Dame Harriett Baldwin
MP for West Worcestershire · Conservative · United Kingdom
“I welcome the Chancellor to his new role. I paid close attention yesterday to the long speech he made to reset the narrative and drive growth Britain. In paying tribute to his predecessor, will he recognise that she left the highest tax burden on record? Instead of postponing the words he could utter to my hon.”
“I welcome the new Prime Minister to the Dispatch Box. I note that in his statement he referred to the biggest issues facing the country as being “the economy and the cost of living crisis”. Will he accept that one of the things that has damaged our economy and caused prices to be higher is the tax-and-spend Budget in November 2024?”
“Could the Leader of the House make a commitment that the new Chancellor of the Exchequer will come to the House on the first day we are back from recess?”
“With a stroke of his Whitehall pen, the Secretary of State has just abolished Malvern Hills district council, Worcester city council, wonderful Wychavon district council and Worcestershire county council. He said in his statement that this is about making “real improvements to people’s lives and…communities”.”
“In recent weeks in West Worcestershire, I have met local police and the police and crime commissioner; the police and crime commissioner is being abolished, and the police are being reorganised. I have met the local health commissioners; they are being reorganised, and Healthwatch is being abolished.”
“Will the Leader of the House confirm that, given that the other place is sitting next week, there is nothing to stop him tabling a business statement to enable this House to sit next week? Given the enormity of the events happening in the Government next week, does he not think that would be a good idea?”
The complete record
Every one of 3,832 lines we hold for Dame Harriett Baldwin, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 12 of 77.
“We may occasionally differ on the means and the approach, but I think we would not differ in terms of the end and how important it is for our country and economy to have more people doing apprenticeships, because they offer a wonderful opportunity for young people to learn valuable skills on the job and earn a salary while they learn. As a nation, we need to ensure that school leavers and employers view an apprenticeship on equal terms with going to university. I will point out some of the positive statistics from the last Government’s track record. Nearly 70% of occupations could be entered via an apprenticeship by the time the last Government left office.”
“It is a great honour to serve under your chairmanship this afternoon, Mr Betts. I congratulate the hon. Member for Portsmouth North (Amanda Martin) on securing this important debate. I must start by declaring an interest: I am married to someone who did a BT apprenticeship back in the day, and he always talks about how incredibly valuable that was as a way to learn after leaving school. So I did slightly bridle at the rather attacking political tone that I heard from the hon. Lady in her opening remarks, because if there is one thing that we have complete cross-party consensus about in this Parliament, it is about the value and importance of apprenticeship routes.”
“Whatever our views on the different flavours of local government, surely we in this House can all agree that good local services are delivered when there are excellent, hard-working local councillors who have been democratically elected. At the moment in counties up and down the land, county councillors are campaigning for re-election for four-year terms next May. The matter before us is an important decision for local people to make and it should be part of the discussions in the election campaign next year, so can the Minister take this opportunity to rule out any suggestion that he is cancelling any county council elections next year?”
“Finally, can the Minister confirm whether Royal Mail has expressed concerns over the Budget or the Employment Rights Bill?”
“For example, can my rural constituents continue to count on their letters being collected from every post box? What risks has he identified with the takeover itself? Although the Post Office and Royal Mail are separate entities, they are closely tied. Just over a month ago, the Government announced that more than 100 post office branches were at risk of closure, with hundreds of jobs lost. Can the Minister explain what assessment he has made of the risks facing the Post Office and how they will be impacted by the sale of Royal Mail? Royal Mail faces the same headwinds, often created by this Government, as other businesses. Whether it is Labour’s employment regulations or the national insurance jobs tax, businesses have warned that they may be forced to put up prices and cut jobs, because of the very actions of this Government.”
“An important part of the service offered by Royal Mail is the universal service obligation, which now requires post to be delivered six days a week and parcels to be delivered five days a week. When the Royal Mail is working well, the universal service obligation provides an outstanding service. However, Royal Mail wishes for it to be reformed. Does the Minister believe that the obligation must be maintained in its current form? Can he confirm what discussions he has held with EP Group about the obligation? Will he confirm whether there is a sunset on the obligation? He mentioned that there potentially was with a transfer of ownership. The value of Royal Mail goes far beyond the universal service obligation. Can the Minister outline whether he expects any of the other services provided by Royal Mail to be impacted?”
“The inward investment into the service announced today will be scrutinised by shareholders, but given that they are the golden shareholder, I have questions for the Government. What guarantees has the Minister received about the service provision? What commitments has he received about the level of jobs across Royal Mail? How much of Royal Mail do the employees themselves now own? In some places it has been reported that the commitment to the tax residency guarantee is for five years, but I heard the Minister say at the Dispatch Box that it was perpetual. Can he clarify that? What ongoing role will the Government have in making sure that Ofcom ensures that Royal Mail delivers the service expected by customers? The fines do not seem to be doing it.”
“The inevitable consequence is that Royal Mail has been facing serious financial challenges, and amid those challenges the service received by people across Britain has become worse, whether that is deliveries missing their deadlines, letters going missing or occasionally, in some areas, people going weeks at a time without post. The example of that failure was shown last week by the fines that Royal Mail received. The cost of this poor service cannot be overstated, whether it is for those who subscribe for services by mail, those who rely on business deliveries or those who miss appointments with their general practitioner, impacting their health and costing the Government. That poor service cannot be allowed to continue.”
“It has been in existence for more than 500 years, and it has seen a lot of change over those years, but the one consistent thing is that it is still a service on which we all depend every day. It is not the only way we communicate any more, but it is a vital one, and it will continue to be needed, including by Government. What a shame it is that one of the biggest postal deliveries done by Royal Mail this year was from the Government. It was a letter to many pensioners—often on low incomes—cancelling their winter fuel payments. The dwindling number of letters sent has eroded the base on which the success of Royal Mail was built.”
“May I start by thanking the Minister for advance sight of his statement? Before I get into my questions, can we take a moment to thank every postman and postwoman up and down this country for their hard work, particularly at this time of year? In all the challenging weather, they are out there putting letters through every letterbox in the land and collecting thousands of letters from the red pillar boxes in every corner of our country. I take the opportunity, especially in this Christmas season, to say thank you on behalf of all of us. Every colleague here will recognise the importance of Royal Mail, both as an institution and as a provider of a vital nationwide service.”
“Some of the most successful small and medium-sized businesses, which truly think long term, are owned by families, so why does the Secretary of State think that it will help his long-term growth mission for the Government to start taxing those businesses when they get passed on to the next generation?”
“One of the ingredients for a successful high street is having a post office in the mix. The Government have inherited a network of 11,500 post offices, and that number has been stable since 2010. Will the Minister commit to supporting high streets by maintaining the scale of the post office network in this Parliament?”
“Five months in and after a Budget that the Office for Budget Responsibility says will lower growth over five years, increase inflation and reduce the number of people in jobs, it is extraordinary to see a document that has so many areas not covered. I want to probe the right hon. Gentleman specifically on his goal of increasing disposable income for working people. What would he say to those 44,000 terminally ill older people who, in shocking news last week from Marie Curie, will not get their winter fuel allowance this year? Will he be judged by his governance actions?”
“What steps will the Minister take to ensure that investigations into companies, such as shell companies locating at one address, are not hampered by this legislation? In summary, will the Minister describe his ability to scrutinise the registrar’s own decision making process with regard to this statutory instrument? How much guidance can he exert in terms of the registrar’s discretion? How does he expect discussions to go with the Foreign Office given its work with some of our overseas territories to ensure greater transparency and disclosure of their registers?”
“We do, however, have some questions about this instrument, including its impact on fraud and public scrutiny of companies. We are not going to oppose the regulations, but I would appreciate it if the Minister replied to the following questions. The explanatory note says that Companies House has been “inundated” by requests to go into the undisclosed part of the register. Will the Minister assure the Committee that Companies House has sufficient resources to deal with the potential step change in workload that the regulations will create? Does the Minister foresee any issue in people not being able to check whether a company is legitimate? What potential unintended consequences might there be? Could this instrument make it more difficult for people to check, or to see at all, whether their own address is being used for fraud?”
“It is good to see the Government carrying forward our broader package of measures from the “Corporate transparency and register reform” White Paper published in February 2022. The White Paper and ensuing measures are important for supporting corporate transparency, which is vital to the UK because of its ability to attract investment, tackle fraud and build confidence. We support reforms to create a more secure system that allows certain individuals to apply to protect their usual residential address from public disclosure. We are pleased to hear that progress is being made on the pledge from the last Government of a total of £63 million to support the reform of Companies House—about £20 million in additional budget per year, which is important.”
“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Efford. It is important for the UK’s international business reputation that we should have a public companies register, and its transparency is important for dealing with economic crime. However, we accept that having personal information on the public companies register can put individuals at risk of fraud and other harms; I am sure that many hon. Members are aware of such cases. This statutory instrument widens the range of circumstances in which individuals may apply to the registrar to protect their usual residential address where it appears on the companies register by ensuring that the registrar is able to decide not to display that address publicly.”
“Can the Minister confirm that the audit will cover trade and the issue of goods in the UK supply chain that are produced in Xinjiang? Can he tell us whether the impact of the accelerated roll-out of electric vehicles and solar panels and the 2030 decarbonisation target will also be audited? Given the Government’s so far unsuccessful mission to grow the UK economy, will the Minister agree that that growth must not come at the price of restricting our condemnation of human rights abuses in China?”
“The Minister said that the new Government were committed to the measures introduced by the last Conservative Government. He also mentioned that two weeks ago the Prime Minister held a bilateral meeting with President Xi. In the read-out from No. 10, however, there was no explicit mention of human rights abuses in Xinjiang, which is disappointing. Can the Minister elaborate on exactly what was said at that bilateral meeting? Were human rights abuses against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang explicitly raised? If the Minister decides to meet his Chinese counterpart, will he commit himself to explicitly raising those human rights abuses? Indeed, will all Ministers across the Government always raise this issue in all their bilateral meetings? The Government made a manifesto commitment to carry out an audit of our relations with China.”
“I congratulate the hon. Member for Rotherham (Sarah Champion) on securing the urgent question. Let me also welcome the Minister back to Parliament, as well as to his place on the Front Bench. As the hon. Lady said, the human rights abuses taking place against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang are egregious. In government we took robust action, leading international condemnations and sanctioning individuals and an entity involved to tackle the problem at source. We also took further measures to ensure that British companies were not involved, including the introduction of export controls and financial penalties for organisations that fail to meet their obligations under the Modern Slavery Act. Those measures must be retained, and indeed reviewed, to ensure that British companies and consumers do not indirectly support the human rights abuses.”
“Will the Culture Secretary welcome the news that, thanks to levelling-up funding, Malvern theatres in the west midlands will be expanding? Planning permission was granted last week, which will give lots of young people an opportunity to get jobs in the creative industries. When the new theatre has been built, will she come to open it and meet some of those young people?”
“Q6. Last weekend, during Storm Bert, Tenbury Wells was flooded for the second time this year. It is a question of when, not if, the town will flood again. The situation is even more devastating for residents because the town has a fully developed flood defence plan that is partly funded. The Budget carried forward £2.4 billion for flood defences. Will the Prime Minister commit to using his offices to finally get this scheme built and to fix the foundations of Tenbury Wells?”
“I associate myself with the words of gratitude paid by the Secretary of State to all those who have helped over the weekend. The House will know that I have raised the situation of Tenbury Wells many times. It is devastating to hear that it was flooded again this weekend. I do not know whether the Secretary of State, in his meeting with Philip Duffy this morning, was told that there is a really well advanced design for flood defences for Tenbury Wells, which has been substantially funded thanks to previous funding allocations. I wonder if he could find it in his heart—and in his £2.4 billion over the next two years—to get that scheme over the line.”
“Bus usage after the pandemic was beginning to recover in Worcestershire, thanks to the £2 bus fare and improvements to routes. We are campaigning in Malvern for a better and more regular bus service between Worcester and Malvern, including on weekends, and for the reinstatement of the X43 service. We hoped that we would be able to do that with some of the £209 million of High Speed 2 money that was indicated for Worcestershire. Could the Secretary of State clarify what has happened to that funding, and how it links to her statement?”
“I declare an interest as a trustee of the parliamentary pension scheme. There is a lot to welcome in the Chancellor’s Mansion House speech, a lot of which was taken from the Mansion House and Edinburgh reforms of the previous Chancellor. I particularly welcome the increase in access to financial advice that the Minister has said she is taking forward. Can the Minister confirm the end of the senior managers regime in the City, which I believe was in the Chancellor’s speech, and if that is the case, how does she plan to take it forward and will it require primary legislation?”
“I associate myself with the Minister’s remarks about the flood victims in Spain. Flood victims in Tenbury Wells were concerned to see in the Budget Red Book that capital spending on flood defences is under review. Will the Minister tell the House whether the bid that she will be making to the spending review for flood defences will be higher or lower than it is currently?”
“The Chancellor and the International Monetary Fund are known to favour ending council tax and replacing it with a wider property tax. The Welsh Labour Government tried to revalue all the properties in Wales for council tax purposes. Can the Government rule out doing either of those things?”
“Acorns children’s hospice, St Richard’s hospice and GPs, care homes and pharmacies across West Worcestershire have all been in touch with concerns about the extra cost burden that the Government have imposed on them. Can the Minister explain how it fits in with her strategic plans to slap extra cost on the community sector while rebating the NHS trust sector?”
“As far as other export initiatives are concerned, can the Minister confirm that he will continue to support the “Exporting is GREAT” campaign and the GREAT campaign generally, given the incredibly good feedback that they tend to get around the world? Lastly, can he confirm that he will remain on the side of our exporters, our wealth creators and the many businesses across this country that do so much to raise the prosperity of the United Kingdom?”
“Will the Government be taking forward the work that was done at state-by-state level to increase trade access for UK exporters into US states? Turning to the specific measures in front of us today, has the Minister considered amending the Act itself so that the possibility could exist to increase resources by more than the 5,000 million special drawing rights that are currently covered by the legislation? The previous Act says that this mechanism can be used only three times, so I wonder what provisions the Minister has in mind for the next time the Government want to increase support to exporters through UKEF.”
“That compares with the EU figure of some 27%. Raising the level of exports to a target of £1 trillion would be truly tremendous for the growth of this country. It would support higher-skilled jobs and raise profitability, productivity and tax contributions, so in the view of the Opposition, the Government cannot do enough to support the growth of exports. I want to take this opportunity to ask the Minister about specific policies. Will he be continuing the previous Government’s programme of having trade envoys around the world helping with the export connections for our exporters? Are the Government planning to take forward the discussions between the previous Government and the previous Trump Administration on a free trade agreement with the US?”
“I want to start by saying “Exporting is GREAT”, and UK Export Finance, as the Minister just outlined, has done a tremendous job over many decades in supporting great British exporters, so we support these changes to the export and investment guarantees. As the Minister said, we financed £8.8 billion in export support last year, and that helped 650 UK companies to fulfil their potential by growing their overseas sales. Today, I would like to probe the Government’s attitude towards exports, and I would particularly like to hear the Minister put on record his support for free trade at this time. The UK is now in the enviable position that almost 50% of our products can now be exported tariff-free, thanks to the tireless work done under the previous Government to increase the number of markets that our exporters have access to.”
“I understand that Crawford Falconer, who had been in charge of a lot of the trade negotiations, is leaving the Department. Will the Minister tell the House what his plans are to fill that role?”
“I welcome what he said about the impact on the environment, because over time, there will be less plastic waste sitting in our drawers in our homes. However, I encourage the Minister, as he looks at the consultation responses, to consider our ability to remain independent from the EU by not blindly following this regulation across the whole UK and by consulting appropriately with all the businesses and retailers that will be affected. Despite all the years that we were a member of the European Union, we still seem to have a situation where we all have different plugs. It is very much on the consumer’s side to welcome progress towards a world where we all have the same charger, but at the same time, I know that market forces may enable that outcome. We do not propose to oppose these regulations.”
“As the Minister has set out so clearly, the instrument intends to give effect to the EU common charger directive, which applies in Northern Ireland, as is required under the Windsor framework agreement signed last year by the Conservative Government. We will therefore certainly not oppose this legislation. Accepting this regulation upholds the Windsor framework and contributes to the free-flowing trade within the UK, while protecting Northern Ireland’s place in our United Kingdom, and it safeguards the balance of the Belfast/Good Friday agreement. I note that the Minister mentioned the Government’s plans to consult on a UK-wide common charging solution for electronic devices. I am sure, from a consumer convenience point of view, that we will all welcome a world in which we can be sure to find the right charger at the right time.”
“I thank the Secretary of State for coming to the House and updating us, because it gives her an opportunity to correct the record. She may have inadvertently misled the House at the last Transport questions about the Birmingham to Hereford line and West Midlands Railways’ performance. Back in May, a terrible one in 10 of those services was being cancelled, but by October when Transport questions took place, one in six Birmingham to Hereford services was being cancelled. Will the Secretary of State commission her officials to talk to representatives from West Midlands Railways about that line, and find a way to move fast and fix that service?”
“I congratulate the hon. Lady on her unopposed election as Chair of the wonderful Treasury Committee. Does she share my concern that the individual who has been appointed to the office for value for money was previously on the board of HS2?”
“The second broken promise that the Chancellor made during the election campaign was that her plans were fully funded, and that she had no plans to raise taxes, beyond those listed in the manifesto. In fact, colleagues have counted that she and the Prime Minister made that utterance 50 times. I believe that that promise has been soundly broken today, and that a deliberate political choice has been made to announce the biggest unforced tax-raising Budget ever.”
“She has announced a multi-billion pound change to the UK’s borrowing, and she announced it overseas, not first to Parliament—I know how angry you and Mr Speaker are about that, Madam Deputy Speaker. As we all know, and as the IFS has said, borrowing is not a free lunch; it will mean that there is more debt and more debt interest spending. I have not yet had a chance to question the Office for Budget Responsibility in detail on its numbers, but from an initial look at its charts, the amount of additional borrowing that was announced today by far exceeds anything in the mini-Budget in late 2022. The Treasury Committee will ask the Office for Budget Responsibility about that.”
“It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Gower (Tonia Antoniazzi). I do not wear quite as many hats as her, but it was interesting to hear her perspective on the Budget. I have a different perspective. My issue with the Budget is not the political choices that the Chancellor has chosen to make—clearly she has the mandate to make any changes that she wishes to make—but the fact that it is a Budget of broken promises to the electorate, which is a dreadful thing to do for trust in politicians. I will also highlight the economic choices that I think the Chancellor has got wrong. The first broken promise is one that the Chancellor made during the election campaign, when she said time and again that she would not “fiddle the figures.” Today, she has clearly broken that promise.”
“The scale of the tax changes announced today for small businesses that employ more than four people is astonishing. Labour Members should let that sink in.”
“Unforced. During the election campaign, the Chancellor told the British public that taxes were too high. She said that she wanted to bring taxes down. She has roundly broken that promise today, because the Budget increases tax for every household in this country, possibly by up to £10,000 over this Parliament. That is way beyond the £2,000 figure that we warned about during the election campaign—a warning that the Prime Minister said on national television was a lie. The Chancellor campaigned on a general election strategy that I believe was deliberately designed to mislead the electorate. Her plans, and those of the Deputy Prime Minister, end up giving us German taxes with French labour laws—a recipe for higher unemployment if ever I have seen one.”
“She cannot blame us, because in her first 25 days as Chancellor she announced £25 billion of additional new spending, whether that was for Great British Energy, a national wealth fund, or inflation-busting backdated union pay rises with no productivity requirements. I also want to speak up for my farmers in West Worcestershire.”
“I will not give way to the hon. Gentleman, who so often gave evidence to the Treasury Committee. I recall that I had to press him on the fact that NHS productivity has not yet returned to its pre-pandemic level. He told us on the record that if it did, that would be worth £20 billion in additional NHS output. The Chancellor promised that she wanted to focus on growth. That is her mission, but I believe that more taxes, more public spending and more borrowing do not lead to growth; if they did, Venezuela would be one of the most prosperous countries on earth. What the Chancellor was planning all along, together with her Cabinet colleagues —who have no experience of working in the wealth-creating, job-creating, tax-paying private sector—is a Budget of the public sector, by the public sector, for the public sector.”
“Does the hon. Gentleman want to stand up for my farmers? My farmers are some of the most productive and hard-working people in this country. They are the ones who put food on our tables, and they are soundly disappointed with today’s Budget. There was no help or certainty for them in the Budget—no help for them through the agricultural property relief that allows them to hand on the family farm to the next generation. Labour Members should know that this Budget will mean that many family farms will be broken up, unable to be handed on to the next generation.”
“As the hon. Lady can see, I am not giving way at the moment. As you know, Madam Deputy Speaker, the only way that we get true, genuine, sustainable growth in this country is through productivity and investment by the private sector.”
“In the months since the Chancellor took office, we have seen the evidence. We have already seen businesses shutting at double the rate they were a year ago. We are already seeing a plunge in business confidence, and we have heard the former chief economist of the Bank of England say that the socialist narrative we have had since the election has generated “fear and foreboding and uncertainty”. This is a Budget of broken promises—a straightforward breach of promises to the British public—and it is a dreadful day for the British economy.”
“Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. Anyone who has ever worked in business knows that they need to increase the productivity of their business, and investment in that business is linked to its profitability, profits that will fall as a result of the measures that have been imposed on business today. When we work out the numbers, I think those measures will equate to about 4p on corporation tax. This is a Budget of broken promises that will end up giving the British people less growth. Members do not have to listen to me to hear that: they can listen to the Office for Budget Responsibility, which forecasts a short-term boost to growth but a longer-term reduction in the sustainable growth rate of the British economy thanks to the measures that the Chancellor outlined today.”
“On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. I referred to the Prime Minister’s words on national television, and I was quoting him directly, but if I have inadvertently misled the House, I apologise.”
“The living standards of a 90-year-old pensioner on a £13,500 income are falling sharply this winter as a result of the Chancellor’s decision to take away the winter fuel allowance. Tomorrow, she has the chance to increase the threshold. Will she take it?”