Topical Questions

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Why should hardworking people pay for the Prime Minister's fraud failures when he was Chancellor, and for the mini-Budget fiasco of the former Prime Minister?

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Will my right hon. Friend reassure me that this Government will do all they can to help small businesses across the country to thrive?

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Will the Chancellor tell the House where the UK is projected to finish in OECD growth rates over the next year?

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Why does not the Chancellor match Labour's ambitions for British industries in hydrogen, insulation, carbon capture, solar, nuclear and wind power to create new jobs here in Britain?

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Given that we have an energy crisis, will the Government allow onshore wind where communities want it, require built-in photovoltaics, where they will work, on new homes, and allow solar farms on 3b land?

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Will the Chancellor consider taxing share buy-backs, as the US and Canada have done?

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What is the long-term plan to reduce our dependence on gas so that taxpayers do not have to subsidise energy bills?

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The Chancellor will be aware of concerns about the adequacy of the £100 payment that the Government have proposed to support off-grid households with the cost of their heating. It is equally concerning that we still await details of when and how it will be paid, as well as the support that will be made available to off-grid businesses. When will the Government publish that information?

Question

FairFuelUK's latest survey of 17,000 motorists and hauliers shows that they continue to be punished by crippling and needlessly high fuel taxation, from which the Treasury has benefited to the tune of £3 billion. That is why I am backing the campaign of and FairFuelUK to keep the fuel duty cut at the very least. Does the Chancellor agree?

Question

Earlier this year, Bradford submitted a levelling-up fund bid—the only bid developed from the grassroots up by local community groups—to build three new community-led health centres that would deliver transformational benefits for Bradford and act to reverse the crippling health inequalities that we face. Ahead of the announcement on Thursday, does the Chancellor see that if he does not back grassroots, community-led transformational projects like this, it is clear that the Government's levelling-up agenda is truly dead?

Question

As chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on personal banking and fairer financial services, I have been in protracted correspondence with the Financial Conduct Authority about the Blackmore Bond scandal. Despite receiving more than 30 complaints and a whistleblower producing evidence, the FCA refused to investigate. I realise that it predates my hon. Friend's appointment, but will he investigate this and force the FCA to take action?

Question

It is not just individual mortgage payers who are impacted by increasing borrowing costs; that is a particular problem for housing associations such as Parkhead Housing Association, which I spoke to this morning. Previously, housing associations were able to borrow at fixed rates of 25 and 30 years, but that has been reduced. Would the Chancellor be willing to meet me, to look at how we can pursue this with lenders, to ensure that we do not stifle competition when it comes to building housing association properties?

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I welcomed the Chancellor's predecessor to Rother Valley in the summer, to show him Dinnington high street and the money that was needed to upgrade it. He agreed to meet me further about levelling up. Will the Chancellor come to Rother Valley and Dinnington high street to see the levelling-up fund money that we need when the bid is in, and will he look kindly on our bid and make sure the whole of Rother Valley is levelled up?

Question

My constituent registered with a regulated firm and invested in the financial product that an FCA-regulated broker recommended. My constituent and her father both lost money on the fraudulent product that the broker recommended. Does the Minister agree that the FCA should step in and support victims of scams, and will he empower and instruct the FCA and other regulators to be more aggressive in their support of the defrauded?

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OnSide's youth centres do an incredible job of transforming people's lives, and I think young people in my constituency deserve that opportunity too. Will the Chancellor support my calls for the levelling-up fund to be spent on that important project in West Bromwich?

Question

Last week, over 100,000 civil servants from the Public and Commercial Services Union voted to take industrial action following attacks on their jobs. For the first time ever, the Royal College of Nursing has voted to strike over pay. Lecturers, health workers, teachers, postal and transport workers—all people who aim to support this country—are suffering because of the cost of living crisis and the former Prime Minister's £30 billion ideological rant. The autumn statement needs to show that working people are being listened to. Will it do that, or will it just punish them?

Question

The Bedford to Cambridge section of East West Rail is rated “unachievable” by the Infrastructure and Projects Authority and a “waste of taxpayers' money” by the Business Secretary, and growth in the Ox-Cam arc does not depend on it. Can the Chancellor use the autumn statement to finally clear the uncertainty around this deeply flawed project?

Question

Government advice to sit in the shade is not enough to protect our skin. Sunscreen products need to be more affordable. Will the Minister work with me and support my VAT Burn campaign to save the NHS money, keep more cash in our constituents' pockets and help to protect our skin from melanoma and non-melanoma cancers?

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The noble Lord Berkeley in the other place has estimated that scrapping HS2 would save the British taxpayer £147 billion—more pessimistic estimates have the saving at £100 billion. With a day of difficult decisions coming up on Thursday, surely scrapping HS2 is an easy one?

Question

The Chancellor just mentioned my good friend Lord Alistair Darling. He should also look at the recent speech made in Huddersfield by another former Chancellor, Sir John Major. His analysis of what has happened to our economy since the Conservatives took over in 2010 is an absolute masterclass in what has gone wrong and what needs to be put right. Will the Chancellor read it and think about it before Thursday?

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As the Chancellor prepares for his autumn statement, will he remember the good voters of middle England—people who have rarely, if ever, been on benefits and who have worked all their lives for their mortgage and pension pot? They fear that more and more of them will be dragged into becoming higher rate taxpayers and that their pension pot will be attacked so that the state can get larger and more can be spent on those on benefits.

Question

Skyrocketing inflation, much of it caused by calamities on the Government Benches, means that the Scottish Government's annual budget is worth up to £900 million less than it was just a few weeks ago. When will the UK Government devolve more borrowing powers to Scotland, so we can give the extra, desperately needed assistance to those struggling the most in our country?

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Given that we both agree on the need for a substantial increase in defence spending, does the Chancellor accept that any immediate, necessary freeze on it should not prejudice the goal of 3% of GDP in the medium term?

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In a letter to the Chancellor last week, Lord Deben said clearly that demand reduction is “now the biggest gap” in UK energy policy. Will Thursday's autumn statement include an emergency investment of at least £3.6 billion over the course of this Parliament, so we can finally roll out the long-awaited and very overdue home insulation programme that this country needs?