Oral Answers to Questions

Lindsay Hoyle Excerpts

Tuesday 7th December 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Lucy Frazer)]

The Government’s priority is to keep goods moving and avoid delays at the border. To ensure that, we have set up a new Cabinet Committee on logistics to deal with supply chain issues. I recognise that the new customs controls come in on 1 January. Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs is supporting traders and hauliers to adjust to their new obligations following the end of the transition period.

[Mr Speaker]

Just for clarification, is that a grouped question?

[Lucy Frazer]

I do not believe it is, Mr Speaker.

[Mr Speaker]

Thank you. I call Chris Elmore.

[Chris Elmore]

I am glad that the Minister is setting up a Cabinet Committee—that is lovely—but let me tell her what is impacting people on the ground. Daniel Lambert Wines, an importer in my constituency, for example, has gone from taking seven to nine days to import wine from the EU to 12 weeks. That is really not acceptable. The national Food and Drink Federation says that it is causing huge problems for the supply chains when it comes to bringing wine into the UK, and Christmas is one of the biggest periods for purchasing. Can the Minister set out what she will do to start tackling the issues around the delays in importing wine, so that everyone can have a sensible tipple over the Christmas period?

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Chair of the Treasury Committee.

[Mel Stride (Central Devon) (Con)]

I am sure that my right hon. and learned Friend and HMRC are working very hard to ensure that the changes to the import processes coming in on 1 January run smoothly and do not result in lots of additional friction at the border. However, the Federation of Small Businesses has estimated that just one in four smaller companies is actually prepared for the changes that are about to happen. Is she aware of that particular issue? If she is, what action is she taking in the short time that remains?

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[Rishi Sunak]

I hope that my hon. Friend will forgive me for not treading on the toes of the Business Secretary, but what she will know is that we allocated £120 million for future nuclear development in the Budget and spending review. I know that the subject is of keen interest to her and that she has long campaigned on it in her area. I am happy to support her in her conversations with the Business Secretary as he decides how to allocate that funding.

[Mr Speaker]

May I welcome Pat McFadden to the Dispatch Box?

[Mr Pat McFadden (Wolverhampton South East) (Lab)]

Thank you, Mr Speaker.

It takes some doing to come up with an inheritance tax aimed at people in the lowest-value properties, but that is exactly what the Chancellor and the Conservatives have done in the way they have designed the social care cap. Even the original author of the policy, Sir Andrew Dilnot, has said that the changes that the Government have made mean that

“the less well off will not gain any benefit from the cap.”

When it comes to tax, we should look at what the Government do, not what they say or the newspapers they brief. Why is the Chancellor imposing a tax rise on almost everyone to pay for a policy that will hurt those with the lowest-value properties in the country?

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[Rishi Sunak]

I am always delighted to meet my hon. Friend and neighbour, and if we could do that in north Yorkshire, it would be fantastic. He is right—as he always is—to champion the need for small and medium-sized enterprises to have access to the finance that they need, and if he has come up with yet another idea to ensure that that happens, I should be delighted to learn more.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Scottish National party spokesperson, Alison Thewliss.

[Alison Thewliss (Glasgow Central) (SNP)]

The Chancellor likes to talk a good game on the universal credit taper rate and his pretendy living wage, but that only benefits those who are lucky enough to be in work and ignores many people who are disabled, carers or out of work, and those who are still on legacy benefits. Why has he abandoned and forgotten that group when they face a cost-of-living crisis this winter which will often affect them more than the rest of the population?

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[Jason McCartney]

I know the passion of the Chancellor and the Chief Secretary for levelling up, and I welcome the creation of a Treasury campus in the north-east. When the Treasury next relocates, may I encourage my right hon. Friends to look at Huddersfield, Marsden and Slaithwaite in my Colne Valley constituency? They are strategically located on the TransPennine rail route between Leeds and Manchester, and we are set to have millions invested thanks to the integrated rail plan. We have fantastic former mill sites ready for regeneration, and the Chief Secretary and the Chancellor would be welcome to join me on a visit.

[Mr Speaker]

Be careful how you answer, Chief Secretary. There are two more questions to come.

[Mr Clarke]

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Colne Valley (Jason McCartney) for his invitation, and I look forward to being in Darlington at the Treasury’s northern hub this week.

I am glad to hear of my hon. Friend’s support for the wider investment on the TransPennine rail route, which will improve connectivity between Manchester, Leeds and York, including Marsden and Huddersfield, with benefits starting this decade. Diary permitting, I would be delighted to discuss a visit to see that investment in action.

[Mr Speaker]

What will you say to Karl MᶜCartney?

[Karl MᶜCartney]

Thank you, and happy Christmas to you, Mr Speaker.

Connectivity is critical to levelling up, which is why I have advocated and secured significant infrastructure improvements in Lincoln since 2010. The recent counterproductive 25% cut in Lincolnshire’s highways maintenance grant is not levelling up, and my right hon. Friend the Chancellor was sitting next to the Prime Minister when I raised this issue at Prime Minister’s questions a fortnight ago.

If the Treasury does not provide the funding to return Lincolnshire’s highways maintenance grant to 2019-20 levels, at the very least, there will be a significant impact on improvements and repairs to the highways network in our county. Will the Chief Secretary agree to return the funding to pre-pandemic levels, or at least to put pressure on our colleagues in the Department for Transport to do so?

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[Hannah Bardell (Livingston) (SNP)]

9. What recent assessment he has made of the effect of his fiscal policies on gender equality.

[Mr Speaker]

Does anybody want a question? Ah, Minister.

[The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Mr Simon Clarke)]

Our fiscal policies support the Government’s ambition of creating a fairer and more equal society, and women are among those who will benefit the most. For example, women are expected to benefit disproportionately from the Government’s increase to the national living wage to £9.50 for workers aged 23 and above, as well as the rise in the national minimum wage for young people and apprentices.

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[John Glen]

I do not agree with my hon. Friend’s characterisation of the causal relationship, but I recognise that the Bank of England continues to be responsible for monetary policy. My hon. Friend has always held distinct views that represent a particular school of economists, and I will continue to listen carefully to what he has to say to the House.

[Mr Speaker]

We now come to the shadow Minister; welcome to the Front Bench, Tulip Siddiq.

[Tulip Siddiq (Hampstead and Kilburn) (Lab)]

There is a cost of living crisis, temperatures are falling and Ministers are ignoring average households, who are struggling to pay enormous bills. Household energy bills have increased by more than £230 since last winter and are set to increase even more early next year, and we have recently seen higher tax receipts from energy bills. Will the Minister back Labour’s policy of using this money to cut VAT on people’s energy bills to zero over the next six months?

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[Rishi Sunak]

As I have said, the new taxpayer protection taskforce at HMRC is expected to recover between £1 billion and £2 billion in the next 12 months, and has already made a good start on that. It is fair to reflect on where we were in spring 2020. I remember being at this Dispatch Box every other day. I remember Members from all parts of the House rightly holding the Government to account for getting money to businesses in a matter of hours and days, not weeks. In fact, I heard from the hon. Member for Oxford East (Anneliese Dodds), the shadow Chancellor at the time:

“We need a full guarantee for…some loans…We are running out of time, so how will the Chancellor ensure that the bounce-back loans get to the businesses that need them?”—[Official Report, 27 April 2020; Vol. 675, c. 110.]

The then shadow Business Secretary, the right hon. Member for Doncaster North (Edward Miliband), said that the Government should:

“urgently look at 100% underwriting of loans and simplified lending criteria.”

Indeed, the hon. Lady herself wrote to me and said that

“the process for SMEs to apply for such loans appears cumbersome.”

I make no apology for making sure—

[Mr Speaker]

Order. He might want to apologise now—we cannot take so long on the first two questions from either Front Bench.

[Lucy Allan (Telford) (Con)]

T5. I thank the Chancellor for his hugely successful plan for jobs. I recently visited an organisation in Telford called Teach A Trade, which successfully trains long-term unemployed and older people changing careers to get gas and electrical qualifications, which are in short supply in my constituency. What is his Department doing to work with organisations such as Telford’s Teach A Trade to make these courses more accessible to more students? Can he please tell me what his Department can do to help Telford’s Teach A Trade so that it can expand the excellent work it is doing?

[Mr Speaker]

Order. I appeal to Members that if you all want to get in, you have to help each other. If you are not going to help each other, do not be disappointed when you do not get in. It is not fair, and the same goes for the Front Benchers. Topicals are meant to be quick, short and speedy to keep the business going. We are not being fair. Whoever is answering that question, please do so briefly.

[The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury (Helen Whately)]

As we build a strong economy, we need to raise skills. That is why we announced in the spending review an increase of £3.8 billion in skills spending over this Parliament. The spending review included funding for a specific 50-plus training scheme to support people like those being helped by Teach A Trade so that they can retrain and stay in work. I am happy to speak further to my hon. Friend about how we can support Teach A Trade and others like it to do what they do.

[Rishi Sunak]

I am glad that our VAT cuts extend all the way to spring. It is a £7 billion tax cut, and next year, as I have said, there is a 50% discount on business rates.

[Mr Speaker]

Well done, Chancellor.

[Dr Jamie Wallis (Bridgend) (Con)]

T7. The recently announced coalition deal between Welsh Labour and Plaid Cymru contains a tourism tax, which is likely to do significant damage to Porthcawl, a seaside town in my Bridgend constituency. Does my right hon. Friend agree that imposing a new tax on a sector already hit hard by Welsh Government restrictions is further evidence that Labour-nationalist coalitions are bad for business, bad for the economy and bad for our United Kingdom?