Speeches by Bell.

“It is a fair question. All means-test thresholds do involve judgments—I have been completely honest with the House about that—and the judgment we have come to is that we want to see the vast majority of pensioners receiving the winter fuel payment. We want to be absolutely sure that no lower-income pensioners will miss…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for his question. We have gone from competing over temperatures to competing over volume of pensioners, but both are important. The point he makes will echo with lots of Members around the House who have had similar conversations with pensioner constituents who are on a higher income and who do n…”

“My hon. Friend raises the important issue of the complexity of pensioner poverty. I will just give one example, which does not get mentioned in these discussions often enough. The growth rate—the value people are getting; the returns on every pound saved into a private pension—absolutely needs to be as strong as possib…”

“We have been making sure that there has been support over the course of the last winter, and the hon. Gentleman will have seen the increase in the state pension at the beginning of April, including for many of his constituents. The question for the Northern Ireland Executive is how they wish to handle this, but on the …”

“It is the hon. Member who is talking bilge. Growth was the highest in the G7 in the first quarter of this year, interest rates have fallen four times, and wages have risen faster in 10 months than they did in 10 years under the Conservatives. What is happening is that we are sorting out their mess and putting Britain o…”

“I am glad to hear about my hon. Friend’s previous role, and it is encouraging to see what charities representing older people have put out over the last few hours. As I said earlier, Age UK has said that this is the right thing to do and that it will bring much-needed reassurance for older people and their families.”

“I agree that we should welcome all Labour Back Benchers, because they are the people going through the Lobbies every day to keep in place a Labour Government who are saving public services, taking tough but fair decisions on tax—decisions that are opposed by all the Opposition parties—rescuing our public services and d…”

“I think I agree with my hon. Friend, in the sense that the tax system is a progressive tax system. That is the purpose for which it is being used in this case—to drive fairer outcomes for pensioners, and so that millionaires do not receive the benefit of a winter fuel payment but all lower and middle-income pensioners …”

“As I am sure the hon. Gentleman is aware, those are decisions for the Scottish Government. However, as I said, I have spoken to the relevant Ministers in the Scottish Government today. There will be a block grant adjustment to reflect this higher spending in England and Wales.”

“I absolutely recognise the hon. Member’s question, and I spoke to the Northern Ireland Executive earlier today. We will ensure that the Executive receive the budget adjustments in year in order to provide the same support, in line with the principle of parity under which the social security system in Northern Ireland o…”

“I almost always agree with my hon. Friend, so the answer is yes. He also provides me with an opportunity to clarify a point that has not been covered in the last hour or so: the payment will continue not to be exportable for those not resident in the UK.[Official Report, 2 July 2025; Vol. 770, c. 4WC.] (Correction)”

“I cannot compete with my hon. Friend in making a powerful case that the SNP Government in Edinburgh do need to think again.”

“I thank the hon. Member for raising that point. It is important that those in need of healthcare, in particular, receive support. It is not that we see higher levels of challenge in keeping the heating on among older generations; it is about the consequences of that, particularly in cases such as the one she raises. Th…”

“This is a Chancellor who has brought stability and growth back to the economy and got wages growing once again; one who is driving investment in our public services, which will rescue them; one who has driven up public investment, which is crucial to showing that, once again, we are a country that can do the basics lik…”

“I have seen those. Some of them get to the bar of proposals and some of them get to the bar of thoughts. It is right for us to be thinking creatively about the long-term best way to support not just pensioners, but poorer households more broadly with energy bills. The reason we do that is because energy bills are a muc…”

“Again, I think this is a point of cross-party consensus: a good thing that has happened in the last 15 years is that we have seen a big increase in private pension saving. Getting Britain saving into pensions again, mainly driving off the work in the 2000s, but then implemented during the 2010s, is very significant pro…”

“I think that is exactly the right set of questions. I definitely do not have all the answers to that, which is why a really big part of the next few years’ work is making sure that we are getting into those questions. We have all seen headline relative pensioner poverty rates halve under the last Labour Government, and…”

“There is a long argument that has been running for decades about the balance between the state’s role in providing direct financial support versus guidance and financial advice. My boring answer is that I think we need to do both. There is not some way around that. We need financial advice because often we provide advi…”

“Financial advice rather than financial support?”

“All the best people were, John.”