Oral Answers to Questions
Perran Moon Excerpts(1 week, 4 days ago)
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Rachel Reeves
Debt is lower in every year of the forecast that I published last week than it was in the plans that I set out in the Budget just back in November. The fiscal rules that I introduced in the October after I became Chancellor said, first of all, that we had to balance day-to-day spending with tax receipts, and that is important. They also stated that, subject to getting debt down as a share of GDP, we could invest in the things that can actually grow the economy. The right hon. Gentleman and I both know that growth is the best way to ensure that our public finances are sustainable, and that we improve living standards for working people.
Perran Moon (Camborne and Redruth) (Lab)
The Government’s new industrial strategy has signposted a path to further economic growth and prosperity. There are certain regions of the UK that can play a significant role in this growth, so would Treasury Ministers consider working with the Department for Business and Trade to make Cornwall an industrial strategy zone?
Rachel Reeves
In the Budget last year, we introduced the Kernow growth fund to support the Cornish economy because of its specific strengths around critical minerals, defence and clean energy. The National Wealth Fund and the wider Government will do everything we can to unlock the huge opportunities that we know exist in Cornwall.
Middle East: Economic Update
Perran Moon Excerpts(1 week, 5 days ago)
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Rachel Reeves
I recognise the concerns about businesses. As well as the supercharger, the British industrial competitiveness scheme is coming in next year, and we are monitoring the situation carefully to see what else might be necessary. De-escalation is so important. There is no reason why this conflict has to go on for months and months—nobody wants that, it is in no one’s interest, and we must quickly get vessels flowing through the strait of Hormuz. That is why I am meeting Lloyd’s of London later today, to work through what insurance products can be introduced, and it is why G7 Finance Ministers talked on the call this afternoon about how we can guarantee the safety of vessels flowing through the strait.
Perran Moon (Camborne and Redruth) (Lab)
Tens of thousands of homes across Cornwall are still totally reliant on heating oil, so I am delighted that the Chancellor has confirmed that the Financial Secretary to the Treasury will be meeting rural MPs, whose constituents are disproportionately affected by the crisis. Does she agree that in order to accelerate away from a fossil fuel-led economy, the British Business Bank, National Wealth Fund, and Great British Energy need to take a more dynamic attitude to risk when supporting renewable energy projects?
Rachel Reeves
I thank my hon. Friend for that question, and the group of rural Labour MPs for contacting me over the weekend with their stories and suggestions. That is why the Financial Secretary to the Treasury will be meeting MPs on Wednesday this week. The National Wealth Fund and British Business Bank are already investing heavily in renewables, and we increased their budget for them to do so. I also recognise the important opportunities in Cornwall, not just the South Crofty tin mine in my hon. Friend’s constituency, but other energy projects, including geothermal energy, and I have asked the National Wealth Fund to look again at those opportunities.
Spring Forecast
Perran Moon Excerpts(2 weeks, 4 days ago)
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Rachel Reeves
We are only a couple of days into this conflict, and it is important to see where things go in the next few days. As I said in my statement, I am in regular contact with international counterparts right across the world, including in the middle east, with the Governor of the Bank of England, and with sectors—both maritime and oil and gas—that are most affected by what is happening. However, people can see from the actions of this Government—whether that is taking £150 off domestic energy bills or the extension of the supercharger to help energy-intensive industries with their energy costs, which will come in next month—that we are determined to help people. In addition, as I just said to my hon. Friend the Member for Llanelli (Dame Nia Griffith), today’s spring forecast includes an additional £540 million of RDEL spending and £15 million of CDEL spending, which the Welsh Government can spend on the priorities of the Welsh people.
Perran Moon (Camborne and Redruth) (Lab)
Through the National Wealth Fund and the Kernow industrial growth fund, this Labour Government have invested over £100 million in Cornish critical minerals and renewables, which in turn has unlocked vast sums of private sector investment. Does the Chancellor agree that it is precisely because of this Government’s careful nurturing of the UK economy that she can help unleash the Cornish Celtic tiger, and that while Opposition parties scurry around TV studios trying to talk down the UK economy, she is just getting on with the job of fixing the mess they created?
Rachel Reeves
There are huge opportunities in the Cornish economy—in defence, energy and critical minerals—as I saw when I was in Camborne and Redruth and in other parts of Cornwall last summer, including visiting the South Crofty tin mine, which has received National Wealth Fund money. That, alongside the Kernow plan, gives me great confidence that the opportunities that exist in Cornwall will be invested in, both by this Government through our public finance institutions and by the private sector.
Tolled Crossings and Regional Connectivity
Perran Moon Excerpts(1 month, 2 weeks ago)
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Perran Moon (Camborne and Redruth) (Lab)
I want to make a few short points to expand on a couple of things that have been mentioned. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for South East Cornwall (Anna Gelderd) for securing this important debate.
As I have said to several Members, particularly from this part of the world, we are currently closer to Middlesbrough than to my constituency in Camborne. Indeed, when people in this country think about the south-west, they think of Bristol, which is closer to Manchester than to my constituency. That gives an idea of the scale of where we are.
When it comes to the important question of regional connectivity, I gently say to the Minister that, over the last 18 months, the Government have invested over £100 million in Cornish metals, Cornish lithium and, as we have heard, the Kernow industrial growth fund. To maximise the potential of that investment, it is essential that we have the transport infrastructure to support it, including in the Tamar crossing.
Perran Moon
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The Tamar bridge should form part of our needed package of transport support, including mainline rail, upgrades to the A30 and, importantly, a complete review of the funding model for our one regional airport at Newquay, which needs to be considered in the round.
My hon. Friend the Member for South East Cornwall spoke about car ownership in Cornwall. One of the gross distortions of the Westminster funding modelling is that we look at car ownership as an indicator of affluence. In Cornwall, it is quite the opposite. Our public transport systems are so poor that we have one of the highest car ownership rates in the country per capita. The reason is that many people in large swathes of Cornwall—particularly young people who need to get to college, or who need to develop the skills to work in some of the organisations I have mentioned—are completely housebound and isolated if they do not own a car. As my hon. Friend mentioned, it also contributes to the real problems of loneliness and lack of access to social groups, which is important for people’s mental health.
There are wide-ranging issues with the lack of connectivity across Cornwall. That is why it is so important, as the hon. Member for North Cornwall (Ben Maguire) mentioned, that our devolution arrangement considers the implications of our remote coastal geography for business development, for young people and the skills they need, and for the social aspect as our population ages and more young people sadly leave Cornwall because they cannot find work, particularly driven by our acute housing crisis. We need a holistic strategy for the whole of Cornwall, and a very important part of that is the Tamar crossing.
Agricultural Property Relief and Business Property Relief
Perran Moon Excerpts(2 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Urgent Questions are proposed each morning by backbench MPs, and up to two may be selected each day by the Speaker. Chosen Urgent Questions are announced 30 minutes before Parliament sits each day.
Each Urgent Question requires a Government Minister to give a response on the debate topic.
This information is provided by Parallel Parliament and does not comprise part of the offical record
Dan Tomlinson
We need to continue to do all we can to support British farming so that we can have more British produce on our shelves and so that countries overseas can have more British produce, too. That is why we have been working hard on our trade deals to secure more access for British farmers to markets overseas.
Perran Moon (Camborne and Redruth) (Lab)
I thoroughly welcome the increase in the threshold, and I remind the Minister that in terms of farming profitability, my Conservative predecessor—a former DEFRA Secretary —described their Australia deal as
“not actually a very good deal for the UK”.—[Official Report, 14 November 2022; Vol. 722, c. 424.]
The Conservatives sold out and undercut our farmers with trade deals to New Zealand, whereby we could not export to New Zealand, but it could export to us. These deals were cheered on by Reform. Will the Minister confirm that this Labour Government will never sign such incompetent and damaging deals, and that we will not take lectures on farming profitability from the Conservatives or Reform?
OBR: Resignation of Chair
Perran Moon Excerpts(3 months, 2 weeks ago)
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James Murray
As will be clear, I agree with the right hon. Gentleman’s remarks about Richard Hughes’s contribution to public service. However, I disagree that the premature publication of the forecast last Wednesday was a narrow matter. The report showed that it was about not simply a single error, but more systemic issues, which it highlighted, so I disagree with the characterisation of that as narrow.
The right hon. Gentleman referred to some of Professor Miles’s comments at the Treasury Committee. Professor Miles confirmed that the £4 billion headroom identified in the forecast on 31 October was not inconsistent with the sentiment that this is a very challenging fiscal position.
The right hon. Gentleman also asked about the OBR’s letter, the nature of its being published and what it speaks about for the future. As I said earlier, the publication of the OBR letter was agreed to by the Chancellor due to the unique nature of this Budget and the context of the OBR’s productivity review, as it said itself, while acknowledging that it would not become usual practice, due to the importance of preserving a private space for discussion.
Perran Moon (Camborne and Redruth) (Lab)
The OBR leak was deeply disturbing, particularly in the light of international sensitivities. Can the Chief Secretary rule out foreign actors exploiting the OBR’s inadequate security at any point?
James Murray
The OBR’s report into the premature publication of its forecast found no evidence of hostile cyber-activity, but it looked at the spring forecast and identified what happened there. Concerningly, it identified that there had also been premature access to the forecast at that fiscal event. The report did not look further back at, for instance, the Chancellor’s first Budget last year or Budgets delivered by Conservative Chancellors under the previous Government. That is why it is so important that the Government take forward the report’s recommendation to conduct a forensic examination of potential premature access at previous fiscal events.
Dr Scott Arthur (Edinburgh South West) (Lab)
I find it rather curious that Conservative Members have a lot to say about Hugh Dalton’s Budget in 1947, but so little to say about Liz Truss’s Budget in 2022.
Dr Arthur
Exactly. It is very curious.
All the staff in my office diligently followed Mr Speaker’s advice on cyber-security and the threat of foreign intervention in our IT, and it is right that we take these matters seriously. However, based on the reports we have seen, I am not convinced that the OBR had taken the same kinds of steps to protect its own systems. Were the OBR and other Government Departments and agencies offered this advice but just did not follow it, or has there been an oversight in how we are managing security right across Government?
Property Taxes
Perran Moon Excerpts(6 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Sir Mel Stride
My point is very clear—I need to make some progress as I have been fairly generous in taking interventions—that when it comes to council tax, it is a fact that Conservative-controlled councils charge less, because their whole approach to running the council is the same as our approach to running the economy: to ensure it is done efficiently and not to impose undue burdens on people by way of tax.
We were told by the Chancellor that the tax hikes in the Government’s first Budget, last autumn, were a “once in a Parliament” event. It is now a question not of whether there will be further tax increases, but which taxes will be increased. The uncertainty that has flowed from the disastrous situation over the summer has meant that, because of Labour’s choices, a hold has been put on businesses investing, on property transactions and choices, and fundamentally on some of the freedoms that we, as citizens, often take for granted.
Labour Members will desperately dismiss all of this as press speculation—I expect to hear that from the Minister in a moment—but is it not the truth that this sorry tale is entirely of their own making? It is the inevitable result of their choices and the failure that has followed, with much of this speculation seemingly fuelled by briefings from within the Government. This House and the public deserve answers.
The Chancellor cannot borrow more and has shown no ability to control spending. That can only leave tax, but which taxes will it be? Are family homes safe or are they simply fair game? If Labour Members fail to vote for the simple motion before us today, then the answer will be clear: under this Labour Government, nothing is safe—not people’s homes, pensions, savings, businesses or farms, and not that which they simply wish to pass on to their own children. The message to hard-working people up and down our country could not be clearer: Labour will always duck the hard choices and tax the living daylights out of your family’s future, to pay for its failure.
Mr Speaker
Order. I hope somebody did not use the word “hypocrisy”. I am sure that was not the case.
I call the Chief Secretary to the Treasury—and congratulations on your promotion.
Oral Answers to Questions
Perran Moon Excerpts(8 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Rachel Reeves
In the Budget last year, we increased taxes by £40 billion, but without affecting the pay packets of ordinary working people. We did not increase their national insurance, their income tax or their VAT, and we did not go ahead with the wrong-headed increase in fuel duty that was put in place by the Conservative party. We are protecting working people; the Conservative party picked their pockets time and again.
Perran Moon (Camborne and Redruth) (Lab)
Ports are engines for economic growth in sectors such as energy and critical minerals. Falmouth port, in the constituency neighbouring mine, is surrounded by massive tin and lithium deposits, and it has ambitious plans to play its part. In line with our manifesto commitment for a £1.5 billion ports fund, will the Chancellor outline what mechanisms the National Wealth Fund and GB Energy can deploy to invest in ports?
Rachel Reeves
I thank my hon. Friend for that question. He will know that this Government have already invested through the National Wealth Fund in the tin mine in his constituency, bringing good-quality jobs paying decent wages to the people of Cornwall, as advocated by Cornish MPs. However, there is more we can do through the National Wealth Fund, including investing in our ports, which is absolutely vital for clean, cheap energy and for creating good jobs in this country, including in Cornwall.
Regional Growth
Perran Moon Excerpts(9 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Darren Jones
The hon. Member makes an important point about people’s lived experience of these types of policy announcements. We are trying to make it easier for people to use affordable, reliable public transport that is better for the environment and easier for them to use to get about in their day-to-day lives. We have seen that a lot in places such as London in the past, other places around the country have looked on in envy. The announcement today will mean that that is available to many people across the country. Announcements on funding for areas that do not have combined authority mayors will also come, but that will be next week at the spending review.
Perran Moon (Camborne and Redruth) (Lab)
Meur ras bras, Madam Deputy Speaker. I thoroughly welcome the Treasury’s Green Book Review because the current funding formulae do not reflect the true cost of delivering services in remote coastal areas such as Cornwall. They do not account for the scattered nature of deprivation, the costs associated with seasonal surge in demand, the costs associated with the influx of retirees, or the higher per capita costs of transport, waste collection, coastal protection and emergency response during the holiday season. They simply do not reflect the lived experience of people in Camborne, Redruth and Hayle and across Cornwall, despite our massive economic potential. Will the Chief Secretary assure constituents in remote coastal communities such as Cornwall that there will be specific changes to reflect our specific challenges?
Darren Jones
I thank my hon. Friend and the wider group of Labour Members from Cornwall, who have campaigned vociferously on the Green Book. That may seem technical, but for the people at home it is important because it alludes to all the issues that my hon. Friend points out—not least because in the past, Government have made decisions about particular projects as opposed to particular places. That means that we cannot unlock the potential for growth and better livelihoods because of a failure of applying the Green Book and its rules.
The Chancellor announced today that the Green Book update will be published next week at the spending review. I can give my hon. Friend the guarantee that the detail of that, when it is published, will show that this Government will look much more widely at how spending across Government lifts the potential of places to deliver better jobs and better wages for people, and more secure communities.
Oral Answers to Questions
Perran Moon Excerpts(1 year ago)
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The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Darren Jones)
This Government, as the hon. Member will know, has already given £26 billion of additional funding to the national health service and additional funding to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government for social care. We know that we have more to do. The Government are working hard on that and will set out further details in due course.
Perran Moon (Camborne and Redruth) (Lab)
Rachel Reeves
Unlike the Conservatives, we believe that investing alongside private industry is good for jobs and good for economic growth. I visited the National Wealth Fund’s offices last month where I heard at first hand about its equity investment in Cornish Metals. This will help to finance the reopening of Cornwall’s South Crofty tin mine, creating more than 300 local jobs, and—