Noah Law
MP for St Austell and Newquay · Labour · United Kingdom
“T5. Under our current system, food imported from abroad, often from countries with lower standards, can be packaged in the UK but labelled as British.”
“Q7. I am deeply grateful for what the Prime Minister has helped us deliver in Cornwall in the past couple of years, whether that is free breakfast clubs, urgent capital funding for GP surgeries or the Kernow industrial growth fund. [ Interruption.”
“I do share my hon. Friend’s concern. In a time of constrained resources, there is a bit of a knee-jerk reaction to move everything into the multilateral space to get more bang for our buck but, as we have seen, it is not as simple as that. One does have to be wary when trying to make that money go further.”
“I agree that alongside the shift to more risk capital, which will also support that goal, and more upstream project development with local partners, there needs to be a focus on the world’s very poorest, and on getting capital into markets that do not currently have the capacity to support it.”
“Friend the Member for Southgate and Wood Green (Bambos Charalambous), who is no longer in his place. It is incumbent on us to build not just a more sustainable debt system, but ultimately the financial capacity of these countries, and to take the agenda very seriously.”
“We can play a unique role in three areas: first, the global debt system; secondly, our influence on multilateral development banks and development finance more broadly; and thirdly, the mobilisation of private sector investment.”
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“T5. Under our current system, food imported from abroad, often from countries with lower standards, can be packaged in the UK but labelled as British. To stop “flagwashing”, and to back our British farmers, will the Minister back the Labour rural research group’s calls to introduce a mandatory labelling system, based on the blueprint set out by Australia’s country-of-origin labelling standard?”
“Friend the Member for Makerfield (Andy Burnham) comes in, we can ensure good growth in every postcode and the reindustrialisation of Cornwall?”
“Q7. I am deeply grateful for what the Prime Minister has helped us deliver in Cornwall in the past couple of years, whether that is free breakfast clubs, urgent capital funding for GP surgeries or the Kernow industrial growth fund. [ Interruption. ] However, what has held us back at various points—besides the chuntering from the Opposition side—completely unnecessarily, I would argue, is something to which the answer is patently obvious to all in Cornwall: the question of who should be the masters of Cornwall’s strategic destiny. Does the Deputy Prime Minister agree that the answer to this question must always be Cornwall? Will he make time for the Government to lay the statutory instrument required to make Cornwall once and for all a strategic authority, so that when my right hon.”
“Multilaterals also have a role in mobilising private capital, but some, particularly larger, multilaterals, which we have fervently supported, are currently not taking on sufficient risk, and in many cases are crowding out commercial banks and are too focused on debt. They need to be more catalytic in their work. BII sets a good reference point, and it also serves a good reference point for project development, or what the International Finance Corporation would call upstream project development.”
“I encourage the Government to engage very strongly; I would be happy to provide evidence from the City and from economists working on global sovereign debt to support the fact that, rather than being all doom and gloom, this might be an opportunity to reset the sustainability of the sector and, in doing so, build financial capacity. With that financial capacity, we could mobilise a far greater sum of investment than ever before. I know that is the ambition of the Development Minister, Baroness Chapman. If we can get the financial capacity right for these countries, it may be that the cuts to aid will pale into insignificance—to put it bluntly—compared with what investment could be mobilised if we get the macroeconomic structure right.”
“As a key player in the G20, can we take a stand on delivering a much greater ambition to ensure that best practices move from being voluntary to being a gold standard for the market? If there are concerns about the market impact, one has only to look back to the previous round of global debt reform under Gordon Brown, and the concerns raised by the City then. Let us be honest: not all investors are created equal. A big pension fund that just happens to have exposure to Ghanaian sovereign debt is not the same as a debt-distressed hedge fund. Creditors will have different views about whether a real ambition from the UK to put reforms on a statutory footing will scare the markets.”
“Friend the Member for Southgate and Wood Green (Bambos Charalambous), who is no longer in his place. It is incumbent on us to build not just a more sustainable debt system, but ultimately the financial capacity of these countries, and to take the agenda very seriously. I welcome the work of the London Coalition so far, including the steps to strengthen the common framework and the term sheet, which suggests pause clauses that might prevent some of the frankly usurious debt obligations on developing countries from building up during restructurings. I also welcome the need for transparency, which is another workstream of the London Coalition. But we must ask ourselves whether this is sufficient. Are voluntary measures and the self-regulation of the City as the leading emerging markets bond market sufficient?”
“We can play a unique role in three areas: first, the global debt system; secondly, our influence on multilateral development banks and development finance more broadly; and thirdly, the mobilisation of private sector investment. I know the Government are incredibly invested in those three themes, which align with our shift from donor to investor, but let me be clear about what will work to deliver shifts across those three agenda items, at least in my experience. On global debt, the UK is home to the vast majority of emerging markets’ sovereign debt. England is the jurisdiction under which it is governed, with the other key jurisdiction being New York. In my mind, it is incumbent on this jurisdiction to try to right the wrongs addressed by the private Member’s Bill introduced last year by my hon.”
“That is necessary not just because it is what many developing countries are asking of us, but because it is the only way we will get the scale of investment that is needed to transform the fortunes of the world’s poorest countries. Whichever way we look at it—whether it is the sustainable development goals financing gap or any other interpretation—the scale of capital need is enormous and cannot be met by the multilateral development banks, let alone our development aid budgets. Let me move on from the hand-wringing we are all so used to in our favourite sector, towards a much more normative, positive pitch for the role the UK Government can play as we head into the G20, where we have the chance to set the tone of development globally.”
“It is a delight to participate in the debate, and I thank the right hon. Member for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale (David Mundell) for securing it. I refer to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. I am a member of the IDC and a former development banker. I share many of my IDC colleagues’ reflections on the need for clarity and to be steadfast in our pursuit of the overarching goal of the UK’s foreign development policy, which is poverty alleviation. Our report sheds a light on the fact that there is a much greater need for clarity, transparency and measurability of the outcomes we are looking to deliver in particularly constrained circumstances. That said, I wholeheartedly support the Government’s shift from the mindset of donor to that of investor.”
“I agree that alongside the shift to more risk capital, which will also support that goal, and more upstream project development with local partners, there needs to be a focus on the world’s very poorest, and on getting capital into markets that do not currently have the capacity to support it. We have to move on each of these fronts: on global debt reform, on engagement with the multilateral development banks and our own development finance institutions, and on the private sector. Only by getting the capacity right, and by getting the work that the MDBs and the DFIs do right, will we be able to mobilise capital at scale. In my experience, WASH in particular suffers from being uninvestable for development finance, partly because the ability of DFIs to provide support at the municipal level and for city regions is underdeveloped.”
“In doing so, we need to mobilise the private capital that at the minute is unable to get to the world’s poorest countries.”
“I do share my hon. Friend’s concern. In a time of constrained resources, there is a bit of a knee-jerk reaction to move everything into the multilateral space to get more bang for our buck but, as we have seen, it is not as simple as that. One does have to be wary when trying to make that money go further. I am glad that there are examples, particularly on the climate finance front, of where our Government have stepped up to ensure we maintain the agenda of the multilateral development banks. To sum up, we need to be serious about the potential need for a statutory footing for some of the reforms to the global debt system, which the UK is uniquely well placed to address. We need to push our multilateral development banks and development finance institutions to go further, to take more risk and do that upstream development work.”
“I was elected on the back of three clear pledges, one of which was to work to create jobs and prosperity in some of our strongest growing industries. One of those is renewables, which is growing at 20% or so a year—much faster than the wider economy. In Cornwall, we are doing a great job at renewables. What steps is the Minister taking to help us to create those great jobs in Cornwall?”
“As my hon. Friend the Member for Camborne and Redruth (Perran Moon) pointed out, the critical minerals industry lacks wider support through the British industrial competitiveness scheme and the supercharger scheme, but so does upstream china clay production. That is a huge concern for a supply chain industry that supports many businesses represented by Members in the Chamber.”
“Will he outline what steps he is taking for an industry with high energy costs upstream—again, ineligible for BICS, the British industrial competitiveness scheme—and facing not only the huge challenges of foreign dumping practices but, in many cases, significant environmental and legacy pension liabilities due to the labour-intensive nature of its workforce? What steps is he taking to ensure that we put that industry on a more sustainable footing?”
“I will take a moment to thank the Minister for his excellent leadership in this sector, and for his lucid understanding of those supply chains and the fact that minerals represent quite clearly the biggest Cornwall-specific growth engine in the years ahead. I thank him for his work, with his Department, to help unlock the potential of that key industrial cluster for us. May I ask him, however, whether he will confirm that upstream producers, including those that extract china clay, will be eligible for the support? Can he provide me and my constituents with some clarity on when those decisions about who receives the support will be clear?”
“In this world, protecting the supply of china clay is vital to insulating supply chains for not just ceramics, but construction, advanced manufacturing, technology, aerospace and defence. Domestic production is only truly protected for any industry when the whole supply chain is. In my constituency, upstream producers of Cornish china clay are part of the foundation of the ceramics sector, directly and indirectly employing thousands of local people in Cornwall. It is our strongest current mining industry, serving as a big granitic bridge between our industrial heritage and the mineral products of the future.”
“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Murrison. I declare my interest as a member of GMB union, and of Unite, which represents so many of the china clay workers in my constituency. That is one reason I welcome so warmly this Government’s £120 million package for the ceramics industry. I particularly welcome the £60 million of backing for capital investment in energy efficiency and decarbonisation, and the further £60 million to help manage rising costs. That is decisive support for a sector that has every right not just to survive, but to thrive in a changing world in which Governments have an absolute obligation to ensure a smooth transition.”
“Does the Minister share my disbelief that the Tories continue to trot out the line that the Government are auctioning off wind power at a high price, while simultaneously neglecting to mention the levelised cost of electricity for thermal power, which is at least as high but takes a lot longer to deploy? Let us bust that myth once and for all.”
“As we have heard, we are in a new era of modern warfare, in which cheap drones, costing thousands of pounds, can knock out systems costing millions. The defence investment plan reflects that new reality, and I welcome the £5 billion set aside for drones, but what steps is the Minister taking to invest in the fightback against Russian aggression in the information warfare space?”
“Does my hon. Friend agree that a proper regulator for the property management sector, far from being anti-growth, would be a pro-growth measure bringing transparency and good functioning to these incredibly opaque markets that exploit leaseholders and renters?”
“The shadow Minister speaks of the need for ambition, but does he not agree that there is little that is more ambitious than breaking the link between the cost of gas and electricity, which so many of our constituents have called on us to do in recent months?”
“I am grateful to my hon. Friend for securing this debate. I wonder whether, like me, she would like to hear from the Minister today how the vision for ports that she outlined, which is so clearly tapping into opportunities in Cornwall across the critical minerals, renewable energy and many other industries, could link into our broader view for industrial strategy zones.”
“I thank my hon. Friend for giving way again and I wholeheartedly support the work taking place at the port of Falmouth to get the rail connection back for freight. I really hope that we can draw support from the Department for Transport in accelerating that to the next stage. However, does she agree that we also need to take a broader look at the vision for freight rail in Cornwall and wholeheartedly develop a strategy for it?”
“We have heard very serious allegations this week that Foreign Office officials, and allegedly even senior members of this Government, may have been swayed by ties with international partners in determining how the UK acts to de-escalate this conflict and prevent atrocities in Sudan, against the backdrop of what we have seen in El Fasher, which has been found to bear the hallmarks of genocide, and in the light of the impending tragedy in El Obeid. I appreciate that the Minister has firmly rejected some of those allegations, and we must trust his word on that. Given all that, what steps is he taking with Cabinet colleagues to ensure that, whatever the truth of that matter, the UK is never in a situation where it is beholden to allies who are culpable for such atrocities?”
“I really welcome the ambition of the road map, particularly the focus on buying British and the nod to honest food labelling. We must now make that ambition real and focus steadfastly on the drivers of farm profitability, so that farmers are making more money from their core business of farming by the end of this Parliament than they were when it started. In that spirit, the Labour rural research group continues our calls for honest origin labelling for food. I hope the Secretary of State will back those calls and commit, as did her predecessor, to meeting the LRRG to discuss this issue further.”
“T3. Even ahead of the global instability this spring, the Labour rural research group was calling for a spring push on farm profitability. Since then, our Government have announced a review of the regulation that farmers face and brought the Groceries Code Adjudicator back in-house at DEFRA to help level the playing field for British farmers. Can the Minister tell me what is next for our mission to get British farmers’ operating profitability back to where it should be?”
“Last week I visited Newquay Orchard with the Co-operative party to see at first hand how local people have transformed our green space into a thriving community asset that provides environmental education, mental health support, employability services and many more community activities. Projects such as Newquay Orchard show the power of co-operation and community-led action in tackling some of society’s biggest challenges. Will the Leader of the House provide time for a debate on the role of co-operatives and community organisations in building stronger, healthier and more resilient communities?”
“Q6. The whole country is united in its horror at the tragic death of Henry Nowak. Will the Prime Minister join me once again in paying tribute to Henry’s family for their courage in the face of this tragedy? Will he also join me in calling for recognition of the serious mistakes made by the police, which we must learn from so that no family faces this tragedy again?”
“Sometimes it takes the state to co-ordinate things, and to step up and say, “We are going to deliver in this industry.” This toolkit, and this ambition for the role of the state and its potential for dynamism and for rebuilding our public wealth, is needed to deliver on the ambitions for economic, energy and national security that we have outlined today.”
“I welcome the steps to strengthen and reform the state, and I urge the Government to go even further, faster, to get dynamism back into the apparatus of our British state and to harness its potential as an investor and co-ordinator, as we have done by empowering our public finance institutions. Those same institutions are investing millions of pounds in the Cornish economy and bringing together crucial projects that might not have come to fruition under a pure, narrow-minded, private investor mindset.”
“I welcome the steps that we are taking to deliver a fair deal for working people, but I want targeted fiscal support behind it, to ensure that we have a tax system for growth, and a tax system that ends the carers’ tax trap and the other tax cliff edges that punish working people. We have to work on lowering the cost of employment for young people, and let them get that first crucial step on the ladder. We must let low earners take home more of what they earn, on top of the pay boost that 2.7 million workers have already had via the minimum wage increase delivered by this Labour Government.”
“I welcome the King’s Speech, as we continue to implement our manifesto. I note that we have already delivered more of those manifesto promises than Reform has actual policies. I welcome the steps to make Britain a land of opportunity, built for all. That opportunity starts at home, with a good home. That is why I support the measures that we are taking to protect social housing stock and incentivise the building of more social homes via the social housing renewable Bill. At the heart of this opportunity must be a hard day’s work, and it must always be our Labour mission to repair the broken link between work and our livelihoods.”
“I am sure that residents in Gwallon Keas in my constituency are incredibly grateful to my hon. Friend for securing this debate, as am I. Does he agree that this is not just taxation by stealth, but an unsung privatisation by stealth of our public realm in recent decades? Does he, as I do, welcome the Minister’s recent commitment to working to reverse this terrible trend?”
“The people who live in them deserve the same protections, recourse and security that we would consider a baseline anywhere else in the housing market.”
“A tax that we know is regressive at the best of times, it has caused a lot of confusion and distress for residents in my constituency who have faced incorrect council tax bandings on their homes and, separately, site owners being charged council tax on empty pitches, which creates knock-on pressures for other residents. The council tax system, as currently designed, simply does not map well on to the park homes tenant model. That is creating real hardship and confusion for my constituents and deserves attention alongside the commission question. I say to Ministers that the case for reform is already well established. Residents now need action. I am very glad that the call for evidence has been renewed. I encourage all my residents to submit. We must recognise that park homes are a valued part of our housing stock.”
“I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Rushcliffe (James Naish) for securing this important debate. I am sure he will be much thanked by my residents in Gainsborough Park, Fir Hill, Glenleigh, Roseveare, Buckler Village, and the Old Rectory Mews, for raising the issues that they raise with me—the 10% commission being prime among them. That commission is not simply a financial burden, although on a modest park home it can result, as we have heard, in tens of thousands of pounds’ worth of fees at the very moment when a resident is most vulnerable. It also reinforces the structural imbalance of power that we have heard so much about today. I want to add another issue into the mix: council tax.”
“I welcome that ambition, but I say to Ministers that the consultation closes on 18 May and families cannot wait until 2029 for legislative change.”
“That is two years of his daughter’s education lost. Another constituent has been waiting since August 2025 for the outcome of his daughter’s educational psychologist assessment. They are still waiting and his daughter remains without suitable provision. A third constituent’s son has not had appropriate education for a significant period. His school cannot meet his needs, he is not attending, and his family are waiting for an EHCP. Three families, three children, all failed by a system that was supposed to protect them. The Government’s White Paper promises a £1.8 billion investment in specialist support, including educational psychologists, and commits to training over 200 more psychologists per year from 2026, putting mental health support in every school, and reducing the postcode lottery and the attainment gap.”
“Cornwall council receives over 100 requests every single month, yet in 2024 it was ranked as the second-worst local authority in the entire country for issuing EHCPs within the required timeframe of 20 weeks. The causes are clear: a shortage of educational psychologists, the complexity of multi-agency co-ordination, and a system overwhelmed by demand. The consequences for children in my constituency are devastating, and I want to mention some of them. One of my constituents has an adopted daughter with foetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Her school submitted a referral for an EHCP in March 2024. The council rejected it, her father fought back through appeals and a tribunal, and the council eventually conceded—an all-too-common farce, as we have heard. At the end of all that, the council still failed to produce a completed plan until 2026.”
“SEND provision is a fraught and highly emotional issue, because of the stakes at play: education, inclusion and, above all, dignity. I am pleased to see so many colleagues here from across the House, with the exception of only a couple of parties. Like others, I want to share the experiences of my constituents. A few months ago, I met the senior leadership team at Cornwall Education Learning Trust, the organisation that runs the majority of the primary and secondary schools in my constituency. To their credit, they acknowledged that they have not always got things right, particularly in the wake of the pandemic. They were candid about the reason why, which is that, without an EHCP, they simply do not have the funding to support many of the children who need it most. Demand for EHCPs is incredibly high.”
“T5. When we came to power, our then Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs committed to protect farmers from being undercut in all new trade deals. I am pleased to say that we have come good on that commitment. Ahead of the Labour rural research group’s push for farming profitability, will the Secretary of State agree to level the playing field in trade deals, and will she reaffirm that commitment to farmers?”
“Q13. Some 95% of the food that we import from non-EU countries has lower welfare standards than that produced by British farmers, costing us millions and putting worse food on our plates. The Labour Rural Research Group will shortly launch our spring push on farming profitability to support British farmers by introducing honest labelling and levelling the playing field for trade and regulation. Will the Prime Minister commit to meeting me and the LRRG to discuss how we can work to back British farmers and improve their profitability?”
“I was delighted to see the Eden Project’s recent report, which shone a light on the nearly £7 billion-worth of positive impact it has drawn into the Cornish economy and our community over the past 25 years. Will the Leader of the House work with me and across Departments to ensure that our high street strategy and our local visitor economy strategy work for Cornish businesses, local wealth creation, skills development and our wider communities, just as the Eden Project has done?”
“There has been a huge amount of progress towards what a good devolution settlement for Cornwall should look like, but it is also increasingly evident since Storm Goretti that part of that deal has to be infrastructure resilience. I really welcome the idea that we pilot some of these storm resilience measures, but will my hon. Friend join me in asking the Minister to speak with colleagues in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and work to get the investment needed to underpin that?”
“I declare an interest as a former employee of BII. Might I gently share my disagreement with the right hon. Member for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale (David Mundell) and my hon. Friend the Chair on this point? Although it is incredibly important that our development finance institutions adhere to the FCDO’s strategy, my personal experience is that politicisation of some of these state-backed financial institutions can end up with them lurching to and fro. Does my hon. Friend share some of my concerns about the potential for that kind of political influence over some of these institutions?”
“Global debt reform, an area in which the City and the English courts could play a globally leading role, is just one of many ways in which we can strengthen the macroeconomic stability and financial capacity that these countries so desperately need. Less aid need does not mean less investment overall; it means that we can no longer afford the luxury of, at worst, waste and, at best, a misallocation of resources. When done well, investment means trusting local knowledge, building local institutions, and empowering local businesswomen and businessmen, who are ultimately responsible for delivering economic growth that sustainably lifts people out of poverty.”
“That is the right ambition, but the model we have used to deliver that has been confused for far too long. We often hear of the financing gaps—the trillions that must be filled to meet the sustainable development goals and to overcome the challenge of climate change—but the reality is that overseas development assistance cannot so much as touch the sides in all this. Furthermore, we know that our developing country partners across the world primarily want investment, not aid, and partnership, not paternalism. To unleash that investment, we must ensure that we level the financial playing field and build capital markets, both public and private, that ultimately drive growth and prosperity in those countries.”
“The Government are cutting our aid budget by a third, from 0.5% to 0.3% of gross national income, by 2027—the steepest reduction in a generation, driven by the defence spending review. Much has already been said on this matter, and I am not here simply to oppose the cuts or argue that, in the current climate, we must instantly reverse them. Perhaps it is precisely the right moment in the arc of economic history to ask how we can do more with less, what we are actually buying with this money, and how we can get to the point at which we can say, hand on heart, to our constituents that we know the impact of our spend. The FCDO’s stated aim remains “alleviating poverty and stabilising countries to enable them to go on that journey themselves”.”