Liam Byrne MP
@liambyrnemp
🌹MP Hodge Hill & Solihull North | Chair, Business & Trade Committee | New book! Why Populists Are Winning & How To Beat Them:
WATCH: Discussing Wealth Tax on @lbc.co.uk with Andrew Marr and @alastaircampbell2.bsky.social 1/2
Out on Este Road in Garretts Green for our weekly street surgery. Residents told me about the parking and speeding issues - and the anti-social behaviour of e-bike riders. Plus, the potholes that never seem to get properly fixed. I'm onto all of it.
I welcomed the UK-Switzerland trade deal today - £5.2bn a year for British services exporters is real money for real jobs. But I pressed the Minister on the small print: → Does this lock in higher costs for NHS medicines? → Is access to generic medicine genuinely protected? Our exchange:
For weeks, I’ve been warning of a critical incident in Dover unless the EU suspends its new border checks until the system actually works. This isn't a technical glitch. Thank you @itvnews.bsky.social Business & Economics Editor, Joel Hills, for the reporting: www.itv.com/news/2026-07... 1/2
Here’s this weeks essay, with an intro to the essay I’ve written for @neweconomics.bsky.social on why Mr Burnham should a global coordination of wealth tax strategy at the G20 open.substack.com/pub/liambyrn...
Most British businesses still aren’t using AI, while around 7/10 workers are employed in jobs where AI could reshape the tasks they perform. The Business & Trade Committee’s inquiry is asking a simple question: is Britain preparing for the biggest change to the world of work since the internet?
When our Business & Trade Committee investigated the pressures facing Britain’s small firms earlier this year, we heard the same story again and again. Rising energy costs. Higher business rates. Crime. Cash flow pressures. Endless complexity. 1/7
We need to take dark money, like crypto currency, out of politics for good - that’s why only a total ban will do. My question in the Commons today:
The Business and Trade Committee is calling for a new UK-US economic relationship that focuses on the practical needs of businesses, rather than sector tariff mitigations.
A Critical Incident is imminent at Dover unless the new Entry/ Exit checks are suspended. The Port's analysis points to queues spilling onto the roads this summer, with British trucks stuck behind holidaymakers on the M20. Here’s my question in the Commons today.
The UK now lags behind our allies in banning imported goods made with forced labour. We need tougher protections. I think ministers get it. But we MUST move faster
The sub-postmaster knew your name. Then Horizon told a lie – and the Post Office chose to believe the machine over the people.
Ten years on from the Brexit vote, what is the Government's EU reset actually delivering? Our Business and Trade Committee has looked hard at the evidence. My verdict in two minutes ⬇️
I’m appalled by Royal Mail's failure to deliver invitations to our Castle Bromwich residents meeting on time. We have summoned Royal Mail to ask for an explanation and will discuss with them how to re-run the event at their expense. Link to the questionnaire here: liambyrnemp.co.uk/conservation
1/6 Ten years on from the Brexit vote and thirteen months after its first report into the UK’s “EU reset”, the Business & Trade Committee today finds that the initial stakeholder welcome for the Reset's ambition has been hit by concerns about delivery.
Labour won power in 2024 with an argument about the state we were in. Now we need a project for the world we're in Here’s this weeks long read on why this moment of transition is time for a comprehensive new national strategy ➡️ open.substack.com/pub/liambyrn...
I tabled questions to the Foreign Office about the unacceptable situation in Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Here’s the response I received: I’ll continue to press for the Government to maximise pressure to protect citizens on the ground.
Ministers were right to introduce new steel tariffs to protect our steel-makers, but I’ve heard too much evidence that they’re not quite right. That’s why I’m calling on ministers to get the details sorted by the end of the month.
1/3 Next Thursday, I'm bringing the book home to Birmingham. 'Why Populists Are Winning' is about a feeling millions of people share - that the country stopped working for them. I wrote it to prove that anger has somewhere better to go than the populist right.
Out on the doors in Makerfield! @andyburnhamgm.bsky.social is running a brilliant local campaign - all politics is hyper-local now, and it shows. It feels like most of the Labour movement is here to help! Thousands of volunteers, every corner of the party.
Every week I meet young people full of talent, but too many don’t get the chance to make the most of it. Through the Youth Guarantee, we’re backing 300,000 placements in industry. Every young person deserves a fair shot. My latest for the Solihull Observer 👇
Following the Business & Trade Committee's meetings in Canada with defence manufacturers, investors & finance partners, I've written to the PM asking why Britain isn't doing more to support the Canadian-led Defence Security Resilience Bank (DSRB) and boost investment in our defence industrial base.
380,000 UK businesses need finance to grow. We have £3 trillion in pension assets and £264 billion in unused capital sitting idle. Our new Investing in the UK Economy report sets out how to connect them: publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5902/cm...
Yesterday, at London Stock Exchange, the Business and Trade Committee launched our report on transforming access to finance for British business. The argument is simple. Britain is not short of money. We are short of the systems to put it to work.
With almost 140 Labour colleagues, I've written to the Foreign Secretary calling for a ban on trade with illegal Israeli settlements. We are deeply concerned by the rise in violent settler attacks on Palestinians, and by the relentless settlement expansion that is forcing families off their land.
What can UK leaders learn from Mark Carney’s Canada Strong? • Turn danger into unity • Diversify and combine • Become indispensable • Rebuild hard power • Make net zero strengthen the nation • Mobilise technology to help build the nation • Deliver at speed This weeks substack: tinyurl.com/ehyxvzf9
It was great to join Mark Leonard, Director @ecfr.eu for a recent edition of his podcast, 'Mark Leonard's World in 30 Minutes.'