Budget Resolutions

Patrick Hurley Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd November 2026 Commons Chamber

[Patrick Hurley (Southport) (Lab)]

I welcome this Budget, and I congratulate the Chancellor on bringing it forward at a time of considerable economic uncertainty. There is much in it that deserves support and colleagues have spoken well over the past few days in that regard. I will use my contribution to make a broader argument, one that concentrates on the interaction between business and trade and prosperity for the country.

The biggest economic challenge facing this country is the fact that we have become accustomed to an economy that does not grow quickly enough, does not invest enough, does not produce enough and does not deliver rising living standards for enough of our people. Worse than that, we have constructed an economic system that has learned to accommodate failure.

Thanks to the long, dark years of Tory rule, this country has, in effect, institutionalised stagnation. For much of the past 80 years, people in this country could have reasonably expected to have been better off than their parents. Productivity increased, wages rose and living standards improved. However, since 2010 that has changed. The relationship has broken down, real earnings have barely grown by historical standards, productivity growth has been desperately weak and the prospect of building a better life has become increasingly remote for too many people. We need to change that.

First, we need to be clear about what we mean by “growth”. Our overriding economic objective should be sustained growth in GDP per capita, driven by higher productivity and accompanied by rising real wages and improving living standards. We should judge our success not just by what happens in some sectors such as financial services, or any other, but by what happens in places such as my Southport constituency, Swindon, Wigan, Bristol or Birkenhead.

Secondly, we need to rebuild our productive capacity in this country. For decades we have promoted consumption while allowing production to decline. We have become dependent on importing the things we need, exposed to volatile international energy markets and willing to see promising British innovations commercialised elsewhere. We need to change that, too. We should be ambitious about advanced manufacturing, clean energy, life sciences, digital technology—all those industries of the future.

I would like to see us set ourselves a national mission to create 1 million additional jobs in production over the next decade. That requires an industrial strategy with some proper oomph behind it. That proper oomph should be patient capital, affordable industrial energy, skills provision designed around the needs of employers and public procurement that supports domestic productive capacity. It also requires a closer and more practical economic relationship with our European neighbours. The isolationist turn that this country has taken over the past decade needs to come to an end, and not just for the benefit of our country; it has harmed our trading partners and has benefited only those countries that want us to fail.

We also need to reform the way we govern the economy itself. I strongly support fiscal responsibility, I believe in independent economic scrutiny, and I have no desire whatsoever to return to the economic recklessness that did such damage in 2022. We should also recognise that fiscal responsibility should be a means to an end, rather than the end itself. The purpose of sound public finances must be to enable a prosperous, productive and resilient population, but that is not what we have ended up with.

Too much of our economic policy making is currently dominated by what happens over a relatively short period. Investment that costs money today but only delivers in 20 or 30 years’ time can appear less attractive, so we have become trapped in a vicious circle: weak growth reduces tax revenues; weak tax revenues constrain investment; insufficient investment weakens productivity; and weak productivity leads to weak growth. We need to break that circle, and the way to do that is to look at how our fiscal and monetary policies are implemented. I would encourage Ministers to review those policies to ensure that the future of this country is prosperous.