Budget Resolutions

Debate between Joshua Reynolds and Luke Evans

Thursday 29th October 2026 Commons Chamber

[Mr Joshua Reynolds (Maidenhead) (LD)]

After years of government chaos and failure we can only end the brutal cost of living crisis and fix our broken public services if we get the economy growing. We need a real growth plan with Europe at its heart, so Labour must fix the Conservatives’ botched Brexit deal by joining the single market, negotiating a new customs union and using the billions of pounds that that raises to cut people’s taxes and bills.

[Dr Luke Evans (Hinckley and Bosworth) (Con)]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Mr Reynolds]

Already? Okay.

[Dr Evans]

We heard from the Conservative Front Bench that we do not meet the criteria to rejoin the EU. How do the Lib Dems suggest that we get around that problem?

[Mr Reynolds]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. He should have listened to what I said in the previous 30 seconds. What I said was that we need to join the single market and negotiate a new customs union. I did not say that we need to rejoin the European Union.

First, Liberal Democrats would fix the biggest brake on our economy: the botched Brexit deal. It has put up barriers for every business that trades with our largest market. Small firms in Maidenhead tell me that they now spend more time filling in forms than filling in orders. Some have simply given up trading with Europe altogether. That is lost trade, lost jobs and lost revenue. We would rip up the Government’s red lines and build a new growth and defence partnership with Europe, including the single market and a new customs union.

We would grow our economy. According to independent research, those measures would bring in £27 billion a year in extra tax revenue by the end of the Parliament. We would give those proceeds back to the people who earned it by raising the tax-free personal allowance to £15,000 and raising the higher rate threshold to £56,000, taking 2.5 million of the lowest paid out of income tax altogether and putting £650 back in people’s pockets. It was the Liberal Democrats who raised the personal allowance before. We can do it again. That is how to cut taxes responsibly—we grow our way there.