The Growth Plan

Debate between Kwasi Kwarteng and Zarah Sultana

Friday 23rd September 2022 Commons Chamber

[Zarah Sultana (Coventry South) (Lab)]

My constituents are terrified about rising bills. The word they use is “terror.” Energy bills will still be double what they were earlier this year. This is a crisis for the working class, but it is not a crisis for the Chancellor’s class. When they are already making record profits, this is a bankers’ Budget. It scraps the cap on bonuses, slashes tax for the top 1% of earners and cuts tax on the profits of big business.

Up and down the country, people are saying that enough is enough. Does the Chancellor really believe that bankers and millionaire CEOs, rather than working-class people, need the most help?

[Kwasi Kwarteng]

I would say two things: the reversal of the national insurance increase will mean £330 a year, on average, for 28 million people; and bringing forward the 1p basic rate cut puts £330 into the average person’s pocket. This is not a bankers’ Budget.

UK Gas Market

Debate between Kwasi Kwarteng and Zarah Sultana

Monday 20th September 2021 Commons Chamber

[Kwasi Kwarteng]

I would like to thank my right hon. Friend, but he has been in the House long enough to know that VAT and the fuel duty freeze are beyond my remit. However, as I have said many times, I speak to my right hon. Friend the Chancellor about these issues on a regular basis.

[Zarah Sultana (Coventry South) (Lab)]

The decision to raise the energy price cap to its highest-ever level will push half a million people into fuel poverty next month. At the same time, an additional 800,000 people will be pushed into poverty by the £20 a week cut to universal credit. On top of that, the national insurance hike will hit low-paid workers the hardest. These are political choices, so rather than relentlessly attacking the working class, will the Minister avert a worsening winter poverty crisis by cancelling the cut to universal credit, raising taxes on the richest and bringing energy companies into public ownership and running them for the public good, not private profit, to slash bills and cut carbon?

[Kwasi Kwarteng]

I appreciate that these are talking points that have been given to the hon. Lady by the Whips—

[Zarah Sultana]

No they are not.

[Kwasi Kwarteng]

I totally understand where that is coming from, but I have said repeatedly that universal credit is an issue across Government and there is no way that I can commit to anything on that in the House. We are absolutely focused on protecting people in fuel poverty. All our policies have been focused on that, and I would suggest that she reads our 2019 manifesto to see the extent of our commitments to help those in fuel poverty.