Commons
Debate
30 June 2026
2 contributions
Department for Work and Pensions
I thank the Chair of the Work and Pensions Committee, the hon. Member for Oldham East and Saddleworth (Debbie Abrahams), for securing this debate. I offer my congratulations to my hon. Friend the Member for Aberdeen South (Douglas Lumsden) on a great Conservative gain and to the hon. Member for Arbr…
I am not going to give way, because I have very limited time—my apologies.
When it comes to fraud and error in the DWP specifically, the Department’s own statistics estimate that around £9.9 billion is overpaid in benefits each year. Two thirds of those overpayments are for universal credit claims,…
Commons
Oral Questions
Work and Pensions
29 June 2026
Supporting British Pensioners
The Pensions Minister likes to spend a lot of time criticising the previous Government for their actions on pensioners. He also spends an awful lot of time talking up his legacy on helping pensioners, but his actions simply do not reflect the narrative. So far, he has capped salary sacrifice, there …
Commons
Oral Questions
Treasury
23 June 2026
Venture Capital Trust Income Tax Relief
May I start by congratulating the former Economic Secretary, the right hon. and learned Member for Northampton North (Lucy Rigby), on her promotion to Chief Secretary? In the eight months that I shadowed her in her previous role, she made a strong impact and gained significant, well-deserved respect…
Commons
Statutory Instrument
16 June 2026
Draft Pensions (Abolition of Lifetime Allowance Charge etc) Regulations 2026
I was going to bang on with a very long and intelligent speech, but in the interests of brevity and keeping everybody happy, I will not. I am delighted that the Minister is introducing legislation relating to the glorious regime of the strong and stable Conservative Government of 2020 and the 2023 B…
Commons
Westminster Hall
15 June 2026
4 contributions
State Pensioners: Personal Allowance
Thank you, Dr Huq, for your stewardship of this important debate. I also thank my hon. Friend the Member for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk (John Lamont) for introducing the debate. Most importantly, I thank the 119,000 people who signed this petition, 247 of whom are from my constituency of Wyr…
I am sure that the Minister will chunter intelligently at some point.
In our 2024 manifesto, the Conservative party proposed the triple lock plus to stop this problem happening. It would have exempted the state pension from income tax, as the threshold would have risen at the same rate as the tripl…
+2 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
28 April 2026
Pension Schemes Bill
The hon. Gentleman makes an incredibly important point about crossing the Rubicon, given that the Government are taking mandation powers to interfere in people’s savings and assets. We are talking about pension funds here, but once that Rubicon is crossed, there is no reason why the Government would…
Commons
Oral Questions
28 April 2026
Global Trade: Support for Businesses
The Economic Secretary to the Treasury will know that our financial services industry is a shining example of our international economic might. However, overinterpretation of rules and regulations has led to banks being nervous of taking risks, and that has slowed growth in the City and holds up int…
Commons
Debate
27 April 2026
Pension Schemes Bill
With the greatest respect, the Minister is talking nonsense. At the end of the day, every trustee has a fiduciary duty to get the best return for their members. By putting in these mandation powers, the Government are fundamentally going against the most basic principle of the City of London, which …
Commons
Oral Questions
27 April 2026
State Pension Age Changes: Compensation
When his party was in opposition, the Prime Minister promised compensation for WASPI women, but when faced with the economic reality of the costs, he and the Secretary of State chose common sense over ideology. In the spirit of that pragmatism, may I ask the Pensions Minister also to take a sensible…
Commons
Debate
22 April 2026
2 contributions
Pension Schemes Bill
The right hon. Member raises many really important points, much of which we agree with. That is why, I think on Report, the Opposition tabled an amendment to try to understand what the problem was. It specifically asked, “Why are these pension funds not investing in the UK? Is it legislative, is it …
Both sides of this House are going with the grain of what is intended on this. There is a fundamental problem—we all agree on that—but let us get the issues out of the way that are blocking it. We cannot force people into a minefield if the mines are still there; we have to clear the mines and allow…
Commons
Westminster Hall
22 April 2026
Car Insurance Industry: Fraud
It is a great pleasure to serve under you this afternoon, Ms Lewell, and I thank the hon. Member for North Shropshire (Helen Morgan) for securing this important debate. We have heard quite a lot of depressing stories about how people have been scammed and ripped off, and all colleagues will agree th…
Commons
Debate
15 April 2026
3 contributions
Pension Schemes Bill
What about Rosebank and Jackdaw?
indicated dissent.
+1 more contribution in this session
Commons
Westminster Hall
14 April 2026
Hidden Credit Liabilities: Role of the FCA
Thank you, Sir Roger, for chairing the debate. I congratulate the right hon. Member for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell) on bringing this incredibly important subject up for discussion. At the heart of the debate are individual people—people who have lost their businesses, their livelihoods and…
Commons
Debate
26 March 2026
National Savings & Investments
I thank the Minister for early sight of his statement. This scandal affects tens of thousands of people, and it could end up costing taxpayers many millions of pounds. NS&I is supposed to be as safe a place as anywhere for people to put their savings—a place where savers can trust that their mon…
Commons
Debate
23 March 2026
National Insurance Contributions (Employer Pensions Contributions) Bill
I would also like to start by thanking the Lords for their very hard work. I do not think the Government won a single vote during the Bill’s passage in the other place.
Over the past few months, we have seen how enthusiastic the Government are to raid savings. In particular, they are very keen to r…
Commons
Debate
16 March 2026
Heating Oil Support
I thank the Minister for his statement. One characteristic of volatile energy markets is that when wholesale prices rise, consumer prices tend to rise like a rocket, and when the wholesale price stabilises the consumer price tends to fall like a feather. Can the Minister assure me and my constituent…
Commons
Oral Questions
Treasury
10 March 2026
State Pension Increase
Thanks to this Government’s policies on pensions, which actively disincentivise saving into private pension schemes, people will increasingly rely on the support of the state. This is not sustainable. I asked the Minister about this yesterday, and he dodged the question, so I will ask him again: wil…
Commons
Oral Questions
Work and Pensions
9 March 2026
State Pension
Helping millions of people ensure financial security in their retirement is a cornerstone of the Minister’s Department, but in the Government’s first 18 months, they have disincentivised pension savings by introducing inheritance tax on pensions, removing pensions from their lifetime ISA reforms, fo…
Commons
Westminster Hall
23 February 2026
Firearms Licensing
I should alert Members that I am the chairman of the British Shooting Sports Council. On that point about mental health issues, does the hon. Gentleman agree that medical markers on doctors’ records would be a perfect solution to that problem, rather than necessarily doing what is proposed in the pe…
Commons
Debate
11 February 2026
5 contributions
Local Government Finance
rose—
I was going to say thank you for the Pride in Place money, actually; I am very grateful that the Government have given £20 million to my constituency.
On the subject of funding for councils, the Government are requiring district councils to pay for food waste recycling. That is not an unreasonable …
+3 more contributions in this session
Commons
Debate
10 February 2026
2 contributions
Social Security
It is a great pleasure to debate these two statutory instruments with the Exchequer Secretary. As he stated, they are made each year, and the precedent is for them to be debated on the Floor of the House. I am glad to see that that practice continues, and I hope that the Government will keep this go…
The Minister is nodding, and I am sure he agrees with us on this point. Therefore, we welcome the fact that the Government have committed to extending this relief for the next two years.
However, I point out that the Government said in the Budget document:
“The government will extend the employer …
Commons
Westminster Hall
4 February 2026
Postal Services: Rural Areas
I am grateful to my constituency next door neighbour for allowing me to intervene. Some of the post that goes to the southern part of his constituency may well be sorted through the Kidderminster postal sorting office. He mentioned that people are not getting their letters, and we have heard from ot…
Commons
Committee Stage
3 February 2026
21 contributions
Finance (No. 2) Bill (Sixth sitting)
Clauses 156 to 162 will place a statutory ban on promoting tax avoidance arrangements that have no realistic prospect of success. The clauses also set out the civil and criminal penalties.
The Opposition absolutely support the Government’s efforts to tackle tax avoidance and tax evasion, both of wh…
I wholeheartedly agree. The more we discuss it in public, the more the general public will realise that avoiding tax is a very bad thing. Anything that highlights that point is to be welcomed, so I strongly urge the Government to do the right thing so that we can make this prohibition work and prote…
+19 more contributions in this session