Contributions
1,912 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDEngagementsHow awful for the Chancellor that the Prime Minister could not confirm that she would stay in place. He talks about his year in office. This week marks the first anniversary of…02 Jul 2025HANSARDEngagementsFirst of all, can I take this opportunity to congratulate the hon. Member for Rochdale (Paul Waugh) on being the toady of the week, helping the Prime Minister? [ Interruption. ]02 Jul 2025HANSARDEngagementsThe Prime Minister has got some brass neck. Has he read the papers this morning? That Bill will achieve nothing. It is a pointless waste of time, and it is absolute proof that he…02 Jul 2025HANSARDEngagementsThe Prime Minister talks about jobs. Unemployment has risen every month since Labour took office. Has he spoken to Nissan, by the way, and looked at what is happening there? This…02 Jul 2025HANSARDEngagementsI will start again, Mr Speaker. [ Interruption. ] Yes, and louder for those at the back: sickness benefits are set to rise to £100 billion because of the Government’s mess. They…02 Jul 2025HANSARDEngagementsI will tell the Prime Minister what we did on welfare. [ Interruption. ] Why are Labour Members laughing? They do not know. My party delivered the biggest reform of welfare in…02 Jul 2025HANSARDEngagementsI do not think the Prime Minister actually watched what happened in the House yesterday—his Bill was completely gutted. There was a U-turn in the middle of the debate, removing…02 Jul 2025HANSARDUniversal Credit and Personal Independence Payment BillWe would cut unemployment. As I was saying, health and disability benefits are forecast to rise to £100 billion, meaning that one in every four pounds raised in income tax will…01 Jul 2025HANSARDUniversal Credit and Personal Independence Payment BillMy right hon. Friend is quite right: this is a fiasco, and it is the Chancellor’s fault. She marches Labour Members up and down the hill all the time, and they are the ones who…01 Jul 2025HANSARDUniversal Credit and Personal Independence Payment BillThe Father of the House is absolutely right. This is something we should all be able to agree on, but the Government are too busy trying to shift the blame instead of solving the…01 Jul 2025HANSARDUniversal Credit and Personal Independence Payment BillI will give way to the hon. Member for Birmingham Northfield (Laurence Turner) first.01 Jul 2025HANSARDUniversal Credit and Personal Independence Payment BillI will remind the right hon. Lady of our inheritance. We took difficult— [ Interruption. ] I will. I have said it before, and I will say it again: we had 8% unemployment, and we…01 Jul 2025HANSARDUniversal Credit and Personal Independence Payment BillMy right hon. Friend makes an excellent point. I have nothing further to add—he said it as well as it could possibly be said. The whole House agrees that the system needs to…01 Jul 2025HANSARDUniversal Credit and Personal Independence Payment BillI will in a moment. We all know why this is happening: this is a rushed attempt to plug the Chancellor’s fiscal hole. It is driven not by principle, but by panic. The changes were…01 Jul 2025HANSARDUniversal Credit and Personal Independence Payment BillThe hon. Gentleman is simply wrong. He needs to get an education and look at the facts.01 Jul 2025HANSARDUniversal Credit and Personal Independence Payment BillI will make some progress. Despite the obvious flaws in the Bill, we offered to support benefit changes in the national interest. The hon. Member for Gateshead Central and…01 Jul 2025HANSARDUniversal Credit and Personal Independence Payment BillI definitely will not agree with the hon. Gentleman. He is talking about relative poverty figures. The fact is that the best way to get people out of poverty is to get them into…01 Jul 2025HANSARDUniversal Credit and Personal Independence Payment BillI am not surprised that the hon. Gentleman is baffled, because he is clearly not listening to what I am saying. We had three conditions. We have been very, very clear that we want…01 Jul 2025HANSARDUniversal Credit and Personal Independence Payment BillWe are staring down the barrel of a crisis that no serious Government can ignore. The welfare system no longer works as it should, and what was once a safety net has become a…01 Jul 2025HANSARDUniversal Credit and Personal Independence Payment BillThe fact that the Government have refused to commit to not raising taxes means it is probably inevitable that they will. However, it is quite clear that Labour MPs will feel…01 Jul 2025