Rachel Reeves MP: speeches

Speeches

• 11 Jun 2025 · Spending Review 2025 · Hansard source

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  It is difficult to tell whether the hon. Gentleman supports the spending review and the additional money that we are putting into public services, or is against it. The settlement for the NHS means 3% real-terms growth a year, and for the police the figure is 2.3% a year. There is also an increase in per-pupil funding, as well as a real-terms increase in the schools budget, so I am not exactly sure what the hon. Gentleman’s complaint is.

• 11 Jun 2025 · Spending Review 2025 · Hansard source

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  The Prime Minister was in Ipswich yesterday with my hon. Friend to visit a local college. He came back from that visit even more determined to crack on and build Sizewell nuclear power station in Suffolk because of the impact it will have not just on bringing down bills, but on bringing good jobs to Britain—good jobs through the supply chain—and on giving young people their hope and future back, knowing that they will have good jobs in the places they live, where they can make a career for themselves and bring prosperity to their families and communities.

• 11 Jun 2025 · Spending Review 2025 · Hansard source

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  My right hon. Friend is right. We are backing innovation, skills and infrastructure, because we are backing British business. We are also cutting red tape, as we did yesterday, when we took the Planning and Infrastructure Bill through the House, making it easier to get things built in Britain again. As we make the investments, we want those jobs to come to Britain, including in the energy sector, whether it is investment in small modular reactors, Sizewell C, carbon capture and storage or floating offshore wind. We will set out the industrial strategy in the next couple of weeks, in which we will have more to say about energy costs for business.

• 11 Jun 2025 · Spending Review 2025 · Hansard source

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  As my hon. Friend is aware, Bexleyheath and Crayford is a part of the country that I know well. It has huge potential for more homes and more investment. We have set a budget for the Department for Transport. We will set out the 10-year infrastructure plan next week to unlock further investment—both public and private—in housing and transport.

• 11 Jun 2025 · Spending Review 2025 · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for that question. We will build more housing, which is what the investment in affordable homes grants will achieve, and that goes alongside transport investment—significant transport investment—in the west midlands and Birmingham. I was very pleased that my hon. Friend joined me in Birmingham last week, when we were able to celebrate the investment to extend the Metro out to east Birmingham and then to Solihull.

• 11 Jun 2025 · Spending Review 2025 · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for the work that she and my hon. Friend the Member for York Outer (Mr Charters) have done to make the moral case for financial services funds investing in defence, which is what keeps our country safe. As we uplift our defence spending, we want to get value for money. That is why we were so pleased that, in the deal that we did with the European Union, we secured a defence industrial partnership with the EU.

• 11 Jun 2025 · Spending Review 2025 · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for that question, and he always passionately argues the case for Blackpool. Yes, there is deprivation in Blackpool, but there is also huge opportunity, which is why we are backing Blackpool with the investment we are putting in through the spending review.

• 11 Jun 2025 · Spending Review 2025 · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Gentleman for speaking powerfully about his experience and the experience of his constituents. After the 14 years and the broken promises of the Conservative party, our hospitals are not in a good enough condition. That is why we have set out the new hospital buildings programme, but it is also why we have put aside money in the spending review for improvements to hospital conditions in the meantime. I will make sure that the relevant Health Minister meets him to talk through what that means for people in Eastbourne.

• 11 Jun 2025 · Spending Review 2025 · Hansard source

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  The allocation has now been made to the Department for Transport. We have not set out every project that that will fund, but I am sure the Transport Secretary will come to this House or the relevant Select Committee in due course.

• 11 Jun 2025 · Spending Review 2025 · Hansard source

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  I hope that my hon. Friend can already see the impact of our changed attitude and our changed perspective at the Treasury with our putting this record investment of £15.6 billion, which we announced last week, into eight mayoral combined authorities to better connect towns and cities. Because of the changes we have made, we have been able to put more money into the trans-Pennine route upgrade and the midlands hub, as well as significant investment in trains in Wales.

• 11 Jun 2025 · Spending Review 2025 · Hansard source

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  The investment we are putting into Derby and Nottinghamshire is significant, with small modular reactors, investment in defence and investment in fusion, creating good jobs and paying decent wages right across the east midlands. I do not think that taxpayers’ money should be used to pay for asylum hotels, which is why we are reducing the cost of asylum accommodation by around £1 billion during the course of this Parliament and ending the use of asylum hotels.

• 11 Jun 2025 · Spending Review 2025 · Hansard source

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  Blackpool will benefit from the affordable homes programme, free school meals for children and the roll-out of breakfast clubs. It also stands to benefit from the increase in the local transport grant—a fourfold increase compared with the plans we inherited from the Conservatives.

• 11 Jun 2025 · Spending Review 2025 · Hansard source

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  I thank the right hon. Gentleman and member of the Treasury Select Committee for his question. We have made the allocation to the Department of Health and Social Care—an annual uplift of £29 billion—and it will be up to the Secretary of State to allocate that money, but I will make sure that he has heard the right hon. Gentleman’s question and that he gets a proper reply to him.

• 11 Jun 2025 · Spending Review 2025 · Hansard source

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  We as a Government were proud to be able to step in and save British Steel at Scunthorpe, and again I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Scunthorpe, but it is not just Scunthorpe. There are also opportunities in Sheffield and Port Talbot, because as we build this infrastructure—whether it is trams and trains, nuclear power or submarines—we want to use steel made in Britain. That is a really exciting opportunity, and the investments we are making in small modular reactors and fusion in Nottinghamshire and Derby create great opportunities for jobs. That is why we are also making a record investment in skills through the spending review, so that young people in North East Derbyshire and beyond can get access to the jobs that are being created.

• 11 Jun 2025 · Spending Review 2025 · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for her lobbying; because of her efforts, Heywood will now get that metro station. Working together with the Mayor of Greater Manchester, we will ensure that the spades are in the ground quickly so that her constituents can benefit from the additional investment that this Government are putting in.

• 11 Jun 2025 · Spending Review 2025 · Hansard source

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  The hon. Lady makes a really important point. Every single MP in this House will have heard harrowing stories of parents desperate to get support for their kids with special educational needs. The Secretary of State for Education will be bringing forward a White Paper to make the reforms that are desperately needed. We will make sure that we do that in partnership with the parents and children who are most affected.

• 11 Jun 2025 · Spending Review 2025 · Hansard source

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  I am sorry to disappoint the right hon. Lady, but there are 500,000 more jobs in Britain since the last general election. Business confidence is going up.

• 11 Jun 2025 · Spending Review 2025 · Hansard source

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  The hon. Lady started that question wanting to be a builder, and ended it by being a blocker. I suppose that is not surprising, given that the Liberal Democrats voted against the Planning and Infrastructure Bill yesterday, while we Labour Members supported it, because we want to get Britain building and to create prosperity and wealth in all our communities. In today’s spending review, we have provided an integrated settlement for the Mayor of London and a multi-year settlement for Transport for London. We have also supported expansion at City airport, and we have an in-principle commitment to expansion, and a second runway, at Gatwick. This Government are backing London, but most importantly, we are a Government for the whole country. That is why we have announced significant investments across the UK today, which are much needed.

• 11 Jun 2025 · Spending Review 2025 · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Lady for her comments. I know she has not had a chance to look at the figures yet, but it is not right to say that there are real-terms cuts to public services. Public service spending is increasing by 2.3% a year on average over the course of the spending review. I will start on investment in the NHS and social care. As I set out in my speech, we have already delivered 1,500 more GPs and put £26 billion into the NHS in the first phase of the spending review. I note that that compares with the £8 billion that the Liberal Democrats said they were going to put into the NHS in their manifesto. We have already put £26 billion in, and we will put more money in today and in every year of this Parliament. The new hospital programme is being rolled out. I think the Health Secretary met just last week with Members of Parliament who are having hospital improvements in their local communities, including many Liberal Democrat MPs, so the hon. Lady should be aware that we are making improvements to the fabric of our hospitals as well as investing in technology, scanners and so on to improve productivity in our health service. With regard to social care, as the hon. Lady knows, we are introducing the fair pay agreement—that is something that the Health Secretary and my right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister are very much committed to. As the hon. Lady will know when she looks at the documents, we have increased local government spending power so that we can put more money into social care. In addition, Louise Casey is doing her review into the future of social care. We are going big on infrastructure. We announced £100 billion more in the Budget last year and another £13 billion in the spring statement, and we are backing that up with skills. As I set out in my speech and as is detailed in the spending review documents, we are making the biggest ever investment in young people’s skills so that they can access the new jobs that are being created in defence, house building and other infrastructure. On red tape and backing business, it is a little bit ironic that the Liberal Democrats voted against the Planning and Infrastructure Bill yesterday, yet they come to the House today saying that they want to do away with red tape and go for growth. Well, we want to go for growth, and that is why we took that legislation through Parliament. Perhaps the hon. Lady will ask her party’s Lords to vote for growth in the other place. We have done trade deals with the US, India and the EU. I think the Liberal Democrats opposed the trade deal with the US, but apparently they now think that trade deals are the way to go—well, so do we. That is why my right hon. Friend the Business and Trade Secretary has three of them helping our automotive sector, our steel sector and our farming communities. We will use defence spending to support growth—the Defence Secretary and I have been very clear about that—and, as I set out in my speech, to make Britain a defence industrial superpower. I say gently to the Liberal Democrats and the hon. Lady that if we want to support investment in public services, we have to increase the tax rises to get there. They voted against the national insurance increase, which is what has enabled us to make the investments that I have set out today. The hon. Lady says that she wants a wealth tax. We changed inheritance tax, and the Liberal Democrats voted against it. We introduced VAT on private schools, and the Liberal Democrats voted against it. Either they are serious about investing in public services, in which case they need to back the tax increases, or they want to go down the route of the magic-money-tree Conservative party and just borrow more to pay for things. On the winter fuel allowance, we have made our choices clear: we will keep the means test, but it will be paid to people with a pension of less than £35,000. I think the Liberal Democrats want to make it a universal benefit again.

• 11 Jun 2025 · Spending Review 2025 · Hansard source

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  I am sure that the right hon. Gentleman has apologised to his constituents for the total mess that the Conservatives made of HS2. We are fixing their mess and getting a grip of the project costs. Frankly, it is astounding for the right hon. Gentleman to raise HS2, given the mess they made of it.

• 11 Jun 2025 · Spending Review 2025 · Hansard source

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  This will be a scheme operated from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. We announced some of the neighbourhoods that will benefit from that investment today. This is not something that neighbourhoods will have to bid for; this will go to the communities that need it most. The Deputy Prime Minister will be setting out in due course all the 350 neighbourhoods that will benefit from this investment.

• 11 Jun 2025 · Spending Review 2025 · Hansard source

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  I think the whole House would pay tribute to the people of Portsmouth and their commitment to our country’s defence. On affordable housing, through the Planning and Infrastructure Bill and the planning reforms we have already announced, we are enabling the building of these homes. Through the £39 billon announced today, we are putting in money so that we can build social and affordable homes. It is disappointing that the Liberal Democrats do not back our planning and infrastructure reforms, because unless everyone backs those, it will be very hard to get Britain building again and to build the 1.5 million homes that people in Portsmouth and the rest of our country desperately need.

• 11 Jun 2025 · Spending Review 2025 · Hansard source

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  I am very pleased that we were able to make this multi-year commitment on coal tip safety. The Government provided money for this in last year’s spending review, but that was for just one year, and today we have been able to give certainty that money will be available for the vital work that is necessary. I thank my hon. Friend for welcoming it; it is a shame that Plaid Cymru did not. My hon. Friend has been a staunch supporter of reform of the miners’ pension scheme. We made reforms in the Budget last year, but I will ensure that the relevant Minister meets him to discuss what more we can do to secure a fair pension for miners in retirement.

• 11 Jun 2025 · Spending Review 2025 · Hansard source

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  The shadow Chancellor said: “The credibility of the UK’s economic framework was undermined by spending billions…with no proper plan for how this would be paid for.” I could not put it better myself. He could have gone a lot further. For example, he could not even bring himself to mention Liz Truss by name—Stride by name, baby steps by nature—but at least he has made a start. He also spoke about “the death of what we might call the Age of Thoughtfulness.” Speaking of the death of thoughtfulness, let me turn to the shadow Chancellor’s response to the spending review. He welcomed our nuclear investment of £30 billion, but he said it is not enough. He welcomed our defence investment of £11 billion, but he said it was not enough. He and his party opposed the decisions that this Government have taken to make those announcements possible by voting against the Budget in October. You cannot spend the money if you will not raise the money. That is a lesson from Liz Truss that he has already forgotten. The shadow Chancellor complained about the level of investment that I have announced, ignoring the fact that the reason this investment is so important is because his party oversaw 14 years of cratering investment, stagnating wages and public service collapse. Let me remind him of what I said: the Tories’ fiscal rules guaranteed neither stability nor investment, and that is why I changed them, so we can get stability and investment. All their fiscal rules enabled was them to crash the economy, and the working people of Britain will never forgive them for doing that. The Conservatives set themselves against investment in the renewal of Britain. They set themselves against NHS investment, free school meals, investment in skills, investment in carbon capture and storage, investment in transport in our towns and cities—investment in everything that we have set out today—and yet the British people voted for that investment. The right hon. Gentleman says that the Home Office budget involves an increase in asylum costs. It does not. Asylum costs are coming down under this Labour Government because we are deporting more people and getting them out of hotels. He says we are cutting police spending; we are increasing it by 2.3% a year in real terms. We have had no apology for the damage the Conservatives did to our economy and our public services. Interest rates have been cut four times in the past 11 months; GDP was the fastest growing of all G7 economies in the first quarter of the year; business confidence is rising; 500,000 more people are in work; record investment has been made in Britain; real wages have increased more in 10 months than they did in 10 years of a Conservative Government; the national living wage has increased, giving 3 million working people a pay rise; and we have done all that without increasing taxes on working people. Those are the choices we have made. That is the difference we are making. In the spending review today, we set out the spending that we announced in the Budget last year and in the spring statement—not a penny more, not a penny less. I said in the Budget and in the spring statement that public services must now live within the means that we have set, and we have achieved that. There will be a Budget later this year, and in that Budget we will set out all the fiscal plans in the round. But we have already drawn a line under the Tory mismanagement, with tax rises last year, and we will never have to repeat a Budget like that again because we will never have to clean up after the mess that the Conservatives made again. The reason that this Labour Government have spent their first year fixing the foundations of our economy and stabilising our public finances is because it is what we had to do. The Government of which the shadow Chancellor was a part of left an unenviable legacy, which is why his party is, in his own words, “in a difficult place.” We have made our choices. We are removing barriers to growth, which were untouched by the Conservatives in their 14 years in office; strengthening Britain’s security with the biggest real-terms increase in defence spending since the end of the cold war, which the Conservatives did not do in their 14 years in office; bringing our health service into the 21st century after 14 years of Conservative neglect; investing in Britain’s renewal to repair the damage done by the Conservatives in their 14 years in office; and, in stark contrast to the Conservatives’ 14 years of chaos, waste and decline, we are delivering on the priorities of the British people.

• 11 Jun 2025 · Spending Review 2025 · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for the passion with which she speaks about schools, which is something I very much share. That is why we are rolling out breakfast clubs at primary schools and introducing free school meals for all children whose carers are on universal credit; it is why we are putting in real-terms increases for school funding and per-pupil funding; and it is why we are addressing the terrible situation of children being taught in temporary classrooms and crumbling schools. I will ensure that the Department for Education hears about the experience in Shipley to hopefully ensure that that school is on the list.