Oral Answers to Questions

Carolyn Harris Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd April 2026 Commons Chamber

[Dave Doogan (Angus and Perthshire Glens) (SNP)]

7. What steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help reduce the cost of living in Wales.

[Carolyn Harris (Neath and Swansea East) (Lab)]

12. What steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help reduce the cost of living in Wales.

[Gerald Jones (Merthyr Tydfil and Aberdare) (Lab)]

13. What steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help reduce the cost of living in Wales.

--- Later in debate ---

[Jo Stevens]

I do not think the hon. Gentleman can have been listening when I mentioned, in answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵr (Steve Witherden), that Plaid has admitted that it will cut the budget for child poverty. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has been clear that Plaid would have to make spending cuts or raise taxes to pay for its unfunded manifesto pledges, and at some point before 7 May its leader is going to have come clean on what Plaid is going to do.

[Carolyn Harris]

With almost 170,000 workers in Wales benefiting from Labour’s successive increases to the national minimum wage and the living wage, families across the country—including many of my constituents—will now be better off. Despite resistance from Opposition parties, this Government have shown their commitment to tackling the cost of living crisis and supporting working people. Could the Secretary of State update the House on how those changes and the Employment Rights Act 2025 will benefit people in my constituency and across Wales?

[Jo Stevens]

We promised that we would be a Government for working people, and that is exactly what we have done. Our industrial strategy is set to support tens of thousands of new jobs across Wales. We have provided more employment support to help people get into work, increased the national minimum wage and the living wage, and strengthened rights and protections at work, making work pay, and making it more secure and fairer through our Employment Rights Act. New jobs have been created, alongside better jobs and higher wages, all because of this Labour Government.