Contributions
1,153 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARD Plan for Change: Milestones for Mission-led GovernmentI welcome what my hon. Friend said about pay. The Chancellor announced a significant increase in the minimum wage at the time of the Budget a few weeks ago. Of course we want…05 Dec 2024HANSARD Plan for Change: Milestones for Mission-led GovernmentI welcome the hon. Member’s question. He referred to defence and security. I did deliberately mention that area in my remarks, because it is an absolute foundation of any…05 Dec 2024HANSARD Plan for Change: Milestones for Mission-led GovernmentI do think the Tories have a problem. The new Leader of the Opposition stood at that Dispatch Box a couple of weeks ago and said that she supported all the extra investments.…05 Dec 2024HANSARD Plan for Change: Milestones for Mission-led GovernmentEvery Government are judged by their actions and by the legacy that they leave to their successors. We had to take that decision on winter fuel precisely because of the legacy…05 Dec 2024HANSARD Plan for Change: Milestones for Mission-led GovernmentIf the hon. Member reads the document carefully, he will see that the growth target is very much in the document, but the document also says that it is not enough just to have…05 Dec 2024HANSARD Plan for Change: Milestones for Mission-led GovernmentMy hon. Friend is right. Let me praise PC Kevin Scott and other officers like him who are known in the community. While I am here, Madam Deputy Speaker, let me mention Kenny, our…05 Dec 2024HANSARD Plan for Change: Milestones for Mission-led GovernmentThe hon. Member calls this a relaunch. I hate to break it to him, but the Government he supports in Scotland produce a programme for government every single year. Does that mean…05 Dec 2024HANSARD Plan for Change: Milestones for Mission-led GovernmentMy hon. Friend is absolutely right: we saw huge cuts in the number of police officers after the Conservative party came to power, which really affected the neighbourhood community…05 Dec 2024HANSARD Plan for Change: Milestones for Mission-led GovernmentThe right hon. Member might have noticed that I said in my opening remarks that an old debate just about the size of the budget is not enough for the situation that we face. Of…05 Dec 2024HANSARD Plan for Change: Milestones for Mission-led GovernmentThis is a hugely important problem for the country, because the current levels are not just bad for those waiting a long time for NHS treatment; they are also bad for the economy,…05 Dec 2024HANSARD Plan for Change: Milestones for Mission-led GovernmentMy hon. Friend is right that when people do the right thing and they go out to work and try to earn a living, they should have a decent reward for what they do. That is why Labour…05 Dec 2024HANSARD Plan for Change: Milestones for Mission-led GovernmentIf the hon. Member looks at the document, she will find that an expansion of nursery places is in it, because we know it is good for children and for working parents. That is part…05 Dec 2024HANSARD Plan for Change: Milestones for Mission-led GovernmentThe legacy of the Conservative Government was not just economic or in policy, but a loss of faith in government’s ability to do things. That is part of the backdrop to the plan…05 Dec 2024HANSARD Plan for Change: Milestones for Mission-led GovernmentI welcome the right hon. Gentleman’s welcome for the plan, which stands in marked contrast to the scepticism shown by his party’s Front Benchers. He will have plenty of…05 Dec 2024HANSARD Plan for Change: Milestones for Mission-led GovernmentBuilding more houses is a challenging thing to do because there are always people who will object and blockages in our planning system, and things take too long. We have a major…05 Dec 2024HANSARD Plan for Change: Milestones for Mission-led GovernmentI thank the hon. Gentleman for his question, but there is a contradiction at the heart of it. He began by saying he welcomed the extra investment in the NHS, and ended by saying…05 Dec 2024HANSARD Plan for Change: Milestones for Mission-led GovernmentIt is striking that when the Conservatives came into power, they began by promising to reduce net migration to under 100,000, and bequeathed us a situation where that figure was…05 Dec 2024HANSARD Plan for Change: Milestones for Mission-led GovernmentI appreciate the spirit in which the hon. Member has asked his question. On farms, as the Chancellor made clear, a couple would have an allowance of £3 million before any…05 Dec 2024HANSARD Plan for Change: Milestones for Mission-led GovernmentThis question of distrust and loss of faith is really important, because after so much chaos in recent years, it is very easy for our constituents to turn off from politics—to…05 Dec 2024HANSARD Plan for Change: Milestones for Mission-led GovernmentI am sure that in every part of the country, Governments who run the NHS want to see waiting lists fall. We put that at the heart of the plan for change today because it drives…05 Dec 2024