Middle East: Economic Update

Debate between Rachel Reeves and Julian Lewis

Tuesday 21st April 2026 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Reeves]

My hon. Friend knows what she is talking about, not least because she is the MP for Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes, but also as a result of her previous career before taking her seat at the last election. There are two ways in which people will benefit. The first is in the short term, through the higher electricity generator levy. We have increased the rate from 45% to 55%, which will bring in money this year that can help us as a Government to relieve some of the pressure on families and businesses. We will also use the higher levy to negotiate the contracts for difference at a good price for bill payers and taxpayers so that we get rid of that volatility. I am confident that in the months ahead, while we have the higher electricity generator levy in place, we will be able to negotiate the new contracts and reduce the volatility. Crucially, the reduction in volatility will benefit both households and businesses.

[Sir Julian Lewis (New Forest East) (Con)]

May I welcome the couple of positive references that the Chancellor made a little while ago to civil nuclear power? Given that we have in this country Rolls-Royce, a world-leading specialist in the design and construction of small modular mobile nuclear reactors, what plans do the Government have to support this particular sector so that we are less dependent on the whims of Iranian dictators in future?

[Rachel Reeves]

I was really pleased last week to sign with Rolls-Royce the contract for the first fleet of small modular reactors in the UK. They will be located on Anglesey, but they will create jobs for people from Derby to Warrington and from Manchester to Sheffield, and of course in north Wales and on Anglesey itself. We are also working with Rolls-Royce as it looks to secure contracts overseas, as it already has with Czechia, creating more good jobs here in Britain for this exciting new technology, which will also have the benefit of secure, home-grown energy.

Spring Forecast

Debate between Rachel Reeves and Julian Lewis

Tuesday 3rd March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Reeves]

The OBR confirmed today that, by the end of this Parliament, people will be £1,000 a year better off. That is compared with the fall in living standards under the previous Government. My hon. Friend’s constituency benefits from Pride in Place funding, through which we are investing in the places that were forgotten about and left behind during 14 years of Conservative government.

[Sir Julian Lewis (New Forest East) (Con)]

I hope the Chancellor will accept that I have challenged successive Governments over inadequate defence spending. If she does, will she also accept that it is not a wise idea to keep comparing current defence spending with the levels of defence spending “since the cold war”? We are not in “since the cold war” now; we are in a hot war in Europe and an incendiary war in the middle east. Does she know what percentage of GDP Mrs Thatcher spent during the cold war years of the 1980s? I will give her a clue: it was twice what we spend now in terms of percentage of GDP.

[Rachel Reeves]

A year and a half ago, the right hon. Gentleman stood on a manifesto that had absolutely no explanation of how his party would increase defence spending. This Government have increased defence spending. I am surprised that he criticises that, rather than welcoming it.

Spring Statement

Debate between Rachel Reeves and Julian Lewis

Wednesday 26th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Reeves]

My hon. Friend represents the constituency that neighbours mine. He knows as I do that there are far too many people in both our constituencies in Leeds and Bradford who are written off. There are people who are not working who are quite capable of working if they are given support. People may be disabled, but it does not mean that they cannot work and contribute if they are given the proper support. That is what the Conservative party failed to do, and that is what our Government are determined to deliver. We will work with disabled groups and jobcentres, including the one in Pudsey, where I was last week, to make sure that we support people to fulfil their potential and do not just write them off like the Conservatives did.

[Sir Julian Lewis (New Forest East) (Con)]

I welcome the Chancellor’s emphasis on defence expenditure and her support for the nuclear deterrent, but does she agree that, by his actions in Ukraine, Putin has restarted the cold war? Will she bear in mind that during the 1980s, up to the end of the cold war, we were regularly spending between 4.5% and 5% of GDP on defence? That is the sort of scale that is required.

[Rachel Reeves]

The right hon. Gentleman has long been an advocate of spending properly on defence. We have set out a fully funded and costed plan to get to 2.5% of GDP in the next two years and to 3% in the next Parliament. The world has changed. We can see that all around us. This Government will always put our national security and defence first, and as the situation evolves, of course so will we.

Public Spending: Inheritance

Debate between Rachel Reeves and Julian Lewis

Monday 29th July 2024 Commons Chamber

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Caroline Nokes)]

I call Sir Julian Lewis.

[Sir Julian Lewis (New Forest East) (Con)]

Congratulations on your election, Madam Deputy Speaker.

I cannot hope to match the splendid double entendre of the hon. Member for Walthamstow (Ms Creasy), but I may I say to the Chancellor that one effect of being here for a long time is a realisation that no one party has a monopoly on wisdom? Given the impartial assessment by the Library that covid cost this country between £310 billion and £410 billion, is she willing to at least concede that the previous Government did a pretty good job in getting inflation down to 2% less than two years after the pandemic?

[Rachel Reeves]

The pandemic is no excuse for making unfunded spending commitments, which is precisely what the previous Government did. The right hon. Gentleman mentioned the pandemic, during which the Government handed out contracts to friends and donors to their party, putting them in a VIP lane. That is why we are appointing a covid corruption commissioner. We want that money back in our public services, where it belongs.