Graham Stuart MP: speeches

Speeches

• 30 Oct 2024 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source

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  Will the hon. Member give way?

• 29 Oct 2024 · Ministerial Code: Policy Announcements · Hansard source

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  After your statement yesterday, Mr Speaker, I think you will have been as disappointed as I was that when the Chancellor came to the Chamber for Treasury questions this morning, she failed to apologise for the serious and important announcements that she had made outside the House. Without deflecting any further by talking about the previous Government’s record, will the Minister promise now that the ministerial code, and the Speaker of this House, who represents us all, will be respected by the Government?

• 29 Oct 2024 · Living Standards · Hansard source

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  Residents of Joseph Rowntree’s St Ellens Court all gathered recently to tell me about the devastating impact that the cut in the winter fuel payment will have on their living standards, and people in Withernsea gathered Saturday last to demonstrate against it. Tomorrow, the Chancellor can do the right thing; will she?

• 24 Oct 2024 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  So many of my residents in rural Beverley and Holderness have benefited from the simply brilliant £2 bus fare. Could we have a debate or a statement from the Transport Secretary as soon as possible after the Budget on the future of the £2 bus fare, which has seen so many more of my residents able to get to work, be a full part of the community and meet members of their families?

• 22 Oct 2024 · Lebanon: Ceasefire · Hansard source

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  There is only one route to sustained peace in Lebanon, and that is for the UN and the Lebanese state to stop Hezbollah carrying out its operations. That’s right, isn’t it?

• 21 Oct 2024 · Employment Rights Bill · Hansard source

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  I entirely agree, and places like the Isle of Wight, with so many hospitality businesses, will pay a particularly high price. We should celebrate and support our wealth creators, not burden them with excessive taxes and regulations that kill the drive to work, invest and create wealth. Yet that is the destructive path that Labour is taking, with a jobs tax planned for every worker’s national insurance contributions in the Budget in a couple of weeks, and this Bill to deter SME employment.

• 21 Oct 2024 · Employment Rights Bill · Hansard source

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  I will not. History tells us that Labour Governments always end with unemployment higher than when they began. They do not do it because they are evil. As has been said, no one in the Cabinet comes from a business background; they simply do not understand the realities. This Government seem bent on destroying employment even faster than their predecessors. Small businesses are the lifeblood of our economy. They do enormous social good. As the FSB says, smaller employers are “the ones most likely to give opportunities to people furthest from the labour market, such as those returning after long-term health issues or caring responsibilities.” Yet under these proposals, the “Plans to give day one unfair dismissal rights to new employees will add to the risks associated with hiring people.” That increased risk will inevitably deter small employers from taking on new people for fear of facing an employment tribunal simply because a new recruit turns out to be unsuited to the role. How will Ministers ensure that a company selling food at summer festivals is not bankrupted by having to offer a contract to someone who is not needed after that period is over? The Government have had a disastrous start. It is no wonder that the legislation is chaotic and poorly planned, given that Labour Cabinet Ministers are never early for work but always early for the free buffet at the Emirates or at Taylor Swift concerts. The Deputy Prime Minister is selling out the country’s interests in favour of trade union interests—selling out the people who vote Labour for the people who fund Labour. The Bill is a catastrophe, and I hope the House opposes it today.

• 21 Oct 2024 · Employment Rights Bill · Hansard source

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  Well, the impact assessment was provided rather late, but it is always good to have a spontaneous contribution to any debate. Removing the lower earnings limit and the waiting period will also disproportionately hurt small businesses and microbusinesses. That is set out in black and white in the economic assessment, so will Ministers make changes? It is with dark comedy that the Government say that their top priority is economic growth. Labour inherited the fastest growing economy in the G7, with 4 million more people in work than in 2010—4 million. In 2010, by comparison, we inherited a note that said that the money was all gone.

• 21 Oct 2024 · Employment Rights Bill · Hansard source

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  The Government’s own impact assessment states that “the impact on growth could”— only could— “be positive”, and that any such impact “would be small in magnitude.” The negative impacts, not least on small businesses, will be very serious in magnitude, as my hon. Friend the Member for North West Norfolk (James Wild) laid out. Will the Deputy Prime Minister please explain how she will minimise the negative impacts?

• 21 Oct 2024 · Employment Rights Bill · Hansard source

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  Will the right hon. Lady give way on that point?

• 21 Oct 2024 · Employment Rights Bill · Hansard source

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  On a point of order, Mr Speaker.

• 21 Oct 2024 · Employment Rights Bill · Hansard source

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  Does my hon. Friend agree that we need more detail from the Minister tonight on that specific provision, before the House can in good conscience give the Bill a Second Reading?

• 21 Oct 2024 · Employment Rights Bill · Hansard source

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  I refer the House to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests, and the contribution from small businesses to my election campaign earlier this year. History is repeating itself. Labour’s antipathy and lack of understanding for business, and small business in particular, is rearing its ugly head again. This legislation will have ruinous results for those who desperately need a job and hope. The Federation of Small Businesses says: “This legislation is a rushed job, clumsy, chaotic and poorly planned.” The federation goes on to say that the Bill will increase economic inactivity. That is a rather sanitised way of referring to the ruined lives, dashed hopes and huge waste of human potential that the Bill will bring about. At the end of the debate, we need to hear from a Minister how the Bill will be changed so that it supports rather than undermines the 4 million additional jobs created since 2010 under the Conservatives. The economic impact assessment, so rudely provided so late in the day, shows that the costs of the Bill will fall disproportionately on small businesses—something that we have heard no acknowledgment of from Government Members. Five out of nine measures will have that effect. Do Ministers have any plans to change that?

• 21 Oct 2024 · Employment Rights Bill · Hansard source

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  I believe it is. The Deputy Prime Minister just talked about the amount of money coming into the economy as a result of the measures. Is it appropriate for her and other Members across the House to speak in the debate without mentioning what they have received in donations from trade unions, given how central the law around trade unions is to the Bill?

• 21 Oct 2024 · Employment Rights Bill · Hansard source

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  Like my hon. Friend, I started a business—I started mine a little earlier than him, but that is how much older I am. I followed the Deputy Prime Minister’s speech as carefully as I could. From what I could understand, because of the changes in the Bill, someone can fail to turn up to work on day one claiming that they are sick and then, because they will now have rights against unfair dismissal, they will be able, without ever doing a day’s work, to hold a small business to ransom and put that business at risk.

• 21 Oct 2024 · Neighbourhood Policing · Hansard source

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  Under the last Conservative Government, excluding fraud and computer misuse, crime fell by 50%— [ Interruption. ] I am pleased to say that in Beverley and Holderness, as across the rest of the country, it was community groups, local people and the police working together who helped to do that. Working with the local community, the Cherry Tree Centre helped to reduce antisocial behaviour in the St Nicholas area of Beverley by 43%, year on year, by last summer. What will the Secretary of State do to ensure that such community co-operation leads to further cuts in crime, which was so welcome under the Conservatives?

• 9 Oct 2024 · Northern Ireland City Deals · Hansard source

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  I have two requests of the Secretary of State. First, would he put together and compile information on the investments that have been made to date, perhaps in conjunction with Sue Gray in her new role as envoy, or otherwise? Secondly, will he ensure that we get clarity on 30 October, one way or the other, as to whether these deals can go ahead, so that we do not have so many local authorities, private businesses and others who have invested in these programmes left in continuing limbo after that date?

• 8 Oct 2024 · Farming and Food Security · Hansard source

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  Is my right hon. Friend disappointed, as I am, that the Secretary of State did not say more about food security, and how we can make sure that a greater share of our food comes from this country?

• 8 Oct 2024 · Farming and Food Security · Hansard source

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  On 13 September, I met representatives from my local NFU and a whole group of farmers who are desperate to see both the recovery fund moneys dispersed and the support for the internal drainage board. Will the Secretary of State please put their minds at rest in this crisis situation in which they find themselves and commit to making sure that that money does flow? Talking about the Budget, we need action now to support those people if what he says about energy security and the centrality of farming to this country is to be more than just words.

• 8 Oct 2024 · VAT: Independent Schools · Hansard source

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  During the election, in the Monks Walk pub, I met a constituent who has stayed in his small home and has one car for the family, because they decided their bullied daughter needed to go to another school. They have sacrificed, with the support of wider family, so that that child with special educational needs can go to a private school. It is children and families like that who will be the victims of this spiteful policy. Does my right hon. Friend agree?

• 8 Oct 2024 · VAT: Independent Schools · Hansard source

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  On a point of order, Mr Speaker.

• 8 Oct 2024 · VAT: Independent Schools · Hansard source

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  I know the Minister to be an honourable man, so will he take this opportunity to apologise to the House in the absence of the Secretary of State for Education for the malicious and spiteful tweet that she put out this weekend? That tweet was ill-advised, even if one believes that this policy is the right thing to do.

• 8 Oct 2024 · VAT: Independent Schools · Hansard source

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  rose —

• 8 Oct 2024 · VAT: Independent Schools · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to you, Mr Speaker. Could you give any advice to me on how we can ensure that the impact assessment that must have been conducted on this policy is shared with the House? It is a fundamental—

• 8 Oct 2024 · Clean Electricity Generation · Hansard source

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  Does the Minister agree that it would be better to have the right electricity system in 2032 or 2035 than to have the wrong one because of an artificial target, which may be undeliverable by 2030?