Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Debate between Jim Dickson and Stuart Anderson

Wednesday 28th October 2026 Commons Chamber

[Jim Dickson]

I welcome the Budget, and it is a pleasure to follow distinguished members of the Treasury Committee from across the Chamber. As others have noted, when the IMF published its most recent forecast, it highlighted how despite the consequences of US military action in Iran, our economy is proving more resilient than expected, with 1.3% growth for this year and similar for next. That is largely underscored by the OBR forecast. I back our Government to exceed those forecasts, as they have done this year, and we wish them well in doing so. We should not underplay the damage done by the conflict, with price rises in important commodities such as oil and fertilisers pushing up inflation, but it is positive that the IMF has upgraded our growth prospects. That, I believe, is a testament to the work of the current and previous Chancellors, and it is welcome that we remain towards the top end of the G7 for growth, even though—as always—Members of the House would want growth to be higher, and we hope very much that it is.

In my view, it remains essential to reassure the markets that we will stick to the fiscal rules, and I welcome the Chancellor’s pledge today to keep doing so. We must ensure that we continue to keep sufficient headroom against those rules, and again the Chancellor has done that.That was recognised by the IMF, which singled out the UK among the G7 for the way that we are managing our debts. As shown in chart 3.4 in the Red Book, which sets out the distributional impact of the Budget, we are doing that while ensuring that those at the bottom end of the income scale do better proportionally than those higher up the income scale. I believe that means this is a proper Budget for working people.

This careful and fair economic management will allow us to ramp up defence spending to meet the spending target of 3% by 2030, after our armed forces, frankly, languished under the previous Government.

[Stuart Anderson]

I welcome the approach to move forward on defence, but since I have been elected I have even called my own Government out for not providing enough defence funding. Does the hon. Gentleman realise that today’s announcement on defence means that we are making in-year cuts for the next two years on defence because we cannot afford what we currently have in place?

[Jim Dickson]

I thank the hon. Member for his intervention, but I am very confident that the plans laid out today will take us to 3% by the end of this Parliament, and to 3.5% by the middle of the next decade. That is what we have committed to do and that is what I believe we will do.