Speeches by Kruger.

“It just doesn’t flow as well, but yes, apologies Madam Deputy Speaker.”

“It has been a very good debate, and I am very grateful to all hon. Members across the House who have contributed. It is still no clearer to us what the Government think or intend to do about the two-child cap, but it has been very good to hear so many strong voices from the Opposition Benches for and against the two-ch…”

“The story of the last 14 years is quite easily told. In 2010 there was a budget deficit of 9%, and we had almost fiscal bankruptcy. We spent 10 years very painfully restoring the public finances at great cost, and I totally understand that. Then we were back down to a balanced budget. Then covid hit, and we spent the l…”

“The difference is that child benefit is paid to everybody. Child benefit is a universal entitlement. We need to ensure that we are not adding to the incentives in the system to live a life on benefits. I fully recognise the point that the hon. Gentleman makes. When I say that some people receive more from the system th…”

“I am grateful to the hon. Member’s archaeology in finding my previous quotes. Many things did get worse over the last decade and a half—of course I recognise that. But much of it was as a consequence of the global financial meltdown that his party presided over. We spent many painful years fixing the deficit that Labou…”

“My hon. Friend is making a powerful speech, and I am grateful to him. Last week, I met a number of veterans of the Northern Ireland troubles in my constituency, and they made the exact point that he is making: they never went out to kill; they went out to defend British citizens. Is it not particularly outrageous that …”

“So here we are. Labour has had 15 years, including 14 years spent complaining about welfare reform while the Conservative Government fixed the catastrophic mess of unemployment benefits that we inherited—the alphabetti spaghetti of welfare that we had in 2010, if any of their Members can remember it. We fixed all those…”

“The fact is, in our time in government we increased the number of disabled people in work significantly. Two million more disabled people were in work at the end of our time in government than before. There is much to regret about the last years of our time in government, and I was a critic of them myself, but on welfa…”

“I am sure that the hon. Lady is right. Those disorders have also increased extraordinarily in recent years. I take her point, and I was struck by the point she made in her speech about how many people with ADHD would benefit from being in the workplace. They could be in work, and they need to be supported for that. It …”

“I am happy to give way.”

“I am not talking about explicit fraud. These awards are being given, and no doubt the assessment is judging them to be eligible. There is not necessarily a deliberate attempt to defraud the system. What we have done is create a system whereby one is incentivised to seek higher and more expensive claims.”

“The Secretary of State is declining to take the power to refer to the High Court on unduly lenient Parole Board decisions in cases of manslaughter, like that of Robert Brown, who killed the best friend of my constituent, Hetti Barkworth-Nanton. Will the Minister meet me to discuss this decision and explore how we can e…”

“18. What steps she is taking to ensure she can refer Parole Board decisions in cases of serious offenders to the High Court.”

“Let me start by giving credit to the hon. Member for Salford (Rebecca Long Bailey) for her very powerful speech and for all the work that she has done on this campaign over the years, and to many other Labour Members who have spoken so well today, particularly the right hon. Member for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonn…”

“It is absolutely essential that the points made in the ombudsman’s report are fully acknowledged by the Government, and it is necessary, as I will explain, that some meaningful redress is made to the victims of the DWP’s maladministration. The hon. Member for Salford suggested that there could be another review of the …”

“Although that support is not going to come in for another couple of years.”

“The Resolution Foundation says that the likely impact of the PIP changes is that older claimants are more likely to be impacted than younger claimants. They are also less amenable to the incentives so it is harder for them to respond to a reduction in benefit income by seeking work or more work, whereas younger people …”

“Do you think the scheme is fine at the moment?”

“Good. Okay, well to get our support we would need to have confidence that we are going to see genuine long-term reductions in the overall spending on welfare, which we do not believe will happen under the current proposals on their own, and to see genuine support on the labour market side. At the moment we are seeing j…”

“All right. Let me just ask you this again, following up my question to you in the Chamber yesterday about Motability. I understand you are not looking at the scheme. Why is that? There has been such an increase in expenditure on that scheme, a lot of people getting vehicles and only 5% of vehicles are adapted for physi…”