Darren Paffey
Main Page: Darren Paffey (Labour - Southampton Itchen)Department Debates - View all Darren Paffey's debates with the HM Treasury
(2 days, 8 hours ago)
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Sir Mel Stride
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The reality is that if we tax something, we tend to get less of it. This Government have taxed business, so it is not surprising that the economy has been damaged as a consequence.
An often fair question asked of the Conservatives is: what would we do? Let me answer that question directly. First, we would have taken very different choices. We would not have loaded up taxation on businesses and stifled growth in the way that Labour has: we would have focused on productivity. We would not have come into office and given the train drivers 14% and the junior doctors 22% with no strings attached whatsoever. We were told by the now Health Secretary during the run-up to the general election that all we needed to do was get around the table with the unions and settle and the problem would go away—well, the junior doctors are back for more.
Sir Mel Stride
I will momentarily.
We would of course have tackled the welfare bill, as we did when we were in office. We made £5 billion-worth of savings, as scored by the Office for Budget Responsibility, and we had 450,000 fewer people going on to long-term sickness benefits as a direct consequence of our policies. We had a clear plan to go into government and save £12 billion a year in addition.
Darren Paffey
While the shadow Chancellor is engaging in such fascinating whataboutery at the Dispatch Box, will he take the opportunity to say which of the 25 tax increases in the last Parliament he regrets or would undo?