Graham Stuart MP: speeches

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Speeches

6 Nov 2024 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source
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I will not. The very poorest pensioners are those eligible for pension credit, and nearly 900,000 of them will not get that £300. That is the truth—there is no point denying it. Finally, there is the awful betrayal of British farmers, many of whom work from dawn to dusk to ensure our supermarkets are full of fresh fruit and veg. According to my constituent William Hodgson, who runs a small family farm near Withernsea, it is a “rural catastrophe”. I ask the Government to think again.
6 Nov 2024 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source
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I think people do feel betrayed. We need to conduct our politics as honestly as we can. The Labour Government broke their promise not to raise taxes on working people, because, as the OBR has made clear, the NICs raise will overwhelmingly fall on working people. In fact, if we go through the numbers, as I did, it turns out that there is a bigger reduction in wages than there is net receipt to the Exchequer. That is quite a remarkable achievement—probably only a Labour Government could do that. Of course, the Government have also put up the cost of getting on the bus. If ever there was a symbol of working people, travelling from my constituency to a low-paid job in Hull, that is it. It will cost them £500 a year extra out of taxed income. I do not know why the hon. Member for Hitchin (Alistair Strathern) is grinning—I know he grins a lot, but it should not be funny to him that someone in a low-wage job who travels into Hull every day will pay £500 a year more because of the decisions his Government are making. For a couple, it is £1,000 a year. That cost is real, and it should not be glossed over. There is just one train station in my constituency, and people who live in Withernsea have no choice but to travel 26 miles to get there. The Prime Minister’s constituents are blessed with a pick and mix of ways to get to the office: the tube, the overground, trains, Ubers, Bolts, and even Boris bikes. That is not the case in rural and coastal East Yorkshire: my constituents get the bus at 7 o’clock in the morning, and they get another bus at 6 o’clock at night. That is their lived reality, and the serious impact of this Budget should be recognised. Another broken promise was to pensioners, who were told that they would have security in retirement—that their benefits would not be touched. Taking £300 from the very poorest pensioners is not keeping that promise. [ Interruption. ] The very poorest pensioners are those eligible for pension credit.
5 Nov 2024 · Income Tax (Charge) · Hansard source
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Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
5 Nov 2024 · Income Tax (Charge) · Hansard source
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Will the hon. Gentleman give way on that point?
5 Nov 2024 · Income Tax (Charge) · Hansard source
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Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
5 Nov 2024 · Income Tax (Charge) · Hansard source
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Cheekiness accepted. The hon. Gentleman is quite right that the £600 million extra is for both children and adult social care, whereas adult social care alone is expected to have a £2.4 billion hit, so does he agree that if the NHS, however well funded, cannot move its patients into social care, that investment and expenditure will not work?
5 Nov 2024 · Income Tax (Charge) · Hansard source
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Does my hon. Friend agree that the absence on the Government Front Bench of anyone with any experience of running a business, when businesses create the wealth that pays for public services, may explain why the Budget is so financially illiterate?
5 Nov 2024 · Income Tax (Charge) · Hansard source
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Will the hon. Lady give way?
5 Nov 2024 · Income Tax (Charge) · Hansard source
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Will the hon. Lady give way?
5 Nov 2024 · Income Tax (Charge) · Hansard source
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Will the hon. Gentleman give way?
5 Nov 2024 · Income Tax (Charge) · Hansard source
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Does my hon. Friend agree that no one would think less of the Government if they listened to these arguments, heard the message and changed? For instance, there is the message about social care being hit by £2.5 billion of extra costs. The £600 million that has been given to local authorities will not cover those costs. If the Government simply listened and changed, people would think much better of them, and we would have a social care system that supported the NHS, rather than one that stops the NHS being able to do what it needs to do.
30 Oct 2024 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source
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My hon. Friend is giving a powerful speech on this Budget of broken promises. People in Dudley and elsewhere did not vote for this Labour Government to put up taxes on working people, yet the OBR has said today that 76% of the cost of the rise in national insurance contributions will come out of ordinary working people’s wages. Does he agree that they are rightly angry about that and will get angrier still when they understand the implications?
30 Oct 2024 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source
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The hon. Gentleman talks about investment for our future. What is he going to say to the farmers of the Vale of Glamorgan who fear that they will no longer be able to pass on their farms to the next generation, as each generation before them has been able to do until this black day of broken promises in this Budget?
30 Oct 2024 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source
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Will the hon. Member give way?
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.

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