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NEWS STORY : UKHSA Updates Response to Hantavirus Cruise Ship Outbreak

STORY

The UK Health Security Agency has said the Government is continuing to work with the NHS, local authorities and UK Overseas Territories in response to the hantavirus outbreak linked to the MV Hondius cruise ship. UKHSA said people currently at Arrowe Park and those isolating at home are being closely monitored, with a further individual leaving Arrowe Park to complete their 45-day isolation period at home after clinical and public health assessments found it was safe to do so.

A medic from Ascension Island who developed symptoms has arrived at the High Consequence Infectious Disease unit at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust for specialist assessment. UKHSA said the individual is not a confirmed case, but had been medically evacuated as a precaution because hantavirus cases can deteriorate rapidly and Ascension Island does not have a specialist infectious diseases unit.

UKHSA is also working with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and UK Overseas Territories to relocate nine asymptomatic contacts from St Helena and Ascension Island to the UK, where they are expected to complete their self-isolation at Arrowe Park. Dr William Welfare, UKHSA’s Director of Health Protection in Regions, said teams would continue to support all those affected and added that the risk to the general public remains very low.

May 16, 2026
Wera Hobhouse – 2026 Speech on Getting Britain Working Again

The speech made by Wera Hobhouse, the Liberal Democrat MP for Bath, in the House of Commons on 14 May 2026.

It is an honour and a pleasure to take part in this King’s Speech debate. I am a member of the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee, and I look to grow our economy and get Britain working, with a special focus on the green economy and its many opportunities and challenges.

The regulating for growth Bill promises a framework that supports innovation, yet current proposals from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero risk doing the opposite. Under the plans for the new home energy model, any technology other than a heat pump or heat battery could automatically receive an energy performance certificate rating of D. In practice, that means that innovative zero-emissions systems would be treated the same as fossil-fuel heating. That would make many new technologies commercially unviable and leave consumers without practical alternatives where heat pumps are not suitable. The plans are already affecting innovative businesses in Bath, including Luthmore, which has developed a pioneering, zero-emission alternative to the gas combi boiler. Combined with exclusion from support schemes, VAT barriers and delays in the assessment process, such policies risk pushing Britain’s clean tech innovators overseas instead of backing them at home.

I am encouraged by the announcement of an energy independence Bill in the King’s Speech. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and now the war in the middle east have laid bare the need to go much further and faster to secure our energy supply, which means getting off the rollercoaster of global prices. In the midst of an energy price crisis, cheap, home-produced energy has never been more vital. There is huge nationwide potential for growth in small-scale renewable energy generation, especially by community groups that can distribute the benefits locally. Nobody in the House will be surprised to hear me say that we Liberal Democrats are the greatest champions of community energy.

Community energy puts people at the heart of their energy future by allowing them to generate, manage and own their own local renewable energy projects. These are projects run by the community, for the community. One of many pioneering projects is Bath and West Community Energy in my constituency, which, because of surplus income from renewable energy projects, has been able to donate to more than 100 community projects across Bath in the past decade.

What really worries me, when hearing in the ESNZ Committee about proposals for community energy and the way the Government look at that, is that it is only about an ownership model, rather than a beneficiary model. Community energy should also benefit consumers of energy, not just the energy producers. I get it—it is about both. It is not one or the other, but we must focus on ensuring that the community benefits from community-generated energy.

Community energy projects also strengthen energy security by diversifying sources of energy, reducing reliance on imported fossil fuels. In 2025, community energy groups saved people almost £2 million on their fuel bills due to energy efficiency upgrades. However, community energy schemes currently generate less than 0.5% of the UK’s electricity. With the right support, that could increase by 20 times, powering more than 2 million homes and saving more than 2 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year.

However, there are two main blockers to the rapid expansion of community energy projects. The first major barrier is a shortfall in Government funding to scale up energy generation projects. While the £15 million Great British community energy fund is welcome, it has led to minimal growth. I hope that through the energy independence Bill more funding will be allocated to these projects so that their potential can be realised.

Another major barrier facing community energy projects is the prohibitive cost of accessing energy markets to sell the electricity that they generate. This is what I mean: there are now more than 600 community energy groups operating across the UK, yet not a single one is able to sell power directly to local customers. Although it is legally possible, the various regulatory burdens and obligations associated with energy licensing rules make the cost of selling power to local people impossibly high.

In the 2022-23 Session, legislation was brought forward to unlock the potential of community energy and selling directly to local people. The proposal was supported by the current Secretary of State and more than 320 MPs across the House. We have a Secretary of State for Energy who supports reform of local energy supply, but we are still waiting for the legislation to make that reform a reality.

We Liberal Democrats welcome the regulatory changes promised in the local power plan, in particular the commitments from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero to establish a route to market for unlocking a smart local energy system. However, if community energy initiatives want to plan ahead with confidence, the Government must provide clear detail on how and when these reforms will be implemented. One option is to untangle completely the licensed supplier model that we currently have and to ask Ofgem to establish a local supply licence. The proportioned costs could create the ability for community schemes to sell to local customers if they wish and make a viable business model. The other option is to have current licensed suppliers offering contracts for the export of community energy to local residents.

Whichever route the Government choose, we need to see action. We must see the necessary regulatory changes in the energy independence Bill to establish a workable model for local energy supply so that community energy products can scale up, become commercially viable and play their full part in delivering a cleaner and more resilient energy system.

May 16, 2026
Adam Thompson – 2026 Speech on Getting Britain Working Again

The speech made by Adam Thompson, the Labour MP for Erewash, in the House of Commons on 14 May 2026.

On behalf of the people of Erewash, I give thanks to His Majesty the King for his Gracious Speech to the entire nation yesterday. This King’s Speech recognises the simple fact that Britain cannot afford to leave its future at the mercy of global markets, hostile states or instability abroad.

For too long, Governments assumed that the hand of the free market would always act in Britain’s interests. For too long, we outsourced vital industries without considering the long-term consequences and underrated the ability of our businesses to export physical goods to the world. We have been globally pigeonholed strictly as a post-industrial service economy. When dictators spark conflict abroad, British families feel the impact through rising bills and a falling standard of living. Working people in Erewash know that all too well. Britain has been left exposed because we failed to build our own energy resilience.

Ilkeston in Erewash is proud of its iron manufacturing heritage, yet we have watched industries like iron and steel decline as production has moved overseas in search of cheaper labour and lower standards. Steel is not just another commodity; its manufacture is strategic infrastructure, in and of itself—infrastructure that underpins our national defence capabilities. That is why it is unacceptable that British Steel has been let down by overseas owners who do not act in Britain’s best interests. We cannot outsource our national security any longer.

Harriet Cross

I completely agree that we must protect British industries such as steel and oil and gas refining—they are all vital. The carbon tax is a reason why these industries are declining and moving overseas. From what the hon. Member is saying, it feels like he agrees that we should get rid of the carbon tax. Is that correct?

Adam Thompson

I am not sure the hon. Member and I are necessarily on the same page. I was focusing purely on the renationalisation of the steel industry, which is an important part of the King’s Speech. Indeed, in this King’s Speech, the Government have recognised that markets alone cannot protect the national interest. Sometimes the state must step in to safeguard jobs and to keep Britain safe. Nationalising British Steel means protecting almost 100,000 jobs from unfair foreign competition. I am proud that this Government are going to bring British Steel fully back into public ownership.

I have spoken to many businesses and business owners in Erewash, and they report that they have struggled since we left the European single market. They have faced mountains of paperwork and massive delays at our borders. These hurdles do not just frustrate exporters; they directly impact their ability to turn a profit. I am glad that in the European partnership Bill we seek to solve that problem, by streamlining trade and making it quicker, cheaper and simpler to do business with Europe.

Matt Rodda (Reading Central) (Lab)

My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech. Would he agree that the European partnership Bill is particularly important to many small businesses in vital supply chains in the automotive sector and other key areas of our economy, which will benefit directly from that well thought-through measure?

Adam Thompson

I completely agree with my hon. Friend. Indeed, I am going to talk momentarily about one of the businesses in my constituency. When I discuss this topic, I particularly think of Cluny Lace in Ilkeston—not in the automotive sector, but a brilliant high-end lace manufacturer. It was workers from Ilkeston who produced Princess Kate’s wedding dress and Queen Anne’s tablecloth. Cluny Lace is an internationally renowned producer and exporter of high-quality British goods, supplying the European high-end garment manufacturing industry, in particular.

Wera Hobhouse (Bath) (LD)

The hon. Member mentioned small businesses and delays at the border. Is it not true that the problem of double tariffs for small businesses when importing from third countries and then into the European Union will only be solved by us rejoining the customs union?

Adam Thompson

The hon. Member raises a point that I was about to touch on. When I met Charles Mason, the managing director of Cluny Lace, he told me at length about how post-Brexit export and import difficulties have caused him immeasurable pain, because the lace that we make in Ilkeston can only be dyed in France, where they have professionals with the appropriate expertise. Moving the lace to France for that part of the process, then back to England for further processing before sale, and then often back into Europe, has become all but impossible for his company. What was once a frictionless part of Cluny’s manufacturing process and sales chain, is now a crippling quagmire of tariffs and business model-breaking roadblocks.

For businesses across Erewash, whether they are producers, suppliers or distributors, a closer trading relationship with Europe means less time navigating bureaucracy and more time growing their businesses. Businesses in Erewash have also suffered from increased energy costs. If we want lower bills for working people, we must break our dependence on volatile global gas prices. British families will not see meaningful long-term reductions in energy costs until we produce more clean, affordable energy, here at home.

In Erewash, such a transition is not theoretical; it is obviously visible on our local skyline. Sawley, in my constituency, on the banks of the River Trent, lies adjacent to the former Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Rushcliffe (James Naish). Ratcliffe was the UK’s last coal-fired power station; it closed its doors for the final time in September 2024.

As we move forward, my task as the MP for Erewash is not simply to help the country move on from coal, but to ensure that Erewash is at the heart of what comes next, and that my constituents benefit from the new investment, the new jobs, and the cleaner, more secure energy future that this Government are delivering through this King’s Speech. That is why I am excited about the Government’s energy independence Bill, which will shield our economy from the fossil-fuel price shocks that have caused half of the UK’s recessions since the 1970s.

This Government are bringing industry back to Britain, with well-paid engineers working in clean energy, powering steel production in the east midlands and across the country. On the ground, that means that families in my constituency—and the constituencies of hon. Members across the House—will no longer wonder how events thousands of miles away affect their bills or their ability to book a holiday.

Families in Erewash voted for change in 2024. They are tired of limited opportunities and of feeling vulnerable every time the world becomes more unstable. They want more control over their lives. With this King’s Speech, we are bringing industry home, investing in British jobs, and putting control of our future back into the hands of working people.

May 16, 2026
Alison Griffiths – 2026 Speech on Getting Britain Working Again

The speech made by Alison Griffiths, the Conservative MP for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton, in the House of Commons on 14 May 2026.

Businesses in my constituency are not asking for special treatment; they are asking for a Government who stop making it harder to employ people, harder to grow and harder to invest. Right now, too many feel that Labour is taking the country in the wrong direction. Through my business club and regular conversations with employers across Bognor Regis and Littlehampton, I keep hearing the same thing: costs are rising, confidence is falling and businesses are becoming more cautious about taking people on. In a coastal constituency, that really matters. Our local economy depends on innovation powered by fantastic small and medium-sized enterprises and on the entrepreneurs who pour everything into growing them. These are not massive corporations with endless room to absorb new costs. They are businesses working hard to keep people employed, keep high streets going and keep our communities alive outside the summer season.

James and Marcus Fenton, who run Meridian Medical in Littlehampton, employ around 130 people locally in skilled manufacturing jobs. It is a family-run business and a living wage employer. It should be exactly the kind of business the Government are backing. Meridian is a British success story, exporting highly specialised medical devices around the world, but it is now becoming one of the businesses that tells me the UK is becoming a harder place in which to invest and grow.

I also heard recently from Mark and Liz Warom, the founders of TEMPLESPA, a science-led, Mediterranean-inspired premium skincare brand run by my constituents, whose products I highly recommend. Their clear view is that firms are becoming

“more cautious on hiring and investment due to rising costs.”

They are worried about rising employment costs, higher borrowing costs, growing compliance burdens and energy prices that remain far too high. That is the real-word impact of the Government’s decisions. When businesses stop hiring, young people pay the price first. The first job in a café, the apprenticeship, or the hospitality role in a pub or hotel all give young people the chance to get on the ladder and earn their own money.

The Government talk constantly about growth, but businesses in constituencies such as mine are asking a very simple question: when will this Government stop making growth harder? If we really want to get Britain working again, we need to start backing the businesses that actually create the jobs.

May 16, 2026
Andrew Pakes – 2026 Speech on Getting Britain Working Again

The speech made by Andrew Pakes, the Labour MP for Peterborough, in the House of Commons on 14 May 2026.

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Torbay (Steve Darling), and to speak in a debate on work in support of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. There are few Secretaries of State who have a work ethic as strong as his, and I thank him for that.

I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate on the Loyal Address. The phrase “Get Britain working” goes to the heart of the challenges facing both this Government and the country, and I will start by welcoming today’s growth figures.

Debates such as this and the programmes of any Government will make no difference without stability as a foundation. I say kindly to colleagues on all sides of the House that economic stability matters. After the revolving door of Ministers and policies in the past decade, stability is not just a nice-to-have, but a must-have. From economic stability we can create the opportunities, fix our public services and share prosperity across our country.

Nothing goes to the heart of Labour’s mission to grow our economy more than the dignity of work. Nothing will propel that growth more quickly, more justly and more sustainably than creating the jobs and opportunities to sit squarely behind the programme of this Government and the policies put forward in the Loyal Address. But equally, nothing says more about the challenge the Government face and the opportunities the Government need to pick up than the 70% drop in apprenticeships we inherited after the past decade of Conservative rule.

These are challenges writ large in my constituency of Peterborough. In 2023-24 apprenticeship figures hit the lowest level in the six years for which data is available, with a fall in achievements across all apprenticeship levels. That not just an economic failure, but a moral failure that we inherited from the previous Government. Therefore, I welcome the focus in the King’s Speech on creating jobs, support and opportunities for young people to succeed. This is an agenda that builds on the existing achievements around apprenticeships and youth employment.

Over the past couple of years I have spent as a Member of this House, I have met businesses, education providers and young people who have been shut out of opportunities for too long because of the bureaucratic nature of our skills system and the apprenticeship levy. It is this Government who have the opportunity to change that. The DWP has itself described Peterborough as a national youth unemployment hotspot, so the Government’s moves in the King’s Speech are welcome. I am pleased to put on record that Peterborough and Cambridgeshire were chosen for one of the first pilots for the youth guarantee, with up to £10 million over two years to support young people into education, employment and training. We get the welfare bill down by increasing opportunities and backing the next generation of taxpayers, something that this Government are focused on.

Within the city I represent, we have the appetite to meet the Government’s ambition to address those issues. Peterborough College’s JobSmart provision is a great example of working with stakeholders—the DWP, Peterborough Council for Voluntary Service and the combined authority—to get more people into work. The youth employment hub, opened recently at Peterborough United, funded by the Government’s youth guarantee and opened by our Secretary of State and mayor, is a physical example of the bricks and mortar investment in our young people, as is the new Green Technology Centre opened at Peterborough College last year. This takes traditional apprenticeships and training opportunities, and updates them for new green skills such as EV mechanics, heat pump installation and sustainable construction skills.

I welcome the expansion of the youth guarantee and the focus on expanding work experience and guaranteed employment for young people; the jobs guarantee, our promise of a work placement for all, with costs paid for by the Government; the youth jobs grant, a £3,000 grant for businesses that hire a young person who has been on universal credit for six months; and a £2,000 grant for small businesses that take on an apprentice. For cities like mine it could be transformative, creating opportunities and getting more people into work.

I look forward to the legislative programme that will follow changes recommended in the Timms and Milburn reviews. It cannot be right that we write off so many young people as unfit to work, with a life on benefits. It also addresses something bigger: a greater inequality for too long between vocational and university education. This is not just about policy; it is cultural. For too long, we have made apprenticeships a second-class option. We have created a bias in our schools that favours university over apprenticeships. That, in turn, has been compounded by the destruction, under the previous Government, of careers advice and work experience for young people in cities such as mine. For a working city such as Peterborough, that legacy has been a disaster for people and for economic growth.

I welcome our new university in the city, Anglia Ruskin University Peterborough, which does things differently. It has a focus on local students, business relationships and degree apprenticeships, growing our talent in the city, so that the talent of our city can grow the economy for this country as a whole.

I also want to talk about jobs for the future and how we build jobs for the next generation of young people coming through. One third of people working in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough are employed in occupations that will be directly affected by the transition to the green economy. Major local companies such as National Gas and Caterpillar are already driving innovation in sustainable industries. Peterborough sits at the heart of the national gas transition and hydrogen networks. We could truly be the King’s Cross of the green industrial revolution for hydrogen. This transition from blue collar to green collar jobs and skills is one of the hallmarks of this Government’s achievements so far. I welcome the £800 million private sector investment that National Gas recently put into Peterborough and my region, and its choice of Peterborough as its new regional headquarters. We have the talent in our city which allows those jobs for the future to be grown, with Government support.

I will say one more thing—a friendly piece of support, but I would like to stretch my elbows a bit—which is that what I know perfectly about my city is the potential of the young people who live in it. I also know the struggles that Peterborough college and further education have had to put up with. I welcome the investment the Government have put into further education, but I also know that my colleges could support many more small businesses and many more young people if they had the physical resources to do so. We are on the journey and we are making the investment to change that, but if we could do it faster, we in our city could deliver more for young people, but also for the Government’s ambitions.

The appetite is there from learners, providers and businesses. The drive exists to meet Labour’s ambitions for new homes, clean energy and infrastructure, but we need the means to deliver it. It is a privilege to speak in support of the Loyal Address. We can get the job done with the Government’s support and with the Prime Minister’s support.

May 16, 2026
Steve Darling – 2026 Speech on Getting Britain Working Again

The speech made by Steve Darling, the Liberal Democrat MP for Torbay, in the House of Commons on 14 May 2026.

It is a pleasure to follow the right hon. Member for Walsall and Bloxwich (Valerie Vaz). One would normally imagine that the King’s Speech was an opportunity to press the reset button, but I fear that Labour Members are searching for another reset button at this time. We Liberal Democrats fear that the King’s Speech is somewhat timid in its ambition, and does not drive the change that many of our communities have a thirst for.

I will focus on youth unemployment and our NEETs—those not in education, employment or training. This is a massive challenge for our society. People are three times more likely to be unemployed if they are under the age of 25. To be fair to the Government, the issue was not created on their watch, but during their watch, they built on what happened under the Conservatives, due to the pressures on the system. When I meet young people, I know that they have faced a lethal cocktail, when it comes to being work-ready. There was the covid crisis through much of their educational life; there is the pressure cooker of social media, which eats into their confidence; and finally, there is the cost of living crisis, which young people are not immune from. It may mean not only that they have less opportunity, but that mum or dad face real pressures, so there are some real challenges.

I pay tribute to organisations in the Torquay and Paignton area of Torbay that support young people, such as Eat That Frog, Sound Communities, Doorstep Arts and the South Devon college, which have all benefited from the shared prosperity fund. That ended without a replacement, and the world is therefore a poorer place, particularly for youngsters who had adverse childhood experiences and are on the margins of employment.

As we have seen, the tax on work—the national insurance hike—has really hit opportunities for employment hard. Employment in the hospitality sector has shrivelled, with the loss of more than 100,000 jobs. It is a cold hand on the heart of the west country and our hospitality industry. When I speak to organisations such as Splashdown, a water park in Paignton, they say that they have money to invest, but fear a further economic shock. Sadly, Wild Planet Trust, which managed Paignton zoo for many years, had to pass the zoo over to a Dutch company, because the national insurance hike had a massive impact on its ability to make the figures work. Other businesses across Torbay, whether it is the Livermead House hotel or the outstanding Rock Garden pub and restaurant, tell me that they face real challenges and have had to shrink the number of youngsters they take on just to meet their budgets, partly due to inflation, but also because of the national insurance hikes, so we face some real challenges there.

I say to the Government that we need to think about driving positive changes, because at the moment, it appears that they are papering over the cracks, rather than getting to the root causes of problems in our economy and helping to grow the opportunities for young people across the United Kingdom. I was pleased that the Secretary of State talked about Access to Work, and the Disability Minister often refers to Access to Work as the best kept secret, but the reality is that the system is broken. We are looking at 37 weeks for decisions on Access to Work applications, and people are losing job offers. The No Limits café in Newton Abbot, which served my constituents from Torbay, closed after a lack of liquidity in its finances because of delays in payments. We need to ensure that there are no behind-the-scene cuts to Access to Work through the Government failing to make inflationary increases to what people can claim, as was highlighted by the Disability News Service only last week.

The Liberal Democrats fought the last general election on a pledge to clean up our waters, be they seas or rivers; the cost of living crisis; and the NHS. In Torbay and across the whole of Devon, we are looking at hundreds of redundancies in that service. The argument we regularly hear from the Government is that they have put up national insurance rates in order to invest, but we have had hundreds of millions of pounds of cuts to our services in Devon. That means fewer job opportunities for our people in Devon, which is hitting some of our most deprived communities.

In conclusion, we need to back our communities. We Liberal Democrats believe that nobody should be enslaved by poverty, ignorance and conformity, and we need to set the foundations for supporting communities. However, the communities we really need to work with much more closely are our friends on the other side of the channel; we need to build stronger working relationships with our European partners to grow our economy.

May 16, 2026
Valerie Vaz – 2026 Speech on Getting Britain Working Again

The speech made by Valerie Vaz, the Labour MP for Walsall and Bloxwich, in the House of Commons on 14 May 2026.

It is a pleasure to follow the shadow Secretary of State, the hon. Member for Faversham and Mid Kent (Helen Whately). I will try to address some of the points she made, but I am bound to mention the recent elections. Engaging in the democratic process is important, but not all areas had elections. The turnout across the wards in Walsall and Bloxwich was an average of 38%. I want to put on record my thanks to all the councillors who served their community in Walsall and Bloxwich.

The leader of Reform, the hon. Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage), thought that Walsall council was Labour-controlled, but it was not; it was controlled by the Conservatives—I know it might be slightly difficult to see constituencies from a helicopter. Some of his candidates said that they had to pay to personalise their leaflets. The £5 million gift is quite interesting as he says it is for his personal safety. I know that Mr Speaker and all the Deputy Speakers take the safety of each and every one of us in this Chamber very seriously.

The Representation of the People Bill is a carry-over Bill, so there is still time to ensure that we have compulsory voting and that we prevent cryptocurrency and bitcoin being used for donations to political parties—say, from Thailand—particularly from donors who go under two different names.

I welcome the announcement in the Gracious Speech on improving our cyber-security defences. I do not know whether Members saw this, but there was an investigation by a consortium of journalists from The Guardian, Der Spiegel, Le Monde, The Insider, Delfi and VSquare about a Russian school called “Department 4” that provides special training on hacking and password attacks. A hacker unit known by western Governments as Sandworm is accused of unleashing destructive cyber-attacks targeting, for example, Ukraine’s power grid, the French presidential election in 2017 and the investigation of the Salisbury poisonings. That article was published on 7 May, and it is worth reading. We need to protect our democracy from the constant drip, drip of misinformation and disinformation on online fora.

I welcome the energy independence Bill in the Gracious Speech. We have seen how we have been at the mercy of other countries, but now we are investing in renewables, which will protect our planet, roll out energy efficiency and bring down bills.

Harriet Cross

The energy independence—or dependence, as I think we can probably call it—Bill will make us more reliant on overseas imports of oil and gas. We will use oil and gas for many years because our system needs it. The Bill bans new licences in the North sea, making us more reliant on imports. Does the right hon. Lady really welcome that?

Valerie Vaz

I welcome the energy independence Bill. Let us see what is in the clauses when it is published, but the Secretary of State wants to make this country independent of outside forces. This is the first time a Government have invested so heavily in renewables. All this will get Britain working.

It is outrageous that oil companies have made massive profits and traders have bet on the outcome of war in Iran as petrol prices go up. Someone somewhere is making money, and it is not my constituents. They may not even know who is making the money, yet they blame us.

Jim Shannon

I commend the right hon. Lady for her contribution. It is really important that we look upon renewables as an option, whether we like it or not—that is the way I see it. The Government are pushing their renewables policy for England and Wales, but does she believe that we should be doing this collectively? I think that Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England should be working together on a policy that can take us forward and meet the targets, which are very important not just for us but for our children and our grandchildren.

Valerie Vaz

We are the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, so it is very important that we all work together. When it comes to climate change policies, we cannot specify a particular area; they are for our whole country, and our whole planet.

Those of us who were around at the time of Brexit—and I am pleased to see an EU Bill in the King’s Speech—will remember that we were allowed to see the impact assessments only if we left our phones behind and went across the road with just a pencil and paper. There we saw the impact assessments for each sector, and how leaving the EU affected every single one; we knew how important it was. The Federation of Small Businesses has warned that post-Brexit red tape and costs are driving smaller companies out of European markets. In a survey of 645 businesses, 30% indicated that they might reduce or cease trading in the EU without eased regulations. Many small businesses—64%—reported issues with customs documentation, 21% reported issues with physical inspections and 17% reported issues with product marking. To get Britain working, we need a closer relationship with our nearest market. If these small businesses close, working people and all of us lose out.

I believe in the dignity of work. The hon. Member for Faversham and Mid Kent mentioned that there is no welfare Bill in the Gracious Speech, but measures have already been taken to increase the national minimum wage, rights at work and safety at work. We will get Britain working with the new work coaches and the right to try.

I do not know whether Members have seen the television programme “The Pitt”, but in season two, a construction worker has to be taken to A&E and cannot afford his medical care, which is about $20,000. Watching that, we all know how lucky and blessed we are that we have our NHS, free at the point of need. We give people dignity when they fall ill. We take it for granted that our doctors and nurses are trained to the highest level. The NHS modernisation Bill will bring back the Department of Health and Social Care as one Department with accountability to the Secretary of State. There will not be the extra cost of NHS England; instead, there will be more money for the frontline.

I have found some money down the back of the sofa, so I hope the Chancellor is listening. Fifty million pounds has been allocated for a free school in my constituency that, on the evidence, is not needed. The National Audit Office has reported falling rolls in primary schools, and that fall in numbers will feed into secondary schools. I was told that the decision about the school was made in 2017. There was a Walsall priority education investment area programme, and the Windsor Academy Trust just so happened to have a member on the programme’s board. Surprise, surprise—it got the contract for the free school. It is like insider trading with public money. A review was undertaken, but Ministers are pressing ahead with the decision. I am not sure why, when schools like Joseph Leckie, Blue Coat academy and All Saints academy require support for their buildings, as do many other schools. Despite what the evidence shows, there will be building on Reedswood Park, which is not what local people want. It is the same with the Walsall Leather Museum, a beloved local cultural and heritage icon; the deal with the then Conservative-controlled council was a novel and contentious transaction, made against the wishes of visitors, constituents and Government policy on promoting arts and culture. The museum must be retained in its current position.

I believe in the dignity of education, which is why I welcome the Bill to raise education standards for all. We already have Best Start hubs in train—we know what a difference Sure Start made—and breakfast clubs. Anyone who has visited breakfast clubs knows that there is a glorious cacophony of excited children who have had a good meal. There are also quiet places, and I am pleased that some are taking part in the year of reading. Children are set up for the day. We cannot measure the results of a good education tomorrow; we have to see the benefits over a lifetime. I believe in the dignity of opportunity, and that is what this Government are giving people. We give people the tools to find and exploit their talents. Many do not know what their talents are when they start off in life, and they want to discover them over the years. That is how we get Britain working.

We live in a society where, if we see something we want, we can buy it, and it is with us the next day, but Governments do not operate in that way. I want to end with a story about three workers constructing a road. When they were asked what they were doing, the first one said he was breaking stones; the second one said that he was constructing a road; and the third one said that he was constructing a road that would take children to their school, or the sick to hospital. We have to show people the significance of the actions that the Government are undertaking, so that they are like the third worker. Equality, opportunity, skills, justice and tolerance take time, patience and perseverance. We need to explain to people that our Government are standing up against vested interests and for all our citizens, and that is why I support the measures in our sovereign’s Gracious Speech.

May 16, 2026
Helen Whately – 2026 Speech on Getting Britain Working Again

The speech made by Helen Whately, the Conservative MP for Faversham and Mid Kent, in the House of Commons on 14 May 2026.

I respect the Secretary of State. He has talked at some length about what is wrong with the welfare system, but the fact is that there is no welfare Bill in the King’s Speech. I reckon he is stuck between a rock and a hard place: he knows the benefits bill is out of control; he knows that the public are sick of seeing their taxes go on ever higher welfare handouts; he even knows how the savings could be made because I have told him [Laughter.] They are laughing, but they are the problem. The Secretary of State also knows that the Toggle showing location ofColumn 176MPs behind him will have none of it. With the Prime Minister clinging on by a thread, no wonder there was no welfare Bill in the King’s Speech.

Here is the problem: failure to grip welfare puts the Government dangerously out of touch with people out there—the people he, I and all of us are here to serve. Let me read from an email that I received recently from a constituent; I will call her Sandra. She says:

“I am writing to you with utter frustration. We work so hard and for what? What is the point of working please tell me. To watch everyone else do nothing and get paid more than you! I’ve done the benefit calculation online and I’d be better off quitting my job…I’d be better off getting universal credit…how is that normal or fair?”

My constituent is far from alone. I have heard that feeling expressed time and again since I have been shadow Secretary of State—on the doorsteps, in the pub, in the supermarket, on the train and all over social media. Beyond Westminster, people are despairing. Family breadwinners are losing their jobs, homes are being sold to pay the bills and young people are losing hope. Millions have drifted out of work, and for many, claiming benefits simply makes more sense.

For those who are working, each month they are seeing their earnings disappearing in higher taxes and higher bills, with nothing left over. No wonder they are fed up. People who are doing the right thing are paying for people who have opted out. And what is Labour doing about it? Absolutely nothing. The Government are making a big mistake because the bald fact is that alarm- clock Britain is sick of paying out for “Benefits Street”.

Peter Swallow (Bracknell) (Lab)

The hon. Lady makes a powerful case, but her party was the future once, so why were all the challenges that she identifies not fixed when the Conservatives were in government? They were the ones who set up and built this welfare system.

Helen Whately

I hate to tell the hon. Gentleman, but Labour is in charge now. It has had nearly two years and nothing is changing.

You do not have to take my word for it, Madam Deputy Speaker; here are the numbers. Over 8 million people are claiming universal credit, almost 4 million people are claiming sickness benefits and over 600,000 households are getting over £32,000 a year in benefits. That is more than the take-home pay of the average British worker. Ninety-one thousand households are getting over £50,000, which is enough to put them in the top 10% of our nation’s earners, and 16,000 are getting over £60,000 in benefits every single year. A person who works would have to earn over £70,000 to have that. All that is costing the country £140 billion a year. People know when they are being taken for a ride.

Yesterday, the Prime Minister had a chance—one last chance—to hit reset, reverse those trends, get people off benefits and bring down the welfare bill. But with his back against the wall, it is no surprise that the Prime Minister’s King’s Speech contained none of that. While hundreds of thousands of people struggle to find work, the Prime Minister is only interested in protecting one job: his own. Yes, the Secretary of State can claim that he is doing something—his work experience programmes, his youth schemes, the savings-free Timms review and all that—but we all know that that is just tinkering at the edges.

The Government tried welfare reform last summer and failed. Now, they have given up altogether. They had no plan when they got into office and they still have no plan now, and that matters. For every day of inaction, hard-working taxpayers pay the price. Doing nothing costs money. The welfare bill will reach £170 billion by the end of the decade and that money could be so much better spent on things such as defence or making our streets safer or—think of this—it could be left in people’s pockets for them to spend.

Sam Rushworth (Bishop Auckland) (Lab) rose—

Helen Whately

The hon. Gentleman wants me to give way. Does he have a welfare savings plan? If so, let us hear it.

Sam Rushworth

I certainly do. It is this Labour Government and it is getting people off NHS waiting lists and back into work. However, it is not for me to answer the questions; my intervention was simply to give the hon. Lady another opportunity to answer the question that was put to her by my hon. Friend the Member for Bracknell (Peter Swallow) and which she did not really answer. This broken system that she described as “Benefits Street” is a system that the Conservatives created. Why, in 14 years, did they do nothing about it? It is easy to create political anger, rather than to have dealt with it, and that is why this Government are now dealing with the Conservatives’ mess?

Helen Whately

Oh dear; what a shame. There were no ideas for savings there at all. If the hon. Gentleman thinks that will get him a job under the next Labour leader, I am afraid that he will have to keep trying.

Labour claims to be the party of working people, but the facts do not back that up. Labour always leaves office with unemployment higher than when it arrives, and it is on track to do that again. There are now over 300,000 more people unemployed than when this Government came to power. Their policies—the jobs tax, the Employment Rights Act—have actively killed jobs. Now, as mentioned in yesterday’s King’s Speech, we have the regulating for growth Bill. You couldn’t make it up.

Employers are being asked to swim against the tide with bricks in their pockets, and now the Government are planning to make it worse. Many businesses have stopped hiring; others are letting people go. Businesses tell me that they are getting hundreds of applications for jobs that they might have struggled to fill a couple of years ago. No wonder that there are 700,000 graduates on out-of-work benefits. Youth unemployment is at over 14%. This is a disaster.

Young people want to get their lives going, earn money, pay their own way, save for a car; instead, hundreds of thousands are stuck. The Secretary of State knows that. That is why he has frantically announced a flurry of schemes at the cost of £2.5 billion. Obviously, a work placement is better than nothing, but the young people I speak to want jobs, not Government-funded work experience.

Less than two years ago, the country voted us out and Labour Members in. They have laughed and jeered at us, but they are not laughing now because they have found out that governing is hard. They promised voters change, but the only change that most people have seen is that they are poorer. Who knows what they got up to in opposition? Clearly, it was not working out what they would do if they won the election. The Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury is chuntering. I know that yesterday he called the Leader of the Opposition “rude” when, actually, she was just telling the truth. He does not like to hear the truth. Maybe he should do a little less talking from the Front Bench and a little more listening.

Being in power is not an end in itself; what matters is what someone does with the power that voters trust them with. I am sure that many of those on the Government Benches care about our country, but caring is not enough. The question is: what are they going to do to fix it? If the King’s Speech that we are debating today tells us anything, it is that they do not know. The only things they can think of will make the situation worse; and on welfare, they have given up.

I believe in learning lessons whenever one can. One lesson that Labour Members should learn is to make good use of time in opposition; work hard, think hard and make a plan. That is what we have been doing, and that is why we have been able to set out an alternative King’s Speech, which has more in it than the actual King’s Speech. Take our plans for welfare—and to be clear, these are just our plans so far. We have a plan to reform welfare and make £23 billion in savings. We will bring back the two-child benefit cap, stop handouts to foreign nationals, stop sickness benefits for anxiety and ADHD, bring back face-to-face assessments, ban “sickfluencers”, reform fit notes and restore the household benefit cap to its original purpose of ensuring work always pays better than benefits. No more gaming the system, no more free cars for tennis elbow or acne—Britain will no longer be a cash machine for the world.

People have had enough. They can see our welfare system is not working. It is not even working for people who are seriously ill or disabled. We are not keeping our plan secret; it is all out there. Other parties are adopting our policies. Reform, for instance, has not been shy about doing so, although it has been confused, and its Members are not here today. The Secretary of State should feel free to do so too, and though the MPs behind him will hate it, we are here to help.

This is the most surreal King’s Speech debate I have ever taken part in. People out there are angry, frustrated and fed up. They can see the country is not working. They want the Government to fix it, but Labour are too busy working out who should be in charge. The saddest thing is that it will not make a difference. They can change their team captain, but they are still the same team. I have heard them cheer on taxes for farmers, family businesses and schools. I have heard them cheer for lifting the two-child cap. I have heard them argue against welfare savings. They think you fix poverty by giving out free breakfasts, paid for by people who are struggling to pay the bills themselves. Labour’s answer is always the same: tax more and spend more of other people’s money, and it is the wrong answer.

Sometimes in life you have to pick a side. We have picked one: we are on the side of people who get up each day and go to work. They are doing the right thing, and we back them. Sometimes things go wrong and people need help. That is why welfare should be a safety net, not a lifestyle choice. Labour have made their choice: it is to carry on as if nothing is wrong. Yesterday’s King’s Speech was a chance to fix things, and they blew it.

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