Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Wednesday 28th October 2026 Commons Chamber

[Sammy Wilson (East Antrim) (DUP)]

The advantage of this House is that the Chancellor has brought forward a Budget, albeit one that is inadequate. In Northern Ireland, we are seven months into the financial year and the Sinn Féin Finance Minister has still not brought forward a budget for Departments in Northern Ireland, leaving people in the dark as to what money is available for health, education, roads and all the other issues. I welcome the fact that in today’s Budget we have got a £270 million uplift as a Barnett consequential, as well as the £750 million that was available under the review, and I hope that that will stop any further excuses for not having a budget declared in Northern Ireland.

As far as the measures in this Budget are concerned, there are some that I welcome, although I think the Chancellor should have gone further. I welcome the fact that some pensioners at least will not be dragged into paying tax. I also welcome the support for people with their energy bills—although, as for other Members representing rural areas, 60% of people in Northern Ireland will not be impacted by it. They heat their homes using oil, and therefore will not be covered by the relief that has been made available. I think small businesses will appreciate the increase in business rates relief, although it is up to the Northern Ireland Executive as to whether they pass on those changes to businesses in Northern Ireland. The freeze on fuel duty is also welcome.

However, in a place in the United Kingdom that depends greatly on road transport for both getting goods in and getting goods out, the price of fuel is prohibitive. Given that the Government have made billions from the additional VAT on fuel as a result of price increases, I believe they could have gone further.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

My right hon. Friend has rightly outlined the issue for hauliers in Northern Ireland, where we have to transport everything in and everything out. Does he also recognise that farmers—for instance, with tractors—as well as the farming community and the agricultural sector, also need to be considered when it comes to such help and provision?

[Sammy Wilson]

Of course, any of the big diesel and petrol users would have benefited from greater support from the Government.

On the big challenges that the Government are facing, and which they admit they are facing, there has been very little in this Budget. First, if we are going to get out of many of our economic difficulties, the main issue is to have economic growth. While much has been made today of the micro policies that will affect businesses and encourage entrepreneurs, the fact of the matter is that we are stagnating because we are taxing the life out of businesses. We have the highest tax burden ever, and businesses tell us all the time that the tax on employment stops them recruiting and that the tax on profits stops them investing. If we are going to have economic growth, we must address the issue of the overall burden of taxation, but that has been studiously avoided in this Budget. I am thinking of the farming industry in Northern Ireland. Only yesterday, I met the Ulster Farmers’ Union, which told me that 90% of farmers have now stopped investment plans because of the inheritance tax fears, and I suppose that is true in many other places. With taxation halting people’s investment decisions, that will of course have an impact on economic growth.

Secondly, we have to reduce the debt, yet the Chancellor has told us today that we will actually be borrowing more year on year over the time of this Budget. If we are borrowing more, we are adding to the debt, and if we are adding to the debt, we are adding to the interest we pay on that debt. The Chancellor has even accepted today that £14 billion extra will be required this year just to pay for the increase in the interest we have to pay on the debt. As we continue to borrow, we are not going to get that debt down, and as we do not get that down, we have to tax to pay the interest on it. Again, that has an impact on economic growth, and there does not appear to be a willingness to address it.