Employer National Insurance Contributions
Debate between Mel Stride and Paul Holmes(2 weeks, 4 days ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Mel Stride
No matter what points the hon. Gentleman may make, I am afraid he cannot get away from the fact that this Government are bearing down on growth, pressing up on unemployment, bearing down on employment and bearing down on living standards.
The OBR also says that real household disposable income by 2029 will be 1.25% lower than it was back in the spring, at the time of that forecast. We know the impact that national insurance is going to have on wages. It will press them down and it will further diminish living standards.
Paul Holmes (Hamble Valley) (Con)
Does my right hon. Friend the shadow Chancellor remember any Labour MP in the last general election standing on a fully costed manifesto that would mean economic growth was forecast to be lower than under the previous Government? Perhaps the hon. Member for Swansea West (Torsten Bell) should remember that Labour MPs stood on a manifesto that was apparently fully costed but then had different commitments. We had a faster rate of growth under the last Government than is projected under this Government.
Mel Stride
The simple fact is that, at the time of the general election, we had the fastest-growing economy in the G7. The simple fact is that the Labour manifesto said it would deliver precisely that, yet we have heard very little about that commitment in recent days and weeks—I wonder why.