Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Catherine McKinnell Excerpts

Tuesday 21st March 2023 Commons Chamber

[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.

[Catherine McKinnell (Newcastle upon Tyne North) (Lab)]

I would be delighted if the Secretary of State could demonstrate that his Department knows where the places are that he is talking about. Is he aware of Government advertising boasting about levelling-up funding for the Grainger market in Newcastle that was advertised in Newcastle-upon-Lyme?

[Michael Gove]

I think it is Newcastle-under-Lyme, not Newcastle-upon-Lyme, but as someone who lived in Gosforth for five happy months, I am always happy to talk about Newcastle with the hon. Lady.

--- Later in debate ---

[Catherine McKinnell (Newcastle upon Tyne North) (Lab)]

It is an honour to follow the hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington (Elliot Colburn), a fellow member of the Petitions Committee. After the chaos of the past few years, the Budget was the Government’s chance to show that they would govern for everyone and end the divisive rhetoric and politics that hold our country back. Sadly, it was an opportunity missed, because although some of the biggest challenges—the need to reform childcare and get Britain working again—were acknowledged, the Government have proved incapable of fixing them.

Across the north-east, 38% of babies, children and young people are growing up in poverty, overwhelmingly in working families. In Newcastle, that figure is 42%. It is only set to get worse, with 1 million more children expected to live in poverty in the next year. That is the reality: more children growing up in households without the very basics, whether that is food in their stomachs, heating in their homes, clothing on their backs or something as fundamental as a bed.

In December, as chair of the Petitions Committee, I led a debate on child bed poverty. I can scarcely believe that bed poverty is a real problem in 21st century Britain, but it is, yet we only saw complacency in the Budget. The squeeze on living standards has left working people £104 a month poorer and wages are set to remain below 2008 levels until 2026. That is not growth. Everyone is running faster but they are slipping backwards. People are still paying more for their mortgages after the kamikaze budget, but, against that backdrop, the Chancellor’s choice was to give a tax cut to the richest 1%. That is the wrong priority at the wrong time.

Since 2019, the Petitions Committee has received many childcare petitions, signed by more than half a million people, on extending free childcare, on the childcare ratios and calling for an independent review of the childcare sector. I am heartened that the Chancellor has started to listen to those concerns, but the solutions will not meet the challenge. Increasing the number of children entitled to free childcare places while continuing to supply inadequate funding will mean that childcare providers will increasingly be forced out of the market. They have made that very clear.

The Government have also neglected to follow the evidence on ratios. It was presented very clearly to us in a powerful petition led by Zoe and Lewis Steeper, who sadly lost their son in a tragic accident at nursery. The Early Years Alliance describes relaxing ratios as a

“ludicrous, pointless and potentially dangerous policy”.

It just will not work. Some 70% of childcare providers have said that the Government consultation will not make them review their provision. Pregnant Then Screwed warn that such a change will be “detrimental to staff retention”, with a survey showing that 75% are likely to leave if ratios are relaxed. We are asking these very low-paid workers to do more with even less, and that will exacerbate existing problems. It is not just about safety. We know that smaller numbers mean better quality childcare, and that matters to our families, our children, our childcare workers and our economy.

I could have talked about so many issues today—our crumbling transport infrastructure, our wavering commitment to international aid, defence spending or the failure of the Government’s so-called levelling-up agenda—but time simply does not allow it. What worries me is that this Budget is an attempt to paper over the cracks of 13 years of failure, and we cannot afford any more precarious growth. The Budget is a deafening wake-up call to the British people that unfortunately this Government are out of ideas, out of road and need to make way for a Government who will take the country forward.