Rachel Reeves MP: speeches

Speeches

• 1 Jul 2025 · Poverty Reduction · Hansard source

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  It was the hon. Member’s Government, when they were on this side of the House, who froze those allowances, taking more money out of the pockets of working people. Despite that, they left a £22 billion black hole in the public finances. I will take no lessons from Conservative party, which has opposed everything that is needed to invest in our public services. We are in the mess we are in because of the damage that it caused.

• 1 Jul 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Oh, all right—fine.

• 1 Jul 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  We made a commitment in our manifesto not to increase the key taxes that working people pay, and we stick by those commitments because, unlike the Conservative party, we stick by our manifesto.

• 1 Jul 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Yes, I can absolutely give my assurance to Jackie, and to other people who are currently claiming PIP, that they will see absolutely no change in their entitlement. That is what my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions announced to the Chamber yesterday: everybody who is currently on those benefits will see no change whatever. The Timms review, which will be co-produced with disabled people and those who represent them, will build a new system for the future.

• 11 Jun 2025 · Spending Review 2025 · Hansard source

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  Stories like that are exactly why the Deputy Prime Minister and I have prioritised investment in affordable homes. Nobody should have to live in those conditions in the 21st century—and, with the reforms we are making and the money we are putting in, they will not have to for much longer.

• 11 Jun 2025 · Spending Review 2025 · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend will want to leave space on the leaflet to remind his constituents that he was lobbying for all those things so that he can take the thanks.

• 11 Jun 2025 · Spending Review 2025 · Hansard source

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  This Labour Government are giving real-terms increases in spending to local authorities every year. Compare that with the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Administration from 2010 to 2015 that cut real spending by 2.9% every year. I am much happier to stand on my record as Chancellor than I would be to stand on what the Liberal Democrats did when they had a chance at being in government.

• 11 Jun 2025 · Spending Review 2025 · Hansard source

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  I do not think £445 million is not real money. That money will be invested in the Burns review stations. In addition, we are putting in £118 million to make the coal tips safe. Maybe the right hon. Lady is not that concerned about that, but I know that plenty of Welsh Labour MPs are.

• 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 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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  It is difficult to understand exactly what the Conservative critique of this spending review is. The shadow Chancellor says that we should spend less, but the hon. Gentleman has just asked us to spend more. If hon. Members on either side of the House want to spend more, they need to say where the money would come from. I am not sure that he has an answer to that.

• 11 Jun 2025 · Spending Review 2025 · Hansard source

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  It absolutely is.

• 11 Jun 2025 · Spending Review 2025 · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for that kind invitation. I look forward to being with her in Paisley and Renfrewshire before too long. It is the case that 14 years of Conservative Government and an additional 18 years of SNP Government in Scotland, have left many communities on their backs. The investments that we have announced—particularly with their multi-year nature—are about turning those communities around, so that more people can have pride in the places in which they live.

• 20 May 2025 · Public Spending: Value for Money · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is a staunch defender of his constituency and region. We will make decisions at the spending review, which we will publish on 11 June, but as a proud northern MP, I am absolutely determined that the north gets its fair share of investment.

• 20 May 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Yesterday we announced £360 million of investment in coastal and fishing communities. That will be vital to ensure that those communities continue to thrive.

• 20 May 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  The Conservative party is a good example of that. The cost of the Conservative party went up, and its number of MPs shrank.

• 20 May 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  As the hon. Lady knows, when I became Chancellor last year, we inherited a £22 billion black hole in the public finances—not in some year in the future, but in the financial year that we were already three or four months into. This meant that we had to make difficult and urgent decisions to put our public finances back on a firm footing—because, unlike the Conservatives, I will never play fast and loose with the public finances.

• 8 Apr 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is doing great work supporting local businesses in Burnley, including the digital marketing start-up Door4, which I know he has been championing.

• 8 Apr 2025 · New Homes: Affordability · Hansard source

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  I would be very happy to arrange a meeting for the hon. Lady with the relevant Minister to discuss some of those specific issues around retirement properties. She makes a really important point. We need to make it easier for people to downsize to free up those properties, including in the private sector, so that more homes are available for families.

• 26 Mar 2025 · Spring Statement · Hansard source

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  As the hon. Gentleman will know, our Prime Minister and President Trump discussed these issues when our Prime Minister was at the White House recently. We continue to work on those plans. The most important thing is that we protect our national security and can continue to operate out of that important base.

• 26 Mar 2025 · Spring Statement · Hansard source

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  It is really difficult to understand what the Conservative party want. Do they want to reduce the cost of admin and bureaucracy, or do they want to carry on with everything the way it was? We want to change things. That is why the transformation fund that I set out today includes £150 million for a voluntary exit scheme. We want more money on the frontline, not in the back office in a bloated bureaucracy that was left by the Conservatives.

• 26 Mar 2025 · Spring Statement · Hansard source

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  If we look at financial markets and follow them closely, we can see that the increases in bond yields in the UK, France and Germany have closely tracked each other. Global financial instability has affected countries around the world, and that is why it is so important that we continue to meet our fiscal rules, as I have set out today.

• 26 Mar 2025 · Spring Statement · Hansard source

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  The transformation fund, worth £3.25 billion, is about trying to reduce further the costs of failure. We are putting more money into recruiting foster carers, because we want to ensure that more children get the best possible start in life. We also know that children ending up in poor-quality children’s homes has consequences not just at the start of their life but later on. We are also putting more money into technology in the Probation Service so that probation works better to rehabilitate offenders and ensure that people pay for the crimes that they commit.

• 26 Mar 2025 · Spring Statement · Hansard source

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  We have a very basic principle that people who deserve to be protected should be, that those who can work should and that we need a system that is sustainable. We do not have any of those three things today. That is why we are reforming our welfare system to give additional support for those with the highest needs, to give personalised, targeted and guaranteed support to help people back into work and to ensure that we have a system that is sustainable so that it is there for generations to come.

• 26 Mar 2025 · Spring Statement · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for that question, and I share the deep concern felt by everyone on the Government Benches—in fact, everyone in this Chamber—about the most sick and disabled, who need support. That is why we have set out in the Green Paper that we are consulting on an additional premium payment to the most severely disabled. It is also why, instead of writing people off and not providing the support that they need to do a job that matches their abilities and needs, we are providing that personalised, targeted support. I was at a jobcentre last week in Pudsey, in my constituency, where I heard amazing stories of work coaches helping people into work who are far from the labour market. We want to see more of that. We want to lift people out of poverty and help them to achieve their potential.