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  • Rishi Sunak – 2022 Speech on the Cost of Living Crisis

    Rishi Sunak – 2022 Speech on the Cost of Living Crisis

    The speech made by Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the House of Commons on 17 May 2022.

    I am proud to speak today in support of a Queen’s Speech that will both ease the cost of living with billions of pounds of support for families and grow the economy, creating more jobs, more investment and higher wages.

    The International Monetary Fund, the OECD and the World Bank have all warned that high inflation is the most acute challenge facing not just the UK, but the global economy. We are not alone in facing these challenges: covid has disrupted supply chains; Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has exacerbated the shock in energy prices; and businesses are facing shortages. The causes are indeed global, but, of course, the consequences are being felt here at home. Families up and down the country are being hit hard by the rise in prices of fuel, of food and of heating. I cannot say to people that this will be easy; the next few months will be difficult. There is no measure any Government can take and no law we can pass that can make these global forces disappear overnight. No honest Chancellor could stand here and promise that prices will not rise further, or that the Government can cover every extra pound on people’s bills.

    Several hon. Members rose—

    Rishi Sunak

    I will give way in a second.

    To suggest that no help is available, as some have said today, is both misleading and irresponsible.

    Stephen Timms (East Ham) (Lab)

    The other day, the Chancellor said that he could not increase benefits because of IT problems. At the start of the pandemic, quite rightly, he increased universal credit by £20 a week. Will he do that again?

    Rishi Sunak

    Given the right hon. Gentleman’s experience, he will know, perhaps better than me, that there are multiple different benefits on multiple different systems, and while universal credit does have the flexibility of being changed at different times—a policy, by the way, that the Labour party opposed at every step of the way—the remainder of benefits and pensions cannot be uprated mid-year. I am sure that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions will speak to that later.

    The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Dr Thérèse Coffey) indicated assent.

    Rishi Sunak

    None the less, I am glad to see that the right hon. Gentleman supports universal credit. That is one thing that the Government are proud of introducing. The benefit can respond in a crisis, as it so admirably did.

    John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab)

    The Chancellor has just admitted that he could increase universal credit by £20, so why does he not do it?

    Rishi Sunak

    Because we want to make sure that we get support to everyone in a way that suits them. What we did do—and we heard this from the right hon. Member for Doncaster North (Edward Miliband) when he gave a case study on universal credit—is cut the universal credit taper by the biggest amount ever. That was the biggest tax cut that we have seen for people on low incomes, which is in contrast to the cherrypicked example that we heard from right hon. Gentleman. What does that mean for a single mother on universal credit, working on the national living wage, renting, and with two children? It means that that mum will be £1,600 a year better off this year. That is what this Government are doing. Help is there, and anyone seeking to pretend otherwise is simply causing more worry and more anxiety.

    Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con)

    There is no recognition from Labour Members of the £22 billion that the Government put in to help with the cost of living, particularly the 5p cut in fuel duty. However, I do have one ask of my right hon. Friend. The oil companies are not passing the cuts to the pumps. They take ages to reduce the prices when the international oil price falls, but oil bosses are earning multi-million pound salaries and getting multi-million pound bonuses. They are, in essence, the new oligarchs. I urge him to consider both a windfall tax on the oil companies, which we can then use to cut taxes for the lower paid or to cut energy bills, and a pump-watch monitor to make sure that there is fair competition and that consumers get a fair deal at the pumps. None the less, I genuinely recognise all the work that he has done thus far to cut the cost of living.

    Rishi Sunak

    I thank my right hon. Friend for his advice and support, and I will come on to both of his points momentarily. He is right to remind the House that so far we have provided £22 billion of direct support. That is not a trivial figure; it is £22 billion of support to help families up and down our country at a time of challenge. We have taken action, as we heard, to cut people’s bills, starting with fuel duty—I commend him for his campaigns on that. It has been cut by 5p a litre, which is worth £100 this year together with the freeze, and council tax, cut by £150.

    What the right hon. Member for Doncaster North did not mention was that that £150 of support, which, as we heard from my right hon. Friend the Member for Harlow (Robert Halfon), has made a huge difference to families, came faster than any support the Labour party was offering in its proposal, and it went to a far broader group of people than their proposal, because we wanted to support those on middle incomes as well.

    Edward Miliband

    VAT!

    Rishi Sunak

    VAT would have been worth about, I think, £8 a month at the time. This is £150 in people’s bank accounts in April.

    We also cut the taper rate on universal credit, giving an extra £1,000 to the average household. The warm home discount increased to £150, the national living wage increased, giving low-paid workers a pay rise of £1,000, and we will go further.

    David Linden (Glasgow East) (SNP)

    I want to take the Chancellor back to what he said earlier in his speech about the Government’s acting quickly on the covid crisis. Does he recognise that many of our constituents are in a crisis now? I know he is installing a new swimming pool in the house he lives in, but I can tell him that people in Glasgow East are struggling and his Government need to do more.

    Rishi Sunak

    This Government have always acted to protect this country at times of challenge; we have done so through the past two years and we continue to do so now. As has been said, £9 billion of support on energy bills was announced in February at the same time as the price cap was increased, and it covered 50% of the rise in bills—accepting and being honest with the House, as we discussed at the time, that no Government could cover every pound of an increase when we are in a situation with global inflationary forces, and that it would be both irresponsible and misleading to pretend to the British people that that was possible.

    But we are going further: in October, a further discount on energy bills worth £200 and, in just a few weeks’ time, a massive tax cut for workers when the national insurance threshold is increased to £12,500. That is a £6 billion tax cut for working people, the biggest increase in a personal tax threshold ever, and it will mean that everyone in this country can earn £12,500 without paying a penny of income tax or national insurance. That means, in contrast with what we have heard, that 70% of working people will pay less tax this year than they did last year.

    Taken together, all the measures I have just mentioned equate to a £22 billion plan to help cut costs for families and help people with the cost of living. Of course, as the situation evolves, our response will also evolve. I have always been clear that we stand ready to do more.

    That brings me to the topic of a windfall tax. Unlike the Labour party, we Conservatives do not believe that windfall taxes are the simple and easy answer to every problem. However, we are pragmatic, and we want to see our energy companies, which have made extraordinary profits at a time of acutely elevated prices, investing those profits back into British jobs, growth and energy security. I have made it clear and said repeatedly that, if that does not happen soon and at significant scale, no option is off the table.

    Global economic forces are indeed hitting the British people hard, and that is why the Government are stepping in to help. Ultimately, however, over the long term we on the Conservative side know that the best way to raise living standards is to grow the economy. That is why our economic plan and this Queen’s Speech will create more jobs, more investment and, crucially, higher wages.

    During the pandemic, we provided billions in support not only to the economy, but specifically to businesses. Because of schemes such as furlough we were able to keep millions and millions of people in work, and the success of our plan for jobs is clear. As we heard from my right hon. Friend the Member for Forest of Dean (Mr Harper), unemployment right now is the lowest it has been in almost half a century, job vacancies are the highest they have ever been, and total pay is rising in real terms and is more than 4% higher than before the pandemic, even adjusted for the inflation we are seeing.

    That does not happen by accident. It is the result of a responsible Conservative Government delivering a stronger economy—an economy that grew faster last year than any of our competitors. That strong recovery is making a difference to people’s finances. Taken together, the combination of policy measures the Government have announced and the growth in the economy offset around half the shock to incomes caused by higher global energy and goods prices. Half of that shock has been offset by the result of our actions to grow the economy and support people directly.

    Of course we need to do more to create further economic growth. That is why this Queen’s Speech includes measures to do exactly that.

    Dame Angela Eagle (Wallasey) (Lab)

    Given that the right hon. Gentleman was just talking about growth in the economy, he will be aware that the Governor of the Bank of England and the Monetary Policy Committee told the Treasury Committee yesterday that growth would be negative in the fourth quarter of this year. Growth is slowing, unemployment is rising and inflation is soaring—is that not correct?

    Rishi Sunak

    I think the hon. Lady said unemployment is rising. No—it just fell this morning to the lowest level in almost half a century. I will come on to our growth figures in just a second, but we have had a strong recovery and are forecast to continue growing strongly relative to peers.

    We do need to do more, and that is why the Queen’s Speech includes measures to boost our national infrastructure, to level up, to back financial services—one of our biggest and most successful sectors, employing millions of people across the country—to cut red tape, to use our new Brexit freedoms, to back British businesses, to reform higher education and to strengthen our energy security. We on the Conservative side know that over the longer term, the best way to create growth is to have an economy where businesses can invest more, train more and innovate more.

    Dan Carden (Liverpool, Walton) (Lab)

    While the Chancellor is still considering a windfall tax, I want to tell him about one constituent of mine who got in touch: a 62-year-old woman in Walton, who decided to disconnect from British Gas for fear of a bill coming through her door in a few months’ time.

    Rishi Sunak

    I am very sorry to hear about the circumstances of the individual concerned. I would be happy to talk to her directly, if that would help, but I hope the hon. Gentleman, in his role, can explain to her the support that is in place to support families such as hers, whether that is direct support with her energy bills, the £150, the fact that her national living wage may well be increased depending on her situation or, as my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions reminds me, the fact that she can talk to her local council to access the household support fund that is being doubled to £1 billion to provide direct support to those who are most vulnerable.

    Several hon. Members rose—

    Rishi Sunak

    I am now going to make some progress. Our plan is to build the economy of the future. That is why, this autumn, we will cut taxes on capital, on people and on ideas to drive up growth and support businesses to do so.

    While we are talking about growth, we have heard a lot during these debates—I think the right hon. Member for Doncaster North also mentioned it—about the Labour growth that we experienced between 1997 and 2010. It was obviously a very long time ago that we last had a Labour Government, so let me remind the House of the facts.

    Under the Labour Government, the UK’s cumulative economic growth was third in the G7. Under this Government, despite having lived through the worst recession in more than 300 years, our cumulative growth is also third in the G7. Let us also remember that when the Opposition last arrived in office, unemployment was 7%. When they left, 13 years later, it was of course higher at 8%. New figures out this morning, as we have heard, show that today, the UK’s unemployment rate is less than half that, at 3.7%, the lowest in almost half a century.

    The story is the same on public finances. The deficit in 1997 was 2% of GDP. By 2010, it was nearly 10%, and £1 in every £4 the Government spent was borrowed. There was, as we heard, no money left.

    Richard Fuller (North East Bedfordshire) (Con)

    May I add to what the Chancellor says that under this Conservative Government we introduced the living wage, which has increased wages for the poorest in our country at a higher rate than the last Labour Government ever had the courage to do, and we now have the lowest unemployment rate for 50 years?

    Rishi Sunak

    My hon. Friend is absolutely right. This year’s increase in the national living wage is worth £1,000 to someone working full-time who is on the national living wage. That will benefit millions of people, particularly those on a low income. That is our priority and those are our values.

    The approach to borrowing that I have described is not the approach of this responsible Conservative Government. Today, despite having spent hundreds of billions throughout the pandemic, we are providing the highest sustained level of public sector investment in decades and investing record amounts in public services such as the NHS. This Government are on track to have borrowing low and debt falling again. That is our record: robust growth, more jobs and being responsible with the country’s finances.

    History reminds us that, at times when we face severe supply problems, an unconstrained fiscal stimulus risks making the problem worse, pushing up prices still further and ingraining expectations of higher inflation—a vicious cycle leading inexorably to even higher interest rates and more pain for tens of millions of mortgage holders and small businesses. Let us be in no doubt, simply trying to borrow and spend our way out of this situation is the wrong approach; those paying the highest price would be the poorest in our society. Instead, the Government are taking a careful, deliberate approach. We will act to cut costs for those people without making the situation worse. We will continue to back people who work hard, as we always have, and we will do more to support the most vulnerable—and, unlike others, we will not simply borrow our way out.

    So yes, we are helping families by cutting their costs, and it is irresponsible to suggest otherwise. That support will always be part of a broader plan to grow the economy, encourage investment and create more high-skilled, high-wage jobs, all built on the foundation of strong public finances. That is our economic plan. We are providing £22 billion-worth of support to help families with the cost of living. We are creating more jobs, more investment and higher wages. That is what this Queen’s Speech is all about, and I commend it to the House.

  • Ed Miliband – 2022 Speech on the Cost of Living Crisis

    Ed Miliband – 2022 Speech on the Cost of Living Crisis

    The speech made by Ed Miliband, the Labour MP for Doncaster North, in the House of Commons on 17 May 2022.

    I beg to move an amendment, at the end of the Question to add:

    “but respectfully regret that the Gracious Speech fails to announce a windfall tax on the profits of oil and gas producers, in order to provide much-needed relief from energy price increases for households.”

    The cost of living crisis is the biggest issue facing our country, which is why we have chosen it as the subject of today’s debate, and I welcome the Chancellor’s participation. We should start by being sober about the unprecedented social emergency our country faces. According to a report that has just been published by the Food Foundation, 2 million of our fellow citizens went without food for a whole day in the past month because they could not afford to eat; 7 million families had to skip a meal, and that was true of nearly half of those on universal credit. This is not just about families out of work; it is about families in work too. This is a social emergency and it is also a looming economic threat, depriving our economy of the spending power it needs. The question at the heart of this debate is whether this Gracious Speech, this Government and, yes, this Chancellor are up to the challenge this emergency represents.

    The Chancellor wants us to believe that his measures in response are the best we can do, but they are not—not by a long shot. The cost of living crisis is driven most of all by what is happening to energy bills, so let us look at the three chances he has had in the past seven months to act on energy bills. Last August, nine months ago, the first energy price rise was announced—this was a £139 increase in the price cap. So way back then he knew what was happening. Then in October he delivered the Budget. Wholesale energy prices were rocketing and the warning signals were flashing, but the Chancellor did nothing. He should re-read that Budget speech, because I think it would make even him wince. It is a model of complacency. He had drunk his own Kool-Aid. He told the country back then that “wages are rising”, that we have “growth up” and that on inflation we have

    “a Government…ready and willing to act”—[Official Report, 27 October 2021; Vol. 702, c. 275.]

    He said that the “plan is working”.

    Where are we now? On wages, the Office for Budget Responsibility is this year forecasting the biggest fall in living standards for 45 years. Growth turned negative in March, with the Bank of England suggesting that the economy is going to shrink through the winter. We are now set for the highest level of inflation for 40 years. The plan is not working; it is failing.

    Several hon. Members rose—

    Edward Miliband

    I will make some progress but then give way later.

    The Chancellor did not act when he could have done. In February he had another chance, as the largest energy price rise in our history, at 52%, was announced. He could have responded in a way commensurate with the crisis—[Interruption.] Members say that he did, but let us look at this. What was his grand offer to the country? It was a £150 council tax discount based on outdated property values, which missed out hundreds of thousands of the poorest families, and of course there was his £200 “buy now, pay later” loan scheme. This is a loan scheme that he risibly claims is not a loan, although it has to be paid back, and it does not even come in until October. What are families supposed to do in the meantime while they wait for his loan? It is almost as though the Chancellor is so out of touch that he does not realise that 10 million families in our country have no savings at all.

    Aaron Bell (Newcastle-under-Lyme) (Con)

    The £150 that was given out by Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council was gratefully received on the doorsteps, as was the money given out by Westminster City Council. Perhaps the right hon. Gentleman should speak to his council leaders in Barrow, Hyndburn, South Derbyshire and Bassetlaw, all councils that failed to get that £150 out into people’s bank accounts. If he is so concerned about the cost of living, why are his council leaders holding that money in their bank accounts instead of returning it to the people?

    Edward Miliband

    The hon. Gentleman anticipates a later part of my speech. That is the Conservative party today: it will blame anyone else and never take responsibility. The hon. Gentleman should have been supporting our measures, because in his constituency 11,353 people would get our combination of a VAT cut and the warm home discount of £600. If he votes against us tonight, he will have to explain to them why he is denying them the help they need.

    Caroline Lucas (Brighton, Pavilion) (Green)

    The right hon. Gentleman is making a powerful speech. I wonder whether he shares my anger at the news this week that the Government have underspent their net zero budget by a staggering quarter of a billion pounds, at exactly the same time as our constituents are struggling to keep their homes warm and deal with accelerating fuel poverty.

    Edward Miliband

    I completely agree with the hon. Lady. At every step of the way, the Government have had the chance to act, and they have not done so.

    Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)

    The figures for Northern Ireland are very interesting: 241,000 people—13% of people—in Northern Ireland are in poverty. Some 17% of all children, 14% of all pensioners and 11% of the whole working-age population are in poverty. Those figures scare me; do they scare the right hon. Gentleman?

    Edward Miliband

    The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. I have been around politics for a long time, as the House knows, but I cannot remember—nobody in the House can remember—facing the kind of emergency that we do currently.

    The spring statement was the most recent chance for the Chancellor to redeem himself; it was just days before the April energy price rise came into effect. It was apparent to everyone across this House and in the country that what he had offered was woefully inadequate. People were literally pleading with him to do more on energy bills, but he just doubled down on his failure. He has had three chances in the past seven months, and none of his responses has been equal to the emergency. The truth about this Chancellor is that at every step of the way he has been in denial, slow to act and wholly out of touch in his response.

    Laura Trott (Sevenoaks) (Con)

    It is right that we debate what more we can do, but does the right hon. Gentleman accept that the measures that we have put forward on the national living wage and universal credit, and the national insurance threshold changes, add up to more than he is suggesting?

    Edward Miliband

    No, I do not accept that, and I can tell the hon. Lady that 8,014 families in her constituency will benefit from the changes we are suggesting if she votes for them tonight. Let me tell her and the House what the Chancellor’s failure means in reality. This year, the basic level of universal credit for a single person aged over 25 is £334 a month. The Chancellor’s measures this April were so feeble that someone on that benefit will be expected to find as much as £50 or more a month simply to cover the increase in their energy bills. That is leaving aside the soaring costs of food and other goods. That £50 is around 15% of their income, so what are they going to do? They will not be able to afford to pay their bills, they will get deeply into debt and they will go without food. It is already happening to millions.

    On Friday, in the citizens advice bureau in my constituency, I met someone who is in circumstances similar to those I described. Let me be honest: I have no idea how I would cope in those circumstances. Does any Member of this House? Maybe the Chancellor can tell us what somebody in those circumstances is supposed to do. If he cannot answer that question, it should tell him something—that he is failing in his duty to the people of this country who most need his help.

    What makes the Chancellor even more culpable is that something that could help is staring him right in the face. It is something on which the case has become unanswerable, and on which the Government have run out of excuses, while oil and gas producers are making billions: a windfall tax. It is so hard to keep track of the Government’s position on a windfall tax that I have given up, but I think the Chancellor has said he is prepared to look at the idea. Honestly, the British people cannot afford to wait for him and his dithering anymore, or for his hopeless excuses.

    I want to go through the hopeless excuses, because this is an important argument that this House and this country need to have. What are the Government’s excuses for not applying a windfall tax? First, they said in January that the oil and gas companies were, in the words of the Education Secretary, “struggling”. BP has its highest profits for a decade, Shell has its highest profits ever, and the boss of BP, Bernard Looney, describes the price hike as a “cash machine”—and these people say the companies are struggling. Perhaps we can have a show of hands: does anyone on the Government Benches still believe that those companies are struggling? What is the Government’s next excuse? They argue that a windfall tax will hurt investment—

    Andrew Bowie (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) (Con)

    It will.

    Edward Miliband

    Oh, it will, says the hon. Gentleman from a sedentary position. Right, here we go. The problem is that the companies themselves say that is nonsense. BP’s chief executive officer, Bernard Looney—whom I take as more of an authority than the hon. Gentleman—was asked two weeks ago which investments he would not proceed with if a windfall tax was levied. What was his answer?

    “There are none that we wouldn’t do.”

    Even BP does not buy the Tory arguments against a windfall tax on BP.

    Andrew Bowie

    Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?

    Edward Miliband

    No; I will make some progress. The final excuse—[Interruption.] I want to come to this because it is important, and I am perhaps anticipating the Chancellor. The final excuse is that it is somehow anti-business to levy a windfall tax. Let us dispose of that argument, too. I strongly recommend that Members who believe that argument read an article that I have with me—I am happy to put a copy in the Library of the House—by Mr Irwin Stelzer, a long-time confidant of Rupert Murdoch. This is the first time I have quoted him in the House. A few days ago, in an article entitled, “Now is the time for a windfall profits tax”, he wrote:

    “People who believe in capitalism believe that private sector companies should be rewarded for taking risks…not be rewarded for happening to be around when some disruption drives up prices, producing windfalls.”

    That is the point: these profits are unearned and unexpected, and the British people are paying for that windfall. These companies are profiting not from decisions they have made, risks they have taken or wealth they have created, but from a global spike in prices to which Britain is badly exposed—a spike exacerbated by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

    What is the principle that the Government are defending here? What is their hill to die on? Is the principle that they really wish to defend that oil and gas companies should pocket any profits, however bad the geopolitical instability? Is that however large the crisis and however gigantic the windfall, taxation must not change? That proposition was rejected by Margaret Thatcher, Geoffrey Howe and George Osborne—remember him?—all of whom levied windfall taxes. Who else do we see supporting a windfall tax today? I have to say, it is a pretty big tent: John Allan, the guy who runs Tesco; Sharon White, the woman who runs John Lewis; Lord Browne, the guy who used to run BP; and Lord Hague, the guy who used to run the Conservative party—the usual leftie suspects.

    The truth is that the Government have run out of excuses and, amid the chaos and confusion about their position, I think a massive U-turn is lumbering slowly over the hill. I say this to the Chancellor: “Swallow your pride and get on with it.” Every day he delays is another day when the British people are denied the help they need. Millions of families are having sleepless nights because the Chancellor will not act. What is he waiting for? As proposed by the shadow Chancellor, my hon. Friend the Member for Leeds West (Rachel Reeves), the Chancellor should come to the House with an emergency Budget that has a windfall tax, gets rid of VAT on energy bills, increases the warm home discount to £400, includes an emergency plan to insulate 2 million homes this year, and cuts business rates.

    Alan Brown (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (SNP)

    Will the right hon. Gentleman give way on that point?

    Edward Miliband

    I will not for the moment. The Government’s position on the windfall tax is part of a wider problem with this Chancellor and this Government. Just look at the political choices he is making: he leaves non-doms shielding their millions while millions of families and pensioners face a cut in their incomes; he whacks up taxes on tenants and lets landlords off the hook; and he makes young people at work pay more, but those getting money from capital gains pay not a penny extra. Wrong, unfair, unjust, out of touch—that is who he is.

    Several hon. Members rose—

    Edward Miliband

    I will not give way. Of course, being this Government, they always try to blame someone else, as we heard earlier. It is hard to keep track, but this is the roll call of people who the Conservative party have tried to frame in just the past few days: the Bank of England; civil servants working from home; and, shamefully, the British people for being unable to cook properly. That, apparently, is the cause of food banks. Yesterday, there was also the ludicrous suggestion from a Minister that people were not working enough hours. The Chancellor, of all people, is also at it. Who does he blame for the massive cut to benefits? He blames the IT system—the dude from Silicon Valley. Who is he trying to kid? If he had got his act together early enough, of course he could have raised benefits properly. The thing I do not get is this: he found it perfectly possible to cut universal credit by £20 in the middle of the year—in September. It is not a case of “Computer says no”; it is “Chancellor says no.” It is not that a computer system is not up to it; the Chancellor is not up to it.

    The story of the past few months is this: crypto has crashed, and so has the Chancellor—and how similar they are. The Chancellor and cryptocurrency came out of nowhere. The value surged, and it looked like the future, but it has all turned out to be one giant Ponzi scheme. The Chancellor has just been found out. He has been rumbled. Let us be honest, his colleagues all know it. He is out of touch with what is happening in the country. He is out of ideas when it comes to doing the right thing. He is out of his depth when it comes to the challenges that this country faces.

    The problem, of course, is that today’s cost of living crisis does not stand alone; it comes on top of a decade of failure. That is why families and our economy are so vulnerable. Over the past 12 years, growth has averaged just 1.4%—the worst record of any Government since the second world war. This is the worst decade for living standards since the 1920s, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Indeed, wages would be £7,000 higher on average if wage growth under this Government had matched the rate of growth under the last Labour Government. Taxes are at their highest level since the 1950s. Public services are struggling. Never have so many paid so much for so little. Twelve years of Tory economics have failed, and what does the Chancellor offer in the future? More of the same: anaemic growth at just 1.7%, and squeezed wages as far as the eye can see.

    This is the plan for growth that we need: we should tackle the cost of living crisis, so that people have more money in their pockets. We need to put in place an industrial strategy, so that we have good jobs in the industries of the future; that is what Governments all around the world are doing. We need a plan to give people proper rights, to boost wages at work, and to make our economy fair. Where is the employment Bill? It was promised in 2019, but it is still not here. When it comes to being on the side of the workers, Conservatives may mouth the words, but their actions tell the real story.

    Mr Mark Harper (Forest of Dean) (Con)

    I am glad that the right hon. Gentleman mentioned jobs, particularly as today unemployment has fallen to its lowest level. The number of people out of work is now lower than the number of vacancies in the economy. He has just made an extraordinary number of unfunded spending commitments at the Dispatch Box. I want to highlight the big difference between the Labour party and the Chancellor. I remember the spring statement; the shadow Chancellor made a commitment to raising benefits early, because, she said, it would cost no money. It would actually have cost £24 billion across the spending period. There was no sense of how to pay for it. That is Labour from start to finish.

    Edward Miliband

    It is good to see that the right hon. Gentleman has clambered back onto the career bandwagon. I thought that he was no longer a loyalist. The truth is that it was the Resolution Foundation that pointed that out, and I can give him the reference.

    I will wind up now. I have mentioned the basics of a modern economy, and this Government are failing on all of them; they have no cost of living plan, no growth plan, and no plan for rights at work. They have not learned from the mistakes of the past decade, and they are condemned to repeat them. The truth is that this Gracious Speech does not remotely rise to the short or long-term challenges that the British people face, but this House can make a difference tonight. I say this to Conservative MPs directly: we have all heard from our constituencies what families are facing. This is an emergency for millions of people. A windfall tax could make a difference.

    Mike Wood (Dudley South) (Con)

    Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?

    Edward Miliband

    No, I will not. Conservative Members should use this opportunity to tell the Chancellor to act. It is the right and fair thing to do. The case is unanswerable. If they do not act, they will have to explain to their constituents why they refused to support help that could make a difference now. I urge Members to vote for our amendment tonight to help tackle the social emergency that our country is facing.

  • Jeffrey Donaldson – 2022 Speech on the Northern Ireland Protocol

    Jeffrey Donaldson – 2022 Speech on the Northern Ireland Protocol

    The speech made by Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP MP for Lagan Valley, in the House of Commons on 17 May 2022.

    From the outset, the Democratic Unionist party warned this House of the consequences of the protocol, and that is why we opposed it from the beginning; we recognised the political and economic instability it would cause, and the harm that it would create for the Union.

    Today’s statement is a welcome, if overdue, step. It is a significant move towards addressing the problems created by the protocol, and towards getting power-sharing based on cross-community consensus up and running again. We hope to see progress on a Bill to deal with these matters in days or weeks, not months. As the legislation progresses, we will take a graduated and cautious approach.

    We want the Irish sea border removed, and we want the Government to honour their commitment in the New Decade, New Approach agreement to protect Northern Ireland’s place in the UK internal market. The statement today indicates that that will be covered in legislation that brings about revised arrangements. Under the Belfast/Good Friday agreement, power sharing can be stable only if there is cross-community consensus, but there is not consensus on this at the moment on the part of the Unionist community. We want the political institutions functioning properly as soon as possible, but to restore Unionist confidence, decisive action is now needed in the form of legislation, in order to repair the harm that the protocol has done to the Acts of Union, and in order to put in place sensible arrangements that, in the words of the Queen’s Speech, ensure the

    “continued success and integrity of the whole of the United Kingdom…including the internal economic bonds between all of its parts.”—[Official Report, House of Lords, 10 May 2022; Vol. 822, c. 3.]

    The words today are a good start, but the Foreign Secretary will know that actions speak louder than words. I welcome her commitment to decisive action in her statement to the House.

  • Richard Thomson – 2022 Speech on the Northern Ireland Protocol

    Richard Thomson – 2022 Speech on the Northern Ireland Protocol

    The speech made by Richard Thomson, the SNP MP for Gordon, in the House of Commons on 17 May 2022.

    I thank the Foreign Secretary for advance sight of her statement. We have heard plenty about the alleged shortcomings of the protocol, but there should be acknowledgement of the Government’s role in negotiating it; that does not even seem to have reached the level of being limited and specific, from what we have heard today. Ultimately the problem this legislation purports to deal with is not to do with the protocol, which was made necessary by the kind of Brexit that the Government eventually negotiated; the seed of the problem was in the very nature of the settlement.

    Neither my colleagues nor I deny for one moment the hurt and upset caused to many in Northern Ireland by the protocol, but we must not forget that Scotland and Northern Ireland as a whole both voted against Brexit, and that there was not cross-Union consent for where we are now. If the consequences of that deal are judged to be not in the best interests of the people of Northern Ireland, we need to be honest and recognise that the consequences of the entire withdrawal agreement are not in the interests of any place in the UK, because “getting Brexit done” has meant border checks for goods going from Great Britain to the EU or to Northern Ireland, but an absolute free-for-all for anything coming into Great Britain.

    We on the SNP Benches have said all along that a stable agreement needs to be reached with the EU that works for all parts of the UK, and I genuinely wish the UK Government well in that, but with the crisis in Ukraine, the last thing we need to be doing is thrashing around here pointlessly in a snare of our own making. Domestic legislation will, even if passed, not wash away the need to comply with international commitments; nor will it change the fact that if the UK is neither in nor aligned with the single market and customs union, that still creates a trade border that needs to go somewhere.

    Restoring devolved government in Northern Ireland and resolving the self-inflicted wounds of Brexit will require good will, trust and a negotiated settlement. I am sorry to say that the threats of unilateral legislative action by this Government to override their own deal are unlikely to be taken seriously in Belfast, and will not be taken seriously in Brussels; there is absolutely no reason why they should be taken seriously in this place either.

  • Stephen Doughty – 2022 Speech on the Northern Ireland Protocol

    Stephen Doughty – 2022 Speech on the Northern Ireland Protocol

    The speech made by Stephen Doughty, the Labour MP for Cardiff South and Penarth, in the House of Commons on 17 May 2022.

    We are grateful for advance sight of the statement from the Foreign Secretary, and I apologise on behalf of the shadow Foreign Secretary, who is unfortunately self-isolating due to covid.

    It is over two and a half years since the Government negotiated and signed the withdrawal agreement. That deal included the Northern Ireland protocol, which required, by its design, some trade barriers and checks in the Irish sea. That was clear from the outset and it was a choice by this Prime Minister and by the Government, yet now, barely two years later, the Government are trying to convince people that their flagship achievement was not a negotiating triumph, but a deal so flawed that they cannot abide by it. Either they did not understand their own agreement, they were not up front about the reality of it, or they intended to break it all along. The Prime Minister negotiated this deal, signed it and ran an election campaign on it. He must take responsibility for it and make it work.

    The situation in Northern Ireland is incredibly serious. Power sharing has broken down, Stormont is not functioning and political tensions have risen, while people in communities across Northern Ireland face rising bills as the cost of living crisis deepens. The operation of the protocol has created new tensions that do need to be addressed by listening to all sides, as well as to business and to consumers, and both the UK Government and the EU need to show willing and good faith. This is not a time for political posturing or high-stakes brinkmanship.

    Everyone recognises that the situation in Northern Ireland is unique, and we want checks to be reduced to their absolute necessary minimum and for them to properly reflect trade-related risks. It cannot be right, for example, that goods leaving Great Britain that have no realistic prospect of leaving Northern Ireland, such as supermarket sandwiches, face excessive burdens, and the EU needs to understand that practical reality. Unnecessary barriers will only hamper business, inhibit trade and undermine confidence and consent.

    The Good Friday agreement was one of the proudest achievements of the last Labour Government. It is absolutely essential that it is protected. That is why we need calm heads and responsible leadership. We need a UK Government capable of the hard diplomatic graft to find solutions and an EU willing to show flexibility. The right response to these challenges cannot simply be to breach our commitments. It is deeply troubling for the Foreign Secretary to be proposing a Bill to apparently break the treaty that the Government themselves signed just two years ago. That will not resolve issues in Northern Ireland in the long term; rather, it will undermine trust and make a breakthrough more difficult. It would drive a downward spiral in our relationship with the EU that will have damaging consequences for British businesses and consumers. It is Cornish fisherman, County Down farmers and Scotch whisky makers who will lose out, holding back the economy while growth forecasts are already being revised down.

    But this goes beyond matters of trade. Britain should be a country that keeps its word. The rest of the world is looking at us and wondering whether we are a country that they want to do business with. When we seek to negotiate new deals abroad, do the Government want to make other countries question whether we will keep our end of the bargain? There are wide-ranging and damaging repercussions, undermining our ability to hold others to account for their own commitments, when we should be pulling together in support of Ukraine, for example, not fuelling divisions with our European allies.

    The right approach is for the Government and the EU to work together to find practical solutions to these problems, and to brief the media less and to negotiate more. There is no long-term unilateral solution, and only a solution that works for all sides and delivers for the people and businesses of Northern Ireland will have durability and provide the political stability that businesses crave and the public deserve. We believe that should begin with a veterinary agreement that would eliminate the vast majority of checks on produce going from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. New Zealand has an equivalence agreement, and it should not be beyond the Government and the EU to negotiate one that reflects the unique circumstances in Northern Ireland.

    We would also negotiate with the EU for more flexibility on VAT in Northern Ireland, to fully align Northern Ireland VAT rules with those of Great Britain. We would use that to take VAT off Northern Ireland energy bills, funded by a one-off windfall tax on oil and gas producer profits, to help ease the cost of living crisis.

    If the Government are determined to plough on with the Bill that the Foreign Secretary has proposed, will they agree to prelegislative scrutiny by the Foreign Affairs Committee, and will they set out clearly to the House why this does not break international law?

    Labour wants to make Brexit work and for Britain to flourish outside the EU. We want the Government to take responsibility for the deal they signed, to negotiate in good faith and to find practical solutions, not take reckless steps to prolong uncertainty in Northern Ireland and damage Britain’s reputation. We want the EU to show the necessary flexibility, to minimise all barriers, and to work with the UK Government and listen to all sides in Northern Ireland. That is the right approach, that is the responsible approach, and it is what is in the long-term interests of the people of Northern Ireland, and indeed of the whole of the United Kingdom.

  • Liz Truss – 2022 Statement on the Northern Ireland Protocol

    Liz Truss – 2022 Statement on the Northern Ireland Protocol

    The statement made by Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary, in the House of Commons on 17 May 2022.

    With permission, Mr Speaker, I would like to update the House on the Northern Ireland protocol and to lay out the next steps. Our first priority is to uphold the Belfast/Good Friday agreement in all its dimensions. That agreement put in place a new arrangement for the governance of Northern Ireland and these islands composed of three interlocking strands: a power-sharing Government at Stormont on the basis of consent and parity of esteem for all communities; intensified north-south co-operation on the island of Ireland; and enhanced arrangements for east-west co-operation. So much of the progress we have seen in Northern Ireland rests on this agreement, and for the agreement to continue to operate successfully, all three strands must function successfully. These arrangements are the foundation on which the modern, thriving Northern Ireland is built. It commands the support of parties across this House, and we will continue to work with all communities in Northern Ireland to protect it.

    As a Government, we want to see a First Minister and Deputy First Minister in place, and we want to work with them to make further progress. The basis for successful power sharing remains strong, as my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister laid out yesterday. However, the Belfast/Good Friday agreement is under strain, and, regrettably, the Northern Ireland Executive has not been fully functioning since early February. This is because the Northern Ireland protocol does not have the support necessary in one part of the community in Northern Ireland. I also note that all Northern Ireland’s political parties agree on the need for changes to the protocol.

    The practical problems are clear to see. As the House will know, the protocol has not yet been implemented in full, due to the operation of grace periods and easements. However, EU customs procedures for moving goods within the UK have already meant that companies are facing significant costs and paperwork. Some businesses have stopped this trade altogether. These challenges have been sharpened by the post-covid economic recovery. Rules on taxation mean that citizens in Northern Ireland are unable to benefit fully from the same advantages as the rest of the UK, such as the reduction in VAT on solar panels. Sanitary and phytosanitary rules mean that producers face onerous restrictions, including veterinary certification, in order to sell foodstuffs in shops in Northern Ireland.

    These practical problems have contributed to the sense that the east-west relationship has been undermined. Without resolving these and other issues, we will not be able to re-establish the Executive and preserve the hard-won progress sustained by the Belfast/Good Friday agreement. We need to restore the balance in the agreement.

    Our preference is to reach a negotiated outcome with the EU; we have worked tirelessly to that end and will continue to do so. I have had six months of negotiations with Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič, which follow a year of discussions undertaken by my predecessor. The UK has proposed what we believe to be a comprehensive and reasonable solution to deliver on the objectives of the protocol. This includes a trusted trader scheme to provide the EU with real-time commercial data, giving it confidence that goods intended for Northern Ireland are not entering the EU single market. We are already sharing over 1 million rows of goods movement data with the EU every week.

    Our proposed solution would meet both our and the EU’s original objectives for the protocol. It would address the frictions in east-west trade while protecting the EU single market and the Belfast/Good Friday agreement. The challenge is that this solution requires a change in the protocol itself, as its current drafting prevents it from being implemented, but the EU’s mandate does not allow the protocol to be changed. That is why its current proposals are unable to address the fundamental concerns. In fact, it is our assessment that they would go backward from the situation we have today with the standstill.

    As the Prime Minister said, our shared objective must be to find a solution that can command the broadest possible cross-community support for years to come and protect the Belfast/Good Friday agreement in all its dimensions. That is why I am announcing our intention to introduce legislation in the coming weeks to make changes in the protocol.

    Our preference remains a negotiated solution with the EU. In parallel with the legislation being introduced, we remain open to further talks if we can achieve the same outcome through a negotiated settlement. I have invited Vice-President Šefčovič to a meeting of the Withdrawal Agreement Joint Committee in London to discuss that as soon as possible.

    However, to respond to the very grave and serious situation in Northern Ireland, we are clear that there is a necessity to act to ensure that the institutions can be restored as soon as possible. The Government are clear that proceeding with the Bill is consistent with our obligations in international law and in support of our prior obligations in the Belfast/Good Friday agreement. Before any changes are made, we will consult businesses and people in Northern Ireland as our proposals are put forward.

    I want to be clear to the House that this is not about scrapping the protocol; our aim is to deliver on the protocol’s objectives. We will cement the provisions in the protocol that are working, including the common travel area, the single electricity market and north-south co-operation, while fixing those elements that are not, such as the movement of goods, goods regulation, VAT, subsidy control and governance.

    The Bill will put in place the necessary measures to lessen the burden on east-west trade and to ensure that the people of Northern Ireland are able to access the same benefits as the people of Great Britain. It will ensure that goods moving and staying within the UK are freed of unnecessary bureaucracy through our new green channel.

    That respects Northern Ireland’s place in the UK’s customs territory and protects the UK internal market. At the same time, it ensures that goods destined for the EU undergo the full checks and controls applied under EU law. That will be underpinned by the data-sharing arrangements that I have already set out. It will allow both east-west trade and the EU single market to be protected while removing customs paperwork for goods remaining in the United Kingdom.

    The Bill will remove regulatory barriers to goods made to UK standards being sold in Northern Ireland. Businesses will be able to choose between meeting UK or EU standards in a new dual regulatory regime. It will provide the Government with the ability to decide on tax and spend policies across the whole United Kingdom. It will address issues related to governance, bringing the protocol in line with international norms. At the same time, it will take new measures to protect the EU single market by implementing robust penalties for those who seek to abuse the new system, and it will continue to ensure that there is no hard border on the island of Ireland.

    I will publish more detail on these solutions in the coming weeks, and let me be crystal clear that, even as we do so, we will continue to engage with the EU. The Bill will contain an explicit power to give effect to a new, revised protocol if we can reach an accommodation that meets our goal of protecting the Belfast/Good Friday agreement. We remain open to a negotiated solution, but the urgency of the situation means we cannot afford to delay any longer. The UK has clear responsibilities as the sovereign Government of Northern Ireland to ensure parity of esteem and the protection of economic rights. We are clear that the EU will not be negatively impacted in any way, just as we have ensured the protection of the EU single market since the existence of the protocol.

    We must restore the primacy of the Belfast/Good Friday agreement in all of its dimensions as the basis for the restoration of the Executive, and we will do so through technical measures designed to achieve the stated objectives of the protocol, tailored to the reality of Northern Ireland. We will do so in a way that fundamentally respects both Unions—that of the United Kingdom and that of the EU—and we will live up to our commitments to all communities of Northern Ireland. As co-signatory and co-guarantor of the Good Friday/Belfast agreement, we will take the necessary decisions to preserve peace and stability. I commend this statement to the House.

  • Boris Johnson – 2022 Speech at the Opening of the Cabinet Meeting

    Boris Johnson – 2022 Speech at the Opening of the Cabinet Meeting

    The comments made by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, on 17 May 2022.

    Good morning, everybody.

    Thank you very much.

    The crucial duty of our Government is to make our communities safer, which is what we are doing.

    That’s why we put, of the 20,000 police that we promised at the 2019 election, we’ve already put 13,576 on the streets.

    They are bringing down neighbourhood crime and that’s a great thing to see. But we’ve got more to do.

    We want to make sure our streets are safer and we will round up those county lines drugs gangs with Project ADDER, taking the criminals off the streets, stopping the deaths of young people from knife crime and gun crime.

    But what we’re also doing is making sure that we give everybody the confidence that we are on their side when it comes to the law and their experiences of crimes – particularly crimes of sexual and domestic violence – and we want to see more prosecutions for those who engage in such crimes.

    We want to see more rapists brought to justice.

    I’m pleased to see the facts. Several of you across the table have been working very, very hard and we are starting to see progress.

    This matters deeply to me. It matters to our government.

    It’s vital to every person, it’s vital to every woman and every girl in the country that we get this right and I want to see more progress on that.

    But there’s another reason why it’s so vital to bring down crime by making sure that our streets are safe, which is integral for our project for uniting and levelling up.

    It is only when you have safe streets and you have safe communities, that you get the confidence of business to invest and drive jobs and growth and that it is absolutely critical now as we deal with the aftermaths of COVID and we help people with their current costs and we take the economy through a difficult patch.

    That is why cutting crime is integral to our economic mission as well.

    Making our streets safer is absolutely vital.

    May I just say – on that point – that today I am very pleased to see that unemployment is now at the lowest level it has been since 1974 and to borrow a phrase from the Chancellor of the Exchequer…our plan for jobs is working.

    Crime crime crime is what we want to focus on.

    Making our streets safer.

    Thank you very much.

  • Sajid Javid – 2022 Statement at the Alzheimer’s Society Conference

    Sajid Javid – 2022 Statement at the Alzheimer’s Society Conference

    The statement made by Sajid Javid, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, on 17 May 2022.

    Thank you Gina – not just for your warm introduction, but for everything you do, raising awareness and supporting other people living with dementia. Thank you very much.

    And I’m also grateful to the Alzheimer’s Society for bringing us all together this afternoon.

    I can’t begin to reflect on what the future holds without acknowledging the challenges of the past two years. Whether it’s the people living with dementia, or those around them who love and care for them, I know dementia is difficult at the best of times. The pandemic made it doubly difficult.

    Dementia made some of the steps we needed to take to combat the pandemic a lot harder: like extra handwashing, or socially distancing. Or families and carers, who had very little respite.

    But I know it’s the emotional side that’s proved toughest over time. It runs deeper than the smiles and hugs we all missed.

    Many of you have tirelessly smashed the taboos around dementia – like the idea dementia is a hidden disease. Lots of you – people like Gina – are proof that people with dementia shouldn’t be hidden away from society.

    But sadly, the pandemic saw us all spend more time behind closed doors, physically separated from society and the people that we love.

    So I want to say a huge thank you to all of you, for your tremendous courage and resilience in the most extraordinary of circumstances.

    When I accepted this role nearly a year ago, I made it my priority to safely remove so many of the restrictions around Covid. Burdens that kept us apart through these difficult times. We’re now leading the world in learning to live with Covid, and I’m proud of how far we’ve come.

    Yet even with these brighter days ahead, I know it will take some time for us to recover from this collective trauma. And, of course, the challenges of conditions like dementia haven’t gone away.

    Over 900,000 people in the UK are believed to be living with dementia. In 2020, it was the leading cause of death (in England and Wales) after Covid-19.

    Yet even when we’re faced with such stark statistics, it’s important to remember how we got here.

    Economic growth, medical breakthroughs and vastly improved health and care services have seen life expectancy increase by more than a decade in our lifetimes. It’s one of the great triumphs of the 20th Century. We’re all living longer.

    If we’re to get the 21st Century right, we need those extra years to be spent in good health.

    And sadly that’s not the case for too many people. By 2025, 1 million people in the UK are expected to have dementia, and is expected to rise to 1.6 million by 2040.

    There has been some great progress in recent years.

    David Cameron used the rotating chairmanship of the G8 to convene the world’s first G8 dementia summit – which took the dementia challenge onto the global stage. And that passion for global action against dementia has continued in his current role as President of Alzheimer’s Research UK.

    And I do want to pay tribute to David, because I remember very well when I was in his Cabinet: he dedicated an entire cabinet session to dementia and invited Alzheimer’s UK to speak to us. They enrolled us all as ‘dementia friends’, and even all these years later now I’m Health and Social Care Secretary, I still reflect on what I learned back then.

    The Challenge on Dementia 2020 was another landmark piece of work, which saw a million care workers and a million NHS workers receive dementia awareness training. Over the 5 years of the strategy, the government invested some £420 million on dementia research.

    But the pandemic has stemmed the tide of progress. Despite the best efforts of the NHS, it became harder for some people to get a timely diagnosis, because the pandemic made it more difficult to access memory assessment services. I know the Alzheimer’s Society has estimated over 30,000 people didn’t receive a diagnosis because of the pandemic.

    Equally, we know from your brilliant research that tens of thousands of people are still missing out on a dementia diagnosis each year because they confuse key symptoms with getting old. As you say: “It’s not called getting old, it’s called getting ill”.

    So, while these broader demographic trends, combined with the rising prevalence of dementia, were always going to take us to a crossroads – a moment where we’d have to rethink how we do health and care in this country – the pandemic has brought us to these crossroads a lot more quickly. In fact, we’re there right now.

    I think one of the reasons why we haven’t made as much progress on dementia as we would like is because it’s going to take some pretty seismic shifts, both in terms of the architecture of health and care and our own approach.

    That’s hard to do. Reform takes time. And you need to take people with you. But it’s a journey we’ve already begun – and it’s a challenge this government is unafraid to take on.

    Our plans for Adult Social Care will help improve experiences for people with dementia and their families: with a far more generous means-testing, a cap on life-time costs to increase support and development for our phenomenal workforce.

    The new Health and Care Act – which received Royal Assent just a couple of weeks ago – puts Integrated Care Boards and Integrated Care Partnerships at the heart of our system. Joint working and joint budgets will be directed towards caring for people and keeping them well in the first place.

    You may also know that we asked Claire Fuller – a GP and Chief Executive of Surrey Heartlands – to conduct a stocktake of how primary care works within the new system. Now this is important, because we know that primary care is where the bulk of prevention can happen – and GPs play a crucial role in referring people with early signs of dementia. So I’m looking forward to hearing Dr Fuller’s views.

    We know that joined up care is better for people with dementia and their families. Implementing the proposals in our Integration White Paper will be another important part of what we need to do. The White Paper looks at everything from better data-sharing to multidisciplinary working across health and care, with the ambition of improving the experiences of those who use our vital services.

    All of this taken together means our future work on dementia is going to take place in a very different health and care context – one which is much more preventive, professional, and joined up.

    Not only that, but the combination of the demographic shifts we all know are coming, the setbacks of Covid-19, and the incredible opportunities afforded to us by pioneering research and new technology, mean we now need to do something dramatically different. We have no other choice but to step up and rise to this moment.

    So that’s been the spirit behind our new dementia strategy, which we began developing last summer. I’m grateful to everyone who’s played a part and continues to play a part in bringing it to life, including the Alzheimer’s Society. That work is still ongoing, but today I want to tell you a bit more about what it will look like.

    In short, I want it to be more ambitious than anything we’ve done before. To begin with: I want our Dementia Strategy to be a 10-year plan, not just 5. Because we can only get to grips with long-term challenges by thinking long-term.

    I’d like us to be as bold as we’ve been with our 10-year plan for cancer. It will be driven by the same four themes behind our reforms in health and care – what I call the ‘four P’s’: prevention, personalisation, performance and people.

    Let’s look at prevention for a moment.

    It’s estimated that as much as 40 percent of dementia is potentially preventable. 40 percent.

    We now know that what’s good for the heart is also good for the brain. Action on high blood pressure, physical inactivity, alcohol, obesity and healthy eating all have a part to play.

    So we’re going to be very ambitious on prevention, because I don’t accept that dementia is an inevitable part of ageing. It isn’t.

    We’re going to be equally ambitious on research.

    We’ve already committed £375 million into research on neurodegenerative diseases over the next five years – and I’ll work across government to boost this further.

    It means measuring ourselves against the leading countries globally and being unafraid to find new ways of working. It means being bold about finding new medicines and new treatments. It means being ambitious on new technology, like genomic sequencing and digital biomarkers. And it means continuing to smash taboos – just as you do so brilliantly, every single day.

    So I’m really excited about this – and I’m excited to work with all of you get it right. Because it’s no exaggeration to say that our future depends on it.

    We’re at the crossroads. All of us here today, we understand the challenges that lie ahead. When it comes to dementia, we know there have never been any quick fixes. We know there aren’t any easy wins.

    But we also know that when a visionary plan comes together, with powerful partners and proper funding – and we couple it with care and compassion – that combination can be unbeatable.

    That’s going to be the mission – and I’m grateful to have partners like you to share it with. Thank you.

     

  • Lucy Frazer – 2022 Speech to the Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement (J5) Summit

    Lucy Frazer – 2022 Speech to the Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement (J5) Summit

    The speech made by Lucy Frazer, the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, on 17 May 2022.

    Introduction

    A very good afternoon, everyone.

    It’s brilliant to see so many of you here in London… together in person for the first time, I believe, since Sydney 2020.

    I also want to extend a warm welcome to the Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement and their teams of experts. And to the many delegates from international industry partners and the Wolfsburg Group who are joining throughout the week.

    On behalf of the UK government, let me say that we’re delighted to host this summit, and absolutely committed to our role as a founding member of the J5.

    It’s a ground-breaking alliance, which is doing things in ways that haven’t been tried before. And truly making ‘the world a smaller place for tax criminals’.

    Understanding the threat

    The UK, for its part, is taking action on tax crime hard and fast.

    Giving HM Revenue and Customs a range of new asset recovery and ‘proceeds of crime’ powers.

    Introducing a ground-breaking ‘failure to prevent’ piece of legislation, which means that HMRC now has several corporations under live criminal investigation.

    And adopting a tougher stance on offshore evasion.

    But tax fraud is a perennial and persistent threat to all our nations.

    And unity, transparency and collaboration will be essential if we’re to tackle it.

    Because, put simply, tax cheats flourish when we fail to work together.

    And every scrap of information left behind by fraudsters – in any one of our jurisdictions – is a potential lead in the fight against global tax crime.

    By joining forces, we undermine the global criminal community in ways we could not do alone.

    So, this conference isn’t just a great opportunity to celebrate everything we’ve already achieved together.

    It’s also a chance to share ideas and expertise. To renew our collective ambition. And to design and develop the next steps in this crucial fight.

    The speed of change

    I was appointed Financial Secretary to the Treasury last September, with international tax policy as an important part of my portfolio.

    Since then, I’ve learned a great deal.

    In particular, I’ve been struck by the furious speed at which tax fraud evolves.

    Fraud is becoming ever more complex and international. And in some ways that’s a compliment to all of the J5 partners.

    It’s not easy to commit tax fraud and get away with it.

    But as we’ve closed the net, criminals have upped their game.

    Evaders are using increasingly complex and diverse structures to avoid detection.

    Money launderers are using complex multi-jurisdictional transaction chains to hide transactions.

    And organised criminals are using and abusing complex corporate structures to mask the top-tier criminals masterminding the fraud.

    We’ve seen the movement of money and capital become increasingly fluid as historical, physical and geographical barriers to trade have slipped away.

    The rise of the ‘global citizen’ means that tax criminals may be based in one country, but have trusts and bank accounts scattered across many others.

    Of course, it’s not easy for a criminal to set up such an intricate web alone.

    And this is a crucial point.

    The UK’s HMRC team tell me they’re increasingly seeing criminals harnessing professional help, direction and support – particularly in cases involving offshore entities.

    In other words, it’s not just the role of the fraudster that’s evolving… it’s also that of the enabler.

    A crime with victims

    Of course, perhaps due to its complex nature. tax fraud is sometimes perceived as something of a victimless crime.

    But that’s simply not the case.

    The damage can be hard to visualise – especially when those directly involved in supply chain fraud or importing illicit goods are operating thousands of miles away, hidden behind complex webs of corporate structures or criminal enablers…

    But it’s all too stark for the retiree who discovers too late that their tax, national insurance or workplace pension contributions have been fraudulently redirected by a payroll company. And that they can no longer afford the life they have worked so hard to build.

    Or for the teenager trafficked to a foreign country to work in illicit factories manufacturing tobacco products, funded by the fraudulent activity of organised criminal gangs.

    The emotional and financial costs can be lifechanging.

    The impacts of tax crime can filter through into wider society.

    Associated profits are used to fund other sorts of crime in our communities, giving criminals the financial means to corrupt and exert their power at home.

    And while fraud is hugely damaging to its direct and indirect victims, it also ruins the lives of its perpetrators and their families. What a waste.

    International co-operation

    A big part of the solution, as I say, is international cooperation.

    We’ve already shown it can be done.

    Last year, here in London, we saw the G7 strike a game-changing agreement on global tax reform. Ensuring large multinationals pay tax of at least 15% on their profits. And reforming taxation rules to ensure a greater share of multinationals’ profit is taxed in the countries in which their customers are located.

    The J5 too has made some notable steps forward.

    I was particularly excited to hear about ‘The Challenge’ held last March – an event which brought together investigators, experts and data scientists to track down fraudsters using cryptocurrency to facilitate tax crimes.

    Very far from a ‘talking shop’, ‘The Challenge’ led to real action. Including the identification of a number of suspect companies in each J5 nation.

    Another example of the J5’s success is the arrest and charging of 10 individuals involved in a years-long, multimillion dollar investment and impersonation scheme.

    The defendants were able to defraud millions of dollars from individuals across the globe.

    They were operating across multiple countries, impersonating respected investment firms, producing fake documents and hiding behind fabricated identities.

    But it was thanks to collaboration between J5 members that we were able to piece together the jigsaw of evidence scattered around the globe.

    We cannot be complacent

    We should be proud of what we’ve achieved together. Of course we should.

    But this is no time to be complacent.

    During the pandemic, we saw an increase in fraudsters identifying and exploiting new and essential products developed in the fight against Covid-19.

    We must be alert not just to what criminals are doing now, but ahead of them in thinking what might be possible in the future.

    Here in the UK, we continue to take steps to tackle tax fraud and evasion.

    We’ve introduced an additional 20 measures since last year – and are forecast to raise an estimated £6.3 billion over the next 5 years.

    There’s also ‘Making Tax Digital’, our pioneering new way for businesses to keep their tax records in a modern, digital, fit-for-purpose system.

    It’s improving efficiency, accuracy and transparency in our tax system. And removing the opportunity for fraudsters to exploit systems built for a different age.

    The UK Government has also recently provided almost £300 million for HMRC to invest in additional support across all forms of compliance activity.

    We’ve invested in HMRC’s illicit finances capability, to tackle the enablers of serious fraud, focusing on the illicit financial transactions that underpin tax crime.

    This increased capacity for tackling tax crime at home can only bolster the data and technological capabilities we can share with our J5 partners.

    In addition, the UK continues to spearhead the Common Reporting Standard, which provides greater transparency through the automatic exchange of taxpayer account information.

    I’m delighted that more than 100 jurisdictions have signed up to the CRS.

    This means that fraudsters in these jurisdictions can no longer benefit from secrecy rules used to hide transactions that would otherwise be flagged as a cause for concern.

    Indeed, this significant increase in global transparency has seen HMRC bring in more than £500 million to date, directly through Automatic Exchange Agreements such as the Common Reporting Standard.

    It’s also encouraging to see new important developments that increase international tax transparency, and reduce the scope for hiding assets and profits, even more.

    The UK is the first major economy to commit to the OECD’s new Mandatory Disclosure Rules. These require disclosure of arrangements designed to avoid CRS reporting or hide the beneficial ownership of assets.

    The UK is also committed to the new OECD Model Rules for Digital Platforms that require the reporting of sales on internet platforms. And we welcome the development of the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework, another significant new transparency initiative.

    Public-Private collaboration

    The State, of course, is integral to tackling tax crime. And we can do a lot.

    But for reforms to be successful and long-lasting, they need to be made in conjunction with the private sector.

    Governments can work to regulate or provide guidance, but it’s ultimately the private sector that determines who can access the financial system.

    The private sector also plays a huge role in funding the mechanisms used to fight economic crime. By investing in sophisticated new technologies that undertake transactional risking and protect consumers from fraud. As well as ensuring that their operating models comply with reporting requirements.

    For all those reasons, we‘ve invested in these partnerships – expanding our capability in intelligence flows, risk alerts and behavioural insight. And they are already paying dividends.

    Cooperation between HMRC and the private sector recently meant we were able to work together to prevent losses of more than £50 million following a systematic attack on our Self-Assessment taxation system.

    I know that cooperation is being replicated across the J5. And I’m really excited to see what’s achieved as a result.

    Conclusion

    Ladies and Gentlemen,

    Taxation relies on trust.

    Trust between a Government and its citizens that rates will be set fairly and transparently.

    And trust that individuals and businesses will be held accountable if they fail to pay what is due.

    Tax crime undermines that trust.

    But everything you do – that we do together – restores it.

    We can – and we must – continue doing everything we can… to collaborate, to innovate, and to eliminate the loopholes criminals seek to exploit.

    Henry Ford, the great American industrialist, once said that “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.”

    Well, we’ve already ‘come together’… through the J5.

    This week will help us ‘keep together’… showing our joint commitment to make progress in the fight against global tax crime and showing tax criminals that our resolve is unwavering.

    And, in the months and years ahead, we must continue to ‘work together’.

    Because the importance of this… for our economies… for our societies… means we cannot do anything less.

    Thank you very much.

  • Luke Evans – 2022 Speech on the Future of the UK

    Luke Evans – 2022 Speech on the Future of the UK

    The speech made by Luke Evans, the Conservative MP for Bosworth, in the House of Commons on 16 May 2022.

    May I take this opportunity to say a great deal of thanks from my constituency to the Queen for her service over almost 70 years, as I may not get that chance going forward?

    The subject of today’s session is making Britain the best place to grow up and grow old. Two and a half years into my service as the MP for my constituency, I thought that it would be worth touching on a few things that are trying to move that plan forward.

    We have had millions of pounds for Hinckley Academy to make sure that we have education that supports our local children. We have had £19.9 million for Twycross zoo to create a conservation and education centre to breed the conservationists of the future. We have had £28 million for internet for Leicestershire, which means that 330 houses in Sketchley Brook in Burbage now have better, faster internet access. We have had £1.8 million to improve Hinckley high street and ensure that people go there and want to enjoy it, whether they are a child or an OAP. We are working on improving the A5, which is vital infrastructure for our constituency for people to get to their jobs: £20 million has been invested and we moved through decision point 1 in March. I am keen to see that go forward.

    Most importantly, £7 million has been put towards Hinckley hospital, with another community diagnostic centre coming and a plan that is ready to go. I am dead keen to make sure that there is no red tape in its way, because it puts Hinckley on the map and provides the service that we need for our community of children, adults and OAPs. That is what it is all about.

    In the three minutes that I have left, I want to focus on two subjects: planning and the Online Safety Bill. I have heard the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities use the acronym BIDEN for the five crucial points of planning: beauty, infrastructure, democracy, environment and neighbourhoods. I put it to him that he has missed a trick there, because “INBED with Gove” would be a far better selling point. However, the principles are right: we need the right homes, in the right place, with the right infrastructure that is right for our environment. That is fundamental to our planning system, but the current system does not deliver it. My constituency typifies that, because under the Lib Dem borough council we do not have an up-to-date local plan, which means that every single day we are open to speculative development without that infrastructure, without those amenities and without that support.

    I am pleased that the Queen’s Speech is bringing forward planning change. That should concentrate on strengthening neighbourhood plans and localism in action, especially for those without an up-to-date local plan. The infrastructure levy is important for getting funding up front for the amenities that we need: the roads, the GP surgeries, and the schools. All those things need to be rectified, so I am glad that change is being introduced. Of course, there is also the question of building out. Developers getting the land is one thing, but using it is another. We need houses for young people and their families to aspire to, but we also need houses for our pensioners to retire or downsize to, and we need to provide support for them.

    I come at the Online Safety Bill through my work on body image. There are two fundamental things that I would like to see in the Bill. First, there needs to be a legally named person for the algorithm. We have safeguarding leads in schools, we have Caldicott guardians in health and we have GDPR controllers. On our social media and on the internet, the algorithm is fundamental, so naming someone who is accountable would mean that anyone in this House or in this country could hold the big companies to account. That is imperative in lifting the bonnet to see what is underneath and what is driving the content that all of us—children or adults—are served. Secondly, we should allow people to choose to be served verified authentic images. The technology exists. We are allowing people to choose anonymity, so why do we not do it with authenticated images? Those two little changes would really make sure that we grow up and grow old in the best of Britain.