Daisy Cooper MP: speeches

Speeches

• 13 Jan 2026 · Finance (No. 2) Bill · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to the Minister for confirming that she has consulted and that Ministers have had engagement with the industry. I was specifically wondering whether in the course of that consultation with the industry, there was discussion about using a different measure and choosing a different tax base for the calculation of this particular tax, because it seems as though the tax base could have been bigger if they had used the measure already in the Finance Act, rather than this new measure that seems to shrink the tax base. Did the Treasury have a particular reason for using a different measure for calculating this remote gaming duty?

• 13 Jan 2026 · Finance (No. 2) Bill · Hansard source

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  Clause 86 increases the rate of alcohol duty in line with RPI inflation. On paper, that measure might look like a normal, simple uprating policy, but it must be seen for what it really is: in the broader context, it is yet another tax on struggling hospitality businesses and financially stretched customers. Hospitality is being hammered over and over again with sky-high rents and soaring energy bills, the Government’s unfair jobs tax, and now this business rates bombshell buried in the fine print of the Budget. It matters, and hospitality really matters. It is the only element of pre-pandemic spending that has not recovered. The sector employs huge numbers of young people and part-time workers, often giving people their very first job and their way into longer-term employment. This is one of the sectors that make life worth living. We all remember the place where we fell in love, or had our first date. I remember the music venue where I found my favourite band. I remember the pub where I sat with my girlfriends and one told me that she was not going to survive her stage 4 cancer—and I remember the spa day that we had when she did. Hospitality is part of who we are as human beings. It is unique in what it contributes to our economy, and we must do everything to support it.

• 13 Jan 2026 · Finance (No. 2) Bill · Hansard source

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  I am grateful for that question, but if the hon. Member reads the explanatory statement closely, he will see that it says “alongside wider fiscal changes”. The Government could of course widen that to other legislative changes, if they chose to do so. However, on that basis, I hope the hon. Member and his colleague will be supporting the new clause when we push it to a vote later.

• 13 Jan 2026 · Finance (No. 2) Bill · Hansard source

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  I hope so very much that he is not, but I understand why he said that, and I hear the same from many hospitality owners and pub landlords on my own patch. It is because we Liberal Democrats care so deeply for hospitality, and recognise the vital role that it plays in every community in the land, that we were campaigning ahead of the Budget for an emergency VAT cut for hospitality accommodation and attractions until April 2027 —a measure that would have brought growth into every corner of our country, saved jobs and our high streets, and given a real boost to consumer confidence. That is why, since the Budget, we have been fighting tirelessly against the Government’s devastating business rates hikes, and pressing Ministers to implement the full 20p discount for which they legislated last year.

• 12 Jan 2026 · Finance (No. 2) Bill · Hansard source

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  The Minister will have heard a number of colleagues asking for more detail about how the pension provisions will affect pensioners. The Minister has just said that further information is to come. Will he please give us an indication of the date when we can expect that guidance to be published, so that he can then come back and clarify some points?

• 12 Jan 2026 · Finance (No. 2) Bill · Hansard source

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  These stealth taxes were started by the Conservatives and are being continued by Labour. When the Liberal Democrats were in government, we made sure to raise the income tax thresholds, taking people out of paying tax, but it is clear that the two biggest parties continue to drag more people into paying tax. According to the OBR, by 2030, an extra 9.4 million people will be dragged into paying the basic and higher rates of income tax, 1.7 million of whom will be dragged into the system because of this Government’s decisions at the last Budget. By 2031, the stealth taxes introduced by the Conservatives and continued by Labour will cost British taxpayers an eyewatering £67 billion a year, some £13 billion of which is a result of last November’s Budget. To put that into perspective, in a two-person household, where someone earns £26,000 and someone earns £60,000 a year, over the decade of Conservative and Labour stealth taxes, the lower of those earners will lose the equivalent of an entire year’s pay due to frozen tax thresholds. Wiping out an entire year’s pre-tax salary for a typical earner is devastating for household finances. It is staggering to realise that this decade of frozen thresholds will cost what is broadly a typical two-earner family a staggering £26,800. The OBR says that one in four adults will be a higher rate taxpayer by 2031, up from one in seven in 2022. That represents an additional 5.7 million people, including 920,000 dragged into the higher rate band as a result of the Chancellor’s latest three-year extension. It is really important that people understand that this is happening. The Liberal Democrats have tabled new clause 3 so that people are notified about how they will be affected by these frozen thresholds. The new clause will require the Chancellor to properly communicate to the people the impact of frozen tax thresholds. One of the most damaging aspects of this tax rise is that it goes unnoticed by so many. Unlike other tax changes, the stealth tax does not show up on people’s payslips and too many people are simply unaware that they are paying more tax because of the Government’s decisions. New clause 3 would require the Chancellor to be transparent with taxpayers and directly write to them, explaining in black and white the impact frozen thresholds will have on their pay cheques. As many other hon. Members have said, there is huge concern among pensioners about what the measures will mean for them. In a recent meeting with the Chartered Institute of Taxation, it was highlighted to me that is not clear who will qualify for which rate of tax. The way that the system is set up suggests that pensioners who receive the same amount of income but from different sources could end up paying different rates of tax. Many of us like Martin Lewis, but the fact that the Chancellor has done a podcast with him does not mean that the impact of the Government changes has been communicated clearly to every single pensioner. I urge the Minister to adopt our simple new clause 3. The Government have said that they want to make the tax system more transparent, so if Ministers truly want to be honest with people, they should accept this simple amendment and write to the people who are affected by these policies.

• 12 Jan 2026 · Finance (No. 2) Bill · Hansard source

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  I will speak to clauses 1 to 8 and schedules 1 and 2. Overall, the tax changes increase complexity, raise the tax burden on small businesses and savers, and raise the risk of serious unintended consequences on the property market. They all have the hallmarks of a Treasury tax grab without proper the consideration of the broader consequences. When taken together, clauses 4 to 8 add more complexity, and concerns have been raised by the Chartered Institute of Taxation and the Association of Taxation Technicians, which highlighted that the new property rates add five new income tax rates. They are: the property basic rate of 22%; the property higher rate of 42%; the property additional rate of 47%; the property trust rate of 47%; and the savings trust rate of 47%. Rates will apply differently to investment returns and to savings. Basic and higher dividend rates have been changed, but additional dividend rates have not, and no explanation has been given as to the policy intent behind that. It would be helpful if the Minister could set that out on the record. The long and short of it is that the Government say that they want to simplify tax, but their tax changes are making things more complicated. The Making Tax Digital forms will need to updated, and more individuals and small businesses will likely make more calls to His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. Recent research by the House of Commons Library, commissioned by Liberal Democrats including my hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead (Mr Reynolds), shows that HMRC failed to pick up one in five taxpayer calls over the last decade, with the tax service leaving the best part of a hundred million calls unanswered in the last 10 years. HMRC has failed to pick up 83 million calls from Brits in the last 10 years—6 million in just the last year. That is why we have been calling for a new HMRC hotline dedicated to supporting pensioners. It would help those who are among the likeliest to seek tax information over the phone while freeing up capacity for the tax service to deal with other queries—something that is imminent, given that the tax changes will result in more phone calls. More broadly, the Federation of Small Businesses said: “Hikes to dividend tax mean the Government continues to make investing in your own business one of the least tax-friendly things you can do with your money.” Will the Minister listen to our small businesses, which are suffering under a mounting tax burden, not least from the Government’s business rates bombshell, and finally give them some respite? With new clause 2, the Liberal Democrats call for a review of the impact of section 7 on rent prices. As many hon. Members have highlighted, the new clause would require the Chancellor of the Exchequer to lay before the House a proper assessment of the impact of the Bill’s tax changes on rent prices. Countless renters across the country will be worried that the higher property income tax will simply get passed on to them, making things even worse during the cost of living crisis. We cannot afford to ignore the unintended consequences of any tax policy. The new clause would require the Government to update the House on some crucial details about the broader impacts of this measure. What proportion of the tax rise will get passed on to renters, according to the Treasury’s estimates? Which income groups are most likely to be affected by the tax rise? Which parts of the country will bear the brunt of it? I hope the Minister will agree that that information is essential.

• 5 Jan 2026 · Venezuela · Hansard source

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  President Trump’s actions are not about drugs; they are about oil. They are not about regional stability; they are about regional dominance. They are not about upholding the law; they are about breaking it. The Foreign Secretary has said that the Government have been clear, but she has not been clear on any of those three points. The world has changed this weekend, and it will change again very quickly. Can the Foreign Secretary say whether there is a single strategic decision or practical step that this Government have taken in the last 72 hours to shore up our national security or that of our allies, especially Denmark?

• 5 Jan 2026 · Point of Order · Hansard source

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  On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. Can you advise me on how I might elicit satisfactory responses to a series of written questions I have tabled to the Treasury on the impact of business rates on retail, hospitality and leisure businesses? I asked for very specific figures relating to the number of businesses that the Treasury expects to be eligible for transitionary reliefs, how many premises will be brought into paying rates for the first time as a result of the recent revaluations, and an analysis of the number of businesses that previously enjoyed retail, hospitality and leisure reliefs and would see increases from 1 April. None of those questions have received substantive replies. I raised the matter with the Leader of the House by letter before Christmas, but I have not yet had a response. Can you please advise me on whether any other routes are available to me and other parliamentarians, so that we can receive accurate and data-rich responses to questions, and can effectively scrutinise Government policy, which is hammering our high streets?

• 5 Jan 2026 · Agricultural Property Relief and Business Property Relief · Hansard source

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  Happy new year to you, Mr Speaker, and to House staff and all Members in the Chamber. This policy was a disaster from the get-go. It came with no warning, no consultation and no clue. The Liberal Democrats were the first party to point out the damage it would do to family farms. We have repeatedly and clearly highlighted that it would fail to tackle the loopholes exploited by private equity companies but hammer the family farm, damaging our food security in the process. The changes are welcome, but they do not touch the sides, and they are a clear admission by the Government that they have got it badly wrong. There is now only one sensible course of action left: to scrap the policy in its entirety. Will the Government now do that? If not, the Liberal Democrats will table amendments to the Finance Bill to bring this measure down. Will the Government allow a free vote so that those on their own Benches who want to vote against the measure are free to do so?

• 16 Dec 2025 · Finance (No. 2) Bill · Hansard source

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  I wholeheartedly agree. It is so frustrating; in last year’s Budget and in this year’s Budget, the Government continue to say that they are pro-growth, and that growth remains their No. 1 mission, but measure after measure in those two Budgets is anti-growth. Many of us have heard from family businesses in our constituencies and around the country. Many of them have told us that they have sat around the family dinner table and had deeply difficult and traumatic conversations, planning what to do with their business if they “die in the wrong order”, a phrase that some family businesses have used with me. Again, if they have to break up the business, they will probably end up selling it off to private equity companies. These are businesses that are household names and family favourites. It is another short-term Treasury tax grab, with no care for the consequences. On the income tax hike for dividend, property and savings income, the Federation of Small Businesses sums it up: “Hikes to dividend tax mean the Government continues to make investing in your own business one of the least tax-friendly things you can do with your money.” At a time when we desperately need more business investment, that seems to be another short-sighted Treasury tax grab. We desperately need growth. We Liberal Democrats have repeatedly banged the drum for growth with Europe. Brexit, we know, has been a disaster. Many of the Government’s own Ministers admit it, yet where is the strength of conviction needed to try to fix that? We now know that the previous Government’s failed Brexit deal costs the taxpayer around £90 billion a year in lost tax revenue. Just think about what the Government could deliver if they started to fix that. Just imagine what it would mean for people’s pockets and energy bills, and the money that they could have in their bank account at the end of the month. Imagine the change that the Government could deliver for households and high streets if they just started to plug that gap of £90 billion a year in lost tax revenue. Our high streets are critical to our sense of community up and down the land, yet high-street hospitality businesses are getting hit once again. Last year it was the jobs tax; this year it is the higher business rates bills.

• 16 Dec 2025 · Finance (No. 2) Bill · Hansard source

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  Will the hon. Gentleman give way on that point?

• 16 Dec 2025 · Finance (No. 2) Bill · Hansard source

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  I could not agree more. My right hon. Friend chairs the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee—a Labour-majority Select Committee—and he has navigated that issue so well over the last year. I say on the parliamentary record: all credit to him for his sterling efforts to draw attention to the issue. If there had been any justification at all for the APR and BPR changes, it would have been that the Government were trying to crack down on loopholes, but as my hon. Friends have said, that has not happened as a result of these changes. The Prime Minister in effect admitted in front of the Liaison Committee yesterday that the Government were not even trying to do that. We all know that the measures will cause damage. Farming communities know it; Liberal Democrats know it; and Labour-majority Select Committees know it. This is just another short-term Treasury tax grab. Family businesses will be hit, too—the very businesses that support their employees through thick and thin; the very employers who provide employment in every corner of the country; the very family businesses that help the economy bounce back strongly after a crisis, giving our economy resilience. Why would a Government want to target our family businesses?

• 16 Dec 2025 · Finance (No. 2) Bill · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to my hon. Friend for making that point. This will have unintended consequences, and we can see what those will be. We have spent a year warning the Government; they can no longer say that they have not been warned. I hope so much that, at this late stage, they make changes to the Bill.

• 16 Dec 2025 · Finance (No. 2) Bill · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention, and I wholeheartedly agree that the Prime Minister should change direction. It is deeply disappointing that, having been grilled at the Liaison Committee yesterday, he clearly has no intention of doing so. The changes to the agricultural property relief and the business property relief will punish family farmers who put food on our tables and guarantee the food security of our nation, and they will not tackle the loophole of private equity companies and celebrity farmers buying land to reduce their tax liability.

• 16 Dec 2025 · Finance (No. 2) Bill · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is spot on with that comment. We have all seen the statistics; while offices and warehouses face marginal percentage increases in tax, the increases faced by our pubs and hospitality businesses are massive. Analysis that I know has been shared with Ministers this morning suggests that the bill for Harrods, for example, will actually fall by £1.1 million, while the bills for many of our small independent pubs, hotels and hospitality businesses will be going up by tens of thousands. The Government cannot hide behind semantics. For a year, they kept using the word “lower”, and that is what businesses heard; however, now the business rates bills have arrived, businesses can see that the rates are higher. The Government gave themselves the power to reduce the retail, hospitality and leisure multiplier by not just 5p, but 20p, but they now refuse to use that power. The system of transitional relief that the Government have put in place is simply an admission that they have got this badly wrong. There is a stark warning coming from the hospitality industry that the looming increase in business rates, due to come in during 2029, will kill the pipeline of owners coming into the hospitality industry. This comes just as the Government are about to publish their visitor economy strategy. There is so much incongruence here. The Government say that they want to do one thing, and then do something else to undermine it. The bottom line is that hospitality and high-street businesses have just two choices: they can shut up shop, or they can put up prices. There are few things that speak to the economic health of the nation and the high street more than the price of a pint. I issue a warning to the Government now: if they do not act, customers will see the £10 pint before the next general election, on Labour’s watch. I call on Ministers again to use the powers that the Government gave themselves to reduce the multiplier by the full 20p, and to make an emergency VAT cut for our hospitality businesses to boost growth, stimulate consumer confidence and help save our high streets. For all these reasons, we Liberal Democrats will vote against the Government’s Finance Bill.

• 16 Dec 2025 · Finance (No. 2) Bill · Hansard source

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  I am incredibly grateful to my hon. Friend for making that point, because our pubs in particular, but hospitality more widely, are at the heart of our community. They provide so much more than just somewhere to have a pint and a pie. They provide community and social cohesion. They are the antidote to the epidemic of isolation. They have history and culture attached. They are somewhere we can go to argue well over a pint, yet our pubs and hospitality businesses are really struggling. That is why, as a point of protest, we Liberal Democrats voted against the increase in alcohol duty in the Budget resolutions last week, and we remain opposed to the measures in the Bill that relate to that increase. On business rates, I am sorry to say that the Government are behaving as though they are somehow doing hospitality a favour, but I cannot tell you, Madam Deputy Speaker, how angry hospitality owners and leaders are. Furious, angry, betrayed, gaslit—these are just some of the politer words I have heard them use. The Labour manifesto was clear: “The current business rates system disincentivises investment, creates uncertainty and places an undue burden on our high streets. In England, Labour will replace the business rates system, so we can raise the same revenue but in a fairer way. This new system will level the playing field between the high street and online giants, better incentivise investment, tackle empty properties and support entrepreneurship.” However, Labour has not replaced business rates, and it has not levelled the playing field.

• 16 Dec 2025 · Finance (No. 2) Bill · Hansard source

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  If this Finance Bill represents anything, I am sorry to say that it represents the fact that the Government know the cost of everything and the value of nothing. We Liberal Democrats have tabled a reasoned amendment against this Bill, setting out all the reasons why we are against it. Ultimately, this Bill is a series of short-term Treasury tax grabs, with no care for the consequences and no vision for the future. People are crying out for change—the change that they were promised—but the double whammy of stealth taxes on households and high streets makes the Labour Government look like nothing more than continuity Conservatives. Once again extending the unfair freeze on income tax thresholds will drag millions of low-paid workers into tax. The failure to reform the business rates system again makes the Government look like continuity Conservatives. In a turbulent world, we need to boost our sovereign capabilities, and food security is critical to that, yet despite all the evidence, all the campaigning and all the honking of tractor horns on Whitehall, the Government have failed to get it right.

• 10 Dec 2025 · Conduct of the Chancellor of the Exchequer · Hansard source

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  I agree with the right hon. Gentleman that the jobs tax has been damaging. I say to Treasury Ministers that the combination of the jobs tax and higher business rates bills will have a profound impact on the very small businesses on our high streets, and our high streets are critical to our communities. Most ordinary folk do not follow the statistics on growth, unemployment, GDP and everything else; when they walk out their front door and look at their high street, they decide how they would answer the question, “Is the economy working in our area?”. It is so vital that we support our high streets. On that point, I genuinely urge Ministers to look again at the multiplier for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses. They talk in a very technical way about one element of the bills and continue to say that the rates are coming down. They have come down by 5p for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses, but Ministers gave themselves the power to reduce them by 20p. However, businesses heard “lower business rates”. They did not think about the technicality of how the rates are calculated; they just heard the word “lower”, and made decisions on that basis—but bills are now higher, and they are really struggling. I have said it before, and I will say it again: we cannot tax our way to prosperity; we have to grow our way to prosperity. We hope very much that, as Ministers move ahead on this debate, they not only reform the OBR and Budget process, so we have more transparency in this House, but think again about going for growth with Europe.

• 10 Dec 2025 · Conduct of the Chancellor of the Exchequer · Hansard source

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  It is a real delight to speak in this debate, because I honestly thought that I would not get the chance. There was a risk, I thought, that the shadow Chancellor might even filibuster in his own Opposition day debate, much as I enjoy his poetry readings and so forth. We all know that the Budget process was a bit of a mess. It had more leaks than a sieve, lots of flip-flopping, and all the rest. By the time we got to Budget day, many of us were relieved that the process was over. But let us not pretend that this was all new. Previous Budgets had involved a number of leaks, and we all know that the Liz Truss mini-Budget must surely be the gold standard for sidelining the OBR.

• 10 Dec 2025 · Conduct of the Chancellor of the Exchequer · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to my hon. Friend for making that point. I agree with him: transparency is critical. On transparency, we Liberal Democrats think that it is time to overhaul this entire process. Colleagues will know that when Sweden faced a similar crisis in its Budget process in the 1990s, it overhauled the process, and it now has a system in which a draft Budget is published. There is a lot of time for it to be debated, and amendments can be tabled by Opposition parties before the process is concluded. The public would welcome such transparency; it would then be incumbent on the Government and all Opposition parties to set out how they would fund their pledges, raise revenue and manage Government spending. These debates over the last few weeks have raised questions about the role of the OBR, and I want to put it on the record that we Liberal Democrats think that we should keep the OBR. It plays an important role as an independent organisation that can scrutinise the Treasury, but there is scope for more democratic accountability, and to tease out the divergence between forecasts by the OBR and the Treasury. I am slightly perplexed to see that the Opposition day motion focuses on process, not policy, and that it promotes spin over substance. This Budget has levied stealth taxes on households and on our high streets, and has fundamentally failed to galvanise growth. Maybe it is obvious to people at home why the Conservatives have not tried to focus on the substance: because those stealth taxes were started by the Conservatives and have been carried on by Labour. The Conservatives failed to fix the business rates system, and Labour has not taken forward fundamental change. It is clear that both parties continue to refuse to go for growth with Europe. My hon. Friend the Member for North Norfolk (Steff Aquarone) asked a very reasonable and legitimate question about why the Treasury has not said whether it will provide funding for dental training places in his county and for his constituents. That was a legitimate question to ask, so I was disappointed that the Minister tried to say, in response, that we have not supported his tax rises, when we Liberal Democrats have repeatedly, over the last year and more, set out the different ways in which we would raise taxes, including by reforming capital gains tax, looking at other taxes and a windfall tax on the big banks, as recommended by the Institute for Public Policy Research and endorsed by independent economists. We have also set out how getting a customs union with the European Union would boost public finances by £25 billion a year. [ Interruption. ] I understand that the Minister and those on the Treasury Bench who are chuntering right now may wish to level their accusation at the Conservative party, but that does not stack up when talking to the Liberal Democrats.

• 10 Dec 2025 · Conduct of the Chancellor of the Exchequer · Hansard source

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  I am concerned about the impact of this Budget on businesses, and particularly about business rates. We have been very clear that we are trying to be a party of constructive opposition. In last year’s Budget, it was clear that the jobs tax would raise £10 billion, once we had adjusted for spending, for rebates for the NHS and education, and for changes to behaviour—not the £25 billion that the Government claimed. We set out a number of proposals that could have raised that £10 billion. We Liberal Democrats welcomed the Government raising remote gaming duty in this Budget, because that was in our manifesto at the last general election. I absolutely agree with the hon. Member for Angus and Perthshire Glens (Dave Doogan) that there are other ways of raising taxes, and we hope that the Government look at some of our proposals, including our ideas for reforming capital gains tax, which would be a fairer way of raising revenue. It would raise more money from the 0.1% of the population who are super-wealthy.

• 9 Dec 2025 · Hospitality Sector and SMEs · Hansard source

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  High street hospitality businesses are on a knife edge—this is a disaster in the making. The Government say that they have rebalanced business rates, but that is not the case. UKHospitality says that the average increase for hospitality businesses will be 76% over the next three years, compared with warehouses, offices and large supermarkets, which will go up by only 16%, 7% and 4%. The reality is, the Government said repeatedly that they were going to introduce permanently lower business rates, and businesses heard that and made decisions based on that—and now their bills are going up. In the spirit of constructive opposition, I implore the Minister to look again, use powers to reduce the multiplier to minus 20p and look at an emergency VAT cut.

• 9 Dec 2025 · EU Exit: Economic Growth · Hansard source

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  The botched Brexit deal has wrapped up British businesses in red tape and blown a hole in the public finances to the tune of £90 billion a year. The Chancellor insists that her No. 1 mission remains to get economic growth. If that is the case, will she and her Ministers vote with the Liberal Democrats this afternoon to make sure that we get rid of that red tape and deliver on a new UK-EU customs union?

• 1 Dec 2025 · Office for Budget Responsibility Forecasts · Hansard source

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  I understand that the Minister says he does not have all the answers to the questions about the incredibly serious security failings at the OBR, but has he requested or received any advice on whether the attempts to access the information might have reached a criminal threshold under the Criminal Justice Act 2003 or a civil level under market abuse regulations? Are there any other arm’s length bodies, related either to the Minister’s Department or to other Departments, that might now need to conduct a similar internal review into their security? The Budget process has been a mess. There have been leaks on a level that has never been seen before and huge amounts of flip-flopping, which has created uncertainty for households and the markets and has led to businesses putting investment on hold. During the pre-Budget press conference, the Chancellor talked about a reduction in productivity growth, but failed to mention that tax receipts were higher than expected. Why did the Government omit to communicate that information? Following Sweden’s budget crisis in the early ’90s, its Government changed to a system where the Swedish Parliament saw a draft budget and debated it at length, and Opposition parties could propose alternatives and amendments. Have the Government given any consideration at all to introducing a better system? On the issue of omissions, on a number of occasions over the past year Ministers have repeated the claim that they would introduce permanently lower business rates for businesses in this country, but they omitted to say that business rates bills would go up because of the higher valuations. Pubs are now saying that their average increase will be £12,000 a year, or 76% over the next three years. Why did the Government omit to mention that?