YouSaid · the spoken record
Kit Malthouse
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On the record 2015–2026
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“The Government may have to fess up to the fact that they are making decisions on basic politics—that is to say, there is somebody whom, under any other guise, we would love to designate, but there is also something else, which we are getting round the back from them, that we need to be cognisant of. I think the Government lose credibility if they start to take inconsistent decisions without that being illustrated. My final question is: when can we expect the first wave of sanctions, assuming that this measure goes through today?”
House of Commons28 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The Minister will know that one of the frustrations that the House has expressed on many occasions over the past three or four years is the unwillingness of the Government to share their legal advice in consideration of their position under lots of international treaties and agreements. If, say, a Member of Parliament—or anybody else, frankly—was to bring a particularly egregious case for consideration under these designation sanctions, how would that person understand how the Government had reached their conclusion, either for or against? Obviously, there is a huge amount of discretion with regard to the Secretary of State’s powers, but the credibility of these sanctions and their deployment stands very much on the contemplation of how those decisions are reached.”
House of Commons28 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I, too, support these sanctions. They seem sensible to me, and I would imagine that any patriot would support something that seeks to make us more powerful in the world in pursuit of not only our national interests, but our national values, as the right hon. Member for Oxford East said. I know she said that we often talk about technical questions; I do, though, have three short technical questions for the Minister. First, the regulations seek to differentiate between citizens of the rest of the world and those of the United States, European Union, Australia and Canada. Could the Minister explain why those territories or countries get special treatment compared with everybody else? The second issue is about transparency of consideration.”
House of Commons28 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Members that nothing in the Budget has done anything to reverse the assault on the return on risk that, sadly, has taken place over the last 20 years under Governments of all stripes.”
House of Commons28 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“We are now down to 1.39 children born to every mother, which is below replacement rate, so we have a shrinking body of workers who are having more and more difficulty supporting an expanding body of retirees. The pyramid is inverting, as we have seen in other countries, such as Japan, to disastrous effect. If the public sector and the retired sector suck more and more money out of the private sector, we will find ourselves in a downward spiral, which will be much to our detriment. The third emergency is one of capital. The Chancellor raised the issue of capital and spoke of trying to set entrepreneurs free. I have been a moderately successful entrepreneur during my life, and I can tell hon.”
House of Commons28 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Certainly not the international banks—they will manage to retain their return on capital. It will be the businesses, and the consumers who bank with them, who will see higher mortgage rates and higher interest rates on their loans. That money will be extracted from the private sector and sent directly to the public sector to be spent. If we continue on this path, I am afraid that the IMF has forecast that by 2050, well over half our GDP will be spent by the Government. That is a disaster, because once in that vortex it is hard to come out of it. The second emergency, which is exacerbating the first—there was no talk of it today and, in fact, there were no measures to try to help with it—is our demographic problem. I am afraid we are not having enough children in this country.”
House of Commons28 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“We can broadly agree that it gets the year 1 forecast right, plus or minus, but after that it is wildly optimistic, and every year it get the forecast completely wrong, particularly on debt. That matters, because the country is effectively running a structural deficit at the moment, and because of some of the measures in this Budget and the previous two, the public sector is basically eating the private sector every year we proceed. The private sector’s ability to support the public sector is reduced as a result, and we find ourselves caught in a weird kind of vice, exacerbated by the second emergency, which I will come to. Even in some of the measures today, there seems to be no contemplation of that problem. Who does the Chancellor think will pay the bank levy—this 3% extra on corporation tax?”
House of Commons28 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“In many ways it is profoundly negligent of a Government to produce such a Budget in the face of three distinct emergencies—three distinct fires burning in the basement of the British economy—some of which have been made worse and are forecast to be worse because of the Budget. The first of those, which a number of hon. Members have raised, is our debt. It is worth remarking, as some have, that the OBR has said that we will borrow even more in every year of the forecast—particularly next year. Combined with the massive downgrade of growth for next year, that is alarming. It is worth colleagues remembering that the OBR has quite a poor record in medium-term forecasting—it is generally optimistic.”
House of Commons28 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Carlisle (Ms Minns), although she will not be surprised to hear that she and I have very different views about the Budget. I draw the House’s attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests as a business owner and, frankly, to my interest as a father, although that is not because I think I am going to be particularly affected—I do not think anybody will be particularly affected by this rather bland bowl of muesli of a Budget from a Chancellor who was quite obviously decaffeinated this morning. I am quite exercised about the Budget because, while a number of colleagues have said it is a missed opportunity, I think it is a lot worse than that.”
House of Commons28 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The rise in taxation on dividends, the rises in capital gains tax, the reduction in any kind of relief for entrepreneurs, and the complexity of the enterprise investment scheme and the seed enterprise investment scheme—all that is a massive deterrent to anybody who wants to start a business and take a risk. Until we realise that we will not get growth until we set capital free, we will continue to be trapped in this vortex of a demographic pyramid inversion and ever-mounting debts as the public sector consumes the private sector. The last thing I want to raise is the new powers that are being granted to the Revenue. All Members should beware of what is hidden in the detail of those new powers. We are getting to a situation where our economy is existing to support the Revenue rather than the other way around.”
House of Commons28 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“We missed the IT revolution of the ’80s and ’90s because we were too busy worrying about house prices. British capital has kind of stultified and failed to take advantage of these massive advances in technology, much to our detriment in terms of national wealth. We still live off, to a certain extent, the wealth that was created during the Victorian era. Many of our largest companies came about because of British capitalism—naked capitalism—during that era. The palaces we live in, the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge, King’s College, Cambridge, and the NHS—all of that built from the profits of British capitalism. We have neglected it over the last 20 years or so, particularly by attacking the return on risk.”
House of Commons28 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I am glad that the hon. Gentleman has raised that point. If he looks at the founders’ relief in the scorecard and puts it against the reduction in business asset disposal relief, he will see that effectively there has been a straight transfer of value from family businesses, high street shops and smaller businesses to the tech bros who are going to benefit from founders’ relief. We have yet to see the detail on that relief, but the scorecard shows a net cost to the Government of about £200 million. That is negligible in the face of an economy the size of ours. That is a real problem, because we are standing at the bottom of the ellipse of human achievement, the like of which we have not seen since the industrial revolution. This country has got its capitalism wrong in the past.”
House of Commons28 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Does the Minister agree that more important than the number of people or how often they attend that House is that it has become clear that individual peers are much more powerful than individual elected Members of Parliament? They have greater privileges and less transparency, and are able to influence legislation to a much greater degree than we are in this elected House. That is fundamentally what lies at the heart of the problem. We can indulge ourselves with tweaks around the edges, as all Governments have done, but in the end, unless we address that fundamental problem, the dissatisfaction will continue.”
House of Commons20 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“My hon. Friend is making a powerful argument. He will presumably recognise that the clue is often in the name where our businesses are concerned, as many of those largest businesses that we regard as national champions—Pilkington, John Lewis, Sainsbury’s and banks such as Lloyds—owe their origin to family businesses. The fact that they carry a surname indicates the many generations it took to build them to that power, but by taxing those businesses, we hold the entire economy back from such growth.”
House of Commons14 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. I need to offer you an apology. When I asked my question, I should have declared, or drawn attention to, my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. I am the proud founder of two businesses, which I hope in time to pass on to my children, if the Labour party does not get in the way.”
House of Commons14 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“There seems to be a disconnect in the Labour party’s understanding of the situation. Does the Minister not appreciate that the capital value of an enterprise, whether it be a farm or a business, does not necessarily equate to the revenue that it generates? Many family farms and businesses are what they would call lifestyle businesses, where people are happy to sit on what may appear to be a large capital value that yields only a very small revenue amount that will not support the taxes he is trying to levy, and at the same time only just supports a lifestyle that people are willing to tolerate. It is this imbalance that is causing so much anguish.”
House of Commons14 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Let us say that a farm is worth £3 million, ostensibly on land value. That farm might be yielding a net income to a farmer of only £30,000 to £50,000 a year, on which they are surviving. They are willing to live that way because they love living on the farm, it has been in their family for many generations and they feel a sense of stewardship and custodianship, but that revenue is not enough for them to live on and then sustain the tax that the Minister wants to levy.”
House of Commons14 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“As I am sure the Minister is aware, as well as applying to join the CPTPP, the Argentinians are in the final stage of accession to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Membership of that organisation brings with it significant benefits in terms of the risk premium attached to national debt, which could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars—if not billions—to Argentina. However, membership requires consensus from existing members that a country is allowed to join. Does the Minister agree that the conduct of Argentina in this regard is unlikely to engender the kind of consensus needed for it to accede to the OECD?”
House of Commons13 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“My hon. Friend is making a powerful argument in defence of jury trials. Members are rightly thinking about the impact on victims and defendants, but would he agree that the erosion of jury trial also has significant implications for the judiciary? In jury trials, for the public, the jury very often stands between the defendant, or the convicted, and the judge. If we remove that shield between the two, the judge, their prejudices, demographics and how they were selected become more a focus of public contemplation, and that may in the end lead to political interference in the selection of judges.”
House of Commons13 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“During the last couple of hours, I have heard the Prime Minister talk about three of the four pillars of our national defence—our military, our resilience and our alliances—but he has yet to mention the crucial fourth pillar, which is the importance of the international rules-based order and the institutions that underpin it. Is he going to take any active steps to defend the International Criminal Court and the UK citizens who work there against the American sanctions that have been placed on it?”
House of Commons12 October 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“As co-sponsor of the Bill once again, I am acutely conscious that there is more at stake today than merely the fate of those who are facing their end, because the conduct of the other place means that our democracy is also on trial today. I sat in the Chamber at the other end of this building on a number of occasions when it was debating the Bill, and I saw more of the debate on television, and I watched with unfolding horror the game that was being played there—a game that was marked in homes across the country with dismay, misery and agony. I contemplated the Lords effectively putting up the pretence of scrutiny, but at the same time tabling 1,000 amendments—”
House of Commons11 September 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I will not. The Lords tabled 1,000 amendments, many of which were cruel or absurd; they were effectively designed to be sand in the engine, and to slow up what should have been proper parliamentary process—a process that the dying deserve to see operate correctly. We have to be aware in this House that expectations are high, and the people who send us here should be able to rely on decisions made in this House proceeding into law. I am afraid that what is at stake today is our democracy. If this Bill falls today, one of the biggest losers will be the standing of this House and this institution as a whole.”
House of Commons11 September 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I respect my right hon. and learned Friend’s expertise in this matter, but, as he has already heard on the Floor of the House, it is perfectly possible for this House to suggest amendments, negotiate them with the promoters of the Bill, place them against the legislation in the House of Lords and then have them come back to this House for approval. We would much rather that had happened in the first place. This House now faces an invidious choice: if we amend and pass the Bill in this House, it will just be talked out again. I am afraid I have no faith that the small group that dedicated themselves to holding up the Bill to deny dying people what they seek, because of their own—”
House of Commons11 September 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“We cannot give dying people more time, but we can give them mercy and love. I urge Members to vote for the Bill today.”
House of Commons11 September 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“We have heard time and time again that the situation that thousands of our constituents live with every single day is so horrific and appalling that even the best palliative care cannot alleviate their pain. I urge colleagues to consider what their vote may mean today. As we said on Second Reading previously, a vote against this Bill is not a passive act. It is not something neutral; it is a vote for a status quo of misery, degradation and cruelty for so many. We know that the British people support this measure. We know that there are lots of territories around the world that we respect and admire that have assisted dying and have operated it for many years successfully. It is not beyond us to get our democracy operating as it should and to design something that will work for the British people.”
House of Commons11 September 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“One of the most affecting people I have met over the last 11 years of campaigning on this issue is Warwick Jackson, who came to our party conference a couple of years ago. Warwick’s wife, Ann, was diagnosed with terminal peritoneal cancer. She basically knew that she was going to die a slow, suffocating death at the end. As Warwick watched her dying and heard her begging her palliative nurse to end it all for her, he contemplated smothering her with a pillow. The only thing that stopped him was that he did not want her dying thought to be that her loving husband had brought her life to an end. That is the conflict of love that we pose to people by perpetuating this appalling status quo.”
House of Commons11 September 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The Health and Social Care Committee of the House of Lords found that in territories that have assisted dying, palliative care generally improves, because people become less afraid of talking about death. But we must be careful not to say that perfection is a precondition for those who are dying; perfection has to be an objective for those of us who will carry on living. We cannot delay and indulge the dying in their agony because we are not satisfied with the state of palliative care. We have to deal with the choice that those people are facing at the point of their death, and give them the choice that so many of them seek. The second point is about coercion. The Father of the House, my right hon. Friend the Member for Gainsborough (Sir Edward Leigh), talked about love.”
House of Commons11 September 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I will not. Some of those Members had just a few months before been specifically rejected by the electorate and replaced in this House by others, and I am afraid that they cannot be trusted not to do the same thing again. I grant my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Kenilworth and Southam (Sir Jeremy Wright) that this is a less than ideal situation. However, I know that the sponsor in the House of Lords is willing to entertain amendments being tabled in the Lords, which will come back to the House for conclusion. Before I conclude, I want to deal with a couple of other issues. The first point is about the notion of palliative care, which we discussed extensively on Second Reading. I am pleased that this legislation has stimulated a strong debate about palliative care.”
House of Commons11 September 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Will we see a pushback against American attacks upon the institutions that underpin international law? Finally, as part of the accountability that he has talked about, can we please have a UK-led investigation into the murder of our own citizens who worked for the World Central Kitchen? The Israeli Government have declined to conduct a criminal investigation, and officers of the IDF who were involved in that operation have been out in the media boasting that they would do it again.”
House of Commons8 September 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I, too, applaud the Foreign Secretary for finally taking some assertive, confident steps to deter Israeli ambitions in the west bank, but I am perplexed as to why he is waiting nine months. The diggers may well have started in E1 by then. So, first, can he just explain in a little more detail why he is waiting so long? He has got a majority; let us get on with it. Secondly, has the Foreign Secretary made it clear to the Israeli Government that if this deterrent does not work, he is willing to take further steps and this is not the end of the story? Thirdly, I welcome his embrace, finally, of the strength of international law. Does he recognise that the security of Israel, Palestine and the United Kingdom stands in the impartial application of international law across the world?”
House of Commons8 September 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I have to confess to the Secretary of State that I am even more confused now than my hon. Friend the Member for Gosport (Dame Caroline Dinenage) was 40 minutes ago. Could the Secretary of State just be clear with my residents that the combined authority elections due next May are off, and the borough council elections are on, but the combined authority elections might be on if she gets her skates on and the borough council elections might be off? If the combined authority elections are off, when will they be on, and is the mayoral election in 2028 on or off? If it is off, what is going to happen to police governance?”
House of Commons7 September 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Does the Secretary of State recognise that the situation that we find ourselves in, in the west bank and Palestine more widely, represents an almost complete failure of British foreign policy in this regard? As a British citizen, one of the most distressing aspects of this conflict, aside from the death, destruction and savagery, has been the sight of British Ministers being sent out to mouth platitudinous condemnations like goldfish, and promise action, only being dragged to take pathetic ineffectual steps by pressure from their own Back Benchers. My question is this: is anything going to change?”
House of Commons1 September 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“If we want to ban modern slavery, or goods produced by forced labour, we oblige businesses that are importing to prove that they have not acquired goods produced in that way.”
House of Commons9 July 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Presumably, it was not too complicated for the civil servants who drafted the ban on trade with Crimea, or any of the other trade bans we have used, with effect, over the years. As the Trade Minister will know, for other reasons to do with trade, we have insisted on the labelling of goods. We have even gently warned businesses off goods from settlements. We heard stentorian words in the last statement—“Take care in trading; there may be legal risk”—but the Government have done everything except the obvious, which is to just ban that trade. The question I am left asking is: why? Why the reluctance? Why the hesitation? Nobody is buying the complexity argument; we do not buy it in any other circumstance of trade.”
House of Commons9 July 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Yet our country still sells them bulldozers, buys their goods and sells them financial services, and by those means, we financially support and help sustain this appalling situation, while hiding behind the fig leaf of complexity. Therein lies a mystery that, I must confess, I have not been able to understand over the last couple of years. A third of the Labour party has put its name to a letter calling for a ban on trade with the settlements, yet the Government still do not move on this. Other countries across the world are instituting, or have instituted, bans. As the hon. Member for Sheffield Central said, the complexity argument falls away when we look at Crimea. A ban is not too complex for Spain, Ireland or other countries.”
House of Commons9 July 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Nobody who has stood in the middle of Hebron and seen Palestinians living in cages or watched them being dragged from their homes, their olive trees uprooted, run over with cars and detained without charge; nobody who has seen the guns, the checkpoints, the walls, the UN signs saying where people can and cannot go or the enormous so-called settlements—that makes them seem somehow quaint, like “Little House on the Prairie”, but they are fortresses, forcibly invading and stealing other people’s land; and more recently, nobody who has watched these psychopathic settlers, though they are more like terrorists, roaming across the west bank, terrorising innocent Palestinian families on a daily basis and setting ablaze entire villages, can think that this is acceptable.”
House of Commons9 July 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“This debate is so important today because it is not just about the Palestinians; it is also about we Britons, the world we live in and the way we want the world to operate when it is in dispute. As has been illustrated in the debate so far, nobody in this Chamber believes that the way the Palestinians have to live at the moment is acceptable.”
House of Commons9 July 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Glasgow West (Patricia Ferguson), and it is always a pleasure to hear the gentle Yorkshire accent of the hon. Member for Sheffield Central (Abtisam Mohamed) raised in fierce defence of peace, justice and international law. Colleagues, let us make no mistake: while this country does need to rebuild its physical defences, in the end our defence lies in international law and the set of rules that we created after the second world war to decide how countries should peaceably settle their disputes. At the heart of the problem of international law at the moment sits the plight of the Palestinians, and if they sit at the heart of the problem, so do we.”
House of Commons9 July 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Strangely enough, I agree with the hon. Gentleman. This is probably the first time in our political careers that we have agreed. He puts his finger on the point that I am trying to make. This dispute involves our own security. We do not have to be pro-Palestine or pro-Israel to take that view, just pro-British, which everybody in this House should be, first and foremost. That involves being pro-international law, pro-peace and pro-justice; the dispute goes to the heart of that. He put his finger on the point that I was coming to. Nobody is buying the idea that the argument is practical, Minister.”
House of Commons9 July 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Either we fear consequences from other countries, such as the United States or whoever it might be, or we believe it is in our national interest to recognise that Palestinian self-determination and Palestinian lives are disposable in the face of that political decision. Even worse, it may be that we just do not care. It may be that at the higher echelons of political command, whether it is in No. 10 or the Foreign Office, they really just do not care. They think, “If we squint a bit, make some statements from the Front Bench and have a couple of sanctions here and there, in the end, the caravan will move on, and nobody will care.” I am afraid that until Ministers realise that this is not some kind of complicated chess game across the world, but a matter of our security, our interests and our morality, we will not make any progress.”
House of Commons9 July 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I know, but I ask the Minister not to patronise us all by standing up at the end of the debate and pretending that this is all too complicated, which I am afraid is what his ministerial colleagues have said to us before. We know that the argument against a ban is not a legal one; that has been proven time and again. Indeed, we have supported resolutions at the UN and used our position on the Security Council to say that it is not a legal issue. I am left with the only other option, which is that the decision must be political with a capital “P”. I am afraid that is the most appalling thing to contemplate.”
House of Commons9 July 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Surely now is the time to lay out exactly what the consequences would be for the establishment of the E1 settlement in plain terms, so that there is a hard red line, and the Israelis can make a judgment about whether they want to cross it.”
House of Commons1 July 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“They say that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Many of us feel that way about these statements, and surely the Minister must be starting to feel that way, too. He must recognise that the E1 settlement would represent the final and complete collapse of any British strategy in Israel and Palestine, and would have wider ripples, in terms of our standing in the world. Surely it is incumbent on him to change his modus operandi. Over the last two years of savagery, we have had meagre measures—talk, talk, talk, from both this Government and the previous one, frankly—and none of that has had any impact on the conduct of the Israeli Government.”
House of Commons1 July 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“My overall concern is that this change might be a crack in the door to required general UK alignment with EU regulations, which might not suit us overall and might put us at a disadvantage, not just for our internal market but for a wider market in the world more generally that looks to the British machinery-manufacturing industry with some hope of buying quality goods.”
House of Commons30 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Has the Minister spoken to businesses about what dual labelling will represent? What inconvenience and cost will that put on small businesses? Finally, as the Minister will know, the regulations include quite draconian penalties. What is the parliamentary accountability for the enforcement regime? We will be enforcing regulations that have been imposed on part of the United Kingdom without any democratic scrutiny. What will be the accountability mechanism for their operation and enforcement? I recognise that much of this comes out of the fact that we exited the European Union in a particular way, but it is, in microcosm, quite an interesting example of some of the conflicts that were highlighted to us during the Brexit process, which some of us attempted to solve.”
House of Commons30 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“If we have had no say in that, it would be helpful to have the Minister’s assessment of whether the regulations are satisfactory for the whole of the United Kingdom or whether they increase the burden. I, too, was disappointed by the lack of any impact assessment in the explanatory memorandum to look into the wider domino effect on the whole of the United Kingdom. I would be grateful for the Minister’s view on that. Thirdly, unless I have this wrong, it is implicit in the way the structure works that businesses in Northern Ireland will now have to comply with two labelling regimes. They will have the European CE labelling regime and a UKNI labelling regime. That is an added burden, particularly for smaller manufacturing businesses, yet we see no assessment of the impact in the explanatory memorandum.”
House of Commons30 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The Minister will understand that one doubt about the Windsor framework arrangement with Northern Ireland was the democratic deficit—the fact that we would be rule takers rather than rule makers—and this instrument looks like an example of that, so it would be great if the Minister could confirm that that is the case. Secondly, will there now be much reverse engineering of wider GB machinery safety regulations to conform with what has been handed down to Northern Ireland? We obviously want to maintain the free flow of goods across the whole of the United Kingdom but, as I read it, in order for that to happen and for the convenience of business, UK businesses as a whole will have to conform to that which has been handed down to Northern Ireland by the EU.”
House of Commons30 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I am grateful to be called, Ms Jardine. I do not want to detain the Committee too long, but I have some points of clarification for the Minister. First, will the Minister confirm that the regulations concern the enforcement of machinery standards that flow into Northern Ireland by dint of the Windsor framework without any parliamentary scrutiny whatsoever in the UK, and that Northern Ireland will be forced to comply with the regulations without having any say in them whatsoever? On that note, did the UK Government have any beneficial influence over the EU production of the regulations, or will we just get what we are given?”
House of Commons30 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“To be honest, the hon. Member for Edinburgh South West makes a good point. Presumably, he will vote in favour of enforcing the underlying regulations, but none of us know whether they are any good. In fact, we have had no say over whether they are any good—we just have to take them as handed down. I asked the Minister earlier whether the UK, knowing that we have to accept them, whether we like it or not, has had any influence on trying to ensure that they actually do what they are supposed to do. To a certain extent, both sides of the House are blindly voting on the regulations, because we have had no hand in putting them together.”
House of Commons30 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“As far as I can see, these regulations are riddled with those kinds of changes, which must impose a significant cumulative burden.”
House of Commons30 June 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗