Christine Jardine
Main Page: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)Department Debates - View all Christine Jardine's debates with the HM Treasury
(2 years, 11 months ago)
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Christine Jardine (Edinburgh West) (LD)
It is an honour to speak in today’s debate, even though it is a very frustrating one. I cannot get my head around the fact that Government Members seem more offended by the Labour party trying to take control of the Order Paper than the cost-of-living crisis facing this country. That is not coming down the line; it is here and it is now. We have inflation at its record highest level in the last 10 years, a stealth tax that the Government introduced by freezing the tax threshold and a hike in national insurance, all of which are making a bad situation worse. Let us not start reheating pointless Brexit arguments; let us try to deal with the issue.
The Liberal Democrats believe that cutting VAT is a blunt instrument, so in principle, we would prefer to see targeted measures, doubling the warm home discount and the winter allowance. That is what we need, but we will support the Labour party today because it wants address the issues that people in our constituencies care about: how they will heat their homes, feed their children and keep themselves warm if they are elderly. That is what they care about, not debates that happened two years ago or, for that matter, Scottish independence. They care about how they pay their bills now, so we will support the motion.
Will the Government please stop speaking to us all as though we are not aware of what is going on in the country? Perhaps they are not aware—perhaps they are detached from it—but we Liberal Democrat Members are very aware of the problems that our constituents face due to the cost of living, inflation and energy prices going up, and the economic impact of the pandemic on our local businesses and independent traders, who provide vital income not just to our local communities, but to the people who work for them.
Two years ago, the Chancellor promised us that he would do whatever it took to fix the economy. It is a crying shame that he and the rest of the Government are apparently not prepared to do whatever it takes to help the people of this country through an economic crisis and a cost-of-living crisis that is hitting them hard.