990 like Norway did, because had they done so, it would now be worth over £1 trillion to this country. However, we now have an energy wealth fund, and it is part of the economic opportunity of the 21st century. We have seen success in the latest auction rounds, commitments on nuclear, rapid progress on renewables and the warm homes plan. Alongside the announcements on procurement and more widely, these present an opportunity to support the economy and develop jobs and growth, as well as keeping down bills. This is a Budget for energy bills and for energy security, but it is also very much a Budget for growth through investment in energy.

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18. 28 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Anneliese Dodds

    The Global Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Sanctions Regulations 2026

    Often in these Delegated Legislation Committees, we think we are just going to be talking about technical issues and maybe not covering matters of groundbreaking importance, but I have to say that I feel a bit of the weight of history on my shoulders today. I think I am the only Member here who was on the Public Bill Committee for the original Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Bill—the SAML Bill, as it was referred to previously. Obviously, that was being worked on at the end of 2017, into 2018. Back then, the Opposition were trying to persuade the Government of the time to take on Magnitsky sanctions, as they were known then. For a long time we did not get very far, but I am very pleased that Baron Benyon, as he now is—who had possibly been put on the Bill Committee by mistake—came to our rescue. He managed to get us there, and I am very pleased that the Conservative party—the then Government, now the Opposition—took that on. I must pay tribute to them, because they did try to make a success of that regime, but I am really proud that it is now being expanded. It is so important that it is, and I am very proud that that is happening under a Labour Government. We should take a moment to remember the people who pushed for Magnitsky sanctions in the first place—not least Bill Browder—in memory of Sergei Magnitsky and his truly disgusting treatment by the Russian regime. We need change, so I am very pleased with what the Minister said. I was pleased to see the round of sanctions that he mentioned earlier this week on the one-year anniversary of the fall of El Fasher, particularly the focus on conflict-related sexual violence; that is not common in sanctions regimes, but it is absolutely right that the UK is taking a stance on that. The Minister has obviously provided a great example of the direct consequences of sanctions, but we also saw with the previous round of Sudan-focused sanctions that one of the worst perpetrators of truly horrific violence in the Sudan conflict, who was sanctioned by the UK and named and shamed, then appeared to be removed from the command structure of one of the warring parties. These measures have a direct impact, and I am really pleased that their scope will be expanded. We see in so many contexts, as others have talked about, the manipulation of life-saving aid as a weapon of war, over and over again. Sadly, that has only become more common, so it is right that we are taking this action now. I hope the Government will keep this under review in relation to Sudan. I hope they will also be focused on the fact that we see many external actors involved in Sudan. We have seen that through the UN’s fact-finding mission report, in relation to the United Arab Emirates in particular, but also other countries. I was pleased that the Government reaffirmed their commitment to that report in the House yesterday, and I hope they will bear that in mind in everything they do: sanctions, but also their actions at the UN. I should also mention that some representatives from South Sudan were in the House this week. They said that they thought it was important that our sanctions regime should notice the connections between what is happening in Sudan and South Sudan, particularly given that the US, for example, has used visa bans on South Sudanese individuals who have been responsible for violations of human rights. I also associate myself with the remarks of my hon. Friend the Member for Oldham East and Saddleworth (Debbie Abrahams) when it comes to the west bank and Gaza and IHL. This legislation really represents our values as a country. The UK supports international humanitarian law, and we have done since the end of the second world war. We should be really proud of our principles, not just in rhetoric but through hard action that hits the perpetrators of violations where it hurts.

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19. 28 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Anna Turley

    Draft Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 (Specified Purposes Related to Policing) Regulations 2026

    I beg to move, That the Committee has considered the draft Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 (Specified Purposes Related to Policing) Regulations 2026. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Hobhouse. I will set out to hon. Members what this draft statutory instrument will do in broad terms before turning to the why. The regulations are made under section 36(8) of the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025. They specify the meaning of “purposes related to policing”. The draft regulations enable the Secretary of State for Transport—in practice, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency acting on her behalf—to share trailer registration information with the police for use for policing purposes. Where the 2025 Act permits, the regulations also enable the onward disclosure of trailer registration information by police and Home Office recipients to a person exercising public functions for use in connection with the same policing purposes. In short, the instrument gives full effect to the information-sharing framework established by Parliament, enabling trailer registration information to be shared and used for the full range of specified policing purposes. I now turn to the wider context in which the draft regulations sit. The overarching aim underpinning them is to strengthen the use of data in support of policing and border security. In 2018, Parliament enacted the Haulage Permits and Trailer Registration Act 2018, establishing the trailer registration scheme administered by the DVLA on behalf of the Secretary of State for Transport. For the avoidance of doubt, the trailer registration scheme does not collect biometric information. Hon. Members will recall the tragic deaths of 39 Vietnamese nationals who were found in a lorry in Essex in October 2019. The police faced challenges in their response, because of obstacles to identifying who the trailer belonged to. Subsequently, the 2025 Act created an information-sharing gateway for trailer registration information to be supplied to specified law enforcement bodies. The Act allows the DVLA to supply trailer registration information to the police for specified purposes related to policing, and its onward disclosure by the police and the Home Office for the same purposes. However, Parliament also required the meaning of “purposes related to policing” to be set out in regulations subject to the affirmative procedure. That requirement has brought this draft instrument before the Committee. Before I get into the specifics, I will make two important points. First, without the draft regulations, the relevant provisions that I referred to would not be fully operable. Secondly, in practice, police use of trailer registration information would remain confined to law enforcement and national security purposes. Let me now turn to the detail. The draft regulations define “purposes relating to policing” by reference to well-established policing functions. They specify that the purposes include: first, protecting life and property; secondly, preserving order; thirdly, preventing the commission of offences; fourthly, bringing offenders to justice; and, finally, any other police duty or responsibility arising from common or statute law. That means that trailer registration information can be used where it is operationally necessary, ensuring that the DVLA can give forces timely access when they need it to carry out their vital functions. That might, for example, be in a safeguarding context. Other potential uses include roads policing or the response to serious incidents, as well as criminal investigations. I should clarify what the regulations do not do: they do not create new powers, nor do they expand the categories of information that may be shared. They simply define the scope within which existing statutory powers may be exercised. Clearly, the sharing and use of information must be supported by appropriate safeguards. I therefore say to the Committee that the draft regulations are limited and proportionate. They do not impose new duties on the police or the Home Office. They do not alter the wider legal framework in which they sit. Existing protections continue to apply, including under the Data Protection Act 2018, the Human Rights Act 1998 and the relevant public law principles. The Information Commissioner’s Office has been consulted and has expressed no concerns in respect of this legislative change. Taken together, the safeguards are there to ensure lawful and proportionate use of trailer registration information. Under section 36(9) of the 2025 Act, the Home Office consulted Scottish Ministers, the Department of Justice in Northern Ireland and policing bodies across the UK. Responses indicated broad agreement that the proposed definition reflects all policing functions. Where consultees suggested refinements, the Government concluded that these matters were already encompassed within the proposed definition, and that the approach aligns with the established policing codes of practice and information-handling frameworks. In Scotland, the Scottish policing principles will continue to apply and did not need to be separately referenced in the draft regulations. The draft regulations will apply across the UK, and they are expected to be implemented through existing operational and IT processes without the need for new systems or additional funding. The draft regulations are necessary to give full effect to the trailer registration information-sharing provisions in the 2025 Act. They are designed to bring clarity and consistency to processes that, subject to appropriate safeguards, will support the police and the Home Office in their vital work. I commend the draft regulations to the Committee.

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20. 28 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Anna Turley

    Draft Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Act 2025 (Specified Purposes Related to Policing) Regulations 2026

    I thank all Members for their thoughtful consideration of the statutory instrument. I welcome them—that is why we are here. I will start by mentioning some of the broader context, which I hope will address some of the issues raised by the right hon. Member for Staffordshire Moorlands. The statutory instrument is in the context of our broader work to strengthen border security and tackle organised crime, which we take extremely seriously. I am grateful to Opposition Members for their engagement through the Immigration and Asylum Bill Committee. We are looking through the border security plan to target the whole criminal model, as the right hon. Lady says, from smugglers to the supply of boats, engines, international routes used, criminal finance and online advertising. We know that by the time people get to the beaches of France, it is almost too late. We are working throughout the whole process to try to address the causes, the supply chains and the organised crimes behind this. International co-operation is central to that effort, and we are strengthening co-ordination with France and other European partners while disrupting organised criminal networks, equipment and facilitators further upstream. To reassure the hon. Member for Mid Bedfordshire, that effort is producing results, as he knows: small boat arrivals down by over 40%, more than 6,500 organised immigration crime disruptions and over 80,000 removals. But these gangs are highly adaptable; they change launch locations, vessels, supply routes and operating methods when pressure is applied. We are therefore ensuring the system can identify those changes quickly, assign responsibility and respond when new methods become established. In response to the question from the right hon. Member for Staffordshire Moorlands, I can confirm that the instrument will apply to all relevant policing purposes, which include immigration enforcement operations, the issue that she mentioned of sexual offending and other policing uses. Its purpose is far broader than purely immigration. It is to support the police to have access to trailer information that, by some anomaly, they have not had access to historically. I am grateful to colleagues for their thoughtful and constructive questions and points, and for their support for the draft regulations. They are proportionate and focused, and do not introduce new powers to collect information, nor do they create new policing functions. They provide clarity and consistency, ensuring that trailer registration information can be used in support of legitimate policing activity, subject to the safeguards and protections that Parliament has already put in place. I commend the draft regulations to the Committee. Question put and agreed to.

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21. 28 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Andy McDonald

    The Global Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Sanctions Regulations 2026

    It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Stringer. I draw Members’ attention to my role as co-chair of the Britain-Palestine all-party parliamentary group. I welcome these regulations and congratulate the Minister on laying them before Parliament. These powers apply globally. Colleagues have rightly cited the heinous crimes in Sudan and Ukraine, but I want to focus on their potential application to Israel’s conduct in the occupied state of Palestine, where recent events demonstrate the urgency of translating these new powers into action. Earlier this month, more than 100 humanitarian human rights organisations, including Save the Children and the Norwegian Refugee Council, warned that Israeli restrictions on aid, essential equipment and reconstruction materials continue to prevent Gaza’s recovery. Meanwhile, the UN reports at least 160 settler attacks associated with the west bank olive harvest in the first fortnight of October alone, sometimes involving Israeli forces. The World Health Organisation reports median approval delays of 74 days for medical supplies, with 40% of laboratory and diagnostic equipment awaiting approval. The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs has similarly documented continuing obstacles affecting the delivery of essential humanitarian supplies and equipment. Against that background, I, too, have some questions for the Minister. First, are the Government currently assessing whether the documented actions in Gaza and the west bank meet the new grounds for designation, including the responsibility of Ministers, military commanders, senior officials and those involved in the arbitrary detention of Palestinian children? Secondly, will the humanitarian assistance provisions be applied to those responsible for decisions or omissions obstructing food, medicines, essential equipment and the operation of humanitarian organisations wherever the statutory criteria are met? Thirdly, how will the Government assess financiers, companies and commercial interests supporting or facilitating qualifying violations, including those associated with the maintenance and expansion of illegal settlements? My hon. Friend the Member for Oldham East and Saddleworth (Debbie Abrahams) referred to the Great Israeli Real Estate Event earlier this year. I have also been made aware that, at Sunday’s MedEx UK event in London, an organisation was distributing leaflets advertising medical vacancies in illegal Israeli settlements, while another exhibitor was reportedly offering to help British people to relocate to what it described as “awesome” settlements. What is the Government’s response to that? Will the Government issue new guidance to the Charity Commission, banks and other financial institutions and relevant businesses making clear their obligations and the risks of financing or facilitating qualifying violations associated with illegal settlements? Fourthly, the E1 settlement tender concerns 1,234 homes, with bids not due to be opened before 19 November. Will the Government seek to make their first evidence-based designations before 19 November while there is still an opportunity to deter further commitments to the E1 development? Will the Minister also provide Parliament with a timetable for the implementation of these powers and the wider promised action on settlement goods and services? I very much welcome the regulations, but their effectiveness will be judged by whether they deliver timely and meaningful accountability, not simply by the powers they place on the statute book. I would welcome some comment by the Minister and hopefully some reassurance on these matters.

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22. 28 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Andy Burnham

    Engagements

    Our thoughts are with everybody in Spain who has been affected by the devastating train crash this morning. I have been in touch with Prime Minister Sánchez to relay our condolences and to offer any support that we can give. May I also send condolences to the families who lost loved ones during the storms over the weekend, and thank our emergency services and everyone who has worked so hard to support those affected? Let me, in his final week, pay tribute to the Clerk of the House for his 30 years’ service to this place. Tom’s wisdom, professionalism and abilities at the piano are all hugely admired, and I know that the whole House will wish him well for the future. Finally, I am sure that the whole House—including, I am sure, those on the Scottish National party Benches—will join me in congratulating Harry Kane. From Leyton Orient, on loan, to the Ballon d’Or—what a journey! Many congratulations, Harry. We are all so proud of you. This morning I had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others. In addition to my duties in the House, I shall have further such meetings later today.

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23. 28 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Andy Burnham

    Engagements

    My hon. Friend is right. The water industry is a symbol of what has gone wrong. The private interest has been allowed to dominate the public interest, which is why we will introduce a strengthened water Bill that will lift the bar on public ownership, alongside other reforms over the next decade. The vast majority of the public support this. They do not want to see sewage in our rivers and seas—unlike, I believe, the Leader of the Opposition, who told her conference recently, “Water privatisation has been a success.” She cannot really believe that, can she?

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24. 28 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Andy Burnham

    Engagements

    There is no confusion at all. The Government have a collectively agreed position, which I have set out today. It is entirely consistent with everything I have said, including what I said at the time of the by-election. The red lines in our manifesto, including those on freedom of movement, will stay firmly in place for the whole of this Parliament, but what I will not do is defend the deal negotiated by the right hon. Lady and the Government she was in, which, in my view, gave us a harder Brexit than was promised at the referendum, and has been bad for growth and bad for control of immigration.

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25. 28 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Andy Burnham

    Engagements

    It may have escaped the right hon. Lady’s notice that we are three weeks away from a UK-EU summit. It is an opportunity to improve the poor deal that the Conservatives negotiated and to get a better deal in place for Britain—a deal that backs British farmers and British food producers, and that removes red tape from our businesses. If we get the right deal, it will protect our car industry, protect our steel industry and allow better co-ordination on migration. The Tories used to stand for these things. If they still do, will she back Britain’s negotiating position as we go into that summit?

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26. 28 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Andy Burnham

    Engagements

    I do, because I am not. I am trying to get a better deal for Britain at the summit that we are about to go to. The right hon. Lady has mentioned things said in the past. Can I remind her of what she said? [Interruption.] Well, I am going to—I am sorry. She said it was a mistake for the Conservative party to “leave the European Union before we had a plan for growth outside the EU.” She has just nodded. She may as well have said it was a mistake to leave the EU without a plan in place to control migration, because that is what led to the Boriswave under the Government she was in, when migration into this country changed and went away from revolving-door migration and towards long-term settlement. It is why my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary is having to reform indefinite leave to remain. She has my support in making those changes, but let us have a little humility from those on the Conservative Benches, who left Britain with low growth and migration out of control.

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27. 28 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Andy Burnham

    Engagements

    I think I have answered that very clearly by saying that the red lines in the manifesto are firmly in place. The right hon. Lady stood there a moment ago and said that she admits mistakes. She was asked twice by BBC London during her conference whether Brexit, and the deal she negotiated with her colleagues, was good or bad for London, and twice she could not bring herself to answer that question. Perhaps, before she finishes today, she will answer it now.

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28. 28 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Andy Burnham

    Engagements

    Yes, yes—now the right hon. Lady is speaking the truth. The country was paralysed by the Conservative party: low growth, insufficient control on migration. That is what this Government is dealing with, and my right hon. Friend the Chancellor will stand up and show that we have a plan to get that growth going across the country. Where I am focused is getting a better deal for Britain. That is my responsibility, and I will lead from this Dispatch Box over the next few weeks. I will do everything I can to get a better deal for Britain—a better deal for farmers and food producers, less red tape on our exporters, more support for our steel and our car industries, more control of migration. I will stand here and defend doing that, as well as being true to our manifesto. That is the difference between this side and that side of the House: we stand up for the British interest. Where is the Tory party of old that used to stand up for those things? The reason she could not answer in this House today on whether or not she was backing the position that I have set out is that she is too worried about the threat to her right to stand up for Britain. [Hon. Members: “Hear, hear!”]

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29. 28 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Andy Burnham

    Engagements

    I have repeatedly set out the red lines of the manifesto, and can I just say this one final time? I am doing what I can to get a better deal for Britain, and getting a better deal for Britain, I can tell the right hon. Lady, is part of this job. I am standing up for British business. Can I tell her who supports what we are doing? The CBI, the Federation of Small Businesses, the British Retail Consortium, Asda, Morrisons, Marks & Spencer, Salmon Scotland—they all support what we are trying to do. Why does she not join us, with other colleagues across this House, and send a strong message that Britain is calling for a better Brexit deal, so that we can get growth going again, as my right hon. Friend will shortly show to this whole House?

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30. 28 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Andy Burnham

    Engagements

    I do agree with my hon. Friend. I do not think we should accept in this country that anybody should spend even one night sleeping rough on the streets. I said when I walked up Downing Street coming into office that I wanted to change that and wanted to bring an end to rough sleeping. I am grateful to my right hon. Friend the Chancellor for committing funding for the whole of this Parliament to support a drive to give everybody an offer of support, and I can confirm to the House today that we are increasingly confident that everyone will get such an offer before the Christmas break. My hon. Friend is right to raise this issue, and I thank him for attending the summit. I hope everybody will get behind this national drive.

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31. 28 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Andy Burnham

    Engagements

    I am prepared to meet the right hon. Gentleman, and I thank him for what he said. It is a start, but we are in a position where we are trying to build a cross-party consensus around better support for older people, a new social care system in which there is much stronger support for family carers, as he has so rightly argued.

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32. 28 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Andy Burnham

    Engagements

    As I have said today, we will not be doing those things in this Parliament, but let me come back to what I was saying to the right hon. Lady the Leader of the Opposition. We will take pragmatic steps where we can to support British business by improving the Brexit arrangements that we have got. I think it is extraordinary that the Conservative party, the Opposition, are unable to back us in getting in place those better arrangements that would make a real difference for people in their constituencies trying to export to the European Union. People will have heard that very clearly today. The Conservatives claim to be the party of business. They have turned their back on them today. This party never will.

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33. 28 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Andy Burnham

    Engagements

    My hon. Friend is absolutely right to call out President Putin’s actions, which have resulted in thousands of innocent Ukrainian children being killed, people forced into the bitter cold, and sending his own Russian people to die on the frontline. I spoke to President Zelensky this morning, together with the Chancellor. We assured him of our steadfast support. We said to him that we will always take sanctions and we are committing to more sanctions. That is the clear commitment that we are making to stand with Ukraine, whatever it takes.

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34. 28 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Andy Burnham

    Engagements

    I am ready to make an offer to Wales similar to the one I recently made to the First Minister of Scotland, and I will do so on Friday. I am glad to hear of the right hon. Lady’s commitment to pushing power down for deeper devolution. What I will put on the table on Friday is an offer of greater devolution of employment support, so that we can have a different approach to supporting people in communities to get back to work and supporting the economy. That is a starting point; there will be more to come. I look forward to working with the right hon. Lady and her party on that issue.

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35. 28 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Andy Burnham

    Engagements

    I will give my hon. Friend that commitment, because the visit I made to FARE Scotland some years ago had a huge impact, and I know that the right hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith) was very much inspired by the same. FARE takes a very personal approach—a “names not numbers” approach—and I took that to our work in Greater Manchester on employment support. Exactly as I was saying to the right hon. Member for Dwyfor Meirionnydd (Liz Saville Roberts) just a moment ago, that should be the way that we approach supporting people in work across the country, as pioneered in my hon. Friend’s constituency by FARE Scotland.

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36. 28 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Andy Burnham

    Engagements

    I thank the hon. Member for his kind wishes at the start. I completely share the deep concern about that attack, and the distressing effect that it will have had on parents, teachers and children. Obviously, there is a live and serious police investigation. I cannot comment on that, but I can tell him that the National Cyber Security Centre is providing direct expert help to the schools affected. I can be categorical with him—and I will work with him on this—that those found to be responsible will face the full force of the law.

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37. 28 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Andy Burnham

    Engagements

    My right hon. Friend the Communities Secretary says that she will meet the hon. Gentleman to discuss those concerns, because what he has just said in the House is extremely serious. Of course we must have the highest standards of conduct from local authorities and elected councillors, and we are monitoring the situation. I will say no more than that at this stage, but the hon. Gentleman has that clear offer of a meeting.

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38. 28 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Andy Burnham

    Engagements

    I could not agree more strongly with my right hon. Friend—sorry, my hon. Friend. I promoted him for a second—it is just a matter of time, I am sure. I was the Health Secretary who received the groundbreaking report from Professor Sir Michael Marmot, “Fair Society, Healthy Lives”, in February 2010, and in my view that remains the blueprint for how this country can close those health inequality gaps. I would be happy to meet my hon. Friend and talk more about how we do that in his constituency and beyond.

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39. 28 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Andy Burnham

    Engagements

    That is obviously a matter for the Energy Secretary. It is a quasi-judicial decision, and the hon. Gentleman will have to wait for that in due course. He will also have to wait for the details of the Budget, which my right hon. Friend the Chancellor will set out to the House shortly. The hon. Gentleman is right, however, in pointing to the fact that use of our reserves can support and accelerate a clean energy future, and that was very much the logic behind the decision that the Government announced on Jackdaw last week.

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40. 28 Oct 2026·Parliament·Labour·Andy Burnham

    Engagements

    My hon. Friend is reinforcing the point I was making earlier that the Brexit arrangements that the Conservatives left were clearly not good enough, including for his constituency. We are reviewing the potential benefits of restoring access to this important system. The relevant Minister will have heard my hon. Friend’s case today in this House and will be happy to discuss it with him.

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