Questioning Liz Truss

Barry intervened in Prime Minister’s Questions to ask the (then) Prime Minister Liz Truss what, in view of her recent experiences, she intended to do to improve the mental health of the people of the country, given the mental anguish and despair being sufferred by his constituents.

Her reply was that the Health Secretary has set out a "very clear plan". She resigned the next day.

Barry calls on new Chancellor to increase taxes on oil and gas producers

Barry warned that the government’s Energy Prices Bill, which is intended to control prices and encourage the efficient use and supply of energy, would introduce another windfall tax - but on renewables not oil and gas producers.

Speaking during the remaining stages of the Bill in the House of Commons on 17 October, he welcomed the new Chancellor’s statement announcing a Treasury-led review of the government’s energy support plan, he urged him to ditch the Investment Allowance Subsidy, which allows producers to effectively offset the temporary windfall tax, and to adopt a tax rate that the rest of the globe considers “fair and equitable”.

"Deep debt and despair" if the government doesn't uprate benefits in line with prices

Some 15,626 families in Brent North are dependent on means tested benefits. Today, Barry told the Leader of the House Penny Mordaunt that failing to uprate benefits in line with inflation may save the government £3 million but it will put those families, and millions like them across the country, into deep debt and despair.

He asked whether she would arrange for a debate on the uprating of benefits, and on poverty this winter.

Care Quality Commission confidence

Barry intervened today after an Urgent Question was asked of health minister Will Quince about the mistreatment of patients at the mental health Edenfield Centre in Prestwich near Manchester, where a BBC Panorama investigation found a "toxic culture of humiliation, verbal abuse and bullying".

What, he asked, was the earliest date a whistleblower or family member contacted the department or the Care Quality Commission, and what confidence can there be in the CQC as a result?

Barry demands a rise in the basic tax rate for oil and gas producers

Barry asked the Chief Secretary to the Treasury Chris Philp if, given the £60 billion borrowing for the government's energy guarantee is to be paid back by bill payers – not the oil and gas producers making record profits off the backs of the public's misery – he would consider raising the basic tax rate for producers. It's the lowest in the entire world and even raising it to the global average would raise £13.4 billion a year.

Predictably, Philp refused. This was soon after the climate minister Graham Stewart announced, in an Environmental Audit Committee in which Barry was sitting, a windfall tax on renewables – an outrageous move

"Turbocharging" the Iranian regime - Barry warns of the terrible consequences

Barry has today intervened in the House of Commons during an Urgent Question about the death of the young Iranian woman Mahsa Amini at the hands of the “morality police”, warning that any reduction in sanctions and unfreezing of Iranian assets would only serve to strengthen the regime and turbocharge its repression of young people.

“What assessment has the government made of the attempt by President Biden to revive the Iran nuclear deal, which would lead to such a reduction?”

Stuffing the pockets of the rich

Intervening in the new Chancellor’s “mini-Budget” statement, Barry challenged Kwasi Kwateng on his motives in slashing taxes.

“If the Chancellor is so optimistic about growth, will he set a timescale for it? Will it be six months? Will he retire in a year if the growth he has predicted hasn’t been achieved?

“Or was today's budget an admission that he’s going to stuff as much money into as many of his friends’ pockets before the general election in 2024?”

NHS workforce strategy

Barry challenged new health secretary Thérèse Coffey on the measures she announced to tackle NHS backlogs and waiting lists and shortages. He cited the experience of his constituents who waited five hours for an emergency ambulance after suffering a stroke.

“The health secretary can set all the expectations and targets she likes but she will not have the human resourse to achieve them unless she addresses the workforce strategy and the 132,000 vacancies in the NHS.”

Fracked off

The government’s lifting of the ban on fracking cannot be justified on environmental or economic grounds, Barry insisted.

He challenged the business secretary as to why taxpayers, who are covering 9/10ths of the investment in the incentives being given to oil and gas companies – who stand to make vast sums as a result – should not receive that amount of the profit?

Tax, Tax, Tax

Barry challenged the business secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg in the House of Commons on the government’s six-month cap on the unit price of gas and electricity for businesses and how the government would pay for it in the long term.

Barry asked: “Given that the domestic rate cap is to be based on a loan, to be paid out of future bills, if the business scheme is the same, why would businesses not regard this as a tax rise deferred?”

“If not, is the business secretary really expecting it to be repaid out of general taxation by the rest of the taxpayers?”

Plans to help businesses, schools and other organisations with spiralling energy costs this winter have been announced.

Watch the business secretary’s breathtaking response 🔽

Many have spoken of her life as a pattern of duty and service. And it was.

“Integrity is not commonly found in the public sphere these days. But her life was one of real integrity. We should thank God that she brought together all these virtues in her life. It was a life that was selfless. It was a life that was whole. And now it is complete.

“May her soul rest in peace.”

WATCH Barry’s tribute to Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. 🔽

When is a tax not a tax?

“Given that the Prime Minister has been careful to frame her guarantee on tackling energy prices in terms of her refusal to tax, how will she going to explain to the British public how a levy on their bills in the future to repay the borrowing is not actually a tax?”

WATCH Barry’s interventions in today’s parliamentary debate on UK energy costs 🔽

MoD uses Fire and Rehire against teachers in Cyprus

Children of service personnel in Cyprus are being taught by supply teachers brought out there on employment contracts with the Ministry of Defence. Barry has today (21 July) raised the urgent issue of the MoD’s threat to sack these teachers unless they sign new contracts that abolish their pension rights and lower their terms and conditions.

He called for an urgent government statement, given that ministers profess to be against Fire and Rehire.

WATCH his question here 🔽

Taxing Net Zero

Barry has asked Greg Hands MP, the minister of state for business, energy and clean growth, to look at the fiscal regime around offshore oil and gas and to abolish the “obscene subsidy” which is distorting investment into outdated fossil fuels instead of renewables, which do not qualify for the investment allowance.

WATCH 🔽

Stranded assets

Barry intervened in COP26 questions in the House of Commons to ask what Alok Sharma, the COP president, is doing to engage with the heads of financial sectors across the world about how they are dealing with the issue over $1 trillion in projected “stranded assets” due to low-carbon transition.

Driven by technological, societal and political change, renewable energy technologies are progressively replacing fossil fuels. A recent report found that, under an expectation that governments will fulfill their net-zero emissions pledges, these changes will accelerate, with the consequence that current oil and gas assets may be overvalued by more than $1 trillion.

WATCH Barry’s question 🔽

No more than a kleptocracy: Barry calls for urgent measures to support a new, democratic Sri Lanka

Thousands of Tamils in Brent North are deeply concerned about the situation in Sri Lanka, Barry told the House of Commons when he intervened on 13 July during an Urgent Question on the state of emergency declared there.

He pointed out that the Parliamentary Labour Party had long warned that the country’s government was “no more than a kleptocracy”, which had now been proven to be the case, and called on the minister to set out what measures the UK government was taking to support a new, strong, inclusive and democratic Sri Lanka.

No one in this chamber or outside it should have any confidence in this government

Barry intervened in yesterday’s debate (18 July) in the House of Commons on the confidence vote in Boris Johnson’s government, describing the so-called caretaker prime minister as a “reckless narcissist”.

“Are there any two words in the entire English language that describe this PM less than ‘care’ and ‘taker’?” Barry asked.

He said it was clear that the neither Johnson’s cabinet colleagues or the public had any confidence in him, yet Tory MPs had left him in place because they refuse to call a general election as they have no confidence they would win it.

WATCH Barry’s speech 🔽