Ed Davey
Main Page: Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat - Kingston and Surbiton)Department Debates - View all Ed Davey's debates with the HM Treasury
(2 years, 6 months ago)
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Christine Jardine (Edinburgh West) (LD)
It is a pleasure to follow the right hon. Member for Newark (Robert Jenrick), although I cannot express the same pleasure about much of what the House has heard today. We face a looming cost of living crisis, with food prices and energy bills soaring. The Chancellor had a chance to lessen the pain for hard-working families who pay their tax, play by the rules and need his support. Instead, he is hammering them with tax hikes, empty words and broken promises from a Government who are completely out of touch with the people of this country. There is nothing to help families with their energy bills this winter.
The Chancellor says that this Budget is all about optimism, but it is hard to be optimistic when it is our children who will pay the price with their income, their life chances and their planet. Today he could have chosen to invest in their future; instead, he chose to anchor them to the pandemic and the past. Our children, their education already damaged and their futures undermined, are left without sufficient funding for the catch-up classes that they desperately need. Unless the Government provide that funding in full, children who are at school now will face up to £46,000 in lost earnings over their lifetimes. If the Government are serious about investing in our future, surely they should start with those children. Instead, the Chancellor has spent more today on cutting the price of prosecco than on saving our children’s future. That tells us everything we need to know about this Government’s priorities.
The £5 billion of catch-up funding is a third of what the Government’s own adviser said is needed, and it is just a fraction of the £450 billion hit our economy could see from the learning our children have lost to covid.
Ed Davey (Kingston and Surbiton) (LD)
My hon. Friend is making a powerful speech on behalf of children, parents and teachers across our country. Is she aware that, in the fine detail of the Budget, banks are getting a tax cut that is bigger than the increase announced today for catch-up funding? Does she agree that is the wrong priority?
Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)
Order. If people are going to intervene, they should at least have the good grace to come in a few speakers before.