Saqib Bhatti MP: speeches

Speeches

• 20 Apr 2026 · Cost of Living: Students · Hansard source

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  As the Minister said, on 23 March the Department told universities that weekend courses do not qualify for funding. The Student Loans Company’s own guidance changed only this year, and the issue affected 20,000 students, including those in key professions, such as nurses. The Secretary of State has been taken to court by nine universities, the National Union of Students is demanding that she halt her clawback, and Martin Lewis has said that this is an almighty mess. I heard what the Minister had to say, but I know that this Government always find someone else to blame, so will he confirm that any aggressive debt collection will absolutely be stopped and that payments will not be demanded from innocent students?

• 13 Apr 2026 · SEND Provision and Reform · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend makes the same point that has been made to me by many parents about the one-size-fits-all approach of these reforms. I want to give the Minister the opportunity to try to reassure some of those parents, because parents want answers and the children and families who are affected deserve them. I have spoken to many parents and representative groups. There is a huge amount of anxiety about these reforms—a view that is shared by many parent-carer forums—which has not been helped by the delay to the White Paper or the drip-drip briefings suggesting that EHCPs would simply be scrapped. The Conservative position is clear: any reforms that come forward must enshrine parental rights in law and the Government must not water down those rights.

• 1 Dec 2025 · Evacuation Chairs: Schools and Colleges · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Alec, and may there be many more opportunities for me to do so. I thank the hon. Member for Burton and Uttoxeter (Jacob Collier) for his opening remarks. I thought he spoke eloquently and raised some really pertinent questions. I will not repeat them all, but I do hope to support him. As we have heard, this debate is extremely important and timely, and I want to start by putting on record the thanks of His Majesty’s official Opposition to all Members who supported the petition. In particular, I thank the more than 104,000 signatories, including 266 of my own constituents in Meriden and Solihull East. This is the second consecutive debate that I have responded to. My constituents have been very busy, and long may that continue. I thank my hon. Friend and neighbour the Member for Solihull West and Shirley (Dr Shastri-Hurst) for highlighting the good work of Evac+Chair. He is a formidable parliamentarian on this issue and many others. I want especially to thank Lucas Vezza-O’Brien, who started this important petition; I know he is in the Public Gallery. His poem gave me goosebumps, and his story is immensely moving and thought provoking, so I thank him for standing up on this issue. Last year, as has been said, at his school in Manchester he was forced to stay put during an evacuation, not through choice but because the school did not have adequate facilities to get him to safety. I can only imagine the fear, stress and anxiety that Lucas experienced. The fact that this happened is nothing short of unacceptable, and we should all try to rectify it. I am sure I speak for all hon. Members when I say Lucas’s courage and bravery are absolutely commendable. He has shown immense resilience in bringing this petition forward so that others do not have to experience the same stress and anxiety that he did. I hope this debate has focused the Government on ensuring that people such as Lucas can remain safe and be evacuated from danger. Lucas has joined forces with the Emergency Group, a collective of emergency response companies dedicated to providing life-saving equipment, including evacuation chairs and defibrillators. The group donated four evacuation chairs to his school to ensure that this never happens again, and it is supporting his campaign for safer and more accessible schools. The Emergency Group has since made him an ambassador—a very wise decision. Between them, they are calling for policy changes to ensure that all schools have evacuation chairs for disabled students and proper emergency evacuation training, something that Members from all parts of the House are calling for. This petition asks the Government to make it a legal requirement for all schools and colleges to have evacuation chairs, and for all staff to be trained in using them. It is backed by the National Fire Chiefs Council and the Health and Safety Executive, who emphasise the importance of having the right equipment to support mobility-impaired individuals during evacuation. Under the Equality Act 2010, schools and other educational premises have a duty to make reasonable adjustments where necessary for anyone with a disability. Moreover, under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, all UK educational establishments have a legal responsibility to ensure that every person on the premises can escape safely during an emergency. One of the key requirements of that legislation is that evacuation plans must take into account individuals with additional needs. That has come in the form of personal emergency evacuation plans—PEEPs—as has already been referred to. They play a crucial role in supporting group evacuations by providing clear guidance on how to respond quickly and safely. Could the Minister reflect on some of the points made around PEEPs and whether they are adequate? The legislation provides that failure to provide appropriate evacuation equipment, such as evacuation chairs, can result in enforcement notices, fines and reputational damage. It is important that all schools and education establishments comply with those regulations and guidelines. It is also essential that the Government ensure that, in cases where evacuation chairs for disabled people are not in place in schools or colleges, the institution acts immediately to meet its legal duties. To that end, I ask the Minister: what steps are the Government taking to ensure schools comply with this legislation? In addition, does the Minister have any consideration for strengthening it so that it is robust enough to keep everyone safe? It is important that this House understands that failure to comply with these requirements may constitute a breach of the Equality Act 2010 and the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005. More importantly, as His Majesty’s Opposition are making clear, failing to do so could place vulnerable individuals at significant risk during a fire or other emergency situation. We are very clear that where such provisions are not in place, the institution’s compliance should be reviewed and it should be held to account. Will the Minister confirm that those regulations will be enforced in full? Can the Minister tell the House what steps the Government are taking to hold to account institutions that do not comply? To conclude, I once more thank all the signatories of this important petition. Again, I pay a special tribute to Lucas, who has led this petition and ensured that this House has considered its important message. I look forward to the Minister’s response.

• 28 Oct 2025 · Stamp Duty Land Tax · Hansard source

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  First of all, it would increase mobility in the housing market. As my right hon. Friend the Member for North West Hampshire (Kit Malthouse) stated in an incredibly eloquent speech, it would also mean that the construction industry and all the peripheral jobs would start to mobilise. It would create economic growth—I suspect that the figure of £1.2 billion is probably a bit of an underestimate, and that abolishing stamp duty would actually create more growth. We are talking about creating jobs, making people wealthier and being aspirational for the aspirational, whereas Labour Members are talking down a credible policy that would put money on the table for some of our poorest people. Ultimately, abolishing stamp duty would mean that more and more people are able to get on to the housing ladder. Let us face it: the Government are not going to meet their housing targets. It is already quite obvious that they are massively behind, and it will not be possible to meet their targets. They are killing off aspiration and confidence in the economy, and house builders will not want to meet the targets—unless, of course, they are met with huge subsidies. The question I have for those on the Government Benches is this: given the current economic situation, how much representation have they made to their Chancellor about introducing growth principles and cutting taxes so that people have more money in their pockets? The answer will be none, because that is not happening. The hon. Member for Loughborough (Dr Sandher) said that he was not making an argument for not cutting welfare, but he did not put a figure on the table. We know that the welfare bill is ballooning, and it started ballooning post covid. We intervened during the pandemic, which had to happen. We saved a £2 trillion economy, we saved businesses and we saved jobs. We did all those things—sometimes with the support of those on the Opposition Benches and sometimes without, I am sad to say—to save the economy. Of course, all of that comes with a cost. It is now right that we look forward to make sure that we are putting proposals on the table that help grow the economy and, by the way, help the Chancellor to get out of this mess. I want her to do better, because right now I have constituents who are struggling, who are anxious and who are worried. Her policies, backed by those on the Labour Back Benches, have contributed to higher inflation and a higher cost of living. These are all consequences that they backed by walking through the voting Lobbies. There is a Budget coming. Although Labour Back Benchers may be talking in silos, the Government are already briefing the papers about all the taxes that will rise. They talk about “serious Government”, but they are not talking seriously about the cuts that they will have to put on the table, because the Chancellor knows that the moment she does that, it will be her Back Benchers who stab her in the back. That is her fundamental conundrum, because she also has to placate the bond market, where we have highest bond yields. I see Labour Members shaking their heads, but that is the reality of what Back Benchers are dealing with. We are putting good proposals on the table that would mean that young families who want to get on the housing ladder— [ Interruption. ] I am happy for the hon. Member for Hitchin (Alistair Strathern) to intervene if he wants. No? I was offering him an opportunity, because I was getting distracted by his chuntering. The reality is that most serious economists, such as Dan Neidle and those at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, have said that stamp duty is a bad tax. In fact, the hon. Member for Swansea West (Torsten Bell), who I hear has been instrumental in writing the Budget, has talked about stamp duty being a “bad tax”. We all agree on that, so we have put a funded policy on the table that the Chancellor is going to need. Surely this is something that we should all take seriously, because the Government will need answers. I suspect we will come back to that. A lot has been made of the Chancellor’s fiscal rules. The Chief Secretary to Treasury said that they are “ironclad”, and I suspect they are until the next ones. We have a golden rule. In the spirit of rules, the Leader of the Opposition has created a golden rule, which is that for every £1 saved, half will go to cutting our national debt. Surely we can all get behind that. When the interest on our debt is something like £100 billion a year, surely we can get behind that. When the Chancellor is borrowing more month after month to meet everyday spending, as is obviously happening, we should get behind that rule. The last point I want to make is about the cliff-edge argument. As my right hon. Friend the Member for North West Hampshire mentioned, we had the window during covid. I was one of those on the receiving end of not being able to buy a house at that time. I was looking for a house for my new family, and houses were going quickly because people were trying to beat the cliff edge at the end of the stamp duty window. This proposal is not the same, because this gets rid of such a window, and it means that more and more people will be able to buy houses.