Budget Resolutions

Ian Lavery Excerpts

Monday 1st November 2021 Commons Chamber

[Ian Lavery (Wansbeck) (Lab)]

I have been in this debate all afternoon, and I have to say that I am more discombobulated now than I was before I came in. I am not sure what is meant by “levelling up”; a number of attempts have been made to explain it, but I cannot understand what has happened. I do know that I would love the type of finances that have been afforded to some of the areas represented by Government Members—some of the millions and millions of pounds that their constituencies have received. Perhaps it is because they are Conservative constituencies—I am not sure—but one thing I do know is that I would not mind a portion of it for my constituency.

It is not just about shiny projects; levelling up must be about people. It must be about addressing the grotesque inequalities in today’s society. It must be about opportunity, ambition, fairness and hope for everyone. Over the past decades, from Thatcherism to austerity, the party in government has followed the same playbook: foster division, foment turmoil and attack working-class families, so that it and its social strata always benefit.

The Budget delivered on Wednesday showed once again that levelling up is nothing but rhetoric and means nothing while families are left to struggle and health outcomes are shockingly distorted. The Chancellor’s words of commitment for families and communities could not be further removed from reality. In the past five years, child poverty in the north-east has risen from 25% to 37%, whereas in his constituency it stands at 13.8%. That is where we need the levelling up. The realities on the ground are stark. Working people are hit by the national insurance rises and hikes in the cost of living, while bankers are given a generous tax cut—that is not levelling up. Thousands of people had their universal credit ripped away from them—that is not levelling up. That comes on top of a decade of austerity that has ripped a hole in the public services. How exactly is that levelling up with families and communities in mind? Schools in the Chancellor’s constituency get more block funding per pupil than they do in mine—is that levelling up? Real wages will be lower in 2026 than they were in 2008—is that levelling up? Wages in the north-east are £10,000 less than those in London—is that levelling up? A man born in Bedlington East, in my constituency, is expected to live to be 75.2 years of age, whereas the figure for leafy Richmondshire is 81.3—is that levelling up?

The Chancellor talks of personal responsibility, so let me just say something very simple: I hold him, his friends, this Government and those on the Government Benches personally responsible for the deliberate holding back of people in my community.