Budget Resolutions

Lord Grayling Excerpts

Wednesday 27th October 2021 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling (Epsom and Ewell) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to follow the right hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne East (Mr Brown). He is right that many of us share common ambitions across the House—ambitions for COP26, and to bring better jobs to his constituents and constituents across much of the country in areas where such jobs have not necessarily been in the past.

I was Employment Minister back in 2010, in the wake of the last economic crisis. It is therefore with a particular sense of pride—I emphasise, pride—that I listened to today’s Budget and I congratulate the Chancellor. Back in 2010, there were 2.7 million people unemployed; the numbers were rising, the pressures were upward and the challenges were enormous. I listened to economists saying, “This is going to get worse and worse.” The achievement of the Conservative party, over a decade in government, of which I am proudest is the transformation of employment prospects for the people of this country. As we went into the pandemic, we were as close as we have been in modern times to full employment. After some tough economic and spending decisions, and some tough challenges met after 2010, we collectively—through smart management of the economy and the right employment programmes to support the long-term unemployed—delivered a transformation in job prospects, particularly of young people in the United Kingdom.

It was with huge trepidation, at the start of the pandemic, that I saw that work at risk, with forecasts of 3 or 4 million people unemployed and a whole generation’s prospects disappearing. I have to say that the Chancellor stepped up to the plate. It was not easy—he was right in saying that these have not been easy decisions for a Conservative Government, but they were the right thing to do. After a large amount of money spent on the employment support programme, the furlough scheme and the loan support for businesses, we are coming out of this pandemic with unemployment at 5.4%. Yes, that is higher than it was, but there are not many in the House who, in March 2020, contemplating the prospects for the labour market, would not have been pleased and surprised to see unemployment at that level coming out of the pandemic, and falling, with 1 million vacancies in the economy and decent prospects for people. The Chancellor, single-handedly—and we have to bear in mind that he had only been in the job for about half an hour when this all started—delivered programmes that have made a massive difference to this country. I hope he will always be proud of that.

But we do now have 1 million vacancies in this country. We have businesses with skills shortages, against all our expectations. We will not solve that through mass immigration. One reason that the haulage sector is lacking people is that there was so much cheap migration of both migrant workers and trucks from eastern Europe that drove down prices and left people thinking, “This is not an industry to be part of—I am going to retire, or go elsewhere.” The solution in that industry will be about paying more, but the solution in our country to these labour shortages will be about automation and productivity.

We have taken too much advantage of a steady flow of unskilled or semi-skilled labour over a long period of time. I remember talking a few years ago to the logistics director of a big retailer, who said to me, “If we leave the European Union, where am I going to get my warehouse staff from?”, to which my answer was, “Why do you need warehouse staff—surely you are automating your warehouse?” He said, “Actually we do not need to automate our warehouse because we have access to low-cost staff.” That has to change. I welcome the measures taken by the Chancellor last year and this year to drive business investment. Much of the solution to the skills shortage in our society—although not all; there are areas where it is a real problem—will come through a drive on productivity, innovation and automation. That is the way forward and that is the challenge that not just Government but business in this country has to grasp right now and deliver on, because that will be as big a part of transforming our economy and transforming our prospects as anything the Government do.

The Chancellor was also right to stress the benefits of leaving the European Union. We have only just started to scrape the surface of the benefits that can be obtained. I look forward to seeing a process of sensible deregulation. I am not in favour of the abolition of all regulation—it is there to protect people, and rightly so—but there are things we can do in areas like artificial intelligence, and financial services and the City, to make the UK more competitive. The job of getting that done has only just started. There is work to be done. I look forward to seeing, I hope, in the months ahead more announcements from the Treasury and from other Departments about what we will do in future to maximise the potential of Britain outside the European Union.

I have two final points, briefly, because I know we are short on time. First, I welcome the return to 0.7% because we must help countries around the world to deal with the challenges they face, particularly around energy and climate change, but also in something that I feel passionately about—the protection of the natural world and habitats. Deforestation happens for a number of reasons, but one of them is simply that people cut down trees to make charcoal to cook their food. I want to see more support provided for the creation of proper sources of renewable energy in the developing world so that that element of deforestation no longer happens. There is a huge amount that we need to do in tackling climate change, but looking after the natural world is one very important part of that.

My final point is about what the Chancellor said at the end of his speech. As Conservatives, we believe in low taxation and leaving people to make their own choices. He set a direction today. My message to the Treasury is that I—and, I am pretty sure, an awful lot of people on the Conservative Benches—will be holding the Chancellor’s feet to the fire to deliver on that, because we cannot plan a future, as Conservatives, as a big-state, high-tax party. We are a small-state, free-enterprise party. We know that that is what leads to prosperity and we all want prosperity for the people of this country, particularly those who are struggling and those on low pay. This needs to be an equal, levelled-up society, and we will not do that with a big state and high taxes.

[Several hon. Members rose—]