Working People’s Finances: Government Policy

Debate between Miriam Cates and Bridget Phillipson

Tuesday 21st September 2021 Commons Chamber

[Bridget Phillipson]

We would not be cutting it in the first place. We would replace universal credit with a better and fairer system that supports people into work. If the hon. Member wants to have a discussion about semantics, I suggest she has a chat with her constituents and sees how she gets on, arguing about the distinction between a temporary uplift and a cut. It is more than £1,000 a year from families’ budgets—that is what really matters.

[Miriam Cates (Penistone and Stocksbridge) (Con)]

The hon. Lady has made it clear that Labour wants to keep the temporary uplift. However, given that Labour does not support increasing national insurance, which is a very broad-based tax, how does it propose to pay for a permanent £6 billion a year increase in public spending? How would she pay for a blanket extension of £20 a week for every single universal credit claimant—it is not targeted to families or those with children in particular—in a way that is fair and does not involve raising taxes?

[Bridget Phillipson]

First, it is worth considering why the increase to universal credit was put in place. It was because, during the pandemic, the Government had to recognise that universal credit had been set at an inadequate level on which families might survive. On the hon. Lady’s wider point, I have a long list of places where we could find some money, if she is interested: the 1.9 million pieces of personal protective equipment, worth £2.8 billion, procured by the Government that were useless; the stamp duty holiday that was a £1 billion-giveaway to landlords and second homeowners—I could be mistaken, but I do not recall her objecting to that—and the hundreds of millions of pounds about to be wasted on the Prime Minister’s vanity yacht. That is before we get to the Test and Trace system that the National Audit Office said had not worked properly and had had a “minimal impact” on transmissions, literally wasting billions. This is about choices. There is always money for the Government’s projects, their friends and their people, yet when it comes to dealing with some of the poorest families in our community—those who have got us through the pandemic—I am afraid they are told that there is nothing for them.