Budget Resolutions

Debate between Laura Trott and Christine Jardine

Tuesday 12th March 2024 Commons Chamber

[Laura Trott]

Yes, the savings in the productivity plan will amount to billions of pounds.

Let me say a little about the economic context. The last few years have not been easy. The pandemic, Putin’s illegal occupation of Ukraine, energy price rises, and now conflict in the middle east have taken their toll on the economy, on businesses and on families. However, because of the difficult decisions that the Government have taken, the economy is turning a corner. Inflation has more than halved, from 11% to 4%; real wages have risen for seven months in a row; and unemployment is down, from a high of 8% in 2010 to 3.9% at the end of last year. Because we have stuck to our plan, we have been able to cut the double tax on work, putting £900 back into working people’s pockets. On Sunday, the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies gave its verdict on our tax cuts for workers:

“genuinely putting a lot more money into the pockets of people”.

[Christine Jardine (Edinburgh West) (LD)]

The right hon. Lady is referring to the 2p cut in national insurance. That cut has been wiped out by the freeze in income tax thresholds, and the average worker on £35,000 a year will still be nearly £400 a year worse off this year than last year. How do these figures match up?

[Laura Trott]

I am sure the hon. Lady will be pleased to know that the average earner will be subject to the lowest effective tax rate since 1975.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Laura Trott and Christine Jardine

Monday 23rd January 2023 Commons Chamber

[Christine Jardine (Edinburgh West) (LD)]

8. Whether his Department plans to take steps to compensate women affected by changes in the state pension age.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Laura Trott)]

State pension age equalisation has been the policy of successive Governments, and as the hon. Lady knows, the phasing in of state pension age increases was agreed to by her party in 2011 and 2014.

[Christine Jardine]

One of the very first issues raised with me by constituents when I was elected in 2017 was the inequality faced by women born in the 1950s, yet in the almost six years since then, this Government have done nothing to fix that. Given that the ombudsman has concluded that the Department for Work and Pensions was at fault in its administration, will the Government commit to fulfilling the ombudsman’s recommendations? In the meantime, will the Minister encourage the Scottish Government to use the powers they have to alleviate the suffering of such women?

[Laura Trott]

As the hon. Lady knows, the ombudsman’s investigation is ongoing, so unfortunately I cannot comment further—other than what is in the public domain—at this stage.