Budget Resolutions

Greg Smith Excerpts

Thursday 27th November 2025 Commons Chamber

[John Lamont]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The intention may have been to force overseas investors, trust funds and others out of the farming sector, and to attack big landowners, but the tax is doing the complete opposite: it is destroying the family farm sector, forcing tenant farmers out, and seriously impacting on our food security ambitions.

The family farm tax is yet another promise broken by the Chancellor, who gave no indication before the last election that Labour would introduce it. The supermarkets agree: Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, the Co-op, Marks & Spencer and many more have expressed their concern about how the tax will impact farmers and our nation’s capacity to produce our own food. I grew up on a farm, so I understand this. The consequences of the Chancellor’s failure to reverse this cruel tax will be catastrophic for our rural communities.

Two weeks ago, I visited dozens of small businesses across the Scottish Borders—corner shops, greengrocers, butchers, manufacturers, gift shops and many more. The same issue came up at almost every single one: the extremely tough business conditions just now. The jobs tax is forcing many of them to delay hiring decisions, or even lay off staff, and the additional red tape is forcing good employers to jump through totally unnecessary hoops. The average cost of a member of staff has surged by almost £1,000 a month, thanks to the jobs tax and the Government’s Employment Rights Bill. To make matters worse, because of the state of the economy, customers have less to spend on goods and services. It is all adding up to be an economic nightmare.

The Chancellor’s decisions are pushing our economy into a tax doom loop: higher taxes will fund more spending, which harms our economic growth and— surprise, surprise—means that the Chancellor receives lower revenue, and so once again comes back to ask for more tax rises.

[Greg Smith (Mid Buckinghamshire) (Con)]

I entirely endorse the argument that my hon. Friend is making. The big punishment in yesterday’s Budget was the increase in taxation on dividends. That says to our wealth creators and entrepreneurs—the people who create jobs—“Don’t bother.”

[John Lamont]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The Budget creates no incentives for people to invest and take the risk of setting up and growing a business. It sends out all the wrong messages about what we want in a country that has traditionally been full of entrepreneurs. Because of the doom loop that the Chancellor has created, it will always be hard-working businesses and families who pay the price for her economic failure.

The Chancellor could have made much better choices in her Budget. She could have saved £47 billion, including £23 billion from welfare, avoiding the need to increase taxes in this way altogether. She could have introduced a cheap power plan to bring down energy costs for homes and businesses. But the Chancellor has not listened. She has not learned from the mistakes she made in last year’s Budget. This Labour Government promised economic stability, but this Budget does nothing to make that a reality, which is why Conservative Members oppose it so strongly.

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[Greg Smith (Mid Buckinghamshire) (Con)]

In reflecting on the title that the Government have offered up for today’s Budget resolutions debate, “Economic Sustainability and Fair Choices”, I have found myself wondering on what planet anyone could possibly call yesterday’s Budget sustainable or fair. The forecasts show that GDP growth will be down in every year from 2026 to 2029, consumer prices index inflation will be up 3.5% this year, taxes will increase by £26 billion, the unemployment rate will hit 4.9% in 2026, the size of the state itself will increase to 44.8% of GDP, borrowing will go up £11 billion, and debt interest will be higher in every year of the forecast. That is not the makings of a sustainable economy or growth, and it is certainly not fair on the taxpayers who will have to shoulder the burden to pay for it all.

As I visit businesses in my constituency—the retailers and hospitality businesses on the high streets of Wendover, Princes Risborough, Great Missenden; the village pubs; the furniture manufacturers in Princes Risborough and the surrounds; and the rocket scientists and big businesses at Westcott venture park—they all paint a picture of preparing for things to get worse. They say that they are not planning to take on new employees or apprentices.

[Graeme Downie]

Did the hon. Gentleman have a similar conversation with his constituents after Liz Truss’s disastrous Budget, which he supported? What did they say?

[Greg Smith]

Labour Members are like a broken record. The last Conservative Government certainly made a number of mistakes—we have put our hands up to that—but we left employment high and unemployment at a record low, and jobs were being created every single day.

Now, businesses are not taking on—or are planning not to take on—more new starters, or, like Rumsey’s Chocolaterie on Wendover High Street, have already had to lay people off or cut their hours because of employer NI, business rates and the looming Employment Rights Bill. Those are the real-world consequences of the Labour Government’s policies. The dividends tax in the Budget struck right at the heart of the entrepreneurs—the small business owners—who risk everything to create growth, employ people and create the jobs that we want in our economy. It has sent them the message: “There will be less in it for you, if anything at all.” Many of those businesses operate on narrow margins, working their socks off almost for nothing, and this Government are making it even harder for them. That is no way to run an economy.

I am lucky enough to have many farmers in my constituency of Mid Buckinghamshire, where around 90% of the land is agricultural, and I talk to them as often as I can. My party held an emergency food and farming summit at Fleet Marston farm in my constituency a couple of weeks ago, where my right hon. Friend the Leader of the Opposition, the shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Louth and Horncastle (Victoria Atkins), and the shadow Farming Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Keighley and Ilkley (Robbie Moore), joined me to again hear directly from farmers about the impact the family farm tax will have. They will have to either sell up to a third of their farm to meet that tax bill or take on a level of debt that it will take over 40 years to pay back.

The National Farmers Union, many other organisations and farmers directly have tried to reach out, including yesterday on Whitehall, to get Labour MPs and Ministers to listen and understand the real-world consequences of their decisions. And yet the Budget yesterday was entirely lacking anything other than the transferable allowance to take away the stress, anxiety and existential threat to British agriculture that the family farm tax and changes to business property relief represent to family businesses and family farms up and down the country. I can assure anyone who challenges the point I am making that it will not be other farmers who buy the land when farms have to sell to meet the inheritance tax bill—it will be property developers and those with all sorts of other concerns, who will not keep that land in food production. The nation’s food security will suffer as a direct result of the failure to scrap the family farm tax yesterday.

I want to talk briefly about another issue I have been focused on for a number of years, during the last Parliament and this one. I draw the House’s attention to my co-chairmanship of the loan charge and taxpayer fairness all-party parliamentary group. I am grateful to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury and the new Exchequer Secretary for the time they have taken to reach out on this issue. Some of the announcements yesterday were welcome, off the back of the McCann review. However, I am sorry to say to the House that they have not been met with total joy from the victims of the loan charge, because many people caught up in the loan charge are still being asked to pay amounts of money that they simply cannot afford.

The Chancellor, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury and other Ministers are on the record saying, when in opposition, that the victims of the loan charge were “victims of mis-selling” and that the perpetrators—those who promoted these schemes—should have been brought to justice. What we got yesterday was nothing of the sort. We did not get the fully independent review that the APPG and the Loan Charge Action Group have been calling for.

Despite the concessions yesterday, many people simply will not be able to pay. Two thirds of the victims are now over 55, 40% are over 60 and a quarter are already retired. They just do not have the ability to find the amounts of money being asked for, and the offer on the table is nothing like the settlement made with the big banks some years ago, which was in the region of 10% to 15%. I urge the Exchequer Secretary to look at this again and to deliver a genuinely fair settlement to everyone caught up by the loan charge and pursue those who sold the schemes.

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[Anna Gelderd (South East Cornwall) (Lab)]

This Budget sets out fair decisions that benefit communities across the country that have felt the strain of the last decade, and that expect to see the change that they voted for delivered, and the cost of living brought under control.

I am delighted that Cornwall’s potential has been recognised with the new £30 million Kernow industrial growth fund. This new fund demonstrates that Cornwall once again has a leading role to play in powering the UK economy. Mining is at the heart of our story in Cornwall. With the new support, we can begin the next chapter, in which critical minerals and other core industries will help us to unlock the next great industrial revolution, and greener, cheaper energy. The fund will support local businesses and workers. That investment is combined with the stability that will come through extended business rate retention, and sits alongside wider opportunities offered through the National Wealth Fund, the British Business Bank and Great British Energy. These choices support secure, year-round jobs, and this combination of investment, stability and real change for the majority of working people is reflected throughout the Budget

South East Cornwall will feel a benefit through local growth and to family finances. Families gain real support. Wages have risen faster in the first year of this Government than they did over the past decade. The reduction in energy bills and the freeze to prescription charges, fuel duty and rail fares will be welcomed by my residents in South East Cornwall. The changes to universal credit will bring thousands back into work, strengthening labour markets in places like Liskeard, Torpoint and Callington.

One of the most significant steps is the decision to scrap the two-child benefit limit. Shockingly, child poverty rose by 900,000 between 2010 and 2024. I say “shockingly”, but I am not sure if that truly shocks the Conservatives, who presided over that decline. I know what child poverty looks like. I know how it locks people out of opportunities through no fault of their own, and I know how hard schools, campaigners, charities and other support systems work to try to bridge the gap, but some gaps require systemic change. This Budget will lift 450,000 children out of poverty. That is what systemic change under this Labour Government looks like.

In South East Cornwall, relative child poverty stood at 21.7% in 2023, meaning that almost a quarter of our local children entered school already facing hardship. Growing up in poverty makes people less likely to be in work, and more likely to earn 25% less, aged 30, so that is not good for kids or for the adults they become, and it is not good for our economy. This Budget reduces pressure and gives families a more secure start.

For too long, local healthcare has been a challenge for residents in South East Cornwall, so I am pleased that Labour is backing our NHS with extra support. Investment in healthcare technology and the creation of 250 neighbourhood health centres will cut waiting lists and improve access. The NHS neighbourhood rebuild opens up more than 120 new centres by 2030, and there will be improvements at Truro health park. That is backed by real investment; these are not fantasy priorities. Residents in South East Cornwall rely on services in both Cornwall and Plymouth, and these upgrades will bring benefits right across my region.

Young people get new opportunities as well. Investment in school libraries and new playgrounds will improve learning and wellbeing, and there will be an £820 million investment to support young people by guaranteeing them a place in college, an apprenticeship or personalised job support. The free apprenticeship training for under 25s in small businesses will help local employers across South East Cornwall. That is 1,854 small and medium-sized enterprises in my region that will be able to train and retain young people. This is a real chance to build a local, skilled workforce and to keep that talent at home in Cornwall.

Cornwall needs the tools to strengthen its visitor economy in a way that benefits our local people in the long term, so an overnight visitor levy could be an important step. We rely heavily on tourism, yet residents often feel the pressure of the summer peaks without seeing the long-term benefits, so the power to raise local revenue and reinvest in our community projects could create a fairer balance and support a more resilient local economy.

I also welcome the new announcement for farmers and their families. The ability for spouses to transfer any unused agricultural and business property relief allowances gives farming families more certainty as they plan for their future. South East Cornwall is a proud rural and coastal constituency, and I have been working with many local farmers to ensure that their views are heard in my discussions with Ministers. Fixing thresholds and closing loopholes strengthens confidence, but I know there is further work to do.

[Greg Smith]

While the spousal transfer is a very narrow measure that might give a couple of years or maybe a decade’s relief, at the end of the day farmers will still have to sell massive chunks of their farm to meet the inheritance tax bill. What will the hon. Lady say to her farmers when that point comes?

[Anna Gelderd]

I thank the hon. Member for allowing me more time to make my points. Farming is at the heart of my community—

[Greg Smith]

Answer the question! This is a debate.

[Anna Gelderd]

I know, and I am very glad to be debating with the hon. Member on this point. Farming is at the heart of my community, and I am working hard with Ministers to ensure that the new changes are reflected. As I have said, there is much more work to do.

I particularly welcome the clear recognition of Cornwall in this Budget. Alongside the Kernow industrial growth fund, the Government’s commitment to work with the Council of Europe to increase the UK’s formal recognition of the Cornish language under the European charter for regional or minority languages matters, because Kernewek remains at a lower level of protection compared with other Celtic languages. That is why I introduced my ten-minute rule Bill focused on Cornish language and heritage.

Opposition parties talk about leaving the European convention on human rights. Cornwall fought hard for our national minority status and the frameworks that protect our language and heritage, so I do not want to see them thrown away. I want to see a wider use of Kernewek in signage and place names, which I know will boost our local economy as visitors flock to see it.

This Budget moves us in the right direction. It does not complete the work, but it delivers a fair step towards repairing Britain and rebuilding the opportunities in places such as South East Cornwall. I will continue working, as I have done since being elected, to deliver real investment, strong public services and a local economy that works year-round.