Amendment of the Law

Lindsay Hoyle Excerpts

Monday 23rd March 2015 Commons Chamber

[Several hon. Members]

rose—

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

Order. Due to the large number of right hon. and hon. Members who wish to speak, there will be a time-limit for all Back-Bench speeches. There will be 10 minutes for the first two Back Benchers and five minutes for each remaining speech thereafter.

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[Mr Clarke]

No, I will not, because, with great respect to the right hon. Gentleman, it would not be fair to the 30-odd other Members who wish to speak.

The hon. Member for Leeds West keeps criticising the Chancellor for not succeeding in eliminating the deficit entirely in the last five years. I am very glad that he did not do so. It is the same with all forecasts—[Interruption.] It is not possible to find a Chancellor who has produced forecasts that are three, four or five years out and which resemble what actually happened. It is necessary to take account of what is happening in the real world. Macro-economic policy has to be pragmatic.

I cannot tell what will happen over the next five years, and nor can any Opposition Member. Will China actually have a soft landing? What will happen to the oil market? Is the recovery in the United States really sustainable? Will the eurozone begin to achieve a bit more growth this year and beyond? What about difficult emerging markets like Brazil? The fact is that we are part of a globalised economy—quite apart from the impossibility of forecasting with exactitude what will happen here.

The Chancellor has cut the deficit substantially, and has moved nearer to getting it under control. Had he moved at a faster pace, heaven knows where we would be now, but we would be in a very difficult situation. Actually, I do not know whether the Labour party thinks that he should have moved faster or more slowly, but I am sure that it is not capable of maintaining progress. I hope that we can achieve a surplus in the next Parliament—and so, obviously, does the Chancellor—but that will depend, again, on whether circumstances permit us to do so. In five years’ time, we shall find out where we are.

Meanwhile, having that kind of responsibility is an essential precondition to raising our educational standards and continuing to tackle the skills shortages which always slow up the British economy—we are making great progress with apprenticeships, and we have much further to go. At last we are beginning to see business investment come through, with more confidence and, I hope, improved credit for businesses. That should pave the way for the productivity growth that we desperately require. We need infrastructure investment, which the Government are pressing on with. We need the EU reforms, which the Prime Minister was talking about earlier. If we can complete the single market—if we can extend it to services, if we can have a common energy market, if we can have a common market for the digital economy, if we can have an EU-US trade agreement—all that will reinforce the efforts of the Government to put this country in a much better position than any other to look optimistically to the future.

If we were in the world of traditional politics of 30 or 40 years ago, this Government would be on a walkover in this election, producing figures to die for after taking over a disaster. We still have to rise above the cynical comedy of today’s protest politics. This Budget shows that a competent Conservative Government can finish the job.

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

Order.

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[Several hon. Members]

rose—

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

Order. I suggest that we now move to a time limit of six minutes, as we have had a few withdrawals.

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[Mr Ronnie Campbell (Blyth Valley) (Lab)]

All Members look at the Budget and see what is in it for their constituents. I did the same last week, for the whole north-east of England. When I got a look at it, I thought that there was one little chink of hope: I might get the Blyth and Tyne rail link reinstated in my constituency. I might be lucky, and I know that the county council has put some money aside, but I am not sure what will come from the Budget. We hope that the money might be there, but as for everything else, all my constituency is getting are a few crumbs. Some might be getting their pension, which is their own money, of course, but otherwise a few crumbs have fallen off the table that my people have managed to gather and I am sure that everybody else is thinking the same. As far as I am concerned, all we are getting in the north-east of England is the usual pie in the sky.

A lot has been said about what is happening now, but what will happen after this? What will happen if this lot get elected again? I went and had a look at the TaxPayers Alliance’s site to see what it was doing. We all know what the TPA is: the reserve Tory party, the ones who get paid by big business to tell the Tories what to do. It is talking about ending national bargaining, which means another freeze on wages. Another freeze, after five years of freezes, with some people getting no increase and some people getting only 1% increases. We can see where that is coming from, and that is what the TPA is telling the Tory Government.

The TPA wants an end to the triple lock on pensions. There we are: it is telling the Tories to end the triple lock on pensions. We could go on to benefits, of course. The TPA wants to freeze benefits for two years, so my constituents are in for a right surprise if they get them. That is another thing that will happen at the next election. Then, of course, there is the £12 billion that has to be cut from social security. All that has got to happen, and this is a Budget for happiness? I think that it is a Budget for disaster.

Then there is the cutting back. Apparently it is imperative that the next Government cut back on winter fuel allowances and bus passes. Last week, I saw on television that a compassion pill had been invented—someone could take it and become compassionate. I think £25,000 would give every Tory Member one, to see if we could get some compassion into their hearts for the people of this country, who have suffered for five years.

The TPA says that the next Government “need” to save £70 billion; that is what it is telling you. It is not telling us, thank God—I hope they are not, mind—but it is telling you, because those people are your people. That is who they are.

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

Order. Obviously, when Members say “you” they mean me. Do not worry about it, Mr Campbell. Carry on.

[Mr Campbell]

I apologise, Mr Deputy Speaker.

What have we got? We have the pension provisions. Okay, that is those people’s money and I suppose they are entitled to it, but I can tell Members what happened a few years ago when the miners were given the chance to pull their pensions out of the national mineworkers’ pension fund. I was chairman of the local branch at the time, not an MP, and I remember the spivs coming in big style. We had nothing to do with them, but they had meetings in social clubs and pubs and brought all the lads in. The Major Government said at the time that people could take their pension then as long as they got a better deal, the lads thought that they were getting a better deal and, of course, the spivs and speculators all came in. The lads all gave up their pension, saying that they were going to get a better deal, but within a year to 18 months they had to come back into the pension scheme.

That was a scandal waiting to happen, because there was no advice at all. The miners were finished—it was after the miners’ strike—and we told them to keep their pension where it was, but of course the spivs were telling them how wonderful their options were.