Income tax (charge)

Kirsten Oswald Excerpts

Tuesday 17th March 2020 Commons Chamber

[Kirsten Oswald (East Renfrewshire) (SNP)]

I am always keen to start speeches with a note of consensus where that is possible and I am sure there is much consensus today. We are dealing with a very serious situation. It is an unprecedented crisis and it brings unprecedented challenges for individuals and businesses. As we are all sitting here in this ivory tower, we need to be really focused on doing the very best that we can to acknowledge what is needed and to do what we can to make sure that that happens, while there are people outside this place keeping essential services running and doing the hard shifts for all of us.

In that consensual vein, I am pleased to add my congratulations to the Chancellor on his presentation of the Budget at this very difficult time. His speech was upbeat. It was positive. It was almost convincing. He sounded as if he believed the Budget he was delivering was as good as the circumstances, which were certainly very difficult, would allow. The circumstances have certainly changed, and changed markedly for the worse. However, as reflection on the Budget itself has shown, it was not as good as it sounded. It was not as good as it could have been and it was not as good as it should have been. For example, COP26 is taking place in Glasgow later this year, we hope—coronavirus permitting—but his Budget did nothing to deliver net zero by 2050. Going into the Budget, we heard repeatedly about this promise of levelling up for people and for places across these islands, but on both fronts the Budget failed to deliver.

All these issues and difficulties are so much more pressing now because of the huge additional challenges we are facing. If we think back to the 2015 Budget—a key event in the austerity agenda—chasing welfare savings and the disastrous roll-out of universal credit have caused misery to countless thousands of the most vulnerable people in our communities—and they are all the more vulnerable just now. So we need to hear significantly from the Chancellor how we are going to stop people falling through the welfare gaps that we know already exist and are going to get so much more significant. This is hugely pressing and it is going to become increasingly so.

The Chancellor needs to tell us what he is going to do to deal with the magnitude of need, and the urgency with which he deals with that will be absolutely vital for our ability to support people, businesses and communities. That is the more pressing because of the unprecedented crisis we are dealing with at the moment. The Chancellor was right that the focus of his Budget was coronavirus and how we deal with that. It dominated everything he said. As he acknowledged, Government action or inaction can influence the spread of coronavirus. Exhorting people to wash their hands, to use handkerchiefs and to self-isolate—these things are really important and we do need everyone to follow the advice that is being given. However, we in this House also need to help people to make the right decisions, even if these decisions will impact on them financially. In that respect, what the Chancellor said fell very far short of what is needed. The measures he announced failed to extend statutory sick pay to roughly 2 million low-paid workers. They have been left to rely on universal credit. Members all across the House will be familiar with the huge number of difficulties that universal credit causes for people, day in and day out, when they fall foul of the delays and the chaos that are essentially built into the system itself. That is not good enough in the situation we are in: it was not good enough before and it certainly is not good enough now.

Following the Cobra meeting yesterday, the approach has been significantly ramped up. The Prime Minister has told people to stay away from many of the services that people who are self-employed, who are on zero-hours contracts and who work in the gig economy are employed to provide. So it is really important that the support available to people in these situations is stepped up. We need to hear more about this—much more—as a matter of considerable urgency.

The Secretary of State for Health also said yesterday in this Chamber:

“We should steer clear of pubs, clubs, cinemas and restaurants.”—[Official Report, 16 March 2020; Vol. 673, c. 697.]

But he did not say anything—he declined to comment—when he was asked whether he actually wanted these businesses to close. That is not okay; it is not good enough. The Government have to formalise their position on business closures. Only then might affected businesses be able to trigger business interruption cover, if that is available and applicable to them. If it is not, the Government need to bite the bullet, to step in and to be the insurer of last resort. They need to do this and to confirm that they are going to do this quickly, because the current lack of clarity spells the death knell for many businesses all across these islands. We need action now. The Government need to take action to stop that from happening.

The Chancellor’s announcement of temporary extensions to statutory sick pay has focused attention on the weekly amount of £94.25, which is the equivalent of someone working fewer than 12 hours a week on the national minimum wage. Surely the Chancellor does not believe that that will encourage people to act early and responsibly if they think they might have coronavirus. It is not good enough and we need much further action.

The Health Secretary said that the Government will give the NHS whatever it needs and do whatever it takes to tackle coronavirus. We can all agree with those sentiments. It is now time for the Government to match their deeds to their rhetoric and they need to do that now.