Steve Reed MP: speeches

Speeches

• 13 Apr 2026 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  Ensuring that there are decent and safe places to live all across this country is a primary objective of this Government. As the hon. Lady will be aware, the social and affordable homes programme opened for bids in February, and the first phase of bidding will close later in April. The programme will provide up to £39 billion for the biggest ever increase in the amount of social and affordable housing across this country, including council housing, which will make a massive difference to people in rural areas as well as those in other parts of the country.

• 13 Apr 2026 · Pride in Place: Community Cohesion · Hansard source

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  I was delighted to confirm up to £20 million for central Luton as part of the expanded Pride in Place programme. The funding will give the community the resources and the power they need to drive transformational local change that will bring people together and restore a sense of pride in the area.

• 13 Apr 2026 · Pride in Place: Community Cohesion · Hansard source

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  I agree with my hon. Friend that one of the most exciting things about Pride in Place is that the community themselves take the decisions about how the money should be spent. Of course that is the right thing to do, because they know best what needs to change to put pride back at the heart of their communities.

• 13 Apr 2026 · Pride in Place: Community Consultation · Hansard source

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  Happy Easter to you, Mr Speaker. Shipley will benefit from the £1.5 million allocated to Bradford through the Pride in Place impact fund. The Department has asked local authorities to engage with their local MP and a wider range of local stakeholders to shape delivery of the fund, and to report on that engagement.

• 13 Apr 2026 · Pride in Place: Community Consultation · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is a great advocate for her constituents, which I saw for myself when I visited her constituency during the general election. She is right, of course: this funding is going to hundreds of areas that were the most left behind by the previous Government, so that they can take decisions about what to invest in and put pride back at the heart of the communities that the people there belong to and love.

• 25 Mar 2026 · Foreign Financial Influence and Interference: UK Politics · Hansard source

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  I thank the Chair of the Select Committee for her questions and for her support for this work. The intention is to bring the amendments forward on Report. In advance of those amendments being laid, we will provide a detailed response to each of the 17 recommendations, including the one to which she has just referred.

• 25 Mar 2026 · Foreign Financial Influence and Interference: UK Politics · Hansard source

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  There are recommendations covering precisely the points that my right hon. Friend raised. I have accepted the report, in general terms, in full. We will respond in detail to each of the 17 recommendations, which I hope will address her concerns.

• 25 Mar 2026 · Foreign Financial Influence and Interference: UK Politics · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for his personal engagement on this issue and for the work of the APPG that he chairs. It has made some significant contributions and we are grateful for that. We will, of course, ensure that the Electoral Commission has the resources it requires to enforce changes as we bring them forward. On his final point, the defending democracy taskforce exists to make sure that there is proper alignment across all the necessary regulators to ensure that we are keeping our democracy in this country free and safe.

• 25 Mar 2026 · Foreign Financial Influence and Interference: UK Politics · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Lady for her and her party’s support for the review. I also thank her for her work on the Bill Committee. She is quite right; we need to make sure that when the amendments come forward, the Bill Committee has sufficient time—and, indeed, that the House has sufficient time—to go through them in detail. I and the Government will respond to each of the 17 recommendations in detail, and I think that that will be the most appropriate time to respond to the question she has raised.

• 25 Mar 2026 · Foreign Financial Influence and Interference: UK Politics · Hansard source

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  There are clear recommendations about non-party campaigns and candidates, and we will be making our response to those recommendations in due course. The only recommendations I am bringing into force immediately are those that I referred to in my statement.

• 25 Mar 2026 · Foreign Financial Influence and Interference: UK Politics · Hansard source

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  That is an important point, because the ability of shell companies to exist as funnels for dark, dirty money entering and polluting UK politics is real. That is why we are taking the recommendations seriously, and we will come forward with amendments to the legislation intended to close those doors so that we can keep British elections free for British people.

• 25 Mar 2026 · Foreign Financial Influence and Interference: UK Politics · Hansard source

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  I am grateful for my hon. Friend’s question; it is a very important one. We will respond in detail to the recommendations and bring forward any new powers or resources that the Electoral Commission requires. We will ensure that it can carry out any new responsibilities that we place on them.

• 25 Mar 2026 · Foreign Financial Influence and Interference: UK Politics · Hansard source

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  The US, of course, is our closest ally. The provisions that we are making in this legislation do not target any one country, or indeed any one individual; they are intended to be a proportionate response to a growing threat, wherever that threat may arise.

• 25 Mar 2026 · Foreign Financial Influence and Interference: UK Politics · Hansard source

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  The recommendations are very clear in their scope. I hope my hon. Friend will allow the Government to take the necessary time to respond to those recommendations in detail—there is a lot in them—and then to bring forward amendments to the legislation and take that through both Houses in the usual way.

• 25 Mar 2026 · Foreign Financial Influence and Interference: UK Politics · Hansard source

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  I am more than happy to make sure that my hon. Friend gets an appropriate meeting. I also belatedly wish the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) a happy birthday.

• 25 Mar 2026 · Foreign Financial Influence and Interference: UK Politics · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question and for his deep interest in this entire matter. Our intention is to ensure that the safeguards we put in place are robust enough to ensure that no dirty or dark money can enter British politics in any way or from any source. I am always more than happy to continue to engage with him about any specific concerns he may have.

• 25 Mar 2026 · Foreign Financial Influence and Interference: UK Politics · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend makes an important point. There are recommendations in the review about precisely that, and we will come forward with our detailed response. I have accepted the review in general terms, but we will bring forward detailed responses to the individual recommendations and then amendments to the legislation so that we can put in place the necessary protections to ensure that it is the British people who take the decisions about who governs them, not people sitting in the Kremlin or in seats of government in other countries.

• 25 Mar 2026 · Foreign Financial Influence and Interference: UK Politics · Hansard source

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  The right hon. Member raises a very important point. The Government are keeping precisely that concern under very close review so that we stand ready to make changes as and when they are required. The Security Minister is on the Front Bench with me today because he would lead much of that work.

• 25 Mar 2026 · Foreign Financial Influence and Interference: UK Politics · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend for his support. He is quite right; Philip Rycroft was very clear in his reasoning on that point. The objective is to prevent shell companies from being set up to funnel dark money into British politics. It is not to prevent British companies that are just going through a difficult year or two from making donations themselves.

• 25 Mar 2026 · Foreign Financial Influence and Interference: UK Politics · Hansard source

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  I listened carefully, and with great interest, to part of the Select Committee’s proceedings yesterday. We are grateful for the contribution that my hon. Friend and her Committee are making to the debate. This legislation is not intended to target any one individual or state; it is about putting in place safeguards against growing threats, wherever they may arise.

• 25 Mar 2026 · Foreign Financial Influence and Interference: UK Politics · Hansard source

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  Philip Rycroft has recognised the concern and proposed what I think is a proportionate approach to dealing with it. I have accepted the figure of a £100,000 cap, which I think most reasonably minded people would agree is a very generous level of funding, for donations from British nationals who are living and paying their taxes overseas.

• 25 Mar 2026 · Foreign Financial Influence and Interference: UK Politics · Hansard source

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  Philip Rycroft makes some really important points on that, which of course other Members across the House have made previously. As I said earlier, we will respond in detail to all the recommendations, including those covering the points that my hon. Friend has just raised.

• 25 Mar 2026 · Foreign Financial Influence and Interference: UK Politics · Hansard source

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  I hope to speak with the relevant Minister in the Scottish Government today. There will, of course, be engagement between officials during the pre-election period. Any legislative change would come after the elections in Scotland and in Wales.

• 25 Mar 2026 · Foreign Financial Influence and Interference: UK Politics · Hansard source

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  Let me thank the hon. Member for her and her party’s engagement with Philip Rycroft’s review. She is right to point to the growing threat; it has been evolving over recent years. She mentions the case of Nathan Gill, which underscores the nature and the gravity of that risk. Today I am accepting the report in general. We are bringing forward two provisions now, because had I not done so, a window for evasion would have been left open. We will provide a detailed response to all 17 recommendations. The amendments that we table will be open for parliamentary scrutiny and debate in the usual way. I look forward to her and her party making their views clear as we go through the process.

• 25 Mar 2026 · Foreign Financial Influence and Interference: UK Politics · Hansard source

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  I would like to make a statement on foreign influence and interference. The responsibility of protecting our democracy is a duty that every single Member of this House shares. As a Government, we are clear-eyed about the evolving threats we must contend with from those who wish to disrupt our democracy for their own gain and their own twisted purposes. We already have a strong toolkit to detect, disrupt and deter interference, and we are strengthening it through our Representation of the People Bill and counter political interference and espionage action plan. But as threats evolve, so too must our protections. For this reason, I announced in December an independent review led by the former permanent secretary, Philip Rycroft, into foreign financial interference in UK politics. I would like to place on the record my thanks to Mr Rycroft for his thorough, diligent and swift work in rigorously assessing our political finance framework and identifying where further safeguards are needed. The full report from his review has today been laid before the House, and the findings are stark. Mr Rycroft concludes that this country faces a persistent problem of foreign interests seeking to exert influence on, and to interfere in, our politics, and that the threat has become arguably more acute. While he welcomes the measures in our Bill, the report is clear that we need to go further, and I agree. We welcome Mr Rycroft’s assessment and his wide-ranging recommendations, which cover the regulation of corporate and overseas donations, the need to close loopholes used by some non-party campaign groups, the approach to combating online threats, the importance of ensuring that enforcement agencies have the information and powers they need, and the organisation of Whitehall to ensure that we are best placed to tackle these threats. In advance of the Commons Report stage of the Representation of the People Bill, we will provide a comprehensive, line-by-line response to all the report’s recommendations. I am clear that, wherever necessary, we will amend the Bill to ensure that our defences against foreign interference are robust. Given the gravity of the threats we face and their level of seriousness, I reassure the House that we will take immediate action on the most serious loopholes set out in the report that allow illicit foreign money into our democracy. British citizens living overseas have the right to participate in UK parliamentary elections, and that gives them the right to donate to parties or candidates they support. However, the report raises two fundamental concerns about such donations from overseas. First, the report is clear: “Inevitably, tracing the source of funds offered by individuals living abroad is more complex than for domestic donations.” Secondly, it raises concerns about the “democratic fairness” of allowing people “who have chosen to live abroad in order to have their wealth taxed abroad” none the less to “have the opportunity to make potentially game-changing donations into British politics.” I will therefore take immediate steps to implement the report’s recommendation on donations from overseas electors. We will introduce an amendment to the Representation of the People Bill to place an annual cap on the total political donations that an overseas elector can make. The cap will be set at £100,000 a year. In the light of the gravity of the issues raised in the report, I am not prepared to allow any window of opportunity in which malign actors based overseas can funnel dark money into our politics. The cap will therefore apply retrospectively, so it will include all donations from overseas electors received from today and all regulated transactions entered into from today. Once the provisions are in force, any donations by an overseas elector to any political party or regulated entity that exceed the cap for that overseas elector will be an unlawful donation. Subject to parliamentary approval of the amendment that I will table, the recipient of any unlawful donation will have 30 days to return that donation once the legislation comes into force, after which enforcement action can be taken and criminal penalties will apply. The cap will apply to relevant donations from today in all elections in the UK, including for parties at the upcoming English local elections, Scottish Parliament elections and Senedd elections. In Scotland and Wales, donations to candidates rather than parties are devolved matters, but my intention is to seek a legislative consent motion for our amendments to ensure that there are no gaps in our safeguards. I will speak to my counterparts in the Scottish and Welsh Governments to emphasise my commitment to work together to protect our electoral system right across the United Kingdom. The second recommendation on which I will take immediate action relates to donations made in cryptocurrencies. Following extensive consultation, Mr Rycroft sets out clearly the deep reservations that many people have about such donations, and his conclusions are clear that “there is a risk that cryptoassets are used as the vehicle to channel foreign money into the political system in the UK…we should pause the use of cryptoassets for political donations for the time being.” I accept Mr Rycroft’s assessment that the anonymity inherent in cryptocurrency transactions could make it easier to mask the origin of donations and to evade robust checks on the true source of funds. The clear route that that creates for illicit channelling of money into our politics is unacceptable and undermines public confidence in our electoral system. In the light of that, I can confirm that the Government will take immediate steps to implement the recommendation made in the report, and we will introduce an amendment to the Representation of the People Bill to place a moratorium on all political donations made through cryptocurrency. I want to be crystal clear: as the report recommends, I mean crypto in any amount, including donations of a value that would ordinarily fall below the threshold for control on donations. There are specific risks posed by cryptocurrency donations, such as the risk of rapid multiple small donations being made just below our current thresholds. The moratorium will remain in place until the Electoral Commission and this Parliament are satisfied that there is sufficient regulation in place to ensure full confidence and transparency in donations that are made in that way. Subject to parliamentary approval, the moratorium will be applied retrospectively to any crypto donations received from today by any political parties and regulated entities. Once the provisions are in force, if a political party or regulated entity has received a donation in the interim, they will have 30 days to return it, after which enforcement action can be taken and criminal penalties will apply. That will again apply to all elections in the United Kingdom. As I have set out, we will work with devolved Governments to secure legislative consent where that is required. I would like again to express my thanks to Philip Rycroft for his comprehensive, thoughtful and well-reasoned report. It is, and always will be, an absolute priority for this Government to protect our democratic and electoral processes. The swift and decisive action being taken by this Government sends a clear message: we will do everything necessary to protect the UK’s democracy. I commend this statement to the House.