Welfare Benefits Up-rating Bill

Debate between Lord Field of Birkenhead and Kwasi Kwarteng

Monday 21st January 2013 Commons Chamber

[Kwasi Kwarteng]

That is absolutely right.

I shall try to keep my closing remarks brief. The 1% rise in the uprating is surely a temporary measure; I would not want to see this in perpetuity. My right hon. Friend the Member for Wokingham talked about the need to combat inflation. Clearly if inflation is sustained at 3% or 4% over years, that would be very punitive and would make the proposed measures even more difficult for people to bear. So the Government need to keep a firm handle and an eagle eye on the inflation rate. I am absolutely in favour of that, but on the general approach I would not want to see any amendments to this Bill. It is a difficult proposal that we are trying to push through, but many people up and down the country are supporting the Government on it because they feel that the measures we are introducing are encouraging people to get out to work. People also realise—I will close where I started my speech—the appalling fiscal legacy given to us, the incredibly difficult financial circumstances in which the Government found themselves, and the tough and courageous measures we are taking to get us out of the mess.

[Mr Frank Field (Birkenhead) (Lab)]

I rise to support the amendment because it is very clear: it seeks to tear the heart out of this Bill, and it should tear the heart out of the Bill, because it is a terrible Bill. By taking this stance, I am not saying that we should not, with all urgency, think about welfare reform, because that is a mega task which will face a succession of Governments. I am not saying that we do not recognise that there is a real problem in this country with incentives to work, because there is. I am not saying that there are not all sorts of other issues that we need to deal with and consider in relation to this measure. We have to consider what this measure is actually about.

I agree totally with the Government Members who said how serious the fiscal deficit is. I do not doubt that when Labour breaks the trend and has to clear up a mess—we have been hearing this afternoon about Tories clearing up our mess—we might well have to look at the size of the welfare bill. However, I do not believe that any Labour Government would get cuts through without presenting them in a context in which the cuts were thought to be fair. That goes to the heart of the current Government’s strategy. Despite the rhetoric in which they have tried to clothe themselves in respect of the changes they have been making, the country will have to make a judgment in the election on whether the Government have fulfilled the assurance they gave at the beginning of this journey that who had most would pay most and those who had least would be protected. It is no accident that we link the amendments being debated tonight with the tax cuts in the Budget for those who have most.

We will not have to face this issue tonight because, sadly, we know how the vote is likely to go, despite the presence of some brave Liberals—I hope that my saying that encourages even more to vote, knowing that it is safe to register their protest. In the end, it is those outside this House who will judge whether this measure is fair. Is it fair that, at time when we can find moneys to make tax cuts for the very richest, we cut living standards for the very poorest?

[Kwasi Kwarteng]

Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?

[Mr Field]

No, I am going to make a short speech. I am grateful for the hon. Gentleman’s interest and the way he is following my speech, but I do not want to extend it.

The country will make a judgment about how fair the collection of measures is. I think the Government must be extremely confident, given that we are seeing a record number of people who are hungry and are turning up at food banks operating in our constituencies. Thank God for food banks. I do not hold the view that food banks are terrible; it is great that we have them, because people are hungry. I think it is terrible that we live in society where people are hungry. That is where we should direct the anger; it should not be aimed at the people providing the food banks. We are thinking about cutting benefits at a time when we also know that people who probably have greater abilities than I do in managing on a low income—thank God, I have never had to do so—find that they fail. The Bill will crush some decent people, who find it impossible to live on the levels of income that we lay down.

That we should do this at a time when we can find the money for the richest to take more passes all my understanding. Perhaps the Opposition will lose the vote tonight, but I am not so sure that, on this argument, an indelible mark will not now be made against the coalition Government, who found money to cut taxes for the very rich while making life more and more difficult for the poor, some of whom do not have enough to eat. Should more people join that terrible queue of our fellow citizens? Lots of other arguments have been marvellously put, but for me it comes down, as I guess it will for the electorate, to whether this is fair. I think that they will say no.