Rachel Reeves MP: speeches

Speeches

• 1 Jul 2025 · Poverty Reduction · Hansard source

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  This Government changed the fiscal rules at the Budget last year with a stability rule, so that for the first time we pay for day-to-day spending through tax receipts, and an investment rule, which enables us to invest in the things that will help grow the economy, such as energy infrastructure, defence spending and transport and digital infrastructure. As a result, in the Budget and then in this year’s spring statement, we unlocked £300 billion more to spend during the course of this Parliament, including the record settlement for the Scottish Government. It is now up to the Scottish Government to spend that money wisely and to try to reduce waiting lists in Scotland, as we have done in England and, indeed, in Wales.

• 1 Jul 2025 · Poverty Reduction · Hansard source

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  In the spending review, we invested an additional £29 billion every year for day-to-day spending in the national health service, as well as a record uplift in capital spending in the NHS so that there is more money for the equipment to do that vital work, including in cancer treatments, which the hon. Gentleman mentioned. In our first year in office we have delivered 4 million additional appointments in the NHS and reduced waiting lists by 250,000. That is only possible because of the decisions we took in the Budget last year—those included increasing taxes on non-doms, as well as the increase in national insurance contributions—which have gone into funding our national health service.

• 1 Jul 2025 · Poverty Reduction · Hansard source

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  The Government are committed to ensuring that there are fewer sick and disabled people in poverty by helping them into work and getting them off NHS waiting lists. That is why at the spring statement we announced the largest investment in employment support in at least a generation. The Government have already taken action to tackle poverty, including with the fair repayment rate, which lowers the cap on deductions in universal credit, and we have increased the national living wage by 6.7%. Beyond that, we are investing to reduce poverty by expanding free school meals and investing in a £1 billion settlement for crisis support. We will set out our child poverty strategy in the autumn. We have invested £29 billion in reducing NHS waiting lists, and since we took office there are 385,000 more people in work.

• 1 Jul 2025 · Poverty Reduction · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend will know that nobody currently receiving personal independence payments will see any reduction in the support they get. In terms of supporting women into work, recognising some of the intersectionalities she mentioned, the Government have increased the national living wage by 6.7%—sadly, it is still too often women who are paid the lowest wages—and our Employment Rights Bill will offer more security and dignity in work. We are also rolling out more childcare, including new nurseries at primary schools, and my right hon. Friend the Business and Trade Secretary will today make a statement announcing the launch of a review of parental leave, which could benefit all working parents, but particularly mums.

• 1 Jul 2025 · Transport Infrastructure Funding · Hansard source

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  It is important that, as this Government put more money into infrastructure, including transport, it benefits companies and jobs here in Britain. It is not right the Scottish Government spend more on buses made in China than on buses made in Scotland. There is nothing preventing the Scottish National party from investing in jobs and growth in Scotland.

• 1 Jul 2025 · Transport Infrastructure Funding · Hansard source

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  The Government recognise the critical contribution that transport makes to our growth mission. The Government increased the capital envelope by over £100 billion at the autumn Budget last year, and by a further £13 billion at the spring statement. Taken together, that represents a big increase in capital investment. As a result, the transport capital budget, excluding High Speed 2, will increase by 1.9% per year in real terms over the spending review period. That investment will improve connectivity in our towns, cities and villages, reduce journey times and increase transport reliability. For areas of transport that are devolved, it is up to the Scottish and Welsh Governments to allocate their funding and be accountable to their respective Parliaments for those decisions.

• 1 Jul 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  As my hon. Friend will know, in last year’s Budget we got rid of the non-dom tax status, increased capital gains tax, put VAT on private school fees and ended the loophole for private equity, as well as introducing further measures, in order to raise £40 billion. As a result, we are investing £300 billion more than would have been raised under the plans that we inherited from the Conservative party. Ours is the only country where—

• 1 Jul 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  It was great to be with my hon. Friend in Warwickshire just a couple of weeks ago to welcome some of the investment, through our industrial strategy and our spending review, which will turbocharge the British economy, creating more good jobs and paying decent wages in all parts of the country, including in Warwickshire.

• 1 Jul 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  This Government increased the employment allowance from £5,000 to £10,500, and that means 865,000 employers will pay no national insurance at all. Indeed, half of employers will either gain or see no change. It was also welcome that the Lloyds business barometer showed business confidence at a nine-year high, with a particular uptick in retail. I cannot comment on an individual business, but that is the system nationwide.

• 1 Jul 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  In the Budget last year, we increased taxes by £40 billion, but without affecting the pay packets of ordinary working people. We did not increase their national insurance, their income tax or their VAT, and we did not go ahead with the wrong-headed increase in fuel duty that was put in place by the Conservative party. We are protecting working people; the Conservative party picked their pockets time and again.

• 1 Jul 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  At the spending review, we were able to build on the investment we had already made in Merseyside and Teesside with Track-1 of carbon capture and storage, and put investment into both the Acorn project in Scotland and Viking CCS in the Humber to support the Government’s ambitions for Britain to lead the way in carbon capture and storage, creating more good jobs in all parts of the country, including in Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes.

• 1 Jul 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for that question. We are proud as a Government to back Rolls-Royce, and to have it as our preferred provider for the small modular reactor programme, resulting in lower bills and more good jobs, particularly in Derbyshire.

• 1 Jul 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Let us look at the record so far. There are 385,000 more jobs in the UK economy today than there were when Labour came to office a year ago, which is more than 1,000 jobs a day. So businesses are voting with their feet and taking on more workers, because of the policies of this Labour Government compared with the Tory policies that took our economy down.

• 1 Jul 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  The problem with the Conservatives is that they support all the funding, but they do not support any of the ways of funding it. Agricultural property relief means that estates worth more than £3 million will now be taxed at half the rate at which inheritance tax is usually charged. That can be repaid over a 10-year period, interest-free. I think that is the right and fair settlement, given the fiscal environment we face.

• 1 Jul 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for that question. He will know that this Government have already invested through the National Wealth Fund in the tin mine in his constituency, bringing good-quality jobs paying decent wages to the people of Cornwall, as advocated by Cornish MPs. However, there is more we can do through the National Wealth Fund, including investing in our ports, which is absolutely vital for clean, cheap energy and for creating good jobs in this country, including in Cornwall.

• 1 Jul 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  I would take that a bit more seriously if the Conservatives were not voting against the welfare reforms this evening, and if they had not committed to fully reversing the winter fuel changes, which would cost a further £400 million that they cannot explain. I am always grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for his questions, because he always offers a useful lesson in what not to do. Even George Osborne now says that the shadow Chancellor has “no credible economic plan”. I will give the shadow Chancellor this: he knows a thing or two about welfare spending, because under his watch, the UK became the only country in the G7 with an unemployment rate stuck below pre-pandemic levels. Under his watch, the cost of working-age inactivity rose by £15.7 billion a year.

• 1 Jul 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  The Government are delivering on the priorities of the British people. Yesterday, the Office for National Statistics confirmed that the UK was the fastest-growing G7 nation in the first quarter of this year. Since the election, this Labour Government have brought £120 billion of private investment into our economy. There have been four interest rate cuts, lowering the cost of mortgages, and 384,000 new jobs—more than 1,000 jobs a day—since this Government were elected. Real wages increased more in the first 10 months of this Labour Government than they did in the first 10 years of the last Conservative Government, and we have a £1,400 pay rise for a full-time worker on the national living wage. That is the difference that this Government are making after 14 years of mismanagement by the Conservatives.

• 1 Jul 2025 · Employer National Insurance Contributions · Hansard source

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  I am not going to take lessons from the Conservatives: they increased taxes 25 times. When they increased taxes, it was always ordinary working people who paid the price. In our Budget last year, we protected the payslips of ordinary working people by not increasing their income tax, their national insurance or their VAT, and we did not go ahead with the increase in fuel duty that the Conservatives had planned. Instead of talking down the British economy, why do the Conservatives not back the plans that are backed by British businesses to grow our economy and make working people better off?

• 1 Jul 2025 · Employer National Insurance Contributions · Hansard source

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  It is a bit rich for anyone in the Conservative party to mention black holes, after the one that they left for us to clear up. The hon. Gentleman will have seen the Lloyds business barometer, which has recently been published and shows that business confidence is now at a nine-year high, led by increases in confidence in retail and manufacturing. That report referenced the impact of the spending review on boosting business confidence—a recognition that this Government are backing Britain and backing Britain’s businesses.

• 1 Jul 2025 · Employer National Insurance Contributions · Hansard source

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  As the hon. Lady knows, the changes we have made to the welfare Bill will mean that nobody who is currently receiving personal independence payments will have a cut, so I just do not think the premise of her question is correct. When we debate the welfare Bill today, we will be voting for the biggest increase in the universal credit standard allowance for a generation and protecting those people with the most severe conditions from having to be reassessed for their condition, which is degrading. We have got rid of the Tories’ work capability assessment changes, which the courts said were illegal, and we are putting £1 billion into back-to-work support. At the same time, we are investing £29 billion in the NHS. That is possible only because of the rise in national insurance increase on business, which the Liberal Democrats opposed—and yet that is how we are funding our NHS.

• 1 Jul 2025 · Employer National Insurance Contributions · Hansard source

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  The Government protected the smallest businesses from changes to national insurance by increasing the employment allowance from £5,000 to £10,500. That means that this year 865,000 employers will pay no national insurance contributions at all, and more than half will either gain or see no change to their national insurance contributions.

• 1 Jul 2025 · Employer National Insurance Contributions · Hansard source

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  The stability that this Government have returned to the economy has meant that the Bank of England has been able to cut interest rates four times in the last year, taking hundreds of pounds off people’s mortgages—there was such a big impact in that regard under the last Government. The reasons for the increase in business confidence also include the industrial strategy publication, the spending review and the three trade deals, all of which are boosting business confidence and have helped to create 385,000 new jobs in Britain since the last general election.

• 11 Jun 2025 · Spending Review 2025 · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is one of many MPs who has spoken to me about the need to reform the Green Book. I thank him for feeding in his concerns about the ways in which the Treasury has previously looked at requests for investment. I am pleased for the people of Rossendale and Darwen that we can start making a difference to the communities that were forgotten about for 14 years under the Conservatives. I was also very pleased to be in his constituency at the end of last year to open the 100th banking hub on a local high street.

• 11 Jun 2025 · Spending Review 2025 · Hansard source

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  The allocations have been made to Government Departments, and the Treasury is not going to micromanage every scheme, so it will be up to Departments to allocate the money in the way they choose. I am sure that the Transport Secretary will come to the House and set out those plans.

• 11 Jun 2025 · Spending Review 2025 · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for welcoming the reforms we have introduced at the Treasury—the reform to the fiscal rules to unlock money for investment, the reform of financial transactions to enable more money to be spent through public finance institutions, and particularly the reform of the Green Book. She is absolutely right to mention the importance of human capital, which is why we have announced in the spending review significant investment in skills and in the early years to ensure that children are ready for school.