Speeches by Davies.

“I could not agree more. In fact, markets and investors have now endured week after week of reckless and irresponsible speculation, not about whether Labour will put up their taxes, but about which taxes will go up. The endless uncertainty that my hon. Friend mentions has caused relentless Treasury kite-flying that has …”

“Yes. If you speak to the chair there, one of the key tasks the Secretary of State has set the chair is to increase the speed at which these investigations are done. The challenge back a year ago was less about the rules on competition policy—it was about how it is done rather than the areas focused on. The concerns we …”

“It is a great pleasure to see you in the chair, Mr Pritchard. I welcome the relatively new Minister to her first delegated legislation Committee; I am sure there will be many more. It is a great pleasure to see her for the first time in her place. I welcome the opportunity to address this statutory instrument on behalf…”

“I think it is fair to say that both the chair and the chief exec would welcome any representations about particular areas to look at. As ever, within this, you need to balance the role of predictability and proportionality about where those investigations will make a difference. The ones you mention, with a two-year ti…”

“It is a DCMS responsibility in terms of the sector, but the CMA looks at competition and economic regulation across the piece.”

“To add to what the Secretary of State said, I would not underestimate the focus on this within the British Business Bank. There is a refreshed management team there and the strategy director is very focused on this issue. They are now collecting more data to understand the gender and geographic split with greater granu…”

“Mobilising more investment from the UK pension fund market is critical to driving regional economic growth. The Chancellor says that she is a builder, not a blocker, but her proposed builders tax threatens to drastically increase the cost of building anything from homes and roads to nuclear power stations. This will ma…”

“Labour’s industrial strategy recognises that housing and infrastructure are vital to driving regional investment. But as I hope the Minister will know, across the road, the Treasury has been quietly consulting on changes to the landfill tax, ending the decades-long exemption for quarries. That change would add millions…”

“I am afraid that is not good enough. The industry is facing deep uncertainty around the kite flying going on across the road at the Treasury. I realise that he is not responsible for that, but he needs a better answer for the construction industry. The Construction Products Association has just cut its growth forecast …”

“It is always a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Ms Vaz. I welcome the Minister to his place; it is a great appointment, and it is good to know that he comes to the position with a good deal of experience, which I know will be valuable to both officials and the House more broadly. I also welcome this opportunity, on be…”

“The Chancellor once claimed that she had a plan for fixing the foundations with infrastructure at the very heart. Now, through a consultation that the Government hoped nobody would notice, she has found a way to tax the foundations. By looking to impose a new levy on quarries, Labour could add billions of pounds more t…”

“The first I knew about this was when it became publicly known in July of this year. The only attempt to raise this with my staff was at the time of auditing the 2023-24 accounts. My audit director was briefed that there was a secret matter that could not be shared, but it meant that there was a data breach that had not…”

“She was told that she could not tell anybody at the NAO about the detail that she had been briefed with.”

“I will, Mr Speaker. What is the budget for the official receiver? The Minister has not laid out any costs. She has said that it is related to market conditions but has not set out any estimates. She knows that the Treasury will have approved estimates, so please will she set those out? The Government have made the Nati…”

“I am grateful to the Minister for giving me advance sight of her statement today, but here we are again: another day, another Government takeover of a key British manufacturing plant, another 1,500 jobs—1,500 people—facing an incredibly uncertain future, and the prospect of significant job losses alongside the wider ec…”

“I am, Mr Speaker. Although I have lots of questions, I will ask just two very quick ones, if that is okay.”

“It is becoming clear that one year in, the public still do not know what Labour is all about, and the same could be said for its so-called National Wealth Fund. Not only has the National Wealth Fund invested less equity in clean energy than before its costly £7 billion rebrand, but it is also now rightly subject to a T…”

“I am delighted that the Liberal Democrats are keen to meet us and are willing to pay for it. Perhaps we can speak afterwards, but his constituents can speak to me any time. We are always available, across the country. This has been an excellent debate, with many views. It has highlighted the great importance of busines…”

“I think the hon. Gentleman is accusing you, Mr Vickers, rather than me. I simply say to him that increasing the threshold made a big difference to the 28,000 businesses that were taken out of registration. I encourage him to speak to businesses in his constituency that benefited from what is essentially a tax cut, in a…”

“It is always a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mr Vickers. First, I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Leicestershire (Mr Bedford) on securing this excellent debate. We arguably do not spend enough time in this place discussing small and medium-sized businesses, which account for some three fifths of empl…”