Economic Growth

Charlie Maynard Excerpts

Monday 7th September 2026 Commons Chamber

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

[Charlie Maynard (Witney) (LD)]

I thank the Chancellor and the Minister for their speech and statement. We know that the Conservatives’ Brexit deal has hit national GDP by as much as 8%, costing the country up to £90 billion a year in lost tax revenues. Will the Government now pull the largest zero-cost growth lever available to them by negotiating a growth and defence partnership with the EU, including joining the single market and a new customs union, rather than clinging to the same failed red lines, which are costing businesses billions every year? Being outside the single market and the customs union directly links to the 13% fall in the UK’s export of goods since 2022, which has hit traditional manufacturing regions the worst—the same places that the Government’s reindustrialise-the-north agenda claims to prioritise. I would like to understand whether she acknowledges the reality of that linkage or not.

I welcome the Chancellor’s emphasis on the importance of fiscal credibility and, linked to that, meeting the fiscal rules. However, the reality is that those rules have been easily gamed by successive Governments, with our budgetary process being summarised as speculation without scrutiny, short-term headroom chasing and gaming the system, with an approach of jam today, which is spending, and pain tomorrow, which is tax, but tomorrow never arrives. The result is that it has been more than 25 years since we had a balanced Budget, and our national debt is now six times larger than 20 years ago.

Will the Chief Secretary demonstrate that she is serious about tackling our debt and agree that a key way to do that is to grow our economy? Will she consider what we can learn from how other countries such as Switzerland, Sweden and New Zealand have addressed and solved their budget process problems?

[Emma Reynolds]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his questions and will try to do them justice in the short time available. The Chancellor said this morning that Brexit has hammered British exports. I agree with the hon. Gentleman that there is a link between the fall in exports and the barriers the previous Conservative Government put up with our nearest and biggest trading partner, which is exactly why this Government are renegotiating a reset with our European partners. We promised in our manifesto that we would not join the single market, but we will bring down those barriers at the border, particularly with the sanitary and phytosanitary agreement that we are currently negotiating with the EU—there will be further announcements on that in due course—which will benefit our agrifood industry by making it easier to export to the European Union.

The hon. Gentleman asked about the fiscal rules. I do not agree with his analysis: we have brought forward the fiscal rules to apply over three years to get around some of the gaming that he talks about. We are serious about tackling our debt and, as I said in my statement, we are reducing our deficit at the fastest rate in the G7.

I am always interested to learn from other countries; I think we should always be open to that. I would be interested to hear more about what the hon. Gentleman had in mind.