Oral Answers to Questions
Aaron Bell Excerpts(1 year, 7 months ago)
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Chloe Smith
The hon. Lady is mischaracterising this very badly and in a way that does not help to command confidence in our shared mission to make science, innovation and technology the success that it needs to be for this country. She will have seen the presentation of my right hon. Friend the Chancellor at the Budget, which made it clear just how seriously we take science in this country, and that level of ambition will continue.
Aaron Bell (Newcastle-under-Lyme) (Con)
Last month, Sir Patrick Vallance stepped down as the Government’s chief scientific adviser after five years in the role, in which Government investment in science has doubled. Most of all, he became a household name through his handling of covid and the leadership that he showed then. Will the Secretary of State join me in thanking Sir Patrick for all his service to the country and in welcoming his successor, Dame Angela McLean, and wishing her all the best in the role?
The Minister for Science, Research and Innovation (George Freeman)
May I, as Science Minister on behalf of the Government, pay tribute to Sir Patrick and thank Dame Angela for taking on the role? Sir Patrick has been a stalwart servant for science and for this country during difficult times.
Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation
Aaron Bell Excerpts(1 year, 9 months ago)
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Aaron Bell (Newcastle-under-Lyme) (Con)
It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Portsmouth South (Stephen Morgan). I welcome the Budget from this Chancellor, as it is a sensible, forward-looking Budget that will give us the economic stability we need. It will continue to protect my constituents and all of our constituents from the global headwinds referred to by my neighbour, my hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent South (Jack Brereton), as we have done throughout the Parliament. Through covid, the war in Ukraine and the energy price crisis, we have been looking after our constituents and protecting them from the worst ravages of inflation. The Budget also offers a viable plan to energise growth, not least in science and technology, the theme of today’s debate, to which I will turn in a moment.
Before I do so, I wish to welcome a few of the specific measures the Chancellor announced last Wednesday, starting with the extension of 30 hours’ childcare all the way down, ultimately, to those as young as nine months. That will be welcomed by my constituents. It offers young families choice—the choice I want to see. It is not about compulsion or forcing anybody to go back into work; it offers people the choice to do that, just as we have done in relation to a higher age. We continue to bring that further down. So many schools in my constituency have a nursery attached to the reception, and this works well for getting children introduced to that concept, as and when the parents are ready for that.
I also welcome the extension of the energy price guarantee, at £2,500, for a further three months. We heard from the forecasts that inflation would fall this year and I very much hope that will continue. Obviously, it depends on global oil and gas prices, which are what caused inflation to rise in the first place. As it falls, people will start to feel the benefits and we will see bills fall below that level later in the year. I also welcome, as my hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent South did, the fixing of the prepayment meter premium that a number of my constituents have suffered from.
In a constituency such as mine, so many people rely on their cars to get to work, so I welcome the freeze in fuel duty and the extension of the 5p cut that I and others lobbied for last year. It has saved drivers, on average, £200 since we introduced that cut and it is the right thing to do for constituencies such as mine.
I had some concerns about the corporation tax rise, but they have been broadly tempered by the full expensing announcement. I am a former deputy chair of the Backbench Treasury Committee, along with my hon. Friend the Member for South Cambridgeshire (Anthony Browne) and Baroness Noakes. We did a lot of thinking about this and put those cases to the Prime Minister when he was Chancellor, as we have to other Ministers since, including the Financial Secretary, who is in her place. Full expensing is a positive move. It is vital that we put in place measures enabling businesses to thrive. In the autumn statement, my right hon. Friend the Chancellor also announced major reforms to business rates. That work needs to be continued. It will make a huge difference to Newcastle-under-Lyme’s high street, so let us get on with it.
On the £200 million to deal with potholes across the country, with £4.5 million of that for Staffordshire, the county council can be assured that I will be lobbying to make sure that Newcastle-under-Lyme gets its fair share of that. We need to make sure that, when that work is done, it is done better than it has been by Amey in the past. The swimming pool support fund of £60 million will be welcomed by Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, under the leadership of Simon Tagg, to keep costs and prices low, at Jubilee2, in particular.
On science and technology, I welcome the certainty on Horizon that the Secretary of State gave earlier. Contrary to some of the claims from the Opposition, the EU has been responsible for the delays in agreeing this, because it wanted to use Horizon as a negotiating chip. Now that we have the Windsor framework, I think we can look forward, but the Opposition cheered on the EU in that complaint, just as they did throughout Brexit.
It is vital that we invest in the technologies and jobs of the future, so I welcome the £370 million of Government investment that the Secretary of State announced the other week. I also welcome the private investment we are seeing, for example, with Moderna’s £150 million investment in a vaccine centre in the UK, and all the various investments I see at the Keele science park in my constituency and the Keele medical school, on the same campus. It would be a great location for a new dental school, which I have been championing, along with my hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent South.
The Select Committee on Science and Technology, on which I am proud to sit, has been all over the country looking at how we recover from covid and how we raise both public and private investment. However, it is important to note that we have a vibrant sector already. The UK tech sector is No.1 in Europe, No. 3 in the world and last year it raised more than France and Germany combined.
I come to the lifetime allowance. As my hon. Friend the Member for Hazel Grove (Mr Wragg) said, it is a long-running tradition that sometimes a Budget is well received on the day but falls apart afterwards. This is the first time I can recall that happening to the Opposition, with their cynical, shameless opportunism. We delivered the exact policy they called for—I have heard this a few times on the Opposition side—the exact one that the shadow Health Secretary called for in The Guardian, the exact one that doctors in Newcastle-under-Lyme asked us for. However, the politics of envy overtook the Opposition and the shadow Chancellor took a decision to denounce it, even as the British Medical Association was welcoming it.
We heard that Labour would like to keep the policy just for doctors, but the reality is that the cap is pushing all sorts of workers into early retirement—headteachers, police chiefs, senior armed forces personnel, senior armed forces clinicians, air traffic controllers and prison governors, and many in the private sector, too, who would be getting less generous pensions than some of those in the public sector, from the same notional size of pension pot. These public servants will be getting generous pensions, but those pensions will be taxed, in many cases at 40%. I believe, contrary to the politics of envy, that it is vital that we retain their services for longer in the workplace, because that experience means more productivity and more growth for this country. Of course, while they stay in the workplace, they will be paying more income tax—it is a net gain for the country overall. Labour’s policy would damage productivity and growth and contribute to a crisis in public sector retirement. To be honest, I would not be surprised if Labour quietly scrapped it before the election as it realises that the politics of envy will not work.
In conclusion, I really welcome the Government’s Budget. I welcome what the Chancellor has said and what the Budget will do for places such as Newcastle-under-Lyme as we continue to level up and to get the benefits of Government spending. I commend the Budget to the House.
Oral Answers to Questions
Aaron Bell Excerpts(1 year, 9 months ago)
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The Prime Minister
The Government are delivering for people across the United Kingdom. Energy bills have been our priority, which is why over £1,000 of support is benefiting households in every part of our country. The hon. Gentleman talks about delivery. We now know that because of the SNP, the trains do not run on time, the police are at breaking point and the NHS in Scotland has experienced its longest ever waiting lists. That is not even my assessment—it is what we learned in the SNP’s leadership debate last week.
Aaron Bell (Newcastle-under-Lyme) (Con)
The Prime Minister
I agree with my hon. Friend about the incredible benefit that small businesses and independent retailers bring to our high streets and economy. I congratulate the team at Anasma Greek Bakery on winning the competition. I know that they will feel reassured by their Government’s investment in my hon. Friend’s constituency through the town deal and, of course, funding from the future high streets fund.
Science and Technology Framework
Aaron Bell Excerpts(1 year, 9 months ago)
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Michelle Donelan
I agree with my hon. Friend that we need to provide researchers and academics with that clarity and certainty. That is exactly why we yesterday extended the guarantee by another three months so that they can be confident, as we have talks with the EU, that there is a system in place.
Aaron Bell (Newcastle-under-Lyme) (Con)
I welcome the Prime Minister’s creation of this Department and warmly welcome my right hon. Friend to her position as Secretary of State. I also welcome the £370 million that is being invested. In drawing up this framework, what lessons have been learned from the covid-19 pandemic and, in particular, from the success of the vaccines taskforce under Kate Bingham, whose position was, I remind the House, shamefully undermined by the Opposition?
Michelle Donelan
We have taken a great deal of learnings from the operation of the vaccines taskforce, and we have been deploying those learnings, as we can see from the life sciences missions that we have put into process. One of the key learnings relates to the work we do with industry, and also our ability to work much more quickly and to cut through red tape and regulation. My hon. Friend will see from my Department a relentless focus on cutting down that regulation, getting the regulatory framework right and cutting away some of the unnecessary bureaucracy that is holding back our nation from excelling even more.