Julian Smith MP: speeches

Speeches

• 5 Mar 2026 · Energy Markets · Hansard source

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  I thank the Secretary of State for his update. I echo the calls for support for business and keeping an eye on the impact of this crisis on business. For areas like mine in North Yorkshire, off-grid gas and oil customers do not have the same protection as many other energy customers. Will he and his team focus have regard to those customers as this crisis evolves?

• 23 Feb 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T7. Small businesses across North Yorkshire are under massive pressure from national insurance, the workers’ rights Bill, rates, energy costs—the list goes on. Now that the consultation on the tourist tax has closed, will the Minister put that tax on pause in the interests of job creation for young people? The stats today are truly appalling.

• 23 Feb 2026 · Schools White Paper: Every Child Achieving and Thriving · Hansard source

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  I welcome the section on training in the SEND consultation, but much of it is not statutory. Will the Secretary of State confirm her thinking on that? Will she also confirm that autism and profiles of it such as pathological demand avoidance will be at the centre of that training?

• 10 Feb 2026 · Ministry of Defence: Palantir Contracts · Hansard source

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  The Minister and the Secretary of State have said that Peter Mandelson was not involved in the decision on Palantir. However, the issue is not the decision itself but the run-up to it. We know that Peter Mandelson, or executives from Global Counsel, were flown into embassy parties, and we need to understand more about whether Peter Mandelson, in pushing for deliverables for the state visit, was pushing for deliverables with Global Counsel clients. Will the Minister confirm that Peter Mandelson was not involved in any way, at any stage, in the decisions on the contracts given not just to Palantir but to Anduril Industries?

• 10 Feb 2026 · Local Power Plan · Hansard source

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  The Secretary of State will be aware that small businesses across the UK are really struggling with energy costs, particularly in communities in rural areas like North Yorkshire. What can small businesses get from this plan to lower their costs as quickly as possible? What role will the plan play in that?

• 10 Feb 2026 · Court Reporting Data · Hansard source

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  I accept what the Minister is saying, but I do not understand why the dispute resolution has not worked and why there is still no opportunity for it to work. I should appreciate it if she could clarify that for the House. May I also ask what will be new and different about the next procurement? What needs to be set up? If there was a breach, will it not be simply a procurement to avoid that happening in future?

• 9 Feb 2026 · Policing: Rural Areas · Hansard source

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  2. What steps she is taking to help ensure effective policing in rural areas.

• 9 Feb 2026 · Policing: Rural Areas · Hansard source

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  The reorganisation of policing proposed by the Government risks a double whammy for areas with already under-resourced policing, as they face further distance between themselves and decision makers. May I urge the Minister to look carefully at how the reorganisation will impact the sparsest areas of our country, such as North Yorkshire?

• 5 Feb 2026 · Farming Sector Productivity · Hansard source

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  2. If she will take steps to help increase productivity in the farming sector.

• 5 Feb 2026 · Farming Sector Productivity · Hansard source

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  The Batters report included a number of good recommendations about productivity. North Yorkshire farmers want to produce food; they are obviously worried about the environment, but the priority is food. After covid, we talked about more UK food resilience, so may I urge the Minister to press forward quickly with the recommendations about productivity in the Batters review? And will she come and visit a farm in my constituency soon?

• 4 Feb 2026 · Lord Mandelson · Hansard source

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  I am not going to give away. We heard earlier about a discussion between members of the ISC and the Government, and I know that conversations are taking place via the usual channels, but I say to Government Front Benchers that what I have heard from the House today is that it wants the Government to cede control of the relevant documents to either the House or the ISC, regardless of whether those documents relate to national security or foreign policy. I have also heard that the House is very cognisant of the fact that this place will not see all the documents. The ISC may see many of those documents and we will not see them, but the issue for the Government is whether they can make the next step to cede control of those documents to this House and the ISC.

• 4 Feb 2026 · Lord Mandelson · Hansard source

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  Could the Minister confirm on the Floor of the House that the Government will also include details of how they managed conflicts of interest between Peter Mandelson’s shareholding in Global Counsel and his activities as ambassador? Specifically, could he look at the background and come back to the House about two contracts, one to Anduril technologies and one to Palantir? Those were direct-award contracts, and at least one of those companies was a client of Global Counsel.

• 4 Feb 2026 · Lord Mandelson · Hansard source

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  I agree with my hon. Friend on that point. I am aware that one of our Five Eyes allies gave a warning about Peter Mandelson. I do not know whether that is true, but I know that as a humble Back Bencher. The House now needs to know, because this is a House matter. If we do not deal with it satisfactorily, we will all be condemned by what has gone on. I urge Ministers to ensure that, in the next hour or so, the discussions focus on not just ISC involvement, but ISC oversight of all sensitive diplomatic or security-related documents. My second point is about the nature of the Humble Address itself. It is very tempting for the Government of the day to take a narrow view of what the Opposition have asked them, but as we heard from Opposition Front Benchers, there is evidence, or at least there are allegations, about Peter Mandelson’s time in Washington. That relates to who attended embassy parties and how UK Government contracts came about last year. In my view, we should now address all these issues and get them out in the open, so that we can fully understand not just what happened and the judgment of the Government, but what was behind the threats and what our allies were worrying about, which included China, Russia and many more things than just the corrupt act itself. This Humble Address should be regarded by the House, and particularly by the Government, as a vehicle. It is a vehicle for protecting our democracy, and for beginning to unpick exactly what happened, on behalf of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims.

• 4 Feb 2026 · Lord Mandelson · Hansard source

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  Humble Addresses are very difficult for the Government of the day and for Chief Whips. The Minister for the Cabinet Office, who has just left the Chamber, tabled many Humble Address motions that I dealt with. They are difficult from a legal point of view, and from the position of protecting the rights of the Executive to have independent advice. As the right hon. Member for Ashton-under-Lyne (Angela Rayner) said, sometimes those judgments are handled in a way that, retrospectively, might have been different. The national security element is obviously extremely important, and I pay tribute to all our intelligence services for the protection they give our country, but I believe that this Humble Address is quite different from any other that has been put before Parliament. This Humble Address is about corruption at the very heart of our democracy. In my view, the corruption does not relate to the current Government, although there are obviously differing views on their judgment and so forth. For me, this Humble Address is the route by which we will start to get to the bottom of what looks like a level of corruption that we have not seen in this Parliament in recent times. How we handle that and move forward is critical to all of us, and it is vital for public trust.

• 3 Feb 2026 · Draft Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Scheme (Amendment) (Extension to Maritime Activities) Order 2026 · Hansard source

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  Will the Minister clarify what the Northern Ireland Office’s submission in the write-round said about the impact of the measure on Northern Ireland, or give a sense of those discussions? Baroness Foster runs Intertrade UK, a committee that was designed during the Windsor framework negotiations to look at the very issue of trade. Has he had conversations with Baroness Foster? Having listened to Northern Ireland colleagues, will he look again at how this will impact the Union? On top of the Windsor framework—which I would argue was the best deal we could get—this measure is an additional burden.

• 2 Feb 2026 · US Department of Justice Release of Files · Hansard source

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  With the cash for questions scandal or the recent sexual harassment cases in Westminster, the police were called by the Government, proactively. Why, in this case, are the Government conducting an inquiry without informing the Met police? If they are not conducting their own inquiry, will they get on with calling the police straightaway, because it is inevitably going to happen?

• 13 Jan 2026 · Chinese Embassy · Hansard source

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  The Minister talks about this being a planning decision, but essentially it is a political judgment. Many right hon. and hon. Members want to make strong representations to the Government and the National Security Adviser about the judgment call on getting a closer relationship with China and this embassy. The site of the proposed embassy is massive—I went around it over the past couple of days—and Mansell Street is really restricted, meaning it will be completely impossible to monitor what is going on there, so that judgment is wrong.

• 7 Jan 2026 · Rural Communities · Hansard source

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  Madam Deputy Speaker, as a Bradford MP you know how sparse North Yorkshire is. It has the largest rural road network in England, and it has historically had special funding for rural schools. Almost all employment comes from small businesses and hospitality. Huge efforts were made by the last Government to save businesses and agricultural areas during covid through the bounce back loan scheme and other loans, but covid hit in the context of existing long-term pressures, with farming undervalued, village shops closing, rural schools consolidating or federating, post offices going and churches shutting. In spite of that, communities worked hard, both to fight those trends and to continue to maintain the fabric of their local societies through coffee mornings, clubs and support for older people. In the shadow of covid, and with the other pressures facing rural communities, the new Government had a responsibility to tread really carefully with this part of our country. However, since the election we have seen a series of hammer blows to our rural communities, such as the farms tax, which is causing massive stress to small farms that rely on intergenerational leadership to survive. The Employment Rights Act 2025 places many more burdens on small businesses, disproportionately hitting areas such as North Yorkshire. Those businesses have fantastic ways of managing employee relationships—ways that are informal but robust, without the need for even more contractual arrangements. The rural services grant has been removed, and now the bad weather adjustment in the local government finance settlement has been removed too. Turning to transport, fuel duty has been scrapped and the drink-driving laws are being changed. Public houses are also losing reliefs—the average increase in rates costs for pubs in North Yorkshire is £26,000—and the new Labour Mayor of North Yorkshire is hammering the tourism industry with a tourism tax. These places provide a place to meet in rural areas; they provide events for old people and fundraise for local causes. As we have heard earlier, they also provide jobs for the increasing number of people leaving college without opportunities. Farmers, small businesses, pubs and hospitality venues are all just trying to make a reasonable turn using their private capital, but they are under such massive pressure from this Government. I urge Ministers to move quickly on the valuations issue; to triple-check parts of the local government settlement; and to reset the relationship with rural communities within Government and Whitehall, develop a cumulative impact test for these communities, and avoid the missteps we have seen over the past year.

• 7 Jan 2026 · Public Services · Hansard source

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  Can I press the Minister on the discussions he is having with the Executive on digital services? Dublin has just produced a very innovative digital services plan for public services. I urge the Government to talk closely with the Executive to ensure that Northern Ireland keeps pace with Dublin in that area.

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

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  This policy has caused huge stress for rural communities across North Yorkshire. What discussions is the Minister having inside government about other policies, such as the policy on rates for public houses in rural areas, to ensure that this error is not made again?

• 17 Dec 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Q8. May I compliment the Prime Minister on the work that he has done on Ukraine, and wish him well over Christmas on that topic? Pubs are at the centre of rural communities in areas such as North Yorkshire, but they are under more pressure than ever before. May I urge the Prime Minister and the Government to look again at the rates issue, and to look at how to relax transitional relief for those pubs, many of which will otherwise close?

• 16 Dec 2025 · Mandatory Mediation · Hansard source

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  Time pressure is one of the best routes to encourage alternative dispute resolution, as the Minister knows, but in the commercial court in 2024 the median time to judgment was 786 days. The UK law sector is up against huge pressures from Singapore and the middle east, which are offering six months to judgment and six months for appeal. May I urge Ministers to look at the competitive challenges facing UK law against such tough international competition?

• 16 Dec 2025 · Mandatory Mediation · Hansard source

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  5. Whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of the further use of mandatory mediation in civil law.

• 15 Dec 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I associate myself with the Secretary of State’s remarks about our armed forces having a fantastic Christmas, wherever they are. The strategic defence review talked about the need for a “national conversation” on defence. What steps are the Government taking to support that national conversation, particularly so that our constituents and the population are faced with the trade-offs needed to increase spending on our armed forces?

• 15 Dec 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  T2. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.