Employer National Insurance Contributions

Danny Beales Excerpts

Wednesday 4th December 2024 Commons Chamber

[Danny Beales (Uxbridge and South Ruislip) (Lab)]

The issue at the crux of the debate is one of economic responsibility. It is about a choice whether to invest or to let further decline take place in our public services.

They say a week is a long time in politics. Well, four months is clearly still not long enough for the Conservatives to have learned any lessons from the last general election about why they might be sitting on the Opposition Benches and we might be sitting on the Government Benches. They crashed the economy, wasted billions of pounds of taxpayers’ hard-earned money and ran the NHS into the ground. They then called an early election to run away from the mess that they knew this Government would inherit.

As legislators, we need to be honest with the electorate about the trade-offs and challenges this country faces, and we cannot simultaneously rebuild our public services and cut taxes at the same time. As has been said, there is no magic money tree—we saw with the disastrous Liz Truss mini-Budget the impacts of a Government who do not understand those facts.

[John Glen (Salisbury) (Con)]

I recognise there are political differences across the House, but the hon. Gentleman surely has to be concerned about the overall impact of the decision on national insurance on the ability and inclination of those who invest in the real economy to generate the wealth and tax revenues that will sustain the economy going forward. Surely he can recognise that the decisions made by his Government are having a negative effect on growth, which will mean more taxes and more borrowing.

[Danny Beales]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for that rather long intervention. I must say that the Conservatives do not understand the economy. If someone cannot get a train to work, they cannot work; if they cannot get a hospital appointment, they cannot work. Time and again, I hear from employers that they want investment, stability, and for their employees to be able to contribute in the workplace. To separate public services and the private sector into two diametrically opposed parts of the economy is what the Conservatives did for 14 years. They cut public services time and again, and we all face longer-term costs because of that fact.

The Labour Government understand that. Sadly, the Conservative party still does not. The choice we are still hearing is for continuing austerity. No one in this country voted for that and no one on the Labour Benches, at least, wants that. We want NHS waiting lists to fall. We want crumbling schools rebuilt, and investment in our vital public services and armed forces.

[Gregory Stafford]

The hon. Gentleman and I are members of the Health Committee, so I ask him this with all seriousness and genuineness. Does he not see the risk of this tax rise for GP surgeries, the hospice sector and the voluntary sector, which supports a lot of what the NHS does?

[Danny Beales]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for that intervention. What we have both heard on the Health Committee is that the NHS has been left on its knees after 14 years. All sectors of the health service are crying out for investment. I hear in my constituency from doctors and nurses who are thankful that, finally, they are being recognised with decent pay. Opposition Members declare them to be trade union barons. No. They are nurses, doctors, teachers and police officers.

As I said, we need to invest. Ministry of Defence homes in my constituency must be invested in. My old primary school, Deanesfield, with its crumbling classrooms needs to be invested in. The Labour party has a plan to make that happen and it is vital that we fund those measures—measures that any responsible Government would take. Therefore, we do have to make difficult but necessary decisions and ask the largest businesses to pay slightly more to help fund those vital public services. I understand the concerns that have been raised, but as the Minister put forward, half of businesses will not pay the extra contributions and some, the smallest, will pay even less.

[Graham Stuart]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Danny Beales]

I have given way a number of times already and I want to make some more progress, if the right hon. Gentleman will allow.

It is a bit rich for the Conservative party to suddenly discover the charity sector and claim to be the party of the third sector. Having worked in the third sector for 10 years, I remember nothing but the Conservative party slamming the charity sector year after year after year. The charities I meet want us to fix the NHS, to fix homelessness, and to fix the social and economic problems we inherited from the previous Government. Locally in Hillingdon, the Conservative council has not been a champion; it has cut them to the bone. Most of the charities I meet have a handful of employees left, at best. Under this Government’s measures, they are likely to see support.

Fundamentally, in this Budget we face a choice and we have chosen to protect the most vulnerable in society. However, it appears that the Conservatives still fail to understand basic economics. They want all the benefits of the Budget—at least, they do this week—but they do not seem to know how they will pay for them. They drove our public services into crisis and now oppose the very measures we are taking in the Budget to rebuild them. Nothing has changed. They are not a serious, responsible party of government. They are still addicted to endless cuts to public services, paying more and getting less, constantly taking the short-term, easy approach. It would be immensely irresponsible for any Government to just ignore the crisis in our public services, and to return to austerity, instability and decline. We choose investment over decline. That is what my constituents voted for: more doctors, more nurses, fair pay and investment, not decline.

[Luke Taylor]

On that point, how can the hon. Gentleman say we will see more doctors when our GP surgeries are telling us that they will have to cut doctors, cut staff and cut appointments as a result of the national insurance increase? What would he say to them?

[Danny Beales]

I would say £25 billion for the NHS, a record level of investment since the last Labour Government.

I ask the Opposition: what would they do? Would they prefer to let NHS waiting lists grow, and inequalities widen between state and private education? Would they reverse our investment in neighbourhood policing, or our increased funding for social care? If not, what taxes would they raise instead to pay for those measures? They cannot continue to have it both ways.

It is clear that the Opposition have not learnt any lessons. Their position continues to be founded on an economic fiction. They are the same old Conservative party that crashed our economy in 2022, and they would do it again. Well, this Budget and this Government will not. We choose investment, we choose our NHS, and we choose to balance our budget.

[Several hon. Members rose—]