Income tax (charge)
Debate between Neil Hudson and Andy MacNae(3 weeks, 2 days ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Dr Hudson
I thank the hon. Member, who is my neighbour, for his intervention. We have to get on with rebuilding the Princess Alexandra and Whipps Cross, and we need to do it quickly.
I also urge the Government to listen to my constituents’ concerns about the introduction of VAT on independent school fees. This tax on education impacts not only 2,000 pupils in my constituency at independent schools but our excellent local state schools. Some families will unfortunately have to move their children midway through the school year, or in the next year, to some of these fantastic schools, some of which are already oversubscribed, impacting class sizes. Independent schools provide a social good in my constituency and right across the country, providing access to high-quality facilities, and providing access bursaries. For many parents, independent schools are a choice borne out of hard work and sacrifice. For some, they are the best way their children with special educational needs can be supported, amid the difficulties and delays found in the process of receiving and delivering an education, health and care plan. Once again, the supposed short-term gain comes at the long-term expense of our children’s future, and the Government must look again at reversing that punitive measure.
Unfortunately, harming aspiration flows not just through that education tax but in the measures that affect the everyday lives of the working people the Labour Government claim to speak for—if they have finally worked out who “working people” are. If someone strives to own their own business, they will be forced to pay increased employer national insurance contributions for having that aspiration. Business owners will have their business rates relief cut. People who rely on the bus to get to work or appointments will be penalised by the bus fare cap increase from £2 to £3. We Conservatives introduced the £2 bus fare cap, which helps people in urban and rural communities alike, and we promised to deliver it for the whole of this Parliament. The Labour Government have callously ripped up that lifeline bus ticket.
Dr Hudson
No, I am going to carry on. For pensioners aspiring to live in dignity in their retirement, this Labour Government have taken away their winter fuel payment. That is just immoral.
Let me say a couple of words about national security. It is deeply disappointing that the Government are not heeding calls to commit to spending 2.5% of GDP on defence now, when we really need to show our allies, and indeed our adversaries, where we stand. Nationally, it seems that another area of the Government’s lack of vision is food security and biosecurity. Food security is national security, and biosecurity is national security. Over the last five years, agriculture and biosecurity have faced a seismic shift as we have navigated our departure from the EU. This was an opportunity that our previous Government seized, with environmental land management schemes to ensure that farmers are rewarded for feeding us, while protecting our precious environment, and the border target operating model to keep our food industry safe from the biosecurity risks that pose a threat to both animal and human health.
The last thing that the sector needed was to learn that it will not get the stability and support of investment that is so desperately needed. To state in the Budget document that farm schemes and flood defence funding will be reviewed is no way to treat our farmers and rural communities. We have heard a lot today about agricultural property relief, the changes to which could devastate our farming sector, risking the decimation of the sector that we rely on to feed us and support our environment. The impact of the policy on family farms, the tenanted sector and our food security will be untold. Families have had their succession planning turned on its head, and that inheritance tax pressure will have profound impacts on people’s mental health. Farming communities face huge challenges from shock events such as floods and animal disease outbreaks, and chronic pressures of finance and rural isolation. These are people who we know are at higher risk of mental health issues, and tragically suicide as well. I say that as a veterinary surgeon—a profession with similar risk factors. Gallingly, this policy decision has broken the promises that Labour made to our farming communities.
The opportunity has likewise been lost in the Budget to invest in the frontline of our defence against biosecurity risks—the Animal and Plant Health Agency, the A-team of our national biosecurity. Its headquarters in Weybridge, Surrey needs an urgent and full redevelopment, as outlined by the National Audit Office report a couple of years ago. With biosecurity threats such as African swine fever afflicting livestock in Europe, avian influenza not gone away, and bluetongue virus bubbling away in this country, a full funding of the headquarters in Weybridge is now more urgent than ever. We cannot afford the devastation that biosecurity threats such as foot and mouth disease or African swine fever could wreak on our economy, our farmers, our food industry and rural mental health if we are not firing on all cylinders against these threats.
This Budget’s claim to fix the foundations falls short in meeting the everyday needs of the people of Epping Forest and of people throughout the United Kingdom. This short-termist Budget with a lack of evidence-based decision making will harm our country in the long term. An urgent rethink and reversal is needed from those on the Treasury Bench. I and my Conservative colleagues will stand up for our constituents, who will suffer from this anti-aspirational and promise-breaking Labour Budget.