Government Policies (Wales)

Chris Bryant Excerpts

Wednesday 26th November 2014 Commons Chamber

[Owen Smith]

Let me tell the hon. Gentleman something very simple that he could do to stop this back and forth about numbers: he could think about the impact on people in his constituency and mine, and those of all other hon. Members, and he could scrap the bedroom tax tomorrow. That is what Labour will do if we are elected. We will get rid of it in a heartbeat. Frankly, the nonsense about who has applied for which grant demeans this debate, which is a serious debate about the impact on real people.

[Chris Bryant (Rhondda) (Lab)]

Does not this argument miss the fundamental point, which is that if the Government have to create a system in which there is a discretionary housing payment, which means that some local authorities will be mean at the beginning of the year and generous towards the end of the year, and that some local authorities will be meaner than others, they have completely lost the plot? That is why we have to get rid of the bedroom tax in its entirety.

[Owen Smith]

Introducing a tax that is reliant on people being able to move to smaller properties was, in and of itself, barmy, because there are not the properties for people to move into. That is why 60% of social housing associations in Wales are struggling to rehouse people.

Of course, it is not just the people who are hit by the cuts to welfare payments that are affected, but the wider population. Sheffield Hallam university produced a report just a few weeks ago that said that the welfare cuts will result in a £1,000 reduction in the incomes of all people across the south Wales valleys eventually, as reductions in aggregate demand, reductions in spending and further job losses—it suggested that 3,000 jobs might be lost across south Wales—result in a less dynamic and resilient economy. It is not just the people who are directly impacted by the welfare cuts who are affected, but the wider economy.

On top of the welfare cuts, ordinary workers who are not in receipt of benefits are losing £1,600 a year. That is why Labour will do something about low wages in Wales. We have made it very clear that we will set the national minimum wage at 58% of median earnings by 2020. That will mean a minimum wage of £8 in Wales and will put an extra £2.50 per week in the pockets of working people. It will mean 60 quid a week or £3,000 a year for hard-working families. [Interruption.] The Secretary of State laughs and giggles once more, as I discuss low wages.

--- Later in debate ---

[Stephen Crabb]

That is a message I hear consistently from small businesses up and down Wales. Wherever I go, they welcome the efforts the Government have made to give them confidence to hire more workers and to keep staff. The last thing that businesses want to be doing is shedding staff at this time. They know how hard things have been for many families out there in the economy and they are doing everything possible to hold on to staff and grow their work forces. We have been supporting them in that.

[Chris Bryant]

The single thing that every business man or woman in Wales has said to me is that they want economic security and certainty about the future if they are going to see investment or to make further investment themselves. What is really worrying them is that the Government are playing fast and loose with our membership of the European Union, hanging the sword of Damocles over the Welsh economy and the UK economy. The uncertainty about whether we will be in or out is surely bad for the Welsh economy.

[Stephen Crabb]

The uncertainty about the European Union and the doubts and concerns about it are out there anyway. If the hon. Gentleman talks to people in Wales and looks at the public opinion polls, he will see that opinion in Wales is almost equally divided between those who are saying they want to come out of the European Union and those who are saying that they want to stay in. The Prime Minister’s strategy of getting a better deal from Europe as regards our membership and putting it to the people of Wales and the UK, arguing for Britain to stay in on that renegotiated membership, is the best strategy for dealing with this and addressing it head-on. That has to be the best way.

[Chris Bryant]

I disagree. I would have a referendum tomorrow. If that is the Secretary of State’s real argument, let us have a referendum tomorrow. The idea of holding off for two years and having some nebulous renegotiation when we have not even set the terms of what we want and are constantly saying to businesses in Wales that we do not know whether will be in or whether the Prime Minister would support staying in the European Union in two years’ time can only be bad not only for big businesses, such as Airbus and General Electric, but for the small and medium-sized businesses that rely on investment through the public funds that come from the EU.

[Stephen Crabb]

I have a great deal of time and respect for the hon. Gentleman, who knows his stuff on this issue, but I suggest that he look at what the business organisations are saying. They support what the Prime Minister is saying about renegotiating. Businesses themselves in the UK and Wales want a less intrusive, less costly and less burdensome membership of the European Union.

--- Later in debate ---

[Stephen Crabb]

Well, Madam Deputy Speaker, I merely pick up what has been reported and discussed in the media.

While the Labour party is busy tearing itself apart, we are cracking on with creating the right conditions to get the economy moving. We are investing in Wales because we believe in Wales. I am particularly delighted to be able to tell the House that the rail electrification projects in south Wales will go ahead. I am sure that the hon. Member for Pontypridd would have preferred us not to meet that challenge, so he would have one more reason to be negative and talk down the economy in Wales, but I am proud of the deal that the Wales Office brokered between the Department for Transport and the Welsh Government, putting Welsh interests right at the heart of the Government’s agenda.

[Chris Bryant]

rose—

[Stephen Crabb]

I give way to the hon. Member for Rhondda, who is very excited today.

[Chris Bryant]

No, I am quite calm, actually. This is calm.

Will the Secretary of State tell me precisely when we shall see the electrification of the valleys lines? I have heard successive Ministers make promises about it, but absolutely nothing has happened.

[Stephen Crabb]

We are delivering this project. We have worked very constructively with the Welsh Government to put the deal in place. We will see trains running on the electrified service to Swansea in 2018, and on the valleys lines in 2022. Obviously, those timetables are subject to how quickly the Welsh Government move in managing the project, but they understand its strategic importance and urgency for people and businesses in south Wales.

--- Later in debate ---

[David T. C. Davies (Monmouth) (Con)]

Once again, we have listened for about 40 minutes to the hon. Member for Pontypridd (Owen Smith) treat us to his tales of economic doom and gloom and woe. It must be getter harder and harder for him to maintain that in the light of the ever-better financial news. I had an interesting morning in the run-up to this debate: I decided to read through a few of his previous speeches. I went back to 2010, when he quoted an Oxford Economics report, saying that the coalition Government would be able to create only 4,000 private sector jobs. I wonder whether he remembers saying that. The reality is that so far, over the course of this Parliament, we have created 100,000 private sector jobs in Wales alone. In the same speech he talked about net increases in unemployment continuing until 2025. The reality, of course, is that unemployment is now at its lowest level since 2008.

In a subsequent speech on 11 November 2011, the hon. Gentleman spoke of a 4% contraction in GDP over the course of the Parliament. The reality is that so far over the course of this Parliament we have had a GDP of 7.8%, and I got that figure from the House of Commons Library earlier today. We have the fastest-growing economy in the developed world. I am so proud to be standing here supporting the Prime Minister and the excellent Secretary of State for Wales he has just appointed.

[Chris Bryant]

If we are going to talk about speeches that other Members have made, I remember the Prime Minister saying that the deficit would be cut completely by the end of this Parliament. I remember him saying that the debt would be falling. I remember him saying that net migration to this country would fall below 100,000. None of those things has come to pass, so let us talk about the Government’s failures.

[David T. C. Davies]

rose—

[Chris Bryant]

The Prime Minister even said that no disabled people would be affected by the bedroom tax, but two thirds of those affected by it in Wales are disabled.

[David T. C. Davies]

If the hon. Gentleman would be kind enough to give way, I will talk about those things. First I will leave him to think about this headline: “UK unemployment rate falls to lowest level since 2008”. That is from The Guardian just a few weeks ago. But let us talk about the debt, because after all, we inherited a debt of around £800 billion.

[Chris Bryant]

It has gone up.

[David T. C. Davies]

Yes, it has gone up. We also had a deficit of £160 billion, and we have not managed to do as much as we wanted to do with that. I would have liked to see us do more with it. But the reality is that there has been no coherence from Labour Members, because every time we have suggested ways to cut the deficit further, they have opposed them. They sit there trying to convince the world that they have a coherent economic policy, when they have condemned us for borrowing money while at the same time demanding that we borrow more. That is why people will not trust them with the economy.

The hon. Member for Rhondda (Chris Bryant) talked about immigration. Again, I would have liked to see us go further, but immigration from outside the European Union has been reduced significantly, and we cannot do anything about immigration from within the European Union—he should know, because he is the biggest Europhile in this place. We cannot do anything about freedom of movement, but we are going to offer a referendum on it.