Budget Statement

Debate between Lord Lamont of Lerwick and Baroness Garden of Frognal

Friday 12th March 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Lamont of Lerwick (Con)]

My Lords, this is the first time I have ever spoken in a Budget debate in the Lords and I am making my “maiden speech” only because I want to support the Chancellor at a time when there are no easy answers—it is a very difficult situation. I always listen with respect to the noble Lord, Lord Eatwell, but I disagree with him over fiscal resilience and its importance. The central dilemma for the Chancellor in this Budget is how he can start repairing the public finances without endangering the recovery. He resolved that dilemma by delaying the increases in corporation tax and the freezing of personal allowances, again delayed for one year. This staging gives the recovery the chance to get established, and I believe that was the right judgment.

Overall, the Budget increases the tax burden by 1% of GDP, which is uncomfortable for many of my noble friends on this side of the House, but we have been through phases like this before, in the early 1980s and other periods when fiscal tightening, far from killing off growth, ushered in long periods of expansion, which is what enables us to pay for good public services. We should not succumb to the mistaken interpretations of Lafferism or Reaganomics that led America astray in the 1980s. Some will criticise the increase in corporation tax, but once you have ruled out the three main taxes, as was done in the Conservative manifesto, the Chancellor had little choice. The question remains whether such a large increase in corporation tax can be delivered: moving the tax up in one go to 25% may cause prospective investors a bit of hesitation.

The OBR talks of lowering investment in the medium term, and I would appreciate it if my noble friend Lord Agnew would comment on that very obvious reservation that the OBR expresses. I believe that the Chancellor has risen to these unprecedented challenges flexibly and pragmatically, and I support him.

[The Deputy Speaker (Baroness Garden of Frognal) (LD)]

We welcome the maiden speech of the noble Lord, Lord Khan of Burnley.