Budget Resolutions

Bell Ribeiro-Addy Excerpts

Monday 1st November 2021 Commons Chamber

[Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Streatham) (Lab)]

Thank you very much, Mr Deputy Speaker. In my—not as short as I thought—time, I want to focus on the majority of people who have been affected by the Budget. In the words of my right hon. Friend the Member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington (Ms Abbott), this is “a polluters’ Budget”, a bankers’ Budget and an arms manufacturers’ Budget. Thankfully those groups are not in the majority, but the majority are worse off because of this Budget.

The Conservative party has broken its manifesto pledge to maintain the triple lock on state pensions, affecting more than 1 million people. State pensions levels in this country are shamefully low and many people do not receive the full amount. Millions of households are also affected by the cut in the uplift to universal credit. They are among the poorest people in our society; a large proportion of them are in work and/or are disabled people, and millions of children are affected.

All this we know not because of the Chancellor’s speech, but from the vital analysis provided by the OBR, the IFS, the Resolution Foundation and the fantastic House of Commons Library. The Chancellor’s speech was an exercise in public relations, not a serious presentation of his own actions. He failed to mention that his own tax changes mean the average household will be paying £3,000 more in taxes per year by 2026. So much for building back better and so much for levelling up. The reality is that this is another austerity Budget from yet another Tory Chancellor.

We should not forget that the same Chancellor, in this same Budget, cut the bank levy and bank surcharges. The beneficiaries will be bank shareholders and bankers’ bonuses, which we know have always been a key concern for the Conservative party. Ordinary people are worse off as a result of this Budget, and as a consequence inequalities can only grow, but that is exactly what this Budget is—a Budget for inequality.

Among others, women will be the biggest losers from the Budget. A gender audit of Wednesday’s announcement by the House of Commons Library showed that 27 million women would be disproportionately affected. The research shows that an average British woman over 18 will be £1,800 worse off over the next six years because of the Chancellor’s tax rises, and those who are older will be hit, with £2,500 less in pension benefits. The research also shows that low-income households will be disproportionately hit and that disabled people and people from minority ethnic groups are more likely to be in lower-income households.

The Conservative party is no more the party of women than it is the party for workers; it is the party for bankers and the party for inequality. The public understand that: in a post-Budget poll for YouGov, a net 32% said they expected their household finances to deteriorate over the next 12 months, and a net 38% expected the economy to deteriorate over the same period. That is hardly a vote of confidence.

Finally, Mr Deputy Speaker, I pose a question with which perhaps you or the Clerks can help—I certainly hope the Government can. Where is the equalities impact assessment on the Budget? I do not mean the four pages out of 200 that mention inequalities, or the basic note that was recently added; I mean the full and comprehensive assessment that by law should accompany every single Bill. It is nowhere to be found in the bundle of Treasury documents. I know that what I have outlined as the substance of the Budget might be embarrassing for Ministers, but equality impact assessments are a statutory obligation, so the only question I ask is: where is it?