Autumn Budget 2024

Baroness Crawley Excerpts

Monday 11th November 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Crawley (Lab)]

My Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Booth-Smith, on an absolute humdinger of a maiden speech. I predict standing room only for his next contribution.

No Budget pleases everyone, and there has certainly been plenty of criticism in this debate. It is only right that the Government listen to those who believe that they have been unfairly treated, but at least serious people such as my noble friend the Minister are now in charge. We have come a long way from the bizarre and dangerous days of Liz Truss, and gone are the days of inflation at more than 11%. To boot, we have a woman Chancellor, the first ever, which is a cause for celebration. It is good that the Government are now looking forward and are focused on both economic growth and economic stability. Inevitably, with these goals in view, hard choices have to be made. Those hard choices are made in order to fix the foundations, and goodness did they need fixing.

It is good that the Chancellor has made the commitment not to borrow to fund day-to-day spending, for that way lies disaster. It is good that there is a timetable, perhaps far too long for some, for the elimination of the national deficit and a reduction in government spending. It is good that there is a Covid corruption commission at last set up,

“to uncover those companies that used a national emergency to line their own pockets”.—[Official Report, Commons, 30/10/24; col. 815.]

I hope that the leadership of those companies, wherever they are, are listening.

It is good that the national living wage is rising. It is good that the triple lock is to be maintained, despite—and we have to acknowledge this—the very real disappointment among pensioners about losing the winter fuel allowance. It is good that there are going to be more teachers and more money for schools and breakfast clubs. It is good that there is a crackdown on fraud from the DWP, for that fraud takes money from people who need support the most.

It is good that the carer’s allowance is to be increased, albeit from a very low base. That increase in the carer’s allowance has been a long-time campaign in this House; I am particularly thinking of my noble friend Lady Pitkeathley. It is good that the non-dom tax regime is to be abolished. It is good that NHS day-to-day and capital budgets are to rise while waiting lists fall. It is good that support for Ukraine is to be maintained, in the Chancellor’s own words,

“for as long as it takes”.—[Official Report, Commons, 30/10/24; col. 822.]

despite the new foreign policy being written on coasters in the dining rooms of Mar-a-Lago at this very moment.

It is good that billions in compensation are to be set aside for the two greatest scandals of our time: infected blood and the Post Office—about time too. All these things are to be done in spite of the black hole left unseen by the previous Administration.

It is a bit rich for sometime Conservative Ministers to pour scorn on a Treasury team that is finally trying to put things right in a way that does not threaten stability or lead to raging inflation. For the first time in 14 years I can say, “I support this Budget”.