Budget Resolutions

Matt Western Excerpts

Monday 1st November 2021 Commons Chamber

[Matt Western (Warwick and Leamington) (Lab)]

I am sure I am not alone in noticing—certainly the Foreign Secretary has done—that the Chancellor seems to be a little bit too preoccupied by his own self-image and should perhaps be more concerned about the prospects of others.

The harsh reality out there is that we are facing a 1.3% growth rate versus the 2.3% that we enjoyed under the last Labour Government, which would have carried through to the past decade. The economy has been badly damaged by the past 18 months, but particularly by the past 11 years. The purchasing managers index, a true measure of confidence in the economy, shows the widest margin between services and manufacturing since 2009. Vehicle manufacturing was down by 42% last month, and that is the third consecutive month that it has fallen. We are facing a cost-of-living crisis ripping through our communities, with food inflation at 1.1% just in the month of August. As for the pay increases that the Chancellor has talked about, just remember that back at the beginning of the year he was talking about 1% for nurses, and he must have realised that inflation was going to start tearing through our economy.

This is hurting people everywhere, and not just the majority of those on universal credit—hot on the heels of national insurance increases, it is going to affect all of us. According to the Resolution Foundation, we all face an average of £3,000 in tax increases, with women, on average, £1,800 worse off over the next six years. There is an energy crisis with people facing energy poverty—the stark choice between heating or eating. The Government could have done more by capping VAT, but they chose not to. In education, just one third of Kevan Collins’, the catch-up tsar’s, budget is actually being allocated, with £10 billion missing that could have been put in. There is no mention of funding for higher education and support for students at this difficult time. We see communities and town centres decimated by the hollowing out by the likes of Amazon who are then rewarded with tax breaks. I welcome the announcement on housing support and more housing, but, like the hon. Member for Hendon (Dr Offord) and my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield South East (Mr Betts), I want to see an absolute commitment to more social and, in particular, council housing.

There was no mention of the climate crisis, which the Chancellor failed to address. This Government are not on track to achieve the fourth or fifth carbon budget, yet they still, despite the penalties that we will face, see it as right to cut air passenger duty on short-haul flights. The reality is that we are seeing one of the major impacts of climate change—heavy instant flooding—happening in Yorkshire, south Wales, London, the midlands and elsewhere.

Let me contrast this with what Labour would promise. We have made it clear that we will not cut corners on children’s education. The full £15 billion that was called for by the catch-up tsar would be put into our schools. There would be a proper rise in the minimum wage to £10 per hour. We would cut VAT on energy bills to help families through this winter. We would remove business rates to help our businesses and secure jobs. We would deliver a green industrial revolution providing jobs and investment in every community. We would provide an industrial strategy. Just look at what Joe Biden has done in the US with his $52 billion CHIPS for America Act to secure semiconductor supplies. That is what I call a strategy. The choice is clear between the high-tax, low-productivity, low-growth model of this Government and the fair-tax, high-productivity, sustained growth model offered by Labour.