Working People’s Finances: Government Policy

Patricia Gibson Excerpts

Tuesday 21st September 2021 Commons Chamber

[Patricia Gibson (North Ayrshire and Arran) (SNP)]

There is no doubt that we are facing a cost of living crisis, with universal credit to be cut by £20 a week, negatively impacting 10,406 of my constituents and 400,000 people across Scotland; with a national insurance hike hitting those on the lowest incomes; with energy prices expected to soar by at least £139 for millions of households; with 16,500 jobs in Scotland still on furlough—that is 5% of all those who were furloughed; with exports from the UK falling by a staggering €16 billion, down 17.1% in the first seven months of this year; and with the ending of free movement disrupting supply chains and leading to empty supermarket shelves and higher prices. I could go on, but it really does feel like the end of days.

I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the Ardrossan, Largs and other food banks in my constituency and to all the voluntary organisations that are supporting those in North Ayrshire and Arran who are in financial distress and who will fall into financial distress as a result of the universal credit cut. Apparently, though, it seems that none of the soaring prices and empty supermarket shelves are a consequence of Brexit. No, they are a consequence of covid, or the problem is global, or it is the bogeyman! It is the fault of anything or anyone except the rabid Brexiteers on the Tory Benches.

Of course there are global issues at play, but to suggest that the disruption to our economy is nothing to do with Brexit is complete nonsense. We have a shortage of HGV drivers, food packers and staff in food processing plants, and it is time that that was faced up to. I was told yesterday by the Secretary of State for Business that there was no point in talking about the consequences of Brexit, as that would be re-fighting the battles of five years ago. That might explain why we are being told that Brexit has nothing to do with our empty supermarket shelves, which incidentally no country in the EU is experiencing. Global factors apparently affect the UK uniquely.

We can all understand the scepticism with which the Business Secretary’s words were met yesterday when he said there will be no energy shortage this winter. The truth is that we cannot believe a word this Government say. This is the Government who told us there would be no food shortages, no price rises and no fall in exports. The sunlit uplands that they presented as their vision of Brexit have become the nightmare about which we warned.

The harsh and cruel reality is that food prices are up, energy prices are up, inflation is up, pensioner poverty is up, child poverty is up and taxes are up, regressive as they are, and the Tory response to this cost of living crisis is to cut universal credit. Today’s debate is about poverty, which prevents people from reaching their potential and prevents children from achieving their best in school. It robs people of their good mental health and of their physical health. It is corrosive, it grinds people down and, ultimately, it kills them. I remember when this Government used to pretend to care about the just about managing, but now they seem to care for the just about managing just as much as they care for those who live in deep poverty.

Today we hear that the National Audit Office has discovered that the Department for Work and Pensions underpaid 134,000 pensioners by a total of more than £1 billion in state pension, and of course women are disproportionately affected. With the energy price cap rise, it will be a cold winter for many of my constituents in North Ayrshire and Arran, but it has been wilfully and deliberately made colder by this Government’s £1,040 a year cut to universal credit. Shame on them. Their callous disregard for poverty shows with crystal clarity that the Conservative party is not fit to govern.

It would be laughable if it were not so serious. This bumbling Prime Minister pledged to restore trust in our institutions and in how our democracy operates. That is big talk from a Prime Minister who breaks pledges with ease, who is struggling to keep the lights on and who has insisted, despite the evidence to the contrary, that child poverty is falling. That view is brought to us by the same Prime Minister who said Brexit would lower energy prices.

I remember when, in 2012, the right hon. Member for Mid Bedfordshire (Ms Dorries) dismissed the then Prime Minister, David Cameron, and the then Chancellor, George Osborne, as “two arrogant posh boys” with

“no passion to want to understand the lives of others.”

I ask anyone sitting on the Conservative Benches if they would care to tell me what has changed. If it was true of the Prime Minister and the Chancellor then, by God how much truer is it now? I wonder what Conservative Members think of that.

The Prime Minister said today—this will put the fear of God into the House—that it will not be a tough winter. Let us hope he is right about something for once in his life, because we know that for too many in our constituencies it will indeed be a tough winter. This Government are not fit to govern and their so-called global Britain is not just an illusion but a laughing stock. It is a hallow phrase that means nothing to those who are struggling, and it is why so many of us in Scotland are sick to the back teeth of this cruel, nonsensical incompetence. We can and will take our future into our own hands and build a fairer, more equal, more compassionate society in an independent Scotland. We can then start to see what levelling up really looks like, instead of the shoddy window dressing we see before us.