Noah Law MP: speeches

Speeches

• 8 Dec 2025 · Digital ID · Hansard source

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  If there is so much consensus among MPs and constituents, why is it that the members of the public who were more supportive of digital ID were more likely to be Liberal Democrat voters, at least when they were polled some time back?

• 2 Dec 2025 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source

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  On the subject of today’s debate—investment and renewal—may I express my delight at the establishment of a local, publicly owned investment fund for Cornwall? It is only by investing in the SMEs and supply chains that underlie our most promising industries that we will ensure that the benefits of growth are spread throughout our communities. After a longer period of frenetic fiscal debate than I can remember, I would say that we have landed on the consensus that investment is needed to turn our country around and that, where revenue needs to be raised, it must be done in a way that is beyond a shadow of a doubt progressive and does not impact substantially on the finances of working people. I thank the Chancellor not just for going the extra mile for Cornwall, but for ensuring that we are putting more pounds in the pockets of working people and allowing them to get on with their lives by cutting their energy bills, freezing prescriptions and the cost of rail travel, and—as I have argued for many times in this place—protecting pensioners on low incomes from the effects of fiscal drag. I welcome the fact that some of my calls for farmers, and the calls of rural colleagues, have been heard, although we all know that we must go further to match the intended spirit of the reforms and that those businesses that just happen to be based on agricultural land should pay their taxes like everyone else. We also need to ensure that we put family farms on the best footing possible to invest in the future of our food production. Some of the best return on investment we can get comes from investing in our NHS, as we heard so eloquently from the Secretary of State at the start of the debate. In fact, investing in our NHS can sometimes yield gross value added returns of over £10 on every pound spent. The same is true of investment in early childhood education. I very much welcome the prioritisation of those things in the Budget. In August, I set canny young economists the research challenge of squaring the very tricky circle of a tax policy that is efficient, pro-growth and progressive. Delivering on each of those is no mean feat at a time of global instability and during this most prolonged period of weak growth, gifted by the last Government. I commend the Chancellor on her management of those trade-offs and for delivering a Budget that will allow the UK to grow faster than its peers, and one that is truly a Labour Budget.

• 2 Dec 2025 · Budget Resolutions · Hansard source

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  Does the right hon. Member care to remind us how much the NHS strikes cost under his Government’s watch?

• 1 Dec 2025 · Office for Budget Responsibility Forecasts · Hansard source

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  Does my right hon. Friend agree that some of the real-world and market impacts we saw last week underscore the importance of following proper process with the OBR? We saw the evidence to the contrary just three years ago, when the then Government chose to ignore and bypass the OBR entirely, causing interest rates and mortgage costs to soar.

• 24 Nov 2025 · Critical Minerals Strategy · Hansard source

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  As chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on critical minerals, I greatly welcome the strategy released this weekend. Domestic supplies of critical minerals are of huge importance to our economic security and resilience in an ever more turbulent world. They are also a potential source of jobs and prosperity, particularly in places like mid-Cornwall, which, like the Minister’s own home, were once rich with the spoils of industry and can be once again. May I welcome the Minister meeting Cornish industry, Cornish workers and our supply chain businesses to agree how we ensure that the spoils of the industry cascade through every level of the local workforce, supply chains and even local ownership?

• 20 Nov 2025 · Migration: Settlement Pathway · Hansard source

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  I welcome the Home Secretary’s statement, the care and fairness with which she has crafted the proposals, and the incentives that they instil. In my work on the International Development Committee, I have seen the immense negative impact of global displacement and the loss of over $20 billion of economic activity every year from developing countries. Then, of course, there is the impact of asylum accommodation on our overseas assistance budget. Does my right hon. Friend agree that while the measures might ostensibly seem harsh, there is nothing progressive about well-meaning people on the left of politics excusing a situation where thousands of people are risking their lives to cross the English channel from already safe countries?

• 20 Nov 2025 · Transport System: Economic Growth · Hansard source

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  18. What steps she is taking to help ensure that the transport system supports economic growth.

• 20 Nov 2025 · Transport System: Economic Growth · Hansard source

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  I am grateful to the Secretary of State for the recent boost to the local transport grant for my constituents in mid-Cornwall, but one of the barriers to more transformative rail investment in Cornwall remains a lack of shovel-ready projects to proceed with, which I have been talking about with residents in the western clay country and Fowey. What steps is the Secretary of State taking to ensure that we can get Cornwall’s railways back on track?

• 12 Nov 2025 · Taxes · Hansard source

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  I thank the right hon. Gentleman for giving way again. Will he acknowledge the massive dead-weight loss caused by the strikes that were going on, unbelievably, under the previous Government, and the negative returns as a result of the previous Government’s actions?

• 12 Nov 2025 · Taxes · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member for Hinckley and Bosworth (Dr Evans) makes a fair point. When raising public revenue, one should at least expect a decent return on that spend, whether it be a social return or otherwise. Does the right hon. Member not consider investing in our NHS to be such a decent return?

• 12 Nov 2025 · Energy · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member is making a spirited speech that gets to the heart of what we are all trying to address. There are fiscal levers that we can pull to ensure that we bring down bills. Does he share my sense of disbelief about the irony in the Conservatives’ earlier motion suggesting that there should be no further tax rises of any kind while they are simultaneously willing to propose a set of multibillion-pound measures to scrap all those levies?

• 11 Nov 2025 · Rural Railway Stations: Step Free Access · Hansard source

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  It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Mr Turner. I thank the hon. Member for North Shropshire (Helen Morgan) for securing this important debate. Accessibility on our railways is not simply a question of engineering and infrastructure development; it speaks to the kind of society that we want to build: one that enables independence and provides equality of opportunity and dignity for every passenger, regardless of their mobility. Rural stations in particular can be lifelines for those who would otherwise find travel difficult, but as we have heard many remain inaccessible to those who need them the most. That is why I am delighted to mark the progress being made at Par station in my constituency. For many months, I have worked with Network Rail, Cornwall council and the Department for Transport to ensure that the long-promised accessible footbridge at Par remains part of the Mid Cornwall Metro scheme despite the significant pressures on the national Access for All programme, which may have proved useful.

• 11 Nov 2025 · Rural Railway Stations: Step Free Access · Hansard source

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  I certainly agree that the Department for Transport and Network Rail must look where there are gaps in funding those schemes to see what can be done to help plug those gaps. As we have heard from hon. Members across the Chamber, the Access for All scheme has sadly come to represent the kind of pork barrel politics that characterised the last Government’s approach —and approach that said, “We will make plans that you will love but we’re not going to tell you how we will fund them.” Happily, the outline work on the Par station project is completed, and local residents in Par are delighted, but project partners are preparing for a key go or no-go decision in December. There remains the £1.5 million additional funding gap that must be resolved if the scheme is to proceed to full design and delivery. I urge Cornwall council to make a final push to secure that investment so that much-needed step-free access can finally be delivered for local passengers. I urge the Minister to do everything that he can to help us get this project over the line. It represents not only an important improvement for residents but a clear demonstration that we can deliver the kind of change that so many have long hoped for. Cornwall, with its dispersed population and its growing demand for greener and better-connected travel, stands to benefit greatly from that ambition. Investment in accessibility is not just an afterthought; it is central in ensuring that every part of the country, in urban and rural areas alike, shares equally in the economic and social opportunities that modern inclusive transport can unlock. Accessible public transport should not be seen as a luxury or an optional add-on; it is a basic expectation for every community, however rural. It deserves continued support across the rail network.

• 4 Nov 2025 · Business Rates: Affordability for SMEs · Hansard source

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  Despite representing only around 9% of the UK’s economic output, the retail and hospitality sectors contribute around a third of all business rates paid. Does the Minister agree that high streets such as that in St Austell are public goods, and will he ensure that independent small businesses such as those he has described, which are central to our communities and economies, are no longer penalised by an arcane business rates system that undervalues their public contribution?

• 4 Nov 2025 · Official Development Assistance Reductions · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Desmond. Official development assistance is changing. Just two weeks ago in Nigeria, one of the UK’s largest development partners, my colleagues and I from the International Development Committee had a glimpse of the future. Although the FCDO runs dozens of centrally managed programmes in the country, what stood out was not just the scale of the UK’s presence, but the way that we worked hand in glove with state Governments and public institutions to build the capacity that underpins long-term development. Whether that was in technical assistance to the revenue service or tax administration, support for reforming the public health system or advice on the macroeconomic reforms that Nigeria is beginning to implement, the emphasis was unmistakeable: partnership not paternalism. That is a mature partnership that points the way to the future of international development. As painful as it is for a proponent of international development to say this, when the Government cut aid earlier this year, the writing was on the wall. The system must evolve from trade, not aid, and to transformation rather than transactions. In that evolution, the UK possesses an extraordinary toolkit. We remain a leader in technical co-operation and capacity building, we are a pioneer in development finance and, perhaps most importantly, we sit at the centre of the global financial architecture. Nearly half of sovereign debt worldwide is governed by English law. That fact alone gives the City of London a moral and practical responsibility. If we want to see fairer, faster and more transparent debt restructuring and prevent another lost decade for low-income countries, the UK is uniquely placed to lead. Global debt reform will not happen in New York or Beijing unless it also happens in London. In British International Investment—I declare an interest as a former employee—we have a leader among European development finance institutions, one that understands that development finance is not just about providing capital but about building markets. BII’s mission is to identify the bridges that must be built to get economic activity off the ground, create jobs and lift people out of poverty, while delivering a fair return, even when that return is concessional to the British taxpayer. That is smart, modern development policy, which will strengthen Africa’s hand. Nowhere is the shift from aid to investment more necessary than in northern Nigeria. While parts of the south of Nigeria power on, the north is facing a humanitarian crisis, deep insecurity and environmental stress. Yes, there is an urgent need for aid to combat famine, strengthen healthcare systems and stabilise communities, but we must also confront the structural causes. A major driver of that instability is economic exclusion. Across the Sahel and the north of Nigeria, young people are being pushed off their land by drought, flooding and declining soil resilience. Many of those who end up in the orbit of Boko Haram or bandit groups are not idealogues; they are victims of climate and market failure. Those problems are not insurmountable, but aid without investment is not the answer to that market failure. If we can give rural farmers the means to invest in sustainable crops and farming practices, agriculture can be a source of peace, dignity and security. The World Bank’s forthcoming Nigeria agricultural value chains growth project—on which I hope the Minister will comment—is now at concept stage, but it aims to do just that, and to mobilise more than $500 million to foster the kind of growth that I have described. I also commend the work that BII is doing with its investee Babban Gona in that realm.

• 3 Nov 2025 · Defence Sector Innovation · Hansard source

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  While I greatly welcome the focus on innovation, cyber-warfare remains one of the areas in which the lines of responsibility may at least appear to be less clear. Given the threats that are proliferating—both abroad, for instance from Russia and the Sahel, and closer to home, even in many of our own in-trays—will the Minister specify where that responsibility for cyber-warfare really lies?

• 3 Nov 2025 · Defence Sector Innovation · Hansard source

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  16. What steps he is taking to increase innovation in the defence sector.

• 30 Oct 2025 · Industrial Strategy · Hansard source

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  9. What recent progress he has made on implementing the industrial strategy.

• 30 Oct 2025 · Industrial Strategy · Hansard source

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  Cornwall has a huge role to play in making Britain a clean energy superpower. As Ministers will be aware, much thought has already gone into the making of an industrial strategy for Cornwall. The crucial piece now is to unlock the funding needed for industrial and economic development, particularly in the wake of the shared prosperity fund coming to an end. What discussions has the Minister had with colleagues in the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government about the prospect of a set of investment measures to replace shared prosperity funding and ensure the realisation of Cornwall’s unique industrial potential?

• 30 Oct 2025 · Business of the House · Hansard source

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  The Leader of the House may have heard my question earlier today to the Under-Secretary of State for Business and Trade, my hon. Friend the Member for East Renfrewshire (Blair McDougall), regarding the financing of Cornwall’s industrial potential. Will he meet me and Cornish MPs to discuss how we can bring such issues together in a wider devolution package that finally gets Cornwall the powers and investment that we need?

• 30 Oct 2025 · Property Service Charges · Hansard source

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  While we have heard countless examples of grievances about property service charges today, for many residents, this ultimately boils down to one fundamental issue: disparity. Far be it from me to play devil’s advocate for a broken sector—a market failure—but some residents do face affordable service charges, and benefit from management companies that are responsive and effective in resolving their problems; yet others, often living in similar developments, are saddled with soaring fees and management companies that are slow, unaccountable and uncommunicative, leaving basic issues unresolved for months on end. When people are forced to pay ever-higher prices for worsening service, it is no wonder that frustration and resentment towards the sector as a whole is growing. One of my constituents recently wrote to me to say that they were alarmed by their service charge, which had risen from £161 a month to £266 the following year—a staggering 65% increase, which might be a record today. The justification provided was that the management company, which I will not name—the House can hazard a guess—had simply overspent on work that it had carried out. Such an arbitrary rise is unaffordable for so many households, and illustrates the dramatic and damaging impact that unchecked service charges inflation can have. Beyond the question of cost lies an equally important issue: transparency. Too often, residents have no idea what they are paying for and why, as we have heard. Service charge statements are opaque, and when people ask for explanations, they are often met with obfuscation and silence. There is also a chronic lack of oversight and accountability, and I look forward to hearing from the Minister about the potential to address that. As we have heard, when residents wish to challenge high or unjustified costs, their options for any form of recourse, except through the courts, are limited. The balance of power lies entirely with the managing agents, not the homeowners footing the bill. Worst of all, many people discover only after moving in that the management company responsible for the estate is unfit for purpose and provides a poor and inconsistent service in exchange for their hard-earned money. Residents still have to pay council tax in addition to their service charges, leading to a feeling of being double charged. It is therefore no surprise that my constituents are crying out for a stronger ability to take on the right to manage. Areas that are managed locally are often extraordinarily effective, with better services, better value for money and better local oversight all compounding to support communities to thrive. One of my constituents shared her frustration that her estate’s management company consistently fails to maintain communal grounds. She wrote: “My issue is that we, the residents, have no real power or control over the management of the communal grounds, but we are expected to pay all the costs. I want that control. We should have the right to make our own choice of property manager.” That sentiment is shared by thousands across the country. It speaks to an urgent need for regulation of a sector that has had a licence to print money. Its high yield gives private equity companies a perverse incentive dynamic, which the hon. Member for Reigate (Rebecca Paul) described so eloquently at the start of this debate. As we have heard, problems also arise from the failure of local authorities to adopt highways, which is due to the poor incentive structure. I hope to see all these issues—particularly transparency, value for money, accountability and professional standards —addressed in the leasehold and commonhold reform Bill. After all the progress we have made on renters’ rights in the past week, the Bill represents a huge opportunity for leaseholders across the country, thanks to this Labour Government. Until we rebalance those relationships, residents will continue to feel powerless, exploited and unheard, and that is completely unacceptable.

• 29 Oct 2025 · Gaza and Hamas · Hansard source

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  Both in Gaza, where grassroots peacebuilders will face the immense task of reconciliation, and here at home, where debate has become dangerously polarised, the peace plan and the two-state solution remain the only credible path forward, and we must all be absolutely clear in condemning Hamas, who have no place in the future governance of a free Palestine, and the atrocities that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s far-right Government continue to commit. Put simply, two wrongs do not make a right. I urge the Minister to make a statement calling for unity at this fractious time.

• 27 Oct 2025 · Statutory Maternity and Paternity Pay · Hansard source

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  When we talk about maternity and paternity pay, we are also talking about crucial economic infrastructure—the systems that underpin participation, equality, productivity and, crucially, growth. As my hon. Friend the Member for Burton and Uttoxeter (Jacob Collier) put it, it is a public good, not a private indulgence. Right now, our system is not delivering any of that. Analysis from the Office for National Statistics shows that mothers lose an average of £65,000 in earnings in the first five years after their first child. That is not only lost household income, but lost tax receipts, skills and human capital for our wider economy. In theory, shared parental leave offers parents flexibility, but in practice, it remains inaccessible to most households. Data from His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs shows that 17,000 claimants take it up per annum, but they are generally disproportionately higher-income families, and it is hardly a mass labour market instrument. Its design is complex, its rules are difficult to navigate and pay levels are too low to make genuine choice possible. Put simply, it is a policy that works only on paper. The inequity is most evident for self-employed fathers, who are excluded entirely from the statutory framework. A self-employed mother can claim maternity allowance, but no equivalent exists for fathers. The evidence is clear: when fathers can afford to take that leave, mothers are better able to sustain labour market participation, the family income rises and the Exchequer gains through productivity and tax receipts.

• 16 Oct 2025 · Grassroots Sports Facilities · Hansard source

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  9. What steps her Department plans to take to help increase access to grassroots sport facilities.

• 16 Oct 2025 · Grassroots Sports Facilities · Hansard source

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  Access to sport is vital for not only our public health, but fostering a sense of community and reducing antisocial behaviour. Yet in St Austell, many of the astroturf facilities, such as the great one at Penrice school, cannot be used after dark because they lack floodlights. Will the Minister look at how small-scale investments of this kind in vital community facilities could help unlock all-year-round access to physical activity for people of all ages?