Alison Griffiths MP: speeches 2025

Speeches

• 18 Dec 2025 · Local Government Reorganisation · Hansard source

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  This is a disgraceful decision that damages our democracy and sets a dangerous precedent. To borrow a phrase, is the Minister afraid? Frightened? Frit? What does she say to my constituents whose fundamental right to have their say at the ballot box is now being taken away?

• 17 Dec 2025 · Digital ID System · Hansard source

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  7. What discussions she has had with the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster on introducing a nationwide digital ID system.

• 17 Dec 2025 · Digital ID System · Hansard source

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  A very happy Christmas to you, Mr Speaker. More than 5,300 of my constituents have signed a petition opposing digital ID, alongside nearly 3 million people nationally. In my own local survey, two thirds opposed it outright. Digital ID did not appear anywhere in Labour’s manifesto. The Government have no mandate for it and no consent from the public, so when will the Minister explain to the House on what democratic basis the Government believe they are entitled to enact their nationwide digital ID plan?

• 11 Dec 2025 · Pubs: Bognor Regis and Littlehampton · Hansard source

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  Mr Speaker, “The Chancellor’s disastrous budget was the most bitter attack on the pub industry for years.” Those are not my words, but those of Iain Brown, who runs the William Hardwicke pub in Bognor Regis. Charlie Cockaday, landlord of the Fox Inn in Felpham, told me that due to increases in business rates, the minimum wage and alcohol duty, he will have to put 22p on the cost of a pint just to break even. Can the Minister tell Iain and Charlie, who are fighting just to keep their pubs alive, what on earth they are supposed to do?

• 11 Dec 2025 · Pubs: Bognor Regis and Littlehampton · Hansard source

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  13. What steps his Department is taking to support pubs in Bognor Regis and Littlehampton constituency.

• 11 Dec 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T8. Ahead of Small Business Saturday, I visited Armen at Rose Green Hardware. He told me that it has never been as tough to run a small business as it is under this Labour Government. Does the Minister believe that removing business rates relief will make things any easier?

• 10 Dec 2025 · Seasonal Work · Hansard source

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  To reflect on my hon. Friend’s point about risk, employers are taking personal risk when they set up businesses and employ people. When they have so much cost piled on them, that risk-benefit equation evaporates, and with it the jobs that they deliver to other people in their communities.

• 10 Dec 2025 · Seasonal Work · Hansard source

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  Will the Minister give way?

• 10 Dec 2025 · Seasonal Work · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for making that point, which takes me back to the conversation I had with Catherine this weekend. I hope she will not mind me saying this: she was so emotional that she was almost in tears at the prospect of a tourist tax being imposed by a Sussex mayor, who will come in next year—actually, that has been delayed into another year as well, hasn’t it? The rapid roll-out is not going quite so well. The emotion and fear that I heard in Catherine’s voice when we talked about that tax will not leave me for a long time. I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for raising what a pernicious tax that could be.

• 10 Dec 2025 · Seasonal Work · Hansard source

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  Harbour Park in my constituency would be required to pay people, rain or shine, at times when it receives no income from visitors. Does my hon. Friend agree that this measure will cause many businesses acute hardship?

• 10 Dec 2025 · Seasonal Work · Hansard source

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  Will the Minister give way?

• 10 Dec 2025 · Seasonal Work · Hansard source

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  I am delighted to answer the hon. Gentleman’s question, because there is a very important difference. Right now in the UK, the tourist economy is being hammered by the increased minimum wage, the Employment Rights Bill and high energy costs—I could go on. Businesses on our high streets are suffering, in particular seasonal businesses, which are having to bear the brunt of the Employment Rights Bill. If you had met the hotel owner in Bognor Regis—a tourist town—I think you would really be questioning what you are saying.

• 10 Dec 2025 · Seasonal Work · Hansard source

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  I thank the Minister for giving way again. I would just like to tell him about Charlie Cockaday, who runs the Fox Inn in Felpham, who tells me that with the new business rates reform introduced by this Government, he will be paying £1,600 a month more in business rates going forward, which is the equivalent of 35p for each pint that he sells. How does that equate to putting more money in people’s pockets?

• 10 Dec 2025 · Seasonal Work · Hansard source

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  In constituencies like mine, seasonal, flexible and part-time working are central to the local economy. Seaside towns such as Bognor Regis and Littlehampton thrive on the cafés and attractions along the seafront and the pubs and shops on the high street. During the booming summer season, those businesses rely on seasonal workers to meet the demands of the tourists who flock to enjoy our wonderful stretch of Sussex coastline. Many seasonal workers are young people taking their first step on the career ladder during school, college or university holidays or long-term unemployed people looking for a route back into work, and even parents and pensioners who benefit from being able to work when it suits them to do so. When writing this speech, I cast my mind back to my early jobs: chopping vegetables in my local Harvester; waitressing in every imaginable kind of environment on a part-time basis when restaurants needed me; and earning double or sometimes triple my wages if I was prepared to work on Christmas day or new year’s eve, which, as a student, I welcomed. Then there were the pubs which employed me during my university career. All those roles are probably unviable now. It is the retail, leisure and hospitality sectors, which provide such vital jobs, that are bearing the brunt of the Government’s damaging economic policies. After the Chancellor’s first Budget last October, more than 89,000 hospitality workers lost their jobs—over 50% of all jobs lost in that time. The Government tell us that the Employment Rights Bill, the darling of the trade unions, will make life better for working people. They are wrong. The Institute of Directors warns that the Bill is already undermining job creation, and research by FTI Consulting finds that 59% of SMEs will have to cut jobs. But do not take it from me, Madam Deputy Speaker. Listen to Ash, who co-owns Harbour Park, a seaside amusement park in Littlehampton. From ensuring the rides run smoothly to keeping visitors well fed and hydrated, local attractions such as Harbour Park rely on seasonal workers to open their doors every summer. After the Chancellor’s disastrous second Budget a fortnight ago, Harbour Park will see its business rates rise by 72.6% despite the so-called transitional discount. In 2026-27, that will increase by a further 97.5%.

• 10 Dec 2025 · Seasonal Work · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is right. The Business and Trade Committee had a number of businesses come to Parliament to tell us about the stasis that the leaks in the run-up to the Budget caused to their businesses. As he says, that feeds through to the general population, who know the costs businesses are having to incur and that they are getting to the point where they can no longer sustain them. People are concerned for their jobs. They know that, if they do not have a job, having more employment rights are no use whatsoever. He makes a valid and important point. The increase in Harbour Park’s costs amount to an extra £40,000, seriously impacting its ability to employ young people and give them a start in the job market. Last weekend, I met Kathleen, who runs the Navigator hotel in Bognor Regis. She employs young people in the town to work when she needs them during the busy summer months, when tourists fill the hotel rooms, drink in the bar and eat in the restaurant. Kathleen told me that she started her business full of hope, but now, after the imposition of so many additional costs and taxes, she works a full-time second job just to keep her business afloat, and to ensure that her 10 employees still have jobs to go to.

• 10 Dec 2025 · Seasonal Work · Hansard source

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  My apologies, Madam Deputy Speaker. The short answer to the hon. Gentleman’s question is that if it was one single tax instead of multiple taxes, it is quite possible that the tourist tax would be a good idea. However, in the current context of multiple taxes drowning our businesses into oblivion, it is not a good idea. If the unemployment rights Bill passes, Ash and Catherine will have to offer guaranteed hours to their flexible seasonal workers even during off-season troughs. With increased employer national insurance contributions and the national minimum wage rising again, these fixed schedules will make hiring people unviable. Far from protecting people who work seasonably and flexibly, by forcing businesses to provide guaranteed hours throughout the year the Employment Rights Bill will threaten their jobs. The Government should be supporting businesses such as Harbour Park and the Navigator Hotel, which give young people their first job and keep coastal towns like Bognor Regis and Littlehampton alive. Instead, the Government are putting them in a vice. Ministers must change course and withdraw the Employment Rights Bill, reverse the tax hikes and back the flexible seasonal jobs that our communities rely on—before more businesses close and more workers lose their jobs.

• 10 Dec 2025 · Seasonal Work · Hansard source

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  On the tourism tax, which will come on top of the increase in business rates, I spoke last week to Catherine, from the Navigator hotel, who is in despair at these additional costs. She fears for the future of her hotel and, indeed, for the 10 employees who work in that hotel. What reassurance can my hon. Friend give her?

• 10 Dec 2025 · Seasonal Work · Hansard source

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  Will the Minister give way?

• 10 Dec 2025 · Seasonal Work · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to the Minister for giving way. I invite him to visit the hairdressers in Aldwick, in my constituency of Bognor Regis and Littlehampton, where the owner will tell him that he spends hours upon hours working to ensure that he can even stay profitable. The Government might be withdrawing some aspects of small business paperwork, but that does not change the fact that the maths do not add up. Unless the owner spends hours dotting every i, crossing every t and cutting costs where he can, his employees will not have jobs and be able then to spend more money.

• 10 Dec 2025 · Seasonal Work · Hansard source

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  Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

• 8 Dec 2025 · Digital ID · Hansard source

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  Will the Minister give way on that point?

• 8 Dec 2025 · Digital ID · Hansard source

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  There is certainly no mandate for either. If a Government wish to change something as fundamental as how we prove who we are, they need to be up front about it; they need to win consent for it. Attacks on our privacy and personal freedom must be debated in depth, not sneaked in through the back door. Over two thirds of the respondents to my local survey told me they opposed digital ID entirely. Many have little confidence that their personal data will be kept safe. They worry about who will hold their information, what else it could end up being used for and what will happen to those who do not have a smartphone at all. There is also the basic fairness test. Ofcom believes that about 4.5 million people in the UK do not own a smartphone, and many more struggle with digital access or confidence. We should not be building barriers for people, especially not those who already find public services hard to navigate. Ministers have said that digital ID will help tackle illegal working and benefit fraud, but we have never been told in clear terms what the new scheme would do that our existing tools cannot already manage. If there are gaps in the system, they should spell them out. I want illegal working to be dealt with, and I want public services that work smoothly, but not at the expense of civil liberties, not by weakening data security, and not by shutting out the very people who need support. I cannot support a mandatory digital ID scheme. If it comes to a vote, which it should, I will vote against it.

• 8 Dec 2025 · Digital ID · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship this afternoon, Sir Edward. I am grateful to the Petitions Committee for granting this debate, which could not be more timely. People in Bognor Regis and Littlehampton have been talking to me about digital ID for months, and more than 5,300 have signed the petition. I want to put their concerns and mine plainly on the record today. A mandatory digital ID tied to a smartphone is the wrong way to go. It answers none of the real problems that we face and risks creating a whole set of new ones. Let us be clear: Labour never mentioned this in its manifesto—not once.

• 26 Nov 2025 · New Nuclear Sites · Hansard source

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  A key plank of the SNP’s dogmatic argument against new nuclear is cost. Will the right hon. Gentleman find a quiet moment—perhaps when the winds fall light and the turbines stop—to point out to them to reduced costs of small modular reactors?

• 26 Nov 2025 · New Nuclear Sites · Hansard source

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  15. What discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero on the potential for new nuclear power sites in Scotland.