Speeches by Bedford.

“T3. On Friday I had the privilege of visiting LOROS, Leicestershire’s much-respected palliative care charity. At full capacity it could offer 31 beds to local residents, but sadly, because of the measures that the Chancellor has introduced, such as the national insurance hike, it now operates only 18 beds. May I ask th…”

“I am not giving away. The Chancellor has also blown billions of pounds on GB Energy—a project so vague that no one seems to know what it does—while handing out inflation-busting pay rises to appease the unions. Now she cannot even claw back £5 billion of savings to keep market confidence as the country’s debt spirals o…”

“I am conscious of time and there is one more member who wants to get in. I have two quick questions. You mentioned about conditionality. Do you envisage the uptake of employment support ever being a condition of a disabled claimant’s benefit? That is the first question. The second question follows on from Danny Kruger’…”

“Minister, I want to touch on the elephant in the room. You have got your Second Reading of the welfare Bill due to come before Parliament on Tuesday. Is it still your intention to bring that Bill forward for Second Reading on Tuesday?”

“Thank you very much. On to questions for today. Over the last number of years, particularly in recent years, there has been an increase in working age health-related benefits. That has increased quite substantially while working age non-health-related benefits have dropped off. There is a suggestion that you touched on…”

“I think colleagues have some questions later on getting people into the right jobs. Going back to health, particularly mental health, over recent years we had the pandemic and we have had a lot of upheaval in the country, and there has been a marked increase in those with mental health problems claiming these types of …”

“I may come back later on the issue of getting people back into work. Thank you.”

“I beg to move, That this House has considered the impact of the VAT registration threshold on SMEs. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Vickers. It was Napoleon Bonaparte who once said that “England is a nation of shopkeepers”. As is often the case with Napoleon, he was wrong. England, and indeed the …”

“I thank the Minister for his speech. I ask him to take back to the Treasury the various arguments that have been put forward today, particularly about the benefits for the broader economy and for our local communities that could be achieved by reviewing the VAT registration threshold. I thank the hon. Member for Mid Du…”

“I thank the hon. Member for his intervention and I absolutely agree. As a Unionist myself, I want to see all parts of the UK thrive and grow, and that obviously includes Northern Ireland. This debate equally applies to Northern Ireland as it does to everywhere else in the Union. I was talking about UKHospitality, which…”

“I absolutely agree. Over the last year, particularly in the Budget and recent announcements, we have seen measures that stifle the growth of SMEs and small businesses. I thank my hon. Friend for raising that today because I am passionate about supporting them, not only so that the economy can grow, but so that we can c…”

“Organised gangs operate in many spheres—sex, drugs and, as reported in the media, our welfare system. This totally undermines public confidence in the system. Will the Minister make representations to the Home Secretary to ensure that foreign nationals who are found to have abused our welfare system are removed from th…”

“On Second Reading I spoke in support of the principle of the Bill, because I believe that freedom of choice, especially at the end of life, should always rest with the individual; that it is the individual with a terminal diagnosis who is best placed to decide when it is their time to slip away. As a society, we do not…”

“I am not giving way. As a supporter of the Bill, I have listened to the debate closely and I agree that we need better palliative care across the UK. My own grandparents were both superbly supported by amazing Macmillan nurses in their final weeks battling incurable cancers. But I recognise that this support is not uni…”

“As MPs, we receive a wide range of correspondence from constituents during some of the most difficult times in their lives, but the email that I received from Emma Johnson was perhaps one of the most harrowing that I have ever received. It is because of Emma’s story that I have tabled new clause 51, and I will speak to…”

“I recently met a load of entrepreneurs and small businesses in Mid Leicestershire who all have the same concern about the low VAT registration threshold of just £90,000. That is stifling their growth, because it adds a lot of bureaucracy and cost. What representations will the Minister make to the Chancellor to ensure …”

“Having spoken to employers in my constituency, I wonder whether there is a cultural issue at the DWP around a lack of understanding of how business works and operates. The civil service—the state sector—is completely different to a lot of small and medium-sized businesses that would like to recruit. That could be a pro…”

“I want to plug this report from the House of Commons Library on youth unemployment that was published yesterday. It is a very interesting read with some quite stark statistics: youth unemployment has gone up by 42,000 in the last year and there are an extra 50,000 economically inactive young people over the last year. …”

“Without going too much into the policy of the Employment Rights Bill—I know a little bit about it as I was on the Bill Committee—I was concerned about some of the impacts of that Bill on youth unemployment. I think the official definition of young people is up to 24. In terms of day one rights, for example, if I am an …”

“Welcome, Minister. Turning to employers, we have heard and read evidence that employers are reluctant to use jobcentres for recruitment. I have certainly visited a number of jobcentres in Leicestershire and had similar conversations. Does the Department understand why that is? What is it doing about that?”