Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts

Tuesday 7th May 2024 Commons Chamber

[Jeremy Hunt]

My right hon. Friend is absolutely right: violence reduction units reduce crime and save lives. I want to thank him, because he was one of the first colleagues who, ahead of the Budget, brought to my attention how impressive the results are. As a result, I was able to make it a national policy in the Budget.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

T7. Many of those campaigning for justice in the contaminated blood scandal will have been encouraged by the reporting in The Sunday Times over the weekend. Given that time is of the essence, will the Chancellor please indicate by which date the promises will be fulfilled?

[Jeremy Hunt]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right to say that the Government are taking this issue very seriously, and we completely understand that speed is of the essence. It is now only a matter of days before the report will be published; we have always said that we want to publish our response very quickly after that and I assure the hon. Gentleman that we will not hang around.

Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts

Tuesday 19th March 2024 Commons Chamber

[Gareth Davies]

My hon. Friend comes to this House with significant business experience, so when he talks, we certainly listen, and I am delighted to hear that he was pleased with the VAT threshold increase. I can tell him that, in addition to what I said to my hon. Friend the Member for St Ives (Derek Thomas) about the £90,000 threshold, this level is higher than that of any EU member state and is the joint highest in the OECD. Many of his businesses will be among the 28,000 that will benefit from the increase, so we have no plans at this stage to change it.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

But the actual record of this Government over the past 14 years is abysmal. It is a fact that business investment has been consistently among the lowest in both the OECD and the G7, and now the Office for Budget Responsibility is forecasting a further 5% fall this year. Why?

[Gareth Davies]

Announcements in each of our last three fiscal events have enhanced our business investment environment for international investors: we have the second highest foreign direct investment stock in the world; we have some of the best universities in the world, which are attracting businesses; we have announced full expensing, which is a £10 billion-a-year tax cut; we have the lowest corporation tax in the G7; and we are reforming our energy grid, bringing investment into our net zero ambitions. We are reforming our systems, reducing our taxes, and encouraging investment.

National Insurance Contributions (Reduction in Rates) (No. 2) Bill

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts

Committee of the whole House
Wednesday 13th March 2024 Commons Chamber

[James Murray]

I am happy to provide clarification for the hon. Gentleman. We have had an extended debate about this today, where we have made it clear on several occasions that we support the Government’s cut in NI, because we believe that the tax burden on working people is too high and we want to see it come down. What we do not support is an unfunded £46 billion tax plan that the Chancellor has committed the Conservative party to. That is the subject of our new clause that we are debating now, and I look forward to his joining us in voting for it in a few moments.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend is making an important point, not least because, to all intents and purposes, the Chancellor’s ambition is to abolish NI altogether. That unfunded tax cut requires a 6% increase in income tax just for us to stand still, unless something is going to give. Do national insurance qualifying years not count towards how much state pension someone is entitled to get? So how do we recalculate one’s entitlement to state pension if the qualifying years do not exist because NI does not exist?

[James Murray]

I thank my hon. Friend for that important intervention, setting out just some of the problems created by this reckless plan that the Conservatives have put out into the public domain and are refusing to explain or withdraw.

We know that if the Chancellor’s proposal to merge national insurance and income tax were to be followed, it would push up income tax by 6.5%, meaning pensioners would pay, on average, £800 more a year. My hon. Friend also makes important points about the impact of the plan on eligibility to the basic state pension. Again, Members on the Government Front Bench have not answered those questions. They had nothing to say on any of those points, which are concerning people across the country, when they responded earlier.

We have tabled new clause 1 because it will force the Government to come clean about these issues. Ministers are refusing to stand at the Dispatch Box to explain how they will fund their £46 billion black hole or to withdraw their policy entirely. New clause 1 will force them to set that out. Because they have been unwilling to explain how they will fund their plan, we will force them to come clean on its impact on public finances.

Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts

Tuesday 9th May 2023 Commons Chamber

[John Glen]

Delivery of new hospital infrastructure and prioritisation within health budgets is a matter for the Department of Health and Social Care, but I know from frequent conversations with the Secretary of State that he is working tirelessly to ensure as many new hospitals as possible, and that wider improvements to the health estate can occur. I shall make representations to him after these questions.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

T7.   It has been reported in the press today that, prior to any investment, BP and Equinor sought written guarantees that assets at the Teesworks site had not been acquired as a result of an “unacceptable act”, and that directors“will not hide or dissimulate the nature, origin, location, disposition or ownership of assets, rights or values.”It is just extraordinary. Given the importance of that freeport to investment and jobs in Teesside, can the Treasury confirm whether it too has made any similar checks?

[John Glen]

I am sorry, I cannot answer that question. But I am happy to meet the hon. Gentleman to look at the serious matter he has raised and get an answer for him.

Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts

Tuesday 21st March 2023 Commons Chamber

[Jeremy Hunt]

I am delighted that my hon. Friend welcomed the freezing of fuel duty, which means that over the period for which it has been frozen, the average motorist will have saved £200. There is a specific reason why I wanted to continue to freeze it this year: combined with the extension of the energy price guarantee, it will reduce CPI inflation by 0.7% in a year in which headline inflation is still over 10%.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

How is it fair that the Government are picking the pockets of working people through frozen income tax thresholds while at the same time allowing the super-rich non-doms to effectively opt out of paying tax in this country, which is costing us £3.2 billion this year?

[Jeremy Hunt]

Let me remind the hon. Gentleman what we have done for people on low incomes. Because of the increase in the income tax and national insurance thresholds which was completed last year, those on the average wage of £28,000 pay £1,000 less in tax and national insurance than they would have paid at 2010 levels—that is a tax cut that his party opposed at each and every stage.

Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts

Tuesday 7th February 2023 Commons Chamber

[James Cartlidge]

My hon. Friend is a consistent champion for his constituents, particularly for those who are on the lowest incomes. He is quite right: I think we all accept that they will have faced the toughest challenge in the face of the very high cost of living, given the global inflationary pressures. In addition to the £1,300 that a typical household will receive this winter—the £900 energy price guarantee saving and the £400 energy bills support scheme payment—I can confirm that those households will have had £650 in the current financial year, if they are on benefits, and will have £900 next year. That is very significant and comprehensive support.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

Support for households is incredibly important, but in the past half-hour Willow Wood Hospice, which provides hospice services to my constituents, has emailed me to raise the plight of the UK hospice sector, which faces up to a fivefold increase in its energy bills even after the Government’s energy bill relief scheme, which is due to end in March. What more can the Minister do to ensure that Willow Wood Hospice and hospices around the country get the extra support that they need?

[James Cartlidge]

The hon. Gentleman raises a very important case; I am more than happy for him to me to write to me with the specifics. I obviously cannot comment on individual cases, but what I would say is that when we set up the energy bill relief scheme—the original scheme, which is currently providing up to £18 billion of support not only for businesses, but for hospices, charities and organisations in the public sector—we were very clear that it could not be sustained at that level. It is extremely expensive, although it is very important and generous. In setting it up, we had a number of choices; we chose to maintain a universal scheme. Yes, there is some targeting in energy and trade-intensive sectors, but it is a universal scheme, meaning that hospices continue to benefit.

Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts

Tuesday 20th December 2022 Commons Chamber

[Victoria Atkins]

We all have campaigns to which we devote a great deal of time and for which we build a reputation. My hon. Friend has had a reputation for campaigning on and highlighting the fourth industrial revolution since he was elected in 2015, so I am not surprised that he asked that question. I am delighted to say that we very much support innovation and the critical work of our entrepreneurs, start-ups and SMEs, which is why we are setting the annual investment allowance permanently at £1 million from 1 April, and reviewing the research and development tax reliefs to ensure that, while we are rebalancing the rates of relief out of fairness to the taxpayer, we are also targeting that relief at the knowledge-intensive and innovation-intensive businesses that we all care so much about.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

For a bit of Christmas cheer, I agree with the Minister for once as she says that she wants those with the broadest shoulders to pay the most in the tax system. Why, then, did the Chancellor pick the pockets of hard-working people in the autumn statement through stealth taxes, such as freezing tax allowances, rather than tackling non-doms, which could have brought in £3.2 billion to the Exchequer?

[Victoria Atkins]

I feel a little slighted, because the hon. Gentleman and I agree on an awful lot behind the scenes—I wish him a very merry Christmas. On non-doms, we know that they paid £7.9 billion in UK taxes last year, which is a significant sum of money. The Chancellor has been clear that when we look at those rules, we have to bear in mind that they pay a significant sum of money in their UK taxes that obviously contributes towards the public services that we all care so much about.

Economic Update

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts

Monday 17th October 2022 Commons Chamber

[Jeremy Hunt]

I absolutely salute my hon. Friend for thinking about the needs of families having to pay mortgages, which have an enormous impact on their finances. As I have learned in my short time in this job, Chancellors never comment on what mortgage rates or interest rates should be, but I absolutely want to make sure, in so far as the Government can influence it, we make sure that they are held down as low as possible.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

I will be a bit more generous. I genuinely welcome the re-emphasis on market stability, sound economic finance and ensuring that our country genuinely has an economic policy that is not going to frighten the markets.

The Chancellor says that he is reviewing all tax and spending before the Budget, and he wants to ensure that he takes communities with him. May I impress on him the very real damage that was done in lots of communities across the country that one might call red wall seats, although not all of them voted for the Conservatives in 2019, as a result of the cuts to local government—60p in the pound. Local government cannot take that level of cuts again. May I ask him at least to consider ensuring that those communities are protected?

[Jeremy Hunt]

I am not making any commitments on individual areas of any tax or spend, but yes, I absolutely understand the pressures faced in local government.

The Growth Plan

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts

Friday 23rd September 2022 Commons Chamber

[Kwasi Kwarteng]

Ynys Môn has a fantastic Member of Parliament in my hon. Friend, and we are focused not only on freeports, but on the future of nuclear. Ynys Môn represents a hugely exciting opportunity in that regard.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

The Chancellor has admitted that the last 12 Tory years were a mistake, and for once I agree with him. But the real impact of this Budget is that we are piling debt on future generations. It is unaffordable. If the Chancellor were a local councillor presenting this as a budget, his monitoring office would be issuing him with a section 114 notice, and his Ministers would be calling in the commissioners.

[Kwasi Kwarteng]

The focus is on growth. As my hon. Friend the Member for North Norfolk (Duncan Baker) said, our net debt to GDP ratio is low compared with other countries in the G7. We are 100% focused on growing the economy, so that future generations will be able to deal with the fiscal shocks they will have to deal with. That is what the purpose of this is.

Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts

Tuesday 17th May 2022 Commons Chamber

[Rishi Sunak]

The hon. Lady cherry-picks the statistics. Last year we were the fastest-growing economy in the G7 and this year the second fastest. After the other countries have caught us up next year, we will return to being the second-fastest and then the fastest-growing economy. There is more come from this Government to support growth. In the autumn we will cut taxes on business investment and innovation, which we all know is the best way to drive up productivity and growth.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

Ministers spoke earlier about using infrastructure to level up, and they are absolutely right—we need to link local communities to where the jobs are, so transport matters. Why, then, is there a lack of joined-up government? The Treasury is paying billions towards High Speed 2 coming to Manchester, yet the Bill before Parliament will sever the Metrolink line through Audenshaw in my constituency to Manchester, meaning that the tram will not be able to run for two years. That is not levelling up, is it?

[Mr Simon Clarke]

What is levelling up is making sure that we have a colossal programme of transport investment designed to ensure that the connections both between regions and within regions are as strong as they can be, and I refer to the £96 billion integrated rail plan, which sits at the heart of our ambition in this space. Clearly the specifics of the proposal that the hon. Gentleman mentions are for Transport Ministers and the Mayor of Greater Manchester to discuss.