Chris Bryant

Chris Bryant

Labour — Rhondda and Ogmore

Speaking in the House of Commons on 3 September 2025

Debate

Hospitality Sector

Contribution

They don’t like it up ’em, do they, Madam Deputy Speaker? The shadow Business Secretary then said, “We think they’re the right plans because those plans make our economy competitive.” The problem with the argument that he has made today is that he has not learned a single thing since that mini-Budget. He still wants us to tax less and spend more at the same time. Yes, of course he wants to reverse the national insurance increase, but does he point to where the money should come from? No, of course he doesn’t. He likes the additional spending on the NHS, he approves of our spending on prisons, he supports more spending on policing, and he clamours for more spending on defence—and, no doubt, on trains, telecoms, universities and schools—but he does not want to pay for it, which is why it is as plain as a pikestaff that he has not changed a bit. He would re-run the Truss mini-Budget in the twinkling of an eye. It was doolally economics when Truss introduced it and it is doolally economics today. I give you, Madam Deputy Speaker, the Minister for doolally economics. Let me deal with two specific points that he made.

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