Keir Starmer MP: speeches 2025

Speeches

• 19 Mar 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is right to raise this important project, which we are working on. It is vital that we unleash the potential of the Oxford-Cambridge corridor—and, of course, Bedford—by generating growth, jobs and opportunities. We are doing that by speeding up the delivery of new infrastructure projects, slashing red tape and getting Britain building.

• 19 Mar 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for raising this important issue, which is a matter of deep concern. We are already developing a rural crime strategy, but we will happily work with him and others to develop it further.

• 19 Mar 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  I thank the right hon. Gentleman for raising this shocking issue; he is right to do so. The case he refers to is truly shocking, as I think is agreed across the House. We are working on this and I will make sure that he gets an update so that he is across the detail of what we are doing.

• 19 Mar 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  On both points, last night, following the discussions yesterday, I spoke to President Zelensky to discuss the way forward. On the wider question of assets, it is complicated—it is not straightforward—but we are working with others to see what is possible.

• 19 Mar 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  We have already invested £100 million for adult and children’s hospices, with an additional £26 million in funding through the children’s hospice grant, but we cannot get away from the root cause of what we were doing in that Budget, which was fixing the economy the Conservatives left so badly damaged—a £22 billion black hole. Perhaps the Leader of the Opposition will start the next question with an apology.

• 19 Mar 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Gentleman for doing what he was asked to do, and raising that case here. The loss of a child is unbearable, and I think that most us, including me, simply do not know how we would be able to react. I am sure that the whole House will want to send its deepest condolences to Laura, and to all Taylan’s family and friends. I will happily ensure that the meeting the hon. Gentleman has requested takes place, so that we can give a reassurance that we are committed to supporting lifesaving and life-improving research and doing all we can to improve the way in which in we prevent, detect, manage and treat cancer.

• 19 Mar 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  No, what it says in my folder is that the Conservatives had 14 years— [Interruption.] They did not need to consult; they just had to get on with it. They had a majority of 80 for their last five years of Government. They are now carping on about some of their ideas. They had 14 years and they did not implement a single one; they simply broke the system. They are in no place to lecture other people.

• 19 Mar 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  We do have a proportional tax system, and we have raised tax on the wealthiest under this Government. The hon. Lady’s advice would count for a bit more if her party’s manifesto had not been a recipe for £80 billion of extra borrowing, which would have done exactly what Liz Truss did to the economy—that would not help any of the people she is claiming to support.

• 19 Mar 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  I join my hon. Friend in commending West Midlands police for keeping his community safe. We are doubling our investment to £200 million towards the recruitment of 13,000 neighbourhood police officers, giving every community a named officer to help tackle violent crime, and we are currently working through bids with forces to ensure that we do so. I will ensure that he gets a meeting with the Policing Minister.

• 19 Mar 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  We have delivered record investment into this country, we have had three interest rate cuts in a row and wages are going up faster than prices, which is a massive cost of living boost. That is in only eight months, after 14 years of absolute failure. What did the Conservatives leave? Interest rates were at 11% and there was a massive £22 billion black hole in the economy. They crashed the economy; we are rebuilding Britain.

• 19 Mar 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  The hon. Gentleman is right: too many people with eating disorders are not getting the treatment they need. The NHS is expanding eating disorder treatment services with a focus on accessing treatment earlier and closer to home, and we are providing access to specialist mental health professionals in every school. I will make sure that he is kept updated.

• 19 Mar 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  I have lived with the impacts of disability in our family, through my mother and brother, all my life. I do understand the human impact, but the current system is morally and economically indefensible. We are right to reform it and nobody should be defending the broken status quo. We are proceeding on three principles: if you can work, you should work; if you need help into work, the state should help you, not hinder you; and if you can never work, you must be supported and protected. They are the right principles, and we cannot leave the current system as it is.

• 19 Mar 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  My right hon. Friend is a passionate advocate on this issue and has been for a long time, and I pay tribute to her for that. However, as she rightly acknowledges, the current system is broken. This is where I disagree with her: I think that one in eight young people not being in education or training—that is a million young people—is a moral issue. All the evidence suggests that someone in that situation at that stage of their life will find it incredibly difficult ever to get out of that level of dependency. That cuts across the opportunity and aspiration that are the root of my values, and Labour values, about how we take working people forward. I do see it as a moral issue and I will not turn away from that. I am genuinely shocked that a million young people are in that position, and I am not prepared to shrug my shoulders and walk past it.

• 19 Mar 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  The victims of this scandal have suffered unspeakably. I am pleased that at the Budget we set aside £11.8 billion to compensate them for this appalling scandal. I gently point out that the Conservative party was committed, rightly, to the compensation but did not provide a single penny in the column to pay for it. The Infected Blood Compensation Authority has been established and it began to make payments last year, with over £1 billion of interim payments having been made. We remain completely committed to co-operating with the inquiry and acting on its recommendations.

• 19 Mar 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  We are rolling out 350 banking hubs across all communities. I will happily arrange for the hon. Lady to have a meeting with the Minister to discuss how that might affect her constituency.

• 19 Mar 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  The situation that my hon. Friend describes is an appalling indictment of the SNP record. The Conservative party left record homelessness in England. The SNP record is equally shameful: a record number of children in temporary accommodation. We are investing £1 billion to tackle homelessness, abolishing no-fault evictions and building 1.5 million new homes. Meanwhile, the SNP has cut its affordable housing budget. It has had the largest settlement since devolution. It has the power and the money; now it is time that it started delivering.

• 19 Mar 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  I start by pointing out that, because of the changes we made at the Budget, we were able to put record amounts of money into our national health service. It was vitally important that we did so. It is not right simply to oppose the measures we had to take to raise the money and at the same say, as the right hon. Gentleman does, that he wants the benefits of the increase in funding to the NHS. The two cannot sit together. We have already invested an additional £3.7 billion of funding in social care, including £880 million to increase the social care grant. We are taking steps, but the basic point remains: we cannot make the investment in the NHS if we do not raise the money. He cannot simply oppose any raising of money and at the same time welcome the money into the NHS.

• 19 Mar 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Net zero is of course not easy, but it is a huge opportunity to boost our growth, our jobs and our economy. The hon. Member knows my views on that. He complains, but Reform would have better ideas if it stopped fawning over Putin. I understand that the hon. Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage) wants to be Prime Minister, but he cannot even lead a party that fits in the back of a taxi.

• 19 Mar 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend, who does a superb job for Peterborough. We are proud of the fact that our Employment Rights Bill is tackling the cost of insecure work, and that we are delivering that pay rise for 3 million of the lowest-paid. We know that the Leader of the Opposition opposes all that. She thinks that the minimum wage is a burden, and that maternity pay is excessive. It is the same old Tories. They opposed the minimum wage in the first place; they have learnt absolutely nothing.

• 12 Mar 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  The right hon. Lady really should not denigrate what I think she called “60p breakfast clubs”. She should be welcoming them. She asks about council tax. The Tories put up council tax every year for 12 years. Their Local Government Association manifesto says that Government should: “Remove the caps on Council Tax”. Hampshire county council, which is Tory, wanted a 15% increase, and we said no. Slough borough council, which, again, is Tory, wanted 3%, and we said no. Windsor and Maidenhead council, which was Tory and is now Lib Dem, wanted 25%, and we said no. We are the ones doing the right things to get this country on the right track.

• 12 Mar 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  This is why it is so important that wages are up higher than prices. It is why it is so important that interest rates are coming down. This is the biggest boost for the cost of living for a very long time. What we are doing is picking up and fixing the mess that the Tories left.

• 12 Mar 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  We are putting in childcare—look at the breakfast clubs; there are two in the right hon. Lady’s constituency. She is rather forgetting the £22 billion black hole that the Conservatives left, which we had to deal with. That is why we had to take the necessary but right measures that we did in the Budget. What is her response? It is not that she would reverse them—oh no, she does not say that. She attacks what we have done, but she does not say that she would reverse it, because she wants all the benefits of our Budget in terms of investment, but does not want to pay for it. That is how we got into the mess in the first place.

• 12 Mar 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Canada is an ally, and a very important ally, too. I have spoken to our allies on many occasions about the situation in Canada. On the question of tariffs, like everybody else, I am disappointed to see global tariffs on steel and aluminium, but we will take a pragmatic approach. We are, as the right hon. Gentleman knows, negotiating an economic deal, which covers and will include tariffs, if we succeed, but we will keep all options on the table.

• 12 Mar 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  Under the Tories, inflation was 11%, with a £22 billion black hole and a mini-Budget that made us the laughing stock of the world, and they want to give us lectures on the economy? No, thank you very much.

• 12 Mar 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

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  This is a really serious issue. The hon. Gentleman has let himself down, and he knows it. I expect all trusts and healthcare providers to take necessary action against any staff who have expressed views that do not reflect the views and values of the NHS.