Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Debbie Abrahams Excerpts

Tuesday 21st March 2023 Commons Chamber

[Michael Gove]

I will give way to the hon. Lady, and then I will try to make a little progress.

[Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)]

Does the Secretary of State want to comment on the CBI report on climate change and the relative investment of different countries, including the UK? It puts us below Germany, France, the US, the EU and the World Bank for investment through public spending on climate change.

[Michael Gove]

It is the case that this Government have seen a massive uptick in solar power—I think more than 90% of the increase in solar panels and solar power generation in this country has occurred under this Government. It is also the case that this country is the world’s favourite destination for offshore wind investment. It is also the case that with our investment in carbon capture and storage and in nuclear power, as I have mentioned, we have exactly the diversity of supply required.

Could this Government do more? Could any Government do more? Yes, but it has to be paid for. I am afraid that Labour’s position, with the commitment to spend £28 billion on a green new deal, is unfunded. Not a penny has been allocated by the shadow Chancellor to pay for that. Do not just take it from me. Take it from the former shadow Chancellor, Ed Balls, who pointed out on Channel 4 that we have to make sure, if we are governing the economy well, that debt as a proportion of GDP reduces every year. He pointed out explicitly that the unfunded £28 billion green new deal was only going to be funded, and could only be funded, by borrowing. He explicitly pointed out that if the plan put forward by the right hon. Member for Doncaster North for unfunded, borrowing-financed investment goes ahead, he runs exactly the same risk as others have in the past of tanking the economy, pushing up interest rates and having the bond markets catch fright. It was not a voice of reaction making that point, but the man who the right hon. Gentleman thought should be Chancellor of the Exchequer.

--- Later in debate ---

[Debbie Abrahams (Oldham East and Saddleworth) (Lab)]

I will be very brief, Madam Deputy Speaker. According to the British social attitudes survey, what most people want to see is fairness in our society. They want to see fairness in rewarding hard work, in how our policies and laws are applied and in the dignity and respect that we show our vulnerable citizens, whether that is older people, sick and disabled people or people who become destitute, of whom we increasingly see too many. So, in relation to the Budget, fairness for me is about reducing the structural inequalities in income, wealth and power that saw us have one of the highest death rates in the developed world during the pandemic and that, in particular, have driven the largest fall in life expectancy since world war two. As my right hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster North (Edward Miliband) said, fairness is at the heart of what we are about and what our constituents are about.

In relation to the Budget, though, we see that the OBR is still forecasting historically large reductions in living standards this year after adjusting for inflation. If we look at the fairness aspect of that, although we see direct taxes particularly affecting high-income groups, indirect taxes are having a really detrimental effect on groups on lower incomes. On public spending, it looks good when we consider the end of this financial year, but there is no real-terms investment in public services, as my right hon. Friend the Member for Walsall South (Valerie Vaz) said. We are seeing this in our constituency casework in relation to social care, and that is going to be the case for the next two years, with no real-terms investment in public services.

On social security, I was deeply disappointed to see the emerging rhetoric from the Chancellor in the Budget concerning the reasons we have seen a dip in economic activity. He and others have started to assert that the reason there are fewer people in work at the moment is that it is too comfortable on social security, hinting at the workshy and the shirkers and scroungers narrative that we have heard in the last 10 years. There is absolutely no evidence to support that. First, if those people are economically inactive, they are not claiming social security. There are myriad reasons that they are not in work, including sickness. We have 2 million people who are still living with long covid, for example, and an army of family carers is needed to look after them.

I was pleased to see the changes to our childcare system, which has been so poorly funded, but it has taken 13 years. This should have happened before. And what about elder care? What about flexible care from work? The Government should look at those problems and stop scapegoating sick and disabled people and those people who are claiming social security. I worry about those who are not well and who are barely clinging on. All this talk about a tougher sanctions regime will send people over the edge. So I would like to ask the Minister what assessment he has undertaken of the deaths of vulnerable claimants as a result of increasingly punitive sanctions.