Dormant Assets Bill [Lords]

Baroness Laing of Elderslie Excerpts

2nd reading
Monday 6th December 2021 Commons Chamber

[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

We have very little time left, so I must ask for very short speeches, please.

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[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

We have less than 20 minutes left, so four minutes each please. I call Gareth Davies.

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[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

I must try to leave time for the Minister; therefore two minutes will be just fine.

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[Paul Howell (Sedgefield) (Con)]

I will try to be as quick as I can. First, I compliment my hon. Friend the Member for Thirsk and Malton (Kevin Hollinrake); I agree with everything he said. Primarily, I want to speak to the proposal for the creation of the community wealth fund through the Bill. The Government have made it clear that levelling up is one of their top priorities. That has been demonstrated through the establishment of a Department, new funds for levelling up, the £200 million community renewal fund and so on. That is all very welcome, but it is only part of the story. Those things will not by themselves be sufficient to level up the most deprived or left-behind neighbourhoods. They are focused on shovel-ready physical infrastructure—an excellent starting point—but we should not forget that we also need to build the social capital needed to develop and sustain prosperity in left-behind neighbourhoods.

I agree with the Government that we need to invest in community-led infrastructure at the neighbourhood level to ensure that the levelling-up agenda is successful. A community wealth fund would complement existing initiatives by addressing the need to help communities develop and sustain the social infrastructure that is the lifeblood of strong communities, building social cohesion and laying the foundations for a strong local economy.

The community wealth fund, which would invest in the 225 most deprived or left-behind neighbourhoods in this country, would repair the social fabric in those communities where it is most frayed. That is the particular focus of the all-party parliamentary group that I jointly chair, and I thank everyone who contributes to it for increasing my motivation. We also need to consider how we deliver this fund and what we do, and I would like us to consider the idea of the late Jonathan Sacks that a social covenant, which is relational and human, is preferable to a social contract, which is transactional and bureaucratic. This Bill has the potential to further strengthen families, communities and the nation, and I would like the Minister to consider that as a methodology for getting it there and letting us trust the people. I will explore that further in my ten-minute rule Bill on Wednesday.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

I thank the hon. Gentlemen for being really brief; that was totally brilliant.

Finance (No. 2) Bill

Baroness Laing of Elderslie Excerpts

Committee stage
Wednesday 1st December 2021 Commons Chamber

Question proposed, That the clause stand part of the Bill.

[The Chairman of Ways and Means (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

With this it will be convenient to discuss the following:

Clauses 6 to 8 stand part.

That schedule 1 be the First schedule to the Bill.

Amendment 5, in clause 12, page 10, line 44, at end insert—

‘, and at the end of section 32(1) insert “, but eligibility for the increased maximum annual allowance from 1 January 2022 to 31 March 2023 is available only to businesses which can demonstrate that they have taken steps to reduce carbon emissions within their own business models and have set out further steps for how they plan to reduce carbon emissions towards a net zero goal”.’

This amendment would restrict access to the extended temporary increase in annual investment allowance to businesses that support transition to “net-zero”.

Amendment 6, page 10, line 44, at end insert —

‘, and at the end of section 32(1) insert “, but eligibility for the increased maximum annual allowance from 1 January 2022 to 31 March 2023 is available only to businesses which do not have a history of tax avoidance”.’

This amendment would restrict access to the extended temporary increase in annual investment allowance to businesses that do not have a history of tax avoidance.

Amendment 4, page 11, line 10, at end insert—

‘(3) The Chancellor of the Exchequer must, no later than 5 April 2022, lay before the House of Commons a report—

(a) analysing the fiscal and economic effects of the temporary increase in annual investment allowance, and the changes in those effects which it estimates will occur as a result of the provisions of this section, in respect of—

(i) each NUTS 1 statistical region of England and England as a whole,

(ii) Scotland,

(iii) Wales, and

(iv) Northern Ireland; and

(b) assessing how the temporary increase in annual investment allowance is furthering efforts to mitigate climate change, and any differences in the benefit of this funding in respect of—

(i) each NUTS 1 statistical region of England and England as a whole,

(ii) Scotland,

(iii) Wales, and

(iv) Northern Ireland.’

This amendment would require the Chancellor of the Exchequer to analyse the impact of changes proposed in clause 12 in terms of impact on the economy and geographical reach and to assess the impact of the temporary increase in the annual investment allowance on efforts to mitigate climate change.

Amendment 7, page 11, line 10, at end insert—

‘(3) In paragraph 2(3) of Schedule 13 of that Act—

(a) after “second straddling period is” insert “the greater of (a)”; and

(b) after “of that sub-paragraph” add “and (b) the amount (if any) by which the maximum allowance under section 51A of CAA 2001 had there been no temporary increase in the allowance exceeds the annual investment allowance qualifying expenditure incurred before 1 April 2023.”’

This amendment would amend the transitional provisions for the reversion of the AIA to £200,000 on 1 April 2023, to ensure that smaller businesses with lower levels of qualifying capital expenditure are not disadvantaged by having their effective AIA limit restricted to significantly less than £200,000 for a period.

Clause 12 stand part.

New clause 1—Review of the impact on revenues from tax on dividend income—

‘The Chancellor of the Exchequer must, within six months of the passing of this Act, publish an assessment of the impact on revenues from tax on dividend income of increasing the rates set out in section 8 of ITA 2007 by—

(a) 1.25%,

(b) 2.5%, and

(c) 3.75%.’

This new clause requires an assessment of what extra revenue would be derived by increasing the rates of tax on dividend income by different amounts.

New clause 2—Review of the impact on revenues from banking surcharge—

‘(1) The Chancellor of the Exchequer must, within six months of the passing of this Act, publish an assessment of revenues from the banking surcharge.

(2) This review must consider—

(a) the total revenue raised by the banking surcharge since its introduction,

(b) the total public expenditure on supporting the banking sector since 2008, and

(c) an assessment of risks to the banking sector in the future including the likelihood of further public support being required.’

This new clause requires an assessment of the banking surcharge in the context of the cost of public support to banks since the financial crisis and an assessment of the risk of the need for further public support in future.

New clause 3—Review of the impact of the extension of temporary increase in annual investment allowance—

‘The Chancellor of the Exchequer must, within three months of the end of tax year 2022-23, publish a review of decisions by companies to invest in the UK in 2022-23, which must report on which companies, broken down by size, sector, and country of ownership, have benefited from the annual investment allowance; and this assessment must also assess the merits of the existence of the superdeduction in light of the AIA.’

This new clause requires a review of which companies have benefited from the Annual Investment Allowance in 2022-23, broken down by size, sector, and country of ownership, and an assessment of the merits of the superdeduction in light of the AIA.

New clause 8—Review of changes to taxation of dividend income—

‘(1) The Chancellor of the Exchequer must, not later than six months after the passing of the Act, lay before the House of Commons a review of the fiscal and economic effects of the changes in the taxation of dividend income resulting from the provisions of section 4 of this Act.

(2) The review under subsection (1) must also include an assessment of the fiscal and economic effects of—

(a) removing the personal dividend taxation allowance, and

(b) amending the dividend income rates of taxation to match the existing rates of taxation of earnings.’

This new clause would require the Government to report to the House on the fiscal and economic effects of the changes made by clause 4 to the rates of taxation of dividend income, and also to assess the effects of other changes to the taxation of dividend income.

New clause 10—Assessment of annual investment allowance—

‘The Government must publish within 12 months of this Act coming into effect an assessment of—

(a) how much the changes to the annual investment allowance under section 12 of this Act will affect GDP in the event of the Finance Act coming into effect, and

(b) how the same changes would have affected GDP had the UK—

(i) remained in the European Union, and

(ii) left the European Union without a Future Trade and Investment Partnership.’

This new clause would require an assessment of the effects of the provisions in clause 12 on GDP in different scenarios.

New clause 11—Review of temporary increase in annual investment allowance—

‘The Government must publish within 12 months of this Act coming into effect an assessment of

(a) the size, number, and location of companies claiming the increased annual investment allowance,

(b) the impact of this relief upon levels of capital investment, and

(c) the percentage of total business investments that were covered by this relief in 2019, 2020 & 2021.’

This new clause would require an assessment of the take-up and impact of the temporary increase in the AIA.

New clause 16—Assessment of revenue effects of increases in the rates of tax on dividend income—

‘The Chancellor of the Exchequer must, no later than 31 January 2022, lay before the House of Commons an assessment of the effects on tax revenues of—

(a) the provision of section 4, and

(b) increasing the rates of tax on dividend income to the default rates of income tax.’

New clause 17—Review of impact of the abolition of basis periods—

‘(1) The Chancellor of the Exchequer must, within six months of the passing of this Act, review the impact of the abolition of basis periods.

(2) The review must consider the effects of the abolition on—

(a) farmers and other seasonal businesses,

(b) sole traders, and

(c) partnerships.

(3) The review must consider the effects of the abolition in respect of—

(a) each region of England and England as a whole,

(b) Scotland,

(c) Wales, and

(d) Northern Ireland.

(4) In this section, “region” has the same meaning as that used by the Office for National Statistics.’

This new clause would require a report on the effects of the abolition of basis periods on particular sectors, including farming and other seasonal businesses, sole traders and partnerships.

Conduct of the Right Hon. Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip

Baroness Laing of Elderslie Excerpts

Tuesday 30th November 2021 Commons Chamber

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

Before the debate begins, I have to remind Members that, as “Erskine May” says:

“Good temper and moderation are the characteristics of parliamentary language. Parliamentary language is never more desirable than when a Member is canvassing the opinions and conduct of his opponents in debate.”

The reason why that matters in this particular debate and does not really occur in other debates is that this debate is on a substantive motion directly relating to the conduct of the right hon. Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Boris Johnson).

In this debate, because it is on a substantive motion of this kind, arguments intended to criticise or defend that conduct are in order. Therefore things may be said that the Chair would not normally permit in other proceedings. However, those speaking in favour of the motion should set out their arguments clearly. Intemperate abuse is as out of order on this motion as much as on any other.

I am quite sure the right hon. Member for Ross, Skye and Lochaber (Ian Blackford) will already have borne in mind all that I have just said.

[Ian Blackford (Ross, Skye and Lochaber) (SNP)]

I beg to move,

That this House censures the Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip, for frequently violating the sixth Principle of Public Life, for seeking to undermine the recommendations of the Standards Committee on Owen Paterson, for regularly ignoring independent advice on matters such as international treaties and breaches of the Ministerial Code by his ministers, for putting forward proposals to diminish the powers of the Electoral Commission, for ignoring independent advice concerning the granting of peerages to Conservative party donors and nominations to public bodies such as Ofcom; and further calls for his ministerial salary to be reduced by £41,567 per year.

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for your guidance to the House on conduct in this debate. I am sure you will want to join me in wishing everyone a happy St Andrew’s Day.

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

For the avoidance of doubt, happy St Andrew’s Day.

[Ian Blackford]

Happy St Andrew’s Day to you, Madam Deputy Speaker, and to all hon. and right hon. Members.

The Scottish National party tabled this motion of censure against the Prime Minister because we believe in a very basic principle, and we believe the public do, too: those in power deserve to face consequences for their disastrous actions, and they need to be held to account.

The charge sheet against the Prime Minister is, indeed, damning. In the past few weeks alone, he ripped up anti-lobbying rules when one of his own was found guilty, he is attempting to restrict the right to judicial review and he is seeking to undermine the independence of the Electoral Commission. But it did not start there, and it definitely does not end there.

Since coming into office a little over two years ago, the Prime Minister has been up to his neck in scandals involving cash for honours, cash for contracts, texts for tax breaks and even cash for curtains. As the motion states, he is constantly breaking the sixth principle of public life, the duty to be truthful.

Month after month, scandal after scandal, the charge sheet gets longer and longer, but not a single person is held to account. If the public are to have confidence in this place, that needs to change, and it needs to change today. Because unless the Prime Minister faces consequences—unless he is censured—he will not just think he has gotten away with the mess he has made over the last few months; he will think he will be able to do it over and over again. Let us be very clear: if the Prime Minister is not properly censured today, it will also be final proof that the Tories really do believe that its one rule for them and one rule for everybody else.

I remind Conservative Members that we have all been witness to events over the past number of weeks. They might want to forget what has happened, but the public definitely have not. The Tories marched through the Lobby—

[Ian Blackford]

I will give way in due course. The Tories marched through the Lobby to undermine our parliamentary standards process, to tear up the rule books, all in order to protect a friend of the Prime Minister who was found to have broken the rules. This whole sorry episode showed this Parliament at its very worst—and, trust me, that is saying something. The Government Chief Whip and the Leader of the House are easy scapegoats, but we all know that this was orchestrated by a Prime Minister who thinks he is untouchable, who thinks he can do as he pleases. This is a Prime Minister who thinks he can change the rules at will and who believes that if the rules become inconvenient, they can simply be changed. So the question stands today: how much does it really take for Tory MPs to say enough is enough?

How far standards have fallen is shown by the fact that the charges I have made against the Prime Minister are not even in dispute—they are all matters of public record. The Prime Minister has even admitted that in managing these scandals he personally

“crashed the car into the ditch”.

It tells us all we need to know, though, that he did not even have the decency to admit that in the House of Commons. He only felt the need to admit his mistakes and apologise to his Back Benchers in the Tory 1922 committee, and it was only because they were muttering about mutiny. I am not sure that apology counts if he only did it to try to save his own skin.

But no matter how much the Prime Minister tries to publicly wash his hands of responsibility for his actions, the public have already cast their verdict. The Tories may be sliding in the polls, but it is as nothing compared to the hammering the Prime Minister is taking in the court of public opinion. In the last week, his approval ratings have hit an all-time low, and there is one only simple reason behind it: the public know that that the Prime Minister is at the rotten core of all these scandals.

A natural comparison has been drawn with the Major Government in the early 1990s, but even that comparison fails to properly get to the scale of corruption that has occurred, much of it in plain sight. The difference between this Prime Minister and John Major was that Major took action to address the sleaze and corruption. This Prime Minister is at the centre of the sleaze and corruption—he is orchestrating much of it. I am afraid corruption is the only proper word—the only honest word—for what has been going on. As I said at the weekend, the Leader of the Opposition—I do wonder where Opposition Members are—is now very fond of repeating the line that when it comes to the Prime Minister

“the joke isn’t funny anymore”.

But in truth it was never funny, and we are all now living with the consequences of having a man like this in Downing Street.

It is also important to reflect on just how damaging recent weeks and months have been to the public’s faith in politics. Because each and every one of these scandals erodes standards, erodes trust and ultimately erodes democracy itself.

In the middle of the Owen Paterson scandal, the Prime Minister said:

“I genuinely believe that the UK is not remotely a corrupt country and I genuinely think that our institutions are not corrupt.”

The problem for the Prime Minister is that the public disagree with him: a recent Savanta ComRes poll found that 54% of those asked thought that the UK Government were corrupt. If the Prime Minister wants to know why, he has only to look in the mirror.

In the eyes of the public this is a UK Government who have normalised sleaze and are now trying to normalise corruption. This is the Tory Government’s attempt at a new normal in which no one is held responsible, no one is held to account and no one ever—not ever—resigns. That is exactly why consequences are so important and why this censure motion matters: it can only ever become a new normal if we all put up with it. [Interruption.] This is a debate that matters to people in the United Kingdom. We can hear the behaviour and the catcalling of Government Members and it sums up the attempt to shut down democracy and our right to raise these important matters in this House.

A new normal becomes possible only if we do not hold the Government to account and do not make them answer for their actions. I genuinely ask Government Members, if they have any interest in maintaining some dignity and decency in public life, finally to hold the Prime Minister to account and censure him for his abuse of power.

Let me take one example of that abuse of power: the cash-for-honours scandal. Fifteen of the Tory party’s main treasurers who happened to hand over £3 million to the party were somehow given life peerages in the House of Lords, as if by magic. Twenty-two of the Tory party’s top financial backers all happen to have been given peerages since 2010. In total, this group has stuffed Tory party coffers with £54 million— [Interruption.] “Hear, hear!” That sums it up. The Conservatives see it as a virtue that if someone gives multimillion pounds to the Conservative party, they end up in the House of Lords. My goodness! What price democracy?

Let us take Lord Cruddas, a leading donor to the Vote Leave campaign who, let us not forget, bankrolled the Prime Minister’s Conservative leadership bid. He personally gave up to £4 million in donations to the Tory party and affiliates. His reward? An ermine robe and a seat in the House of Lords. What is worse is that the Prime Minister personally overruled the House of Lords Appointments Commission that advised against his appointment. That was the very first time that the watchdog’s recommendation has ever been ignored. Three days after Lord Cruddas was introduced to the House of Lords, what happened? He handed £500,000 to Conservative central office. I will gladly give way to anyone on the Tory Benches who wants to stand up and justify that level of sleaze.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

Order. I hesitate to interrupt the right hon. Gentleman, but I hope he will be very careful about precisely what he says about any Member of the House of Lords because, of course, any Member of the House of Lords is also a parliamentarian. It is of course in order for the right hon. Gentleman to examine the conduct of the Member who is the subject of the motion, but that does not extend to other Members of Parliament, including those in the Lords.

[Ian Blackford]

What I am reflecting on is the behaviour of the Prime Minister that puts Members in the House of Lords, when the House of Lords Appointments Commission has ruled against their appointment. I have given the opportunity to anyone on the Tory Benches who wishes to rise to defend the actions of putting Tory donors in the Lords. It is £3 million for a peerage in the House of Lords. What a price to be able to undermine our democracy!

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[Ian Blackford]

I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention. Of course, he is absolutely correct. We are speaking about the House of Lords. The House of Lords is the second largest parliamentary Chamber in the world. The only Chamber that is bigger is the Communist Congress. My goodness, what an advert for democracy! The fact is that these unelected Lords have a say over our democracy. The juxtaposition—the point that is made by my hon. Friend—is an important one. Today, we are discussing the behaviour of the Prime Minister and why he should be sanctioned. Yet in Scotland, just seven months ago, the people of our country were given the right to have a say in their Government. Crucially, they were given a right to have a say on the future of our country as an independent country, because the SNP made it very clear in that election that it was about a mandate for an independence referendum. Indeed, the Conservatives made it clear that a vote for the Conservatives was a vote to stop Scottish independence, and what happened?

We are talking about democracy and respecting democracy, so let us tell the Conservatives a few harsh truths. In the four elections that we have fought in the Scottish Parliament that we have won, we have increased our vote at every election. We received just short of 48% of the popular vote at that last election. That is a higher share of the vote than any party has had in any election in the United Kingdom for the past 50 years. On the topic of respecting democracy, of respecting the people’s sovereignty, then Boris Johnson must recognise that the Scottish Parliament, where there is a majority for Scottish independence, has the right to call that referendum.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

Order. Will the right hon. Gentleman please refer to the Prime Minister as the Prime Minister and not by his name? If he could just re-say that last sentence, I would be so pleased.

[Ian Blackford]

The point is that the Prime Minister must respect democracy. He denies democracy when he stuffs the Lords with his Tory donor friends, but he must respect democracy when people in Scotland have voted for a Parliament that has a right to call a referendum to take us out of this toxic Union and find a way back for us as an independent country in the European Union.

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[Ian Blackford]

rose—[Interruption.]

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

Order. Do not shout at the right hon. Gentleman. We all have to hear his answer. While I am on my feet, I would be grateful if the hon. Member for Workington (Mark Jenkinson) would in future use the word “he” and not “you” when referring to the right hon. Gentleman.

[Ian Blackford]

Let me respectfully say to Government Members that I will give a guarantee, a promise and a commitment right here and now that all moneys raised by the Scottish National party for the purposes of fighting an independence campaign—every penny—will be spent on independence campaigning, because that is what we are about. There is a big difference in those who fund the SNP and the independence campaign, because—I will make another promise—not one single member of the SNP who gives to us willingly will end up in the House of Lords; they will be funding the SNP and the independence movement to ensure that we deliver on our promise to take Scotland out of this Union.

There is another important point about how deeply damaging all these scandals are. Every day that the Prime Minster spends concentrating on how he will somehow avoid scrutiny is a day not doing the basics of what his job demands. It is also becoming clearer just how damaging and dangerous it is that chaotic governance now defines Downing Street. That would be bad enough in normal times, but it is totally unforgivable in the middle of a pandemic.

In the real world, away from the shambles in No. 10, people are suffering not only from the pandemic, but from a Tory cost-of-living crisis. Inflation is running at 5%. Rising day-to-day costs and rising household bills are the main focus for families. While all the political stories on sleaze have been going on and taking up time at Downing Street, the political decision to cut universal credit has been hitting homes hardest. The shameful cut to universal credit was not just the wrong policy; it came at the worst possible time for families this winter. We are left with a UK Government who are not only up to their necks in sleaze, but hitting families at the same time. In Scotland, I am proud that we have a First Minister who understands the pressures that family finances are under, and a Government who listen and respond. I am proud that at the very same time that the Westminster Government are cutting universal credit by £20 a week, the SNP Scottish Government are raising the Scottish child payment by £20 a week.

One of the public’s real angers about these scandals is the deep dishonesty that has been so openly on display. The truth and the Prime Minister have always been strangers. I say that in sadness and not in any anger. Let me just take a few examples. On 4 March 2020, the Prime Minister said:

“We have restored the nurses’ bursary”.—[Official Report, 4 March 2020; Vol. 672, c. 829.]

That was completely and factually untrue. On 17 June 2020, the Prime Minister said that there were

“400,000…fewer families living in poverty now than there were in 2010.”—[Official Report, 17 June 2020; Vol. 677, c. 796.]

Both the Office for National Statistics and the Children’s Commissioner have confirmed that that is false. On 7 November 2019, the Prime Minister told Northern Ireland businesses, in person, that the protocol would mean

“no forms, no checks, no barriers of any kind”—

once again, completely untrue. It is right to be careful in terms of the language that we use in this House, but when it comes to language it is also right to be accurate and honest. On the basis of all the evidence, I can only conclude that the Prime Minister has repeatedly broken the sixth principle of public life. I can only conclude that the Prime Minister has demonstrated himself to be a liar.

I think there is a misguided sense among those on the Tory Benches that they have gotten past the scandals of the past few weeks. The Prime Minister thinks that, if he blunders on, people might not forgive, but they will forget. Not for the first time, the Tories are badly wrong and badly out of touch, because they just do not get that the depth of anger among the public is very real and is not going away. I know that people in Scotland are looking on at a broken Westminster system that has never felt more remote, more arrogant and more corrupt.

[Liz Saville Roberts (Dwyfor Meirionnydd) (PC)]

Does the right hon. Gentleman appreciate, and do Conservative Members appreciate, the damage that has been done when to be able to use the word “liar” in this place is now passed as fair comment and accepted, and the damage that that is doing to our democracy?

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

Order. Let us just be clear about that. It is preferable that such words should not be used in this place but, as I said before the right hon. Gentleman rose to his feet, this is a very specific and particular motion and the right hon. Gentleman is examining the conduct of a Member of this House—indeed, the Prime Minister. Therefore, I cannot stop him from using the word that he has just used. I would prefer it if he put things in different terms, but I do not think that he has strayed past the rules. I think he is perfectly in order. However, it would be better if other Members did not make comments such as those just made by the right hon. Lady because what she said is not actually quite correct. Please, let us just keep it as moderate as possible.

[Ian Blackford]

I was dealing with the sixth principle of public life. I have laid out for the House three examples—I could have given many more—of where the Prime Minister has not told the truth. I regret, in the context of where we are, that I had to make that point, which is important, because if we undermine honesty and truth in this place, what are we left with? That is why we have brought this motion today and that is what I am asking hon. Members right across this House to reflect on, because there is overwhelming evidence that the Prime Minister has broken that principle of public life. I am asking each and every Member in this House, particularly on the Government Benches, to examine their conscience on the basis of the evidence and think very carefully before they go through the Lobby tonight. The public are angry at what has happened in this place. The public are angry about the Member I mentioned earlier who had been sanctioned by the Standards Commission and who the Prime Minister sought to get off. There will come a time when the public will judge this House and this House should reflect very carefully on that tonight.

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[Owen Thompson (Midlothian) (SNP)]

On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. I am slightly confused, because I am struggling to find which points the Minister is making that are in any way relevant to the motion on the Order Paper. [Interruption] Can you guide us?

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

I am awfully sorry but there was a lot of noise; will the hon. Gentleman give me the second part of his point of order again?

[Owen Thompson]

I am struggling to understand what points the Minister is making that are in any way relevant to the motion on the Order Paper and seek your guidance, Madam Deputy Speaker, as to how we could focus on those issues?

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

I see what the hon. Gentleman is saying, but I have absolutely no responsibility whatsoever for the content of the Minister’s speech. The Minister is constructing his argument and I am sure he will come to his razor-sharp points very soon.

[Michael Ellis]

Yes, Madam Deputy Speaker, because of course the Scottish National party motion is about the conduct of my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister and I am telling the House and the SNP what the Prime Minister has achieved—his conduct.

Let us look at the infrastructure uplifts: £600 billion into transport and broadband upgrades, including £96 billion for the railways, the biggest investment in our rail network for a century. That is one of the multitude of things that the Prime Minister has delivered—reliable and faster rail journeys across the north and midlands. Thanks to the integrated rail plan, we will build three new high-speed rail lines, electrify or upgrade three existing main lines, improve local services, and integrate them properly with HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail, all bringing benefits to passengers 10 to 15 years sooner than under previous plans.

My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister is also investing in our local streets so that we can all feel proud of where we live. Again, let me remind Members where the money is going: £4.8 billion via the levelling-up fund to help regenerate town centres and high streets, upgrade local transport, and invest in cultural and heritage assets; £2.4 billion for 101 towns deals investing in local economies—

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[Michael Ellis]

The conduct of the Prime Minister is the subject of the debate, and the conduct of the Prime Minister is the maintenance and running of this Government and that is what he has been achieving.

Going back to the point on immigration, we have seen the tragic consequences in the recent incident off Calais and our thoughts are of course with the families and loved ones.

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

Order. For the sake of clarity, we are not debating the character of the Prime Minister; we are debating the conduct of the Prime Minister. That is the subject of the motion.

[Michael Ellis]

Exactly, Madam Deputy Speaker; thank you.

The principle behind the Bill is that access to the UK’s asylum system should be based on need, not on the ability to pay people smugglers to leave safe countries such as France and Belgium. These are the things that are being delivered, and we have always been clear about the need to do everything we can to prevent people from risking their lives and embarking on these perilous attempts to cross the sea.

Our United Kingdom is the most successful political and economic union the world has ever seen. It is the foundation on which all our businesses and citizens have been able to thrive since 1707. This Government are committed to protecting and promoting its combined strengths, based on those hundreds of years of partnership and shared history.

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[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

Order. Before I call the hon. Member for Oxford East (Anneliese Dodds) for the Opposition, it might be helpful for colleagues to know that there will be a time limit of four minutes on Back-Bench speeches.

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[Anneliese Dodds]

No, I will not give way. [Hon. Members: “Withdraw!”] And I most certainly—

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

Order. We have had a perfectly reasonable exchange between the right hon. Member for West Suffolk (Matt Hancock) and the hon. Member for Oxford East (Anneliese Dodds). We do not need shouting about it. We are dealing here in facts and good argument, not shouting.

[Dawn Butler]

On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. If the Government have lost every court case when they have been taken to court in regard to procurement contracts and corruption, does that mean that the right hon. Member for West Suffolk (Matt Hancock) needs to apologise for what he has just said and withdraw it?

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

No. I appreciate what the hon. Lady is saying, but it is not a point of order; it is a point of debate. Perhaps she might like to address it later in the debate.

[Anneliese Dodds]

It is indeed the case that facts have been laid out in courts of law; they stand for themselves.

I have to say that at a time when our national health service and our care workers and volunteers up and down the country are yet again supporting the covid effort, I think that it is incredibly important that this Government be transparent. [Hon. Members: “Withdraw!”] I will not withdraw what I have said, but I hope that the Conservative Government will withdraw what they have said about not being transparent—a point that I will come to in a moment.

The foreword written by the Prime Minister says that there will be

“no actual or perceived conflicts of interest”.

Sadly, we know that there have been so many. Peerages have apparently been handed out to anyone who can meet the £3 million entrance charge and agree to a stint as Conservative party treasurer. David Cameron and Lex Greensill were given the run of Whitehall to beg for access to hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money. More than half a billion pounds in testing contracts was handed over to a company advised by a Conservative former Minister, without competition and behind closed doors, with a second contract dished out to Randox Laboratories after it had failed to deliver on the first.

I am grateful to the right hon. Member for West Suffolk (Matt Hancock) for the comments that he has just made. If he believes in transparency—

Critical Benchmarks (References and Administrators’ Liability) Bill [Lords]

Baroness Laing of Elderslie Excerpts

Committee stage & 3rd reading
Thursday 18th November 2021 Commons Chamber

[Dame Eleanor Laing in the Chair]

[The Chairman of Ways and Means (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

I should explain that I am resuming our former practice of chairing the Committee at the Table now that the House is almost back to normal after the covid restrictions. During the Committee stage Members should still, of course, address the occupant of the Chair by name, not as Madam Deputy Speaker. “Madam Chairman” or—it says here—“Chair” are also acceptable. [Interruption.] The right hon. Member for Beckenham (Bob Stewart) says, from a sedentary position, that I am not a Chair but a Madam Chairman, and he is absolutely correct.

Clause 1

References to Article 23A benchmarks

Question proposed, That the clause stand part of the Bill.

[The Chairman]

With this it will be convenient to consider clauses 2 to 4.

Budget Resolutions

Baroness Laing of Elderslie Excerpts

Wednesday 27th October 2021 Commons Chamber

And it is declared that it is expedient in the public interest that this Resolution should have statutory effect under the provisions of the Provisional Collection of Taxes Act 1968.—(Rishi Sunak.)

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

At this point I would normally call the Leader of the Opposition to respond to the Chancellor’s statement. As Mr Speaker announced earlier, the Leader of the Opposition is sadly isolating—we all wish him a speedy recovery—and therefore, to answer on behalf of the Opposition, I call the shadow Chancellor, Rachel Reeves.

[Rachel Reeves (Leeds West) (Lab)]

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker.

Families struggling with the cost of living crisis; businesses hit by a supply chain crisis; those who rely on our schools, our hospitals and our police—they will not recognise the world that the Chancellor described. They will think that he is living in a parallel universe.

The Chancellor decided in this Budget to cut taxes for banks, so at least the bankers on short-haul flights sipping champagne will be cheering it. And he had the arrogance, after taking £6 billion out of the pockets of some of the poorest people in this country, of expecting them to cheer today for £2 billion given to compensate. In the long story of this Parliament, never has a Chancellor asked the British people to pay so much for so little. Time and again today, he compared the investments that he is making to the last decade, but who was in charge in that lost decade? They were.

Let us just reflect on the choices that the Chancellor has made today. We have the highest sustained tax burden in peacetime—and who is going to pay for it? It is not international giants such as Amazon; no, the Chancellor has found a tax deduction for them. It is not property speculators; they have already pocketed a stamp duty cut. And it is clearly not the banks, even though bankers’ bonuses are set to reach a record high this year. Instead, the Chancellor is loading the burden on working people, with a national insurance tax rise on working people, a council tax hike on working people, and no support today for working people with VAT on their gas and electricity bills.

And what are working people getting in return? There is a record NHS waiting list with no plan to clear it, no way to see a GP, and people are still having to sell their home to pay for social care. We have community policing nowhere to be seen, a court backlog leaving victims without justice, and almost every rape going unprosecuted. There is a growing gap in results and opportunities between children at private and state schools, a soaring number of pupils in super-size classes, and no serious plan to catch up on learning stolen by the virus. The £2 billion announced today is a pale imitation of the £15 billion catch-up fund that the Prime Minister’s own education tsar said was needed. No wonder he resigned.

The Chancellor talks about world-class public services. Tell that to a pensioner waiting for a hip operation. Tell that to a young woman waiting to go to court to get justice. Tell that to a mum and dad waiting for their child to get the mental health support that they need. The Chancellor says today that he has realised what a difference early years spending makes. Has he ever heard of the Sure Start programme that this Tory Government cut?

Why are we in this position? Why are British businesses being stifled by debt while Amazon gets tax deductions? Why are working people being asked to pay more tax and put up with worse services? Why is billions of pounds in taxpayers’ money being funnelled to friends and donors of the Conservative party while millions of families are having £20 a week taken off them? Why can’t Britain do better than this?

The Government will always blame others: “It’s businesses’ fault”; “It’s the EU’s fault”; “It’s the public’s fault”; “They’re global problems”—the same old excuses. But the blunt reality is this. Working people are being asked to pay more for less, for three simple reasons: economic mismanagement, an unfair tax system, and wasteful spending. Each of those problems is down to 11 years of Conservative failure. Government Members shake their heads, but the cuts to our public services have cut them to the bone. While the Chancellor and the Prime Minister like to pretend that they are different, this Budget will only make things worse.

The solution starts with growth. The Government are caught in a bind of their own making, because low growth inexorably leads to less money for our public services unless taxes rise, and under the Conservatives Britain has become a low-growth economy. Let us look at the last decade. The Tories have grown the economy at just 1.8% a year. If we had grown at the same rate as other advanced economies, we could have had an additional £30 billion to invest in public services without raising the taxes that the Tories are raising on working people today.

Let us compare growth under the last 11 years of Conservative government to that under the last Labour Government. Even taking into account the global financial crisis, Labour grew the economy much faster—by 2.3% a year. If the Tories matched that record, we would have £30 billion more a year to spend on public services.

It could not be clearer: the Conservatives are now the party of high taxation, because the Conservatives are the party of low growth. The Office for Budget Responsibility confirmed that today. We will be back to anaemic growth—[Interruption.] Conservative Members might not like this, but the Office for Budget Responsibility said that by the end of this Parliament, the UK economy will be growing by just 1.3%. That is hardly the plan for growth that the Chancellor boasted about today; it is hardly a ringing endorsement of his announcements. Under the Tory decade, we have had low growth, and there is not much growth to look forward to.

The economy has been weakened by the pandemic, but also by the Government’s mishandling of it. Responding to the virus has been a huge challenge. Governments around the world have taken on more debt, but our situation is worse than in other countries. It is worse because our economy was already fragile going into the crisis, with too much inequality, too much insecure work and too little resilience in our public services. And it is worse because the Prime Minister dithered and delayed against scientific advice, egged on by the Chancellor, and we ended up facing harsher and longer restrictions than other countries. So as well as having the highest death toll in Europe, Britain suffered—[Interruption.]

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

Order. We have to be able to hear the hon. Lady. Rachel Reeves.

[Rachel Reeves]

So as well as having the highest death toll in Europe, Britain has suffered the worst economic hit of any major economy. The Chancellor now boasts that we are growing faster than others, but that is because we fell the furthest. While the US and others have already seen their economy bounce back to levels seen before the pandemic, the UK has not. Our economy is set to be permanently weaker.

On top of all that, the Government are now lurching from crisis to crisis: people avoiding journeys because they cannot fill up their petrol tank is not good for the economy; people spending less because the cost of the weekly shop has exploded is not good for the economy; and British exporters facing more barriers than their European competitors because of the deal the Government did is not good for our economy. If this were a plan, it would be economic sabotage. When the Prime Minister is not blagging that this chaos is part of his cunning plan, he is saying he is not worried about inflation. Well, tell that to families struggling with rising gas and electricity bills, rising petrol prices at the pump and rising food prices. He is out of touch, he is out of ideas and he has left working people out of pocket.

Conservative mismanagement has made the fiscal situation tight. When times are tight, it is even more important to ensure that taxes are fair and that taxpayers get value for money. The Government fail on both fronts. We have a grossly unfair tax system, with the burden being heaped on working people. Successive Budgets have raised council tax and income tax. Now they have raised national insurance, too. But taxes on those with the broadest shoulders, those who earn their income from stocks and shares and dividends and property portfolios, have been left nearly untouched. Businesses based on the high street are the lifeblood of our communities and are often the first venture for entrepreneurs, but despite what the Chancellor said today, businesses will still be held back by punitive and unfair business rates. The Government have failed to tax the online giants and watered down global efforts to create a level playing field.

Just when we needed every penny of public money to make a difference, we have a Government who are a byword for waste, cronyism and vanity projects. We have had £37 billion for a test and trace system that the spending watchdog says treats taxpayers like an ATM cash machine, a yacht for Ministers, a fancy paint job for the Prime Minister’s plane, a TV studio for Conservative party broadcasts that seems to have morphed into the world’s most expensive home cinema, £3.5 billion of Government contracts awarded to friends and donors of the Conservative party, a £190 million loan to a company employing the Prime Minister’s former chief of staff, and £30 million to the former Health Secretary’s pub landlord—and every single one of those cheques signed by the Chancellor. Now the Chancellor comes to ordinary working people and asks them to pay more than they have ever been asked to pay before, and, at the same time, to put up with worse public services, all because of his economic mismanagement, his unfair tax system and his wasteful spending.

Of course, there are some welcome measures in the Budget today, as there are in any Budget. Labour welcomes the increase in the national minimum wage, but the Government need to go further and faster. If they had backed Labour’s position of an immediate rise to at least £10 an hour, a full-time worker on the national minimum wage would be in line for an extra £1,000 a year. Ending the punitive public sector pay freeze is welcome, but we know how much this Chancellor likes his smoke and mirrors, so we will be checking the books to make sure that the money is there for a real-terms pay rise. Labour also welcomes the Government’s decision to reduce the universal credit taper rate, as we have consistently called for, but the system has got so out of whack that even after that reduction working people on universal credit still face a higher marginal tax rate than the Prime Minister. Those unable to work through no fault of their own still face losing more than £1,000 a year. For families who go out to work every day but do not get Government benefits, who are on an average wage, who have to fill up their car with petrol to get to work, who do that weekly shop, and who see their gas and electricity prices go up, the Budget today does absolutely nothing.

We have a cost-of-living crisis. The Government have no coherent plan to help families cope with rising energy prices. Although we welcome the action taken today on universal credit, millions will still struggle to pay the bills this winter. The Government have done nothing to help people with their gas and electricity bills through the cut in VAT receipts that Labour has called for—a cut that is possible because we are outside the European Union and could be funded by the extra VAT receipts of the last few months. Working people are left out in the cold while the Government hammer them with tax rises. National insurance is a regressive tax on working people: a tax on jobs. Under the Chancellor’s plans, a landlord renting out dozens of properties will not pay a penny more in tax, but their tenants, in work, will face tax rises of hundreds of pounds a year.

The Chancellor is failing to tackle another huge issue of the day: adapting to climate change. Adapting to climate change presents opportunities—more jobs, lower bills and cleaner air—but only if we act now and at scale. According to the Office for Budget Responsibility, failure to act will mean public sector debt explodes later to nearly 300% of GDP. The only way to be a prudent and responsible Chancellor is to be a green Chancellor: to invest in the transition to a zero-carbon economy and give British businesses a head start in the industries of the future. But with no mention of climate in his conference speech and the most passing of references today, we are burdened with a Chancellor unwilling to meet the scale of the challenges we face. Homeowners are left to face the costs of insulation on their own. Industries like steel and hydrogen are in a global race, but without the support they need. In the week before COP26, the Chancellor has promoted domestic flights over high-speed rail. It is because of this Chancellor that in the week when we are trying to persuade other countries to reduce their emissions, the Government cannot even confirm that they will meet their 2035 climate reduction target.

Everywhere working people look at the moment, they see prices going up and they see shortages on the shelves, but this Budget did nothing to address their fears. Household budgets are being stretched thinner than ever, but the Budget did nothing to deal with the spiralling cost of living. It is a shocking missed opportunity by a Government who are completely out of touch.

There is an alternative. Rather than just tweak the system, Labour would scrap business rates and replace them with something much better by ensuring online giants pay their fair share. That is what being pro-business looks like. We would not put up national insurance for working people. We would ensure that those with the broadest shoulders pay their fair share. That is what being on the side of working people looks like. We would end the £1.7 billion subsidy that the Government give to private schools and put it straight into our local state schools. That is what being on the side of working families looks like. We would deliver a climate investment pledge of £28 billion every year for the rest of this decade: gigafactories to build batteries for electric vehicles; a thriving hydrogen industry creating jobs in all parts of our country; and retrofitting so that we keep homes warm and get our energy bills down. That is what real action on climate change looks like.

This country deserves better, but it will never get it under this Chancellor, who gives with one hand but takes so much more with the other. What you get with these two is a classic con game, like one of those pickpocketing operations you see in crowded places: the Prime Minister is the front man distracting people with his wild promises, and all the while his Chancellor is dipping his hand in their pockets. It all seems like fun and games until you walk away and find that your purse has been lifted.

But people are getting wise to them. Every month, they feel the pinch. They are tired of the smoke and mirrors. They are tired of the bluster, of the false dawns and of the promises of jam tomorrow. Labour would put working people first, and would use the power of government and the skill of business to ensure that the next generation of quality jobs are created right here in Britain. We would tax fairly, spend wisely and, after a decade of faltering growth, get Britain’s economy firing on all cylinders. That is what a Labour Budget would have done today.

[Mel Stride (Central Devon) (Con)]

I broadly welcome the Budget, which is the first my right hon. Friend the Chancellor has delivered in what we might call the second phase of this crisis, the first phase having been from a sharp contraction in the economy through to the recovery, during which period my right hon. Friend, I think it is fair to say—[Interruption.]

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

Order. One moment. It is too noisy down here. It is not fair —the right hon. Gentleman has to be heard too.

[Mel Stride]

I was saying that in the first phase of this crisis, between the huge contraction in the economy and the recovery that we are now seeing, it is fair to say that my right hon. Friend the Chancellor did a pretty remarkable job to support the jobs market and to support jobs—not without criticism, incidentally, from my Committee, but overall it was a remarkable job.

My right hon. Friend has an even tougher job as he looks to the future, now having to deliver sustainable economic growth and ensure that the public finances are on a sustainable trajectory, as well as meeting all the other objectives the Government rightly have on levelling up, net zero and so on.

--- Later in debate ---

[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

Order. I call the Westminster leader of the Scottish national party, who will be heard without intervention or interruption.

--- Later in debate ---

[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

I hope we can manage the rest of today’s debate without a formal time limit. We have plenty of time, but a great many people wish to contribute. If everyone were to keep to around seven to eight minutes, which is much longer than we have had recently, we will manage without a time limit. That always makes for a much better-flowing debate.

Financial Statement

Baroness Laing of Elderslie Excerpts

Wednesday 27th October 2021 Commons Chamber

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

Before I call the Chancellor of the Exchequer to make his Budget statement, it is my duty to take the unusual step of saying a few words.

As Chairman of Ways and Means, the House knows I chair and have responsibility for the House’s proceedings on the Budget. I share the concern of many Members of this House about the apparent pre-briefing of Budget material to the media before any announcement has been made in this House. I understand the Chancellor’s position, and it is well understood that, for a number of years, elements of the Budget have been pre-briefed to the media on an embargoed basis to aid their coverage, but such pre-briefing, where the embargo makes it clear that the material can be used only after the Chancellor has addressed this House, is rather different from what we have apparently experienced this year, which is the briefing to the media of details of the Budget statement for publication before the statement is delivered.

As Mr Speaker has said, and as all Ministers know, important policy announcements should be made first to Parliament. [Hon. Members: “Resign!”] There should not be shouts of “Resign” from Opposition Members. That is not what we are talking about. We are just talking about courtesy to this House.

Given my responsibilities to the House with regard to the Budget, I must put on record my support for Mr Speaker’s stance on this issue and express a firm hope, which I believe is felt on all sides of the House, that we do not find ourselves in this position again at future Budgets. Chancellor, we are all very much looking forward to hearing the remainder of your announcement, which you are about to make to us. [Hon. Members: “We’ve already heard it!”] Oh no you haven’t. The Chancellor has still to give us the important parts of his Budget.

I remind hon. Members that copies of the Budget resolutions will be available from the Vote Office in Members’ Lobby after the Chancellor’s statement and, of course, online. I also remind hon. Members that we will have good behaviour over the next hour or so. Interventions are not taken during the Chancellor’s statement, nor during the replies on behalf of the Opposition and the SNP.

We will now put aside all the matters we have just addressed and concentrate. I call the Chancellor of the Exchequer to make his Budget statement.

[The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Rishi Sunak)]

Madam Deputy Speaker, I have heard your words and those of Mr Speaker. I have the greatest respect for you both and want to assure you that I have listened very carefully to what you have said. May I also send my best wishes to the Leader of the Opposition? I know that the whole House will join me in doing that.

With your permission, Madam Deputy Speaker, let me turn to today’s Budget. Employment is up, investment is growing, public services are improving, the public finances are stabilising and wages are rising. Today’s Budget delivers a stronger economy for the British people: stronger growth, with the UK recovering faster than our major competitors; stronger public finances, with our debt under control; and stronger employment, with fewer people out of work and more people in work. Growth is up, jobs are up and debt is down. Let there be no doubt: our plan is working.

This Budget is about what this Government are about: investment in a more innovative, high-skilled economy, because that is the only sustainable path to individual prosperity; world-class public services, because they are the common goods from which we all benefit; backing business, because our future cannot be built by the Government alone but must come from the imagination and drive of our entrepreneurs; help for working families with the cost of living, because we will always give people the support they need and the tools to build a better life for themselves; and levelling up, because for too long—far too long—the location of your birth has determined too much of your future, and because the awesome power of opportunity should not be available only to a wealthy few but be the birthright of every child in an independent and prosperous United Kingdom.

Today’s Budget does not draw a line under covid; we have challenging months ahead, and I encourage everyone eligible to get their booster jabs as soon as possible. But today’s Budget does begin the work of preparing for a new economy post covid: the Prime Minister’s economy of higher wages, higher skills and rising productivity, and of strong public services, vibrant communities and safer streets—an economy fit for a new age of optimism, where the only limit to our potential is the effort we are prepared to put in and the sacrifices we are prepared to make. That is the stronger economy of the future, and this Budget is the foundation.

The House will recognise the challenging backdrop of rising inflation. Let me begin by carefully explaining what is happening in our economy and why. Inflation in September was 3.1% and is likely to rise further, with the Office for Budget Responsibility expecting the consumer prices index to average 4% over the next year. The majority of this rise in inflation can be explained by two global forces. First, as economies around the world reopen, demand for goods has increased more quickly than supply chains can meet. Having been shut down for almost a year, it takes time for factories to scale up production, for container ships to move goods to where demand is and for businesses to hire the people they need.

Secondly, global demand for energy has surged at a time when supplies have already been disrupted, putting a strain on prices. In the year to September, the global wholesale price of oil, coal and gas combined has more than doubled.

The pressures caused by supply chains and energy prices will take months to ease. It would be irresponsible for anyone to pretend that we can solve this overnight. I am in regular communication with Finance Ministers around the world and it is clear that these are shared global problems, neither unique to the UK nor possible for us to address on our own. But where the Government can ease these pressures, we will act. To address the driver shortage, the Transport Secretary is introducing temporary visas, tackling testing backlogs and changing cabotage requirements, and is today announcing new funding to improve lorry park facilities. We have already suspended the HGV levy until August, and I can do more today, extending it for a further year until 2023 and freezing vehicle excise duty for heavy goods vehicles.

To help with the cost of living, we have introduced a new £500 million household support fund, and today’s Budget will support working families further.

On our fiscal policy, we will meet our commitments on public services and capital investment, but we will do so keeping in mind the need to control inflation.

Finally, I have written to the Governor of the Bank of England today to reaffirm the Bank’s remit to achieve low and stable inflation. People should be reassured: it has a strong track record in doing so.

I understand that people are concerned about global inflation, but they have a Government here at home ready and willing to act. In a period of global uncertainty, we need to work hard to maintain a strong economy and be responsible with the public finances, and that is what we are doing. I am grateful to the OBR for its work, and I am pleased to say that it now expects our recovery to be quicker. Thanks to this Government’s actions, it forecasts the economy to return to its pre-covid level at the turn of the year—earlier than it thought in March.

Growth this year is revised up from 4% to 6.5%. The OBR then expects the economy to grow by 6% in 2022, and 2.1 %, 1.3% and 1.6% over the next three years. In July last year, at the height of the pandemic, unemployment was expected to peak at 12%.

Today, the OBR expects unemployment to peak at just 5.2%. That means more than 2 million fewer people out of work than previously feared. Wages are rising: compared with those in February 2020, they have grown in real terms by almost 3.5%. I can confirm for the House that the OBR’s forecast for business investment has been revised up over the next five years.

Because of the actions that we took to support our economy, we have been more successful than previously feared in preventing the long-term economic damage of covid.

The OBR has today revised down its scarring assumption from 3% to 2%. In the depths of the worst economic crisis on record, we set out a plan for jobs. It is a plan that was backed by business groups and trade bodies; a plan that has helped millions of people and saved millions of jobs; and a plan that the OBR has today described as “remarkably successful”. Today’s forecasts confirm beyond doubt that our plan for jobs is working.

Disruption in the global economy highlights the importance of strong public finances. Coronavirus left us with borrowing higher than at any time since the second world war. As the Prime Minister reminded us in his conference speech: higher borrowing today is just higher interest rates and even higher taxes tomorrow. We need to strengthen our public finances so that when the next crisis comes, we have the fiscal space to act. Today I am publishing a new charter for budget responsibility. The charter sets out two fiscal rules that will keep this Government on the path of discipline and responsibility. First, underlying public sector net debt, excluding the impact of the Bank of England, must, as a percentage of GDP, be falling. Secondly, in normal times the state should only borrow to invest in our future growth and prosperity. Everyday spending must be paid for through taxation. Both rules must be met by the third year of every forecast period, giving us the flexibility to respond to crises while credibly keeping the public finances under control. These rules are supplemented by targets to spend up to 3% of GDP on capital investment and to keep welfare spending on a sustainable path.

The House will be asked to vote on our charter, giving Members a simple choice—to abandon our fiscal anchor and leave our economy adrift with reckless unfunded pledges, or to vote for what we on the Government side of the House know is the right course: sound public finances and a stronger economy for the British people.

Important as the charter is, our credibility comes as much from what we do as what we say, so I am pleased to tell the House that, because our plan is delivering a stronger economy and because we have taken tough but responsible decisions on the public finances, the OBR reports today that all our fiscal rules have been met. Underlying debt is forecast to be 85.2% of GDP this year, then 85.4% in 2022-23, before peaking at 85.7% in 2023-24. It then falls in the final three years of the forecast, from 85.1% to 83.3%. Borrowing as a percentage of GDP is forecast to fall in every single year, from 7.9% this year to 3.3% next year, then 2.4%, 1.7%, 1.7% and 1.5% in the following years. Borrowing down, debt down: proving once again it is the Conservatives, and only the Conservatives, who can be trusted with taxpayers’ money.

I have made four fiscal judgements in this Budget. First, we will meet our fiscal rules with a margin to protect ourselves against economic risks. That is the responsible decision at a time of increasing global economic uncertainty, when our public finances are twice as sensitive to changes in interest rates as they were before the pandemic and six times as sensitive as they were before the financial crisis. Just a one percentage point increase in inflation and interest rates would cost us around £23 billion. My second judgment today is to continue to support working families.

Thirdly, as well as helping people at home, our improving fiscal position means that we will meet our obligations to the world’s poorest. I told the House that when we met our fiscal tests, we would return to spending 0.7% of our national income on overseas aid. Some people said this was a trick or a device. I told this House that it was no such thing, and based on the tests that I set out, today’s forecasts show that we are, in fact, scheduled to return to 0.7% in 2024-25—before the end of this Parliament.

My fourth fiscal judgment is this: today’s Budget increases total departmental spending over this Parliament by £150 billion. That is the largest increase this century, with spending growing by 3.8% a year in real terms. As a result of this spending review, and contrary to speculation, there will be a real-terms rise in overall spending for every single Department, and public sector net investment as a share of GDP will be at the highest sustained level for nearly half a century. If anyone still doubts it, today’s Budget confirms it: the Conservatives are the real party of public services.

Our stronger economy lays the foundation for everything that we want to achieve in today’s Budget: world class public services and more investment in our future growth. Before I turn to the details, I would like to thank the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, my right hon. Friend the Member for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland (Mr Clarke). Completing the spending review in such challenging circumstances was a tall order—and thankfully we had just the man for the job.

At the start of this Parliament, resource spending on healthcare was £133 billion. Today’s spending review confirms that by the end of this Parliament it will increase by £44 billion to over £177 billion; and the extra revenue we are forecast to raise from the health and social care levy is going direct to the NHS and social care as promised. The health capital budget will be the largest since 2010: record investment in health R&D, including better newborn screening, as campaigned for by my hon. Friend the Member for Cities of London and Westminster (Nickie Aiken); 40 new hospitals; 70 hospital upgrades; more operating theatres to tackle the backlog; and 100 community diagnostic centres, all staffed by a bigger, better-trained workforce, with 50,000 more nurses and 50 million more primary care appointments. As well as funding to deliver the Prime Minister’s historic reforms to social care, we are providing local government with new grant funding over the next three years of £4.8 billion—the largest increase in core funding for over a decade.

We are investing more in housing and home ownership too, with a multi-year housing settlement totalling nearly £24 billion—£11.5 billion to build up to 180,000 new affordable homes, the largest cash investment in a decade, 20% more than the previous programme. We are investing an extra £1.8 billion—enough to bring 1,500 hectares of brownfield land into use, meet our commitment to invest £10 billion in new housing, and unlock 1 million new homes. We are also confirming £5 billion to remove unsafe cladding from the highest risk buildings, partly funded by the residential property developers tax, which I can confirm will be levied on developers with profits over £25 million at a rate of 4%. We have already reduced rough sleeping by over a third, but we will go further, with £640 million a year for rough sleeping and homelessness—an 85% increase in funding compared to 2019.

Today’s Budget funds our ambition to recruit 20,000 new police officers; provides an extra £2.2 billion for courts, prisons and probation services, including £0.5 billion to reduce the courts backlog; pays for programmes to tackle neighbourhood crime, reoffending, county lines, violence against women and girls, victims’ services and improved responses to rape cases; and, over the next three years, commits £3.8 billion to the largest prison-building programme in a generation.

All Governments should aspire to provide greater life chances for future generations, but few Governments can match our ambition. So let me now turn to what this Budget does to support children. The evidence is compelling that the first 1,001 days of a child’s life are the most important. My right hon. Friend the Member for South Northamptonshire (Dame Andrea Leadsom) has recognised this with her inspirational report. We are responding today with £300 million for a start for life offer for families; high-quality parenting programmes; tailored services to help with perinatal mental health; and, I am pleased to tell my hon. Friend the Member for Congleton (Fiona Bruce), funding to create a network of family hubs around the country too. To improve the quality of childcare, we are going to pay providers more, with today’s spending review providing an extra £170 million by 2024-25. We are confirming £150 million to support training and development for the entire early years workforce. To help up to 300,000 more families facing multiple needs, we are investing an extra £200 million in the supporting families programme, and we will provide over £200 million a year to continue the holiday activities and food programme.

Today’s spending review also delivers our commitment to schools, with an extra £4.7 billion by 2024-25, which, combined with the ambitious plans we announced at spending review 2019, will restore per-pupil funding to 2010 levels in real terms, equivalent to a cash increase for every pupil of more than £1,500. For children with special educational needs and disabilities, we are more than tripling the amount we invest to create 30,000 new school places. We know that the pandemic caused significant disruption to children’s learning. We have already announced £3.1 billion to help education recovery. Today, as promised by the Prime Minister and the Education Secretary, we will go further, with just under £2 billion of new funding to help schools and colleges, bringing this Government’s total support for education recovery to almost £5 billion.

As we level up public services, we are also levelling up communities, restoring the pride people feel in the places they call home. To do that, we are providing £560 million for youth services, enough to fund up to 300 youth clubs in England; over £200 million to build or transform up to 8,000 state-of-the-art community football pitches across the UK; and funding to turn over 100 areas of derelict land into new “pocket parks”.

I am allocating the first round of bids from the levelling up fund—£1.7 billion to invest in the infrastructure of everyday life in over 100 local areas. With £170 million in Scotland, £120 million in Wales, and £50 million in Northern Ireland—more than their Barnett shares—this will benefit the whole United Kingdom. We are backing projects in Aberdeen, Bury, Burnley, Lewes, Clwyd South, and not one, not two, but three successful projects for the great city of Stoke-on-Trent. But that is not all. We are also going to fund projects in Ashton-under-Lyne, Doncaster, South Leicester, Sunderland and West Leeds. We are so committed to levelling up, we are even levelling up the Opposition Front Bench.

Levelling up is also about protecting our unique culture and heritage. The British Museum; Tate Liverpool; the York Railway Museum: we are investing £850 million to protect museums, galleries, libraries, and local culture. Thanks to the Culture Secretary, over 100 regional museums and libraries will be renovated, restored and revived; and she has secured up to £2 million to start work on a new Beatles attraction on the Liverpool waterfront. We are also going to review our museum freedoms and make our creative tax reliefs more generous. On current plans, the tax relief for museums and galleries is due to end in March next year, just as exhibitions are starting to tour again, so I have decided to extend it for two years to March 2024. To support theatres, orchestras, museums and galleries to recover from covid, the tax reliefs for all those sectors, from today until April 2023, will be doubled, and they will not return to the normal rate until April 2024. That is a tax relief for culture worth almost a quarter of a billion pounds.

This is a Budget for the whole United Kingdom. Through the Barnett formula, today’s decisions increase Scottish Government funding, in each year, by an average of £4.6 billion, Welsh Government funding by £2.5 billion, and £1.6 billion for the Northern Ireland Executive. This delivers, in real terms, the largest block grants for the devolved Administrations since the devolution settlements of 1998. The whole of the United Kingdom will benefit from the UK shared prosperity fund, and over time we will ramp up funding so that total domestic UK-wide funding will match EU receipts, averaging around £1.5 billion a year. We will fund projects across the UK, including funding for the Extreme E race in Scotland—the 2022 Hebrides X-Prix—accelerating funding for the Cardiff city region deal in Wales, and funding in Northern Ireland for community cohesion. While today demonstrates the indisputable fiscal benefit of being part of the United Kingdom, this is and always will be secondary to the simple truth that we are bound together by more than transactional benefit. It is our collective history, our culture and our security. We are, and always will be, one family and one United Kingdom.

While today’s Budget delivers historically high levels of public spending, its success will be measured not by the billions we spend, but by the outcomes we achieve and the difference we make to people’s lives. The budgets are set; the plans are in place; the task is clear. Now we must deliver because this is not the Government’s money—it is taxpayer’s money.

Our stronger economy allows us to fund world-class public services—the people’s priority—but over the long-term, the only way to pay for higher spending is economic growth. If we want to see higher growth, we have to tackle the problem that has been holding back this country for far too long: our uneven economic geography. As we come out of the worst economic shock we have ever seen, we have a choice—to retrench, or to invest. This Government choose to invest: to invest in our economic infrastructure, to invest in innovation, to invest in skills and to invest in a plan for growth that builds a stronger economy for the future. That is what this Budget is about and that is what this Government are about.

Infrastructure connects our country, drives productivity and levels up. That is why our national infrastructure strategy invests in economic infrastructure such as roads, railways, broadband and mobile—over £130 billion. To connect our towns and cities, we are investing £21 billion on roads and £46 billion on railways. Our integrated rail plan will be published soon, dramatically improving journey times between our towns and cities. Today, we are providing £5.7 billion for London-style transport settlements in Greater Manchester, the Liverpool city region, the Tees Valley, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, the west midlands and the west of England. We are helping local transport everywhere with £2.6 billion for a long-term pipeline of more than 50 local roads upgrades, over £5 billion for local roads maintenance—enough to fill 1 million more potholes a year—and funding for buses, cycling and walking totalling more than £5 billion. The Prime Minister promised an infrastructure revolution. This Budget delivers an infrastructure revolution.

Investment in our infrastructure is just the first step. We need to do what the people of this country have always done: invent, discover, and create the ideas and technologies that will change the world. So we will also invest more in innovation. The UK is already a world leader. With less than 1% of the world’s population, we have four of the world’s top 20 universities, 14% of the world’s most impactful research and the second most Nobel laureates. We want to go further. I can confirm we will maintain our target to increase research and development investment to £22 billion. But in order to get there, and deliver on our other priorities, we will reach the target in 2026-27, spending, by the end of this Parliament, £20 billion a year on R&D. That is a cash increase of 50%—the fastest increase ever. I can confirm for the House that this £20 billion is in addition to the cost of our R&D tax reliefs. Combined with those tax reliefs, total public investment in R&D is increasing from 0.7% of GDP in 2018 to 1.1% of GDP by the end of the Parliament.

How does 1.1% compare internationally? Well, the latest available data shows an OECD average of just 0.7%. Germany is investing 0.9%, France 1% and the United States just 0.7%. This unprecedented funding will: increase core science funding to £5.9 billion a year by 2024-25, a cash increase of 37%; meet the full costs of associating with Horizon Europe; establish the new Advanced Research and Invention Agency with £800 million by 2025-26; and strengthen our focus on late-stage innovation, increasing Innovate UK’s annual core budget to £1 billion, double what it was at the start of the Parliament.

There is more to becoming a science superpower than just what the Government spend on R&D. Our ambitious net zero strategy is also an innovation strategy, investing £30 billion to create the new green industries of the future. We have just issued our second green bond, making us the third-largest issuer of sovereign green bonds anywhere in the world. London last week was named the best place in the world for green finance. On Monday, the new UK Infrastructure Bank announced its first ever investment: £107 million to support offshore wind in Teesside. To build on this work, one week today I will be hosting global finance ministers and businesses at COP26.

Innovation comes from the imagination, drive and risk-taking of business. That is why we have launched Help to Grow to turbocharge SME productivity and started a new co-investment venture capital fund, Future Fund: Breakthrough. It is why I am announcing today that we will consult on further changes to the regulatory charge cap for pensions schemes, unlocking institutional investment while protecting savers. It is why we are introducing a new £1.4 billion global Britain investment fund, supporting transformative economic activity in our world-leading sectors, such as life sciences. It is why today’s Budget increases the British Business Bank’s regional financing programmes to £1.6 billion, expanding their coverage and helping innovative businesses get access to the finance they need, across the whole United Kingdom.

A third of our science Nobel laureates have been immigrants. Half of our fastest growing companies have a foreign-born founder. So an economy built on innovation must be open and attractive to the best and brightest minds. Thanks to our brilliant Home Secretary, today’s Budget confirms the eligibility criteria for our new scale-up visa, making it quicker and easier for fast-growing businesses to bring in highly skilled individuals. The Trade Secretary’s new global talent network, launching initially in the Bay Area, Boston and Bangalore, will identify, attract and relocate the best global talent in science and tech sectors. It is all part of our plan to make our visa system for international talent the most competitive in the world.

If we want greater private sector innovation, we need to make our research and development tax reliefs fit for purpose. The latest figures show the UK has the second highest spending on R&D tax reliefs in the OECD. Yet it is not working as well as it should; UK business investment in R&D is less than half the OECD average. We have reviewed the reliefs and identified two issues we are solving today. First, the reliefs need to reflect how businesses conduct research in the modern world. So, as many companies have called for, I am expanding the scope of the reliefs to include cloud computing and data costs.

The second problem is this: companies claimed UK tax relief on £48 billion of R&D spending, yet UK business investment was around half of that, at just £26 billion. We are subsidising billions of pounds of R&D that is not even happening here in the United Kingdom. That is unfair on British taxpayers and it puts us out of step with places like Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland and the USA, which have all focused their R&D tax reliefs on domestic activity. So from April 2023, we are going to do the same, and incentivise greater investment here at home. So a £22-billion investment in R&D, the net zero strategy, the future fund, Help to Grow, more regional finance, unlocking institutional capital, a more competitive visa system and a modernised R&D tax credits regime—enough action to prove the hypothesis that we are making this country a science and technology superpower.

As well as investing in infrastructure and innovation, there is one further part of our plan for growth that is crucial: providing a world-class education to all our people. Higher skills lead to higher regional productivity and higher productivity leads to higher wages. With 80% of the UK’s 2030 workforce already in work, our future success depends on not just the schooling we give our children but the lifelong learning we offer to adults.

We have already done a lot. Our plan for jobs invested in apprenticeships, traineeships and the kickstart scheme, but we need to go further. Today’s Budget invests in the most wide-ranging skills agenda this country has seen in decades. We are increasing skills spending over the Parliament by £3.8 billion—an increase of 42%. We are expanding T-levels, building institutes of technology, rolling out the Prime Minister’s lifetime skills guarantee, upgrading our further education college estate, quadrupling the number of places on skills bootcamps and significantly increasing funding for apprenticeships.

We are also going to tackle a tragic fact: millions of adults in our country have numeracy skills lower than those expected of a nine-year-old. According to the leading charity National Numeracy, this costs individuals with poor numeracy up to £1,600 a year in lost earnings. People with poor numeracy skills are more than twice as likely to be unemployed as their peers. So today, I can announce a new UK-wide numeracy programme: Multiply. With £560 million, Multiply will improve basic maths skills and help to change people’s lives across the whole United Kingdom.

So we are building our infrastructure with new roads, railways and broadband; cementing our status as a science and technology superpower; and strengthening the skills of our people, the country’s greatest asset. That is a real plan for growth and that is how this Government are building a stronger economy for the British people.

World class public services are the people’s priority. Investment in infrastructure, innovation and skills will create the growth that we need to pay for them. But as Conservatives, we know that Government action alone will not be enough to create a stronger economy. We want this country to be the most exciting and dynamic place in the world for business. Now that we have left the EU, we have the freedom to do things differently and deliver a simpler, fairer tax system.

I want to begin with one of our smallest taxes, but a tax that plays an important role in one of our pre-eminent industries: shipping. Now that we have left the EU, today we start reforming our tonnage tax regime to make it simpler and more competitive. And we are also making it fairer for UK taxpayers.

When we were in the old EU system, ships in the tonnage tax regime were required to fly the flag of an EU state, but that does not make sense for an independent nation. So I can announce today that our tonnage tax will, for the first time ever, reward companies for adopting the UK’s merchant shipping flag, the red ensign. That is entirely fitting for a country with such a proud maritime history as ours. I am sure that the Opposition will be delighted that red flags are still flying somewhere in this country, even if they are all at sea.

Let me turn now to air passenger duty. Right now, people pay more for return flights within and between the four nations of the United Kingdom than they do when flying home from abroad. We used to have a return-leg exemption for domestic flights, but we were required to remove it in 2001. But today I can announce that flights between airports in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will, from April 2023, be subject to a new lower rate of air passenger duty. This will help to cut the cost of living, with 9 million passengers seeing their duty cut by half; it will bring people together across the United Kingdom; and because they tend to have a greater proportion of domestic passengers, it is a boost to regional airports like Aberdeen, Belfast, Inverness and Southampton.

Airports are major regional employers, so to help them get through the winter I am also extending our support for English airports for a further six months. We are also making changes to reduce carbon emissions from aviation. Most emissions come from international rather than domestic aviation, so we are introducing, from April 2023, a new ultra-long-haul band in air passenger duty covering flights of over 5,500 miles, with an economy rate of £91. Less than 5% of passengers will pay more, but those who fly furthest will pay the most.

Our approach to corporate taxation strikes a responsible balance between funding public services and encouraging the investment we need for a stronger economy. At the March Budget, we took the difficult but necessary decision to increase the rate of corporation tax to 25% from 2023, which is still the lowest rate in the G7 and the fifth lowest rate in the G20. Alongside, I introduced the new super deduction—the biggest business tax cut in modern British history—and extended, to the end of this year, the annual investment allowance at its higher level of £1 million. Now is not the time to remove tax breaks on investment, so I can confirm today that the £1 million annual investment allowance will not end in December as planned. It will be extended all the way to March 2023.

I also said in March that I would review the bank surcharge within corporation tax to maintain the competitiveness of our financial services industry. We will retain a surcharge of 3%. The overall rate for corporation tax on banks will, in 2023, increase from 27% to 28% and will remain higher than the rate paid by other companies. Small challenger banks are improving banking competition, which is good for the sector and good for consumers, so to help them, I will also raise the annual allowance to £100 million.

Our manifesto promised to review business rates. We are publishing our conclusions today. Before I set out our plans, let me say this: we on the Conservative Benches are clear that reckless, unfunded promises to abolish a tax that raises £25 billion every year are completely irresponsible. It would be wrong to find £25 billion a year in extra borrowing, cuts to public services or tax rises elsewhere, so we will retain business rates, but with key reforms to ease the burden and create stronger high streets.

First, we will make the business rates system fairer and timelier with more frequent revaluations every three years. The new revaluation cycle will be delivered from 2023. Secondly, as called for by the Federation of Small Businesses and the British Property Federation, we are introducing a new investment relief to encourage businesses to adopt green technologies such as solar panels.

I am announcing today that we will accept the CBI and the British Retail Consortium’s recommendation to introduce a new business rates improvement relief. From 2023, every single business will be able to make property improvements and, for 12 months, pay no extra business rates. That means that a hotel adding extra rooms, a manufacturer expanding their factory, and an office adding new air conditioning, CCTV or bike shelters will all pay no extra rates.

Together with the new green investment relief, we are introducing investment incentives totalling £750 million. This will make a difference, but without action, millions of businesses would see their tax bills going up next year because of inflation. I want to help those businesses right now, so our third step is that next year’s planned increase in the multiplier will be cancelled. That is a tax cut for businesses worth, over the next five years, £4.6 billion.

I have one final measure to help those businesses hardest hit by the pandemic. I am announcing today, for one year, a new 50% business rates discount for businesses in the retail, hospitality, and leisure sectors: pubs, music venues, cinemas, restaurants, hotels, theatres and gyms. Any eligible business can claim a discount on their bills of 50%, up to a maximum of £110,000. That is a business tax cut worth almost £1.7 billion. Together with small business rates relief, this means that over 90% of all retail, hospitality and leisure businesses will see a discount of at least 50%. Apart from the covid reliefs, this is the biggest single-year cut to business rates in over 30 years. Taken together, today’s Budget cuts business rates by £7 billion.

We are unleashing the dynamism and creativity of British businesses with a simpler, fairer and more competitive tax system: the biggest business tax cut in modern British history; the biggest single-year cut to business rates for 30 years; a £1 million investment allowance; tonnage tax reformed; air passenger duty cut. That is the way to back business and build a stronger economy.

Let me turn now to alcohol duties. First introduced in 1643 to help pay for the civil war, our alcohol duty system is outdated, complex and full of historical anomalies. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has called it “a mess”; the Institute of Economic Affairs said that it “defies common sense”; and the World Health Organisation has warned that countries such as the UK which follow the EU rules are:

“unable to implement tax systems that are optimal from the perspective of public health.”

So today, we are taking advantage of leaving the EU to announce the most radical simplification of alcohol duties for over 140 years. We are taking five steps today to create a system that is simpler, fairer, and healthier.

First, to radically simplify the system, we are slashing the number of main duty rates from 15 to just six. Our new system will be designed around a common-sense principle: the stronger the drink, the higher the rate. This means that some drinks, like stronger red wines, fortified wines and high-strength white ciders will see a small increase in their rates because they are currently undertaxed, given their strength. That is the right thing to do, and it will help to end the era of cheap, high-strength drinks which can harm public health and enable problem drinking. Because this is a more rational system, the converse is also true: many lower-alcohol drinks are currently overtaxed—and have been for many decades. Rosé, fruit ciders, liqueurs, lower strength beers and wines—today’s changes mean that they will pay less.

The second step I am taking today will encourage small, innovative craft producers: I am announcing proposals for a new small producer relief. This will extend the principle of the small brewers relief to include for the first time ever small cider makers and other producers making alcoholic drinks of less strength than 8.5%.

Thirdly, I am going to modernise the system to reflect the way people drink today. Over the last decade, consumption of sparkling wines like prosecco has doubled. English sparkling wine alone has increased almost tenfold. It is clear they are no longer the preserve of wealthy elites, and they are no stronger than still wines. So I am going to end the irrational duty premium of 28% that they currently pay. Sparkling wines, wherever they are produced, will now pay the same duty as still wines of equivalent strength. Because growing conditions in the UK typically favour lower-strength and sparkling wines, this means English and Welsh wines, compared with stronger imported wines, will now pay less. Sales of fruit cider have increased from one in a thousand ciders sold in 2005 to one in four today, but they can pay two or three times as much duty as cider made with apples or pears, so we are cutting the duty on them too.

The fourth step I am taking today would directly support the home of British community life for centuries: our pubs. Even before the pandemic, pubs were struggling: between 2000 and 2019, consumption in the on-trade fell by 40%. Many public health bodies recognise that pubs are often safer drinking environments than being at home. As my hon. Friends the Members for Dudley South (Mike Wood) and for North West Durham (Mr Holden) will agree, a fairer, healthier system supports pubs, so I can announce today draught relief.

Draught relief will apply a new lower rate of duty on draught beer and cider. It will apply to drinks served from draught containers over 40 litres. It will particularly benefit community pubs that do 75% of their trade on draught. Let me tell the House the new rate: draught relief will cut duty by 5%. That is the biggest cut to cider duty since 1923; the biggest cut to fruit ciders in a generation; the biggest cut to beer duty for 50 years. This is not temporary. It is a long-term investment in British pubs of £100 million a year and a permanent cut in the cost of a pint of 3p. I cannot wait for the Opposition to accuse me tomorrow of beer-barrel politics.

These much needed reforms will come into effect in February 2023, but I want to help the hospitality industry right now, so for my final announcement on alcohol duties today, I can confirm that the planned increases in duty on spirits like Scotch whisky, wine, cider and beer will all, from midnight tonight, be cancelled. That is a tax cut worth £3 billion.

Our reforms make the alcohol duty system simpler, fairer and healthier; they help with the cost of living while tackling problem drinking; they support innovative entrepreneurs and craft producers; they back pubs and public health; and they are only possible because we have left the European Union.

World-class public services; investment in infrastructure, innovation, and skills; simpler, fairer taxes to support businesses and consumers: all built on the foundation of a stronger economy and responsible public finances. That is our vision for the future and that is what this Budget delivers.

This Budget also supports working families. With fuel prices at the highest level in eight years, I am not prepared to add to the squeeze on families and small businesses, so I can confirm today that the planned rise in fuel duty will be cancelled. That is a saving over the next five years of almost £8 billion. Compared to pre-2010 plans, today’s freeze means the average tank of fuel will cost around £15 less per car; £30 less for vans; and £130 less for HGVs. After 12 consecutive years of frozen rates, the average car driver will now save a total of £1,900.

I can also announce today that public sector workers will see fair and affordable pay rises across the whole spending review period as we return to the normal, independent pay-setting process, and I can take action to help the lowest paid as well. It was a Conservative Government who introduced the national living wage in 2016, a Conservative Government who, according to statistics published just yesterday, have overseen the proportion of people in low-paid work falling to its lowest level since 1997, and it is a Conservative Government who are increasing the wage floor again today. The independent Low Pay Commission brings together economists, business groups and trade unions. The Government are accepting its recommendation to increase the national living wage next year by 6.6%, to £9.50 an hour. For a full-time worker that is a pay rise worth over £1,000. It will benefit over 2 million of the lowest paid workers in the country, it is broadly consistent with previous increases, it keeps us on track for our target of two thirds of median earnings by 2024, and it is a major commitment to the high-wage, high-skill, high-productivity economy of the future.

As we build this stronger economy, we are doing so at the end of an extraordinary 18 months. Covid was not just a public health challenge and an economic challenge—it was a moral challenge, too. We had to show we could pull together as a country, and we did. We had to put aside questions of ideology and orthodoxy to do whatever it took to care for our people and each other, and we did.

There is a different moral dimension to the economic challenge we face now. Last year, the state grew to be over half the size of the total economy, and taxes are rising to their highest level as a percentage of GDP since the 1950s. I do not like it, but I cannot apologise for it: it is the result of the unprecedented crisis we faced and the extraordinary action we took in response. But now we have a choice: do we want to live in a country where the response to every question is “What are the Government going to do about it?”, where every time prices rise, every time a company gets in trouble, every time some new challenge emerges, the answer is always that the taxpayer must pay? Or do we choose to recognise that Government has limits?

Government should have limits. If this seems a controversial statement to make, then I am all the more glad for saying it because that means it needed saying. And it is what we believe. There is a reason we talk about the importance of family, community and personal responsibility. We do so not because these are an alternative to the market or the state, but because they are more important than the market or the state. The moments that make life worth living are not created by Government, are not announced by Government, are not granted by Government: they come from us as people—our choices, our sacrifices, our efforts—and we believe people should keep more of the rewards of those efforts. Yes, we have taken some corrective action to fund the NHS and get our debt under control, but as we look towards the future I want to say this simple thing to the House and the British people: my goal is to reduce taxes. By the end of this Parliament, I want taxes to be going down, not up. I want this to be a society that rewards energy, ingenuity and inventiveness, a society that rewards work. That is what we believe on this side of the House. That is my mission over the remainder of this Parliament.

The final announcement in today’s Budget takes a first step. For many of the lowest paid in society there is a hidden tax on work: the universal credit taper withdraws support as people work more hours. The rate is currently 63%, so for every £1 someone earns, their universal credit is reduced by 63p. Let us be in no doubt: this is a tax on work—and a high rate of tax at that. Organisations as varied as the Trades Union Congress, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the Resolution Foundation, the Centre for Policy Studies, and the Centre for Social Justice have all said it is too high. So, to make sure work pays and help some of the lowest-income families in our country to keep more of their hard-earned money, I have decided to cut this rate, not by 1%, not by 2%, but by 8%. This—[Hon. Members: “Hear, hear.”] This is a tax on working people and we are cutting it from 63% to 55%, the rate originally envisaged by my right hon. Friend the Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith). And because I am also increasing the work allowances by £500, this is a tax cut next year worth over £2 billion. Nearly 2 million families will keep on average an extra £1,000 a year. Changes like this normally take effect at the start of the new tax year in April, but we want to help people right now, so we will introduce this within weeks and no later than 1 December.

Let me tell the House what these changes mean. A single mother of two renting and working full-time on the national living wage will be better off by around £1,200. A couple renting a home with their two children, one parent working full-time, the other working part-time, will be better off every single year by £1,800. This is a £2 billion tax cut for the lowest paid workers in our country. It supports working families, it helps with the cost of living and it rewards work.

So, fuel duty cut, air passenger duty cut, alcohol duty cut, the biggest cut to business rates in 30 years, growth up, jobs up, wages up, public finances back in a better place, more investment in infrastructure, innovation and skills, a pay rise for over 2 million people, and a £2 billion tax cut for the lowest paid. This Budget helps with the cost of living. This Budget levels up to a higher-wage, higher-skill, higher-productivity economy. This Budget builds a stronger economy for the British people. I commend it to the House.

Provisional Collection of Taxes

Motion made, and Question put forthwith (Standing Order No. 51(2)),

That, pursuant to section 5 of the Provisional Collection of Taxes Act 1968, provisional statutory effect shall be given to the following motions:—

(a) Returns for disposals of UK land etc (motion No. 19);

(b) Diverted profits tax (closure notices etc) (motion No. 24);

(c) Rates of tobacco products duty (motion No. 39);

(d) Vehicle excise duty (exemption for cabotage operations) (motion No. 41).—(Rishi Sunak.)

Question agreed to.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

We now come to the motion entitled “Income Tax (Charge)”. It is on this motion that the debate will take place today and on succeeding days. The Questions on this motion and the remaining motions will be put at the end of the Budget debate on Tuesday 2 November. I call the Chancellor of the Exchequer to move the motion formally.

Brexit: Opportunities

Baroness Laing of Elderslie Excerpts

Thursday 16th September 2021 Commons Chamber

[Emily Thornberry (Islington South and Finsbury) (Lab)]

Let me begin by welcoming the Paymaster General to his new role. I thank him for advance sight of his statement. In fact, I imagine he had about as much advance sight of it as I did—11.40? However, I sympathise with him, not just for being thrown into this particular deep end, but for the title that was given to him for today’s statement.

Before I go into that, let me say that the proposals that the Paymaster General has mentioned will demand careful consideration once we have been able to examine the detail. For example, he mentioned the recent Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport proposals for reform of the data regime. If they are anything to go by, every measure in that package will need to be carefully considered, not just on its own merits but for the implications for our trading relationship with Europe. There was also reference in the statement to GMOs, research and development, vehicle standards and artificial intelligence, and all kinds of other things may be hidden in the huge category of law that has yet to be reviewed. We will come back to this, I have no doubt.

Let me return to the title of the statement: “Brexit: Opportunities”. That is the title, yet the country faces continuing shortages of staff and supplies, exacerbated by the Government’s Brexit deal, while businesses across the country face mounting losses in trade with Europe directly caused by the Government’s Brexit deal, and the people of Northern Ireland remain stuck in limbo as the Government refuse to implement the Brexit deal that they negotiated. Into all that, along comes the new Paymaster General to talk about all the wonderful opportunities that await us because of the marvellous Brexit deal, which is working so well at present. If he will excuse the unkind metaphor on the first day of his new job, it is a bit like the Pudding Lane baker strolling around the great fire of London asking people running for their lives if they have any orders for Christmas.

On the issue of opportunities, I will happily have a debate with the Paymaster General, whenever he wants to have one, about how the Government are wasting the opportunities of Brexit when it comes to the lack of ambition and innovation in both the roll-over trade deals they agreed last year and the new negotiations that they have begun since. I will happily have a debate, too, whenever he wants to have one, on the merits of the Government’s strategy to downgrade trade with Europe in favour of trade with Asia, on the fantastical basis that we can make up all the losses our exporters are facing in their trade with the EU through the gains that we will make through trade with the Asia-Pacific. The flagship policy of that strategy is the UK’s accession to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which, according to the Government’s own figures, will produce a £1.7 billion increase in UK exports to those Asia-Pacific countries over a 15-year period. That is roughly a third of what we exported to Luxembourg last year alone—the covid-affected year.

I will happily debate that strategy with the Paymaster General on another day, but what I want to focus on today, and what I urge him to focus on in the new role he has been given, is not the imagined opportunities of Brexit that might happen in the next year, two years or five years, but the real practicalities that need sorting out today—the holes that need fixing in our deal with Europe to support British businesses through this period of economic recovery and resolve the impasse in Northern Ireland.

Can the Paymaster General tell us where we stand on the Government’s efforts to secure mutual recognition of professional qualifications and regulatory equivalence for financial services, so that our key growth industries in the professional and financial sectors can get back to doing busines in Europe with the speed and simplicity that they enjoyed before Brexit? Can he tell us where the Government stand in their efforts to seek mutual recognition of conformity assessments to remove the double testing of products that is costing our key industries both time and money? Can he tell us not just what the latest plan is to kick the can down the road in Northern Ireland, but how we are going to reach a sustainable and permanent solution?

On that note, may I ask the Paymaster General to clear up one specific mystery, which relates to the Cabinet Office? In March last year, without publicity and without an open consultation, the Cabinet Office and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs paid McKinsey consultants £1 million for eight weeks’ work to provide

“the most effective solutions to ensure food security and choice is maintained for consumers in Northern Ireland”

after checks on GB-NI goods were introduced. My question to the Paymaster General is this: if the best brains at McKinsey were given two months and £1 million by the Government to examine that problem and come up with a solution, what is the answer that they provided? Is the reality that they, like the Government, have no better alternative solution than a veterinary agreement—the solution that businesses want, the solution that the EU says would work, the solution that every Opposition party in this House supports, but the solution that Ministers are refusing to consider?

That brings me to my final question—the great unanswered question when it comes to Brexit practicalities, which I hope the Paymaster General will not try to evade as so many of his predecessors have. When Lord Frost was asked on 24 June why he would not pursue the option, even in the short term, of a veterinary agreement with the European Union to resolve many of the problems at the border, he said:

“We’re very ambitious about TPP membership, so…it might turn out to be quite short term. That’s the problem.”

Can the Paymaster General answer two questions? First, why do the Government believe—

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

Order. Just before the right hon. Lady asks any more questions, let me say that she has significantly exceeded her time. I know that we are in a bit of flux, so I will allow her to finish, but I hope that she and others will note that keeping to time is important as a courtesy to others.

[Emily Thornberry]

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker.

The questions I want to ask are these. First, why do the Government believe that signing a veterinary agreement with the EU is incompatible with their ambitions to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership? Secondly, if the answer is that joining the comprehensive and progressive agreement for trans-Pacific partnership requires them to diverge from EU standards in relation to food safety, which is the only logical explanation for the comments that Lord Frost has made, can the Paymaster General tell us which specific standards they plan to diverge from?

I urge the Paymaster General, in his first appearance in his new position, to come out of the fantasy world that his predecessors have been living in together with Lord Frost and join us in the real world, together with Britain’s business community—the world of delays and shortages, red tape and bureaucracy, lost business and lost trade. It is a world that demands sensible answers and practical action from the Cabinet Office, not just another Minister addicted to dogma and wishful thinking.

Health and Social Care Levy Bill

Baroness Laing of Elderslie Excerpts

Committee stage & 3rd reading
Tuesday 14th September 2021 Commons Chamber

[Richard Burgon]

I had actually finished my remarks, but I would be happy to take this up with the hon. Gentleman on another occasion if he so wishes.

[The Chairman of Ways and Means (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

I have to say I was not quite sure about that. I thought that the hon. Member for Leeds East (Richard Burgon) had finished, but the hon. Member for North West Durham (Mr Holden) nevertheless managed to make his intervention. He may indeed have wanted more, but the hon. Member for Leeds East read the mood of the House very well.

[Sir Christopher Chope]

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Leeds East (Richard Burgon). He talked about alternatives, and perhaps I can throw out a possible alternative that he might think reasonable. Why should the very rich have unrestricted access to a free NHS?



Whenever that is raised by Conservative Members, Opposition Members object to the idea and say that it would undermine the principles of the NHS. I do not expect him to answer that question, but I throw it out there because it is another alternative that could be considered.

--- Later in debate ---

[Jesse Norman]

It is very hard for me to comment on such a remote hypothetical, but the fact of the matter is, as the Prime Minister said, no political party had a pandemic in their manifesto and we have to deal with the situation—

[The Chairman of Ways and Means (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

Order. I would be grateful if the Minister would address the Chair.

[Jesse Norman]

I am so sorry, Dame Eleanor. I am rightly chastised and thank you for that point.

My hon. Friend the Member for Christchurch asked why the Barnett formula applies and what will happen once it is abolished, but once again he takes the Committee to the outer reaches of speculation. The fact is that it does apply and it has thoroughly beneficial effects for the devolved Administrations as regards this piece of legislation.

With that, I ask those who have tabled amendments and new clauses to withdraw them. I commend the Bill to the House.

Question put and agreed to.

Clause 1 accordingly ordered to stand part of the Bill.

Clause 2

Destination of proceeds of health and social care levy

Amendment proposed: 4, page 2, line 29, leave out from “as” to end of line 30 and insert “determined jointly by the Treasury and the devolved governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.”

The amendment would require joint agreement between the Treasury and the governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as to how the levy proceeds are to be shared between the four areas and between health care and social care.—(Alison Thewliss.)

Question put, That the amendment be made.

Northern Ireland Protocol

Baroness Laing of Elderslie Excerpts

Thursday 15th July 2021 Commons Chamber

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

Before I call the hon. Member for Harwich and North Essex (Sir Bernard Jenkin), I have to make a short statement about the sub judice resolution, which repeats the position taken on these matters yesterday.

Mr Speaker has been advised that there are active legal proceedings on the legality of the Northern Ireland protocol and active legal proceedings and open inquests in relation to historic troubles-related deaths. I am exercising the discretion given to the Chair in respect of the resolution on matters sub judice to allow full reference to the challenge to the Northern Ireland protocol as it concerns issues of national importance. Further, I am exercising that discretion to allow limited reference to active legal proceedings and open inquests in relation to historic troubles-related deaths. However, references to these cases should be limited to the context and the events which led to the cases but should not include details of the cases themselves nor the names of those involved in them. All hon. Members should, however, be mindful of matters that may be the subject of future legal proceedings and should exercise caution in making reference to individual cases.

--- Later in debate ---

[Sir Bernard Jenkin]

My right hon. Friend puts down an important marker. We can dismiss any idea that the United Kingdom as a whole is not interested in the interests of Northern Ireland or in Northern Ireland remaining part of the United Kingdom. That is an established fact and he has dealt with that very capably.

In conclusion, the world is watching how the EU is dealing with the United Kingdom. The UK will offer agreement on what the problems are and how they must be resolved. Together, the EU and the UK can look for common ground about how to do so; otherwise the rest of the world will see that the grounds for invoking article 16 have indeed already been met, and action will have to be taken.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

I have to impose an immediate six-minute time limit on Back Bench speeches, but that is quite generous as compared with recent times.

[Sir Jeffrey M. Donaldson (Lagan Valley) (DUP)]

I congratulate my right hon. and hon. Friends on securing this debate today and on giving Members the opportunity to express their views.

For people in Northern Ireland, the political and economic stakes could not be higher, as the protocol presents the greatest ever threat to the economic integrity of the United Kingdom. The rigorous implementation of the protocol that some anti-Brexit parties in Northern Ireland have called for would be bad for consumers and bad for business. It would be socially disruptive, economically ruinous and politically disastrous for Northern Ireland. As Lord Frost has repeatedly pointed out, the Northern Ireland protocol in its present form is unsustainable, and it needs to go.

Over the last 50 years, if we have learned anything in Northern Ireland it is that, if our political arrangements are to last, they will require support from right across the community, and there is not a single elected representative in any Unionist party who supports the Northern Ireland protocol. The Government have promised that they will publish their plans for the future of the protocol before Parliament rises for the summer recess, and that cannot come a moment too soon.

Much has been said about how we got here, but, today, I want to set out where we need to go from here. My party will not prejudge what the Government have to say, but I want to make it clear what any new approach needs to achieve. That is why, today, I am setting out seven tests that I believe are important for any new arrangements. Our tests are grounded not in a Unionist wish list, but in promises that have already been made in one form or another to the people of Northern Ireland. It is not too much to ask that the Government stand by these promises.

First, new arrangements must fulfil the guarantee of the sixth article of the Act of Union 1800. That Act of Union is no ordinary statute; it is the constitutional statute that created the United Kingdom for the people whom I represent. The sixth article essentially requires that everyone in the United Kingdom is entitled to the same privileges and to be on the same footing as to goods in either country and in respect of trade within the United Kingdom. Under the protocol, this is clearly no longer the case. The House will be aware—you made reference to the legal challenge on this point, Madam Deputy Speaker—that the High Court has held that the protocol does not put the people of Northern Ireland on an equal footing with those in the rest of the United Kingdom. In defending their position, the Government lawyers made it clear that the protocol impliedly repeals article 6 of the Act of Union. That is a matter of grave concern to us, and it is a matter that needs to be put right.

Secondly, any new arrangements must avoid any diversion of trade, and I welcome what has been said already. It is simply not acceptable that consumers and businesses in Northern Ireland are told that they must purchase certain goods from the EU and not from Great Britain. In this regard it is notable that article 16 of the protocol already permits the UK to take unilateral safeguarding measures to ensure that there is no diversion of trade, and the Government must do that.

Thirdly, it is essential that any new arrangements that are negotiated do not constitute a border in the Irish sea between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. In line with the Act of Union, there should be no internal trade border in the UK. Northern Ireland’s place in the UK internal market must be fully restored. Fourthly, new arrangements must give the people of Northern Ireland a say in making the laws that govern them. That guarantee is implicit in article 3 of protocol 1 of the European convention on human rights, which clearly states that where people are subject to laws, they should be able freely to express their opinion on those laws. Northern Ireland does not have that in relation to EU regulations being imposed on it. Fifthly, new arrangements must result in no checks on goods going from Northern Ireland to Great Britain, or from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. The Prime Minister gave that commitment on 8 December 2019, and it should be honoured.

--- Later in debate ---

[Simon Hoare (North Dorset) (Con) [V]]

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Harwich and North Essex (Sir Bernard Jenkin) for instigating the debate. It is nice to see a mainstream debate on the affairs of Northern Ireland taking place on the Floor of the House.

Let us remind ourselves of two things at the start. Lord Frost confirmed to our Committee, the Select Committee on Northern Ireland Affairs, just a few weeks ago that he negotiated the protocol, he understood the protocol and he signed off the protocol. How people have interpreted one or two parts of it may be surprising, but it is not legitimate for the Government effectively to say, “This was new, it was an impost, it crept up on us.” This was a negotiated document between the two parties.

Without the protocol, there would still have to be checks. We are talking about the defence, for want of a better phrase, of an internal market and a single market. Those alternative arrangements, as some called them some little while ago, would, according to HM Revenue and Customs, be likely to be as, if not more, complicated and possibly more costly. For those who may be thinking that, if we get rid of the protocol, everything will go back to being normal, that will not happen. We are all in a new normal now.

This is important because there are a lot of concerns, predominantly among the loyalist community, that this is in some way a stepping stone to a united Ireland or a move to a border poll. Everybody, from the Taoiseach to the Prime Minister—at last week’s Liaison Committee, in response to a question from me—to those in Brussels and anywhere else, has to recognise that the integrity of Northern Ireland as an intrinsic and key part of the United Kingdom remains. The protocol does not change that constitutional balance one way or another.

I take the point just made by the right hon. Member for Lagan Valley (Sir Jeffrey M. Donaldson). I have yet to be persuaded that anybody, in their heart of hearts, ever defines their sense of belonging or loyalty by invisible trading arrangements. Citizenship, a sense of belonging and a sense of nationhood are far more powerful and emotive than that.

We should remind ourselves that there are some—there will be none in this House, I know—who refuse to accept the referendum result on the Good Friday agreement itself, and have gone around saying, “Unless we get our way on the protocol and unless it is scrapped”. Let us pause there for a moment to say that there is no majority view in support of the scrapping of the protocol. Nobody by the same token is saying that it is perfect; there is scope for change and improvement. But let us not inadvertently fall into the trap of using this debate on the protocol as a Trojan horse to undermine the Good Friday agreement. Everybody knows that, without that bedrock, there can be no progress in Northern Ireland, and none that we have seen over the past several decades.

Business wants to be engaged. Let me say to the Minister, and I look forward to her summing up: let us have that investment conference. Let us maximise those opportunities. Invest Northern Ireland is dealing with 30 requests at the moment. The business engagement forum needs to be formalised with a set agenda and regular meetings.

Trust is so important here. My hon. Friend the Member for Harwich and North Essex talked about the need for the EU to change. I agree in many respects. We need to see flexibility on goods at risk. We need to see flexibility on the precautionary principle and the differential of how we use laws. It is either illegal unless it is made legal, or legal unless it is made illegal. The benefit of the extensions of the grace periods has illustrated that the single market does not collapse as a result of that. Common sense is required.

I am not here to act as an apologist for the EU, but from all my conversations with them I think the issue is one of trust. They still remain uncertain as to whether Her Majesty’s Government are intent upon implementing a reformed protocol using the offices of the Joint Committee. Without that trust or certainty, there can be no progress. We need to switch our mindset from negotiate or renegotiate, to reform and implement. Let us remind ourselves that the Vice President has no mandate to renegotiate. That would have to be given by the member states and any hope for that would come only if we see that trust rebuilt. I therefore urge the Government to have that joint investment conference, build on the trust and formalise business engagement.

The Select Committee heard today from two witnesses. Let me quote both of them. Aodhán Connolly, from Northern Ireland Retail Consortium said: “The most frustrating thing for business in Northern Ireland is we can see the solutions, we just don’t see the political will to do them.” From the Ulster Farmers’ Union, Victor Chestnutt said: “Solutions are sitting there.” Well, let us not just let them sit there; let us grab them. Let us make them work and let the twin benefits of access to the UK internal market and the European Union’s single market be that blue touch paper that will reignite and light a post-covid Northern Ireland economy where the benefits to business and to citizens can be fully felt.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

To confirm the answer to the question which is being silently asked, there is no mechanism whereby Members can intervene on someone who is speaking virtually. I just ask for patience from hon. Members. Hopefully, we will only have three more days of this arrangement—we all hope.

Economy Update

Baroness Laing of Elderslie Excerpts

Wednesday 16th June 2021 Commons Chamber

[Steve Barclay]

I do not accept that. Looking at the vaccine programme that the UK has had thanks to the huge efforts of our NHS, volunteers and so many people in communities up and down the country, I would not characterise it as an abject failure. Actually, our deployment of vaccines is the envy of many countries, and it is key to the road map.

For Tip Top Linen Services, and businesses across the United Kingdom, we have provided a comprehensive package of support, as I set out in a number of responses. That is key to those important businesses being able to bounce back as the road map moves to step 4.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

I call Dame Andrea, whom I congratulate on her extremely well deserved honour.

[Dame Andrea Leadsom (South Northamptonshire) (Con)]

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. My right hon. Friend will be aware that some people who have been furloughed during lockdown have taken on other jobs. A big hotel and golf complex—a family-owned business in South Northamptonshire—furloughed about 300 staff. When it came to unlocking and it called back all those staff, around half of them resigned because they already had other jobs at supermarkets, delivery companies and so on. What can my right hon. Friend do, first, to protect the taxpayer from people effectively earning double pay, and also to stop that happening to the huge detriment of this family-run business?

--- Later in debate ---

[Steve Barclay]

We have already covered the point that furlough has been extended until the end of September. As I said in my answer only a moment ago, there are specific sectoral support packages in addition to that. At the same time, we need to get the balance right between that and the very considerable cost to the Exchequer—borrowing £200 billion last year and with significant further borrowing this year and next. We need to get the balance right between that level of borrowing and the wider package of support offered.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

I appreciate that these are complex issues and that the Chief Secretary is being most assiduous in giving full answers, but I wonder if we could go just a little faster now. We have a lot of business to get through, which means people have to ask questions, not make statements.

[Scott Benton (Blackpool South) (Con)]

Nobody in this House, or indeed in Blackpool South, wanted to see a pause in our road map of easing restrictions. Does my right hon. Friend the Chief Secretary to the Treasury agree that this short delay is necessary so that we can proceed irreversibly out of lockdown, build back better from covid and, finally, begin to get our public finances back in order?

--- Later in debate ---

[Steve Barclay]

I absolutely agree, and I think that the importance of securing private investment is a very good note on which to end. My hon. Friend will know that in May, on the consumer prices index, inflation rose to 2.1% and the Monetary Policy Committee judged:

“Inflation expectations remained well anchored.”

However, with debt at nearly 100% of GDP, we need to pay close attention. To finish on a more sobering note, perhaps, a sustained increase in inflation by one percentage point would increase debt interest spending by £6.9 billion in ’25-26, so my hon. Friend raises—as did the hon. Member for Leeds West (Rachel Reeves)—an important point that the House needs to keep under review.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

I thank the Chief Secretary and everyone who took part in the statement for getting through it in 58 and a half minutes. That always keeps the occupant of the Chair happy.

I would like to take a second to thank Sir Roy Stone for his extraordinary, long and patient service to this House; I cannot imagine this place without him. I know that we all wish him well.

We come to the result of today’s deferred Division on the Draft Climate Change Act 2008 (Credit Limit) Order 2021. The Ayes were 363 and the Noes were 263, so the Ayes have it.

[The Division list is published at the end of today’s debates.]

We now come to the exciting annual event of the presentation of Bills, which have arisen as a result of the private Members’ Bills ballot. We have 20 such Bills. Contrary to the normal procedure when Members queue up behind the Chair, I hope that all 20 Members are either now in their places, or ready to participate virtually.

Bills Presented

Education (Careers Guidance in Schools) Bill

Presentation and First Reading (Standing Order No. 57)

Mark Jenkinson presented a Bill to extend the duty to provide careers guidance in schools.

Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 10 September, and to be printed (Bill 14).

Employment and Trade Union Rights (Dismissal and Re-engagement) Bill

Presentation and First Reading (Standing Order No. 57)

Barry Gardiner, supported by Robert Halfon, Gavin Newlands, Christine Jardine, Caroline Lucas, Sammy Wilson, Ben Lake, Andy McDonald, Dawn Butler, Darren Jones and Bell Ribeiro-Addy, presented a Bill to amend the law relating to workplace information and consultation, employment protection and trade union rights to provide safeguards for workers against dismissal and re-engagement on inferior terms and conditions; and for connected purposes.

Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 22 October, and to be printed (Bill 15).

Menopause (Support and Services) Bill

Presentation and First Reading (Standing Order No. 57)

Carolyn Harris, supported by Judith Cummins, Peter Dowd, Rosie Duffield, Nick Smith, Karin Smyth, Jim Shannon, Tracey Crouch, Jackie Doyle-Price, Tim Loughton and Caroline Nokes, presented a Bill to make provision about menopause support and services; to exempt hormone replacement therapy from National Health Service prescription charges; and for connected purposes.

Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 29 October, and to be printed (Bill 16).

Down Syndrome Bill

Presentation and First Reading (Standing Order No. 57)

Dr Liam Fox, supported by Ben Lake, Ian Paisley, Dr Lisa Cameron, Mark Logan, Nick Fletcher, Layla Moran, Darren Jones, James Daly, Mrs Flick Drummond and Elliot Colburn presented a Bill to make provision about meeting the needs of persons with Down syndrome; to place a duty on local authorities to assess the likely social care needs of persons with Down syndrome and plan provision accordingly; and for connected purposes.

Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 26 November, and to be printed (Bill 17).

Marriage and Civil Partnership (Minimum Age) Bill

Presentation and First Reading (Standing Order No. 57)

Sajid Javid, supported by Mrs Pauline Latham, Robert Halfon, Sir Graham Brady,

Philip Davies, Sarah Champion, Mrs Maria Miller, Alun Cairns, Fiona Bruce, Siobhan Baillie, Mr Virendra Sharma and Ms Nusrat Ghani, presented a Bill to make provision about the minimum age for marriage and civil partnership; and for connected purposes.

Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 19 November, and to be printed (Bill 18).

Copyright (Rights and Remuneration of Musicians, Etc.) Bill

Presentation and First Reading (Standing Order No. 57)

Kevin Brennan, supported by Ms Karen Buck, Damian Green, Alex Davies-Jones,

Claire Hanna, Sir Greg Knight, Ben Lake, Esther McVey, Abena Oppong-Asare, Jim Shannon, David Warburton and Pete Wishart, presented a Bill to make provision about the rights and remuneration of musicians and other rights holders; and for connected purposes.

Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 3 December, and to be printed (Bill 19).

Medical Cannabis (Access) Bill

Presentation and First Reading (Standing Order No. 57)

Jeff Smith presented a Bill to make provision about access to cannabis for medical reasons; and for connected purposes.

Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 10 December, and to be printed (Bill 20).

Climate Change Bill

Presentation and First Reading (Standing Order No. 57)

Colum Eastwood, supported by Clare Hanna, presented a Bill to place a duty on the government to declare a climate emergency; to amend the Climate Change Act 2008 to bring forward the date by which the United Kingdom is required to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions; to place a duty on the Government to create and implement a strategy to achieve objectives related to climate change, including for the creation of environmentally-friendly jobs; to require the Secretary of State to report to Parliament on proposals for increased taxation of large companies to generate revenue to be spent to further those objectives; and for connected purposes.

Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 10 December and to be printed (Bill 21).

Taxis and Private Hire Vehicles (Safeguarding and Road Safety) Bill

Presentation and First Reading (Standing Order No. 57)

Peter Gibson, supported by Daniel Zeichner, Caroline Nokes, Mr Robert Goodwill, Sarah Champion, Sir John Hayes, Ms Nusrat Ghani, Esther McVey, Ms Harriet Harman and Lee Anderson, presented a Bill to make provision about licensing in relation to taxis and private hire vehicles for purposes relating to the safeguarding of passengers and road safety; and for connected purposes.

Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 10 September, and to be printed (Bill 22).

Planning (Enforcement) Bill

Presentation and First Reading (Standing Order No. 57)

Dr Ben Spencer presented a Bill to create offences relating to repeat breaches of planning controls; to make provision about penalties for planning offences; to establish a national register of persons who have committed planning offences or breached planning controls and make associated provision about planning applications; and for connected purposes.

Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 19 November, and to be printed (Bill 23).

Cultural Objects (Protection from Seizure) Bill

Presentation and First Reading (Standing Order No. 57)

Mel Stride presented a Bill to extend the protection from seizure or forfeiture given to cultural objects.

Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 10 September, and to be printed (Bill 24).

Pension Schemes (Conversion of Guaranteed Minimum Pensions) Bill

Presentation and First Reading (Standing Order No. 57)

Margaret Ferrier presented a Bill to make provision about the amendment of pension schemes so as to provide for the conversion of rights to a guaranteed minimum pension.

Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 26 November, and to be printed (Bill 25).

Childcare Bill

Presentation and First Reading (Standing Order No. 57)

Matt Rodda presented a Bill to enable provision to be made for appeals relating to free childcare for young children of working parents to be settled by agreement; to make further provision designed to increase efficiency in the administration of free childcare schemes; to make provision about the promotion of the availability of free childcare, including to disadvantaged groups; and for connected purposes.

Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 29 October, and to be printed (Bill 26).

Glue Traps (Offences) Bill

Presentation and First Reading (Standing Order No. 57)

Jane Stevenson presented a Bill to make certain uses of glue traps an offence; and for connected purposes.

Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 19 November, and to be printed (Bill 27).

Acquired Brain Injury Bill

Presentation and First Reading (Standing Order No. 57)

Chris Bryant presented a Bill to make provision about meeting the needs of adults and children with an acquired brain injury; and for connected purposes.

Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 3 December, and to be printed (Bill 28).

Local Government (Disqualification) Bill

Presentation and First Reading (Standing Order No. 57)

Sir Paul Beresford presented a Bill to make provision about the grounds on which a person is disqualified from being elected to, or holding, certain positions in local government in England.

Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 22 October, and to be printed (Bill 29).

Taxis and Private Hire Vehicles (Disabled Persons) Bill

Presentation and First Reading (Standing Order No. 57)

Jeremy Wright presented a Bill to make provision relating to the carrying of disabled persons by taxis and private hire vehicles.

Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 14 January 2022, and to be printed (Bill 30).

Hare Coursing Bill

Presentation and First Reading (Standing Order No. 57)

Richard Fuller presented a Bill to make provision about hare coursing offences; to increase penalties for such offences; and for connected purposes.

Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 21 January 2022, and to be printed (Bill 31).

Animals (Penalty Notices) Bill

Presentation and First Reading (Standing Order No. 57)

Andrew Rosindell, supported by Sir David Amess, Tom Hunt, Mrs Sheryll Murray, Bob Stewart, Alexander Stafford, Theresa Villiers, Chris Grayling, Miss Sarah Dines, Henry Smith, Bill Wiggin and Joy Morrissey, presented a Bill to make provision for and in connection with the giving of penalty notices for certain offences in relation to animals and animal products.

Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 29 October, and to be printed (Bill 32).

British Sign Language Bill

Presentation and First Reading (Standing Order No. 57)

Rosie Cooper presented a Bill to declare British Sign Language (BSL) an official language of the United Kingdom; to provide for a British Sign Language Council to promote and advise on the use of BSL; to establish principles for the use of BSL in public services; to require public bodies to have regard to those principles and to guidance issued by the Council; and for connected purposes.

Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 28 January 2022, and to be printed (Bill 33).

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

Thank you. That concludes the presentation of all 20 private Members’ Bills, and I wish them well. I will now suspend the House for three minutes in order that arrangements can be made for the next item of business.