Keir Starmer MP: speeches

Speeches

• 11 Jun 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

  More

  I am grateful to the hon. Member for raising this important case of Spirit AeroSystems in Northern Ireland. I know how important it is for the workforce; I have visited them myself on more than one occasion. Airbus’s decision to expand UK operations is good news for the sector and testament to world-class manufacturing expertise, and I want to see those high-skilled jobs protected. The Northern Ireland Secretary has met Airbus, the trade unions and Assembly representatives to discuss the best outcome. The Minister for Industry is continuing engagement with stakeholders, and we will do everything we can in relation to this situation. I am grateful to him for raising it.

• 4 Jun 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

  More

  She opposes the US deal, she opposes the India deal, she opposes what we are doing with the EU, and she opposes Diego Garcia. That is a vital intelligence and strategic capability, and it is absolutely clear that legal uncertainty would compromise that capability in a very short time. No responsible Prime Minister would ever let that happen. We have secured the long-term basis for the base. That has been welcomed by the US, NATO, Australia, New Zealand and India. They are our allies. It has been opposed by our adversaries, Russia, China and Iran—and into that column we have Reform, presumably following Putin, and the Tories following Reform.

• 4 Jun 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

  More

  The right hon. Member raises a really important issue that I am obviously aware of. It is right that victims of miscarriage can apply for compensation and appropriately do so, and I will take away what he says and have it looked at.

• 4 Jun 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

  More

  I am absolutely determined that we will drive down child poverty. That is one of the proudest things of the last Labour Government. That is why we have a taskforce and that is why we have a strategy, and we will set out that strategy in due course. But we drive child poverty down; under the Conservatives, poverty always goes up.

• 4 Jun 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

  More

  Let me congratulate Southend on what was an incredible achievement; commiserations for the final result. One of the police officers on my team is an ardent Southend supporter, so I know all about the team—and the plans and the stadium—and what it means, but I should also congratulate Oldham, of course, on that victory.

• 4 Jun 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

  More

  We have a deal and we are implementing it. Within a very short time, I am very confident that we will get those tariffs down in accordance with the deal. I will come back to the right hon. Gentleman and update the House in due course, and I think the House will be very pleased at the outcome— [Interruption.] From a sedentary position, the hon. Member for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine (Andrew Bowie) says no. This is zero tariffs on steel. [Interruption.] Let us come back to this in a couple of weeks when we have implemented it, but the Conservatives obviously do not want it. Labour has backed steel; the Conservatives laugh at attempts to do so. That is a big part of the problem.

• 4 Jun 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

  More

  I thank my hon. Friend for her campaign. I know that the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs will have heard her representations. We have commissioned the expert Animal Welfare Committee to produce a full report on the responsible sourcing of fur to inform the next steps that need to be taken, and we are committed to publishing an animal welfare strategy later this week. [ Official Report , 5 June 2025; Vol. 768, c. 6WC.] (Correction)

• 4 Jun 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

  More

  Was it Kwasi Kwarteng that the hon. Gentleman replaced? Now he stands there to give lectures on economic prudence—you couldn’t script it! The difference between the Labour Government and the parties opposite is that we believe in properly costing our plans. Reform has £80 billion-worth of unfunded commitments—Liz Truss 2.0.

• 4 Jun 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

  More

  I share the hon. Member’s anger and frustration at the broken water system that we inherited, with frankly appalling sewage, higher bills and executives paying themselves huge bonuses. The era of being rewarded for failure is over. We have launched a record 81 criminal investigations into lawbreaking water companies in England, and we have introduced the Water (Special Measures) Act 2025, with prison sentences for polluting bosses and the banning of unfair bonuses. We will respond to the independent water commission in full following the publication of the final report.

• 4 Jun 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

  More

  What my hon. Friend describes is how health services in Scotland are utterly broken under the SNP, whether it is people waiting too long for mental health support in his constituency, or the Wishaw neonatal unit in Hamilton, which the SNP is threatening to downgrade. In 2021, the SNP Government said they would recruit 1,000 more community mental health workers. They utterly failed to do so. If they had a plan to fix Scotland’s NHS, they would have done it by now. Scotland needs a change of direction.

• 4 Jun 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

  More

  One of the greatest achievements of the last Labour Government was the 2012 Olympics in London, and we all remember it— [Interruption.] Given that response, can I pay tribute to the extraordinary contribution of Tessa Jowell to those games? I agree that there have been huge economic benefits from hosting major sporting events as well as an important legacy.

• 4 Jun 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

  More

  I am grateful to the hon. Member for raising this. She is absolutely right to describe these as dark days. Israel’s recent action is appalling and, in my view, counterproductive and intolerable. We have strongly opposed the expansion of military operations and settler violence, and the blocking of humanitarian aid. The House will have seen that we have suspended the free trade agreement talks and sanctioned extremists supporting violence in the west bank. We will keep looking at further action, along with our allies, including sanctions, but let me be absolutely clear: we need to get back to a ceasefire, we need the hostages, who have been held for a very long time, to be released, and we desperately need more aid, at speed and at volume, into Gaza, because it is an appalling and intolerable situation.

• 4 Jun 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

  More

  My hon. Friend is doing great work with Welsh Labour colleagues to champion working people in Wales. The United Kingdom is the only country in the world that will not be subject to the additional tariffs announced today, and we are working with the US at this moment to swiftly implement the agreement we have reached, which will see the 25% tariffs removed. We want that—the Conservatives do not want it—and it is crucial for British jobs. We have fought tooth and nail for our steel industry, saving jobs at British Steel and improving the deal at Port Talbot, and we will continue to do so.

• 4 Jun 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

  More

  Today we are investing £15.6 billion in the transport infrastructure of the north and of the midlands. We are decisively turning the page on a failed economic model of low investment, and we are backing the talent and prospects of the whole country. Over the coming weeks we will set out plans for further investment and renewal. Our strategic defence review shows that this Government will never gamble with our national security. Through the biggest sustained funding increase since the cold war, we will transform our defence, strengthen our nation and invest in jobs and industry across the United Kingdom. This morning I had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others. In addition to my duties in this House, I shall have further such meetings later today.

• 4 Jun 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

  More

  The only advice— [ Interruption. ] She gets up on a Wednesday morning, scrolls through social media and never does any of the detail. We are the only country in the world that is not paying the 50% tax on steel, and we are working on the rest. That will be coming down. She— [ Interruption. ] We are working to bring it down to zero; that is going to happen. [ Interruption. ]

• 4 Jun 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

  More

  I welcome the hon. Lady to her place. I am not going to follow her down that line, but now she is in Parliament and safely in her place, perhaps she could tell her new party leader that his latest plan to bet £80 billion of unfunded tax cuts with no idea how he is going to pay for them is Liz Truss all over again—although, considering that I think the hon. Lady was a Conservative member when Liz Truss was leader, she probably will not.

• 4 Jun 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

  More

  I give the right hon. Gentleman my assurance, because this is a very important issue, that we are working at pace with our allies on that very issue, to take whatever measures we can to get that humanitarian aid in. We have been doing that intensively over recent weeks and I give him my assurance that we will continue to do that, because that aid needs to get in at speed and at volume, and he is absolutely right about that.

• 4 Jun 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

  More

  May I thank my hon. Friend for raising this issue so powerfully and for everything that she is doing on it? The case she has outlined is utterly shameful, and far too many victims are waiting too long for justice. We are delivering a record number of sitting days and reviewing criminal courts to speed up the hearing of these cases, and we have a mission to halve violence against women and girls. My hon. Friend talks about the prison system. The Conservatives left the prison system on the brink of collapse and routinely operating at 99% of capacity, because in 14 long years they added just 500 extra places. We will deliver 14,000 new prison places so that the public are protected from these vile offenders.

• 4 Jun 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

  More

  I pay tribute to how my hon. Friend is bringing people together to deliver better care in the community that meets the needs of his constituents. The proposals for the health campus will be open to public consultation. I urge the whole community to input into that, to ensure the strongest investment case is put forward. I am pleased that waiting lists in his local trust have fallen by a fifth since March 2024, because of the investment that we have put into the NHS. That, of course, was opposed by the parties on the Opposition Benches.

• 4 Jun 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

  More

  We announced £502 million to support local authorities to manage the changes in NICs. We have put in £3.7 billion in additional funding for social care, doubled the disabled facilities grant and introducing the first ever fair pay agreement for professional carers, including minimum standards for pay. I gently say to the hon. Member that her party opposed the Budget that provides the money for the funding. They cannot keep asking for more spending and oppose a Budget that raises the money.

• 4 Jun 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

  More

  I thank the hon. Lady for raising this case and I am deeply sorry to hear about Molly’s situation. We are improving the lives of those that need it. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has just said to me that she will look into the case, so if the hon. Lady will provide the details, I will ensure that it gets proper attention so that we can deal with the particular problems she has raised. I am grateful to her, as I am sure Molly is, for raising this and I hope that we can now take the action that is necessary.

• 4 Jun 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

  More

  Well, I am glad to see the right hon. Lady is catching up with what happened two weeks ago. At the Budget, we took the right decision to stabilise the economy because of the £22 billion black hole that the Conservatives left. We took the right decisions and the growth figures are up, interest rates have been cut, and we have free trade deals. So we will look again, as I said two weeks ago, at the eligibility for winter fuel and of course we will set out how we pay for it, but because we have stabilised the economy, we on this side are committed to the triple lock, and that increased pensions by over £400 this April. The Conservatives say the triple lock is unsustainable. I think her position is that she wants to means-test it.

• 4 Jun 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

  More

  I thank my hon. Friend for highlighting this issue, because the Conservatives left our flood defences in the worst state on record. It is prisons, it is the NHS, it is the economy, it is flooding—every single thing they touched, they broke. We are investing £2.65 billion to build and maintain flood defences, and that means 52,000 more properties will be protected by March of next year.

• 4 Jun 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

  More

  The hon. Member is absolutely right to raise this matter. Antisocial behaviour massively impacts on individuals and their communities, and that is why we are introducing 13,000 new neighbourhood police and giving them better powers—respect orders—so they can actually deal with what they see on the streets effectively. It is very important that we take this seriously.

• 4 Jun 2025 · Engagements · Hansard source

  More

  My hon. Friend is a great champion of how amateur boxing gyms can transform both physical and mental health, as well as confidence, in young people. The time given by selfless volunteers is inspiring, and we should thank them for it. England Boxing is investing £9 million in the sport and GB Boxing will also receive more than £12 million during the next Olympic games cycle, and I know that my hon. Friend will be looking forward to Liverpool hosting the inaugural world boxing championships in September.