YouSaid · the spoken record
Daisy Cooper
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On the record 2024–2026
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“The bottom line is that hospitality and high-street businesses have just two choices: they can shut up shop, or they can put up prices. There are few things that speak to the economic health of the nation and the high street more than the price of a pint. I issue a warning to the Government now: if they do not act, customers will see the £10 pint before the next general election, on Labour’s watch. I call on Ministers again to use the powers that the Government gave themselves to reduce the multiplier by the full 20p, and to make an emergency VAT cut for our hospitality businesses to boost growth, stimulate consumer confidence and help save our high streets. For all these reasons, we Liberal Democrats will vote against the Government’s Finance Bill.”
House of Commons16 December 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The Government gave themselves the power to reduce the retail, hospitality and leisure multiplier by not just 5p, but 20p, but they now refuse to use that power. The system of transitional relief that the Government have put in place is simply an admission that they have got this badly wrong. There is a stark warning coming from the hospitality industry that the looming increase in business rates, due to come in during 2029, will kill the pipeline of owners coming into the hospitality industry. This comes just as the Government are about to publish their visitor economy strategy. There is so much incongruence here. The Government say that they want to do one thing, and then do something else to undermine it.”
House of Commons16 December 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“My hon. Friend is spot on with that comment. We have all seen the statistics; while offices and warehouses face marginal percentage increases in tax, the increases faced by our pubs and hospitality businesses are massive. Analysis that I know has been shared with Ministers this morning suggests that the bill for Harrods, for example, will actually fall by £1.1 million, while the bills for many of our small independent pubs, hotels and hospitality businesses will be going up by tens of thousands. The Government cannot hide behind semantics. For a year, they kept using the word “lower”, and that is what businesses heard; however, now the business rates bills have arrived, businesses can see that the rates are higher.”
House of Commons16 December 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“It is a real delight to speak in this debate, because I honestly thought that I would not get the chance. There was a risk, I thought, that the shadow Chancellor might even filibuster in his own Opposition day debate, much as I enjoy his poetry readings and so forth. We all know that the Budget process was a bit of a mess. It had more leaks than a sieve, lots of flip-flopping, and all the rest. By the time we got to Budget day, many of us were relieved that the process was over. But let us not pretend that this was all new. Previous Budgets had involved a number of leaks, and we all know that the Liz Truss mini-Budget must surely be the gold standard for sidelining the OBR.”
House of Commons10 December 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“That was a legitimate question to ask, so I was disappointed that the Minister tried to say, in response, that we have not supported his tax rises, when we Liberal Democrats have repeatedly, over the last year and more, set out the different ways in which we would raise taxes, including by reforming capital gains tax, looking at other taxes and a windfall tax on the big banks, as recommended by the Institute for Public Policy Research and endorsed by independent economists. We have also set out how getting a customs union with the European Union would boost public finances by £25 billion a year. [ Interruption. ] I understand that the Minister and those on the Treasury Bench who are chuntering right now may wish to level their accusation at the Conservative party, but that does not stack up when talking to the Liberal Democrats.”
House of Commons10 December 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Maybe it is obvious to people at home why the Conservatives have not tried to focus on the substance: because those stealth taxes were started by the Conservatives and have been carried on by Labour. The Conservatives failed to fix the business rates system, and Labour has not taken forward fundamental change. It is clear that both parties continue to refuse to go for growth with Europe. My hon. Friend the Member for North Norfolk (Steff Aquarone) asked a very reasonable and legitimate question about why the Treasury has not said whether it will provide funding for dental training places in his county and for his constituents.”
House of Commons10 December 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“These debates over the last few weeks have raised questions about the role of the OBR, and I want to put it on the record that we Liberal Democrats think that we should keep the OBR. It plays an important role as an independent organisation that can scrutinise the Treasury, but there is scope for more democratic accountability, and to tease out the divergence between forecasts by the OBR and the Treasury. I am slightly perplexed to see that the Opposition day motion focuses on process, not policy, and that it promotes spin over substance. This Budget has levied stealth taxes on households and on our high streets, and has fundamentally failed to galvanise growth.”
House of Commons10 December 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I am grateful to my hon. Friend for making that point. I agree with him: transparency is critical. On transparency, we Liberal Democrats think that it is time to overhaul this entire process. Colleagues will know that when Sweden faced a similar crisis in its Budget process in the 1990s, it overhauled the process, and it now has a system in which a draft Budget is published. There is a lot of time for it to be debated, and amendments can be tabled by Opposition parties before the process is concluded. The public would welcome such transparency; it would then be incumbent on the Government and all Opposition parties to set out how they would fund their pledges, raise revenue and manage Government spending.”
House of Commons10 December 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Member for Angus and Perthshire Glens (Dave Doogan) that there are other ways of raising taxes, and we hope that the Government look at some of our proposals, including our ideas for reforming capital gains tax, which would be a fairer way of raising revenue. It would raise more money from the 0.1% of the population who are super-wealthy.”
House of Commons10 December 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I am concerned about the impact of this Budget on businesses, and particularly about business rates. We have been very clear that we are trying to be a party of constructive opposition. In last year’s Budget, it was clear that the jobs tax would raise £10 billion, once we had adjusted for spending, for rebates for the NHS and education, and for changes to behaviour—not the £25 billion that the Government claimed. We set out a number of proposals that could have raised that £10 billion. We Liberal Democrats welcomed the Government raising remote gaming duty in this Budget, because that was in our manifesto at the last general election. I absolutely agree with the hon.”
House of Commons10 December 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“They have come down by 5p for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses, but Ministers gave themselves the power to reduce them by 20p. However, businesses heard “lower business rates”. They did not think about the technicality of how the rates are calculated; they just heard the word “lower”, and made decisions on that basis—but bills are now higher, and they are really struggling. I have said it before, and I will say it again: we cannot tax our way to prosperity; we have to grow our way to prosperity. We hope very much that, as Ministers move ahead on this debate, they not only reform the OBR and Budget process, so we have more transparency in this House, but think again about going for growth with Europe.”
House of Commons10 December 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I agree with the right hon. Gentleman that the jobs tax has been damaging. I say to Treasury Ministers that the combination of the jobs tax and higher business rates bills will have a profound impact on the very small businesses on our high streets, and our high streets are critical to our communities. Most ordinary folk do not follow the statistics on growth, unemployment, GDP and everything else; when they walk out their front door and look at their high street, they decide how they would answer the question, “Is the economy working in our area?”. It is so vital that we support our high streets. On that point, I genuinely urge Ministers to look again at the multiplier for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses. They talk in a very technical way about one element of the bills and continue to say that the rates are coming down.”
House of Commons10 December 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The botched Brexit deal has wrapped up British businesses in red tape and blown a hole in the public finances to the tune of £90 billion a year. The Chancellor insists that her No. 1 mission remains to get economic growth. If that is the case, will she and her Ministers vote with the Liberal Democrats this afternoon to make sure that we get rid of that red tape and deliver on a new UK-EU customs union?”
House of Commons9 December 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“High street hospitality businesses are on a knife edge—this is a disaster in the making. The Government say that they have rebalanced business rates, but that is not the case. UKHospitality says that the average increase for hospitality businesses will be 76% over the next three years, compared with warehouses, offices and large supermarkets, which will go up by only 16%, 7% and 4%. The reality is, the Government said repeatedly that they were going to introduce permanently lower business rates, and businesses heard that and made decisions based on that—and now their bills are going up. In the spirit of constructive opposition, I implore the Minister to look again, use powers to reduce the multiplier to minus 20p and look at an emergency VAT cut.”
House of Commons9 December 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Pubs are now saying that their average increase will be £12,000 a year, or 76% over the next three years. Why did the Government omit to mention that?”
House of Commons1 December 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“During the pre-Budget press conference, the Chancellor talked about a reduction in productivity growth, but failed to mention that tax receipts were higher than expected. Why did the Government omit to communicate that information? Following Sweden’s budget crisis in the early ’90s, its Government changed to a system where the Swedish Parliament saw a draft budget and debated it at length, and Opposition parties could propose alternatives and amendments. Have the Government given any consideration at all to introducing a better system? On the issue of omissions, on a number of occasions over the past year Ministers have repeated the claim that they would introduce permanently lower business rates for businesses in this country, but they omitted to say that business rates bills would go up because of the higher valuations.”
House of Commons1 December 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I understand that the Minister says he does not have all the answers to the questions about the incredibly serious security failings at the OBR, but has he requested or received any advice on whether the attempts to access the information might have reached a criminal threshold under the Criminal Justice Act 2003 or a civil level under market abuse regulations? Are there any other arm’s length bodies, related either to the Minister’s Department or to other Departments, that might now need to conduct a similar internal review into their security? The Budget process has been a mess. There have been leaks on a level that has never been seen before and huge amounts of flip-flopping, which has created uncertainty for households and the markets and has led to businesses putting investment on hold.”
House of Commons1 December 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I am sorry to say that this Budget was botched; it was bungled; it was a missed opportunity. Whatever we call it, the bottom line is that this Budget does not deliver for the British people. I fear that the Government have run out of ideas. I fear that they are also running out of time.”
House of Commons27 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“This summer the Government’s own pension investment review said that four in 10 people are not saving enough for retirement, but now the Government have announced a measure that the OBR says will reduce pension contributions before the commission has even had a chance to report. This is a “spend now, pay later” Budget, with pension changes and other expensive additions pushed right to the end of the forecast. Clearly that is a way to buy time for some growth to emerge, but what happens if it does not? The Government have had an opportunity to set out their path to delivering the change they promised, but I fear that they have squandered it. We Liberal Democrats wanted this to be a Budget that tackled the cost of living, that saved our high streets, and that was going to go for growth through a better deal with Europe.”
House of Commons27 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I think we all know the answer, but let me be plain: if the Government are gearing up to cut taxes for people like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, while raising taxes on struggling households, that would be a massive betrayal. As for the dividend tax, the Federation of Small Businesses summed it up when it said that “Hikes to dividend tax mean the government continues to make investing in your own business one of the least tax-friendly things you can do with your money.” Fundamentally, the root problem remains. This Budget, like last year’s Budget, is nothing more than a Treasury tax grab. The Government are still yet to outline a vision for the economy and for the country, and the lack of joined-up thinking is so stark. Last year they said that they were going for growth, and then they inflicted a growth-crushing jobs tax.”
House of Commons27 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“This is not the way to fix property taxes. [ Interruption. ] The Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury chunters from his seat. That was several Prime Ministers and several general elections ago. When the Liberal Democrats called for such a tax, the Conservatives wanted to stay in the EU; I think we can all agree that there has been a lot of water under the bridge since then. If the Government were serious about pursuing wealth, they could make a much fairer choice and go after the big banks and the tech giants. On the tech giants, why did the Chancellor slip out a review of the digital services tax yesterday, without announcing it in the Budget?”
House of Commons27 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The Institute for Fiscal Studies says that these stealth taxes are the largest single tax-raising measure since 1979. What will the result be? Well, the OBR says that disposable income—a byword for living standards—will go down, in large part due to this tax rise. Is it any wonder that people in all income brackets simply do not feel any better off? Turning to the so-called mansion tax, we in this House all know that council tax is broken, but adding extra layers does not make it any fairer. Economists from left to right all agreed yesterday that the Government’s proposals are complicated and will cause bunching in the tax system. They are a messy compromise that does not raise very much money, and will raise none for around three years. These proposals could result in many appeals and could distort behaviour.”
House of Commons27 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Just last week, my Liberal Democrat colleagues and I wrote to the Government asking Ministers to instruct the Competition and Markets Authority to launch an investigation into the lack of competition among energy suppliers, and into practices that we believe are preventing small businesses from getting the best energy deals. The Federation of Small Businesses is making the same call. This issue has to be fixed, and I hope that Ministers will look at it. On income tax, the Government have broken their promise in all but name by freezing income tax thresholds for a further three years. This policy, started by the Conservatives and continued by Labour, means that in the tax year 2030-31, British taxpayers will pay an additional £67 billion in income tax to the Treasury.”
House of Commons27 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“It was the word that Boris Johnson used to describe his approach to business. I am very worried that the combined impact of higher valuations and the new multipliers could put even more of our high street businesses in jeopardy, so I ask the Government to come clean and publish the combined data as soon as possible. I hope that a Minister can tell us—if not today, I hope that they will promise to come back to the House and do so—how many businesses have been brought into paying business rates for the first time, and how many might see their business rates go up overall. If the picture is bleak, I hope that the Government will tell us what actions they will take to protect the great British high street. Small businesses also need action on energy support.”
House of Commons27 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“That would give a boost to local economies in every single village, town and city across this country to get our economy moving again. That is the kind of growth stimulus that we Liberal Democrats would pursue. It is incredibly frustrating that the Government are not doing more for our high streets. They will say that they are looking to introduce permanently lower business rates multipliers. They may have done so, but the new, higher valuations were published this morning, and many businesses are warning that they could simply wipe out any benefit that businesses get from the lower multipliers. I saw a WhatsApp exchange between some of my pub landlords in St Albans this morning, and when one of them saw the higher valuation for their independent pub, they replied with a single word.”
House of Commons27 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“In the middle of a cost of living crisis and a cost of doing business crisis, the Government seem happy for £30 billion of taxpayers’ money to be paid out to the big banks, but we Liberal Democrats are not. That is why we have called for a windfall tax on the QE-related parts of the profits that the big banks have received, which would raise £30 billion for the taxpayer over the next five and a half years. We propose that just less than half of that money be spent on slashing energy bills by removing levies from them, but we would not lose the revenue for the insulation schemes that the Government have just axed. Some of the money could also be used to slash VAT by 5% for hospitality, attractions and visitor accommodation over the next 17 months until April 2027.”
House of Commons27 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“We welcome the fact that the Government, as part of their mission to create a sustainable economy, have provided more headroom this time around, but we disagree with the way that they built it, relying on billions from unfair stealth taxes and other tax hikes on people and small businesses. That was not a fair choice; a fairer choice would have been to ask the big banks to do their bit. The Government know that if they do nothing on the big banks, taxpayers will pay out approximately £30 billion to the big banks between now and April 2031—not because of any risk that they have taken, or any loans they have made, but because of a glitch in quantitative easing.”
House of Commons27 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“We are fixing this relationship,” but once again, the OBR report from yesterday spells it out in black and white. It says that the lasting effects of Brexit more than wipe out the combined benefits of all the Government’s new trade deals. If the Government want economic sustainability, it is clear as day what they need to do. The same could be said about headroom. This time last year, we knew that Donald Trump was heading back into the White House, and we Liberal Democrats warned the Government that they had not left enough headroom to deal with the economic headwinds, which were predictable and predicted.”
House of Commons27 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“It has left our public finances with a £90 billion Brexit black hole; the Labour Government know it, and the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has just said it, but for some unfathomable reason, the Government will not just get on and fix it. We Liberal Democrats once again call on the Government to get serious about fixing our relationship with Europe. Research by the House of Commons Library shows that a better deal—a deal within the Government’s red lines, that excludes a customs union, the single market and all the rest—could raise an additional £25 billion a year in revenue. With our proposal of a bespoke UK-EU customs union, we could raise even more. Members on the Labour Benches will say, “We have all these new trade deals.”
House of Commons27 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“This time last year, Government Ministers told us repeatedly that their No. 1 mission was growth, but after Labour’s second Budget, it is clear that growth is nowhere to be seen. The OBR makes it clear that the Budget has almost no meaningful growth measures at all. The Confederation of British Industry has concluded that the Government’s growth mission has stalled, and others say that it is positively anti-growth. We Liberal Democrats have consistently said that the Government cannot just tax their way to prosperity; they must grow their way to it. The most effective way of doing that—the single biggest growth lever that the Government could pull—is fixing our relationship with Europe. The Conservative-Reform Brexit deal has been a disaster for our country and for British business.”
House of Commons27 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“We Liberal Democrats welcome the decision by the Government to scrap the two-child benefit cap. Does the hon. Member agree that, as well as it being the right thing to do, it saves taxpayers money in the long term? We know that poverty has lasting impacts on people’s health and educational outcomes. In making the case to the British public, it would be helpful if the Government could explain the longer-term impact that poverty has for the taxpayer.”
House of Commons27 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Will the Prime Minister block this application and summon the Chinese ambassador to make clear that we will not accept Beijing’s efforts to spy on our Parliament, or to intimidate and harass Hongkongers in our communities?”
House of Commons25 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Will he also commission a second Russia report into Russian interference in our democracy? My hon. Friend the Member for Bicester and Woodstock (Calum Miller) has brought forward a Bill enabling the unilateral seizure of Russian state assets in the UK. Will the Prime Minister confirm whether in his discussions with G20 partners he has secured any progress on plans to seize those frozen Russian assets, and if not, why not? Will the Prime Minister use his role as the penholder for Sudan to take the lead at the United Nations to secure and enforce a country-wide arms embargo? Finally, the Prime Minister did not mention China, despite reports that he met the Chinese premier at the G20. The apparent imminent approval of the Chinese super-embassy would be a moment of shame for this Government.”
House of Commons25 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“When the Prime Minister speaks with the coalition of the willing this afternoon, will he relay that all major parties in this House agree with him on unequivocally ruling out any proposals that would limit Ukraine’s sovereignty to defend itself now or in the future, including its right to join defence alliances such as NATO? Will the Prime Minister also offer his support and that of the coalition of the willing by joining President Zelensky for any future negotiations with President Trump, so that President Zelensky does not have to suffer the indignity of being bullied by Trump on his own once again and so that Europe can show a strong and united stand? The Prime Minister is absolutely right to request that Reform UK conducts an investigation into pro-Russian bribes.”
House of Commons25 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I thank the Prime Minister for advance sight of his statement. If this is the end game for Putin’s illegal and murderous war, we have one chance to get it right and to safeguard the future of Ukraine and Europe. The stakes could not be higher. Many of us fear that President Trump is gearing up to betray the rights of Ukrainians, who have fought valiantly in the face of war crimes, torture and the abduction of thousands of children. The White House has tried to deny that Trump’s original 28-point plan was a Russian wish list, but that is precisely what it was. We Liberal Democrats welcome the statement from the Prime Minister that Ukraine’s sovereignty must be maintained.”
House of Commons25 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The Labour Government have no vision for the country and no vision for the economy, and whatever their destination is, they are not taking the country with them. [ Interruption. ]”
House of Commons17 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“These leaks are not just Westminster tittle-tattle; they have a real impact on people’s lives and livelihoods. The cold weather has now reached all corners of Britain, and households do not know if they can afford to put the heating on, because they do not know if their taxes are going up or down or staying the same. It is just five weeks until Christmas, and our high streets are struggling with low consumer confidence. That is precisely why we Liberal Democrats have called for a windfall tax on the big banks to fund an emergency cut to people’s energy bills and a VAT cut for hospitality, visitor accommodation and attractions. However, these leaks are a symptom, not the cause; the real problem runs much deeper.”
House of Commons17 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“What are the Government doing to stop these leaks, do they recognise that this flip-flopping is incredibly damaging to households and the markets, and will they consider all good ideas, including from the Liberal Democrats?”
House of Commons17 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“When people and the markets do not know what the Government are trying to achieve, rumours can and do run rife. It is clear that this Budget is more leaky than our crumbling hospitals. I should add that the confected outrage from the Conservatives is slightly absurd, because their key Budget announcements were often leaked in advance—in at least one case, almost word for word. Perhaps this House needs to move to the Swedish system in which the Swedish Parliament gets to debate the Government’s Budget, proposes alternatives and amendments before it is finalised, and gets a proper period of scrutiny and accountability in the months that follow.”
House of Commons17 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“In June, I met the Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice (Emma Hardy), to press the Government to adopt the measures in my Chalk Streams (Sewerage Investment) Bill. I was delighted by her commitments, namely that she would investigate whether Ministers already had the powers to instruct water companies to prioritise pipe upgrades in chalk streams and, in any event, would write to those water companies and ask them to do so. Will the Leader of the House please ask the Minister to produce a written statement to update the House on that work?”
House of Commons13 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“To date, the Government have failed to heed our calls for a new inquiry into Russian meddling, failed to place China on the enhanced tier of country threats and failed to launch an MI5 investigation into the threat posed by Elon Musk. What will it take for the Government to act and protect our democracy?”
House of Commons5 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“On behalf of my party, may I join the Deputy Prime Minister in expressing our horror at the terrifying knife attack at the weekend and pay tribute to all those, including the emergency services, who put themselves in harm’s way to protect others? As we approach Remembrance Sunday, may I also join him in remembering all those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our rights and our freedoms? Those rights and freedoms are now under threat in a way that we have not seen since the second world war. Putin is waging war on our continent and interfering in democracies across Europe, the Chinese Government are waging espionage against this House and Elon Musk is inciting violence on our streets.”
House of Commons5 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I hope that the Deputy Prime Minister in his new role will consider our calls again. Right now, families across the country are struggling with a cost of living crisis, yet the Chancellor is preparing to increase taxes. Meanwhile, because of high interest rates and arcane Treasury rules to do with quantitative easing, the big banks are making billions of pounds in windfall profits that they never expected, never relied on and never had to take any risk to earn. Without asking the Deputy Prime Minister to pre-empt the Chancellor’s Budget, which does he think is fairer: taxing struggling families or taxing big banks?”
House of Commons5 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“On Friday I sat with farmers and their families in Brecon and Radnor, and they are desperate. If they are 65 or over, they have no time to plan for the family farm tax, they cannot get insurance, and they will be put in an impossible position if the Government go ahead with the tax unamended. The CenTax report sets out options that could extend extra protection for family farms while rightly raising funds from people who are currently exploiting the tax loopholes in APR. Those farmers asked me to put a question to the Chancellor. They asked, “Can the Chancellor please say precisely which parts of the CenTax report the Government disagree with, and why?””
House of Commons4 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Analysis by UKHospitality suggests that more than half the job losses in the UK since last year’s Budget have come from its sector. That is further evidence that the jobs tax has been bad for growth and bad for job opportunities. We Liberal Democrats have set out fairer ways of raising revenue and going for growth, so rather than the Government suggesting that we have not done so, can I instead ask them: will they use the Budget to consult on a new lower national insurance contribution band to create opportunities for part-time workers, especially in hospitality?”
House of Commons4 November 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Time and again, we see that when people want to do the right thing and pay the right amount of tax or query a tax issue, they call His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, only to have the call handler hang up, or they contact the Valuation Office Agency and have to spend money on an expensive third party that specialises in disputes. Stamp duty has all the hallmarks of a bad tax. It is a transaction tax and an extra cost that stops people from moving, when they might want to move to start a family, to take up a new job or to take on caring responsibilities. It prevents people from getting on the housing ladder, from upsizing and sometimes from downsizing. It gums up the housing market in a country where we simply cannot afford for that to happen. It disincentivises people from moving and holds back a dynamic economy.”
House of Commons28 October 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Our tax system is a mess. It is complicated and unfair. It is riddled with cliff edges that distort behaviours and create inequities, and there are exemptions that have not been reviewed for years. Council tax is outdated and hated. Inheritance tax and capital gains allow the super-wealthy to exploit loopholes while the squeezed middle picks up the tab. Business rates are a tax on bricks and mortar that penalise our high streets while online giants corner more and more of the market. IR35 is a sledgehammer to crack a nut for contractors, and research and development tax credits are in such a muddle that they are triggering lots of disputes, even for legitimate claims. When any one of those taxes is tweaked, it causes problems elsewhere.”
House of Commons28 October 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Maybe they would want to do away with the cost of clearing the vast majority of the NHS maintenance backlog—a cost they would reach in a single year—or maybe they would want to scrap the £12 billion a year budget for special educational needs and disabilities. It is not clear in the official Opposition motion where the cuts would come from. There is a strong case for looking at reforming or scrapping stamp duty all together, alongside other property tax reforms and moving to a land value tax. Indeed, some commentators suggest that scrapping stamp duty and council tax together and phasing in a land value tax over time could be one way to move ahead.”
House of Commons28 October 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The Conservatives say that they want all those cuts to come from public expenditure, but in this motion they do not say where those savings would come from. By my calculations, they could choose to scrap nearly the whole of the Ministry of Justice—given revelations in recent days about prisoners being let out wrongly, it feels like that may already have happened. The Conservatives could instead decide to end all support for farmers by scrapping the entirety of the budget for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which reached £7.4 billion in 2028-29, including capital— [ Interruption. ] Well, it does not say that in the motion.”
House of Commons28 October 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“No—for all the reasons that I will come to. The hon. Gentleman was a fraction too early. Here’s the rub: stamp duty raises a lot of money, and that is presumably why the Conservatives did not seek to scrap it at any point during all their years in power. Stamp duty for primary residences in England and Northern Ireland raised around £4 billion in 2023-24, and it is suggested that it will raise £9 billion in 2029-30. The Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates that the cost in 2029-30 will be around £11 billion, with the additional costs in Scotland and Wales taken into account. That means that abolishing stamp duty on primary residences would cost in the region of £36 billion to £44 billion in total over the next five years. For anybody who is not keeping up, that is almost the cost of the mini-Budget, just in slow motion.”
House of Commons28 October 2025Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗