Oral Answers to Questions
Kemi Badenoch Excerpts(1 week, 1 day ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Watch Debate Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Mrs Kemi Badenoch (North West Essex) (Con)
On Friday, while borrowing costs hit levels not seen since Labour was last in government, I met business owners and their employees in Chesterfield. One of them told me that his business will not exist in four years’ time because of this Government’s policies. It might not even exist next year. The Prime Minister may try to blame his inheritance, or blame global factors, but why should anyone trust a word he says over what businesses are saying again and again—that his Budget means fewer jobs, lower growth and higher borrowing costs?
The Prime Minister
As the Leader of the Opposition knows, the global economy is experiencing volatility and higher borrowing costs. That is why it was vital that we took the tough and right decisions in the Budget to get our finances back in order. We had to deal with the £22 billion black hole that the Conservatives left. We made difficult cuts and raised taxes to invest in health, public services and housing—vital to stability, and vital to growth. We have an iron-clad commitment to our fiscal rules, and she will no doubt welcome the inflation figures this morning.
Contrast that with the Conservatives. They were not brave enough in government to take those difficult decisions. They have opposed all our measures to stabilise the economy and promote growth. They are back to the magic money tree. The Leader of the Opposition wants all the benefits of the Budget but cannot say how she would pay for them. They have not changed; they are still economic vandals and fantasists. Imagine where we would be if they were still in charge.
Mrs Badenoch
Just today, the British Retail Consortium has said that two thirds of businesses will have to raise prices to cope with the Prime Minister’s tax hike. His Chancellor ignored all the warnings and ploughed ahead with an unprecedented borrowing spree, leaving all of us more vulnerable. Now we have businesses saying that they will raise prices to cover his jobs tax. We have an energy policy that will drive up bills, and all the while we are spending more day to day on debt interest than we do on schools and universities. The Prime Minister refused to repeat his Chancellor’s promise that she would not “come back for more”. Will he now rule out any new tax rises this year?
The Prime Minister
We took the right and difficult decisions in the Budget—decisions that the Conservatives did not have the courage to take, which left us in the mess in the first place. When it comes to tax, the Leader of the Opposition knows very well the limits of what I can say from this Dispatch Box, but we have an iron-clad commitment to our fiscal rules. We cannot just tax our way out of the problems that they left us, which is why we have put in place tough—[Interruption.] They were howling at the spending decisions. They would not take them, but we will stick to those spending decisions. Our focus is absolutely on growth, but their record—[Interruption.] They flatlined the economy. Their record is a mini-Budget that crashed the economy, the worst cost of living crisis in living memory, and leaving a £22 billion black hole. I am not taking lessons from them on the economy.
Mrs Badenoch
The Prime Minister knows very well that the Office for Budget Responsibility found no such black hole. He talks about a mini-Budget three years ago. Borrowing costs last week were at a 27-year high for 30-year gilts. The Chancellor is apparently promising to be ruthless in reducing spending. Let me suggest something that he should cut. There is no way that we should be giving up British territory in Chagos. He is rushing a deal that will be disastrous and that will land taxpayers with a multibillion-pound bill. Why does the Prime Minister think that British people should pay to surrender something that is already ours?
The Prime Minister
We inherited a situation where the long-term operation of a vital military base was under threat because of legal challenges. The negotiations were started under the last Government. The then Foreign Secretary came to this House to say why he was starting negotiations and what he wanted to achieve. He said that the aim was to
“ensure the continued effective operation”—[Official Report, 13 December 2022; Vol. 724, c. 865.]
of the base. That is precisely what this deal has delivered.
Mrs Badenoch
There is no one the Prime Minister can blame for this dud deal except himself. At the Budget, Labour was congratulating itself for having the first female Chancellor, instead of ensuring that the country had someone actually qualified to do the job. [Interruption.]
Mrs Badenoch
The Prime Minister claims he has full confidence in the Chancellor, but the markets clearly do not. Yesterday, the Chancellor repeated her promise to have “just one Budget per year” to provide businesses with certainty. The talk in the City is that she cannot meet her fiscal rules, and that there will need to be an emergency Budget. Does the Prime Minister stand by the Chancellor’s commitment that there will be only one Budget this year?
The Prime Minister
The Leader of the Opposition will be pleased to know that the Chancellor will be in place for many, many years to come. She will outstrip them. If we all thought that politics was about cheap points, I could criticise their Chancellors, but I do not have enough time to go through all the Chancellors they had. We have one Budget; that is what we are committed to. We have strong fiscal rules, and we will stick to them, unlike the Conservatives.
Mrs Badenoch
At a time of turmoil in the markets, the Prime Minister was distracted by the crisis around the former City Minister, the hon. Member for Hampstead and Highgate (Tulip Siddiq). What does it tell us about his judgment that yesterday he said he was saddened that his close friend had resigned? This was an anti-corruption Minister under criminal investigation for corruption. Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel prize winner advising Bangladesh, said that London properties gifted to the former City Minister may be the proceeds of robbery. Will the Prime Minister offer Bangladesh the full support of our National Crime Agency in ensuring that any properties bought with stolen funds are properly investigated?
The Prime Minister
The former City Minister referred herself to the independent adviser. He found, as the Leader of the Opposition well knows, that there was no breach of the code. She knows that he found there was no wrongdoing, and the former Minister fully co-operated. She referred herself a week ago on Monday; I got the report yesterday; and she resigned yesterday afternoon. Compare that with the shadow Foreign Secretary, the right hon. Member for Witham (Priti Patel), who breached the ministerial code. The Leader of the Opposition’s predecessor but two ignored it. It was the adviser who then had to resign because he was not taken seriously, and the right hon. Member is now serving the Leader of the Opposition. What a contrast. Thank God the British public chucked them out.
Mrs Badenoch
The Prime Minister did not answer the question about the National Crime Agency—no answer on investigating dodgy Labour Ministers, just as last week he did not want an inquiry that might expose dodgy Labour councils. He knowingly appointed a convicted fraudster as his Transport Secretary. The anti-corruption Minister who he had full confidence in only days ago resigned yesterday in disgrace. He is negotiating a secret deal to surrender British territory, and taxpayers in this country will pay for the humiliation. Now it turns out that his Government may write a cheque to compensate Gerry Adams. That is shameful.
We left the Prime Minister the fastest growing economy in the G7. In just six months under his leadership, it has been taxes up, borrowing up, and mortgage rates up—and that is not all: business confidence is down, jobs are down, and growth is down. Can the country afford four more years of his terrible judgment?
The Prime Minister
Among that barrage of complete nonsense, there is one point that I need to address: the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023, which will have been of real interest across the House. That Act was unfit, not least because it gave immunity to hundreds of terrorists and was not supported by victims in Northern Ireland—nor, I believe, by any of the political parties in Northern Ireland. The Court found it unlawful. We will put in place—[Interruption.] This is a serious point. We will put in place a better framework. We are working on a draft remedial order and replacement legislation, and we will look at every conceivable way to prevent these types of cases from claiming damages—it is important that I say that on the record.
As for the Leader of the Opposition’s claim and her nonsense, the Conservatives crashed the economy. I got a letter this week from a Tory voter in a Labour seat. I hope that they do not mind me saying who it was—it was Liz Truss. It was not written in green ink, but it might as well have been. She was complaining that saying she had crashed the economy was damaging her reputation. It was actually crashing the economy that damaged her reputation. What have we heard? All the Tories have is complaining. They have no defence for their sorry record—they do not even acknowledge it. They have no ideas, no policies. They are like a blank piece of paper, blowing hopelessly in the wind. No wonder the country put them in the bin.
Oral Answers to Questions
Kemi Badenoch Excerpts(1 month, 3 weeks ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Watch Debate Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Mrs Kemi Badenoch (North West Essex) (Con)
At the CBI conference on Monday, the Chancellor said:
“I’m clear…I’m not coming back with more borrowing or more taxes”.
I know that telling the truth to the House is important to the Prime Minister, so will he repeat his Chancellor’s pledge now?
The Prime Minister
We set out our position at the Budget that was just set out. We are fixing the foundations. We are dealing with the £22 billion black hole that the Conservatives left. I am not going to write the next five years of Budgets at the Dispatch Box. We said that we would not hit the payslips of working people. We passed the Budget, we invested in the future and we kept that promise.
Mrs Badenoch
The Prime Minister is not fixing any foundations; he is making everything worse. The whole House will have heard him refuse to repeat the Chancellor’s pledge, a pledge as worthless as the manifesto promises that he is talking about. If he is fixing foundations, why is it that the PMI index shows that business confidence has crashed since the Budget?
The Prime Minister
We are fixing the foundations. We got record investment into this country. The right hon. Lady talks about tax rises. Two weeks ago, she stood there and said that she wanted all the investment and all the benefits of the Budget, but she did not know how she was going to pay for it. I notice that, having come here criticising the national insurance rises over and over again, on Monday she admitted that she would not reverse the position. Meanwhile, her shadow science Minister was saying energetically that he would do the opposite. They haven’t got a clue what they are doing.
Mrs Badenoch
If the right hon. and learned Gentleman wants to know what Conservatives would do, he should resign and find out. [Hon. Members: “More!”]
Mrs Badenoch
Until then, I am the one asking the questions. There is a petition out there with 2 million people asking the right hon. and learned Gentleman to go. He is the one who does not know how things work. It is not Governments who create growth; it is business. His Minister for Employment, the hon. Member for Birkenhead (Alison McGovern)—I do not see her here—wants more young people in work, but businesses say that they are cutting jobs because of the Chancellor’s Budget. His Deputy Prime Minister’s Employment Rights Bill—she is not here—will stop businesses hiring. That is what they say. The CBI said on Monday that the dots of the Government’s policy do not join up. It is right, isn’t it?
The Prime Minister
On Monday the right hon. Lady said that she would not reverse the increase in national insurance. Yesterday, on their predecessor legacy legislation, the Opposition could not decide what their position was. Today, they have launched a policy commission asking other people to give them some ideas for government.
The right hon. Lady talks about a petition. We had a massive petition on 4 July in this country. We spent years taking our party from a party of protest to a party of government; they are hurtling in the opposite direction.
Mrs Badenoch
What a load of nonsense. We had a Budget in March this year, and tractors were not blockading the streets of Whitehall afterwards.
Let me give the Prime Minister another example of a real business. Following his Budget, the head of McVitie’s said that it was “harder to understand” what the case for investment in the UK was. While the Prime Minister has been “hobnobbing” in Brazil, businesses have been struggling to “digest” his Budget. Is it not the case that the Employment Rights Bill shows that it is not only the “ginger nut” that is causing him problems?
The Prime Minister
I was attending the G20 summit. I suspect that, on their current trajectory, the Opposition do not know whether they would attend the G20. Perhaps the policy commission will come up with an answer on that one.
We have had record overseas investment in this country. The right hon. Lady keeps carping from the sidelines. She says at the Dispatch Box that she wants all the benefits of the Budget, all the investment, but she does not want to pay for any of it. She has racked up £6.7 billion of unfunded commitments in just three weeks as Leader of the Opposition. When it comes to the economy, we are the ones who are growing the economy.
Mrs Badenoch
The investment for which the Prime Minister is taking the credit was our work. When I was the Business Secretary, we negotiated those deals that he announced. The bottom line, however, is that in all that he has said, he does not seem to care about the young people who will lose their jobs as a result of his Budget. Perhaps he can show concern for the 1,100 people who found out yesterday that they could lose their jobs at Vauxhall’s plant in Luton. While he flies around making unilateral commitments, back at home the real-world effects are businesses closing in Bedfordshire and Basildon. Does he stand by his promise to ban the sale of petrol cars by 2030, even if more jobs will be lost? [Interruption.]
The Prime Minister
I would not normally invite a heckle, but that one was accurate.
The question of the position of jobs in Luton is a very serious one—families and workers will be very worried, and we are engaging with them—but I remind the Leader of the Opposition that the electric vehicle mandates that are an issue in this particular case were introduced by the last Government. I also remind her that she was the Business Secretary who introduced them. We are getting on with supporting those communities while she is shouting from the sidelines.
Mrs Badenoch
The Prime Minister clearly did not read his briefing about the EV mandate. The fact is that we changed the date and made it easier for people. Everything he has done has attacked people. The Budget was an attack on farmers, an attack on workers, an attack on pensioners, an attack on the young, and an attack on thousands of charities and businesses across the country. The whole system is broken, and the Prime Minister is making things worse. Everyone is unhappy. Is it not a good thing that the Chancellor is an expert on customer complaints?
The Prime Minister
I think the right hon. Lady has just read out the charge sheet against the last Government. Everything is broken, but the Opposition come here every week with absolutely nothing to offer except complaints—nothing constructive; no new ideas. They do not know what they are doing from one day to the next. They are living in a fantasy world in which everything was fine, apparently, for 14 years. Well, the country is fed up with those fantasies. It has got rid of those fantasies. We are going to take the hard decisions. The Opposition are jumping on every passing bandwagon, while we are taking the country forward.