Income Tax (Charge)

Clive Jones Excerpts

Tuesday 5th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Clive Jones (Wokingham) (LD)]

My constituency has suffered from the previous Government’s failure to fix our NHS. My constituents were promised a rebuild of the Royal Berkshire hospital. That amounted to nothing. The Conservatives failed to fund the programme; they did not allocate the proper amount of money and they dithered and delayed.

I therefore welcome this Government’s extra funding in the Budget for the NHS and its infrastructure. However, they need to make clear how they will manage a backlog of maintenance repairs amounting to £102 million for the Royal Berkshire hospital, on top of upwards of £1.3 billion required to build a new hospital. The trust could start construction as early as 2028, but that requires urgent confirmation that the funding will go ahead. Does the Minister agree that a hospital sooner rather than later will deliver better outcomes for patients?

I do not blame the Government for the financial mess that they have inherited from the Conservatives, but when it comes to primary care, the Budget has taken one step forward but two steps back. I simply do not understand why, at a time when Wokingham has an increasing GP-to-patient ratio and a growing population, the Chancellor has decided to levy a tax on jobs through the national insurance employer contribution. That will impact GP care provision and leave our overstretched services struggling even more.

I am campaigning for the community of Arborfield to have their own dedicated GP practice. My constituents are crying out for change so that they can get the services that they deserve. Does the Minister agree that GPs in Wokingham and across England should be protected from the national insurance hike? If that does not happen, we risk losing their services. Will he engage with my local integrated care board to impress upon it the need to fund a GP surgery in the community of Arborfield?

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[Zarah Sultana (Coventry South) (Ind)]

The Government have a profound duty to tackle poverty with urgency and ambition. After 14 years of Tory austerity hollowing out our public services and leaving our communities struggling, eradicating poverty must be at the heart of the Government’s agenda. Yet the Budget falls short, and without bold action the most vulnerable in our constituencies will continue to suffer.

Ending austerity is not just about stopping cuts; it is about real action to lift people out of poverty. The critical first step must be to scrap the two-child benefit cap, which unfairly punishes families for having more than two children. If it remains, according to the Resolution Foundation an additional 63,000 children will be in poverty by 2025. We must scrap it immediately. We must also reverse the means-testing of winter fuel payments. No pensioner should have to choose between heating and eating in a cost of living crisis. Providing warmth to those at risk should be non-negotiable for a Labour Government. The 50% rise in bus fare cap is equally unacceptable. Affordable public transport is vital for low-income families, students and those without cars. Increasing fares deepens and entrenches inequality, and hinders our climate goals.

The Labour Government must ditch Tory welfare reforms that will slash billions from disability benefits, pushing people into more severe hardship. Those reforms must be rejected root and branch, not piecemeal. The more than 330,000 excess deaths in the past decade remind us that austerity costs lives and that politics is a matter of life and death. In one of the world’s wealthiest nations, no family should be in poverty, no child should be left hungry and no pensioner should be unable to heat their home.

Our response must be transformative in rebalancing the economy for the many, not the few. We need a fair tax system that places the burden on those who can pay the most. A 2% tax on assets over £10 million could raise £24 billion annually, and equalising capital gains with income rate thresholds would bring in an additional £17 billion. Those funds could truly transform our NHS, schools and communities.

Finally, we need a bold economic plan to secure our future, with a worker-led just transition to renewable energy, creating thousands of unionised jobs and ensuring that no one is left behind. My constituents in Coventry South and communities across the UK deserve a Budget that marks the end of austerity with action not just words, and with a true commitment to ending poverty.

[Clive Jones]

On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. I must apologise to the House for not making a declaration at the beginning of my speech. I am a governor of the Royal Berkshire hospital, and I have a family member who has shares in a health company. I apologise for not mentioning it at the beginning of my speech.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

I thank the hon. Member for advance notice of his point of order. It is most definitely relevant to the debate, and his transparency is noted.