Commons Chamber

Thursday 27th November 2025

(began 2 weeks, 6 days ago)

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None Portrait Q1. What steps her Department is taking to increase access to arts and culture. (906587)
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for culture, Media and Sport. Steve Witherden number one, please, Mr. Speaker.
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None Portrait Q4. What discussions she has had with Cabinet colleagues on funding for youth services. (906594)
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Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi number.
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None Portrait Q8. What assessment she has made of the potential merits of introducing a cap on the resale of concert tickets. (906599)
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Richard Baker. Question number eight, Mr. Speaker.
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Lisa Nandy Portrait Rt Hon Lisa Nandy MP, The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Wigan, Labour)
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So in terms of the resale of concert tickets, we've taken a decision after a long period of consultation to cap the resale at its original price. He mentioned some of the examples. There are others as well. Just recently I looked at some of the Radiohead tickets that were on sale for £100 as the original price that were being resold on one of these platforms for over £1,000. That is an absolute rip off for fans. That's gone on in plain sight for far too long, and that's why we've announced that the original resale price is what it will be sold for.

Time is up for the ticket touts.

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What did you pay for Oasis tickets? Jim? So John Whittingdale number ten, sir.

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number ten, sir. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As the House would imagine, I'm currently having daily conversations with the BBC leadership on a number of issues, including charter renewal, issues, including charter renewal, and I have been clear that we stand by the BBC to secure its role at the heart of national life for the heart of national life for decades to come. But the forthcoming Charter Review will be a vital opportunity for us to collectively shape the BBC's future and consider how it needs to change in this new era.

In particular, for in this new era. In particular, for years, our nations and regions have been underserved and underrepresented by the concentration of power in just one part of the country. When it comes to our television industry, and

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we're determined that the BBC will continue to lead the way on changing that John Whittingdale. But the Secretary of State will
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None Portrait Q11. What discussions she has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on gambling duties. (906603)
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Thank you. Question number 11, Mr. Speaker, sir. Stay.
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None Portrait Topical questions: Culture, Media and Sport
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To topicals.
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None Portrait Oral questions: Church Commissioners and House of Commons Commission and Public Accounts Commission and Restoration and Renewal Client Board and Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission
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Right. We now come to questions. The hon. Member representing Church Commissioners and all members for Blaenau Gwent representing the House. I now call Doctor Peter Priestley.
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None Portrait Q1. To ask the hon. Member for Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney, representing the House of Commons Commission, what steps the Commission has taken to enable more schools to visit the Palace of Westminster. (906560)
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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Question number one. Nick Smith.
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None Portrait Q4. To ask the hon. Member for Battersea, representing the Church Commissioners, what discussions the Commissioners have had with the House of Bishops on the decision to move to a two thirds majority requirement in Synod to progress the recommendations of Living in Love and Faith. (906563)
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Steve Race question.
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None Portrait Q9. To ask the hon. Member for Battersea, representing the Church Commissioners, what steps the Church of England is taking to install solar power for churches. (906571)
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Sian Berry number ten, Mr. Panel question Alan Campbell. Mr. speaker, the Church of
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None Portrait Urgent question: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will make a statement on reported plans to restrict the right to trial by jury
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now come to the Urgent Question Robert Robert Jenrick. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
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Sarah Sackman Portrait Sarah Sackman MP, The Minister of State, Ministry of Justice (Finchley and Golders Green, Labour)
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Mr. speaker. This government inherited an emergency in our criminal courts with record and rising caseloads, leaving victims behind each and every one of those cases facing agonising delays, waiting to see justice done. While some defendants hope their accusers simply give up on justice, that is why the government asked Sir Brian Leveson, a pre-eminent jurist and one of our most experienced judges, to undertake an independent review, a once in a generation review of our criminal courts.

We have been carefully considering his recommendations and agree that a crisis of this scale requires bold action to get the system moving and to deliver swifter justice for victims. No final decisions have been made on exactly how to take forward the blueprint that Sir Brian and his expert panel has set down, and I suggest that the House waits for that response. But let me be clear. Jury trials will always be a cornerstone of British justice. This government will do whatever it takes to prepare to protect the fundamental right to a fair trial.

The great British justice system, with all of its traditions, would never let victims wait, in some cases for years. For justice. There is indeed Mr Speaker a clash of ideas between this side of the House and the opposition. We are on the side of modernisation, of defending our values and of swifter justice for victims, whilst they're prepared to watch the system rot, not offering any answers. The old adage rings true that in the current crisis, justice delayed is justice denied.

The system was simply not designed for a scenario where there are tens of thousands of victims facing agonising delays for justice. The vast majority of cases in our courts are already heard without juries. Around 90% of all criminal cases are dealt with robustly, fairly by magistrates, with no jury. The country deserves meaningful reforms which back victims back modernisation and back fairness over those gaming the system to speed up the courts and get victims the swift justice that they deserve.

Resolving the court backlog and ensuring fair justice. As I have said, we intend to respond to the first part of Sir Brian's review very soon. So the House, I'm afraid, will have to wait a little longer for that

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response. No more leaks just yet, right? Robert Jenrick. Thank you.
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Robert Jenrick Portrait Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP (Newark, Conservative)
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Thank you. Mr. Speaker. Well, this government lurches from one outrage to another. Yesterday, the Chancellor shredded her promises and dropped a £26 billion tax bomb on working Britain. Meanwhile, we learned that the justice secretary is plotting to discard centuries of jury trials without so much of a by your leave. And where is the Justice Secretary to answer for this? Do we need to send out a search party to Saville Row in case he's gone suit shopping again this morning? Or perhaps he couldn't face up to the embarrassment that he is now destroying the very principles he once championed.

Jury trials are fundamental to the justice system. They're fundamental to our democracy, and we must protect them. Not my words. Those of the Justice Secretary himself. And this time he was right. There is wisdom in 12 ordinary citizens pooling their collective experiences of the world. But now he's in government. He's doing the complete opposite. He blames the court backlog. But if the courtroom standing empty this year were used, the backlog would be down by 5 to 10,000 cases.

He pleads poverty on law and order. But yesterday the Chancellor came here and found £16 billion more to spend on benefits. The truth is, the Labour Party just don't think ordinary people are up to it. They don't trust them with these decisions. Give away the Chagos Islands. Shackle us to the scrap jury trials. All because lawyers know best. And when the justice secretary is summoned here to the people's house, what does he do? He cowers. He cowers away.

Well, the people who make up juries, the British people, they won't wear it anymore. So I have one simple question for the Minister. He sent in his stay. Will she protect what is fundamental to our democracy? Or will she stand by as the Justice Secretary casually casts aside centuries of English liberty?
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Sarah Sackman Portrait Sarah Sackman MP, The Minister of State, Ministry of Justice (Finchley and Golders Green, Labour)
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How extraordinary. Mr. speaker, he claims to care about the rule of he claims to care about the rule of law. He claims to care about ancient legal traditions. Mr. speaker, this is the same shadow speaker, this is the same shadow Justice secretary that denigrates our independent judges, that denigrates our legal community. denigrates our legal community. Standing up for rights. I've already said, and I'll say it again, the right. To jury trial for our the right. To jury trial for our most serious cases will remain a fundamental part of our British fundamental part of our British legal tradition.

But since he is so fond of quoting our ancient principles, quoting Magna Carta, let me remind him of what is our constitutional right. What Magna Carta says is to no one will we delay right or justice, the right to a swift and prompt trial is a fundamental ingredient of fairness, of fairness. And when you have the crisis that we inherited from the party opposite, a backlog now of some 80,000 cases behind each and every one of those cases, an actual victim, somebody accused of a crime, we are denying in the current system a fair trial because as victims, as witnesses pull out of the process as is increasingly happening, that is denying fairness today a victim of rape.

And I say this with the pin that I'm wearing, as we stand in 16 days of activism against violence, against women and girls. A woman reporting a rape today in London to be told that her trial may not come on until 2029 to 2030. That is not justice at all. That is the consequence of allowing the Crown Court backlog to spiral out of control and doing nothing. Offering not a single answer that is not upholding the right. The fundamental British constitutional right to a fair trial.

It is exactly the opposite. And I certainly, for one, as part of this government, am not prepared to sit idly by. It's why we've gripped the crisis, making record investment in sitting days, extending magistrates court sentencing powers. Investment in legal aid. And of course, asking one of our finest jurists, Brian Leveson, to conduct an independent review to provide us with a blueprint for how we get out of this mess. The party opposite. They like to call themselves the party of tradition, the party of law and order.

And yet they presided over a justice system in which the British public can no longer have confidence. I'm afraid that I'm not prepared to let victims down. This Labour government is finally putting victims first. It is why we are going to consider very carefully, Sir Brian's recommendations. It's why we will undertake to implement his blueprint, which takes as its fundamental premise this, that the system is broken. There is no one in this house. There is no one in the community that represents victims.

There is no one in the legal community, no judge, no one operating and working hard in the system to keep it going. Who thinks that the system isn't broken? We have to fix it. And what Sir Brian Leveson tells us is that investment alone will not fix it. We need investment coupled with structural reform and modernisation. That is exactly the blueprint that this government will bring forward because, as I said, we believe in the right to a fair trial. We believe in British justice and

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unlike the party opposite, we will deliver swifter justice for victims. Chair of the Select Committee, Andy Slaughter. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
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Sarah Sackman Portrait Sarah Sackman MP, The Minister of State, Ministry of Justice (Finchley and Golders Green, Labour)
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Minister? Well, as she heard me say a moment ago, the constitutional right that we guarantee every right that we guarantee every citizen in this country who comes before our criminal courts is the right to a fair trial, and where victims are waiting for years for their day in court. Right now, justice is not being served. When the Secretary of State made those comments, it was obviously in a very different context, not one where, not one where the party opposite had allowed the backlogs to run out of control.

And as I said earlier, as I said earlier, and I said clearly, the right to a jury trial and the jury trial will always be a cornerstone of the British justice system. That is not going to change. It doesn't change in Sir Brian's report, where he recommends the restriction of jury trial in certain cases, and it's not going to change in the plans that the government is bringing down. She is right that what we need is a combination of structural reform and investment.

And we indeed we are making making that investment. We've increased capital investment in court maintenance and buildings to £148.5 million. We are opening new criminal courts, for example, in central London, in Blackpool and in other parts of the country. We've got to build system capacity, more judges, more lawyers, more staff to man those cases. But ultimately our focus must be laser focussed on the need to deliver swifter justice for victims. And in order to do that, we will be bringing forward plans, very careful plans which protect people's rights and protect that right to a fair trial.

When we come forward with our response in due course to Sir Brian Leveson's recommendations.

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Forward to the court. Cheltenham McMahon. Mr Speaker after 14 years of the
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None Portrait Business Statement: Business Questions to the Leader of the House
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We now come to business. Questions. Shadow Leader of the House.
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Alan Campbell Portrait Rt Hon Sir Alan Campbell MP, Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons (Tynemouth, Labour)
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us the forthcoming business leader? Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The business for the week commencing 1st of December will include Monday, the 1st of December continuation of the Budget debate, Tuesday the 2nd of December, conclusion of the Budget debate, Wednesday the 3rd of December. Remaining stages of the Pension Schemes Bill. Thursday 4th of December debate on a motion on the war in Ukraine. The subject of the debate was determined by the backbench Business Committee Friday, the 5th of December. The House will not be sitting the provisional business for the week commencing 8th December includes Monday the 8th of December.

Consideration of Lord's messages to the Employment Rights Bill, followed by consideration of Lord's messages to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, followed by consideration of Lord's messages to the Mental Health Bill. On Tuesday 9th of December, we'll have the Second Reading of the Railways Bill, Wednesday the 10th of December Opposition Day debate on a motion in the name of the Official Opposition, subject to be announced Thursday, the 11th of December. General Debate on Saint Andrew's Day, followed by a general debate on the impact of foreign interference on security, trade and democracy.

The subjects for these debates were determined by the Backbench Business Committee. On

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Friday, 12th of December. The House will not be sitting Jesse Norman. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
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Jesse Norman Portrait Rt Hon Jesse Norman MP (Hereford and South Herefordshire, Conservative)
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I'm sure colleagues will want to join me across the House in wishing a very happy.

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a very happy. Lancashire Day to Lancastrians everywhere, and perhaps most especially to the.

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especially to the. Only Lancastrian. Speaker of. The 158 to have held.

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will. Still be three more before that. Number reaches. The number of herefordians who have held that office.

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have held that office. Mr. speaker, let me also wish a very Happy Thanksgiving today to very Happy Thanksgiving today to all our American friends, hosts and families. Mr. speaker, the Leader

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of the House, no one will need reminding, is. A thoroughly. Good and sensible man, and we

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Good and sensible man, and we like to keep. We like to keep things as he says. Careful. We like things as he says. Careful. We like to keep things orderly in business questions. But I cannot imagine what he can possibly have made of what he can possibly have made of the past few weeks. We've had an entirely. Unnecessary period of prolonged economic.

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Uncertainty, endless. Media trolling and U-turns, a relentlessly dismissive attitude to this House from Ministers, repeated breaches of the ministerial code, breaches of the ministerial code, and even the fiasco of a convenient OBR leak on the Budget morning

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itself yesterday. The. House should be in no doubt. We saw the government increase taxes to the highest levels since at least 1970, according to the OBR. Between last year and this, the Between last year and this, the government have raised something like £100 billion in additional tax like £100 billion in additional tax revenue, much of which will fall on working people. And they have done so not through any coherent tax so not through any coherent tax policy or vision for the UK economy, but through an array of back of a but through an array of back of a packet tricks and wheezes whose inevitable effect will be to make it even harder for businesses to it even harder for businesses to expand and people to get jobs.

As Paul Johnson of the IFS said, big tax rises but no effort at reform tax rises, mainly to finance extra spending, not because of worse forecasts. Mr. speaker, this government claims to speak for working people, for skills, for employment and for growth. All of those things it chose to undermine at yesterday's Budget. These were their choices. And even now the government have failed to please their union paymasters. In the words of Sharon Graham, general secretary of unite, the decision to freeze income tax thresholds will result in 10 million workers paying the higher rate of income tax.

Stealth tax on workers means everyday people pay the price again. What is the point of this government? What is it for? No one can say. Mr. Speaker, however you vote, whatever your politics, this Chancellor and this Prime Minister came to power last year with no idea and no plan. And even by that standard, they have been a colossal disappointment. But that's not all, Mr. Speaker, as we've just noted in the urgent question, this week has also seen a leak that the justice secretary intends to abolish jury trial for all but the most serious cases.

We had the embarrassing sight of the junior Minister for justice, a woman who transparently believes in the importance of jury trial. Defending this Posterous proposal, I should say that the Justice Secretary himself was the same man who said in 2020 that jury trials are fundamental to our democracy. Blackstone no less called them the glory of the English law, and they are to be abolished by a justice secretary and a junior justice secretary, both of whom went to Harvard Law School and a Prime Minister who spent nearly four decades at the bar.

The Bar Council has made clear that jury trials are not the cause of any case backlog, destroying the government's attempted justification for the policy, and the Criminal Bar Association has strongly criticised the proposal, as has the legendary Baroness Kennedy of the Shaws and many others will doubtless do the same in the coming days. Again, it is inconceivable to me that the leader of this House supports this decision. I hope that at the very least, he will allow time for a backbench debate soon on this topic.

But I will say this, Mr. Speaker, both the Budget and the government's proposal to abolish jury trial have something fundamental in common. The Chancellor seemed unaware yesterday that in asking people to, as she put it, make her contribution to the Budget, she is not inviting them to engage in some voluntary process. She is, in fact, using the full force of the coercive power of the state to take away their freely owned property in taxes. The removal of jury trial would do the same thing to the involvement of citizens in this country.

In the exercise of the criminal law, that other supreme coercive power of the state, whatever the rhetoric, whatever the smoke and mirrors, both these actions demonstrate that this government actually holds the ordinary men and women of this country in profound contempt. Mr. speaker, no one should be surprised if those actions and this government are now treated by those
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Alan Campbell Portrait Rt Hon Sir Alan Campbell MP, Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons (Tynemouth, Labour)
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people with similar contempt. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I join the shadow Leader of the House in wishing Leader of the House in wishing everyone a happy Lancashire Day. Mr. speaker, I'm also sure the House will join me in sending our condolences to those affected by the fire in Hong Kong. The tragedy that is unfolding is deeply that is unfolding is deeply saddening and my thoughts are with all those impacted. I'm sure the thoughts of the house are similarly thoughts of the house are similarly with them.

Before I respond to the point that he makes, let me remind the House, Mr. Speaker, that this the House, Mr. Speaker, that this week is UK Parliament Week, now in its 15th year, Parliament Week continues to increase its reach continues to increase its reach each year, engaging schools, youth groups and community organisations in constituencies across the United Kingdom. And I've been pleased to be involved in a number of Parliament Week events, and I'm sure a number of colleagues are out doing exactly that as we speak.

And I know that many members on both sides of the House have also been involved. And I thank you, Mr. Speaker, for your involvement and your leadership on these matters. Mr. speaker. Tuesday was White Ribbon Day, where people around the world stand up against male violence against women and girls. I'm pleased that the House is in the process of becoming accredited with White Ribbon UK, demonstrating a commitment to preventing abuse and violence against women and girls by promoting gender equality and encouraging everyone, including men, particularly men, to be part of the solution.

Ending violence against women is a top priority for this government, and the Violence Against Women and Girls strategy will be published soon and will outline how we have levels of violence against women and girls within a decade. The right hon. Gentleman. The hon. Gentleman refers to the Budget and yesterday the Chancellor delivered her Budget statement, a Budget which will ease the cost of living, reduce our national debt and bring down NHS waiting lists. He asks what is the purpose of the Budget? And those three things are the purpose of the Budget.

Today we begin the second day of debate on the Budget, with further days to follow, which I'm sure many members will want to contribute to. I'd also like to recognise the contribution of members across the House who have been strong advocates for a number of measures which were included in the Budget yesterday. For example, Mr. Speaker, the Chancellor announced that the government will transfer the investment reserve fund in the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme to the scheme's trustees. That will mean more money is unlocked for members of the scheme, and I would like to recognise the contribution of the hon.

Members for Mansfield Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney Doncaster East in the Isle of Axholme, Blyth and Ashington and many others who campaigned on this matter. The Chancellor also announced that the government will exempt search and rescue vehicles from vehicle vehicle vehicle excise duty, which will mean more money is able to be diverted into critical front line services. And I congratulate the hon. Member for Bolton West in particular for advocating for this in business questions. Clearly, the Chancellor heeded his words. The shadow Leader of the House raises the question of briefings and leaks, Mr.

Speaker, and let me say that I take these matters very seriously, as I know you do. It's very important that matters are brought to this House, at least at the earliest opportunity, so that members can be told first. I understand that the that Pacac is looking into the wider question of briefings outside of this House, and we look forward to seeing what their findings are. The hon. Gentleman also raises the question of the OBR leak. We take that very seriously indeed, and that matter is being investigated.

Mr. speaker, I return to what I've said previously to the hon. Gentleman and others on that side of the House, which is when we have discussions about the economy and about budgets after 14 years of failure, the best thing. My advice is the best thing they can do is start with an apology. He should be apologising because the very problems that we were seeking to address are the problems that his partly caused by the legacy of his government, and therefore we are bringing down the cost of living.

We are reducing the national debt and we will be bringing down waiting lists in the NHS. And let me just say finish, Mr. Speaker, on the point at which he started, which is the way in which I take these matters and try to approach being Leader of the House, which is with seriousness, and making sure that there is respect for members of this House wherever they sit. And therefore, I have to say, I was slightly disappointed yesterday because not in the Budget, which is an excellent Budget.

I was slightly disappointed that it was a day when important matters should have been the first order of the day, and we heard from the Leader of the House a speech which quite frankly fell short. And I think people watching at what happened, Leader of the Opposition, actually, Mr. Speaker, fell short yesterday because of the tone which she took. And I think we've talked about ending knockabout in this place. I just think yesterday hit the wrong tone, and I hope that the hon.

Gentleman will take that message back.
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Bobby Dean Portrait Bobby Dean MP (Carshalton and Wallington, Liberal Democrat)
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Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Can I first of all associate myself with the comments made by the House about the fire in Hong Kong? I've got many constituents that arrived here from Hong Kong, and we'll be thinking about their family and friends. And can I also note that UK Parliament week? Mr. speaker, I know you're very actively involved in that week and thank you to your organised efforts on that front. It would have been a relief to you, Mr. Speaker, to hear the Budget officially delivered on the floor of the House yesterday.

I know that it's been a source of frustration all the leaks over the past few weeks, but it did make that long list of taxes a little easier to digest and comprehend. It felt like almost every section of the economy was getting its own special tax at one point. Except, of course, for the banking industry, who we hear yesterday were popping champagne about avoiding the windfall taxes the Liberal Democrats were calling for. And I think it just goes to show that all their lobbying efforts have paid off.

According to reports, they got away with any new taxes because they're going to be nice about the Budget on behalf of the Chancellor. So let's see if that holds one of the underreported bits of the OBR analysis yesterday is in the final pages of the Blue Book is around the potential danger to the UK economy of a major correction in the global stock market. Now, there's been lots of talk recently about a potential for an AI bubble, with the price to earnings ratios being comparable to that of the.com bubble.

Bubble and JP Morgan have done an analysis into this, and they've looked at the current valuations, the sort of physical limits to investment because of the need to build data centres and so on. And they think that we could be up to about $5 trillion worth of investment by 2030. Now, to make a return, that means that AI products are going to need to create an additional revenue of $650 billion a year in order to give a reasonable return to their investors.

And to put that into context, that's about 150% of the revenue that Apple makes, or the equivalent of around $35 a month to every customer they've got in the world. Now, it's my feeling, Mr. Speaker, that eventually investors are going to cut on to this and they're going to choose to moderate their investment. And when that correction comes, the OBR thinks that it could affect the UK current deficit from between 15 to £26 billion. So can I ask the House to request that the Treasury makes a statement about what contingency planning it's making for this scenario?
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Bob Blackman Portrait Bob Blackman MP (Harrow East, Conservative)
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Bob Blackman thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the leader for announcing the business in the chamber on backbench business days. Could he confirm? I'd be grateful if he could confirm that we're going to have the pre recess adjournment debate on Thursday, the 18th of December? In addition, Mr. speaker, the business in Westminster Hall next Tuesday, there'll be a debate on adequacy of funding to support homeless people. And on Thursday, debates on comprehensive acquired brain injury, followed by seafarers, seafarers welfare.

On Tuesday the 9th of December in Westminster Hall, there'll be a debate on consumer led flexibility for a just transition. And on Thursday the 11th of December, debates on role of fair trade certification in UK business and trade, followed by a debate on the future of oil refining sector. On Tuesday, the 16th of December, there'll be a debate on planning policy for quarries, and on Thursday the 18th of December, debates on literary and cultural legacy of Jane Austen, followed by a debate on community audiology.

Now I join with the leader on expressing horrors about what has happened in Hong Kong. That fire so far has killed 59 people, hundreds of missing firefighters have been killed, and indeed, three business executives have been arrested because of of the actions being taken there. But this is not unique, because what has happened in Spain, in the Santa Lucia Hospital, was similar fire to this. And indeed, just a year ago we had a Dartford fire, which was because of unsafe buildings across the country.

There are unsafe buildings all over the place, including on Merseyside, where I read this morning. Buildings that were renovated in 2007. Residents have had to be moved out because the buildings are unsafe and indeed in the adjacent constituency to mine. Ballymore estates are trying to put up a development which is denser than Hong Kong, has more than 29 blocks of flats, of which 20 above 20 stories. The Fire Brigade, London Fire Brigade initially lodged objections, and what is clear in this country is that we've got to be wise to what could happen for another Grenfell.

We must learn these lessons and must ensure that fire safety in our new buildings and our existing buildings is restored.
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Andrew Rosindell Portrait Andrew Rosindell MP (Romford, Conservative)
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also wish you a happy Lancashire Day. And thank you, sir, for ensuring that the historic county flags are flown from New Palace Yard and it's great to see the Lancashire flag flying today. If I can go on to an Essex question now,

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with your. Permission. Mr. Speaker. The leader. Of the House should. Be aware that the. Metropolitan Police are reducing

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Metropolitan Police are reducing the opening hours of 25 police stations across Greater London. So

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stations across Greater London. So Romford police station opening times will now be cut to four hours. And this comes. On top.

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On top. Of the closures of. All other functioning. Police stations throughout Havering, leaving my constituents with only limited access to local police stations and access to local police stations and able to meet a constable face to face to seek advice or report a

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face to seek advice or report a crime. This is unacceptable. Madam Deputy Speaker, once again, Havering is getting an. Unfair allocation.

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Of police resources thanks to the Mayor of London, who seems to have no interest in our borough. So have no interest in our borough. So will the leader therefore make time for a debate in the House on the detrimental policy of closing detrimental policy of closing police station front desks across the London region?
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Mel Stride Portrait Rt Hon Sir Mel Stride MP (Central Devon, Conservative)
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Chancellor. Thank you, Madam Deputy. There wouldn't be any of that kind of delay when we were in government. Madam Deputy Speaker, we were far Madam Deputy Speaker, we were far too efficient. Madam Deputy Speaker, the film is Groundhog Day. It sees Phil Connors go to a place where he wakes up every morning to the same DJ playing the same song, I've Got You Babe by Sonny and Cher. And so we have with the Chancellor a very similar situation, Groundhog Day going round and round, destroying the economy, putting up taxes, losing a fiscal headroom.

And round and round it goes. It is the case, Madam Deputy Speaker, that this film was said to be a romantic comedy. Well, there's been nothing comedic about the results that this Chancellor has delivered in terms of increased unemployment, diminished living standards, higher inflation and so on. And whether the public were ever enamoured with the Chancellor. I know not, but they certainly are not. Now, Madam Deputy Speaker, she is apparently the least popular Chancellor, according to the polls in the history of polling on that question.

And the question becomes, Madam Deputy Speaker, in part, how do I

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give way to my right hon. Friend. I'd like. To introduction to the Shadow

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To introduction to the Shadow Chancellor speech. Would a better film analogy perhaps be a nightmare before Christmas?

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before Christmas? I think that's. Absolutely true. I think that's absolutely, absolutely, absolutely fair that absolutely, absolutely fair that that point that my right hon. Friend has just made. But let's look, Madam Deputy Speaker, how we ended up at this sorry park. We had ended up at this sorry park. We had a party. We had a party. We had a party which in opposition, assure party which in opposition, assure the British electorate they would not be putting up taxes left, right and centre.

And when they got into power, what did they do? Within a few short months they slapped taxes. £40 billion worth on the British people, 25 billion of that by way of National Insurance increases on business alone. And no surprise, of course, that that destroyed employment and growth. They talk down the economy. They came up with this idea of this confected £22 billion black hole. And what an irony it was. What an irony it was. There may be chuntering from the frontbench, but what an irony it was that it was at the behest.

It was at the behest of the government themselves that the OBR were invited to look into this claim and said, and I quote, that they would not legitimise that figure. But the damage was done. The animal spirits in the economy were extinguished. And of course, they did something else which socialists down the ages always do is they borrowed and borrowed and borrowed and spent and spent and spent until they ran out of other people's money, other people's money. Mr. speaker, the minister's having trouble containing himself, such as the punishment that he's receiving at the despatch box at the moment.

So they borrowed all this money and wanted that to be stoked. Inflation, with inflation higher than interest rates, have been higher for longer. And on inflation, the Minister says from a sedentary position, it's coming down well. The IMF says that inflation will be the highest in the G7 this year and next year. So what we know is that with high inflation, interest rates are higher for longer. That means businesses costs on borrowing are higher. It means that consumer sentiment is dampened.

It means that the burgeoning debt that this government is constantly adding to the servicing costs on that alone is currently £100 billion a year, twice what we spend on defence. In fact, if debt servicing were the where a government department, it would be the third largest in Whitehall, not spending money on better public services, as we're often told by the party opposite, but simply paying for the profligacy of the party opposite. When it comes to borrowing. And what about the run up to this Budget? Madam Deputy Speaker, what a farce.

We have seen weeks and weeks of uncertainty generated by the Treasury, who have leaked every possible combination of tax increases, and then you turned on some of them, flown so many kites that they have blotted out the sun, and a huge shadow has been cast across businesses who have pressed pause on investment and hiring. Speak to Andy Haldane, I say to the Minister opposite, he concludes. He concludes that what I am saying is absolutely right, and it has weighed down on consumer sentiment.

It has done all this hokey cokey around. What is in the Budget has done real damage to our economy on this government's watch. And I will give way to my right hon. Friend.

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I am very grateful that the right hon. My right hon. Friend did a service to this house a week or a service to this house a week or two ago, when he drew exactly what he's describing now to the attention of this chamber. He told attention of this chamber. He told the government then that these leaks were not only doing damage in the way he described to the economy, the way he described to the economy, they were also a discourtesy to this House many times.

Madam Deputy Speaker you and Mr. Speaker have Speaker you and Mr. Speaker have said the announcements should be brought here first. It is fundamental to this place that what fundamental to this place that what the government announces is brought here and is scrutinised here, not in the public realm. I'm grateful

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in the public realm. I'm grateful to my friend. My right hon. Friend is entirely right as usual. And it is also the case, Madam Deputy Speaker, that something else has been going on, and I have written to the OBR to ask Richard Hughes exactly what has happened in terms of the information that the Treasury appears to have been leaking out about the forecast during the run up to the Budget. And I say this, given that the Obr's own guidance says that the information exchanged with the Treasury during the build up to a Budget is provided in confidence to Ministers.

Why is it then? Madam Deputy Speaker, that the Chancellor herself should be out on the airwaves before the Budget, opining on the apparent coming downgrade to productivity? So I have written to the OBR to ask whether they feel that that is appropriate. I've also written to the Permanent Secretary of the Treasury to ask him if he is implementing an investigation into the leaks coming from the Treasury. He has written back to me, interestingly, interestingly, just simply to say that in the event that there are suspected leaks, of course there is an investigation.

He hasn't quite answered my question as to whether there is one being undertaken at the moment, but I will be following him up on that matter. So, Madam Deputy Speaker, what has happened in this Budget? Well, the OBR forecasts tell a sorry story. Unemployment higher in every single year of the forecast than they were forecasting back in the spring. Inflation up. And we've seen the latest ONS figures on inflation. Madam Deputy Speaker this the party that talks about resolving poverty a disgrace that food inflation in the last set of figures went up way above the headline rate from 4.5 to 4.9%.

That is being borne by some of the most vulnerable and poorest in our society. And on growth, of course, the Chancellor speaks a good story. She says. Well, growth has been forecast up compared to the spring in this year, but it's forecasted down as the gentleman opposite will know compared to the autumn of last year, when the OBR said that growth would be 2% in this year, it is now forecast to be 1.5%, and in every subsequent year after this year in the forecast, growth is lower than was forecast back at the time of the spring Statement.

That is a simple fact. And we'll come on to why that is the case. What is momentary? What has happened to borrowing? You'd have thought they'd have learned the lesson that ever increasing borrowing always leads to disaster. But no, there is 11 billion of additional borrowing on average every year of this forecast. And what has that done to living standards, real household disposable income, the economist's measure of economic wellbeing is down in every single year of this forecast, compared to the forecast in the spring.

And in fact, the OBR says, and the hon. Gentleman will like this one. The OBR says that real income growth across this forecast will be well below the average of the last decade. So don't point a finger at the last government when it comes to living standards. It is there in black and white. I will in a moment. It is there in black and white. In the Obr's report. And the reason for this, Madam Deputy Speaker, £26 billion of additional taxation in 2930 and as the hon.

Gentleman will know, an additional 12 billion of tax take which has occurred because of fiscal drag, because those higher inflationary numbers in the forecasts are dragging ever more people into paying ever more tax. And I will certainly give way to the hon. Gentleman.

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I thank the Shadow Minister. While I am not churlish about the extra money that the Labour government has given to pensioners, the fact of the matter is it has pushed people more into the threshold and it means that pensioners will pay more tax than they've ever paid. So when it comes to helping people, unfortunately to helping people, unfortunately this government have given it in one hand and take it away with the other. Does he agree?

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other. Does he agree? The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right now when it comes to the income tax threshold freeze, which income tax threshold freeze, which has been extended for three years, even though they briefed out that it would probably just be two for it would probably just be two for three years, that means 780,000 more people going into tax for the first time, because the personal allowance will have been frozen for longer, and 920,000 people going into the higher rate tax bracket.

In fact, by 2930, around 1 in 4 people employed in this country, workers in this country will be in the higher rate tax bracket, 1 in 4. The IFS has said that that measure is a clear breach of the Labour Party manifesto. The Chancellor herself accepted in the autumn Budget of last year, when she said she would not come forward with this measure, that the reason why she would not come forward with it is it would hurt working people. It is very clear.

And she repeated this yesterday that this is a breach of the Labour Party manifesto when it comes to young people. Madam Deputy Speaker, we hear that there will be a freeze to the student loan payment thresholds. We know that young people are already disproportionately impacted by the changes to National Insurance, particularly the reduction in the threshold, which means that lower income earners, which includes younger people, will be disproportionately impacted by those tax changes. We know that the Employment Rights Bill, which is coming down the line, will make it far riskier to take younger people.

No, be careful what you wish for. Be careful what you wish for. The party opposite. The party opposite speaks a lot about those who are not in employment, education or training, of which we have about 940,000. That legislation will do nothing to improve their life chances. It will make things worse. It will make it more risky to take those people on and employ them. The hon. Lady has been very patient

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and I will give way to her. right hon. Gentleman for giving way. He seems to care so much about those who are not in education, employment or training. So why then, employment or training. So why then, did he allow 88,000 young people to become NEETs? And is he proud that when he left office, almost a million young people were not in any form of employment, education

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any form of employment, education or training? Is this not the worst kind of hypocrisy? Can I congratulate the hon. Lady? Firstly, reading accurately from Firstly, reading accurately from her telephone the the whip circular question that has come up. We we question that has come up. We we stand by our record. We stand by our record when we returned. Absolutely, absolutely. When we when we were in government, we were a job creating machine. 4 million more jobs, 4 million more jobs under us than had been there before.

When we left on the day of the general election, we had near record high level of employment, a near record low level of unemployment. Unemployment is now at a five year high. The gentleman shakes his head, but it happens to be true. So, Madam Deputy Speaker, one of the products or results of this Budget for young people is there will be a continued lost generation of workers. And what about those who want to save? Want to do the right thing? Want to I will momentary who want to provide for their future in retirement, should we not be encouraging them? And what is this Budget delivered on that front? Salary sacrifice, Savage savings tax, put up the cash Isa cut.

We are punishing savers. And let me say, Madam Deputy Speaker, that under these measures we will see the reverberating, reverberating effects of this for many generations and many years to come. I give way to my right hon.

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Clifton-Brown. I'm. Very grateful to the Shadow Chancellor for giving way.

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The sad fact is that youth unemployment, that's. 16 to. 24. Year olds is at a staggering

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24. Year olds is at a staggering 15% at the moment. So on top of the. National Insurance. Hikes and the rate raised, the

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Hikes and the rate raised, the minimum wage, employers are unlikely to want to consider taking young people on. And that could young people on. And that could have the disastrous effect that people who graduate from universities or do a graduate from

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universities or do a graduate from an apprentice will emerge from not. Being able.

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Being able. To get a proper job. My hon. Friend, is is is precisely right, and I've set out the iniquitous impacts of the National Insurance threshold reduction on younger people, and also the impact that the employment, the Employment Rights Bill will have in increasing the risks of employing younger people. That is self-evident and obvious, and businesses are saying it over and over again. If you put an employer in a position where he is faced with a young person who has no career track record, and yet your legislation or should I say the party opposite's legislation is saying that the employee on day one can take the employer to a tribunal for unfair dismissal, a claim which may get clogged up for two years and which the lawyers advising the employer will probably conclude that the employer should give in and pay out, even if the merits of the case do not warrant it.

That is a recipe for higher youth unemployment. It is simple. It is basic economics. And look at the taxes that are being placed under this Budget on rental income. Does the party opposite not realise that will lead to higher rents and fewer properties on the market? Does the party not opposite not understand that if you tax the family home, you catch a lot of people you catch, you catch the people, you catch the people, you catch the people who are maybe asset rich but are income poor.

And I suppose the solution, Madam Deputy Speaker, will be to allow that liability to roll up and be paid on death, yet another death tax at the hands of this government. Now, what is all this pain and taxation paying for? In large part, it is paying for more welfare. It is as simple as that. The two child limit. Scrapping the two child cap is a mistake. It is unfair and it is unfair because those that are paying taxes and working hard and paying the taxes and doing the right thing have to make tough choices as to whether they can afford a larger family or not.

And it is quite right and proper that those who are on I will in a moment. Those who are on benefits should

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have to face similar choices as well. And I give way to the hon. Gentleman. I'm sure the honourable.

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I'm sure the honourable. Gentleman is aware that. Both the majority. Of. People impacted by this. Uplift

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People impacted by this. Uplift and two thirds of children in. Poverty actually have a parent in work. So this false dichotomy of

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in work. So this false dichotomy of those in work and out of work is simply incorrect as a. Form. Of DWP. Minister, we should know that.

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Minister, we should know that. I have already set out the fact that the that the ruinous taxation policy of this government, policy of this government, including in the Budget just yesterday, is to load up taxes on yesterday, is to load up taxes on people who are in work, many of them not high earners. And the fact is that the impact of that tax is why the OBR themselves have concluded that for every year of this forecast, real household disposable income, in other words, the cost of living issues that people are facing is going to deteriorate under those measures compared to the forecast back in the spring.

The hon. Gentleman gentleman's party is making poverty worse by making sure that work does not pay to the degree that it should. And the other point is inflation. The other point, the other point is inflation. Madam Deputy Speaker, if you run a policy of borrowing vast amounts of money, spending half £1 trillion over and above the plans that they inherited across this Parliament, and that was added to by over £100 billion just yesterday. Do not be surprised if inflation is the highest in the G7, and if the IMF says it will be the highest in the G7 next year.

What does high inflation, particularly on food, do to poverty? It drives poverty up. And therein lies the answers lie. The answers that the government needs to think about. Now there is an alternative. Madam Deputy Speaker. The alternative is that you get on top and control government spending, and then you do the responsible thing. And this is our golden rule, whereby at least half of those savings go to driving down the deficit and the debt. But you then have the capacity to drive down taxes as well.

And that is exactly what we set out at our conference. £49 billion worth of saving, £23 billion worth of savings on welfare, thanks to the solid, commendable work of my right hon. Friend, the shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, we have found those savings, and it is a tragedy that the government, that 20 the gentleman, the hon. Gentleman, says, what are the savings? The savings are £23 billion on the welfare. It is a number. And as a member of the Treasury team, he should be familiar with numbers.

But clearly he is not okay. So we will be bringing down, we will be bringing down, we will be bringing down. We will be bringing down the welfare bill and the savings are clear. If he I would direct him to the centre for Social Justice's paper, which makes it very clear. Well, it's rather better than the resolution stuff that he produced when he was, I have to say, which makes it very clear whereby changing the gateways into longer term sickness and health benefits, which we did when we were in office, which we did.

If the hon. Gentleman wants to stop jabbering and start listening, he might learn something. Okay. He might actually learn something. And, you know, if if the right honourable, if the right hon. Gentleman learns something that might be for the good of his party and for this country when we were in office. Madam Deputy Speaker, we made reforms to the work capability assessment that would have seen, according to the Obr's own, scoring, 450,000 fewer people going onto those benefits.

We were making a real difference in arresting the rise in the welfare bill. What did the government do on coming to office? It scrapped those on day one, almost. It then came forward. It then came forward with its own proposals and I invite I love the I hope the hon. Gentleman comes to his feet later. He can address this and he can talk us through what happened to that. His government's attempt to control the welfare bill. It got smashed up into a million pieces on the rocks of his own backbenchers.

That's what happened. And that is the tragedy of much of this Budget, is that economics is being driven by the internal politics of the Labour Party. You have a Prime Minister and you have a Chancellor whose position is now so precarious that they have to bob up and down like a like a cork on the tide. When it comes to making policy at the whims of the backbenchers opposite. So, Madam Deputy Speaker, there is actually a certain melancholy about this Budget.

This Budget is like Groundhog Day, an old song. The words seared into the collective mind, a socialist anthem for all time that for he who has then that must be taken away. For he who has not, then to him must be given, not on the basis of any measure of fairness, as is suggested in the topic for debate today. But on a fundamental misunderstanding of basic economics. Economics is about resources, of course, but it is about incentives to to he who has.

I say, if you work hard, we applaud you and we will incentivise you to work harder still recognising your contribution to the common good, to the vulnerable. We say we are there for you, but to others who have not, we say here is not a handout, but the means for improvement. And Madam Deputy Speaker for the Socialist distribution is all and the means are never sufficiently willed. And the eternal lesson, and this is the lesson of this Budget, too, is that this path leads to all to be diminished for an economy laden up with debt, with government spending spiralling, still, with taxation touching sky skyward will never burn brighter.

The hole will never grow. Not enough. It will languish. That is how the dreams of millions perish. Yesterday, the lingering flickers of hope died.
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Pat McFadden Portrait Rt Hon Pat McFadden MP, The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Wolverhampton South East, Labour)
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Secretary of State.

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Madam Deputy Speaker, and it's a pleasure for me to open today's pleasure for me to open today's debate on behalf of the government and to respond to the shadow Chancellor. Now, he went through Chancellor. Now, he went through his lines, and as I expected, he talked a fair bit about welfare in talked a fair bit about welfare in his speech. If only, Madam Deputy

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his speech. If only, Madam Deputy Speaker, if only he had ever been in a position to do. Something about.

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Something about. And that is the essential problem with the position of the problem with the position of the party opposite. It isn't even that they failed to reform the system, it is that they created it in the first place. It is their system that created the fork in the road between those judged fit to work and those judged unfit to work. It's their system that forced people into a choice between poverty and being declared incapable of work, often permanently.

And it's their system that left millions of people with Contact Contact and Contact and no

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In the same office as I do. They saw the same trends and the same graphs. And they did absolutely nothing about it. Now he talks nothing about it. Now he talks about the changes that he proposed to the Work capability assessment, to the Work capability assessment, but he was a little quieter about those changes not happening. They were so incompetent they were struck down as being unlawful by the courts. And then he says he would have done more, but he was interrupted by the general election interrupted by the general election.

He had 14 years, and the election was called at a time of their choosing. He's asking the House to indulge in the fantasy that, having been relieved of the duties of ministerial office, he has suddenly stumbled upon the answer to the problem. Like a reverse. Nostradamus granted a magical power that enables him to identify the solutions to problems, but only at the moment where he ceases to have responsibility for fixing any of them. Yeah, yeah. Do you know what they remind me of, madam Deputy Speaker? The like a messy 16 year old who's turned his bedroom into a tip.

And when the exasperated parents come in to clean it up, the teenager says I was about to do that. But no one believes the teenager. And no one should believe the Tories because they had their chance and they did nothing. Yeah, on their watch. Welfare spending went up by almost 1% of GDP over the last parliament. That's equivalent to about 22 billion a year. And when they left office, did the OBR think they had a credible plan to change it? No they didn't.

They predicted that the cost would rise by a further £100 billion. Sometimes they talk about wanting more face to face assessments. Well, I want them to. But in September 2023, just a little over six months before the election was called, they signed off on a new set of contracts allowing 80% of the assessors to work from home. And who was the Secretary of State at the time that happened? We don't need ChatGPT. We just need to look on that wall between the microwave and the toilet because it was the right hon.

Gentleman toilet. And this was long after the Covid pandemic. So they created this system. They didn't change it when they had the chance. And furthermore, they increased the number of children in poverty by 900,000. And so it falls to us to begin to change this system. And we have begun reducing the gap in universal credit between standard unemployment and the sickness rate, a change which the OBR estimates will get 15,000 more people into work and which starts to address the incentives for sickness built into their system.

Reform we are carrying out, but which the party opposite did not. Changes to the Motability scheme to focus on value for money and to ensure that if the UK taxpayer is paying for new vehicles, then more of them are made here in the UK. Reform we are carrying out which the party opposite did not. Yes, I'm happy to give.

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The Secretary of State talks about the use of trying to make Motability cars made in the UK. Looking at the Motability website as of yesterday, they've already implemented some of these changes, but there's an awful lot of Chinese cars that are on there. And as part of those Chinese cars that are listed on that list, MoD and Jacob yesterday announced that they would be implementing a 20 000 mile rebate to individuals to pay for rebate to individuals to pay for the EV tax that's coming in.

This will allow China to get an even greater foothold in the UK economy. greater foothold in the UK economy. Those cars, of course, are built with Chinese IP, and that goes straight back to the states and allows them to track where those allows them to track where those vehicles are. So what would he say to address the impact of the growth of Chinese vehicles and potentially, perhaps unwittingly, encouraging the use of Chinese cars in this market? Yeah.

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Well, he should be supporting our changes because they have done two things. They are removing a two things. They are removing a number of luxury brands from the system, and they are ensuring that system, and they are ensuring that more British made cars are part of the scheme. And that is the change going forward. Yeah, £1 billion more going forward. Yeah, £1 billion more by the end of the decade on employment support for the long term, sick and disabled through the term, sick and disabled through the Pathways to Work programme, so that people are not just signed off and written off.

More reform that we written off. More reform that we are carrying out, which the party opposite did not. Fixing the long opposite did not. Fixing the long running injustice to carers which they ignored for years. More reform that we are carrying out, which the party opposite did not. There is more reform in this Budget than he did throughout his 20 months as Secretary of State. But I know, Madam Deputy Speaker, that we have to go further because the greatest crisis is among the young.

We inherited a situation with close to a million people not in employment, education or training. It's terrible in human terms. It's expensive in financial terms, and it's also deeply unequal because it is often the most deprived parts of the country where the numbers are highest. Often those places where there are already multiple problems, where the loss of hope from this seems deepest, and addressing this is a cause around which we should rally. And that's why in this Budget, we offer a youth guarantee with £820 million of investment, which will offer the young unemployed a training place, work experience or ultimately a job giving hope and opportunity where previously there was none.

More reform that we are carrying out that the party opposite did not. I am happy to give the.

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I'm very interested in that part of the Budget, and I'm grateful to the hon. Gentleman setting out in more detail one of the things that more detail one of the things that were part of that were the boosting apprenticeships, particularly apprenticeships in small and medium sized enterprises. But looking at the fine print, isn't that already supplied by the apprenticeship levy? supplied by the apprenticeship levy? What small and medium sized enterprises need, as I learned when I was defence Minister, is probably I was defence Minister, is probably some grant funding actually, to get them started in that process.

Does the government have that in mind,

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the government have that in mind, or is this simply a rehash of the apprenticeship levy? Secretary of State. Well, I note his request for more public his request for more public expenditure, and I'm coming on to the Growth and skills levy in a moment. And what we'll do with that is tilt it more towards young people and to more towards more short courses. And this Budget puts a further £725 million into it, which will enable the fully funding of apprenticeships for the under 25.

For small businesses. This is good for young people and good for employers, and it is important because no matter where you're from, what your background is or who your parents are, every young person should have the chance to make the most of their lives. And I want the country's young people to know that through our youth guarantee, through apprenticeship support, through the other measures outlined in this Budget and outside it, we will support them. We believe in them and we want them to succeed.

Yes. Now, I know that even after that, we need to go further. And that's why I've asked former Health Secretary Alan Milburn to report in the new year on this issue of young people, work and inactivity, looking across departmental boundaries and recommending policy responses that will offer young people more opportunity and a better chance in life. And after the Conservatives have either neglected all that or opposed that which they did not neglect, what have they got left? Instead of that, arguing that the approach should be for people to have lower wages.

Well, we saw where that led during the last parliament, and the shadow Chancellor talked about living standards. Living standards declined during the last Parliament, more than at any time in living memory. Now living standards are rising in this Parliament, and wages have risen more in a matter of months than they did in ten years when his party were in office. Now, Madam Deputy Speaker, as some people sometimes remind me, I have been around for quite a while and I'm proud to have served in the last Labour government, which lifted 600,000 children out of poverty on almost all of the measures that did that were opposed by the party opposite.

In fact, their record on this, as I said, was a rise in child poverty of 900,000. And their argument for this was that the two child limit would force people into making different choices about the number of children they had. But that isn't what happened. It simply forced more children into poverty. And the real indictment Madam Deputy Speaker goes deeper because, as the right hon. Gentleman knows, this wasn't really a welfare policy at all. It wasn't even in the end about saving the money.

The truth is, this was a device about political dividing lines from the conservative government, with children used as the weapon of choice. That is what it was about. But not anymore. Not anymore. So tackling this is an investment in the future of those children and indeed in the future of the country. Because children who do not grow up living in poverty will have a better life as a result. And it is not just about the distribution of money.

It's an investment in opportunity. And that is why the Chancellor announced the abolition of the two child limit in the Budget. And as my hon. Friend said, the clear majority of households that will gain from this measure already have someone in work. It will lift 450,000 children out of poverty, and that number will rise alongside other measures such as the expansion of free school meals, help with energy bills and the expansion of free childcare to help more parents take up work.

This will be the largest reduction in child poverty over a parliament since records began. And as the Chancellor spelled out, it can be funded by a combination of tackling fraud and error in the system, the Motability and other changes, and the changes to online gambling taxation, which were announced by the Chancellor yesterday. And because we understand that the health and welfare systems are deeply connected, we will continue to get waiting lists down. Treat more patients. With the announcement of 250 new neighbourhood health centres as part of this Budget, because rocketing waiting lists and waiting times when they were in office were not just health issues, they were economic and benefits issues too.

And a system which treats people more quickly rather than having them wait in pain is good for the economy too. So through the reforms we are making on incentives in the system, on supporting the system, on opportunity and on tackling poverty, we are beginning to change the welfare state from being a passive distributor of benefits to being a platform of opportunity for getting people back into work. But we know we need to go further and we will. No, Madam Deputy Speaker, no one on this side of the House underestimates the scale of the challenges we face.

There is no escaping that. The Obr's decision to downgrade its assessment of productivity is the official verdict on the party opposite's year in office. It left this Chancellor with a £16 billion hole to fill, not because of decisions she took, but because of the scarring effects of the party. Opposite's time in power, a botched Brexit deal, austerity which impoverished the public realm, cuts to capital investment. The OBR is clear that they all caused long term damage to the UK's productivity and economic growth, and that has to be owned by the party opposite.

So the shadow Chancellor attacked the Budget in his speech in the strongest terms. And he's right. It is a contrast with their record, because they took the country to the very precipice of economic disaster. They used the British public as a test bed for a giant ideological experiment that saw mortgages go through the roof, and the Bank of England have to launch an emergency rescue package for the country's pension system. They shook international confidence in the UK economy, and they destroyed whatever economic credibility they had by their own hand.

That is what they did. So there is a difference in our approaches and a very welcome one at that. We have trade agreements with the world's biggest economic powers, which eluded the party opposite a reformed planning system to get the country building public investment at the highest level in four decades. Inflation coming down faster, a full point four percentage points next year, according to the OBR. Through the measures we are taking borrowing down in every year of the forecast, keeping corporation tax at the lowest level of any G7 country.

Help for high streets with permanently lower tax rates for 750,000 businesses, doubling the eligibility of our enterprise tax incentives so that not only can new businesses be created here, but so that they can grow and scale up here in the United Kingdom, cutting energy costs for 7000 businesses to make manufacturing more competitive, help with the cost of living with the first rail freeze, rail fare freeze for 30 years, the freezing of prescription charges, energy bills cut by £150 per year, raising the national minimum wage for millions of workers, as recommended by the Independent Low Pay Commission.

Expanding free breakfast clubs and free school meals for all children in families on Universal Credit. Madam Deputy Speaker, this is a Budget for the whole country that helps with living standards, helps people meet their monthly bills. It fixes some of the problems of the past and gives the country strong foundations for the future. It is a Budget that believes in maintaining the public square, and continues the progress we have made on the NHS, not just as a social goal, but an economic one too.

It's a Budget that protects and raises the value of the state pension by £575 next year, a Budget that continues with welfare reforms, reduces child poverty and offers hope to young people for the future. That is the difference, Madam Deputy Speaker, and that is why we should support

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the Budget in the debate today. Liberal Democrat spokesperson Daisy Cooper.

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Daisy Cooper. Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. This time last year, government Ministers told us repeatedly that Ministers told us repeatedly that their number one mission was growth. But after Labour's second Budget, it's clear that growth is nowhere it's clear that growth is nowhere to be seen. Yes, the OBR makes it clear the Budget has almost no meaningful growth measures at all. The CBI has concluded that the government's growth mission has currently stalled, and there are others who say that it is positively anti-growth.

We Liberal Democrats have consistently said Democrats have consistently said that the government cannot just tax its way to prosperity. It must grow its way to prosperity. And the most effective way of doing that, the single biggest growth lever that the government could pull would be fixing our relationship with Europe. The conservative reform Brexit deal has been a disaster for our country. It has been a disaster for British business. It has left our public finances with a 90 billion Brexit black hole.

The Labour government knows it. The Minister has just said it, but for some unfathomable reason, the government will not just get on and fix it. So we Liberal Democrats call on the government once again to get serious about fixing our relationship with Europe. Hear, hear. Now, within the government's own red lines, which excludes customs union, single market and all the rest, but within the government's own red lines, House of Commons library research shows that a better deal could raise an
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Daisy Cooper Portrait Daisy Cooper MP (St Albans, Liberal Democrat)
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additional £25 billion a year in revenue. And with our proposal. Madam Deputy Speaker of a bespoke Madam Deputy Speaker of a bespoke UK EU customs union, we could raise even more. Now I know that some on even more. Now I know that some on the Labour Benches will say, well, we've got all these new trade deals, we are fixing this relationship. we are fixing this relationship. But once again, the OBR report from yesterday spells it out in black yesterday spells it out in black and white.

The OBR says that the lasting effects of Brexit more than wipes out the combined benefits of all of the government's new trade deals combined. So if the government wants economic sustainability, it is clear as day what they need to do. The same could be, said, Madam Deputy Speaker, about headroom. This time last year, we knew that Donald Trump was heading back into the white House and we Liberal Democrats warned the government that they had not left enough space in their headroom to sustain the economic headwinds, which were predictable and which were predicted.

So we do welcome the fact that the government, as part of their mission to create a sustainable economy, has provided for a bigger headroom this time around. What we disagree with is the way in which they built that headroom, relying on billions of unfair stealth taxes and other tax hikes on people and on small businesses. This was not a fair choice. Madam Deputy Speaker. A fairer choice would have been to ask the big banks to do their bit. The government knows that if they do nothing on the big banks, then taxpayers will be paying out approximately £30 billion to the big banks between now and April 2031, not because of any risk that they have taken, not because of any loans that they have made, but all because of a glitch in quantitative easing in the middle of a cost of living crisis, in the middle of a cost of doing business crisis.

The government seems to be happy to see £30 billion of taxpayers money being paid out to the big banks. Well, we Liberal Democrats are not. And that is why we have called for a windfall tax on the QE related parts of profits that the big banks have received, and which would raise £30 billion for the taxpayer over the next five and a half years. Our proposal is that just less than half of that could then be spent to slash energy bills by removing levies on bills, but without losing the revenue for insulation schemes, which the government has just axed.

Some of that money could also be used to slash VAT by 5% for hospitality, attractions and visitor accommodation over the next 17 months until April 2027. This would give a boost to local economies in every single village, town and city across this country to get our economy moving again. That would be the kind of growth stimulus that we liberal Democrats would pursue, and it's incredibly frustrating to see that the government is not doing more for our high streets.

I know that the government will say that they are looking to introduce permanently lower business rates multipliers. Well, let me say this. The government may have introduced permanently lower business rates multipliers, but the new higher valuations have been published this morning. Many businesses are warning that the higher valuations could simply wipe out any benefit at all that they get from the lower multipliers. I have seen an exchange on WhatsApp between some of my pub landlords in Saint Albans this morning, and when one of them saw the higher valuation for their independent pub, they replied with a single word.

That word is the word that Boris Johnson used to describe his approach to business. Madam Deputy Speaker, I am very worried that the combined impact of higher valuations and the new multipliers could put even more of our high street businesses in jeopardy. So I'm asking the government to come clean and publish that combined data as soon as possible. If a Minister cannot tell us today, then I hope they will promise that they will come back to this house, stand at the despatch box and tell this House how many businesses have been brought into paying business rates for the first time, and how many businesses might see their business rates go up overall, if it is a bleak picture, then I hope the government will come back and tell us what actions they will take to protect the great British High Street.

Madam Deputy Speaker, small businesses also need action on energy support too. Just last week, my Liberal Democrat colleagues and I wrote to the government asking if Ministers would instruct the Competition and Markets Authority to launch an investigation into the lack of competition amongst energy suppliers and practices which we believe are preventing small businesses from getting the very best energy deals. The Federation of Small Businesses is making the same call to this issue has got to be fixed and I hope Ministers will look at it.

On income tax, Madam Deputy Speaker, the government has broken its promise in all but name by freezing income tax thresholds for a further three years. This policy, started by the Conservatives and continued by Labour, means that in the tax year 2030 to 31, the British taxpayers will pay an additional £67 billion in income tax to the Treasury. The Institute for Fiscal Studies says that these stealth taxes are the largest single tax raising measure since 1979. The result? Well, the OBR says the disposable income, a byword for living standards, will go down in large part due to this tax rise.

Is it any wonder, Madam Deputy Speaker, that people in all income brackets simply don't feel any better off on the so-called mansion tax? We all know in this House that council tax is broken, but adding extra layers does not make it any fairer. And economists from left to right agree. Just yesterday, the government, they all agreed that the government's proposals are complicated. They said it would cause bunching in the tax system. It's a messy compromise. It doesn't raise very much money and none for around three years.

It could result in many appeals. It could distort behaviour. This isn't the way to fix property taxes. The Minister chunters from his seat. Well, that was several prime Ministers and several general elections ago, when the Liberal Democrats called for that. The Conservatives wanted to stay in the EU. I think we can all agree that a lot of water has gone under the bridge, and if the government were serious about pursuing wealth, they could go after. They could make a much fairer choice and go after the big banks and the big tech giants.

On that point about the big tech giants, I would ask why it is that the Chancellor slipped out a review of the digital services tax yesterday without announcing it in the Budget. I think we all know the answer. And let me be plain, if the government is gearing up to cut taxes for people like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg whilst raising taxes on struggling households, I think it would be a massive betrayal on the dividend tax. Madam Deputy Speaker. The Federation of Small Businesses sums it up.

It says that hikes the dividend tax means that the government continues to make investing in your own business one of the least tax friendly things you can do with your money. Fundamentally, Madam Deputy Speaker the root problem remains this Budget, like last year's Budget, is nothing more than a Treasury tax grab. The government is still yet to outline a vision for the economy, or a vision for the country, and the lack of joined up thinking is so stark. Lastly, the government said it was going for growth and inflicted a gross crushing jobs tax this summer.

The government's own Pension Investment review said that 4 in 10 aren't saving enough for retirement. But now the government has announced a measure which the OBR says will reduce pension contributions before the commission has even had a chance to report. This is a spend now, pay later Budget, with pension changes and other expensive additions pushed right to the end of the forecast. Clearly, this is a way to buy time for some growth to emerge. But what happens if it doesn't? The government has had an opportunity to set out its path to delivering the change that it promised, but I fear that it has squandered it.

We Liberal Democrats wanted this to be a Budget that tackled the cost of living, that saved our high streets, and that was going to go for growth with a better deal with Europe. I'm sorry to say that this Budget was botched. It was bungled. It was a missed opportunity. Call it whatever you like. The bottom line is that this Budget does not deliver for the British people. I fear that the government has run out of ideas. I fear, Madam Deputy Speaker, that it

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is also running out of time. Paul Waugh. Madam.

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Madam. This is a Budget that cuts the cost of living for families in Rochdale, boosts apprenticeships Rochdale, boosts apprenticeships and helps the NHS and our public services. Public services that were brought to their knees by 14 years, brought to their knees by 14 years, not just of Tory cuts but coalition cuts. Yeah, but this is a Budget that balances the books as well and puts fairness right at its heart. But it's a Labour Budget that puts But it's a Labour Budget that puts children at its heart, too.

And I want to focus particularly on the historic decision to lift the Tory two child cap, a policy that has two child cap, a policy that has punished so many children in Rochdale and across the land, children punished simply for the
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Paul Waugh Portrait Paul Waugh MP (Rochdale, Labour )
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crime of being born. As a journalist who used to work up in that press gallery for 26 years, I that press gallery for 26 years, I reported on, reacted to and analysed budgets over more than a quarter of a century, and there was quarter of a century, and there was always talk of winners and losers in any Budget. But after that, two child cap was introduced in 2016, child cap was introduced in 2016, who were the biggest losers? Children? Yeah, think about that. Children losing money because of a Children losing money because of a warped ideology that they were to blame for their parents poverty.

I grew up on free school meals, so I grew up on free school meals, so I know what it's like to be in a household where money is tight. Indeed, one of the reasons I stood Indeed, one of the reasons I stood for Parliament in the first place was to reverse the shocking rise in child poverty that occurred under the last Tory government, particularly in Rochdale since 2010. This decision to scrap the two child cap would not have been possible without a Labour government, but it wouldn't have happened either without the many community groups and anti-poverty campaigners in each of our constituencies in Rochdale earlier this year, we held a round table meeting on the government's child poverty strategy.

It was a heartening gathering because in Rochdale, we're proud of the many things we do locally for our kids. From never closing sure starts, which was tough for the local council, and to providing free breakfast clubs way ahead of any other national rollout. And by giving kids a Saturday lunch, free lunch if they go to Saturday school. But it was at our round table. That was also a sobering gathering because despite all that, despite everything we've done locally to combat poverty amongst our toddlers and youngsters, many children and many, many of the adults there, and campaigners told us that the biggest problem was the national two child cap.

That has been a catastrophe for the incomes of many families on low pay or between jobs. So I want to pay tribute to some of those campaigners and community workers in Rochdale. Joe Barker Marsh, Aqib Nazir, Heather Madden as an actor without whose passion and commitment to helping our children today would not have been possible. Yeah, now, I wasn't surprised by the leader of the opposition's rant about welfare yesterday. She repeated the Tory misinformation about the two child cap. She based it on the myth that somehow penalising larger families will stop others from having a third or fourth child.

As the Chancellor said yesterday, and as my right hon. Friend made absolutely clear at Dispatch Box today, there is no evidence that the two child cap led to any change in family size. Why is that? Because families have children for a whole host of reasons. Women certainly do not get pregnant to get more benefits. In fact, the real scandal in this country is that having children results in a substantial and long lasting financial penalty for mothers due to reduced earnings, unemployment and a lack of support, something this government is addressing.

The ONS research found that five years after the birth of a first child, a mother's monthly earnings were on average 42% lower than they were one year before the birth. The important point to stress to is this. People move in and out of work for a whole host of reasons beyond their control. Many people have had their third or fourth child before they lost the job, before they became ill, before they were widowed, disabled, or had to care for a sick relative or a disabled child.

There's a wider point here, too. That word welfare has become a pejorative term. We need to talk more about Social Security, a safety net that is there for families who fall on hard times through illness, redundancy and no fault of their own. As it has been said many times, more than 6 in 10 families on Universal Credit are in work. Many are only on Universal Credit for a few months until they can get back on their feet or until their children are older, or they can sort proper childcare.

Now, no one in this party will defend the tiny minority who game the system, but the tabloid caricature of people lounging about on benefits is far removed from reality, particularly for parents in the real world. Many parents of kids in poverty go hungry themselves rather than let their kids go without. Many cut back on essentials like food and heating because they have to. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that the depth of hardship is particularly severe for families with three or more children and 7 in 10 having to skip meals or go hungry.

I will give way.

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To the hon. Member for giving way, and we Liberal Democrats really welcome the decision by the government to scrap the two child government to scrap the two child benefit cap. Would he agree with me that as well as it being the right thing to do, it actually saves taxpayers in the long term because we know that the cost of poverty do have lasting impacts in terms of have lasting impacts in terms of people's health and educational outcomes. And that to make the case to the British public, it would be

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helpful if the government could actually explain that longer term taxpayer. I thank for that intervention. I

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I thank for that intervention. I think that's exactly what my right hon. Friend set out at the despatch box today. The positive case for this child poverty move. And in this child poverty move. And in Rochdale, we feel this child poverty more keenly than anywhere. The statistics for my constituency, after 14 years of Tory cuts are absolutely shocking. Relative poverty in Rochdale went up from 20 in 20 14 to 2024, from 33% to 44.1%. One of the highest rates in the country.

Absolute poverty. And I know they like to talk about relative poverty, but absolute poverty went up to from 31% to 39%. The latest figures show that the total number of children in absolute poverty in Rochdale was 9380 in 2024, but that 44% child poverty rate in Rochdale is just the average. The figures are even worse in individual areas in Wardleworth and in Deeplish and Smallbridge and Firgrove, and in freehold. We have up to 60% of children living in absolute poverty.

Children who were the collateral damage of a Tory attempt to get a political dividing line. How disgusting is that? The idea of the deserving and undeserving poor is as old as the Victorian workhouse. We should banish it to the dustbin of history, just as we banish this pernicious two child cap to the dustbin of history. Two in Rochdale, more than 5000 children will be lifted out of poverty by this Budget. That's 5000 fewer nurses, plumbers, engineers, carers, teachers. Entrepreneurs. Soldiers. Now, given the best start in life that they need to achieve their dreams and fulfil their parents potential for them.

The last Labour government which did so much to help children escape poverty. One set of new policy called Every Child matters by putting hundreds of pounds in the pockets of Rochdale families. This Budget shows that this Labour government is restoring that moral mission as a national priority. Sending out

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the message loud and clear all kids count. Yeah. Harriett Baldwin. Thank you very

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Harriett Baldwin. Thank you very much, Madam Deputy Speaker, and a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Rochdale. And I'll be picking for Rochdale. And I'll be picking up on some of the points that he makes later in my remarks. But I just want to start by characterising the whole Budget in the way that we heard from our frontbench, which is that this was the Nightmare Before Christmas Budget, because we saw after last
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Harriett Baldwin Portrait Dame Harriett Baldwin MP (West Worcestershire, Conservative)
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Budget, because we saw after last year's Halloween Budget, another Budget that has come back for more and more tax on the strivers, the entrepreneurs, the hard workers, the pensioners across our land. And so in the scrutiny of the Budget that we do on the Treasury Select Committee, we will be trying to draw out some of these decisions that the Chancellor announced yesterday from the despatch box, because it's clear that last year's Halloween Budget was the biggest tax raising Budget in the history of the UK, and yesterday's Budget was the third biggest tax raising Budget in the history of the UK.

So it is quite an enormous burden that we have put on our country and what we are seeing in terms of the run up to the Budget was also quite extraordinary. The fact that the office for Budget Responsibility report, leaked during Prime Minister's Questions. Madam Deputy Speaker, you will be aware that the Chairman of Ways and Means was rightly outraged on behalf of Parliament. And I just want to outline, for the benefit of the House, the role that the Treasury Select Committee plays in terms of the office for Budget Responsibility.

We've got them in front of the committee. On Tuesday, we received a letter today which has been publicised from the chief executive, Richard Hughes, outlining the fact that he's undergoing an investigation. But the House may not be aware that actually the appointment of all three senior members of the office for Budget Responsibility and importantly, the dismissal of any of those three members, is something that has a from the Treasury Select Committee that is written into legislation and may not be something that everybody is aware of.

And so we take our responsibility incredibly seriously to get to the bottom of what happened here. Because I think on behalf of Parliament, we have got to find out what happened. But there was such a lot of skulduggery happening, frankly, in the run up to this Budget, all of these kites being flown by the Treasury, possibly speculation by the media, but all of these ideas culminating on the morning of the 4th of November, Madam Deputy Speaker with the Chancellor breaking into the nation's breakfast with her doom laden pronouncements about the upcoming Budget.

Quite extraordinary and unprecedented, rightly the subject of an urgent question by my right hon. Friend. And then after that, Madam Deputy Speaker, we then had a story in the Financial Times on the evening of November the 13th, which moved the gilt market. The minute had opened on the morning of the 14th, about the the decision not to proceed with an income tax switch with National Insurance. Quite extraordinary skulduggery has been going on somewhere in the Treasury.

And I hope that when the Treasury Minister responds to this debate later that they can clarify, he can clarify what the situation is as far as the instructions that the Chancellor has given to the Permanent Secretary to do a full skulduggery investigation of the Treasury, not just a leak inquiry, but something quite significantly more widespread has happened in the run up to this Budget that I don't think we can accept as a parliament. I think we need to draw a line in terms of this behaviour, and we really need to get to the bottom of how apparently the Chancellor herself has said to Labour backbenchers that this was the rabbit that she was going to pull out of the hat at the despatch box yesterday, that she wasn't going to have to increase income tax.

Some of the briefing that the, again, Treasury spokespeople did after this leak to the Financial Times was around the fact that the OBR had improved its economic forecasts. Well, we saw in their document yesterday that they hadn't changed their main economic forecasts since the 31st of October. So that can't be right either. So there has been some unbelievable I'm going to call it leaking or briefing or just Skulduggery seems to sum it up from Treasury special advisers and the role of the office for Budget Responsibility in this has been very much tainted.

But we take our responsibility as a committee incredibly seriously. As far as the independence, on behalf of Parliament, of the office for Budget Responsibility. Now, turning to the actual measures in the Budget, I do want to highlight a couple of them. The first one is to I think mentioned productivity and the importance of us focusing on productivity, the impact that the downward revision in productivity had on the office for Budget Responsibility forecasts. But everyone knows that in this country, the private sector has continued to become more productive.

And the public sector, both in the last parliament and around the pandemic in particular, got very much exacerbated. Public sector productivity has still not recovered. So the kinds of levels that we had before the pandemic, there is some incredible productivity scarring in our public sector. And I think it would be welcome if the Minister from the despatch box later could outline how the government plans to tackle public sector productivity if it returned to pre-pandemic levels. In the National Health Service, for example, it would be worth a £20 billion, possibly all the tax rises in yesterday's Budget could have been removed if we got to that level of productivity again.

I don't think it's helping productivity, but NHS doctors were given nearly 30% pay rise with no requirement for them not to strike again. I don't think that the decisions that the government has been making really align with getting better productivity out of our products, our public sector. But I'm sure the Minister, when he replies, at the end of the debate, we'll be able to elaborate on that. Finally, Madam Deputy Speaker, if I may, to pick up on the very powerful speech that the hon.

Member opposite made about child poverty in Rochdale, and he will be aware that over the last 14 years that absolute poverty for children not in his constituency, but across the country in aggregate did fall. And I think that was largely down to higher employment, but also, importantly, more help with childcare. And I think those are important things to focus on as well. In terms of the, the, the ability to work and the ability to earn more. But we asked experts last week at the Treasury Committee what the child poverty line is in this country.

And I think it's just important for the House to understand what's happening here in terms of the figures that we then got back from the Institute for Fiscal Studies for a household with two children and two adults, after they've paid all their taxes and housing costs. The answer for the relative poverty line. We're talking about relative poverty, which is what the Minister mentioned earlier. That is £24,650 a year. So that's the relative poverty line for a household with two children and two adults, for a household with three children and two adults, again after they've paid their taxes and their housing costs.

The answer is 28,176. So I think we need to just recognise that and Deputy Speaker, that in the Budget yesterday that there will be many people caught by the tax rises in the Budget who have much lower incomes than that. There will be widowers. I will, I will give way. Just may I just make this first point? Widowers who have perhaps a small widow's pension, who will pay more tax because of the decisions that were announced

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in yesterday's Budget? I give way to the hon. Gentleman. Ladies, thank you very much for

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Ladies, thank you very much for giving way. I have a lot of respect for record in government and also as select committee chair. But does as select committee chair. But does she accept that actually she talks about tax rises, that the bulk of the tax rises, this Parliament, the tax rises, this Parliament, four out of five years, are Tory tax rises through the threshold that she and her others, other

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that she and her others, other colleagues voted for the free Harriett Baldwin yeah. Actually I'm talking about yesterday's Budget. Yesterday's yesterday's Budget. Yesterday's Budget. The Chancellor herself announced that she was freezing those thresholds for a further three years, and he will be asked three years, and he will be asked to vote in the division lobbies next week, for those, I dare say, but so, so, so no, there are three additional years that the Chancellor has just announced. Another person who will pay more tax as a result of the decisions the Chancellor herself announced is a single young person on minimum wage.

They will have to pay more tax as a result of this Budget. I don't know if hon. Members have seen the emigration statistics that were published today, and that hundreds of thousands of our young people are fleeing this country at the moment, and that is something that we should all be very concerned about. A single mother who has just received perhaps a lump sum in a divorce settlement will pay more tax as a result of this Budget.

As a sole trader, an entrepreneur who runs a business perhaps pays themselves in dividends. They will pay more tax as a result of the Budget. Yesterday, a driver in my rural constituency who needs to drive to go to work will pay more tax because of the Budget yesterday. So I think we can see, Madam Deputy Speaker, the choices that the Chancellor made punished those who are the employers, the farmers, the family businesses, the workers, the savers, the pensioners, the drivers, everyone who tries to do the right thing and not be a burden on the state.

And I leave the house with one final point. I'm looking forward to his wind up at the end of the debate, and I will not give way at the moment. But I would like to say that in terms of the skullduggery that the Treasury seems to have created during the run up to this Budget, that the lingering impression of this Budget will be one where the the spectre of further tax hikes looms and the floating of the income tax idea, the floating of all the other tax ideas, all of those taxes will come back like a like a ghoul in budgets

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to come. Thank you very much. And in an attempt to get everybody in today, I'm going to everybody in today, I'm going to put an immediate six minute time limit on Tonia Antoniazzi. Madam Deputy Speaker, I'm really pleased Deputy Speaker, I'm really pleased that the Chancellor has announced that the government is clamping down on illegal high street down on illegal high street activity. Let's call it shop a shop. I think because my constituent, Stuart Evans, and his son run a Stuart Evans, and his son run a fish and chip shop in Gorseinon, they raise their concerns over other high street shops that are exploiting cash only operations.

So I welcome the additional funding to support stronger and more joined up enforcement against those who break the rules, and I'm looking forward to changes in the legislative framework that currently limits trading standards enforcement capabilities. In fact, I'm going to meet trading standards in Swansea very soon. I also welcome the removal of the two child limit and
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Tonia Antoniazzi Portrait Tonia Antoniazzi MP (Gower, Labour)
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the abolition of the rape clause, because we're going to see 1270 because we're going to see 1270 children benefiting from that in Goa and 450,000 nationally by the Goa and 450,000 nationally by the end of the decade. And I'd like to thank the Minister, the hon. Member thank the Minister, the hon. Member from Swansea West, my very good neighbour, for helping my constituents who used to work at constituents who used to work at the former three M's plant, and the indexation issues that they had with their pensions.

So I do thank with their pensions. So I do thank him, but I'd like to take this opportunity also to raise a couple opportunity also to raise a couple of other subjects that are very close to my heart, and I know that I have had conversations with the front bench and the Chancellor regarding some of my concerns. I am the chair of the all party Parliamentary Beer Group, and we recently published a report following. I get all the fun gigs, so following our inquiry into how through brewing and pubs can help drive economic growth, and I'd like to flag this report with him because it is really important we've seen a change in the business rates, but we also are feeling that this industry has cumulative issues across many different departments.

And, you know, it is a key driver. The sector is a key driver of local and national prosperity, and it's such a crucial role in helping to get young people into jobs. And that's why I think the apprenticeship stuff is really good. So I thank the frontbench for that. And it's really key that we can get young people working, create good jobs, revitalise our high streets. And I know that strengthening our communities is very much what we need to happen. And also I welcome the reduction in energy costs, but I'm going to keep.

Some of these comments brief. But I do want to bring them up in the chamber. Now, the front bench knows that I am the outskirts of Swansea. I have many agricultural, you know, I've got a large agricultural community and I'm really concerned over, over the well-being of, of this community. Look, no one, no one, no one denies that we need to reform inheritance tax in the agricultural community. And I do welcome I genuinely welcome the small move that's going to help farmers.

And that's the the, the spousal arrangements where widow widowers can transfer relief to themselves from their spouse. But I really hope you don't mind me saying it. I know there's an image that farmers don't pay tax now. That's nonsense. Of course they do. They do. But it's that change doesn't address the impact on the elderly and terminally ill. It also penalises divorce and single farmers. So can I gently urge the front bench and the Chancellor to look at the finance bill and consider the recommendations from my committee, the Northern Ireland Affairs Select Committee, Welsh Affairs Select Committee and the committee and look at potential government amendments to move this into a better place.

You know, if we can remove the forestalling, the anti forestalling clause, especially for lifetime gifts, I'm not going to be having phone calls and conversations with people in the agricultural community that they may be thinking of taking their own lives before the 6th of April this year, because those are the conversations that people are having with me and other MPs across these benches. Please can I urge you to think about it, because this is a community that feeds us, feeds our nation, and they need to have the year of the Chancellor.

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker.

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Sir Geoffrey Clifton-brown. Madam Deputy Speaker, thank you for allowing me to speak in this for allowing me to speak in this debate. And I also I'm pleased to follow the hon. Lady in her speech follow the hon. Lady in her speech and agree with what she says about farmers and draw attention to my farmers and draw attention to my register of members interests. This Budget was an omnishambles not only of the government being dripping
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Geoffrey Clifton-Brown Portrait Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP (North Cotswolds, Conservative)
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of the government being dripping the leaks for the last month, which has undermined the market and business confidence. The OBR and yesterday published on their website the Budget 45 minutes before it was given at the despatch box. This is unprecedented. The Pan went down, hedge funds were already betting against the market and some made millions. This does not provide confidence and stability in our public finances. It is undeniable that we are now in a much worse financial position than we were when we were responding to the Budget last year.

To put simply, the government is spending more than this country can afford. Last year, the Chancellor announced £40 billion in tax rises. We were promised that this would be a once in a lifetime increase, and that this will have would have filled the so-called black hole. So why has the Chancellor come back this year with another huge tranche of £26 billion of tax rises? This tax burden is equivalent to 38.3% of GDP by the end of this Parliament, and staggeringly, it is at an all time record high of tax on this country.

Interestingly, spending will go up, but many will go up now, but many taxes will not go up until 28 nine around about the time of the next election. So MPs opposite should take careful note of this measure that the government introduced yesterday. A growth rate of 1.5% per annum is lower than forecast, and growth per head is at the bottom of the G7 league. However, for the OBR to downgrade productivity rates just 1% by 2030 is alarming because it implies that growth will continue to flatline.

Staggeringly, the chairman of the OBR has said that nothing, I repeat, nothing in the Budget will score towards increased growth. The Public Accounts Committee, of which I have the privilege to chair, has been banging on the drum to put more money towards digital skills and the use of AI in all government departments and agencies. In the Spring statement, most departments were allocated more money towards going towards new technology. We have heard time after time in the Public Accounts Committee that old legacy i3 equipment needs to be replaced because large learning models such as AI need new digital technology to be able to accommodate this.

Also, old analogue systems are much more prone to to cyber attacks. Yet any improvements in efficiency are offset by the debt and the interest to service it. Last month, the UK national debt has reached a staggering record amount of 2.6 trillion, and by 2930, the debt interest alone will be £136 billion a year. That would be the third largest department if it were, if it were a government department. And it doesn't treat a single child or educate a anybody else.

I'd like to now turn to this. The one thing I can say about this Budget, it's not being discriminatory. It favours it. It hurts working people, savers, pensioners, drivers, farmers, homeowners, businesses. And I could go on and on are all being taxed more to pay for this out of control spending. This is not a Budget for working people. It is a Budget to pay for the massive increase in the welfare state. Indeed, as a stark example, the government announced yesterday that it would increase the Help to Save scheme for Universal Credit claimants, which of course is tax free, whereas ordinary working taxpayers will see the tax on their savings increase by 2%.

Where is the fairness in that? The OBR has forecast that the welfare state is going to rise by a staggering 73.2 billion to 406.2 billion over the next five years. One of the aspects of the economy at the moment is the unemployment rate has increased to 5.1%. At the end of last year, it was 4.3%. So we now have sadly 1.79 million people out of work. And I suspect that everything was announced in the Budget yesterday will only increase that figure more.

And as I said in an increase on my right hon. Friend the Shadow Chancellor, what is really sad about those figures is the unemployment rate for 16 to 24 year olds is nearly 5%. I now don't want the two child benefit. In April, 2530 7020 households in the UK on Universal Credit with exactly five children and an additional 18,260 households with six or more children existed. As a father, I know how much it costs to bring up children.

It is the best decision I ever made, but I know the costs associated with childcare. Many parents up and down this country, including my constituents, are making tough decisions about not having any more children, and these parents are paying out for those. They are having to work harder to afford their existing children.

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Where is the fairness in this system? Where briefly. Paul.

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Paul. What would happen if he had 3 or 4 children and he were to fall ill or have to care for a sick one? or have to care for a sick one? Would he then expect those children to suffer from that plight?

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Sir Geoffrey Clifton-brown. It's always. Possible to find cases which are very difficult to deal with in very difficult to deal with in government. You have to make decisions about the totality of the population, and I think that it is population, and I think that it is up to parents on benefit to think very carefully about how many children they have and the children they have and the circumstances that they might find themselves in. Now, I won't give way any more.

I've given way once on this subject. Our wealth creating sector is shrinking and whereas the public sector is ballooning, yet it is this government's policy that policies that are punishing businesses and wealth creators, the freezing of tax thresholds, a tax rise which she had confirmed many times from the despatch box, that she has confirmed that it will now be frozen for another three years. Every time it's frozen, it brings more people into the tax net. In this case, it's forecast to be another 750,000 being brought into the tax net.

The 2% savings on dividends is another penalization on those working hard to save their money. Where are the incentives to save money if the government is now taking more of their savings? Finally, hospitality businesses are going to be hit hard in this Budget in the North Cotswolds. They are at the heart of the community. Yet at the moment, one nationally is closing its doors every day. I do not see any pub landlord welcoming

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this Budget order. Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, it's a pleasure to follow the it's a pleasure to follow the Member for the hon. Member for North Cotswolds, and it's a great pleasure to speak in this Budget debate, and I direct members to my register of interest. This is the second of what will be many Labour budgets that will help this country budgets that will help this country to rebuild our public services, rebuild our public finances, and to bring down the monumental national bring down the monumental national debt all at the heart of delivering long term economic sustainability, growth and fairness, which is our growth and fairness, which is our great task.

After 14 years of Tory and Lib Dem mismanagement, I want to touch on two issues close to my to touch on two issues close to my heart as MP for Exeter, the start up and scale up economy and child poverty in Exeter. Today. Over 1000 start ups are active across the South West region and our start ups are not just growing in volume, they're growing in value to the average. Venture backed startup in the South West is now worth £11 million. What's more, five of the UK's top 50 start up constituencies by funds raised are in the South West Bristol Central, Milton, Bradley Stoke, Bristol East, Bath and Exeter.

That's 10% of the national total in a region too often overlooked. But what's most exciting is what's coming next. Half of our startups are at seed stage, brimming with ideas and ambition. These are the major employers, major innovators of the future. These are the businesses that will supercharge Exeter's economy and help deliver economic sustainability and prosperity. And that's why I was really pleased to see changes in the Budget that will support new businesses in my constituency to start up and then to scale, helping them to raise capital, attract talent and stay competitive here in the UK.

First, the significant expansion of the investment limits for both the Enterprise Investment Scheme and the venture capital trusts means that from April 26th, companies will be able to raise much larger sums, with annual limits doubling to 10 million and lifetime limits rising to 24 million, and even higher thresholds for knowledge intensive, knowledge intensive companies. This means more ambitious ideas can be funded right here in Britain, particularly in sectors like green engineering, AI, biotechnology and fintech the sectors that will power the next decade of economic leadership in this country.

Second, this Budget strengthens one of the most powerful tools for fast growing firms the ability to attract and retain the skilled people who make innovation happen by expanding the Enterprise Management Incentive Scheme, increasing the employee headcount eligibility to 500, and raising the asset and share option limits, we will ensure that startups can continue to offer meaningful equity to their teams as they grow. This gives scaling companies the firepower to compete with big employers, to keep talent in the UK, and to ensure that workers share in the success they help create.

Together, these reforms do send a strong signal that Britain backs bold entrepreneurs, and we want the next global success stories to start, scale and stay right here in the UK
13:50
Steve Race Portrait Steve Race MP (Exeter, Labour)
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and in Exeter. And indeed, just today, one of my contacts in the startup world said that entrepreneurship was at the heart entrepreneurship was at the heart of this Budget in the way that has never before been seen. But Madam Deputy Speaker, I want also want Deputy Speaker, I want also want everyone in Exeter, no matter their upbringing, to know that they can achieve their potential working in start ups, scale ups or elsewhere start ups, scale ups or elsewhere in the economy and public services.

And that's why I was pleased that this Budget rightly puts fairness at the heart of our national at the heart of our national mission. And nowhere is that mission more urgent at this moment than the fight against child poverty. Because child poverty is poverty. Because child poverty is not a statistic on a page. It's children in Exeter whose parents are going without meals so they can are going without meals so they can eat. It's a family making impossible choices heating of food, rent or clothes. As one of five children growing up in a council house, I know what it's like when every penny counts.

Nationally, more than 2.7 million children were living in poverty last year, 22% of 0 to 15 year olds. More than 1 in 5 children across the UK. We all recognise that it's not only unsustainable, it's morally indefensible and a catastrophic consequence of 14 years of Tory and coalition government in Exeter today, around 3000 children aged 0 to 15 live in relative poverty. That's 19.9% of all our children, 1 in 5. Earlier this year, I convened a local round table in Exeter with charities, schools, housing providers and health leaders.

We ask the hard questions where are families slipping through the gaps? How do we redesign support so that children are not left paying the price of economic insecurity? The message was clear child poverty is family. Poverty is not isolated to any one department. It cuts across the housing system, the labour market, childcare and education. It affects health, mental wellbeing and lifetime opportunity. But I am proud that this government is not looking away. We are tackling the barriers that families face head on right across government, through expansion of free school meals, funded childcare and beyond.

And that's also why I welcome the Chancellor's decision to lift the two child benefit cap, a long overdue change that will raise 450,000 people, children from poverty. But I know that we will go further, which is why I've been engaging with Ministers on the creation of the child poverty strategy so we can take a whole government approach tackling the causes, not just the symptoms, because simply raising benefits is not enough. I want every child in Exeter to break away from intergenerational poverty, to succeed and fulfil their potential in life through their own work and their own achievements.

We've already started this process of rebuilding hope and opportunity for young people. I've spoken in this chamber before about the gutting of Surestart, which was one of the most transformational programmes of the last Labour government. I'm delighted that we're restoring Surestart style services and communities across the country. Evidence led, family centred support that helps children keep thriving. From the very beginning. My city. These doses are not an optional extra. They're foundational. If we want children to arrive at school ready to learn, healthy, safe and confident, this is how we do it.

Madam Deputy Speaker, this Budget recognises that fairness is not something that trickles down. It's something that we build extra. Children need us to build it now. They've waited too long under the last government who simply failed a whole generation. We must ensure that circumstances a child is born to, will into will never limit the life they are able to lead. And so therefore, I'm

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proud to support this Budget. I'm proud that this government is choosing to put children first. Yes.

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Yes. Speaker. The theme of. Today's debate covers fairer

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Today's debate covers fairer choices. So I want to look at whether the choices made yesterday really were fairer on energy bills. really were fairer on energy bills. I welcome the removal of the main green levies from electricity bills. They created a perverse They created a perverse disincentive to switching away from gas at a time when we need people to do so, to decarbonise heating,
13:54
Claire Young Portrait Claire Young MP (Thornbury and Yate, Liberal Democrat)
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to do so, to decarbonise heating, and it causes particular hardship. In a rural constituency like mine, where significant number of households are off gas. But I note it is only a temporary move, with the Resolution Foundation saying that £55 is set to be added back to energy bills in 20 2930. So I urge the Chancellor to look carefully at Liberal Democrat proposals that would reduce energy bills by half by 2035. I would also like to the Chancellor that constituents in off gas areas have raised concerns about what they see as the unfair tax treatment of lower carbon fuels, which they see as a more realistic option for the for reducing their carbon emissions in the short term.

Is it fair for businesses? Well, businesses across my constituency are struggling, facing a dangerous mix of higher costs and lower consumer spending. Before the Budget, Liberal Democrats call for an emergency cut to VAT for hospitality, accommodation and attractions to help these businesses stay afloat and also help people to be able to afford to enjoy the occasional treat. It is something that businesses across my constituency have called for recently, and it would have helped attractions as varied as Bristol Zoo Project, The Wave and Darren Park, as well as hotels, pubs and restaurants across the constituency.

However, the Chancellor has ignored our calls while also failing to introduce fair reform of business rates to ensure that these businesses can continue to grow and thrive long into the future. Is it fairer for children with Send? The last conservative government left councils facing huge pressures, and the best way to fix that is to address the black hole caused by the crisis in social care and send provision. But what the Chancellor announced yesterday failed to give the clarity that is desperately needed when it comes to the existing deficits.

My own council of South Gloucestershire, which I was leader of until being elected to this place, has long grappled with historic underfunding and rising demand for support. It is one of the F40 group of the lowest funded authorities, and one of those who entered into self safety valve agreements. Because of these rising deficits, we need clarity about what will happen to those historic deficits after the government takes this in house. And were they fairer choices for my constituency and the wider south West? While the Chancellor did remember, the South West exists this year, the Budget did little more than that.

Where is the support for our rural transport? Whereas the support for our farmers who travelled to Westminster yesterday to plead for the Chancellor's support? For the last year, I have been helping their campaign to reverse the damaging change to farmers inheritance tax. Where is the support for our communities facing river and surface water flooding? This is an issue I have repeatedly raised here in Parliament, including in last year's Budget debate. At least £13 billion will go to strategic authorities, but not to the west of England.

We were also excluded from the new £912 million Local Growth Fund. And while the decision to extend business rates retention was a small crumb of comfort, the authorities like South Gloucestershire extending it does not mean councils can rely on existing funding from this scheme. Continuing thanks to Rebaselining. So, to conclude, I urge the Chancellor to talk to MPs of all parties on the South West and to

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deserve. Hear, hear. Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker,

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Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, I rise to welcome this Budget because despite the difficult economic times that we are in, the economic times that we are in, the Chancellor has made decisions that are strong, that are sound and that are fair. It is a strong Budget, are fair. It is a strong Budget, more than doubling the fiscal headroom to £22 billion. It is a sound Budget, improving the economic efficiency of some of our taxes and maintaining our capital investment in the country's future.
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Yuan Yang Portrait Yuan Yang MP (Earley and Woodley, Labour)
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investment in the country's future. And it is a fair Budget, lowering the cost of living, saving us money on rail fares and energy bills, and raising half a million children out of poverty. Firstly, on the headroom, this Chancellor has the strength to do what previous Chancellors have shied away from doing. Headroom is important to buffer us from the volatility in the global economy, and it buffers us against shocks that we cannot predict. And I'm glad to see that. The Chancellor has also followed the IMF's recommendations to assess the fiscal rules annually, which will improve the predictability of policy making.

Now, yesterday during the Budget debate, the shadow Minister, the right hon. Member for Godalming and Ash, accepted my intervention. When I asked him why he had left us with the lowest headroom in the history of the OBR, he said that he didn't raise more headroom because he would have had to cut spending or raise taxes, and he wasn't prepared to do those things. So I do take the shadow Minister speaking in this debate with a pinch of salt when he says suddenly they have dreamt up plans in opposition in the last 12 months, when they

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didn't have such plans in 14 years of governing. Yes. The right hon. Member for Godalming and Ash's response was that he wasn't prepared to do the things that were necessary. It's a bit like saying to your flatmate bit like saying to your flatmate you didn't do the washing up because you would have had to tidy up and get your hands wet, and you weren't prepared to do those things. So he took the weak option. He shied away from the important economic decisions.

He left us with his dirty plates, and he's now lecturing us about making difficult choices. But I am, after all, glad choices. But I am, after all, glad for his honesty and his acceptance of my intervention, because it shows us a deeper truth that the previous Tory government couldn't previous Tory government couldn't cut further because they had already cut everything they could cut, and then some more courts backlogged for years, prisons overflowing, child poverty at the highest this century. Secondly, this is an economically sound Budget.

Different forms of income shouldn't be taxed differently. And this is not just about fairness. It's also about economic incentives. Landlords shouldn't be paying lower effective rates of tax than their tenants, and those who can afford the accountants shouldn't be able to benefit from structuring their income as dividends, thus paying a lower rate of tax. So I welcome the raising of tax rates on property savings and dividends to make them closer to the rates paid on earned income, reducing the bad incentives to restructure income for tax avoidance.

Because the tax system isn't just about raising funds for public services, it's also about shaping the economy, building in the right incentives to encourage productive behaviour. So I'm glad to see the Chancellor reform the system of enterprise investment and venture capital trust schemes, and with us to review the taxes, tax systems impact on entrepreneurs. And I meet many of them in my constituency in reading, which is a brilliant place for all scales of company, from university spin outs to world leading giants. We have a particular concentration in life sciences and pharmaceuticals, as well as an IT services services the OBR might be able to benefit from, whether it's visiting, whether it's visiting Oxford quantum circuits in Thames Valley Science Park or a blockbuster film set in Shinfield Studios.

I see my constituents building the British industries of the future, and when I speak to schools, I encourage those children to dream big and to take their share in that future. But what of those children? The last conservative government put 700,000 more children into poverty. Almost 1 in 3 children are growing up in relative poverty, the highest this century and in my constituency of early. And Woodley, which is easily in the richest fifth of all constituencies in the UK. I get letters from parents who can't feed their children during half term holidays because of the Chancellor's Budget, 1750 children in my constituency will be lifted out of poverty.

They now I know that the right hon. Member for North Cotswold said it's possible to find cases of people falling into poverty. I'd urge him to look at the figures. Poverty can befall anyone. In the largest longitudinal household panel study we have. Understanding society finds that the poverty entry rate, those who start off above relative poverty one year, who find themselves impoverished the next year is around 8%. That means 1 in 12 of our constituents on any given year can find themselves suddenly in dire straits, 1 in 12 because of divorce, bereavement, illness, bad health, bad luck.

And that is what the social security system is for.

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Yes. 70% of children growing up in poverty are in working families. So poverty are in working families. So there is something wrong with an economy that produces these outcomes. And it's important that this government is raising the minimum wage, giving workers more power to negotiate their terms in the workplace. But at the same time as fixing those foundations, we as fixing those foundations, we have to put out the fire on the roof because poverty is an urgent challenge. If we don't address it challenge.

If we don't address it now, it threatens to burn the house down. We speak a lot about the post-pandemic cohort of young post-pandemic cohort of young people who are not in employment, education or training. But why are there so many? This is the there so many? This is the austerity generation and new evidence, published yesterday by the Work and Pensions Select Committee, shows that individuals exposed to multiple childhood adversity, such as poverty and poor parental bad health, were five times more likely to be neat, and an estimated 53% of neat cases today were attributable to persistent poverty and family adversity.

Our children are the future of our economy. We have to invest in them and invest in our future. And that's why I'm proud to support a sound, a strong and a fair Budget.
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John Lamont Portrait John Lamont MP (Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk, Conservative)
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Yes.

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Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. This Labour government came to power with so many promises. The power with so many promises. The Chancellor promised to kick start economic growth. She promised not to increase the taxes of working to increase the taxes of working people. Well, I am afraid, Madam Deputy Speaker. Now in government, they are doing the exact opposite. they are doing the exact opposite. If it can be taxed, the Chancellor will tax it. Your electric car, will tax it.

Your electric car, your holiday, even your taxi home after the night out. I am afraid this Chancellor and the benches opposite are completely out of touch with how the economy works and the statistics speak for themselves. Unemployment across the United Kingdom has surged 19% more. People are now without a job since this Labour government came to power, including almost 100,000 jobs lost in hospitality. The government inherited inflation. It was bang on the Bank of England's targets. Now it's almost doubled. That is why there is a cost of living crisis out there.

In the real world, economic growth is going in the wrong direction. Forecast revised down next year and predicted to be lower in every remaining year of this Parliament. That is this Chancellor's record and her legacy. In advance of this Budget, we have seen wild speculation about what the Chancellor would present in her Budget. Endless rumours of more tax rises, kite flying by the Treasury. How can we expect any business to plan or invest for the future, if the rules of the game continue to shift in this way? And of course, this situation is a whole lot worse in Scotland, where the SNP government have made us the highest taxed part of the United Kingdom.

Now, I would like to focus on two of the choices which this Labour government have made in this Budget. In my speech today. Firstly, the family farm tax. Yesterday I met farmers from across the United Kingdom who came to protest about this Labour government's decision to introduce the family farm tax. I was disappointed I did not see many, if indeed any, of the Labour members opposite, taking the time to speak to the farmers outside Parliament. I have to say I was utterly disgusted at the last minute cancellation by the Metropolitan Police and perhaps this government was involved.

Two of the farmers rally in Whitehall yesterday. Farmers are devastated by the Chancellor's decision not to reverse this cruel tax. It is not because they do not want to pay their fair share. They already do, and are a vital part of our economy for protecting our countryside, rural communities and our food security. But because they simply cannot afford to pay this cruel tax. And I entirely agree with the comments. I have just finished this point, but I entirely agree with the comments by the hon.

Member for Gower. Sadly, it is not in our place just now who highlighted very clearly the anguish that many farmers are facing, not just in her constituency, but in my constituency and across the United Kingdom. It is with deep regret that the Ministers opposite are sitting with the hands over the years and refusing to listen to the plight of our farmers. I will give

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way to the hon. Member. I thank my hon. Friend for giving away and delivering a searing indictment of this Budget. Does he agree with me that the intention, perhaps, of this farm tax was to take in multi-millionaire, so-called slipper farmers? But does he slipper farmers? But does he experience in his rural constituency, like mine, Dumfries and Galloway? In fact, it is

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hitting tenant farmers. Yes. My hon. Friend is absolutely right. If the intention was to force overseas investors and trust force overseas investors and trust funds and others out of the farming sector attack big landowners, it is doing the complete opposite. It is destroying the family farm sector, is forcing tenant farmers out as is forcing tenant farmers out as well and is seriously impacting on our ambitions in relation to food security. The family farm tax has another broken promise by this Chancellor, who made no indication that Labour would do this before the last election.

The supermarkets, Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons and Co-op, Marks and Spencers and many more have expressed their concern over how this tax will impact farmers and how our nation's capacity to produce our own food will be impacted. Now I understand this. I grew up on a farm and the consequences for our rural communities of the Chancellor's failure to reverse this cruel tax will be catastrophic. Madam Deputy Speaker, two weeks ago I visited dozens of small businesses across the Scottish Borders. Corner shops, greengrocers, butchers, manufacturers, gift shops and many, many more.

And the same issue came up with almost every single one of them. That is the extremely tough business conditions they are having to operate in just now. The impact of the jobs tax, which is forcing many, many of them to delay hiring decisions or even laying staff off, and additional red tape that is forcing good employers to jump through totally unnecessary hoops. In fact, the average cost of a member of staff has surged by almost £1,000 per month thanks to the jobs tax and the government's Employment Rights Bill.

And to make matters worse, because of the state of the economy, customers have less to spend on their goods and services. It is all adding up to be an economic nightmare. The Chancellor's decisions are pushing our economy into a tax doom loop. Higher taxes to fund more spending that in turn harms our economic growth. And surprise, surprise, the Chancellor receives lower revenue. And again, she comes back to ask for more tax rises. That point

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happily give way. I am grateful to my hon. Friend for giving way. I entirely endorse for giving way. I entirely endorse the argument he's making and wasn't the big punishment in yesterday's Budget. The increase in taxation on Budget. The increase in taxation on dividends, which is saying to our wealth creators, our entrepreneurs, the people who actually create the jobs, don't bother.

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jobs, don't bother. My hon. Friend is absolutely right. There's absolutely no incentives being created by this Budget for people to invest, to people, to take the risk, to grow their business, to set up a their business, to set up a business and sending out all the wrong messages, which we want to be creating in a country which has traditionally been full of traditionally been full of entrepreneurs. Because of this doom loop that the Chancellor has created, it is always going to be hard working businesses and families who pay the price for her economic failure.

Madam Deputy Speaker, the Chancellor could have made much better choices in her Budget. She could have saved £47 billion, including £23 billion from welfare, avoiding the need to increase taxes in this way altogether, she could have introduced a cheap power plan to bring down energy costs for homes and businesses. But the Chancellor has not listened. She has not learnt from her mistakes that she made in last year's Budget. This Labour government promised economic stability. This Budget does nothing to make that a reality, and it is why those of us on these benches

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strongly. Yes. Alice MacDonald. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
14:10
Alice Macdonald Portrait Alice Macdonald MP (Norwich North, Labour )
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Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. The Budget. The Chancellor delivered yesterday set the course for a fairer Britain founded on a stronger, more resilient economy. stronger, more resilient economy. It will make a real difference to people in my constituency of Norwich North. It tackles head on the cost of living crisis, which has had such a terrible impact on so many. And much of the crisis, of course, had its origins on the benches opposite. When members oversaw devastating austerity policies, a blundering Brexit and a Liz Truss sponsored economic crash.

In contrast, the Chancellor was clear about her mission to build a stronger, fairer and more secure economy. She was clear we will not go back to austerity. We will not pass the debt burden onto the next generation. Instead, we will tackle the cost of living pressures head on with targeted and funded interventions to deliver support where it is most needed. And key to this is the theme of the debate today, because only with economic sustainability and by making fair choices can we deliver a better Britain.

So firstly, and I didn't hear the members opposite welcome any of these choices to tackle the cost of living and to put more money in people's pockets. Energy bills cut by £150 off the average bill. Prescription charges frozen. Rail ticket prices frozen for the first time in 30 years for my constituents taking the train from Norwich to London on an annual season ticket will save around £600 a year. That's a Labour government bringing down everyday costs for working people. And secondly, Mr. Speaker, I want to talk about the fair choices being made to deliver for children and young people.

As part of Parliament Week last week, I visited Thorpe St Andrew sixth Form. There were many excellent questions and many students asked me specifically about jobs, opportunity and making work pay fairly. There are specific questions about the minimum wage and I am pleased to welcome the increases, which of course were recommendations from the Independent Low Pay Commission, because that will mean that the national minimum wage for workers aged 18 to 20 will be up by 8.5%, and for under 18 apprentices, up by 6%.

And of course, overall, the National Living wage up by 4.1%. And alongside this, can I welcome the investment in the Youth Guarantee, £820 million, guaranteeing anyone out of work or study for more than 18 months a paid job? That's a Labour government delivering a stable economy for the next generation, with fair pay, opportunity and lower national debt. Next, let me turn to children. Approximately a third of children in Norwich live in poverty. Your chances in life, whether you go to school with a coat on and a full belly, should not depend on the circumstances of your birth or how many siblings you have.

Yeah, that is why I welcome the decision to abolish the Conservatives cruel two child benefit cap. This will lift 1900 children out of poverty. In my constituency and across the whole of Norwich, nearly 4000 children and of course 450,000 nationally. And as many members have mentioned, let us remember that the majority of children affected by this policy are in families where one parent works. This is not only the right thing to do for our children, but in all our interests too, because making children poorer costs us and damages our economy in the long term.

And I am proud that we are abolishing the horrendous rape clause. No longer will women be forced to undergo the humiliation of proving that their child was born as a result of rape. In order to receive extra support, children should not pay the price of political choices, and this Labour government will make sure that they don't. Madam Deputy Speaker, let me turn to public services. I welcome the announcement of 250 new NHS neighborhood health centres building on the 5.2 million extra NHS appointments already delivered.

I'll be working hard to make sure we get one in Norwich North, and fixing the NHS is one of the biggest priorities of my constituents, and I know that this government will continue to focus on it. And my final point, Madam Deputy Speaker, is about the East of England. It is a brilliant place to live, work and do business. Indeed, the recent Opportunity East report highlighted that our region is a powerhouse of national growth, generating £240,000,000,014 billion in gross value added annually, with nearly 10 billion of private R&D investment each year.

There are many excellent businesses of all shapes and sizes. Entrepreneurs and startups like those based at the Norwich Research Park. So I welcome the measures to back entrepreneurs and startups in the Budget. And I wanted to welcome already the investment we've seen in our region the historic investment in Sizewell C, which will create jobs and opportunities for the whole region and indeed for the country. Yesterday, the Chancellor announced billions of flexible funding for seven mayors to invest in their areas. As Norfolk and Suffolk elects our mayor next year, I urge the government to continue this approach and back local growth and local leaders because, as she said, the benefits of investment and growth must be felt in every corner of our country.

In conclusion, Madam Deputy Speaker, we have seen a Budget in stark contrast to what we saw under the party opposite when living standards for many of my constituents in Norwich North fell, the Chancellor has set out a Budget that is about creating a fairer future for every one. The bills, a stable country for Britain today and Britain's tomorrow. It is sad that many on the benches opposite reject those choices that have been made because we reject austerity, we reject decline and we reject unfairness.

Instead, we want a future where workers are paid fairly, where people can pay their bills, where we take action to end child poverty for good, where everyone can see a doctor when they are sick, and when we have a strong and sustainable economy for generations to come. That's the future I've been fighting for since I was elected and I will continue to fight for. Thank you.
14:15
Kirsty Blackman Portrait Kirsty Blackman MP (Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party)
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Kirsty Blackman. Deputy Speaker, I want to start by welcoming a few things that were included in the Budget. I was contacted yesterday by the Pension Protection Fund who were talking about the indexation of pre 1997 pensions. The Member for care, for whose constituency I cannot pronounce, fought hard in relation to this in the pension schemes Bill and I spoke about it on a number of occasions. I'm pleased that this change is being made and I think it will make a real difference to the oldest and poorest pensioners who are covered by the PPF and the FSA.

Secondly, I want to talk about the two child cap. Alison Thewlis, my previous colleague, fought very hard to get the rape clause removed and is delighted that this change has now been made. This has been something that the SNP has worked incredibly hard on, not just over the course of this Parliament, where we have moved two votes in the in the House, specifically on the two child cap, but in previous parliaments, because we know it is the most cost effective way to take children out of poverty.

In fact, in Scotland, we had tabled yesterday a measures to mitigate the two child cap in Scotland from next year. Thankfully, we will no longer have to mitigate that policy because the UK government has agreed to do it. We are pleased that this has happened and we're we're very glad that the government has caught up. I would, however, say that it has taken a period of time. About 100 children a day have been pushed into poverty as a result of keeping the cap in place, and I would invite Labour members to reflect on the fact that a number of their colleagues were suspended for supporting us in scrapping the two child cap, when clearly it was the right thing to do.

If it's the right thing to do today, it was the right thing to do then in order to get children out of poverty in relation to the welfare bill. In total, I have heard a number of people talking on the radio. I've heard a number of people on particularly further the right parties about the growth of the total welfare bill and the fact that by the end of the forecast period, it will reach £406 billion. Now, I would point out that the growth that is happening is about 91.5 billion.

Almost half of that, 44.4 billion. That's 48% of that is in pensions alone. I think it is not right to couple these two things together. When we're talking about the growth of welfare, I understand that people do, and I understand that the Red book and the Blue Book do couple them together. However, when people who are trying to say that we should get the welfare bill down are talking about this £406 billion figure, they really need to be clear that half of that increase is in pensions.

Half of it is because we have got the triple lock on pensions, and because we've got an increase in the number of pensioners that there are. If you look at the Obr's figures, the fiscal risks report that was published in July out to 2070, there is a significant increase in the percentage of GDP that is going to pensioners from 5 to 7.7% by 2070, which I'm aware is quite a way. In the future. However, we need to be clear that because of the growth in the numbers of older people, because of the numbers of older people who are living longer, there is an increase in the number of pensioners and therefore an increase in the amount that we're spending on pensions.

I think it's right for the government to have to justify why it's increasing the welfare bill. But I think talking about that entire 406 billion figure as an increase in the welfare bill is not the right way to go about it, if that is what you are looking to tackle. Just a couple more things that I wanted to raise in terms of energy prices and the cost of living generally. The Labour government, when they came into power, promised a £300 reduction in energy prices.

We have, even with the Chancellor's changes seen, continued increase in the cost of energy, in fact, it's more will be more. Even with £150 rebate, it will be more money on energy bills for the average family than when the Labour government came into power. The SNP put forward a proposal in advance of this Budget, talking about a bank levy similar to one that was introduced previously, specifically to pay £300 to every to to the bill payers in order to ensure that that Labour promise was made.

We still believe that the cost of living is too high. If you look at the 4.9% level of food inflation currently, it is impossible not to buy food, right? Everybody has to buy food just like they have to pay for energy. You can avoid taking foreign holidays. You can avoid buying a car, but you can't avoid buying food and paying for your home to be heated. So I think those inflation figures are really key and important. And just lastly, as you would expect me to talk about the energy profits levy and the oil and gas yesterday, alongside the Budget, the North Sea Future Plan was published.

The North Sea Future Plan includes once in this entire document a mention of the Energy profits levy. And that's just when it's talking about responses to surveys. The government does not mention the energy profits levy once in this entire document. The emails that I get from people in relation to the oil and gas, in relation to oil and gas, in relation to the just transition, the energy profits levy is the key measure that is causing 1000 jobs a month to be lost.

If economic growth is the government's key priority, if it really is the government's key priority, they need to look at the energy profits levy and they need to do it before 2030 because my constituents are losing their jobs and that economic growth is failing as a result of this UK government's policies. this UK government's policies.
14:21
Chi Onwurah Portrait Dame Chi Onwurah MP (Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West, Labour)
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Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. Adam, our productivity grow at the same rate as media speculation. The UK would have been in a much stronger physical fiscal position ahead of the Budget. All the more credit then to my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for delivering a Budget for working people, lifting children out of poverty and equipping our economy to grow at the same time as a masterful masterclass in. At the Despatch Box, there was another performance which was, well, magical in its way that of the members opposite, who have managed to forget their economic vandalism, their fiscal incompetence, their social sabotage, and pretend the UK's economic situation is nothing to do with them.

Even as the OBR downgraded its productivity forecasts to reflect their past productivity failures. It's like some Westminster edition of The Bourne Identity without Matt Damon. Well, perhaps the shadow Minister thinks he is Matt Damon, but with a whole political party who wake up not knowing where they have been for the last 15 years, but the North remembers, and particularly the North East, we are a great and vibrant nation, a region, the engine of the Industrial Revolution.

It was growing up in Newcastle, surrounded by the legacy of great Geordie engineers and inventors, and in a culture that championed making and building things, which inspired me to become an engineer. But the wealth created by our region's industrious workforce has not been enjoyed by us. Despite having world leading companies and research institutions, the North East now has the lowest GDP per head in the UK at £28,000. Every region in the country is below the national average of £39,000, except the South East at £41,000 and London at a whopping £69,000.

The Conservatives responded to the global financial crisis with the economic equivalent of leeches sustained austerity, resulting in the slow strangulation of the economy and my constituents wages annual earnings for full time employees in the North East actually fell during that time. And despite Tory talk of levelling up, we see the same regional disparities in Labour productivity, which is also indirectly a measure of capital investment, both physical and human. If we could just lift the north east per capita GDP to the national average, it would increase UK GDP by one by over 1%, almost the same GDP growth as we had for the entire country in 2024.

And that is why the Chancellor chose to turn her back on the conservative austerity and make the tough decisions necessary to invest. Let me focus on just two areas science and social justice. The twin passions of my personal politics as a Geordie, and as chair of the Select Committee on Science, Innovation and Technology, I am delighted to see the £30 million new facility in my hon. Friend, the Member for Darlington constituency, which will accelerate and develop the development of novel RNA therapies from labs to market to tackle cancer, heart conditions and infectious diseases.

And I'm also really excited by the Budget measures to support innovative businesses to grow and investors to invest beyond the start up phase. My committee's inquiry into regional innovation and growth heard wide ranging evidence that disparities in investment, access to capital, skills, infrastructure and integration of universities and local economies all needed to be addressed. If we are to ensure that our region benefits from Britain's scientific strengths. Unfortunately, the inquiry also revealed an enduring complacency and lack of regional focus in many Whitehall departments.

So I urge the Chancellor to go further to address the barriers to regional growth and particularly echo the hope of our regional mayor, Kim McGuinness, to see more infrastructure investments in coming months. The last government's record on social justice sustained our nation. Children growing up in households where heating and eating were daily sources of stress, cutting £150 from the average household energy bill, extending warm home discount to a further 3 million of the poorest households. Expanding free school meals, breakfast clubs and improving nutrition will make a real difference to young lives and cut the cost of living for my constituents.

And the Chancellor's high value Council tax will Council surcharge will go some way to righting the ridiculous situation where family in a band home in Newcastle pay more council tax than someone in a £10 million property in Westminster. And finally, the decision to scrap the two child limit in universal will change for the better. The lives of 4960 children in my constituency alone, and put almost £7 million back in the pockets of local families. Madam Deputy Speaker, it's an honour and a privilege to support a Labour Chancellor delivering a Labour Budget in the interests of every region and every working person in this country.
14:27
Andrew Rosindell Portrait Andrew Rosindell MP (Romford, Conservative)
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Andrew Rosindell.

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It's a privilege to. Follow the hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne, but I'm afraid

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I have. To disagree. With what she has. Said this afternoon. I'm sorry to say, Madam afternoon. I'm sorry to say, Madam Deputy Speaker, that this Budget will not improve the lives of my will not improve the lives of my constituents of Romford, who are hard working people that pay their taxes and contribute to the society taxes and contribute to the society and don't want the state to take money out of their pockets in the way this government are doing. The way this government are doing.

The people of Romford are market traders, small businessmen, shopkeepers, entrepreneurs, city shopkeepers, entrepreneurs, city workers and company directors. The kind of people who will set their alarms early each day to get up for work, to earn an honest living to support their families. But this Budget will hold my constituents back. It will stifle growth, increase the burden on hard working families, and demonstrates what seems to be a complete disregard by the Chancellor to support the genuine aspirations of the British people.

The government are taxing people beyond that which is reasonable or sustainable, whilst they show no serious attempt to reduce the size of the state, cut back the overbloated public sector or get people off a life of benefits and back to work, this Budget has radically increased taxes on working people, and the freezing of the income tax threshold is, I am sorry to say, nothing but an underhanded method taking yet more tax from my constituents. In fact, 800,000 pensioners will be put into the 40% tax bracket, so that means they will be poorer in my constituency and they will resent that.

I can tell the Minister the tax burden is now the highest that it has been since the Second World War, and my constituents will rightly ask what they are getting in return for this additional payment to the state. The truth is, Madam Deputy Speaker, Britain is spending way beyond its means and our government appears incapable of making serious cuts that are essential to restore our finances. The conservative government should have done a lot more as well, but this government is compounding the problem and making things far, far worse.

So if we carry on taxing and spending like this, our economy will continue to fall into a downward spiral. We need a radical change of approach, or I fear, Britain faces bankruptcy. Margaret Thatcher, Madam Deputy Speaker, rebuilt our economy in the 1980s based on sound money, living within our means, cutting taxes for hard working people, reducing the size of government, reforming the labour market and making it flexible. Curtailing the power of the trade unions, abolishing exchange controls and creating an enterprise culture that generated prosperity and incentivised the wealth creators for many years to come.

And that approach led to decades of economic prosperity inherited by the governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, only to be sucked up by their Labour policies at the time, leaving the Conservatives to start to rebuild the economy once more. And so the first, the first woman Prime Minister, Madam Deputy Speaker, got it right. But the first Chancellor, the first woman Chancellor of the Exchequer, I believe, should now take a leaf out of Mrs. Thatcher's book for the Chancellor to freeze rail fares and give bumper pay rises to the public sector, whilst taxes rise to the highest level in living memory to pay for.

It makes no sense to me whatsoever. This is economic illiteracy. Then there is the millions for electric vehicles, representing yet more subsidies for the green agenda and more money thrown at the failed eco experiment. The British people are no longer willing to fuel the fantasy of net zero, to the detriment of our British industry. This is not economic ambition. This is an ideological obsession for which now has little support. My constituents of Romford have no time for the net zero agenda any more.

They can see that it is only making Britain poorer, with much pain for little gain. The government's social engineering taxes are without doubt what Winston Churchill described as the philosophy of envy. VAT on private schools has added additional pressure on the state sector, and has been the cause of the closure of a large numbers of private schools. This has been so harmful to children and harmful to the standing and success of our education at home and abroad. The family farm tax is another example of how the government's policies are causing misery and harm to our rural communities, and to families who for generations have farmed the land to feed the nation.

It should be cancelled and the government should apologise to our farmers. And now we have a wealth tax disguised through a levy on property, which represents a dagger to the very heart of private property. This is an attack on the very notion of ownership. The truth is, Madam Deputy Speaker, we have massively overbloated welfare state, and I have no confidence that the Labour government will seriously tackle this issue. It is time to get back to common sense, sound economic management.

And so let's remember what Margaret Thatcher achieved for our country. achieved for our country.
14:33
Mary Glindon Portrait Mary Glindon MP (Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend, Labour)
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Mary Glindon. announcements in the Chancellor's Budget addressing the issues affecting the lives of my constituents in Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend. Despite the challenging headwinds the Exchequer faces, the Chancellor decided to protect the £120 billion of additional capital investment she set out at the Spending Review and introduced measures to ease the cost of living pressures, balancing the books by reducing capital spending would be to. Would be to dismantle growth. The North cannot afford that.

If the productivity of our major cities, like Newcastle, is to catch up with European peers on the news on the cost of living is also welcome, with the average family due to receive £234 next year from energy support and fuel duty measures. The decision to freeze rail fares and prescription charges will come as a sigh of relief to families up and down the country, and I also support the 4.8% increase to the state pension, in line with our commitment to the triple lock and on Social Security, I am delighted by the decision to scrap the two child benefit.

This is a progressive Labour choice that builds on the work the government is already doing on child poverty. The roll out of universal breakfast clubs, the expansion of free school meals and now the removal of what has been a moral stain on on Britain for the past eight years. The Tories reacted with anger today. I welcome it wholeheartedly for the 2940 children in my constituency who will be impacted positively by this measure. I wanted to commend the challenge.

I want to commend the Chancellor for the steps she has taken on taxing profits made by gambling firms. Remote gambling is associated with the greatest levels of harm. For some, it isn't entertainment. It's a rapid decline into addiction, mental health struggles and death. Yesterday, the government struck the right balance. Land based gambling is lower stakes and takes place in a more regulated and social environment. The sector is a source of investment for our high streets, which have been beleaguered for a number of years now, and I'm also pleased that those high streets will be supported by the introduction of permanently lower business rates for eligible properties, the lowest tax rates for over three decades.

Whilst I welcome the introduction of maintenance grants for disadvantaged students, I hope the government will listen to the higher education sector. Concerns about proposed international. About the proposed international student levy. According to the office for students, 45% of universities are set to report a deficit this year, diverting international tuition revenue at such a fragile moment for the sector could lead to additional course closures, staff redundancies and reductions in student support services. I urge the government to review the levy mechanism before implementation, publishing full sensitivity analyses using realistic assumptions for international student demand.

Well, I hope the Treasury will seek to identify alternative sources of funding for maintenance grants. I urge the government to introduce transitional protections should the proposals be introduced in 2028. I also hope the Treasury will examine the include the exclusion of PhD PhD researchers from the government's expanded childcare offer because stipends are not classed as taxable income, they are denied access to this support. Will the Treasury team work with the Department for education to explore solutions that ensure researchers receive the same childcare offer as other working families? And with regard to our North Sea, I remain deeply concerned about our offshore energy sector.

Net zero is our future, there is no denying that. But the transition must be fair, managed and prosperous. David Whitehouse, the chief executive of Offshore Energies UK, has warned that waiting beyond 2026 to reform the energy profits levy will see a thousand jobs continue to be lost every month. More energy import and contagion across the supply chains and our industrial heartlands. I want to echo his words that this is not over. We will keep pressing for change. I couldn't make it a Budget debate speech without mentioning the vaping industry, illicit products, underage sales and rogue retailers undermine public trust in what is the most effective form of smoking cessation.

I am pleased that the government has announced plans to give border officers and tax officials greater powers to tackle the surge of prohibited e-cigarettes on our high streets across the country, with police having powers to remove illegal vapes on the spot and find shoppers. Shop owners up to £10,000. Madam Deputy Speaker, a licensing scheme would then be an icing on the cake to conclude. Politics is about values which are always tested when going, when the going gets tough.

Against the backdrop of challenges, this government has reaffirmed its moral commitment to tackling poverty and getting our economy back on the track.
14:39
Monica Harding Portrait Monica Harding MP (Esher and Walton, Liberal Democrat)
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Yeah. Monica Harding. hearing her own words from last year, quoted back to her that extending the threshold will hurt working people and take more money out of their payslips before yesterday, freezing income tax thresholds and dragging 1 in 4 people into higher rate or additional rates of tax, and pushing the tax burden to an all time high 38% of GDP. And today is refusing to rule out coming back for more blindly copying the playbook of the last conservative government.

She is the continuity Chancellor and still no vision for growth, just that old style Labour taxes spend. It's like new Labour wealth creation pays for better public services. Never happened because the government may like to blame the conservative benches for the downgrading of our growth. But the OBR has also said that none of the measures in the Budget will boost growth. In fact, the Budget may actively harm growth. The OBR says itself slower wage growth and higher taxes mean living standards will rise more slowly than expected.

And take the ray, for example, on pension contributions. The OBR tells us that employers will pass on the cost of the £4.7 billion tax raid on pension contributions to employees with lower wages and less generous schemes. The CBI has data showing that that three quarters of employers will decrease pension contributions as a result. It's a tax on those doing the right thing. And this after government policies have harmed businesses in the first Budget, including the national insurance increases that have put thousands of pounds onto the load of my businesses in my constituency of Walton, causing them to hire less and cut hours for the very people that this government says they want to protect those part time workers and therefore low paid, often with care and responsibilities.

Higher unemployment, in turn, means more spend on universal credit. Indeed, a £1.8 billion more spend on Universal Credit, as estimated by the OBR on unemployment. It's all the wrong way round. One long term successful business owner in my constituency of Eastern Water said to me yesterday. The whole thing is just depressing. I could work for another 10 or 20 years creating wealth for the economy, but the government is making it so hard I may as well retire. And if I was in my 30s, I wouldn't choose to do it here anymore.

I would move overseas. She, Madam Deputy Speaker, is one of our wealth creators. She creates the growth we need. And another large business in my constituency who once felt confident about investing in Britain, creating growth, hiring new staff, now telling me that they are scaling back plans, postponing projects altogether and contemplating offshoring. Talking of supporting people trying to do the right thing, let us now turn to landlords. One of my constituents, Nisha Morton, who is a known as a very decent landlord, told me yesterday I may as well pull out.

What is the point? I get 2% gain on my properties. I may as well put it in the bank and get 4%. This policy will take renters off the market and increase rents, and is a place like Walton, where rental prices are sky high. Means more people won't be, won't afford to live there. And the property tax this will gum up the housing market. Distort the market properties for sale below the threshold. The surcharge says it will raise more than £600 million, but it will be offset by £200 million behavioural impact.

So the take home is £400 million, a rounded up figure except in London and the south east. Those properties might not be such big houses where the average pound per square foot prices are higher and in them are likely to be pensioners. Public figures have said that 2/5 of homeowners in bands G and H are pensioners. Older homeowners. I won't have a lot of time and we'll watch its value soar over the years. Will be hardest hit by this granny tax.

They are asset rich but cash poor. They may be forced to sell up at reduced asking prices, and more properties will get dragged into the mansion tax net as they do. The proportion of terraced houses, flats and semi will join them. And worst of all, this isn't a serious attempt to reform property tax, including business rates, stamp duties and council tax. Like this Budget, it is tinkering and meddling around the edges. This is a patchwork Budget that doesn't take us much further forward.

Where has the National Mission for growth gone? It's a low growth Budget from a low growth government, which thumbs its nose at the wealth creators. And it doesn't tackle some of the big questions. Where is the money in the plan for adult social care? Where is the money in the plan for the £14 billion deficit in send provision to help the local authorities that are about to go bankrupt? It's a smorgasbord of contempt for aspiration and growth, and in doing so, the government has not only abandoned working people in my constituency, it has waged a quiet war on aspiration itself.

I am pleased that this government lifted the two child benefit limit, and my party, and my party and my party laid out how we would do it. But, you know, this is know as well as I do that poverty doesn't end there. And if you need to tackle poverty, you have to create the growth to do it. With this, this there is an alternative. And the Liberal Democrats have laid it out. Our plan to turbo charge economic growth by repairing the 90 billion Brexit black hole caused by the previous conservative government.

The UK needs to negotiate a new bespoke customs union with the European Union, a modern arrangement designed around the needs of British businesses and workers, which would raise £25 billion a year instead of a Budget. The taxes work, punishes investment and stifles aspirations and still fails to deliver for public services. A Budget that tells wealth creates order.
14:45
Graeme Downie Portrait Graeme Downie MP (Dunfermline and Dollar, Labour)
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Graham Downing.

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Very much, Madam Speaker, I was going to be saying it is a going to be saying it is a privilege to follow the hon. Lady who did remind us as the Shadow Chancellor at the beginning when we were talking about films of back to the future, and that really was 2010 all over again. I think a couple of steps to the right, so to couple of steps to the right, so to speak, perhaps may well be in order. Madam Deputy Speaker, the constituents of my in Dunfermline constituents of my in Dunfermline and tell me every week what matters to them.

And that is what this Chancellor has delivered with her Chancellor has delivered with her Budget speech, a beach, a speech delivering on the main issues that affect people, bringing down the affect people, bringing down the cost of living, ensuring that working people in every corner of the country keep more of what they

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earn. A labour Budget in every sense of the word. Yes. Focused on helping the people who need it most, lifting families who need it most, lifting families out of poverty and creating new opportunities for the future. Madam opportunities for the future. Madam Deputy Speaker, I am proud to be one of the founding members of the Living Standards Coalition on this side of the House, and we have worked and hear every day about how important these issues are and how those changes we have heard about are pressed for, simply because we know that these are the actions which matter most to the people in our constituencies and which will our constituencies and which will make their lives better.

The alternative, Madam Deputy Speaker, proposed by the members opposite proposed by the members opposite something out of a film, except it was The Wolf of Wall Street, a failed ideological lurch back to hated austerity, a cruel experiment that shattered public services and pushed millions of people across the country into poverty and despair. The Chancellor's Budget yesterday announced that there will be no return to those dark times. Responsible choices, stabilizing the economy and putting money back into people's pockets. With the increase in the national Living Wage and the national minimum wage, the Chancellor has shown yet again that this is a government laser focused on making work pay, ensuring that those working hard to get ahead do feel a sense of fairness.

And to the 10,000 fifers who will benefit from these measures. This labor government is fighting for you now and will go on fighting for you day in and day out. Madam Deputy Speaker, this government has shown what matters most to the British people and matters most to us. No more fear and uncertainty from Tory mismanagement. Bills down, wages up, pensions up, more money in your pocket, a promise made by Labour and a promise kept by this Labour government. We have already seen this government deliver trade deals, and just last week, a £4 billion agreement with Indonesia that secured hundreds of jobs at Rosyth in my constituency.

And today, Madam Deputy Speaker in Scotland, the Chancellor confirmed the Budget will be no more return to austerity in Scotland, with the Scottish Government receiving a further £820 million and putting Scotland at its heart. Sadly, Madam Deputy Speaker, Scots have seen lengthened NHS waiting times, delayed trains, struggling schools but this Budget today has laid the foundation that will allow Anas Sarwar as the first Minister in Scotland to rebuild north as well. Madam Deputy Speaker, Keeping fuel costs down is vital to those people in my constituency and something I have led campaigns on in my time in Parliament and I very much welcome the Chancellor's freeze in fuel duty, saving money for people in my constituency.

Another measure supporting people and small businesses in Dunfermline and Dolor. Madam Deputy Speaker, as well as we are also looking after older generations, particularly those that have served our country and powered our past. One of the first acts of this government was to right the historic wrong to overturn the injustice, that injustice that diminished the miners pension scheme and returned pension funds to the pockets of retired miners. Madam Deputy Speaker, that was an issue I discussed with the then Chief Secretary to the Treasury the day after the last Budget of the need to continue to support those on the British Coal Superannuation Scheme, the BC triple S, and thanks to myself and colleagues from across the Labour Party and Coalfields MPs, we have seen that change announced by the Chancellor as well benefiting 176 families in my constituency alone and almost 700 across Fife.

I would like to pay tribute to the BC triple S campaigners like Alan Kenny in my constituency and across the country. Justice for these people, Madam Deputy Speaker, means more than money in the pockets of workers whose labour quite literally kept the lights on in this country, ensuring that those retired workers now have financial flexibility and security and inevitably boosting the local economy. Madam Deputy Speaker, this is a Budget that supports working families and lifts them out of poverty. And as others have said today, we cannot allow the false choice to exist.

We must always remember that 70% of children in poverty come from working families, working people working hard to support their children and needing some just a little bit more help from this Labour government. And the scrapping of the two child limit will benefit an estimated 1400 children in my constituency alone. And while we are talking about writing historic wrongs, something I have not heard discussed too much in this debate so far is that this Labour government's Covid counter-fraud commissioner, recovering £430 million.

Madam Deputy Speaker of our money from

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opposite. Yes. Madam Deputy Speaker, Fife will

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Madam Deputy Speaker, Fife will also benefit from £40 million of private funding thanks to this government supporting local communities and building local communities and building local local infrastructure, schools, community capacity in the areas that need it most. Funding only that need it most. Funding only available because of the choices made by this government and this Chancellor, we will use the funds Chancellor, we will use the funds we have to support the people who need it most bringing down bills, putting more money in people's pockets and creating a prosperous pockets and creating a prosperous and economic future.

Madam Deputy Speaker, this Budget is about fairness, stability and hope. It fairness, stability and hope. It delivers for Dunfermline, Scotland and the United Kingdom, promises made and promises kept and a future we can believe in. And this Budget will have my full support.
14:51
Greg Smith Portrait Greg Smith MP (Mid Buckinghamshire, Conservative)
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Hey Greg Smith.

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Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. As I reflected on the title the government has offered up for government has offered up for today's Budget resolutions debate economic sustainability and fair economic sustainability and fair choices, I have found myself wondering on what planet anyone could possibly call yesterday's Budget sustainable or fair. When we see in the forecast GDP growth down every year from 2026 to 2029, CPI every year from 2026 to 2029, CPI inflation up 3.5% this year.

Taxes increased by £26 billion. The increased by £26 billion. The unemployment rate will hit 4.9% in 2026, the size of the state itself increasing to 44.8% of GDP. Borrowing up, borrowing up by £11 billion and debt interest higher in every year of the forecast. That is not the makings of a sustainable economy. That is not the makings of growth, and that is certainly not fair on the taxpayers. They're going to have to shoulder the burden to pay for it all.

Madam Deputy Speaker, as I go around businesses in my constituency, from the retailers and the hospitality businesses on the high streets of Wendover, Princes Risborough, Great Missenden, the pubs in the villages, the furniture manufacturers in Princes Risborough and surrounds, the literal rocket scientists and big businesses at Westcott Venture Park. They all tell a picture of preparing for things to get worse, of saying that they are not planning to take on new employees

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or even apprenticeships. They are not planning. Oh. Thank the hon. Member for giving

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Thank the hon. Member for giving way. Can I ask him if he had a similar conversation with his constituents after Liz Truss's disastrous Budget, which he then?

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then? Madam Deputy Speaker, they're like a broken record. But what I would say, what I would say to the honourable, what I would say to the hon. Gentleman, is that the last government certainly made a number government certainly made a number of mistakes. We put our hands up to that. But we left employment high unemployment at a record low. Jobs unemployment at a record low. Jobs were being created every single day of the last conservative government. of the last conservative government.

Yet businesses now are either planning or not taking on more new starters. Or, like Rumsey's Chocolatier in Wendover High Street, have already because of employers, ni because of business rates, because of the looming Employment Rights Bill, have already had to lay people off and cut the hours of other employees they have been able to keep. That is the real world consequences of this Labour government's policies. And yesterday in the Budget, the dividends tax struck right to the heart of the entrepreneurs, those small business owners who risk everything to create growth, to employ people, to create the jobs that we want to see in our economy.

And it has given them a message. There's going to be less in it for you, if anything at all. So many of these businesses are working on such narrow margins, are working their absolute socks off almost for nothing. And this government is making it even harder for them. That is no way to run an economy. And then we look at a number of businesses I'm lucky enough to have many of in my constituency, around 90% of the land area of Buckinghamshire is agricultural land.

I have many farmers. I talk to them as often as I can. My party held our emergency Farm and farm and food summit at a Fleet Marston farm in my constituency just a couple of weeks ago, when my right hon. Friend, the Leader of the Opposition and the Shadow Defence Secretary and Shadow Farming Minister join me to hear again directly from farmers the impact the family farm tax will have, the impact that will see them either have to sell up to a third of their farm to meet that tax bill, or take on a level of debt that would take them over 40 years to pay back from the NFU and many other organisations and Farmers Direct, they have tried to reach out, including yesterday on Whitehall, to get Labour MPs to get government Ministers to listen, to understand the real world consequences of their decisions.

And yet, in the Budget yesterday it was entirely lacking of anything other than the transferable allowance to actually take away that stress, that anxiety and that exponential threat to British agriculture, that the family farm tax, as well as the changes to BPR represent to family businesses and family farms up and down the country, because I can assure everyone that challenges this, that it won't be other farmers that buy that land when farms have to sell to meet the inheritance tax bill, it will be property developers.

It will be all sorts of other concerns that will not keep that land in food production. And the nation's food security will will suffer as a direct result of yesterday's failure to scrap the family farm tax. Now, I want to talk briefly in the last couple of moments I have about another issue that I have been focused on for a number of years during the last Parliament and this, and draw the House's attention to my co-chairmanship of the All-Party parliamentary Group on the Loan charge and taxpayers fairness.

And I am grateful to the now Chief Secretary of the Treasury and the new Exchequer Secretary for the time that they have taken to reach out on this issue. And some of the announcements yesterday were welcome off the back of the McCann review. However, I'm sorry to say to the House that it has not met with total joy from the victims of the loan charge because there will still be many people caught up in the loan charge being asked to pay amounts of money that they simply still cannot afford to pay.

The Chancellor and the Chief Secretary to the Treasury and other Ministers are on record, when they were in opposition, as referring to victims of the loan charge as being victims of mis selling, and that the perpetrators, those that promoted these schemes, should have been brought to justice. And what we got yesterday was nothing of the sort. We didn't get that fully independent review that the APPG and the Loan Charge Action Group had been calling for. And what we've got is a place where many simply won't be able to pay it.

Many people, despite the concessions yesterday, are now over 55. 40% are over 60 a quarter already retired. Their ability to find the amounts of money being asked for is just not there. And likewise, the offer on the table is nothing like the offer that we find that some years ago that the big banks were offered in the region of 10 to 15% settlement. So I would urge the Exchequer Secretary to go back to look at this again and deliver a genuinely fair settlement to everyone caught up by the loan charge, and pursue those that sold the schemes.
14:58
Adam Jogee Portrait Adam Jogee MP (Newcastle-under-Lyme, Labour)
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Thank you. measures that announced yesterday that will make a real difference to the lives of the people I represent back home in Newcastle under Lyme, to whom much is given, much is expected. Madam speaker, and this side of the House received a mandate and the trust of the people last year. And so we on this side must get on with the job of getting our country back on track. And this Budget helps us do that. Communities like mine in the industrial heartlands believe that hard work should always pay off, that people should contribute their fair share, that nobody should walk by on the other side.

As Holy Scripture tells us, and everyone in our United Kingdom should be able to live with dignity, opportunity, and be able to get by and get on. Nobody in a country like ours, rich in people, in ambition and in potential, should ever be forced to choose between heating and eating. Nobody should be left living on Social Security when they can and should, if able, be at work and benefiting from the dignity and power that work provides. Now, I am grateful for the announcement on the BBC triple S.

This is something that I've campaigned hard for alongside colleagues like my hon. Friend from Easington and my staff, colleagues and neighbours in Stoke North, Cannock Chase. Behind me I can hear him from Burton and from Lichfield and yes, Dunfermline too, and many others, men and women from Newcastle who work down the pits in our coal industry, who fuelled our economy, who kept the lights on and will now finally get the justice that they deserve. Yeah, they'll get the money they are owed and it couldn't come fast enough.

In our United Kingdom, no child should grow up in poverty. That's why I welcome the decision to tackle racial injustice and racial inequality, and lift 1770 children out of poverty in Newcastle under Lyme. I am glad two local schools back home, The Meadows and Langdale, have already received funding for breakfast clubs and I'm looking forward to more of my local schools benefiting. So no child goes to school hungry. Newcastle under Lyme is home to many wonderful family farms and the farmers and their families who live on them, people who tend to our land, who feed us and who keep our country going.

I've raised their concerns, which I share on the proposed changes to Apr for farmers. I welcome the sensible concession yesterday that will allow for clearer and smoother transfer of relief between married couples and civil partners, but I do urge colleagues on the frontbench to consider the threshold going for the baddies. Who land Bank is right. It's the right thing to do, but we must not allow an unintended impact on small family farms, because those who should pay must be made to pay.

I will give way.

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And I thank my hon. Friend for raising the issue of family farms as well. I have a number in my as well. I have a number in my constituency. Does he agree with me that it is important to make sure we do strike that balance in his we do strike that balance in his part of the country, as well as in the devolved administrations, to make sure that we are putting the tax burden in the correct place

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tax burden in the correct place farms. I am grateful to my friend who gives a voice to the fact that we gives a voice to the fact that we are one United Kingdom, and that approach must be made in Scotland as it is in the center of our collective universe. Newcastle collective universe. Newcastle under Lyme. Madam Deputy Speaker, the challenges facing our farming industry and this is important, the challenges facing our farming challenges facing our farming industry didn't start last July. We all know that, but we on this side now have a chance to give our farmers the support that I'm afraid the previous conservative government failed to do so.

It's easy to be gloomy about the state of the world, but there is always hope. Madam Deputy Speaker, this weekend we will mark the first anniversary since the cowboy operators at Walleys Quarry landfill site were finally closed down 147 days into my time as our MP, we finally secured justice for the people in my community. Forced to live with a disgusting and disgraceful situation at Walleys, a sign that things can only get better. Madam Deputy Speaker and I pay tribute to all the campaigners who worked so hard with me over those first 147 days as our MP.

With this Budget we are fixing the roof and if it's not shiny, Madam Speaker, then it certainly isn't raining outside. We will see more children eating properly and not going to school hungry, more parents able to work without worrying about childcare, more former miners finally seeing justice and receiving the money they are rightfully owed. Prescription charges frozen, rail fares frozen. More pensioners able to afford to heat their homes and buy Christmas presents for their grandchildren. The disgusting rape clause gone.

More people able to afford their energy bills with £150 cuts to those bills. More young people supported into life changing educational and employment opportunities. Support for farmers but much more to do, and I hope the Minister has heard that for the third time in this speech, more support for universities like Keele University and colleges like Newcastle College in my community, receiving the support they need to continue providing a world class British education. More doctors and nurses and I declare an interest.

My wife is an excellent one two as all of her colleagues, but more doctors, nurses, NHS staff getting the credit and support they richly deserve. This Budget will not change the country overnight. Madam Deputy Speaker, it will not solve every issue immediately, but it sets us on a path to a fairer, better, more inclusive United Kingdom. I will always shout loudly when we show the difference that a Labour government can make. I will speak truth to power when we need to do things better, and I will always make sure that the people of Newcastle are heard loudly and proudly in this place.

We have much to do, so let's get on with it.
15:04
Christopher Chope Portrait Sir Christopher Chope MP (Christchurch, Conservative)
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Yes, sir. Christopher Chope. thank him for his support for the campaign against the family farm tax. And I think it's and his courage in speaking out in favour of abolishing that impost upon our farming communities. Madam Deputy Speaker, I don't think it's any exaggeration to say that this is the worst Budget that I've ever witnessed as a member of this House, but I also think it's fair to say that it generated the best response I've ever heard from the Leader of the Opposition.

And I congratulate my right hon. Friend on the way in which she dealt with the matter. And I'm going to start off by referring to part of what she said in her excellent speech. She said the Chancellor has, by her own admission, broken her manifesto promise on income tax in the last Budget. She said I am keeping every single promise on tax that I made in our manifesto, so there will be no extension of the freeze in income tax thresholds. She also said that extending the threshold freeze would hurt working people.

It would take more money out of their payslips. And what did the Chancellor say yesterday? She had the gall to say in the conclusion of her speech that she had been, while keeping every single one of our manifesto commitments. It's hardly surprising, Madam Deputy Speaker, that disillusion with politics and the political system in our country is running so high because that sort of betrayal, not just of a manifesto commitment, but even of things that were said last year, I happen to be one of, I think, the only conservative MP at the the CBI dinner last year when I heard the Chancellor say to Rupert Soames, the president of the CBI, that she wasn't coming back for more, that there was a clean slate and that they weren't going to increase taxes.

And yet she seemed to disregarded what she said a year ago to the CBI. Was she seduced by Rupert Soames? I don't know, but whatever. Did she mean what she said or didn't she mean what she said? It's hardly surprising that people don't trust this government any longer. And I equate what where we are now with those who had the misfortune. I don't know whether you ever did, Madam Deputy Speaker, to travel on Belgium's national airline, Sabena, because the people who travelled on that airline are developed the acronym.

Such a bad experience, never again. And that is exactly what the view is of those who voted Labour for the first time at the last general election. They're saying never again. They witnessed the arrogance, the incompetence and the downright deceit of this Labour government. Madam Deputy Speaker, I think it's worth putting on record the extent to which taxes are now increasing. Table A-5 of the Blue Book said. Sets those out, and I. I put this in the context of what the Chancellor of the Exchequer said on the today programme this morning, when asked whether she would rule out further tax increases in this parliament, she said she declined to answer.

She said she wouldn't, in essence, but said let's remind ourselves of what the tax increases already are set out in this Budget. Income tax in 2425 was 305.9 billion. It's going up to 410.9 billion by 2930. That's an increase of 105 billion or over one third National Insurance going up from 171.4 billion to 239.2 billion, an increase of 40% over five years. Business rates rising from 32.1 billion to 41.9 billion, an increase of 30% over five years.

Council tax rising from 47.4 billion to 63.3 billion over five years, an increase of at least one third, and inheritance tax rising from 8.3 billion to 13.5 billion, an increase of 60% over five years. It's hardly surprising, is it, Madam Deputy Speaker, that people are feeling a poorer and betrayed? Very few people will be able to experience increases in their own household income of anything like those proportions in the next five years, and that's why this Budget is such a disaster and such a betrayal of the national interest.

And coupled with it is a very unhealthy development in my view. And I hope you, Madam Deputy Speaker, will be able to discuss this with the speaker. And that's so surrounds the way in which so many people were identified in their in their as in their constituents as having contributed to the Chancellor's decisions. And it struck me that we are in a a series now where people are being bought off by the Chancellor in order to support her.

And I think that's an extremely unhealthy development. It's basically what we we had to deal with in the United States, and we don't like it at all.
15:10
Anna Gelderd Portrait Anna Gelderd MP (South East Cornwall, Labour)
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Anna Geldert, thank you, Madam. out fair decisions to benefit communities across the country that have felt the strain of the last decade, and they expect to see the change they voted for, delivered and the cost of living brought under control. So I'm delighted that Cornwall's potential has been recognised with the new £30 million Kernow Industrial Growth Fund. This new fund demonstrates that Cornwall has a leading role to play in once again powering the UK economy. Yes, mining is at the heart of our story in Cornwall and with this new support we can begin the next chapter, one where the role of critical minerals and other core industries helps unlock the next great industrial revolution, including greener, cheaper energy.

Yeah, here the fund will support local businesses and workers. It combines investment with stability through extended business rate retention and sits alongside wider opportunities through the National Wealth Fund, the British Business Bank and GB energy. These choices support secure year round jobs and this combination of investment, stability and real change for the majority of working people is reflected throughout the Budget. South east Cornwall will feel that in terms of both local growth and family finances, families gain real support.

Wages have risen faster in the first year of this government than they did over the last decade reducing energy bills, freezing prescription charges, as well as fuel duty and rail fares will be very welcomed by my residents in south east Cornwall. The changes to Universal Credit will also bring thousands back into work, which strengthens local labour markets in places like Liskeard, Torpoint and Callington. One of the most significant steps is the decision to scrap the two child limit. Shockingly, child poverty rose by 900,000 between 2010 and 2024 and I say shockingly, but I am not sure if this truly shocks those opposite who presided over this decline.

And I know what child poverty looks like. I know how it locks people out of opportunities through no fault of their own. And I know how hard schools, campaigners, charities and other support systems work to try to bridge that gap. But some gaps require systemic change, and this Budget will lift 450,000 children out of poverty. That's what systemic change under this Labour government looks like. Here in south east Cornwall, relative child poverty stood at 21.7% in 2023. That's almost a quarter of our local children who entered school already facing hardship.

Growing up in poverty makes you less likely to be in work and earn 25% less age 30. So that's not good for kids. It's not good for the adults they become and it's not good for our economy. This Budget reduces that pressure and gives families, families a more secure start. And for too long, local healthcare has been a challenge for residents in south east Cornwall, so I'm pleased to see that Labour is backing our NHS with extra support, investment in healthcare technology and the creation of 250 neighbourhood health centres will cut waiting lists and improve access.

NHS Neighbourhood Rebuild opens up more than 120 new centres by 20 2030, including improvements at Truro Health Park, backed by real investment. They are not fantasy priorities. Local residents in south east Cornwall rely on services in both Cornwall and in Plymouth, and these upgrades will bring benefits right across my region. Young people get new opportunities as well. Investment in school libraries, new playgrounds improves learning and wellbeing and 820 million investment to support young people by guaranteeing a place in college, an apprenticeship or personalised job.

Support this free apprenticeship training for under 25 in small businesses will help local employers across south east Cornwall. That's 1854 SMEs in my region who will be able to train and retain young people. This is a real chance to build a local, skilled workforce and keep that talent at home in Cornwall. So Cornwall needs the tools to strengthen its visitor economy in a way that benefits our local people in the long term. So an overnight visitor levy could be an important step and we rely heavily on tourism.



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Yet residents often feel the pressure of those summer peaks benefits. Here, here.

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Here, here. So the power to raise local revenue and reinvest in our community projects could create a fairer balance and support a more resilient local economy. I also welcome the new announcement for farmers and their families, the farmers and their families, the ability for spouses to transfer any unused agricultural and business unused agricultural and business property relief allowances gives farming families more certainty as they plan for their future. South they plan for their future. South east Cornwall is a proud rural and coastal constituency, and I've been working with many local farmers to working with many local farmers to ensure their views are heard.

In my discussions with Ministers, fixing thresholds and closing loopholes strengthens confidence, but I know there is further work to do. I will give way.

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I'm grateful to the hon. Lady for giving way. Whilst the spousal transfer is a very narrow measure, that might give a couple of years that might give a couple of years or maybe a decade's relief from this, at the end of the day, those farmers will still have to sell farmers will still have to sell massive chunks of their farm to meet this inheritance tax bill. What does she say to her farmers

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What does she say to her farmers when that point comes? And I. Thank the hon. Member for his intervention and allowing me more intervention and allowing me more time to make my point, which is that farming is at the heart of my that farming is at the heart of my community. I know, and I'm very glad to be debating with you on this point. So farming is at the heart of my community and working heart of my community and working hard with Ministers to ensure that the new changes are reflected.

As I've said, there is much more work to do. I particularly welcome the clear recognition of Cornwall in this Budget, alongside the Kernow Industrial Growth Fund, the government's commitment to work with the Council of Europe to increase the UK's formal recognition of the Cornish language under the European Charter for European and Minority Languages matters. It matters because Kennewick remains at a lower level of protection compared to other Celtic languages, and that is why I introduced my own ten minute rule bill focused on Cornish language and heritage.

Opposition parties talk about leaving the European Convention on Human Rights. Cornwall fought hard for our national minority status here and the frameworks that protect our language and heritage, so I don't want to see that thrown away. I want to see a wider use of canoeing in signage and place names, which I know will boost our local economy as visitors flock to see it. This Budget moves us in the right direction. It doesn't complete the work, but it delivers a fair step towards repairing Britain and rebuilding the opportunities in places like southeast Cornwall.

I'll continue working, as I have since being elected to deliver real investment, strong public services and a local economy that works year round. Yeah.
15:17
John Hayes Portrait Rt Hon Sir John Hayes MP (South Holland and The Deepings, Conservative)
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From after the next speaker,

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there will be a five minute time limit. Sir John Hayes. Thank you, Madam Speaker. G.K.

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Thank you, Madam Speaker. G.K. Chesterton said this to her. And the only final and deadlier amongst all errors is denying that we have all errors is denying that we have erred. And yesterday's Budget brought to stark relief the Chancellor and this government has Chancellor and this government has erred, and worse, is in denial about that error. The UK faces a about that error. The UK faces a twin problem fiscal crisis. Public debt is around 100% of GDP and debt is around 100% of GDP and rising and debt interest making up about three quarters of the deficit and public spending at close to 45% and public spending at close to 45% of GDP is near to a high.

In post-war years. Much of this failure is systemic, and governments of all colours have failed to address some fundamental, fundamental macroeconomic challenges. Yesterday's Budget only fails to fix that entrenched mess does not even acknowledge it's happening. As the global liberal order decays, we face global economic challenges of scale we haven't seen for 100 years. AI risks transforming the job market A recent study by the National Foundation for Educational Research forecasts up to 3 million jobs could disappear by 2025. Employment in sales, customer service occupations has fallen by more than 10% since 2021, and around 12 million people in England currently working occupations which are deemed to decline.

This requires government to play a role. Government can be a force for good. This House took far too long to recognise the damage that will be done by the internet. And finally, when those horrors were obvious legislated, we need to restrict AI where it does similar damage rather than indulge this naive faith in technological change at all costs. Now, the old, comforting bourgeois assumptions about the benign nature of globalisation and this faith in technological change risk are in risk, endangering many of the jobs that I've described and the purpose and pride which they fuel.

The US president was right to impose tariffs on cheap goods, destroying vital US industries. In response, China is dumping surplus goods in Europe. It estimated that 3 million industrial jobs in the EU are at risk from the surge of subsidised imported goods. In response to these existential threats, the government seems frozen in time. Too much of the establishment remain wedded to dysfunctional orthodoxies. We are playing by the rules of the game when the important players have left the table, you can't continue to proselytize the case for unbridled free trade and the two biggest economies in the world, China and America, have given up on it.

We have to protect those industries critical to our national economic interests. We have to build greater economic resilience by reindustrializing, by manufacturing again, by ensuring that more of what we consume is made here in Britain with the jobs and skills and reassurance that provides an economy, can fuel, can nourish communal health. But it can't. In a world which is wedded to globalised, multinational corporate companies which are careless, careless of the difference they make to communities like mine in Lincolnshire and across the country.

So where in Britain, here in Britain and the Western world, living standards are stagnating, productivity growth has all but disappeared, and the state grows ever bigger in the face of rising poverty and worklessness. Why, then, does the political class continue to profess a blind faith in an economic model that has delivered record levels of state dependency? Their assumption that this one can be done to reverse the natural process of industrial decline is simply wrong, and the experience in the United States suggests otherwise.

Once you tune out the noise surrounding President Trump's on and off tariffs, you can hear the faint stirrings of industrial revival. A detailed study of the impact of tariffs in the president's first term found that once the pre-existing decline in manufacturing employment was accounted for, tariffs contributed to rising employment in areas with a large presence of protected industries. Neither did the consumer prices surge there. Despite the predictions of liberal economists. Imagine the benefits of consistent and coherent trade policy that puts the needs of British industry first.

I happily give way to my friend.

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I thank my right hon. Friend for giving way. Does he agree with me that in a world where capital and that in a world where capital and labour is highly mobile, and in a world which is increasingly pressured as a result of energy costs, the very best thing the costs, the very best thing the government could do is pare back the regulation that inhibits the ability of manufacturers to compete competitively, and pare back the regulation that prevents the UK from being a very attractive

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from being a very attractive labour. Yes. Makes a valuable point. Both

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Makes a valuable point. Both governments and these big corporates welcome a regulatory system that disadvantages small and system that disadvantages small and innovative companies. Big organisations quite like regulation because they can cope with it because of their scale. Small small organisations struggle with it. They don't. They simply don't have the resources to deal with it. Just imagine the potential benefits, consistent, coherent trade policy that puts the needs of British industry first. In 1979, manufacturing accounted for 30% of GDP.

In Britain. Today is just 8.5%. Manufacturing employ 21% of the workforce in 1982. By 2023 employ just 8%. By some measures. Since the greatest deindustrialisation of any major nation in time, we we can and should build a different economic model, a new order. We need a fundamental rethink of economic model. Breaking from the failed orthodoxy that currently prevail, to what Hilaire Belloc and G.K. Chesterton called distributism, where local economies, introspective feeding, communal health, shorter supply chains mean that we can make more of what we need here in the UK.

Fuel in schools, skills, nourishing communities. What Chesterton and Belloc intuitively understood was the excessive concentration of economic power harms society and fuels the discontent that many people in Britain feel today. Real wages have stagnated whilst at the top of particular large corporations, often based overseas, accumulate huge wealth and huge power. We can build that new order. Small family businesses enrich the places in which we live. Mutuals, mutuals and cooperatives sustain communal and economic health in localities.

We can do this, but it requires a radical rethink of the economic orthodoxy. The Budget doesn't suggest that rethink, and all parties must step up to the mark and understand we now live in a post-liberal age where a new order is possible. Let's together build that new order to deliver the common good and to sustain our national interest.
15:24
Adam Thompson Portrait Adam Thompson MP (Erewash, Labour)
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Thompson. I think undoubtedly my constituents will be watching this Budget debate closely, asking, what does it mean for them? Will it sort out the cost of living, fix the NHS, help pay down the national debt? What they will have seen then, from my right hon. Friend the Chancellor and her ministerial team is a Budget. With those issues at its heart. Over 14 years, this country experienced the steepest fall in living standards in living memory. The planned rise in the Minimum Wage Act next April is just one step towards alleviating those problems for the lowest paid in society.

However, the youngest full time workers will see a nearly £5,000 pay increase, coupled with £150 of household energy bills. This government is very literally putting money in people's pockets. Madam Deputy Speaker, Unlike the Tories in their latest rebrand reform, I'll be proud to back a Budget next week that backs working people. Yeah, there's a simple truth. When workers are paid well, they work better. And when working people have more money, the economy grows. In the Chancellor's statement, I was delighted to hear the announcement of the Team Derby Initiative, a new roaring engine for the East Midlands economy, creating high paid, good quality jobs in my home in Derbyshire and for children in Ilkeston and Long Eaton.

New free apprenticeships in SMEs will be something to truly aspire to when they come out of school. As good as any university degree in Erewash, wait times for GP appointments are a full week longer than the national average. It's fundamentally wrong that people in Ilkeston don't get the same standard of care as people who live here in London. We need to build now a truly national health service, ending the postcode lottery for good in this Budget 250 new neighborhood health centres.

Madam Deputy Speaker, this means hopefully, perhaps that the days of my constituents commuting into Nottingham or Derby for minor scans or blood tests might soon be over. Yeah. Next. Madam Deputy Speaker, I want to address those who say we could borrow without end, cut Britain to oblivion, or think that tax cuts for the wealthy would somehow magic us into economic growth. Or indeed, if you ask the Greens, perhaps hypnotize us into physical growth, we already know where these ideas lead. Madam Deputy Speaker, all of these, all of these options were tried and tested in British government during the 14 long years that the Conservative Party were in control, and it left them in the moribund electoral doldrums where they now find themselves.

First, they tried to cut their way out of a recession. Interest rates were at a fraction of a percent, and yet they did nothing to invest in and grow our economy. The NHS fell to its knees, businesses stopped growing, and wages went down in real terms. Even their own backbenchers, one of them are left and party members were not happy with their approach. After 12 years of trying one failed scheme after another and eventually running out of even vaguely credible ideas, they tried something new.

They made Liz Truss the Prime Minister. And I think we all remember that that ended in abject chaos of the of the Truss mini Budget filled with uncosted spending commitments, tax cuts for the wealthiest and nothing short of an economic Hindenburg. And who paid the price for that chaos? Madam Deputy Speaker, for that economic crash, it was working people, families in Long Eaton and Ilkeston and San Diego mortgages sent sky high, in some cases doubling savings, wiped out inflation run amok.

And who supported this vandalism? While backbench conservative MPs were pulling their collars nervously sending furtive glances in the direction of their majorities, who instead instead gave Liz Truss their full throated endorsement. Why, of course, Madam Deputy Speaker, the fake patriots and faux defenders of working people at reform UK. Yeah, because they are fake patriots. Madam Deputy Speaker, simply, one cannot love this country if they want to sell it out to foreign billionaires or Russian oligarchs for that matter, if they want to charge money to use our NHS, if they want to cut minimum wage, taking money out of working people's pockets so it can be given back to their bosses, tax dodging corporations, millionaires, billionaires or shady party donors.

And they do not love this country. If they want to see years of dredging austerity returned, this government is investing in Britain, in its people, in families, in our economy, fairly and sustainably. We're on the long road, fighting back against the cost of living crisis to make living life in this country affordable again. We're getting the NHS back on its feet, cutting waiting lists, ending the postcode lottery and putting healthcare back in our local communities where it can make a real difference.

No more squalid years of austerity, no more failing working people. This Budget puts working people back at the heart of our economy, and I am very proud to support it.
15:29
Bradley Thomas Portrait Bradley Thomas MP (Bromsgrove, Conservative)
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Yeah.

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Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. Well, yesterday the Chancellor attempted to present the Budget as a bold plan to rebuild Britain. But a bold plan to rebuild Britain. But when we strip a strip away the rhetoric, what we see is a Budget that is unsustainable, unfair and that is unsustainable, unfair and damaging to the very foundations of our economy. And most importantly, it is bad for all of our it is bad for all of our constituents. Last year, the Chancellor raised taxes by 40 billion and promised that she would billion and promised that she would not be coming back for more.

Yet here we are, one year on, with another £26 billion tax rate. Credibility matters. When promises are broken so quickly that trust evaporates, and my constituents evaporates, and my constituents feel that betrayal directly, families who believe the Chancellor's assurances will now find themselves paying more tax with less money left at the end of each month. The first duty of any Budget is to foster growth, yet the indicators all point in the wrong direction. Inflation is up. Food inflation, particularly nearly 5%.

Families in my constituency are paying more for their weekly shop taxes are up. The OBR confirmed that the UK's tax burden is at a record high, projected to reach 38.3% of GDP by 2030. Our constituents are working longer hours to see more of their pay taken away. Unemployment. I will give way.

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For giving way on this issue of food. Food production in this country is critical to my constituency, his and others. And yet public procurement still yet public procurement still doesn't prioritise British goods. Might he invite the government to look at that again? Because it's look at that again? Because it's absolutely right that this House government and public sector should be supporting British made goods

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be supporting British made goods and British made food in particular. I thank my right hon. Friend. He's absolutely correct. The He's absolutely correct. The government has a duty in every single thing that it does, and its entire approach to ensure that it promotes the interests of the UK promotes the interests of the UK and businesses and farms that strive to keep us fed and prosperous. Unemployment is up. Redundancies are rising. In my constituency. Local employers are cutting jobs. They're leaving families feeling anxious about their future.

Spending is up. Borrowing overshot forecasts by £9.9 billion this year. My constituents know that every pound borrowed today is a pound that they will repay tomorrow. Confidence is down, business surveys show that show stagnation. Local shopkeepers tell me, Madam Deputy Speaker, they're holding back investment because they see no stability and growth is down. GDP grew just 0.1% in Q3 of this year. My constituency stagnation in wages, stagnation in opportunity, stagnation in hope. This is Labour's economic scoreboard. Inflation is up.

Taxes are up. Unemployment is up. Spending is up. Borrowing is up. Confidence is down and growth is down too. That's not rebuilding Britain. This is dismantling Britain's prosperity. And all of our constituents are paying the price. Two thirds of the British public now say that they want to see spending cuts. My constituents are tightening their belts, cutting back on holidays, meals out, some of them even cutting back on heating. They expect the government to do the same, to live within its means.

Yet Labour's Budget expands spending recklessly. Businesses in my constituency are being hit hard. Nick was up last year for employers. Rate relief was cut last year. Businesses are struggling to survive. For savers, Isa allowances have been reduced. That undermines savings and retail has lost over 100,000 jobs in the last year. And with our high streets feeling the pain, shops are closing, livelihoods are being destroyed. The Budget offers no relief for small businesses in my constituency. It only offers more burdens. Labour claims that fairness is at the heart of the Budget.

But fairness is not what families in my constituency are feeling. Thresholds being frozen drag more workers into higher tax bands servicing their allowances. Cut even electric car owners encouraged to go green, encouraged to do the right thing and now being penalised. This punishes aspiration. Farmers in my constituency are amongst the hardest hit. The family farm tax remains largely intact. Inheritance tax changes threaten the survival of the family farm, and rising input costs and inflation are compounding the pressure. Farming is not just an industry, it's the backbone of our food security.

As my right hon. Friend has pointed out, and the backbone of rural life, yet Labour continues to undermine it. We're seeing an exodus of capital and labour in a world that is highly mobile. Over the last year, we've seen an exodus of high net worth individuals, and whilst the members opposite may scowl at this and dismiss this casually, the reality is the displacement of those would require another half a million average earners paying tax to plug the gap of tax revenue loss.

That's the scale of the hole that the government has created and who fills that? Well, it's all of our constituents. Madam Deputy Speaker, ordinary families, families, ordinary workers and ordinary savers. Ambition without discipline is not a plan. It is a gamble. Labour's Budget is a gamble with Britain's future. Every pound spent servicing debt is a pound not spent on public services. Every broken promise erodes trust. Every squeeze on families and businesses undermines the engine of our economy. And let's be clear, Labour spends until they run out of other people's money.

And when the money runs out, it's all of our constituents who pay the price. All of our constituents deserve better than what we've seen in this Budget. Madam Deputy Speaker, they deserve a government that will restore financial discipline, that will encourage enterprise and will deliver fairness for everyone. The Budget yesterday. It isn't a plan for the future. It's a blueprint for decline. It ignores the public's demand for spending cuts and for government to live within its means. It presides over the loss of further jobs.

It drives away wealth creation, leaving ordinary taxpayers to pick up the bill. It squeezes families, it undermines businesses, and it will devastate farmers. This isn't about rebuilding Britain. This is dismantling Britain's prosperity Labour spends until they run out of other people's money. And my

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constituents cannot afford that any longer. Sharon Moon.

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Sharon Moon. Madam Deputy Speaker, and I begin with some, as I have done begin with some, as I have done pretty much every question in this chamber chamber to reinforce the point about part three Cornish
15:36
Perran Moon Portrait Perran Moon MP (Camborne and Redruth, Labour)
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point about part three Cornish language status made by my hon. Friend from south east Cornwall. Yesterday the Chancellor announced a Budget of intent on stability, investment and economic sustainability. It focused on driving growth in areas of socio economic deprivation, such as Cornwall and my constituency of Camborne and Redruth and Hale. The Kernow Industrial Growth Fund will boost our local economy in a sustainable way, alongside the fairer funding review and the extension of the Cornish business rates retention.

This Labour government is backing Cornwall's economic growth and its public services. The Industrial Growth Fund will enable investment in growth, driving innovative interventions to support the Duchy's high potential sectors. It will also help to build clusters around key industries to attract private investment and create high value supply chains. Cornwall is at the centre of the government's economic ambitions with its critical minerals, renewable energy and marine innovation sectors driving the transition to a greener economy. The £50 million fund, announced in this week's Critical Minerals Strategy, is set to further sharpen the teeth of the Cornish Celtic tiger.

Since we arrived in Parliament, Cornwall's four Labour MPs have made it our business to highlight our economic potential across departments to ensure that we get a fairer deal for Cornwall. The Treasury has recognised the vast economic potential in Cornwall to create stable, secure jobs driving growth across the Duchy and as a result has set up this Kernow Industrial Growth Fund. We're grateful for the time that the Chancellor has granted us to listen to our case, and we are looking forward to continuing our discussions with other departments who must now support delivering on this vast economic potential to ensure that the essential housing, infrastructure and public transport is in place.

And of course, those businesses need the new workforce of young Cornish men and women. Which brings me on to fairer chances. When we said at the general election we wanted to break down barriers at every opportunity, at every level. We meant it. In my constituency of Camborne-redruth and Hayle, there are just under 5000 children living in poverty, 2210 of these children will be directly impacted by the scrapping of the two child limit. A policy change that has already been clearly identified and mentioned many times in this chamber today as the single most effective measure to reduce child poverty.

The economic and social damage of retaining this failed conservative austerity policy has been well documented. Removing it gives these children a real chance from the very start to enjoy better chances in life. But this is not happening in isolation. Madam Deputy Speaker, when you combine the scrapping of the two child limit with increased free childcare, expanded breakfast clubs, free school meals, investment in our Ofsted rated outstanding Cornwall College, the Youth Guarantee and now the Chancellor's announcement of free apprenticeships for under 25, you can see a golden thread running from cradle to career for children from the poorest backgrounds.

This is what breaking down barriers looks like. This is what social mobility delivery looks like. It is a Labour Budget from a Labour Chancellor steeped in Labour values, delivering that golden thread for the children of my constituency and across the land, and on behalf of the poorest children of Camborne and Redruth and Hayle, I want to take this moment to thank our Labour Chancellor.

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Sarah Olney. Thank you very much, Madam Deputy Speaker. Families and businesses across the country will have heard yesterday's Budget and been disappointed that the government missed their second opportunity to seriously address
15:40
Sarah Olney Portrait Sarah Olney MP (Richmond Park, Liberal Democrat)
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opportunity to seriously address some of the key issues that we're facing. Energy bills remain sky high, the cost of employment continues to rise and with no substantial reference to Brexit, the Chancellor is ignoring the single biggest measure which could boost economic growth. Increasing the minimum wage is, of course, welcome news for millions of low paid workers. But unless businesses are able to grow, there is a danger that this will result in fewer jobs being available overall. And businesses from all sectors across the UK continue to struggle with high energy bills, compounded with the burden of last year's NICs rise and concerns about the impact of the Employment Rights Bill on their monthly employment costs.

The cost of employment has risen significantly over the last year. Nearly 70,000 job losses in hospitality alone since just last October. And this has obvious challenges for business, many of who find it difficult to absorb further costs. However, these businesses provide vital social value and essential entry level jobs, offering many young people their first job adding national insurance to salary sacrifice. Pension contributions also pushes up the cost of employment. And last week I asked the Chancellor what information her department holds on the number of people who use salary sacrifice schemes.

And to my astonishment, the Treasury responded to say that HMRC does not hold that data on the number of employers offering an employee's using salary sacrifice schemes. I am also concerned about the impact on investment if pension contributions are squeezed, because we know that pension funds have a significant role to play in ensuring that UK companies get the scale up investment that they need. And we know that that parties across this House are committed to boosting UK investment. The Chancellor has reinforced her commitment to fund the Lower Thames Crossing project, of which £900 million will be publicly financed.

But in the spring spending review, the government announced a £1 billion structure fund as part of their ten year infrastructure strategy. So does that mean that the government has now only budgeted 100 million to be spent on critical transport improvements over the next nine and a half years? And does that mean that I should give up all hope of ever getting funding for Hammersmith Bridge to be reopened in my constituency? And the reason I'm asking that question here in the chamber, because on five occasions this year, I've asked for a meeting with the DFT to discuss their plans and whether the structure fund will be allocated for the bridges repairs.

And every single time that request has been denied. And if the Chancellor is asking London residents to pay ever increasing bills, local residents in my constituency will expect to see a fair proportion reinvested into their community. London is the financial hub of the UK. The failure to even talk to me about fixing Hammersmith Bridge is indicative of this government's attitude towards London residents, and this question is particularly pressing for residents in my constituency, as they will be disproportionately impacted by the mansion tax.

Now, not only is this an extremely limited revenue raiser, it will impact London residents more than any other region in the UK, and the Dwp's own figures show that London residents have have. There is less discretionary spending after housing costs in London than anywhere else. And what's really needed here is for wholesale reform to council tax and stamp duty, so that we can look again at how property is taxed. And I've heard people say, oh, residents in Darlington pay less in Mayfair.

Well, let me tell you, a band aid resident in my constituency pays more council tax than a band F resident in the in the borough next door. So this is not about equalising council tax rates between poorer and richer households. We already pay considerably elevated amount of council tax in Richmond. This is not equalising rates between boroughs. This is simply placing an additional and additional expense. I'm sorry if the Minister would like to intervene, but I can tell him.

I can tell him the poorest in my constituency are paying more council tax than extremely wealthy constituents in the borough next door, and this measure will do nothing to equalise that. The the also the 2% increase in tax on landlords. I hear what they're saying about equalising from sources of income, but they need to consider the impact that that's going to have on the availability of rental properties, particularly in London. We've already seen a big withdrawal of landlords from the property market.

In London it is squeezing availability, it is squeezing affordability and additional taxes are not going to do anything to address the housing shortage in London. Just very quickly. The Valuation Office Agency is got an 18 month backlog currently on business rate challenges, and I want to hear from the government what they're doing to boost the Valuation Office Agency and how much it's going to cost, because if they're only making 400 million from the mansion tax, a lot of that is going to be spent on on administration.

So I really want to hear from the Minister about that. Thank you.

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Madam Deputy Speaker Oliver Ryan. Thank you. Mr. Speaker. This Budget. Sets out a serious and. Responsible direction.
15:45
Oliver Ryan Portrait Oliver Ryan MP (Burnley, Labour )
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Responsible direction. For our country's. Future, and it speaks directly to the needs of people in Burnley, Padiham and Brierfield. It supports Padiham and Brierfield. It supports families and workers. It puts public finances back on stable ground, and it backs the businesses that are the backbones of towns like ours. Crucially, we're already seeing real, measurable progress for Britain after 14 years of incompetence, of failure, of stagnation and rampant inflation, growth upgraded to 1.5% this year, wages rising faster in our first year than during the last decade that they were in power.

For people in towns like ours, these aren't abstract statistics. They are the real difference between treading water, constant struggle, and finally feeling like we're moving forward again as a community and as a country. Families in our area have felt the squeeze more than most. I hear it weekly parents monitoring the thermostat hour by hour, commuters worried about every fare rise, and households whose disposable income has simply evaporated with the cost of living. So welcome our plan, which gives people real relief right now £150 off energy bills next year, rising to £300 for the people that most need it.

More support, more homes insulated and more homes built in towns like ours, a freeze on rail fares, a freeze on petrol duty, a freeze on prescription charges and for our NHS, the largest reduction in waiting lists for almost 20 years. In addition to 250 new neighbourhood health centres, 5.2 million more NHS appointments and bringing care closer to home with more doctors and nurses. But it's not just short term support that matters. Madam Deputy Speaker, it's long term renewal.

We are maintaining the highest levels of public investment in 40 years, because places like ours cannot rebuild on the foundations left behind. After austerity and the chaos of 14 years of Tory Britain, better transport connections, stronger and better funded local services, investment in skills, young people, higher paid quality jobs these remain some of the building blocks of renewal in Burnley, Padiham and Brierfield. And all done. I won't just for time, but and all done whilst paying down the national debt, taking us into surplus, something promised several times by the Tories and as far as I'm aware, never done doubling the fiscal headroom, which is a momentous achievement, something we're probably not shouting about enough responsibility for the public finances after the rank mismanagement of the previous government.

For too long, the welfare system that we inherited left working families too poor to eat and wrote off hundreds of thousands of people as too sick to work without offering them proper support. Indeed, the Tory shadow Chancellor when he made his contribution earlier, when he was the Secretary of State for the Department of Work and Pensions, the welfare bill soared by £33 billion and he put an extra 229,000 people into the welfare system. The welfare bill doubled. Madam Deputy Speaker, during their time in office, which is both bad for our Budget, bad for our communities and bad for the people that they wrote off.

We are finally putting that right and also addressing poverty at the same time. Scrapping the two child limit, lifting 450,000 children out of poverty nationally, including a huge 5170 children in my constituency of Burnley, Padiham and Brierfield. We're guaranteeing jobs for people under the age of 25, ending long term youth unemployment and ensuring that no young person is abandoned. I'll pick up on time and I just want to make a particular point about support for businesses, because we've not only maintained government capital investment plans, but we've made sure that we're going to lower permanently business rates for local employers and for the multipliers in our high street for a stable and long term approach for businesses.

I think, quite importantly, relieving things like stamp duty on the first three years of new UK listed companies for larger entities. Our invitation to the world to do business here and a direct effect on our competitiveness. More support for those particular manufacturers in places like my constituency, whose energy bills have swelled over the last ten years, extending capital allowances for businesses for assets and leasing, extending tariff suspension support and likewise helps some of my area's largest employers to grow. In addition to extending the NICs relief for those that are hiring veterans and Isa reform, encouraging investment into quite sizeable businesses, and a call for evidence, which I'm quite interested in for potential scaling firms next year, all of which I think will create growth for the

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economy and help for for my constituents. So I greatly welcome time. Ben.

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I'm thank you. Speaker 26 billion of tax increases the tax burden rising to 38% of national
15:50
Ben Obese-Jecty Portrait Ben Obese-Jecty MP (Huntingdon, Conservative)
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burden rising to 38% of national income an all time high. This is a traditional good old fashioned, high tax, high spend labour Budget, a Budget that locks in a debt ratio of 100% and an economy with little or no growth. It effectively ends Labour's pledge to grow the economy and raise living standards. The growth in real disposable incomes over this parliament is now expected to be the second worst since records began in the 1950s. This was a Budget to appease the left of the parliamentary Labour Party rather than the general public, a Budget to shore up the weakness of the Chancellor's own position and that of the Prime Ministers.

And we'll see how successful that was come May. Since Labour came to power, the Chancellor has raised taxes by £66 billion, more than any government in the last 50 years. When the Chancellor proudly announced that growth had increased by 0.5%, there were cheers from the benches opposite. But she didn't mention that that figure was a downgrade from the 1.9% forecast earlier in the year. Nor did she make reference to the downgraded projections for the rest of the decade. The office for Budget Responsibility has downgraded its growth forecasts for RHD per person over the next five years.

The Obr's Economic Outlook report stated that growth will slump to an average of 0.25% a year over the forecast, well below the last decade's average growth of 1% a year. The average household will be £850 poorer at the end of this Parliament than when Labour took office today. One in every £10 that the government spends is on debt interest, not on paying down that debt, but just on paying the interest, said the Chancellor. 113.7 billion is currently being spent on servicing that debt. By the end of this parliament, that figure will reach 140 billion.

If you're a working person on average earnings, your tax threshold is frozen and will be now for the rest of the decade. If you're a pensioner, you're going to be dragged into the basic rate of income tax for the first time, 780,000 people are going to be dragged into basic. Being a basic rate taxpayer, nearly a million will become higher rate taxpayers. If you're on benefits. They're not frozen. They're index linked to inflation. The OBR has forecast that over the next five years, welfare spending will rise by 73.2 billion to 406.2.

The U-turn on lifting of the two child benefit cap beggars belief to go from a policy that saw seven Labour MPs lose the whip and was effectively the catalyst to create an entirely new political party on the left. To then becoming a totemic Labour policy is so transparently a move to both appease the benches opposite and also shut the door on the surge in support for Zack Polanski inspired resurgent Green Party and the stuttering Your Party. By the end of this Parliament, lifting the cap will cost 3 billion a year.

That's more than the total spend on fire and rescue services in England. The heavily trailed high value council tax surcharge is lacking in crucial detail into how, as to how it will be implemented. To do it properly, it will require revaluation of every property in the country by the Valuation Office by April 2028. In order to understand which houses will be in scope, what will the criteria for that be? How will the value of the House be decided if it hasn't sold in recent years? Moreover, the revenue will go to central government, not to the local authority.

This will disappear into general taxation and those paying the tax will likely never see any local benefit from it. The decision to raise the minimum wage looks good at first glance, however, what

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this labour. I support the minimum wage. It's important that working people, important that working people, particularly less well off working people, are adequately rewarded. But does he agree with me that the But does he agree with me that the real impact is on small and medium sized businesses, and those businesses already dealing with increasing cost burdens? And when increasing cost burdens? And when the government's come up, they might want to reflect on the effect that might have on the creation of

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that might have on the creation of employment in those kind of businesses. I thank I thank my hon. Friend

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I thank I thank my hon. Friend for his contribution and I would wholeheartedly agree. I've spent the last year talking to small businesses in my constituency who businesses in my constituency who were being crippled by by the measures taken in the last Budget, and with this coming in as well, some of those small and medium businesses are desperately, desperately going to struggle to keep on some of those lower earners, particularly young people. I know my first job was a 16 year old, was working in a supermarket or and I'm sure many other people in this house had a similar experience.

And I think those opportunities are really going to disappear for young people as a result of these measures. What this Labour government have not taken into account is that every above inflation wage increase leads to higher business costs, lower investment and fewer opportunities for those we represent. Many businesses who want to employ people are now in the position that taking on staff, taking the risks the Chancellor mentioned will find themselves unable to. Businesses cannot grow. We are very likely to see the wage compression effect, where the gap between those on minimum wage and those in more skilled or experienced roles becomes smaller.

This, yet again leads to a lack of incentive to develop skills and opportunities for those with them. The government must address this as it will curtail opportunities for young people and those who are lower earners. Unemployment is now set to peak at 5%, and the number of economically inactive people will also rise. The paper mill tax on electric vehicles, which will surely disincentivize the switch to EVs before the ban on new petrol and diesel cars kicks in. The OBR estimates 440,000 fewer EV sales over the next five years because of this tax.

How much tax revenue will be lost because of those sales never happening? Then there's the plethora of other taxes as part of the smorgasbord, the tourism tax, the NI raid on pension contributions, the reduction in the tax free cash Isa allowance, even a milkshake tax. We haven't even touched on the absence of the commitment to 3% of GDP on defence anywhere in the Budget. There isn't a single reference to it, and I don't understand how we saw today that the service chiefs are going to write to Defence Secretary to tell him that it is not going to be possible to deliver the SDR, and I would love to hear from the Minister how Labour is going to going to facilitate defence in this day and age.

The OBR stated that not a single measure contained in the Budget will improve growth, which has in fact been downgraded from the figure forecast. In the summer, taxes on working people have been increased by stealth to pay for welfare, and that will be

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Rachel Reeves legacy and quite possibly her last Budget. The Chancellor.

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The Chancellor. The Chancellor. Or you can refer to the right hon. Chancellor of the

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Exchequer by her constituency name, not by her own name, was ejected. Madam speaker, I apologize. I'm

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Madam speaker, I apologize. I'm just drawing to a close. It comes to something when the Chancellor can stand at the despatch box to

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can stand at the despatch box to deliver her budgets, make a boob joke and not be the most offensive thing, she said. Rachel Taylor.

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Thank you, Madam. Deputy Speaker. I want to thank my right hon.
15:56
Rachel Taylor Portrait Rachel Taylor MP (North Warwickshire and Bedworth, Labour)
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Friend, the Member for Leeds West and Pudsey, for delivering a Budget with fairness and action to tackle the cost of living at its core and to make work, pay. And having sat through this debate for around about eight hours, it's really interesting to observe that the members on these benches are giving a voice to those vulnerable children living in poverty, whilst the members on the benches opposite are simply standing up for those people who own mansions. That's the difference.

I'm pleased to see that around 1990, children in my constituency of North Warwickshire and Bedworth, and nearly half a million children across the country, have been lifted out of poverty, and the degrading rape clause removed from child benefit. This will be the biggest change a government has ever made to child poverty in a parliament. And it's the right thing to do for children. I know that everyone in my area will be pleased to see the £150 off their energy bills, too.

That's the difference our Labour government is making to the cost of living for ordinary families in a coalfield community like mine, we carry immense pride in our heritage. Standing up for former mine workers in North Warwickshire and Bedworth is personal to me. Yeah, my grandad Bill was a miner at Birch Coppice and I grew up understanding the dignity, sacrifice and solidarity that defined that way of life. That's why I'm delighted that the government has taken the long awaited decision to return the BBC triple s surplus to its members.

After the last government allowed this injustice to continue. For far too long. I've campaigned tirelessly for this measure alongside my colleagues representing coalfield communities. I've lobbied hard for the government to do right by BBC triple S members. I'm immensely proud that this government has listened to the voices of my constituents impacted by that unfairness. Earlier this year, I held an event for BBC triple S members in my constituency Ray sweet, Don Carlo, Don Jennings and others shared with me the years they spent working in and around our minds.

I'm delighted to be able to tell them that they'll finally receive the full pension they worked so hard for. I also met a woman who joined the National Coal Board at 16. She worked for years from 530 in the morning to late in the day to ensure mineworkers got paid on time and at the end of their shift, women like her who supported the mining industry behind the scenes have often gone unrecognised, an underappreciated. I hope that they now feel the recognition they have long been owed and the nation's gratitude for the work they did to keep our lights on and our homes warm.

I know that for many, this comes too late and I'd like to remember them too. I also want to thank the Chancellor for abolishing bingo tax.

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Hey! I visited Palace Bingo in

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I visited Palace Bingo in Bedworth last week and met the owners, Pete, Donna and Paul, who took over the family business. It took over the family business. It was great to see the investment they've made with new toilet facilities and a total renovation. facilities and a total renovation. They provide safe entertainment for hundreds of people every day of the week in Bedworth, and I know how much the people in my constituency enjoy a good night out at the bingo, enjoy a good night out at the bingo, as do I.

It's right that they they're exempted from bingo tax and online gambling pays the price for online gambling pays the price for the harm their activities cause. Finally, I've listened carefully to farmers in my constituency, and they know that I've passed on their concerns to the Treasury. So I'm pleased to hear the Treasury's small concessions for the residents of North Warwickshire and Bedworth. I want to reassure them that this government is on their side. For all my constituents. I'm feeling positive there's work to be done, but this Budget will continue to bring the change that we promised at the general election.

The damage left by 14 years of austerity is finally being undone. This Labour Budget is putting money in the pockets of those who need it most, delivering healthcare for everyone, opportunities for young people, unlocking growth, delivering new homes, reducing energy bills. Reducing business rates for hospitality and retail. More money in people's pockets to spend in local businesses. Giving us pride in our towns. Empowering our future.

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That's the difference a Labour government can make. David Smith. Madam Deputy Speaker, I'm
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David Smith Portrait David Smith MP (North Northumberland, Labour)
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Madam Deputy Speaker, I'm grateful to be speaking here today supporting a government that has delivered a Labour Budget, a Budget delivered a Labour Budget, a Budget that has ended the child benefit cap, including benefiting 150 children. In my constituency in north Northumberland, it's tackling the cost of living by reducing household energy bills by £150 from next April, which is raising much needed funds for our public services by increasing taxation on online gambling and on homes worth over £2 million.

Mansions and another rise in the national minimum wage. This is a Labour Budget with Labour values that is going to achieve so much it will positively impact millions of lives and I'm proud to support it. And so it is with a heavy heart. And this will come as no surprise to the Minister that the one thing I remain concerned about in the Budget is the overarching changes to inheritance tax for farmers. I am grateful that the Chancellor has listened to my concerns and concerns of my colleagues in the backbenches, and has made an adjustment.

The expansion of the transferability of inheritance tax allowances to widows retrospectively is welcome. It is a compassionate change, and it will mean that widows will be able to add their deceased spouse's allowance to their own to benefit their children on their death, an effective doubling of their allowance, and that is to be welcomed. But I do remain concerned about the long term impact of the policy. In my constituency of North Northumberland, there are 710 farms and over the past year I have met with at least 90 farmers.

I am not from a farming background and this past year has been a steep learning curve for me, and so I have been deeply moved by the generosity, respect and patience shown to me by farming constituents. They have opened their homes and their lives to me, and they tell me that the inheritance tax status quo meant stability. Farm estates could transfer smoothly from one generation to another without their work being interrupted by lengthy processes. So in addition to the allowance for transfer for widows, I urge the government to consider an elderly farm exemption so that those surprised by this change in their old age are able to retire with dignity.

One farmer recently wrote to me saying my father, with his father and brothers, worked to buy our farm. He wanted to pass that to me ten years ago. The legal advice at that point was to do this on death. Now 80 years old, he has dementia, unable to make any decision on his own and has power of attorney. Me is unable to act on his behalf and agriculture has faced headwinds for many years, not least under the last conservative government. Energy prices rocketed and dodgy trade deals with Australia and New Zealand undercut their produce.

Farmers have also had to contend with unusually difficult weather weather patterns too hot, too dry or too wet. Now, by 2029 2030, the changes that we're talking about will only have raised £520 million. That sounds like a lot, but it's less than two days debt interest. So I ask, in the light of widespread farming opposition to this policy, will the government keep this policy under review in its first two years? And if the fears of farmers are established as facts, look to alter the policy accordingly, because there is a better way forward if we raise the threshold at which IHT kicks in, if we cut the relief for those above it and De-link, Apr and BPR, if we can protect those who need protecting and invite those who can pay more to pay more.

The Minister knows that the minimum share rule is just one example of that, and the Minister may observe that this change would draw more estates into the policy. But although the number of estates brought into the policy under the minimum shared rule may grow, those estates would by definition of larger assets which are less likely to be involved in a working farm and therefore more disposable. Madam Deputy Speaker, it is exceptionally hard out there for farmers, and yet from the wee small hours to late at night and without family holidays or long weekends, they put in the work to make sure that we all have food on the table.

As one farmer said to me, my childhood included no Christmas home made clothes, food grown from the veg plot. It was a frugal upbringing, even though there are no lavish holidays, holidays are scarce. The house roof leaks, windows are not fit for purpose and damp and mould prevails in the house. A private landlord cannot allow tenants to live like this, but we accept these conditions. That is okay. But the proposal will bring a tax bill of £400,000 for a modest hill farm, and we cannot make that kind of profit in 20 years, never mind ten.

Most farmers do not farm to become wealthy. They farm because it's a way of life. In 1947, the Labour Party brought in the Agriculture Act, which was the first great sustained support for British farming. And we have the opportunity to do it again. Farmers need us, they need stability and they want a fairer system. There is still time to achieve this. £520 million in a 1.3 trillion Budget will not be the difference to our fiscal stability, but it will make all the difference in the world to the flourishing of British farming,

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Northumberland. Martin Rhodes. Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker.
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Martin Rhodes Portrait Martin Rhodes MP (Glasgow North, Labour)
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Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I welcome the Budget set out yesterday by the Chancellor. The Labour Party was founded on the Labour Party was founded on the principles of social justice, redistribution and universal rights. The progressive nature of the Budget helps to deliver on those principles. It ensures the very wealthiest households pay a fair share to support public services. This Budget and last year's Budget policy decisions mean an average households on the lowest incomes will benefit the most, while the increases in tax are concentrated on the highest earners.

In practical terms, 90% of households will see an average net income benefit, while the richest 10% will contribute more. This means tackling the cost of living by cutting energy bills, increasing wages and protecting the value of the state pension. This labour Budget delivers an average of £150 off energy bills. The Budget also raises both the National Living Wage and the National Minimum wage, putting money directly into the pockets of working people. For older people in our communities, the increase in the state pension means 1.1 million pensioners in Scotland will be better off.

All of these are tangible differences that people will notice in their everyday life. Thanks to this labour Budget. The removal of the two child cap in Universal Credit will help reduce poverty across the country, including in my own constituency of Glasgow North, 2130 children better off to deliver this. We are paying for it with a progressive Budget. There is more to do across a whole range of government departments other than just cut the two child cap. I very much welcome the cut, but we need to look at other policy areas too.

And that is why I welcome the approach of the government in its task force, not just looking at social security leavers, hugely important as they are, by identifying all of the levers available in the mission to end child poverty. This Budget invests in Scotland. This Budget has made available an extra £820 million in investment in our public services in Scotland, taking the additional funding to date for the Scottish Government to over £10 billion under this Labour government. What we need now is a Scottish Government will use those resources to invest in our public services and not fail to spend them.

A Scottish Government focused on delivering for and with the people of Scotland, not a Scottish Government focused on division and constitutional posturing. This Labour government, with this Labour Budget, is building a stronger and fairer country, one where living standards rise, child poverty falls and public services are renewed. This is a fair Budget, a Budget, a

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labour Budget and it is a privilege to support it. Yeah, yeah.

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Yeah, yeah. Andrew Cooper yeah. Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, this Budget is about building an
16:08
Andrew Cooper Portrait Andrew Cooper MP (Mid Cheshire, Labour)
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this Budget is about building an economy that works for working people and families, not returning to the short term decisions of the previous government that left public services stretched and household finances fragile. I welcome that this government is choosing stability, fairness and long term investment because strengthening our country begins with putting people first. Prior to the general election, the two issues my constituents mentioned more than any other were living costs and the state of the NHS. I am proud that under this government, progress has already been made on both.

But while much has to has been achieved, there is much more to do. Since coming into office, the government has begun turning the tide on NHS waiting times. After years of record backlogs. For the first time in 15 years, waiting lists have started to fall, with more than 230,000 fewer people waiting for treatment and over 5 million extra appointments delivered in mid-cheshire. The ultra long 65 week plus waits are on target to be eliminated by the end of the year. Alongside this, the NHS ten year plan is transforming care, shifting services into communities, embracing digital innovation and focusing on prevention.

In my constituency, families are already beginning to feel the impact of that progress in Northwich. The new Cheshire and Merseyside Surgical Centre has opened at the Victoria Infirmary and will treat 12,000 patients each year, including a large number of high volume, low complexity patients bearing down on waiting lists. Further. Meanwhile, Leighton Hospital's rebuild, shamefully delayed by the last government despite dangerous RAC issues hanging over the hospital, is not only fully funded but moving on apace. I share this government's commitment to ensuring patients receive timely treatment.

Staff have the tools they need to deliver it, and the public can rely on an NHS that works for everyone. The Budget also addresses one of the most pressing challenges facing families the cost of living. Rising prices have put pressure on household budgets over the past year. Action has been taken to ease everyday costs, including the largest increase in the national minimum wage in years. Free breakfast clubs in hundreds of primary schools, including not one, two, 3 or 4, but five in Mid-cheshire and expanded energy support through the warm home discount for households in my constituency.

These measures are helping to stabilise family finances, supporting working parents and ensuring children start the school day ready to learn. But this Budget goes further, delivering strong cost of living measures, delivering stronger cost of living support through targeted measures for low income households. We could talk about the rise in the National Living Wage that will help working families. We could talk about the scrapping of levies from energy bills to save families, £150 on average next year, reducing pressure on family budgets.

But the removal of the two child benefit cap lifting nearly half a million children out of poverty, including 2420 across Middlewich, Winsford and Northwich, will be most significant on this side of the House. We believe that every child should have the opportunity to reach their full potential that regardless of your background, your circumstances, who you know or where you come from, that none of that should shape your life more than your talent, or your creativity or your determination.

As Gordon Brown said, the two child cap was a scar on the soul of the nation, and I will be proud to sit on this side of the House when we vote to scrap it here. Together, these steps will boost household income both in my constituency and across the country, providing families not just short term relief, but lasting financial confidence. Our priorities. Reducing debt, strengthening the NHS and tackling the cost of living crisis are interconnected. A stable economy enables investment in public services.

A stronger NHS supports a healthier, more productive population and easing cost pressures gives families the confidence to plan for the future. Together, they form a coherent strategy for long term prosperity. The measures announced in this Budget will help build a stronger economy, a healthier NHS and a fairer society, delivering tangible improvements for mid-cheshire and for communities across the country.

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Hey Becca. Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. The Chancellor of the Exchequer
16:13
Richard Baker Portrait Richard Baker MP (Glenrothes and Mid Fife, Labour)
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The Chancellor of the Exchequer has brought forward a Budget in challenging circumstances globally, with sluggish growth across the with sluggish growth across the international economy and an economic inheritance from the Conservative Party of high public debt and low investment. But despite this, the Chancellor has delivered a Budget which will tackle poverty, invest in growth and provide fairer chances for all and for Scotland. The Budget delivers an additional £820 million for public services and since this government came into power, over £10 billion pledged for public services in Scotland.

And the Chancellor himself talked of the importance of Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar making the case for this investment in Scotland. He's already achieving more for Scotland in our in opposition than our failing SNP government. Imagine what he could do leading Scotland's government, ensuring these funds are spent to far better effect in our communities. This is the opportunity Scotland has next May because the Budget announced yesterday shows what a Labour Government can achieve for Scotland. This Budget will benefit my constituents in Glenrothes, in Mid Fife in so many ways, ending the two child cap meaning over 7000 children in Fife will have a better start in life.

Thousands of workers in Fife will see their pay increase from the rise to the minimum wage. £150 off heating bills will benefit households across the Kingdom of Fife, and I am delighted that 178 people in Fife who are members of the BC triple s Mineworkers Pension Scheme, will finally see the interest in their pension pension fund protected for its members an average of £100 increase per week in their pension. I want to pay tribute to all those who have campaigned for this change in the scheme, not only on these benches but in our local communities.

And the Member for Dunfermline was quite right to pay tribute to Alan Kenny, of Glenrothes and my constituency, who has made the case for this change with such dedication and eloquence. It is clear that this is a Budget which shows we will not return to austerity measures from the party opposite, which resulted in nothing but harm and stalled economic growth. Instead, we will invest in building an economy which is stronger and where everyone has a chance to benefit from increasing prosperity, more chances in employment for our young people with the Youth Guarantee.

For every eligible young person who has been on Universal Credit for 18 months, the biggest ever investment in employability, support for disabled people and those with health conditions in more than a generation, increasing funding of up to £1 billion a year across the UK. This is particularly important for Scotland, where the disability employment gap is higher than the UK average. It is vital these funds are used to the greatest effect in creating jobs for disabled people, too often excluded from the workplace, and we should look to replicate the success of schemes like the All in Employability programme delivered delivered by the charity enable.

I had the privilege of working for before my election and to support the ambition of outlier, an entertainment company co-founded by Emmanuel Kelly and Chris Martin of Coldplay, with a mission to employ at least 1000 disabled people over eight years in the growing entertainment sector in jobs that offer genuine career paths with transferable skills to disabled people. That's the kind of ambition we should all have for economic growth in our country to benefit everyone in our society. This Budget balances fiscal responsibility with fairness and with aspiration, investing in the defence and renewables industries which offer such hope to the local economies of Glenrothes, and Midwife providing fairness through measures which help families with the cost of living and tackling the scourge of child poverty in our country, offering opportunities to more of our people to reap the rewards of employment and skills.

And that is why the Budget. I am proud to support.
16:16
Sarah Russell Portrait Sarah Russell MP (Congleton, Labour)
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Sarah Russell. recall that I once started a speech in this place with potholes, potholes, potholes. So thank you for that recognition. And so no one will be more delighted than the people of Congleton constituency. With the figures in the Budget that the Chancellor announced that we will be doubling the road maintenance Budget over the course of this Parliament. Now I see the road Safety Minister is in her seat. So if I may take this opportunity, Minister, to make sure that my constituents get their fair share of this money, because, as she's heard me say before, my roads are dark, fast, dangerous and poorly maintained.

So I very much look forward to us bringing that money through progressively over time. In terms of the cost of living crisis, that is another major issue for my constituents. The £150 off energy bills will be extremely welcome for families in my constituency, as will be the freeze on prescription charges and the freeze on rail fares, something that hasn't happened for 30 years. I'm proud that we've put up the minimum wage because work should pay, and families working very hard every day should be able to afford the things that they need.

In terms of pensioners, of course, we have maintained the triple lock and the average pensioner on the full state pension will get another £575 next year. And nationally, three quarters of pensioners will remain eligible for the for the warm home. Thank you. And of course that's very important coming to the two child benefit cap, I understand that this will be contentious with some people, but removing the two child benefit cap will instantly take 1310 children out of poverty in our local area.

It the addition of free school meals, eligibility to a wider range of children has also given 2000 extra children a warm meal every day. Of course, we all want to see children growing up and thriving in our community. The reality is that we are exceptionally affluent in our constituency. I know for many people it doesn't feel like it, but we are the 20th one of the top 20 most affluent places in the country. But nationally, we are spending £2.2 billion on temporary accommodation.

There are 174,000 children in temporary accommodation and 80 children died in that temporary accommodation last year. We have to spend money on relieving poverty for our poorest children and our poorest households, because that is the only way that these shameful figures will change. Our children are becoming shorter compared to their international European counterparts because of malnourishment in our communities. We have a moral case to do this and that. In all likelihood there will be savings from this investment as well.

Yeah. Thank you. In terms of local infrastructure, I know this concerns many of my constituents and some of these figures have been provided before, but I think they bear repeating we are spending over £1 billion on rebuilding Leighton Hospital. We are spending £60 million on rebuilding Sandbach School. We are spending £740,000 on improvements to Ashfields Medical Centre. We are spending the best part of £1.5 million across three local hospices that serve my community, following lobbying from me and other Cheshire East Labour MPs, I am extremely proud of the things that this Budget and the previous ones are delivering for my constituents.

In terms of local high streets, we all value our independent businesses and I'm very, very proud to see the permanent reduction in the business rates for small independents, whether that's pubs, restaurants or shops. I'm also very pleased to see that small and medium sized enterprises, of which there are many in my constituency, will get the training costs fully reimbursed for their apprenticeships. This is good for local young people and it's very good for local businesses. I'm also extremely proud of the British Industry Competitiveness Scheme, which will allow energy industry energy intensive industries such as Diamond Electronics, whom I visited in Smallwood and Keld in Sandbach, to be able to, in the longer term, reduce their energy costs and improve their competitiveness.

There's a consultation on how we do that open now and I would encourage local businesses to engage with it. Lastly, I want to say I, alongside other colleagues, called for a gambling tax and I was very pleased to see it. I've spoken to constituents who were really struggling with online gambling problems, and that industry needs to pay for the problems it's creating. I also very much support the mansion tax. This is the way to a fairer society. This Budget has brought economic stability, fair taxes and high quality public services, and I truly believe in it.
16:21
Josh Fenton-Glynn Portrait Josh Fenton-Glynn MP (Calder Valley, Labour)
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And. this government comes at a crucial time for the country and this government. And I say that because I'm not blind to the public mood. It's a mood that calls for more change. And fundamentally, I think that only this party can deliver the change. We need to understand the decisions we made in the Budget. You must bear in mind what we inherited. The economy was not only left with the cupboard bare by Liz Truss, but that cupboard had broken hinges and no remaining shelves because of a decade and a half of austerity that preceded her.

This Labour government were not elected because the last lot had done a good job. We were elected because there was a mess throughout. Our whole electoral mandate of the last election was that we should make things better. We should improve the cost of living, we should support poorer children, and we should fix our public services. From roads to the health service. Changing government takes time. I'm one of the many people in this place who's an alumni of local government, and I never thought I would dream of the speed of action and the immediacy of decision making you get in a town hall.

I'm going to talk briefly about supporting businesses like those in Calder Valley and lifting children out of poverty. I welcome the government's work to transform business rates relief and protect our high streets. Retail, hospitality and leisure in Calder Valley are central to our communities. In Calderdale, 3200 businesses will benefit from lower rates. When we're talking about this change, we're talking about the clothes shop in Brighouse, the cafe in Hebden Bridge, the pub in Todmorden, the Curry House in Ireland. These are places that keep our towns alive and bring people together.

And just as our high streets are vital to our community life, our manufacturing is vital to so much else in our nation and our national security in Calder Valley. We are proud of our manufacturing. We are known to some across the country as Val Valley, and I promise I'm going to make that stick in this place. These businesses are ready to contribute to Britain's national interest and security. The Chancellor's commitment to changing procurement rules so that when national security is at stake, we support skilled, skilled jobs in our country is common sense.

SMEs in Calder Valley also welcome the fact that apprenticeships will now be free, and that will help them secure the next generation of British manufacturing. These apprenticeships aren't just jobs, though. They're opportunities in the sense of pride for so many families. Now, I've talked about business, but, Madam Deputy Speaker, I'd also like to talk about the heart of this project, and I want to thank the Chancellor for removing the two child benefit cap. I know from my time working at child poverty action Group, Oxfam on UK poverty and church Action on Poverty, that this change is one of the most significant steps we can take to reduce child poverty.

Measures in this Budget will lift half a million children out of poverty. Children growing up poor are less likely to succeed at school, they're twice as likely to be obese, and they're more likely to suffer from poor health throughout their life. As adults, they earn less. The vandalism of the rapacious rise in child poverty under the last government will echo through generations. This country had the largest rise in child poverty among high income countries between 2013 and 2023, with deep poverty rising by 67%.

That's the legacy of members opposite. The need could not be more clear. In Calder Valley, 5624 children were living in poverty in 20 2324. Compare that to 4317. In 1415. That's a rise of more than a thousand under the Tories watch. But behind every one of those numbers is a kid who deserves a fair chance, and a parent fighting to get it for them. Nearly 2000 children in Calder Valley will have their lives made better because of this Budget. But it's not just one measure, it's the strategy.

Three breakfast clubs in schools, the expansion of subsidised childcare, and a higher minimum wage. This will make our country stronger into the future. But there's more work ahead. Families need certainty that support will continue. Businesses need confidence that investment in British industry will be matched by action and skills and infrastructure. This Budget is a turning point, a signal that Britain is ready to move beyond austerity and neglect towards fairness, opportunity and prosperity. And above all, this Budget is about trust.

Trust in government that they will stand for families in. When times are hard. Trust that we will invest in Britain. It will mean real opportunities for towns like mine. Trust in fairness, not austerity, guiding our decisions. This will build confidence in our system, in our government and in our country as a place to live, to invest and to prosper. Thank you madam.
16:26
Andrew Lewin Portrait Andrew Lewin MP (Welwyn Hatfield, Labour)
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Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker,

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may I warmly welcome the Louis. Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker.

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Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I'm sure the best is yet to come. Look, I'm pleased to be able to address the house on a day with bond yields falling. Growth figures for this year revised upwards, and an opportunity to reflect on the announcements made yesterday and what they mean for people in Welwyn Hatfield. I do want to try and address two of the macro trends address two of the macro trends that shape the UK economy today, and would frame the choices available to any Chancellor, irrespective of their party allegiance.

The first is the happy reality that people in the UK are reality that people in the UK are living longer than ever before. Millions of Brits are living longer and healthier lives, staying active, spending more time with grandchildren, playing sport music, doing charitable work and enjoying holidays. This is unquestionably and unequivocally good news. But inequality among older people is stark and real. Lifespans vary hugely by postcode, and the focus of this government on the NHS is essential if we're to close that gap.

But there is a challenge that is perhaps even more profound the ratio between the working age population and those who are retired has been transformed. Since the creation of the welfare state, there has been almost a doubling of what is called the dependency ratio, and we see it vividly in how it impacts on government spending by 2030 to 31, welfare spending supporting pensioners will have increased to £195 billion per year. Welfare spending supporting families with child benefit and that includes the changes announced yesterday, will be £14 billion per year.

Welfare spending is going up. It's going up disproportionately to support pensioners and it reflects the happy truth that people are living longer. But in this place, when we discuss the future of welfare in this house, let's always be mindful of the facts, I'm afraid. The second theme relates to the biggest act of economic self-harm in a generation. The Brexit deal put up trade barriers with our closest and largest trading partners. We have 16,000 fewer businesses in the UK exporting to the EU, a surge in food prices, bureaucracy at the border and a hit to our economy of at least £100 billion.

We have to repair the damage. It's critical that this government continues to drive forward the UK, EU reset and does it at pace. An SPS deal that could reduce food prices, a youth mobility deal that will be good for growth and cultural connections. Uk-eu relations were on the floor thanks to the last government. We are rebuilding the relationship and I will continue to advocate that my colleagues in government do this at pace, with urgency and with increasing ambition, because it is so fundamental to all of our growth prospects for the future.

Madam Deputy Speaker, I want to commend the Chancellor for increasing the headroom on her stability rule. The markets were looking for reaffirmation that this is a government serious about meeting its targets, and they got their answer. Bond yields fell yesterday, meaning the cost of borrowing fell to. Coupled with the inflation figures last week, the case for another cut in interest rates looks stronger than ever. If the story of this parliament is interest rates falling and lower mortgage repayments, then the story of yesterday's Budget was one that coupled stability with fairness.

Removing the two child limit was morally and economically the right choice. I've spoken about how relatively small this cost is to the Exchequer in the context of welfare spending a moment ago, but we're talking practically here about £17.25 a week, a very modest amount of money to many people, but a sum that will be transformative to the families currently living below the poverty line. Yeah. And on the cost of living. A series of decisions that will help the day to day lives of ordinary people in Welwyn Hatfield and across the country, the bus cap maintained train fares frozen for the first time in 30 years, prescription charges held steady and a major intervention on energy bills that will see them fall universally by around £150 next year.

That's in addition to the Warm Homes payment this winter, which will benefit at least 10,000 people in Welwyn Hatfield and 2.7 million across the country. Madam Deputy Speaker, the economic fundamentals are challenging in these circumstances. It is an even more significant achievement by this Labour government to meet the fiscal rules, to calm the gilt markets, to provide extra support on the cost of living and to drive down child poverty. This Budget is responsible, fair and it sets a foundation on fair and it sets a foundation on which to build in the future.
16:31
Josh Newbury Portrait Josh Newbury MP (Cannock Chase, Labour)
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Josh Newbery. speak up for the people I represent, particularly those who feel under pressure, children whose life chances are held back, and 1500 former mine workers. In my maiden speech, I spoke about our proud mining heritage. When I made that speech, this Labour government had just delivered justice for members of the Mineworkers Pension Scheme, and just over a year later, I'm immensely proud to say that the same has been done for the British Coal staff. Superannuation for these former mine workers who built the communities I'm proud to represent and helped power, our nation had to wait far too long to even be heard.

So I commend this government for writing this historic wrong, but even more so for all those campaigners who never gave up. The action taken by this government will mean a 41% boost to the pensions of 40,000 former mineworkers. Turning to the cost of living, we have action to reduce energy bills by taking 75% of the Renewables Obligation off bills and the energy company obligation will be scrapped as well, saving my constituents an average of £150 a year, and that will be added to by the first freeze to rail fares in 30 years.

The continued freeze on prescription charges and the £89 they won't have to pay on fuel duty, as the Chancellor said, one policy above all has suppressed the life chances of children in the most deprived households and neighbourhoods in our country. The two child benefit cap scrapping it, will lift 2430 children in my constituency out of poverty, contrary to the stereotypes often peddled from the benches opposite, almost 60% of the families who benefit from this change are in work. While the cost of scrapping the limit is £3.5 billion of the child poverty is £39 billion.

Behind that staggering sum, a life chances blighted and immense talent that our country is missing out on this, and expanding free school meals, increasing the minimum wage, introducing best start family hubs and apprenticeships that don't cost small businesses will make sure all children and young people have the best start in life. Finally, Madam Deputy Speaker, another matter close to the heart of many in my constituency and county is growth in rural communities. Many people in rural towns and villages have felt left behind by successive governments, and that is particularly true in the world of farming that often feels very far removed from the corridors of Whitehall.

This government deserves great credit for the biggest farming Budget in history and for getting money out the door, something that the party opposite failed to do. But visiting farms in my constituency, I have heard repeatedly that changes to agricultural property relief are hanging over many farmers and their families and suppressing confidence. The personal impact of this was brought home to me when I sat down with a couple in their mid 80s, 15th generation livestock farmers in my constituency who told me of farming families they know being affected by mental ill health, particularly amongst elderly farmers.

They told me that they feel paralyzed in the face of these changes, not knowing if there's a way to ensure their farm has a 16th generation and the changes are holding back growth in the agricultural sector, as many are not investing in things like new machinery and rapidly advancing technology. However, following concerted efforts from many hon. Members on this side of the House, we have the change that will enable spouses to transfer their allowance to a surviving partner. This will take some farmers out of inheritance tax and will reduce the bill of many others.

So it is welcome. Looking ahead, I am encouraged by the government's relentless focus on farm profitability and changes to the planning system that will free up farmers to get on with the things that help their businesses, infrastructure and the environment. Baroness Thatcher's review, due to be published next month, will be critical to charting a path to a more profitable farming, something that I and many members on this side of the House will engage with keenly. Rural Britain is ready and willing to make a greater contribution to the vital mission of growing the economy and making sure the benefits are felt in every corner of our country.

Madam Deputy Speaker, yesterday's Budget made it clear that there will be no return to austerity or to short termism. It rectifies the injustices of the past. For members of the BBC, it acts right now in the present to cut the cost of living, and it safeguards Britain's future. This is a Budget that keeps us on the path to renew Britain and improve life for people in the towns and villages I represent in Cannock villages I represent in Cannock Chase, so I very much welcome it.
16:35
Phil Brickell Portrait Phil Brickell MP (Bolton West, Labour)
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Here and with the remainder of the time, because I'm starting

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Front-bench speeches at 445. Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, and may I warmly welcome the Chancellor's Budget, which will Chancellor's Budget, which will improve the lives of my constituents by putting £150 back into the pockets of working people through removed levies on energy bills, and lifting 2570 children out of poverty. This is a Budget out of poverty. This is a Budget with fairness at its core, reduced child poverty, more funding for the NHS and investment in school libraries. After the chaos of the 2022 Truss mini Budget, the Chancellor has shown what real fiscal discipline looks like inflation, falling growth priorities and proper headroom restored.

And I'm particularly restored. And I'm particularly pleased that the Chancellor has also stared down. The slogan is on both extremes, rejecting the failed trickle down instincts of the populist right who bequeath this government with a legacy of failed austerity and profligate wasting of taxpayers money with dodgy PPE contracts during the pandemic, and also dismissing Unevidenced calls from the left wing populists of calls for a wealth tax when they have no answers to the hard questions about capital flight assets offshore or our overburdened enforcement agencies.

All the while, the Chancellor has increased the burden on those with the broadest shoulders, including via the new high value council tax charge on homes valued at more than £2 million ensuring that homeowners in mansions aren't paying less in council tax than someone living in a mid-terrace in Blackrod. Now, I'd like to thank the Chancellor for heeding my calls by introducing new measures to tackle high street tax dodging and organised crime. The National Crime Agency estimates some £12 billion in criminal cash is generated in the UK every year, including in the suspicious vape shops.

We've all clocked walking around our constituencies. Not only do these suspect enterprises erode the civic pride we have in our high streets, they also undercut genuine businesses looking to provide a service and make ends meet. So I welcome the Chancellor's commitment to a cross-government taskforce to tackle tax abuse and money laundering on our high streets, backed by £50 million every year over the next three years, funded by an increase in the economic crime levy paid for by the banks and other professional services firms.

Despite the platitudes from the Lib Dem members opposite that banks aren't being asked to pay more when they actually are. Madam Deputy Speaker, I'd like to bring the issue of tax dodging on our high streets alive, with an example of just how egregious some of these wheezes truly are. So let me talk a little bit. In the brief time I have about the world of snails, snail, fornication, snail gestation, snail feed, and yes, snail cannibalism. London centric reporter Jim Waterson recently published an investigative report on this topic, and it details how former Lancashire shoe salesman Terry Ball runs elaborate snail based tax avoidance schemes that are costing councils millions of pounds simply by placing boxes of snails in vacant office buildings in an attempt to exempt them from business rates.

This scheme, perfected over many years to prevent the snails from eating one another or stopping mass snail fornication, allows unscrupulous individuals to claim empty warehouses are being used for agricultural purposes. In turn, landlords are granted a business rates exemption and if then challenged by the local council, the firms in question are simply liquidated. They hold no assets so no business rates can be claimed back then they magically reappear under the guise of another mollusc based enterprise registered at companies House. It's taking shell companies to the extreme.

One local councillor alone has reported a loss of £370,000 receipts just because of this specific mollusc based wheeze. And this isn't just a quirky anecdote, it's a hard edged example of how loopholes in our system are being exploited, made all the easier by the Tory decision in the last Parliament to abolish the office of tax Simplification. Indeed, the very same Council is reporting losses of £10 million a year due to non-payment of business rates. So I welcome further steps, the Chancellor announced yesterday.

Rewards for informants of high value tax fraud, extra funding for trading standards, enhancing tax transparency on real estate, 350 new criminal investigators to tackle fraud and illicit tobacco and vapes, and also a boost to mhq to go after tax dodgers and their unscrupulous advisers. We need to do a lot more, but I must commend the Chancellor and urge her to continue in this vein by reforming reliefs, by strengthening our enforcement and sending a message that Britain no longer tolerates tax gimmicks, whether involving snails, shell companies or slimy advisers.



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Yeah. Shadow Minister.

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Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah. Thank you, madam. Deputy Speaker, to govern is to

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Deputy Speaker, to govern is to chosen. She's chosen. Spending over saving. Higher
16:40
Helen Whately Portrait Helen Whately MP (Faversham and Mid Kent, Conservative)
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Spending over saving. Higher taxes over welfare reform. She's chosen benefits Britain over working Britain.

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working Britain. She'd rather raise. Taxes by £26 billion than shave a

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single penny off the welfare bill. She'll make people. Who work. And save pay more for the

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And save pay more for the benefits of millions who don't. Yes, I say. She chose. But are they her choices, Madam Deputy Speaker, or their choices? Because just a few months ago, debating their Pip reform bill, they were the ones who stood up and said things like, I didn't come here to cut benefits. They were the ones in and out of meetings with number ten. While the welfare debate was going on here in this chamber, and they were the ones who forced their disabilities Minister to stand up during the debate and announced there would in fact, be no savings.

And then their welfare bill became a spending bill, which then, of course, they all voted for. The Chancellor could have used the Budget to right that wrong. Or could she? Because the Wolves have been circling ever since. This wasn't a Budget for Britain. This was a Budget for Labour backbenchers. This was a save our skin Budget. But in saving her own skin, the Chancellor is selling the country down the river at a cost of £26 billion to taxpayers, at a cost of 200,000 jobs, on top of the 150,000 already gone since they have been in power, and thousands more that the unemployment rights bill will

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Lady. I thank you very much for giving way. Three quarters of the tax raised in this Budget goes towards building the fiscal headroom, doubling it something that previous doubling it something that previous Chancellors never did under the Conservatives. Does she welcome the investment in the gilt markets that international investors have now

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international investors have now shown in terms of their confidence in the UK economy? Sir.

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The fact is it's simple. In this Budget, taxes are going up on working people to pay for more benefits. That is the story of this Budget. The Chancellor told the country she was spending to bring country she was spending to bring down the cost of living, really, for whom inflation is up, taxes up, and wage growth is down. So who is going to be better off? Only one group of people. People on benefits. 10 million people of working age whose benefits will be uplifted by inflation.

Thousands more who will go on to sickness benefits in the year ahead, and half a million households who will get money from the lifting of the two child cap £5,000 more on average by the end of this decade, at a cost of £3 billion to the taxpayer. Some will get much more. A family with five children could get an extra 10,500 pounds. A family with eight children will be able to get an extra £21,000, nearly as much as the annual pay before tax for a full time worker on the minimum wage.

Members opposite have told us again and again today how Labour is fixing child poverty by giving out this extra money. We all care about children. We all want children to get the best start in life. Come on, they chunder at me. Come on. You can't doubt the fact that everyone here wants children to get the best start in life. Handing out money might improve the poverty statistics which they so much like to crow about, but it doesn't solve the problem.

Work is the best way out of poverty. Their handout will actually make parents less likely to work. There are couples across the country wondering if they can afford another child couples in work. Thanks to this Budget, their taxes are going up and their incomes may well go down. Thanks to this Budget, some will decide to have no more children or no children at all. That is truly sad, and it is unfair for those parents. They've been crowing about this. But as my right hon.

Friend for West Worcestershire said when she spoke earlier, the threshold rises under their Budget could even drag some working families below the relative poverty line that they like to talk about

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so much. I'm happy to give way to the hon. Gentleman. She refers to the threshold

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She refers to the threshold freeze. Why did she vote for seven years worth of a threshold freeze? I mean, the.

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I mean, the. Sad fact is the country went through a pandemic and we had to get the country's finances under get the country's finances under control. But your Chancellor promised that she wouldn't increase taxes on working people. And that taxes on working people. And that is exactly what she has done. Who can trust her? I know that people can trust her? I know that people out there don't. If all you heard about this Budget, Madam Deputy Speaker, was the speeches of the members opposite, you'd think there is something wonderful going on.

I hate to shatter their delusions, but the fact is, people out there are despairing. People have been saying to me, if all the government is going to do is take your money and taxes, why work? Why bother? We're seeing those who can. From successful business people to talented future entrepreneurs leaving the country, they are killing aspiration and growth and in fact, savings. The OBR says that household savings will fall as a result of this Budget from 6% to 2% by 2030.

The Budget is an attack on people who are simply doing the right thing working, saving, trying to pay their way in life and build a better future. Madam Deputy Speaker, they could make different choices if they were willing to get a grip of the welfare bill and actually bring it down. Then they could cut taxes on working people. We've heard from several Ministers, from the Secretary of State himself that the system needs reform, but their actions say otherwise. Working age welfare spending is up £40 billion in this Budget.

The Timms review terms of reference tells us no savings to see here. The Secretary of State won't even say the word savings. They say one thing, but they do another. It sums them up all those promises not to put taxes up on working people. And then here we are, two budgets in a row, hiking taxes on working people. But, Madam Deputy Speaker, it doesn't have to be this way. We have identified £47 billion of savings from public spending. Of that, 23 billion is welfare savings from doing the right thing like stopping giving sickness benefits to people with anxiety and ADHD, and stopping handing out benefits to foreign nationals.

It's not kind or compassionate to trap people on benefits. It's not fair on people who are working to pay the bills, and it's simply not affordable for our country to go on like this. The hon. Member for Swansea West, who likes to chat a lot during debates, has said he stood for office to stop drawing charts. He said he stood for office. That's what he said. He might like to listen to what he actually said. He doesn't like to listen to other people.

But what he said was he stood for office to stop drawing charts and start changing them. Well, he certainly achieved that. Inflation is up, unemployment is up, borrowing is up, public spending is up. Maybe he can tell us which of those he is most proud of. The Minister, the Chancellor, the Prime Minister and the entire government will all leave their mark on our country with this Budget. At their last Budget, they dug a hole. With this Budget, they've dug it deeper. Instead of cutting the welfare bill, they are adding to it.

Instead of getting people into work, they are putting them on benefits. Instead of backing workers, they are funding. Stay at homers using the hard earned money of Britain's taxpayers. This is the choice they have made and we reject it.

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Yeah yeah, yeah. So Torsten Bell yeah. Thank you. Madam. Madam Deputy Speaker, it's a pleasure to close today's debate,

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pleasure to close today's debate, and I want to thank. All the honourable. Members for their contributions. My hon. Friends from North My hon. Friends from North Warwickshire and Bedford, Exeter, South east Cornwall, North Norwich, Newcastle upon Tyne East Newcastle
16:48
Torsten Bell Portrait Torsten Bell MP, The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Swansea West, Labour)
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Newcastle upon Tyne East Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle Central and west Northumberland, Glasgow North, Mid Cheshire, Glenrothes, Fife, Ely and Woodley. Congleton called all made strong cases for this Budget and I listened carefully as opposition MP after opposition MP then talked down the British economy. As the hon. Member for Huntington did, talking down British workers, talking down British entrepreneurs. And I've been trying to remember what it reminded me of. What did it remind me of? I've been racking my brains, but then it came to me.

They're just reading out exactly the same script they had a year ago today. Exactly this time. Exactly. This time last year, the shadow business secretary, frothing with his usual excitement, claimed that Britain would spend 2025 in recession. He said could we be in recession? Yes we could. That was his forecast. Now the actual figures are in and the truth. Britain in 2025 didn't just avoid recession, it beat the forecast. The OBR has revised up growth this year from 1 to 1.5%.

And then let's look at wages, as my hon. Friend from Erewash said wages are up in the forecast, but far more importantly, in people's pay packets, they are up more in the first year of this government than the entire first decade of the last conservative government, and there is much more to do. Changing Britain was always going to be hard. In one second I'll give way to the hon. Gentleman, and we now know that the damage from the last decade of austerity and Brexit was worse than previously thought.

That lies behind the productivity downgrade that the hon. Lady from West Worcestershire rightly raised. But the question is how we respond

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to that news. I'll give way to the hon. Member. Giving way. I notice with William Morris and William Morris s William Morris and William Morris s tie, and what Morris understood was the importance of craft and skills. Now the government addressed Now the government addressed apprenticeships in the Budget in a minor kind of way. But does he know that simultaneously the the skills White Paper envisages downgrading apprenticeships by diluting the apprenticeships by diluting the competences they confer and thereby undermining the reputation with learners and employers?

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learners and employers? Yes. Well, I'm afraid what I know very clearly is that youth apprenticeships fell by 40% under apprenticeships fell by 40% under the party opposite. That's what failure looks like now. Now I'm coming on to some of those matters. We do not want to grow this economy by simply borrowing more. As the Member for Bolton West rightly pointed out before, he turned at some length to snails. But there is nothing. There is nothing progressive about arguing that we should spend more than one in every £10 of taxpayers money on debt, interest, money that should be better spent on schools and hospitals.

So Liz Truss and the leader of the Greens should stay exactly where they belong and where they both started out in the youth wing of the Liberal Democrats, far away from government. Now we we in this party will cut borrowing in every single year, more than any other G7 country, more than doubling the headroom against our fiscal rules, cutting borrowing and giving businesses the confidence to invest and cutting inflation to £150 off energy bills. Freezing rail fares for the first time in 30 years.

As the hon. Friend from Burnley set out extending the fuel duty freeze. All this knocks 0.4% off inflation next year, helping interest rates already cut five times since the election. Keep on falling, helping businesses expand and getting mortgages down. But what won't be coming down is public investment that the OBR says boosts our economy, because the pro-growth choice is not to return to the austerity of the past. As the hon. Member for Cannock Chase set out, the austerity that saw Tory Chancellors slash public investment, repeatedly scrapping and delaying project the worst kind of short term political fixes with the worst kinds of long term economic consequences.

This Budget presses ahead with the 120 billion extra capital investment. It is exactly because this government is confident about Britain's future that we are going to invest in it. Sizewell C going ahead building the UK's first small modular reactor at Dover, the biggest industrial investment in North Wales for a generation. The lower Thames crossing infrastructure being built in every corner of Britain. The blockers and the pessimists, the gloomsters and the doomsters taken on, confronted and defeated. The parties opposite have never seen a housing development or energy project they didn't want to block.

But those days are done. Britain is getting back in the building business now. Madam Deputy Speaker, the Budget also does contain necessary and fair tax choices on tax that hon. Members have raised repeatedly. We have not hidden from that fact, nor am I hiding from it today. And the fact that we are asking everybody to contribute further freezing tax thresholds towards the end of this Parliament. Now I hear the chuntering and the howls from the party opposite. But where did the frozen thresholds this year come from them who put in place next year's freeze them? They announce threshold freezes.

They defended threshold freezes, they voted for threshold freezes and they cannot howl with outrage about them. Now, in case, in case, in case, all of that is not clear enough for them. Let me spell this out to the benches opposite of the revenue raised from frozen thresholds over three quarters comes from the choices made on their watch. The difference between us and them is that we are not ducking the long needed reforms our tax system needs, the reforms that mean we can keep the contribution from workers as low as possible.

We have already abolished the non-dom status, raised capital gains tax and ended tax breaks for private schools. Now the Budget brings an end to the disgrace of someone in a terraced house in Blackpool, paying more in tax than someone in a 10 million mansion in Westminster, or what? In a second, what the Chancellor, the shadow Chancellor, earlier called an ordinary family home. If he'd had more time, I'm sure he'd have gone on to worry about people with the ordinary family deer park or duck pond and stables.

To now, Madam Deputy Speaker, I'm coming to exactly the Member for Richmond Park in a second, because the hon. Members for Saint Albans and Richmond Park told us that Liberal Democrats wanted wealth taxes while continuing their record run of opposing every single wealth tax put in front of them, and conveniently forgetting that the Liberal Democrats tried and failed to introduce just such a wealth tax in government, a level of convenient amnesia, madam Deputy Speaker, only matched by the hon.

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Member for Clacton. When reminiscing about his school days, I'll give away the honourable. I'm grateful to the Minister for

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I'm grateful to the Minister for giving way, because he probably missed me saying because he was maintaining his own running commentary throughout my speech, he commentary throughout my speech, he probably missed me making the point that in fact, he keeps saying that this is equalizing council tax this is equalizing council tax between poorer areas and richer areas. He must admit that it does nothing of the sort. Now, when the nothing of the sort. Now, when the people owning £2 million houses in Putney pay their 2500 pound levy on Putney pay their 2500 pound levy on the top of their council tax, they will still only be paying the same amount of council tax as people living in the lowest band of living in the lowest band of properties in my constituency.

So there's arguments to be had about mansion tax, but can he stop saying

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that it equalizes council tax rates in different parts of the country because it does nothing of the sort? Yeah.

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Yeah. And I didn't say anything of the sort. I said, we're not going to have a situation where a 10 million mansion in Westminster is paying less tax than a terraced house in Blackpool, and that has been Blackpool, and that has been brought to an end by this Budget. And I've heard, I've heard also I've heard also the worries from some hon. Members opposite about some hon. Members opposite about the surcharge. And I want to assure the House that less than 1% of properties will be affected.

And even for that 10 million mansion that I mentioned, it will not that I mentioned, it will not exceed £7,500 a year. To put that in perspective, that's not even enough to bribe a Russian sympathising Putin praising reform politician or a traitor, as we should always call them. Now, other reforms in this Budget will assure that everyone who drives on our roads helps to maintain them, and it will address the fact that tenants pay higher taxes than their landlords and tackle some of the tax breaks that have exploded in recent years, disproportionately benefiting the wealthy.

That is the fair thing to do, and this is the responsible thing to do. Now, I know some others want to take a different approach, and I heard representations from some to raise income tax. Who was particularly keen, the shadow Chancellor. He told eager listeners I think he should listen. He told eager listeners that the Conservative Party conference, I would go for income tax. In fact, he was more enthusiastic than that, going on to label it the best thing to do. Well, we have not taken his advice.

Delivering major reforms reform duct by Tory Chancellor after Tory Chancellor in stead. Now we've heard a lot about welfare today and I recognise why. Because our welfare system is failing and we are changing it, undoing the huge incentive to be labelled too sick to work that the party opposite built into universal Credit, that the OBR confirms, will move tens of thousands more people into work. The shadow Chancellor claimed he had a plan to reform welfare. He didn't mention that it was quashed by the courts.

What he actually did, as the Secretary of State was oversee the subsidised leasing of luxury cars. The ordinary taxpayer bearing the cost of tax breaks for Mercedes and BMW on the Motability scheme. Well, those days are done. The scheme have themselves removed luxury cars and committed to half of their cars being built in Britain, and we are reforming their tax breaks to save over £1 billion in the coming year. The last government cancelled face to face assessment. I won't have time, I'm afraid. The last government cancelled face to face assessments for health benefits.

This government is bringing them back. The last government also oversaw a scandal that has received far too little attention, allowing people who came to Britain for just a few years, people who left and never had any intention of returning to not only buy a state pension, but to buy it on the cheap. The conservative government didn't just waste money here at home, they wasted it across Canada, Australia and New Zealand too. And we are bringing this overseas pension scandal to a close.

But what this government will never do is pretend that the Tory policy of making children poor does anything other than cost us all. In the long run, child poverty cost this country £40 billion a year. A child growing up in poverty is less likely to be in work as an adult. They earn 25% less. Age 30. We tackle child poverty not only because it is a moral imperative laid out by my friends from Rochdale and Camborne and Redruth, because it is an economic one too.

So this government will scrap the two child limit. We will lift over half a million children out of poverty, and we will deliver the biggest fall in child poverty of any Parliament on record. Mr. speaker, Madam Deputy Speaker, everyone can see what the party opposite is trying to do today. They can't defend their record and we all know why. They've got nothing to say about Britain's future. As the Leader of the Opposition made patently clear yesterday, and now they're salivating at the prospect of trying to hide their total lack of policy behind cheap, divisive, lazy politics of talking about benefits.

Treat well, bring it on, because this Budget is for every street, potholes being filled, neighbourhood police back on the streets, an NHS that is actually there when we need it. A Budget for every street cutting borrowing because that helps not just mortgage payers but employers. A Budget for every street, cutting energy bills because the cost of living crisis has seeped into everyone's homes, rich and poor, north and south, and a Budget for every street. Because child poverty exists in every part of Britain. Limiting life chances, wasting wasting talents, undermining not just some childhoods, but all of them.

Madam Deputy Speaker, bring down energy bills, cut public services. We built a Budget for every street in Britain.

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The question is that the debate be now adjourned. As many as are of be now adjourned. As many as are of that opinion, say aye. of the contrary. No, I think the ayes have it. The ayes have it. Date to be

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it. The ayes have it. Date to be resumed. What day? Monday, the 1st of December. Monday the 1st of December. I'll

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Monday the 1st of December. I'll give the house a few moments for the front benches to swap over.

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Hello.
17:00
Caroline Johnson Portrait Adjournment: Government transparency and accountability Dr Caroline Johnson MP (Sleaford and North Hykeham, Conservative)
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Thank Thank you, Thank you, Madam Thank you, Madam Deputy Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. Madam Deputy Speaker, I hope I speak for everyone in the House when I say it's a special privilege when I say it's a special privilege to be elected to represent our constituents. The British people put their trust in each and every one of us to be their voice in this one of us to be their voice in this place. Our nation prides itself on a strong democracy, and the role of His Majesty's loyal opposition is His Majesty's loyal opposition is critical to this.

I will remind hon. Members opposite that the relationship between opposition and relationship between opposition and government is symbiotic. The opposition is not merely meant to be a critic, but subject to government scrutiny, a vital government scrutiny, a vital safeguard of public trust, amplifying the voices of the British people, asking the questions that they want to see answered, and offering an alternative vision for the United Kingdom. Our essential roles of opposition and democracy. Government opaqueness is not conducive to such accountability, the Prime Minister seems to agree.

He said he would deliver a different way of working, one of openness, of collaboration and of transparency in everything we do, he said. However, Ministers have shown a complete disregard for Parliament, the ministerial code and the Nolan principles of public life by refusing to submit themselves to scrutiny and withholding information from Parliament without a good reason to do so. There are a number of levers put in our hands to help the scrutiny. These include written questions, oral questions, Urgent Questions debates on the floor of the House, and the German debates such as this one.

One further lever members can use to hold the government to account and ensure transparency is writing direct letters to Ministers. Now, Madam Deputy Speaker, I know the Chancellor has had a busy week, but when I and my right hon. Friends wrote to her together to express our concerns about the rise in National Insurance and how it would affect Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire Air Ambulance over 12 months ago, after the last year's Budget. We did so out of the deep concern for what this policy would mean for these charities who deliver crucial life saving care and support our NHS every day.

But despite my office chasing this correspondence, our raising it in the House, repeatedly raising it with members of the Procedure committee, we had no reply in over 12 months. I raised it as a point of order earlier this week and having now acknowledged the letter and made some excuses for lack of response, we still have not received a reply. But after the Budget yesterday, I guess the answer to whether they will help our ambulances is no. Now you might be thinking that this is one isolated error, but unfortunately Madam Deputy Speaker that's not the case.

A constituent of mine who has 15 years experience as a church warden in a village contacted me to outline the huge difference the scheme would have on their efforts to fund urgent repairs, and how removing it would harm this vital community asset. I sent my constituents correspondence to the Chancellor and asked for her comments on the concerns expressed. On the 21st of January, I was informed that my correspondence had been transferred to the department for DCMS. Yet, despite chasing, I've received no response to this whatsoever either.

323 days since I wrote to the Chancellor, 310 days since the Secretary of State for culture. No response. On the 23rd of September 2024. I wrote to the then Secretary of State for science, Innovation and Technology regarding my constituents concerns about broadband speed in his village on the 4th of December. Relatively quickly for this government, I received a response, but my constituents saw potential errors in this response. So I wrote back to the Minister on the 23rd of April to request he look into these important matters.

But again, despite chasing, I received no response up until the 20th of November 2025, 211 days after that April letter to confirm that the department and I quote, aim to respond within 20 working days. You could not make this up. It doesn't stop there, Mr. Speaker. Madam Deputy speaker, I wrote for the Department of Business and Trade on the 6th of June about the UK bioethanol industry. No response. I sent letters to the Department for Work and Pensions in July and August about my constituents to satisfactory experience with concerns about the child maintenance service.

No response. I wrote to the Minister for Water and Flooding on behalf of Parish council. They wish to invite the Minister to a meeting on the 22nd of October. Now I understand the pressures on Ministers diary Madam Deputy Speaker, but I do not understand how we've reached now the 27th of November, and the Minister has still not been courteous enough to respond. These are not anomalies, taking an inordinate amount of time to respond to members has become the government norm. Most disappointing, though, is that despite taking so long to reply, the responses received are often completely unrelated to the matters raised in the questions asked.

For example, on the 11th of June, I wrote to Secretary of State for Health and Social Care about the statutory scheme for rebate pricing for drug manufacturers to highlight serious concerns raised with me about the impact that would have on a local business. I asked for clarity on three matters in three perfectly clear questions. 156 days later, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary sent me a response, though none of the questions were answered or in any proper way addressed. So not only have I waited 156 days for a response, but 156 days to receive a response that doesn't answer the question.

Madam Deputy Speaker, these examples clearly demonstrate that the service this government and its Ministers are providing to MPs and thereby our constituents, is simply not good enough. Correspondence is not just being lost in the system. It's being wilfully neglected. When responses do arrive, they should be accurate. At oral health questions, I asked the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care why he had not delivered on his commitment to deliver the RSV vaccine to over 80 year olds this winter. The secretary state told me we have.

When in fact they had not. With the actual expansion not happening for winter 2025, I then raised a point of order, followed by a written question to which the government answered by Minister, answered by stretching credulity. Referring to delivered to mean accepting the JC advice. Advice while admitting and I quote. The RSV programme could not be expanded ahead of this winter. Madam Deputy Speaker this linguistic gymnastics is Kafkaesque. So what are the options are available to us? I understand the pressures departments face, but there are many Ministers to answer these questions, not to mention an army of civil servants.

I again refer to the ministerial code. It clearly states Ministers should, where possible, provide full and timely responses to written parliamentary questions, ministerial correspondence and select committee reports. With that in mind, earlier this month, I ended up submitting 16 written parliamentary questions to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care just to ask him when he refused to respond to 16 of my written questions, which should have been answered in three sitting days, but in some cases had been were more than two weeks and all of them were overdue.

In what can only be described as farcical, I submitted a written question asking when the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care planned to respond to a written question, which itself asked when the Secretary of State planned to respond to another written question, which was then finally responded to. It is with regret that I reform hon. Members that I have a further written parliamentary questions remaining over unanswered and overdue. The oldest was due for an answer by the 14th of October, and I've still not received an answer.

I lament that the lowland principles of openness and accountability have sunk to such depths under this government, that I am required to submit so many follow up questions. It wasn't always like this. 92% of ordinary written questions in 88% of name day questions were applied to on time in the 23 to 24 session. Under the Conservatives, another lever open to us, Madam Deputy Speaker, is the urgent question. Yet they too are another which the government does not respond to with answers.

The most recent and most glaring example of the government failing to uphold its obligations to be transparent and accountable to Parliament and the public is the appointment of David Cogan as chair of the Independent Football Regulator. As the Minister, ministerial code makes clear, Ministers are responsible for ensuring that no conflict arises between their public duties and their private interests. As the Commissioner for Public Appointments has made clear, the Culture Secretary breached the Appointments Code by not declaring her conflict of interest before signing off Cogan as the government's preferred candidate, having received undeclared donations from Cogan for her leadership campaign in 2020.

However, the Prime Minister still felt it was appropriate to sign off on Cogan's appointment as well and clear the Culture Secretary of any wrongdoing. Yet it's clear the Prime Minister was in no position to do so, having the very same conflict of interest as the Culture Secretary by receiving donations from Cogan for his leadership campaign and supposedly having recused him from any involvement in the appointments process. I know when somebody is being given a part time job for 130,000 a year, and that person has been given money by the person appointed, the person appointing him has been given money by that person.

It is clearly in the public interest to know how much money that person has given the Prime Minister or other Ministers. And despite an urgent question in this House, the Prime Minister has still not declared how much money Mr. Cogan or his businesses gave. The Prime Minister says rule makers rule makers can't be rule breakers. Given that, why are Ministers refusing to confirm that no current Minister has a criminal conviction? Surely the public has a right to know. So how can we try and get around? The obfuscation in order to get the questions, to ask the answers to the questions we ask? It's shameful that members must report to submitting numerous FOI requests to public bodies to get the details on issues they are concerned about, because the written questions have not been answered.

I'll give you an example. Madam Deputy Speaker. After the Strategic Defence Review in 2025, I submitted a written parliamentary question to the Secretary of State for defence to ask which industry bodies, defence companies, media organisations and other non-government bodies of people were given access to the review ahead of its publication? And at what times? Because the Minister didn't answer the question. I submitted an FOI to that. I did not receive a timely response. I therefore had to go back to where I started and submit a written question on the 1st of September to ask the Minister when the Department planned to respond to the FOI.

I finally received a grossly belated response on the 16th of September, dated the 9th of September, for the Secretary of State. That was incomplete, and if I had to submit another FOI to get the rest of the information Madam Deputy Speaker, is this not the kind of wasteful and inefficient use of time in government departments and civil service that our constituents want rooting out? Why should members need FOI to get a written question and submit a written question about that FOI in order to get the answer which the Department clearly had all along? How is that a good use of the Minister's time or member's time? I'm sure the Minister is very busy.

And how does it reassure members that the principles declared as important within the ministerial code are being taken seriously? It clearly does not. Ministers have developed a habit of announcing policy to the media instead of to this House to avoid scrutiny. I appreciate, Madam Deputy Speaker, yours and Mr. Speaker's and the other Deputy Speakers efforts to try and prevent that. I ask the Names Day question on the 11th of November about the Maternity and Neonatal task Force, which the Secretary of State promised in June on who was asking it and how many times, who was on the committee and how many times it was met.

I still haven't received an answer. Madam Deputy Speaker, but fortunately, I've read the answer in the New Statesman this weekend because the Minister of Law in the House of Lords made an announcement at a public event of the answer, which is they haven't met, they're going to meet in January. And the number of people, the people on it haven't actually been decided yet. But why is it that they're announcing the answers to questions in public and to the media, but not answering them in the House? Madam Deputy Speaker we all have a duty in this House to answer questions and address the issues that face our constituents.

These are not isolated examples. These are my experiences as one MP amongst 650 in this House. And I know that this is happening to many, many other of my colleagues. I can only imagine the scale of evasion, of accountability across the House. On the steps of Downing Street, the Prime Minister promised to restore service and respect to politics. Yet when Ministers aren't firefighting reports of tax avoidance or criminal convictions, they're tap dancing around parliamentary questions and feeding policy announcements out to favoured journalists instead of announcing them to this House and the public.

First, let me be clear, Madam Deputy Speaker, accountability is not a courtesy. It's not optional. When members ask questions and submit letters, we are doing so on behalf of our constituents. So Ministers may regard swerving, stonewalling and spin as shrewd tactics, but they are not. It's an affront to this House and to the British people that we represent. Madam Deputy Speaker it's high time for this government to live up to its own lofty rhetoric and start giving answers. The public deserve a lot better.
17:13
Chris Ward Portrait Chris Ward MP, The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven, Labour)
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Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, and can I thank the hon. Member for Sleaford and North Hykeham? I know she's raised these matters before a number of times in the House, so I'm pleased. I'm pleased, she said. I'm listening. I'm pleased she secured the debate and I could see her, her frustration throughout. I will come to the specific points in a second. But just by way of introduction and the government's position here, look, as the hon. Lady said, the Prime Minister made clear the government is committed to restoring trust, accountability and transparency in politics and ensuring that those of us who have the enormous privilege of serving in public office are held to the highest standards.

As the Prime Minister himself wrote in the foreword to the updated and strengthened ministerial code. Restoring trust in politics is the great test of our era. The British people have lost faith in its ability to change their lives for the better. It is worth remembering briefly why the Prime Minister felt the necessity to write those words, and why trust, as the hon. Lady said in politics, is at such a critical moment. Frankly, the events of the last parliament in particularly Partygate, cast a long shadow over this issue.

As a reminder, this saw a sitting Prime Minister fined for breaching the laws he introduced and then led to him being found to have deliberately misled this House from this Dispatch Box. That is unprecedented and it has proved deeply corrosive of public trust. Those events were also compounded by complete disregard by the former Prime Minister for the role of the independent adviser on ministerial standards, so much so that two independent ministerial ministerial advisers resigned because they lost faith that the Prime Minister then would uphold even basic standards.

In contrast, and this is where I disagree with the hon. Lady, I do not accept the the assertion she made about how this government is approaching it, because this I know this Prime Minister is determined to repair the breach in public trust, to rebuild that and return the business of government to the service of working people. I will

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give way. Caroline Johnson I understand what the Minister is trying to say. What about somebody else? Might What about somebody else? Might have done it first, but actually the point is his government is in government and his not government is not delivering on their promises. is not delivering on their promises. The ministerial code, as written now, already requires Ministers to be open and transparent and answer these questions, and they're not so these questions, and they're not so tightened. Ministerial code is not going to be worth the paper it's written on when the current one isn't being adhered to anyway.



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isn't being adhered to anyway. I will come to that, because enforcement of the code is one of the key points that I want to get the key points that I want to get to and what the plan, how the Prime Minister is trying to address the standards and the problems that we experienced in the last Parliament, experienced in the last Parliament, because that's why the Prime Minister issued the updated, strengthened code, which includes the seven principles of public life, the Nolan Principles the hon.

Lady referred to, and that this House debated just a few weeks ago. It also puts the importance of those principles front and centre of the new code, and it makes clear that public service is a privilege that comes with responsibility. Among those Nolan principles, first articulated some 30 years ago and highly relevant to today's debate are openness that holders of public office should act and take decisions in an open and transparent manner. Accountability that holds the public office should be accountable for their decisions, including in this place, and honesty that holders of public office should be truthful.

Madam Deputy Speaker I know the Prime Minister well. I know he cares deeply about those principles. It is why he has spent his life in public life, and he is determined this government will uphold those. That's why the ministerial code also includes a strengthened role for the independent adviser on ministerial standards. No longer sidelined but now central to the process of assuring accountability. Crucially, the independent adviser can now initiate his own investigations without the Prime Minister's permission. That is an important step forward from where we were.

I'm also proud this government has introduced the Public Office Accountability Bill, the Hillsborough law we are all so proud of, which will establish a duty of candour across public bodies and will help ensure accountability and across all authorities. This government has also delivered a manifesto commitment to establish an Ethics and Integrity Commission, which will help drive up progress in standards. And the Ministerial Code also includes strengthened principles on the acceptance of gifts and hospitalities by government Ministers. I know an issue the hon.

Lady has also raised in this House. Previously the Cabinet Office. My Department has also published a revised and strengthened code on public appointments, which will make that process faster and more transparent.

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Seven Caroline Johnson. Does he understand that £130,000

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Does he understand that £130,000 for a part time job is a sight more than most of my constituents about almost all of my constituents are getting, and that if the Prime getting, and that if the Prime Minister has has appointed somebody or signed off on someone's appointment having received money from the person he's appointing, from the person he's appointing, that it is going to be, the public are going to want to know how much

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are going to want to know how much that person and how much that person's businesses may have given the Prime Minister. Thank you sir. I was going to come to that. And

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I was going to come to that. And look, the hon. Lady has raised this point before, I think, including on point before, I think, including on Monday in. I beg your pardon? Well, I'm going to if you let me. Of course, this is a matter for the Department for culture, Media and Sport predominantly. The Culture Secretary did come to this House and make a statement on that matter. All donations by Mr. Cogan were made in line with the rules and are perfectly transparent on that.

The Prime Minister asked the independent adviser to look at this matter and his role in it. Again, I would contrast that with the behaviour of the last government. The adviser was satisfied with the Prime Minister's response and said, and I quote, the disclosures made by the Prime Minister are an important demonstration of the Prime Minister's commitment to transparency and ensuring necessary steps are taken to improve the process underlying standards in public life. Again, that is a contrast. I would also point out the Prime Minister stands at this Dispatch Box every week at Prime Minister's Questions.

Hon. Members have had ample opportunity to ask this question. They have chosen not to do so. There's not a judge moving away from it. This is a transparent process. Everything was published in line with the rules, and there is ample opportunity to question both the Prime Minister and the Culture Secretary about it. I hope that answers hon. Lady's point on that. Sorry. Just returning to other actions. I will just make a little progress, if you don't mind. Alongside the actions of the government has taken to improve openness and transparency, we also recognise the importance of accountability and particularly the importance of accountability in this place.

Ministers do take their obligations seriously and as I say, the Prime Minister and the independent adviser are committed to upholding both the spirit and letter of the code. That is why during the government's first year in office, there were 190 oral statements across 168 sitting days. That is more than one per day, and it is more than the whole of the previous parliamentary session. The Prime Minister has made nine statements from this House, 30 from the Foreign Office and the Prime Minister made one earlier this week.

And as of this Monday, I'm told all statements in this session have risen to 228. You may have been through many of them Madam Deputy Speaker and over a thousand written statements. I merely point that out. So the government is making statements to this House, and it is coming to it in terms of parliamentary questions, in letters, which the hon. Lady raised at length. I agree it's important that members get timely and helpful responses. I know how frustrating for my having been a backbench MP asking these questions as well.

I know how frustrating it is when you don't get timely and helpful responses. Clearly, she's raised some really serious points, particularly around air ambulance and other issues. I will if she's if it's okay with her, I will take those up with the relevant departments and see what I can do to to raise those points. I would just gently point out on parliamentary questions. The number being submitted is at a record high. This summer saw roughly three times as many parliamentary questions submitted as usual, and one member who I won't name has submitted over 1000 just by themselves.

Now, I am not saying that's the reason. I just want to finish the point and I will. I'm not saying that's a reason for people, for Ministers not to reply. They are. I'm saying civil servants work hard, Ministers work hard. But there is a lot to get through and we're working hard

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to do so. I will give way. The department that has made them has received the most questions over this parliamentary questions over this parliamentary session, which is the Department of Health has received 15,000 questions, which is 29 Urgent Questions per day since the 4th of Questions per day since the 4th of July, 2024. And they've got five Ministers and a whole army of civil servants to help them answer those

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servants to help them answer those questions. Thank you for that. That is true. Department of health is the largest department in health is the largest department in terms of PQs submitted. It is taking action to improve its performance within the department, performance within the department, but it does receive a huge amount and it is at record levels. So I am just saying it's not wilful just saying it's not wilful avoidance. I'm saying a lot of this is that it's volume, excuse me.

And trying to get through those points, just trying to make some progress. Madam Deputy Speaker the government is also engaging in the ongoing parliamentary inquiry requested by Mr. Speaker into ministerial statements at the ministerial code, and the government is also determined to ensure that where we have public inquiries, they lead to meaningful change, accountability and justice. For example, we are carefully considering the latest report from the Covid 19 inquiry and we will respond fully in due course to further drive accountability and implementation.

The government has also launched a publicly accessible list on Gov.uk of all recommendations made by inquiries and the progress of government is making in response. So in conclusion, Madam Speaker, as I said, this government does take transparency and accountability extremely seriously. We are, frankly, as with so many other things, from the economy to prisons to the immigration system, having to rebuild faith and trust in our politics from the very low base we've inherited. But we are making progress. The hon. Lady made some very good points.

I thought around responses on PQs and letters, which I will follow up. But this government is making progress. We

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are committed to going further, and I welcome the debate and the opportunity to discuss it tonight. The question is that this House

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The question is that this House do now adjourn as many as are of that. You say aye. the ayes have it.
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