May 2026

The current account went into a slight surplus just around 2015-16. [Interruption.] It did, actually. That was on the back of our inheriting a £160 billion deficit in 2010, which was over 10% of GDP—another example of the disasters of a Labour Government. The Secretary of State rightly spoke of artificial intelligence and the opportunities that it presents, but what we know of artificial intelligence is that it will have a profound and very uncertain effect on the labour market. We need a flexib

I will in a moment.

I am always ready to give way, Mr Speaker, and to take your direction.

That is a rather unfortunate example of doubling down or continuing to dig, if I may say so. Also, the hon. Lady’s comments pale in comparison with Andy Burnham’s comments in the New Statesman, where he said: “We’ve got to go beyond this thing of being in hock to the bond markets”. He also suggested that defence spending should lie outside the fiscal rules, as if spending and borrowing to defend our country were a different form of borrowing from any other borrowing that this Government might en

I do indeed. I have been up to Aberdeen, met my hon. Friend and heard at first hand about the economic effect this is having. It is utter madness. If we have an opportunity in government, we will put that right. I have already mentioned benefits. There was nothing of any substance about welfare in this King’s Speech. There was nothing about the defence investment plan. Where is it? It was promised back in September. Then we have the regulating for growth Bill—an oxymoron if ever there was one. “

Briefly.

I am afraid that what I see coming is what is already baked in: business rates going through the roof. In some cases, small businesses on our high streets are facing 140% increases in the amount they have to pay in business rates. Conservative Members believe in enterprise, opportunity, aspiration and markets. We believe in risk takers, in people who work hard, and in people who get up early in the morning and do the right thing—go out and create wealth, create jobs and grow our economy. Because

I have chosen to speak in this debate on backing British business because when it comes to resilience and innovation, my constituency punches above its weight. Like many in the post-industrial heartlands, my constituency has changed over the years, with the loss of industry. The coal pits, Motorola, Plessey and British Leyland are all long gone, leaving deep scars of inequality in our communities. Yet in Bathgate and Linlithgow we have a skilled workforce strategically located at the heart of Sc

We have just heard mention of the very ambitious Government plan for investment in national infrastructure. Does my hon. Friend agree that we must consider the safety of workers in our procurement contracts and include inclusive personal protective equipment in any specification for public sector procurement going forward?

A King’s Speech allows a Government to provide a reset—a signal to the general populace that they want to do something different and are going to build on the last Session. The Prime Minister said that the purpose of the Bills contained in this King’s Speech was to strengthen our economic security. In opening the debate, the Secretary of State said that it was about building national resilience. I have listened for nearly four hours to Members on the Government Benches tell this Chamber and the

I agree with the hon. Member. The right hon. Member for Belfast East (Gavin Robinson) mentioned earlier that every Northern Ireland politician who is worth their salt was at the Balmoral show last week, along with members of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee and the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee. The continual message was that agriculture in Northern Ireland is being strangled by some of the regulations coming from the European Union, preventing us from bringing forward a tr

Will the hon. Member give way?

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for calling me so early on the third day of five that we are investing in scrutinising the Government’s programme, at a time when the party of government is abandoning its unique selling point of bringing political stability to our economy after a time of so much churn, with so many Prime Ministers in such a short space of years.

Irrespective of who was responsible, the question is: what is happening now? The reality is that we are facing a danger, notwithstanding the investment of time we are putting into scrutinising the Government’s programme, that it will not remain the Government’s programme for very much longer, such are the very different priorities of those who are lining up to take the Prime Minister’s job. When the Prime Minister warned his party last week that unleashing a leadership election would bring about

Quite right: interest rate reductions. They have done all these wonderful things, but at the same time they languish because we are not a member of the European Union. We have heard that criticism several times already today: we would be doing so much better if we were a member of the European Union. The reality is, however, that the European Union is not doing as well as Ministers are trumpeting that we are doing.

No. The hon. Lady has had her turn.

No, I will not. The reality is that Ministers are trying to have their cake and eat it by saying that the British economy would be performing so much better if it were a member of the European Union while at the same time trumpeting its performance.

I am with the hon. Gentleman—I believe the reality is that the British economy is performing in a lacklustre way. But I put it to you, Madam Deputy Speaker, that the cause of that lacklustre performance is the huge imposition of regulation in the previous King’s Speech, and the delivery of new employment taxes on every enterprise in the land as part of that deal. The best King’s Speech that we could have had would have been a very, very short one, containing only a statute of repeal of all the i

I stood in this Chamber in September last year and spoke of my pride to represent 52 pubs and three breweries. I warned the Government then that, despite their protestations that they were supporting businesses, their hikes in employer national insurance contributions and business rates were hitting hospitality hard. Since then, Winchcombe’s Corner Cupboard inn has closed, and the Inferno Brewery has vacated Bredon Road in Tewkesbury. If the Government do not row back their business taxation, I

Parliamentary appearance by Lillian Jones