amendment of the law

Ed Balls Excerpts

Tuesday 25th March 2014 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

I have quite a few more things to say, Mr Deputy Speaker, and I have less than three minutes in which to say them.

The rise in the personal allowance is not just a reward for hard work, but an incentive for hard work, as are the substantial changes that we have made on child care in the Budget. Those changes mean that we are getting more people into work and that people are keeping more of what they earn.

We have taken measures to incentivise businesses to invest, such as enhancing capital allowances. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Burnley (Gordon Birtwistle), who pushed hard for those changes. They will make a serious difference to business investment in this country.

To conclude, this is a Government with a long-term economic plan, and they are an Opposition without any plan at all. For businesses, we have doubled the tax relief on new plant and equipment, while they are frightening off the investors whom we need to invest in the energy to power those machines. They will vote against the cut in corporation tax and confirm that the Labour party is the anti-business party in this House. For working people, we have lifted the personal tax allowance even further than we promised in our election manifesto. While they talk about a 10p rate, we have lifted the personal allowance to £10,500. For pensioners, we have delivered a triple lock, the largest cash rise in the basic state pension in a generation and the greatest pensions liberation in a century. In their time in office, they delivered a paltry 75p rise in the basic state pension.

Some people have referred to this as the Lamborghini Budget. That may well be so, because there is one person in this Chamber who has shown that he can out-accelerate a Lamborghini. That is the shadow Chancellor in retreating from his predictions on the economy, such as the 1 million jobs that were never lost and the triple dip that never came.

[Ed Balls (Morley and Outwood) (Lab/Co-op)]

Is the right hon. Gentleman calling me a Lamborghini?

[Danny Alexander]

The shadow Chancellor might think that he is more of a Robin Reliant, but he is not for the purposes of this Budget.

This Budget is another landmark on our long road to repairing the economy that the Opposition wrecked. It gives more people more control over their own money. It cuts income tax for working people. It helps businesses to invest for growth. It is a Budget that helps put Britain and business back on their feet, and I commend it to the House.

Question put.

Youth Unemployment

Ed Balls Excerpts

Wednesday 9th November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Ed Balls (Morley and Outwood) (Lab/Co-op)]

Does it not tell us everything we need to know that when there is a debate in the House on tax support to create jobs for young people, there is not one Treasury Minister on the Front Bench for the opening and closing speeches? Is that not a matter of great shame for the Government and an embarrassment for the Department for Work and Pensions?

[Mr Hayes]

I offer the shadow Chancellor this, and I do so fraternally: if just occasionally he would temper his belligerent bombast with a degree of humility about the advice he gave the previous Prime Minister and Chancellor, he might manage to stop his reputation flatlining.

The motion shows that the old conjuror has learned no new tricks. Once again, we have profligacy dressed up as prudence. It is public policy transvestism: from a distance, the promise of tax breaks may look alluring; only up close can we make out the underlying 5 o’clock shadow of debt and downturn. That is all the 5 o’clock shadow Cabinet can offer.

Some people think that many of the Opposition Front Benchers have been over-promoted, but I give them a second chance. I have a very small bet at very long odds that there is an outside chance that some of them may make a half-decent job of it.

This Government are acting on apprenticeships. We are acting on the Work programme. We are acting on work experience. We are working on getting people into jobs. That is the difference between this Government and the previous Government. We care too, but we act as well.

Welfare Reform Bill

Ed Balls Excerpts

Wednesday 15th June 2011 Commons Chamber

Amendment 21, page 165, line 35, at end insert ‘and (1A)’.—(Chris Grayling.)

[Ed Balls (Morley and Outwood) (Lab/Co-op)]

On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. In the last hour, the BBC has announced that the Chancellor will tell the City of London at the Mansion House dinner tonight that he has decided to sell off Northern Rock, currently in state ownership, and has rejected the options of flotation or selling it as a mutual. Instead it will be sold in a private sale. Has there been any indication that the Chancellor will make a statement in this House before the speech in the City of London? Do you agree that Parliament and the public should hear about this first, before the City of London Mansion House dinner?

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

I have been given no indication by the Treasury Bench or any Department that there is to be a statement this evening. I am sure that the Treasury Bench will have heard the right hon. Gentleman’s concerns.