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1. 15 Dec 2025·Parliament·Dame Harriett Baldwin

   Industry and Exports (Financial Assistance) Bill

   I am delighted to respond on behalf of the Conservatives, who have always championed British businesses. We believe very much in the ingenuity of our entrepreneurs, the skill of our engineers and the global reputation of our exporters. The Bill amends Acts dating from 1982 and 1991, and we believe that, time and again, our companies have shown that, with the right conditions, they can compete and win on the world stage. Updating those Acts will ensure that the Government have the tools to support our industries and exporters. We should take pride in the extraordinary success of British exporters. The latest UK Export Finance annual report shows the scale of their achievements. Rolls-Royce and Airbus have together secured guarantees worth £165 million for supplying Ethiopian Airlines, £102 million for Avolon in Ireland and £66 million for Emirates in Dubai. That gives the House a flavour of the kind of deals supported through this finance. Defence exports remain significant too, with BAE Systems and MBDA receiving over £120 million per major contract, including support for the very important air defence systems in Poland. These figures demonstrate the global demand for British engineering, aerospace and defence expertise. However, as the Minister pointed out in his opening remarks, beyond the headline numbers, 80% of firms supported by UK Export Finance are small and medium-sized businesses, which often supply the more global contracts. With their innovation and resilience, they are the backbone of our export economy, and they also deserve support and visibility. The UK has a leading export and finance sector, and it can usually cover the commercial risks involved in exports, so UK export finance should be deployed only when no private sector solution is available. Generally, we are in favour of reducing subsidies, rather than increasing them, so we do not support additional taxpayer funding for the industrial strategy until the Government get the fundamentals of energy prices, tax and regulation right. Without tackling those basics, no amount of subsidy will ever deliver the competitiveness that our businesses need. I have a few questions for the Minister. Can he assure the House that UK Export Finance will continue to be deployed only where no private sector funding can be secured? If this Bill is to meet its aims, export assistance must be spread across the regions. We saw from the autumn “Santander Trade Barometer” that three quarters of businesses that want targeted export support are beyond our capital. Optimism is high in sectors such as technology and media, but firms in Scotland and energy, construction and engineering companies are much more cautious. So there are regional disparities in economic outlook that the Government must address. UK Export Finance is there to guarantee exports when the private sector cannot, and we would expect it to focus on countries where credit risks are higher. What new markets is the funding likely to be used for, and will some of the additional capacity be reserved for small and medium-sized businesses? Can the Minister reassure the House that none of this finance would ever be used to support exports to countries that could allow such goods to get around the sanctions on Russia, and that they are not used to export to any country that would wish us harm? Can he also reassure the House that, as the Foreign Office undergoes a restructuring, our fine network of embassies and high commissions are made aware of this so that we make the most of this export finance opportunity and have the right teams in place to support UK plc? Those are my opening questions for the Minister.

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2. 15 Dec 2025·Parliament·Dame Harriett Baldwin

   Industry and Exports (Financial Assistance) Bill

   I would like to pick up on some of the points made in today’s interesting debate and to reiterate that, as Conservatives, we have always stood shoulder to shoulder with Britain’s businesses and great exporters. In my opening remarks, I asked some questions of the Minister, and I look forward to hearing his replies. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Chelsea and Fulham (Ben Coleman) and the hon. Member for Leyton and Wanstead (Mr Bailey) for all the work they are doing as trade envoys to the west and south of Africa. I remember when I was Africa Minister thinking how enormous the potential is for us to do more business with these nations, so it is interesting to hear how that work is moving forward. A number of Members highlighted the excellent export work done by small and medium-sized businesses, and we heard some excellent examples from the north-east in particular. We also heard the case made by the hon. Member for Maidenhead (Mr Reynolds) for the importance of small and medium-sized businesses. I reiterate to the Minister, so that he is aware, the importance for the House of this money not just getting swallowed up by some of the larger household names, such as Rolls-Royce, Airbus and BAE Systems, but it giving that fighting chance to some of the smaller exporters. I want to pick up on the point that the hon. Member for Maidenhead made about the customs union. The House will recognise how much work was put in to getting landmark trade agreements with 70 countries that give UK exporters preferential access to markets worth trillions of pounds. It is work that the Minister continues energetically around the world, and he will no doubt in his closing remarks point to the India and US free trade deals, which are important pieces of work that he has been involved in. Those free trade agreements that the UK has managed to negotiate would not be possible if we were in the European Union customs union. I challenge the hon. Member to point to where the research is on this fabled £25 billion. In conclusion, the words of Ronald Reagan keep popping into my head during debates in this Parliament. He famously said: “If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.” I hope to hear from the Minister at the Dispatch Box how he will ensure that this additional money is used in the way that I said in my opening remarks, where it crowds in private sector investment and is there as a last resort to get a deal over the line, rather than crowding out private sector funding that would have been there were it not for the Government funds. Without further ado, having got my favourite Reagan quote about this Government on the record, I can assure the House that we will not be opposing the Bill.

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3. 15 Dec 2025·Parliament·Caroline Nokes

   Jimmy Lai Conviction

   I call the shadow Foreign Secretary.

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4. 15 Dec 2025·Parliament·Caroline Nokes

   Jimmy Lai Conviction

   I call the Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

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5. 15 Dec 2025·Parliament·Caroline Nokes

   Jimmy Lai Conviction

   I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

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6. 15 Dec 2025·Parliament·Caroline Nokes

   Point of Order

   I thank the hon. Lady for giving notice of her point of order. I understand that she has notified the hon. Member for Clacton in advance. She will know that this is not a matter for the Chair, but her point has been well and truly put on the record.

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7. 15 Dec 2025·Parliament·Caroline Nokes

   Employment Rights Bill

   Before we commence consideration of the Lords message, I confirm that nothing in the Lords message engages Commons financial privilege. Clause 23 Right not to be unfairly dismissed: removal of qualifying period, etc

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8. 15 Dec 2025·Parliament·Caroline Nokes

   Employment Rights Bill

   I call the shadow Secretary of State.

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9. 15 Dec 2025·Parliament·Caroline Nokes

   Employment Rights Bill

   Members will be aware that the debate has to conclude by 8.24 pm, so there will be an immediate five-minute time limit. Of course, if Members did not feel obliged to use all five minutes, that would help their colleagues.

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10. 15 Dec 2025·Parliament·Caroline Nokes

    Employment Rights Bill

    I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

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11. 15 Dec 2025·Parliament·Caroline Nokes

    Employment Rights Bill

    Order. We are not debating hereditary peers; we are debating the amendments to the Employment Rights Bill.

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12. 15 Dec 2025·Parliament·Caroline Nokes

    Employment Rights Bill

    Order. We are not having a debate on hereditary Members of the House of Lords. We are debating the Lords message on amendments to the Employment Rights Bill.

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13. 15 Dec 2025·Parliament·Caroline Nokes

    Employment Rights Bill

    I thank the hon. Member for her advice. As it happens, she makes a good point. The hon. Member for Broadland and Fakenham (Jerome Mayhew) should not be suggesting any particular motive attributed to that issue, and could he perhaps confine his remaining comments for the next 90 seconds?

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14. 15 Dec 2025·Parliament·Caroline Nokes

    Employment Rights Bill

    Order. I call the Minister.

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15. 15 Dec 2025·Parliament·Bradley Thomas

    Topical Questions

    T10.   Today the head of MI6 will say that “the frontline is everywhere”. Does that not mean that the entirety of the Government and the military need to be far more proactive in dealing with threats that we face now, and accelerate defence spending in excess of 3% of GDP before the end of the decade?

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16. 15 Dec 2025·Parliament·Bradley Thomas

    NHS: Winter Preparedness

    These strikes, at a time of peak seasonal pressure on the NHS, are reprehensible, and the BMA should be thoroughly ashamed of itself. Does the Health Secretary agree that we should use this opportunity to reassert our collective societal trust in vaccines, and encourage anyone who is vulnerable or eligible to get a vaccine, to mitigate the effects on themselves and on wider society? Given his comment that there is not much more that the Government can offer, does he at least acknowledge that the Government’s unconditional inflation-busting offer last year, just weeks after they came into office, must surely have emboldened the BMA?

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17. 15 Dec 2025·Parliament·Bradley Thomas

    Employment Rights Bill

    The impacts of the Bill in its current form are already being felt: 71% of businesses have raised serious concerns, with over 90% of small business owners expressing deep worries, resulting in 67% of companies preparing to halt recruitment. We already know that the Government do not understand business. That has been demonstrated clearly through the string of damaging policies trailing behind them, from the national insurance changes that are crippling the hospitality sector to the family farm tax that is undermining our national food security. Aspects of this Bill are no exception, the prime example being the complete removal of the employment tribunal cap on unfair dismissal compensatory awards. As of June 2025, 515,000 open claims were in the system, and the numbers continue to rise. The employment tribunal system is inundated. It is overwhelmed and debilitated by cases, leaving thousands facing intolerable delays. Rather than addressing the issue through action that would significantly help working people—

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18. 15 Dec 2025·Parliament·Bradley Thomas

    Employment Rights Bill

    I was just about to get to the point that I wanted to make: removal of the cap will make matters significantly worse. To put it plainly, it will open the floodgates for senior executives to pursue multimillion-pound claims that will further congest the courts. For many companies, the dismissal process for senior executives is fundamentally different from that used for other employees, in many cases as a result of strategic complexities relating to board involvement. Unlike the structured procedures applied to the wider workforce, senior leaders are seldom afforded opportunities such as performance improvement plans before removal. The Bill creates a significant liability and establishes a direct financial incentive for senior executives to pursue employment claims.

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19. 15 Dec 2025·Parliament·Bradley Thomas

    Employment Rights Bill

    The hon. Gentleman misses the point that I am making. Currently, there is no financial incentive for very senior executives who cannot exercise any leverage over things such as pay and equity, and the Bill risks clogging up the system. The CEOs of large UK corporations earn a median salary of over £4 million, compared with the £118,000 cap on unfair dismissal claims, so high earners have little incentive to lodge claims. Remove the cap and that incentive becomes glaringly obvious.

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20. 15 Dec 2025·Parliament·Bradley Thomas

    Employment Rights Bill

    I will make progress. The idea that removing the cap will lead to anything other than a surge in cases is pure fantasy. This lack of understanding shows why the Government must listen to those who know how business works and recognise the devastating consequences that the Bill will have for companies and, crucially, for workers, rather than branding themselves champions of working people while advancing policies that benefit only high-fliers.

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21. 15 Dec 2025·Parliament·Bradley Thomas

    Employment Rights Bill

    I thank my right hon. Friend, who makes his point eloquently, as usual. The Government must abandon the measure. If they are really on the side of workers, the best thing they can do is abandon this measure—and abandon the Bill in its entirety.

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22. 15 Dec 2025·Parliament·Ben Obese-Jecty

    NATO: European Security

    Last week, the Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry told me: “There are no other platforms within the Army’s armoured fleet which can fulfil the armoured reconnaissance role; Ajax has been specifically designed for this purpose.” Our commitment to NATO includes two divisions. The first includes three manoeuvre brigades, with armoured and mechanised capabilities. With Ajax undeployable, we have no formation reconnaissance capability and therefore no deployable armoured brigade, thus we are not currently meeting our NATO obligation. Will the Minister clarify whether we still meet his NATO test without Ajax, whether we meet our NATO obligation more broadly, and, if he thinks we do, how?

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23. 15 Dec 2025·Parliament·Aphra Brandreth

    Employment Rights Bill

    I draw the attention of the House to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. I wonder whether the Minister is comfortable with the fact that introducing an uncapped unfair dismissal compensation award will make the UK an international outlier, when many of our international competitors have clear limits. If she is comfortable with that, what assessment has she made of the impact on UK jobs and inward investment to the UK, particularly in business sectors that are internationally mobile?

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24. 15 Dec 2025·Parliament·Andrew Griffith

    Employment Rights Bill

    The concerns that we Conservatives have with the Bill have long been known, and I accept that we have debated them at length. I will not repeat them all today, because we are not here to debate the whole Bill, just the message sent to us from the other place. There was a time when the Labour party would have cared about protecting jobs and those who wanted one. There was a time when Labour believed, as we do, in the dignity of work and what that meant for families and communities—a Christian socialism, if you like, rather than the state worship that seems to have replaced it. I cannot honestly think of a previous Government who would ever have passed this Bill—certainly not since the 1970s. The result, whether Labour likes it or not, is that day by day, week by week, month by month, people are losing their jobs. This Christmas there will be 192,000 fewer people in private sector payrolled employment than last Christmas, and who knows what it will be like next Christmas. We have the worst ever graduate jobs market. Adzuna estimates that jobs for degree holders have fallen by 33%. Labour used to care about youth unemployment, but for those aged between 16 and 24 unemployment has now reached 15%, according to the Office for National Statistics. As has been the case every month so far under this Government, tomorrow morning we are likely to hear that the rate of unemployment is higher. This Bill could have been on the statute book today, but for one simple reason: a gross betrayal of trust. The small group of business groups that Ministers invited in for tea and sandwiches took this Government at their word.

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25. 15 Dec 2025·Parliament·Andrew Griffith

    Employment Rights Bill

    The hon. Lady would have been wise to contain her excitement, because I agree with all of those groups in their letter today, which the Minister selectively quoted; she did not quote them saying that they are not in favour of removing the cap. I have spoken to each and every organisation that was in the room, and they are crystal clear, with one group saying: “That was not a concession discussed with us or agreed by us in the negotiations”. I invite the Minister to intervene on me if she thinks that a word of what I say is wrong. She is misquoting, and it is misrepresenting those business groups that do not support the cap. Why would any sane Government scrap the cap entirely? Indeed, this Government themselves did not for 13 and a half of the 14 months that we have been debating this Bill. It was not in the manifesto or the Bill or the impact assessment. It was not considered by the Regulatory Policy Committee, and it was never discussed in this House until Ministers threw it in at the last moment in a breach of trust of the business groups with which they negotiated.

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26. 15 Dec 2025·Parliament·Andrew Griffith

    Employment Rights Bill

    What is it about protecting people from unemployment—preventing young people from getting jobs—and from economic growth? The Government of which the right hon. Lady was once a member said that was their No. 1 priority and their obsession, but they have singularly failed to deliver it. Conservative Members want to get Britain working again. We want jobs for those young people—we think it is a stain on our character that 15% of young people are unemployed—and all we get from Labour is union-paid representatives trying to put more people out of jobs and deny young people more opportunities.

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27. 15 Dec 2025·Parliament·Andrew Griffith

    Employment Rights Bill

    Yes, come back on that.

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28. 15 Dec 2025·Parliament·Andrew Griffith

    Employment Rights Bill

    Our Government created 4 million new jobs. This Government have lost jobs every single month they have been in office. The points that the right hon. Lady makes are not those we are debating. There is one issue in front of us, which is Labour’s desire to defend and remove a cap of £118,000. That has nothing to do with ordinary workers. What does it say about today’s modern Labour party that its focus, and the whole reason why we are back here and the compromise was not accepted, is its desire to remove a cap of £118,000, which will only ever benefit the better off?

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29. 15 Dec 2025·Parliament·Andrew Griffith

    Employment Rights Bill

    My hon. Friend makes an important point, which I hope somebody on the Labour Benches will address. We have seen no analysis and we have no idea of the cost of this measure. Not a single business—not a single person who employs people—has come out and endorsed the removal of the cap. It is beyond me, I am afraid. Yet what is happening in our employment tribunals? On Friday, as I am sure the Minister knows, it was revealed that the delay and backlogs at the employment tribunal have reached their highest ever level. At the end of the most recent quarter, there were 515,000 open claims. Before anyone intervenes, let me say that I accept that much of that was inherited—[Interruption.] But before Labour Members laugh: the Government are making it worse. Merely since the Bill was introduced to this place, the claims backlog has increased by 65,000. They are doing nothing to address the backlog, which is going up every single month—I do not think they have even discussed it with their calamity of a Justice Secretary —and we know that they have carried out no impact assessment. It is extraordinary. The scrapping of the compensation cap for the highest paid will simply stoke the fire. I make it a rule not to learn lessons in how to run an economy from France, but even France introduced a cap on tribunal payments to tackle unemployment and encourage labour market dynamism. Perhaps we should take advice from closer to home: today the Health Secretary seems to be no fan at all of giving more powers to unaccountable unions.

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30. 15 Dec 2025·Parliament·Andrew Griffith

    Employment Rights Bill

    Happily, if the hon. Member will talk about how he will fix our NHS.

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31. 15 Dec 2025·Parliament·Andrew Griffith

    Employment Rights Bill

    Well no, I cannot, because there is a cap—the very cap that the hon. Member’s party is seeking to remove. I try not to be uncharitable about the complete absence of business experience in the Cabinet, but that level of question, together with that impact, is just embarrassing. The Minister in her remarks—there was not much of an argument; it was really just a critique—blamed peers in the other place for the Government’s own failures. Notwithstanding how peers are doing the constitutional job we ask them to do, Lyndon B. Johnson said that the first rule of politics is to learn how to count. The Government lost the vote on its unemployment Bill last week by 24 votes, but 65 of their own peers did not want anything to do with the Bill—they did not turn up and did not vote. During the passage of the Bill, one Labour peer has even resigned his peerage and joined the exodus of wealth creators to the United Arab Emirates because of what he sees. The Resolution Foundation and the Tony Blair Institute have both criticised the Bill. By removing that £118,000 compensation cap, the Government are not protecting the vulnerable. If that is what they wish to do, there are other ways to do that, but ordinary workers will never benefit from that. It is a genuinely mad world; I do not understand why we are having this debate. This time last week, the Liberal Democrats agreed with me on this. The hon. Member for Tunbridge Wells (Mike Martin) has been campaigning for the boss of South East Water to be fired, but without a cap his payout could be millions. Is that really what they want? What changed, other than the appearance of five new Liberal Democrat peers?

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32. 15 Dec 2025·Parliament·Andrew Griffith

    Employment Rights Bill

    I will do so briefly. After that, I want to conclude.

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33. 15 Dec 2025·Parliament·Andrew Griffith

    Employment Rights Bill

    I thank my right hon. Friend for that intervention. I will leave that hanging there and hope that Labour Members will address it. In conclusion, I ask the Government at this eleventh hour to pull back from the brink and introduce a financial cap so that we can get this business done this week. They have no consent from business, and they sought no support for it in their manifesto. I have talked about youth unemployment and the level of redundancies. We Conservatives will get Britain working again. We will end the attacks on employers and repeal the job-killing measures in the Bill. For the sake of businesses, for the sake of the backlog and for the sake of Britain, the Government should accept the Lords amendment and drop their motion.

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34. 11 Dec 2025·Parliament·Sir Edward Leigh

    Oil Refining Sector

    I thank my hon. Friend and constituency neighbour the Member for Brigg and Immingham (Martin Vickers) for securing this timely debate about Lindsey oil refinery, which employed many of my constituents. The closure is a disaster for our Greater Lincolnshire area. It is, I believe, a direct result of green policies that are no longer logical. I am no climate change sceptic. I am prepared to have investment in green energy—we are world leaders in offshore wind in the Humber, are we not? We are doing our bit, but the Government are taking it to new heights. All ideologues are dangerous, but fanatical ideologues are the most dangerous of all, and that is what we have in our Secretary of State. We have these ludicrous targets; I commend the editorial in The Times today calling it “targetitis”. Originally, Theresa May arbitrarily set a limit of 2040. Where did that come from? Boris Johnson, in his bumptious, casual way, not considering the evidence, unilaterally cut it down to 2030. Where did that come from? All this is massively damaging. I would not mind if we were actually making a difference to global warming, but we are responsible for only 1% of global emissions. According to some estimates, our total global emissions are less than China’s annual accrual. We are making absolutely no difference! China holds us in contempt. It is doing to us what we did to it in the 19th century. China is totally ruthless.

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35. 11 Dec 2025·Parliament·Sir Edward Leigh

    Oil Refining Sector

    I give way to the hon. Gentleman, who is the son of a very distinguished councillor in my constituency.

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36. 11 Dec 2025·Parliament·Sir Edward Leigh

    Oil Refining Sector

    That may be a fair point. I said at the beginning of my speech that I am not a climate change sceptic. Everybody is prepared to do their bit. I have already mentioned wind farms, but what about solar energy? In Lincolnshire we are prepared to have solar energy on our farmland, but in my constituency 16,000 acres of the most productive land in the entire country—enough land to feed the city of Hull every single year—is put under solar farms, with panels manufactured in China, destroying our ability to feed ourselves. There has to be a balance, but at the moment we do not have one. We are importing so much from our dear friends in Norway that they are opening 250 exploration wells. This debate, secured by my hon. Friend the Member for Brigg and Immingham, is extremely timely. The closure of Lindsey oil refinery is a complete disaster. It employs many of our constituents and is vital for the whole of our industrial infrastructure. We need strong domestic refining capacity. The Secretary of State goes on about energy security all the time, but that would strengthen energy security at a time when we are already importing two thirds of our gas and increasing volumes of refined fuels. I would not mind these green policies, but we are not actually contributing to tackling global warming; we are simply exporting carbon emissions to other countries. It is complete madness. If we were sensible about this, and if it were possible to get some sort of global recognition of the problem, maybe we could start to tackle it. Relying on foreign refiners means exporting jobs and value overseas while leaving Britain more exposed to global price shocks and geopolitical risks. Expansion of the UK refining sector protects thousands of highly skilled, well-paid jobs. It also supports an entire region and supply chain in engineering, fabrication, logistics and maintenance. Those are precisely the jobs that sustain industrial communities and create apprenticeships for young people. Refining underpins every major industrial sector. Manufacturing, aviation, defence, logistics, agriculture and pharmaceuticals all depend on reliable supplies of fuels and petrochemicals. Allowing it to pass into decline would simply shift production to countries with weaker environmental standards. Lindsey oil refinery was a major economic anchor for our area. We know that it was put into administration. I share the comments of my hon. Friend the Member for Brigg and Immingham: this is a national crisis in terms of national policy, which is wrong, and of local policy. The people of Greater Lincolnshire demand action from this Government, and they demand it now.

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37. 11 Dec 2025·Parliament·Sir Edward Leigh

    Oil Refining Sector

    You were a Conservative once!

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38. 11 Dec 2025·Parliament·Sir Edward Leigh

    Oil Refining Sector

    The hon. Lady is giving a paean of praise for refineries, so why are the Government taxing them out of existence?

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39. 11 Dec 2025·Parliament·Sir Edward Leigh

    Oil Refining Sector

    On a point of order, Mr Western. You are a fellow member of the Panel of Chairs. Can we make it clear to our colleagues that it is normal courtesy for the Minister to allow the proposer of a motion some time to wind up, if only a minute? That did not happen on this occasion.

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40. 11 Dec 2025·Parliament·Sir Edward Leigh

    National Plan to End Homelessness

    I welcome this statement. We do need a massive house building programme, but I suspect the Government are going to have to strip away many more delays and controls if they are going to have any chance of meeting their own target. Does the Minister understand that there is a real lack of confidence in all this? The public see our own people on the streets without proper housing while people who enter the country illegally and migrants are held for months in comfortable hotels in idleness. If the Government were to be really robust and arrest, detain and deport those people, we could not only concentrate more resources on those genuinely in need, but actually save lives at sea.

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