Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Mike Kane Excerpts

Monday 8th March 2021 Commons Chamber

[Mike Kane (Wythenshawe and Sale East) (Lab) [V]]

It is delightful to follow the hon. Member for Penrith and The Border (Dr Hudson). I look forward to visiting his beautiful bit of the north-west as soon as we are able to do so.

This Budget is probably the most critical of my time in this place. The crisis has pushed millions into financial difficulty. Following a decade of austerity combined with the economic shock of Brexit, this emergency has thoroughly gutted parts of my communities in Wythenshawe and Sale East. The Budget was an opportunity to heal our economy and help those worst affected by the pandemic. I welcome the extra measures announced last week aimed at filling in the gaps of support. However, many of my constituents have shouldered an unfair share of the pain in the last 12 months. The Budget does not go far enough.

I have seen the huge impact the pandemic has had on Manchester Airport in my constituency and the surrounding community. For example, Naeem Ahmed, the secretary of the airport taxi association, shared with me the tragic news that several of his members had died of covid, unable to stop working due to the lack of financial assistance. These self-employed drivers and their families need proper financial support. Teresa McGeough, a self-employed children’s dyslexic assessor, was unable to work for much of last year. Teresa has only had access to a small amount of financial support that is not meeting her family’s outgoings. The Government cannot leave those like Teresa without the help they need.

The restrictions on hospitality in the past 12 months have had an unequal effect on wet-led pubs, unfairly affecting those in working class communities like mine. In addition, my constituent Paul Naylor, landlord at the much-loved Legh Arms in Sale Moor, is left with less than £100 a month due to the complex retail partnership between landlords and breweries.

This should have been a Budget to put the country back on the road to recovery and right the wrongs of the last decade by rebuilding our economic foundations. Instead, it just papers over the cracks. The Office for Budget Responsibility confirmed that the Conservative Government’s mismanagement has left Britain with the worst economic crisis of any major economy. We need to learn the lessons of the pandemic, not go back to the insecurities of the past. The Chancellor has the wrong priorities and is out of touch with what the country needs today.