Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Anna McMorrin Excerpts

Tuesday 21st March 2023 Commons Chamber

[Anna McMorrin (Cardiff North) (Lab)]

Yesterday, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued its most damning report yet. This Government go around the world telling other Governments not to open coalmines, yet that is exactly what this Government are doing. They are also issuing new oil and gas licences, yet not investing in the most efficient and cheapest renewable energy of all, which is onshore wind. Will the Secretary of State at least admit that this Government are not doing anything to commit to ensuring that our next generation has a future linked to the economy, and a more sustainable future at that?

[Michael Gove]

I am very grateful to the hon. Lady, who is a brilliant advocate for the environment. Some of the arguments she has made in this place have weighed with me, and she has helpfully corrected me in the past when I have been in the wrong, but on this occasion I have respectfully to disagree with her. I cannot see how we can have an effective and just transition to a net zero future—not a total zero future, but a net zero future—without oil and gas playing a diminishing but significant and strategic part.

If there are people in this House—and there are on the Front Benches of almost every other party—who believe that we should get rid of oil and gas like that tomorrow or overnight, let them say so. If there are people who think that there should be no further exploration or drilling of our own domestic oil and gas resources, let them go to Aberdeen, Middlesbrough or Grimsby and say so, but I do not think they will receive a warm welcome from the voters there or from the investors. On the point about the coalmine, again I am restricted in what I can say because I have merely followed the advice of the planning inspector. The planning inspector was very clear that both the net zero and downstream emissions as a result of this change would actually contribute to a stronger environmental posture for the UK, not a weaker one.

I want to turn to the area of renewable energy, which the hon. Member for Cardiff North (Anna McMorrin) mentioned. She, like me, is a fan and an advocate of renewables. Let me take her on a journey—a journey to Teesside. I would invite her to join me in visiting Teesport, in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Redcar (Jacob Young). I would like her, and indeed everyone in the House, to join me in seeing what Ben Houchen and the Tees Valley Combined Authority have done there; to see the way in which turbines are assembled there; and to see the way in which the investment secured through the freeport there is providing high-quality, high-paying jobs in green technology, at the cutting-edge of the future, alongside hydrogen work.

I am sure the hon. Lady would want to applaud what Ben Houchen has done, because she is an enlightened and thoughtful Member of this House, but I have to tell her that not every member of the Labour party has been supporting Ben Houchen in bringing high-quality green jobs to working class areas in Teesside. Recently, when the Mayor of Teesside was creating a new development corporation to bring new jobs and new investment into renewables, Middlesbrough Labour councillors voted against it. When the freeport was being debated recently, Labour activists sought to undermine the efforts of Ben Houchen in bringing jobs into that area. The economic policies of those on the Opposition Front Bench that would undermine what is being done.

Teesside has been transformed thanks to Conservative leadership, and in the Budget most recently, Eston—which for 20 years Labour had promised it would invest in, but where it never spent a penny—secured £20 million to see that community at last given the money it needs, so that people’s pride in that place can be supported by central Government. For decades, Teesside was neglected and overlooked by Labour, and it is still being undermined and attacked by Labour, but it depends on Conservatives for its future. That is levelling up in action.

--- Later in debate ---

[Anna McMorrin (Cardiff North) (Lab)]

This is a Budget for decline and could not be further from growth. Every day, I hear from constituents in Cardiff North who are hungry, cold, in debt and fearful for the future. There is nothing in this Budget that will reassure them even a little. They have no shield from the cost of living crisis, no measures to kick-start the economy and no green agenda to build a better future. This Government continue to deny the enormity of the climate challenge. There was nothing on investing in cheap onshore solar and wind power and there was a failure to invest in green tech. The windfall tax loopholes for oil and gas companies were left wide open.

Just yesterday, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its most damning report yet, a final warning on the climate crisis. The IPCC warned that only swift and drastic action can avert what is predicted, and I think we can all agree that this Budget is neither swift nor drastic. Without making that link between the climate and the economy, we will never be able to face the challenges ahead. Our children will remember the failing political choices of this Government.

Despite the Chancellor’s misleading claims about growth, the UK will be the weakest economy in the G7 this year and the only country that will see negative growth. It has the weakest recovery from the pandemic; the economy is smaller now than it was pre-covid. The Office for Budget Responsibility has predicted the largest fall in living standards since records began, a bleak legacy for the Tory Government. Is it surprising that one of the new policies benefits only the richest 1% and their pension pots, costing the taxpayer £1.3 billion? That is the wrong priority at the wrong time.

On fuel poverty, Friends of the Earth has just released data showing that at least 5 million households, or one in every five, are now in fuel poverty in England and Wales. My constituents are paying double in energy bills what they were paying a year ago. My constituent Lauren and her partner are both disabled and were told by Shell Energy, without warning, that they are in debt by £5,000. They are both trying to remain positive, but this has really pushed them over the edge. How many more testimonies like that must we hear before the Government develop a conscience and introduce meaningful change?

Instead, we are faced with a Government who are repairing the colossal cracks in our society with paper mâché. Meanwhile, Samaritans figures show that this January saw the highest percentage of first-time callers concerned about finances or unemployment. There is a direct correlation between increased poverty and domestic abuse, and support services are reporting increased demands on their helplines from desperate victims. Now would be a great time for the Government to introduce the long-awaited victims Bill, but, as always, we continue to wait.

This Budget fails on every level. I have constituents who have told me that they would rather die than pay the energy bills that they cannot afford, food banks in Cardiff are reporting that their users are eating dog food to survive, and the Chancellor has increased the Welsh Government’s budget by only £180 million over the next two years. This Budget is not fit for purpose. To echo the words of our Welsh First Minister, Mark Drakeford, this is a

“less than bare minimum Budget.”