Oral Answers to Questions
Andrew Rosindell Excerpts(1 month, 4 weeks ago)
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Andrew Rosindell (Romford) (Con)
The Minister for Trade Policy (Greg Hands)
The United Kingdom has trade deals with 33 Commonwealth countries, and our new developing countries trading scheme offers more generous tariffs, rules of origin and trading conditions to developing countries, including 19 Commonwealth countries. The UK-Australia FTA has seen sharp rises in many UK export sectors, including furniture tripling year on year and car exports doubling. Meanwhile, of the 11 parties to the comprehensive and progressive agreement for trans-Pacific partnership, six are Commonwealth countries, and that agreement gives us new or improved access to those important markets.
Andrew Rosindell
Mr Speaker, I know that you will be celebrating Commonwealth day on Monday with the raising of the Commonwealth flag. Will the Minister take this opportunity to expand our trading relations with the Commonwealth and look at the idea of an opt-in, opt-out WTO-style organisation involving all Commonwealth countries? Surely this is a great opportunity to expand our trade with some of the world’s emerging economic powerhouses.
Greg Hands
I thank my hon. Friend for that question and his commitment to the Commonwealth. As a constituency MP with a huge Commonwealth diaspora in Chelsea and Fulham, I totally understand his sympathies and look forward to celebrating Commonwealth day with him and others next week. He knows that the Commonwealth does not make trade rules, nor is it a trade agreement body like the Gulf Co-operation Council, the European Free Trade Association or the CPTPP. We think that the better course at present is to ratify our CPTPP membership and continue to have reduced tariffs under our developing countries trading scheme. However, we are always open to new ideas at the Department for Business and Trade and I am happy to meet my hon. Friend to discuss this further.
Kemi Badenoch
UK Export Finance does not give the money; it provides guarantees to loans that are being provided by banks. There is quite a significant distinction: we have not given that money; we have guaranteed a loan. The reason why we provide those guarantees is that they guarantee jobs to British businesses. There is a big difference between a loan guarantee and giving money. If he would like more of an explanation on that, we are happy to provide one to him.
Andrew Rosindell (Romford) (Con)
The Minister for Trade Policy (Greg Hands)
I thank my hon. Friend, who is a leading member of the British-Switzerland APPG, for his interest. Both the Secretary of State and I met the Swiss Trade Minister in Abu Dhabi last week. The trade talks are progressing well. We are seeking high-ambition outcomes in all areas, including services and investment, mobility, digital, and the environment, which are not covered by our existing FTA. In short, there are a large number of high-priority areas for us, building on the agreement that we did on financial services in Bern at the end of last year, to ensure that this UK-Switzerland FTA really takes forward the bilateral trade relationship. The fourth round of negotiations is taking place in Bern this week.
Budget Resolutions
Andrew Rosindell Excerpts(2 months ago)
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Andrew Rosindell (Romford) (Con)
May I commend my right hon. Friend the Chancellor on his Budget statement today? He is, I believe, slowly but surely getting Britain’s economy back on the right track. However, we have much work to do. The United Kingdom has no business being a high-tax, low-growth and low-aspiration nation. That is not the Britain I recognise.
The people of Romford are feeling the pinch. The overall burden of tax is higher than it has been since the second world war. Council tax is rising in the London Borough of Havering yet again. Public services are not even meeting basic expectations, and local government is struggling to remain solvent. The cost of living is hitting my constituents hard in the pocket, with energy prices rocketing and the daily cost of food and essential shopping rising to unprecedented levels. Inflation remains acute, yet there is little economic growth. Financial prudence may be an important Conservative attribute—it is certainly absent from those on the Opposition Benches—but there is nothing less Conservative than a record high tax burden. We can and must do much better.
Hard-working families in Romford want lower taxes, higher economic growth and good public services. Those three aims can be achieved only if we adopt a robust, free enterprise agenda, reduce the size of the state at every level, and give the British people the incentive to work harder, be more productive and maximise our nation’s potential for economic growth. My Essex constituents are entrepreneurs, market traders, small businessmen, shopkeepers and City workers. They do not want an economic policy of managed decline, but one of heightened ambition and raised expectations. That is why I welcome many of the Chancellor’s tax announcements today.
The additional 2% cut to national insurance contributions means that the Conservative Government have delivered a £900 annual tax cut for the average worker. The extended cut to fuel duty will also help hard-working people mitigate the costs of the Mayor of London, who has imposed so many extra costs on my constituents. Child benefit reforms will help millions of hard-working families. The reforms to stamp duty and the reduction in capital gains will help millions of property owners. Nevertheless, the Chancellor has repeatedly recalled over recent days how the nations with the most economic growth, whether they be in North America or Asia, are those with even lower taxes. I encourage him to further emulate those countries’ success in the years to come. Low taxes will put money back in the pockets of the British people, leading to higher growth and more resources for public services.
My right hon. Friend the Chancellor clearly shares that outlook, with his announcements today of tax cuts, investment and reform to boost productivity in the public sector. However, I encourage him to go much further. We should follow in the footsteps of the Thatcher-Lawson Budget that led to unprecedented economic prosperity in the 1980s and 1990s. We can and must succeed, but Britain has to be much bolder if we are to reap the benefits by becoming a low-tax, high-growth economy once again.
But tax cuts and investment alone will not be enough. We need to adopt a radical plan to free our economy from the needless bureaucracy that is holding Britain back. The benefits of becoming a sovereign nation once again following Brexit give our nation exciting opportunities that we must seize to maximise our ability to generate the growth and prosperity that we so desperately need. Margaret Thatcher showed the world how it could be done 40 years ago, rescuing Britain from the perilous situation she inherited following decades of a failed post-war socialist consensus.
Today, we live in a post-pandemic world, but if we are to recover from the consequences of lockdowns, a radical approach is required to jump-start our economy and unshackle ourselves from red tape, over-regulation and Government waste. Britain today is over-governed, so reducing the size and role of the state must be an imperative for our Conservative Government. Regulation and public sector spending do not grow the economy, put cash into people’s pockets or improve public services. It is the small businessmen and shopkeepers in towns like Romford, along with our entrepreneurs and market traders, who will generate economic prosperity for the future.
I am disappointed that the unfairness in the local authority funding formula has not been addressed. Councils up and down the country, including my borough of Havering, are facing acute financial pressures. The funding formula is unfair and outdated, and it is discriminatory against boroughs such as Havering in outer London and Essex as it fails to address differences in demographics. Most importantly, it leaves hard-working, tax-paying Britons without the services they need and deserve. That, too, requires ambitious reform.
Ambition is key. Lower taxes, higher growth, reform and deregulation—exploiting all the advantages of Brexit—investment and reform of the public sector are the way forward for Britain. Our Government have been right to tread a prudent path back to economic growth, but now is the time to be bold and fearless in the pursuit of the greater ambitions we have for the British people.