Desmond Swayne MP: speeches

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Speeches

13 Jan 2026 · Business of the House · Hansard source
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Given that the welcome intervention by the UN Human Rights Council has arrived subsequent to our own deliberations on the Chagos Bill, may I urge the Leader of the House not to be so hasty and to consider pulling the Bill entirely?
7 Jan 2026 · Jury Trials · Hansard source
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As my right hon. Friend squares up to lead civil society in a battle against this monstrous measure, may I ask him to have some sympathy for Labour Members, who are about to be led to the top of the hill once again, as they were with the farm tax and the winter fuel allowance, on a measure that simply will not deliver the solution it is designed to? They will all end up having the rug ripped from under them once again after enduring all the political pain.
18 Dec 2025 · Farming Profitability · Hansard source
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Sustained profitability requires sustained investment, and investment has collapsed as a consequence of the family farm tax, hasn’t it?
16 Dec 2025 · Finance (No. 2) Bill · Hansard source
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The Minister gave his estimate of the number of farms that would be affected by the new tax, which I am quite sure is an underestimate. Notwithstanding that, though, the chilling effect on agricultural investment has been felt across the entire sector as people seek to avoid their farm reaching the threshold for the new tax.
16 Dec 2025 · Finance (No. 2) Bill · Hansard source
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This attack on investment extends well beyond agriculture and family farms; it is an attack on every family undertaking and every family business in the land. It is bonkers.
16 Dec 2025 · Finance (No. 2) Bill · Hansard source
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Will my right hon. Friend give way before he moves on?
15 Dec 2025 · Jimmy Lai Conviction · Hansard source
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The Government’s dealings with China are proving to be almost as lamentable as those of their predecessor. We have summoned the ambassador to tell him just how cross we are, but I bet we will give him his embassy, won’t we?
15 Dec 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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As we have come away empty-handed from the Security Action for Europe instrument, can we have the fish back?
15 Dec 2025 · Employment Rights Bill · Hansard source
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Which British company offers unlimited compensation for unfair dismissal? What message does this measure send to companies that can locate well-paid staff anywhere in the world?
10 Dec 2025 · Conduct of the Chancellor of the Exchequer · Hansard source
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The political reality is that this Government have been dead in the water since they failed to get their very modest reduction in the rate of growth of the benefits bill through Parliament earlier in the year. We saw the ridiculous nonsense in the Budget when, having sacked and suspended Back Benchers after the previous Budget because they voted to end the two-child limit, the Chancellor came back with this great triumphal announcement that she was going to do it for them. May I entreat my right hon. Friend to give way one more time to the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent Central (Gareth Snell) so that he can give us an explanation of his socks?
8 Dec 2025 · Restriction of Jury Trials · Hansard source
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My maths teacher always required us to show our workings. Last week, the Secretary of State told us that only 3% of prosecutions proceed to jury trials. How can marginally reducing such a small proportion produce the savings that have been identified? Will the Minister publish the modelling?
2 Dec 2025 · Catapults and Antisocial Behaviour · Hansard source
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Order. I am imposing a formal six-minute time limit.
2 Dec 2025 · Gambling: Regulatory Reform · Hansard source
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Order. Can I suggest eight minutes to start? I call Gareth Snell.
2 Dec 2025 · Gambling: Regulatory Reform · Hansard source
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I call Lee Dillon. It seems he is not here, so I call Cameron Thomas.
27 Nov 2025 · Right to Trial by Jury · Hansard source
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Quod erat demonstrandum. Yesterday, it was made abundantly clear that the Government’s priority is the recipient of benefits, way ahead of any consideration of victims, was it not?
26 Nov 2025 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source
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I do wish the hon. Gentleman would be quiet. He is insufferable. As we approach Government activity accounting for 45% of the economy—
26 Nov 2025 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source
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Notwithstanding the misgivings that I had, I cheered with gusto. Somewhat later, I found myself on a train to Oxford to defend the Government in the annual Oxford Union debate of no confidence. While on the train, I received the news that the Chancellor who I had been cheering had been sacked—not a particularly good wicket to go out to bat on. I am confident that those hon. Members who cheered today will fare no better, because the economy is still reeling from the last Budget that the Chancellor delivered, with her wholesale assault on enterprise, family undertakings, initiative and every employer in the land. In fact, business confidence had collapsed significantly before that Budget. It had collapsed in the summer, when the Government warned everyone that things were so bad that they were going to have to get very, very much worse. As a consequence, when the Budget was delivered, we discovered that things were even worse than we had imagined. The Government then announced after that Budget that they had stabilised the economy. It was over; they were not coming back for any more. They trumpeted throughout the past year the fact that we had the highest growth rate in the G7. That is what they inherited, but as their monstrous regiment has proceeded, that growth rate has become more and more anaemic. There is no getting away from the fact that last month the economy shrank. This summer, the Government repeated the mistake. All we got throughout the summer was horror story after horror story and kites being flown about ghastly taxes that might be imposed on us. That was most unwelcome for businesses planning investment and for anyone planning to take on workers; these interventions move some markets and make others absolutely sclerotic. It is a disaster. When I challenged the Chief Secretary to the Treasury last week with the example of Hugh Dalton, who properly resigned over a Budget leak, I was astounded that he admitted at the Dispatch Box that he had no idea what I was talking about. That is extraordinary. Against that background, there is always the chilling presence of the huge increase in trade union power that is part of the Employment Rights Bill currently before Parliament. However, the Government’s anti-growth agenda is only half the story. The other half of the problem was expounded excellently by the Father of the House, my right hon. Friend the Member for Gainsborough (Sir Edward Leigh). The Government’s bloated expenditure plans have overshot by 4%, and we have this enormous, growing benefits bill. The disaster was that the Government withdrew from their attempts to provide some mild or modest restraint to the growth of that bill, and as my right hon. Friend said, we now face a bill that is running annually at £300 billion—£212 billion of which is for the economic inactivity of 4.3 million people who are under no obligation to work. That number of people is growing at a rate of 130,000 per month. That is completely unsustainable, and it is to be paid for by increasing taxes that disproportionately attack those people who are already contributing the most—the entrepreneurs, the investors and the very people who can take their investment, vision, skills and employment to where the business environment is rather more friendly. They are doing that in droves and to such an extent that even the Business Secretary has remarked on and spotted it. We increasingly face a situation in which fewer and fewer people will be able to pay for the bills of the increasing burden of people who are economically inactive. As we approach—
26 Nov 2025 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source
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I will not give way; I have reached my peroration. I have always thought that the result of that would be the totalitarian hand clenched in anger. I have read “The Road to Serfdom”, and things have actually turned out very differently. It is not the totalitarian hand clenched in anger; it is the Minister’s hand, open, dishing out largesse. It has turned out to be not so much the road to serfdom as the road to penury.
26 Nov 2025 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source
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I congratulate the hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne North (Catherine McKinnell). She caught my eye earlier when she was cheering the Chancellor with great enthusiasm, even more so than her colleagues who were making a pretty good fist of it. I recall cheering a Chancellor during a Budget speech—
25 Nov 2025 · G20 and Ukraine · Hansard source
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What indication was there that Putin would accept even the earlier iteration of this agreement?
18 Nov 2025 · Point of Order · Hansard source
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On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. Further to your earlier observation that if hon. Members had asked shorter questions during the previous statement, so many would not have been disappointed, there was a time when if a Member read from a piece of paper when asking a question, there would be a chorus across the House of “Reading!” May I suggest that if hon. Members were required to remember their questions, they would obviously be shorter? May I ask you to discuss with Mr Speaker the possibility of returning to former habits?
18 Nov 2025 · Northern Ireland Troubles Bill · Hansard source
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Even if the Supreme Court had opined on the matter and judged it to be incompatible, that would not have changed the law. This House is not required to respond in any way to a declaration of incompatibility by a court. This House remains supreme.
18 Nov 2025 · Northern Ireland Troubles Bill · Hansard source
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How confident is the Secretary of State that his provisions for preventing compensation for interim custody orders will withstand challenge in the courts, and would the Government’s case be undermined in any way by their decision not to challenge the original ruling in the High Court?
17 Nov 2025 · Asylum Policy · Hansard source
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As the Home Secretary struggles to find these return hubs, she should reflect on the fact that it was her Government who wasted £700 million by giving up an opportunity to Germany and the United States before we got the chance to use it.
17 Nov 2025 · Budget: Press Briefings · Hansard source
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Given the blatant breach of pre-Budget purdah, will the Chancellor follow the proper example set by Hugh Dalton?

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