Speeches by Davey.

“It is a pleasure to follow the Chair of the Treasury Committee, the hon. Member for Hackney South and Shoreditch (Dame Meg Hillier), and I wish her all the best in her new role, especially given her promise to scrutinise this Budget very, very closely. I join her in noting that this is an historic day. This is the firs…”

“I thank the Prime Minister for his reply. I hope we really can take that world leadership back again. Another issue on which the UK needs to show urgent leadership is the escalating war in Sudan. Tens of thousands of people have been killed, and 11 million Sudanese have had to flee from their homes. The reports of mass…”

“I thank the Prime Minister for his reply. I hope we really can take that world leadership back again. Another issue on which the UK needs to show urgent leadership is the escalating war in Sudan. Tens of thousands of people have been killed, and 11 million Sudanese have had to flee from their homes. The reports of mass…”

“I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for that point. That should certainly be part of the review, but one or two other issues, which I will talk about, are critical to reform probably even before that. At just £81.90 a week, carer’s allowance is the lowest benefit of its kind. For someone doing 35 hours of caring a week…”

“For carers who can receive carer’s allowance, which does not include young carers, it is a lifeline. Carer’s allowance is the main financial support available but, frankly, as the main way that we support family carers, it is not fit for purpose.”

“The hon. Member is absolutely right. I include young carers; indeed, I am a member of the all-party parliamentary group on young carers and young adult carers, and I invite him to join us. It is chaired by a well-established Labour Member. Young carers are very much part of our thinking, but for some, who will not be y…”

“I beg to move, That this House recognises the remarkable contributions that the UK’s 5.7 million unpaid carers make to society and the huge financial challenges many face; notes with deep concern that tens of thousands of carers are unfairly punished for overpayments of Carer’s Allowance due to the £151-a-week earnings…”

“I thank the Prime Minister for that answer, and ask him that Ministers listen to the voices of carers throughout the review. Let me turn to the middle east. Israeli Finance Minister Smotrich has said that starving 2 million people in Gaza might be “justified and moral”. National Security Minister Ben-Gvir called settle…”

“I echo the Prime Minister’s tributes to Alex Salmond, Sir David Amess and Lily Ebert. I welcome the news that Ministers are going to review the carer’s allowance repayment scandal, after campaigns by carers organisations, The Guardian and the Liberal Democrats, culminating in our motion on the Order Paper today, but do…”

“I made it very clear in my speech that there could be examples of fraud, so I ask the right hon. Gentleman to check the record. I could not have been clearer, and we have talked about this at length in other fora—indeed, we made it clear at the general election. I am afraid that the right hon. Gentleman has shown to th…”

“Other opticians are available.”

“I hope that the right hon. Gentleman will correct the record, because the unpaid carers’ break was brought in by the private Member’s Bill of my hon. Friend the Member for North East Fife (Wendy Chamberlain). It was not brought in by the Conservative Government.”

“I am grateful to the Minister for what she has just said, but will she confirm that the remit of the review will go further into the structure of carer’s allowance? Many of us think that the earnings limit is way too low, and the whole cliff-edge structure has to change. Can she confirm that the review will look at tha…”

“The right hon. Gentleman makes exactly the right point and as her MP I am pursuing that line of argument, but we need a change of culture and attitude at the DWP to be able to proceed with these cases on behalf of our constituents. She told me that the whole thing makes her want to give up caring and give up working. T…”

“I will let the right hon. Gentleman in, but then I do want to make some progress.”

“Thank you, Mr Speaker. The hon. Gentleman is of course right and I pay tribute to his constituent, who was lucky enough to be presented the award by Mr Speaker. He is right about the mental health of carers. NHS data shows that the mental health of carers is twice as poor as it is for the population at large because of…”

“Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?”

“When he was Secretary of State, did the right hon. Gentleman ask what proportion of overpayments were due to egregious fraud and what proportion were due to being a small amount over the earnings limit?”

“I am disappointed about the youth mobility scheme—maybe we can come back to that—but the Prime Minister is right to say that one of the many problems for our economy coming from the dreadful Brexit deal is the red tape that has been put on businesses. There are many examples of that, but a new example came to me earlie…”

“Across this House, we all agree that we need to get our economy growing strongly again so that we can improve people’s lives and raise the money for our public services. The Liberal Democrats believe that one of the best ways of doing that is to improve our relationship with our European neighbours on things like trade…”