Budget Resolutions

Richard Burgon Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd November 2021 Commons Chamber

[Richard Burgon (Leeds East) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Rutherglen and Hamilton West (Margaret Ferrier). I want to make special mention of my hon. Friend the Member for Leeds North West (Alex Sobel), who made so many important points about how this Budget affects our city. We have heard so many stories of damage to communities across the country by Tory economic policies. It should not be like that, not in one of the richest countries in the world. Ours is one of the richest countries, but day to day that seems almost like a fantasy to people in my community and across the country, because they do not feel that they share in that wealth.

The aim of this Budget was clear: to make working people pay for a crisis that they did not cause. That was exactly what was done in 10 years of austerity after the banking crisis, and it is exactly what is being done now. The Government have chosen to hit working people with tax hikes and benefit cuts, while slashing taxes on the bankers. Make no mistake: this was a clear and deliberate political choice.

But there is an alternative: the Government could have chosen to impose a wealth tax, raising billions from the super-rich, who have increased their wealth by more than £100 billion during this crisis. Are we to say that it is impossible? [Interruption.] I see the Tories grinning at the prospect of making the richest people in society pay their fair share. Are we saying that that is impossible? [Interruption.] They are grinning, some of the ones who are not wearing masks, as we can see over there. Instead, the Government have chosen to stand side by side with the super-rich, who fund their party—many who lined their own pockets with corrupt covid contracts during this crisis. I want the Chancellor to be clear on something: we are going to build a mass movement for a wealth tax on the super-rich, because it is time that those who have got away with rigging the system for so long actually pay their fair share.

The second point I wish to make is that this Budget was a chance for the Government to put their money where their mouth is and fund a green transition to avoid climate catastrophe, which is the greatest example of free market failure. We needed a green new deal that created millions of decent, unionised, green jobs, transforming the basis of our economy while preparing us for the challenges of the future. Instead, the Government’s pledges fall tens of billions of pounds short of the levels of green investment we need to hit our carbon targets. So many people watching at home were shocked—they thought they had misheard—when in the Budget the Chancellor announced that he was slashing taxes on UK internal flights. People could not believe their ears. The Government are also sanctioning new oil and gas fields. We should be tackling the high-polluting lifestyles of the wealthy, which are fuelling the climate crisis. That is why I have called for a tax hike on the incomes of the richest 1%—those on more than £150,000 per year.

Just as the claims we used to hear of the “northern powerhouse” a decade ago were complete hot air, the Tories now want to fob people off in areas such as mine in east Leeds with bogus claims of “levelling up”. The Tories are not levelling up; they are not even levelling back to where we were before they took their axe to local services—to youth clubs and Sure Start centres. In my city, for example, since 2010 Leeds City Council has had cumulative cuts of more than £2 billion, and the same is happening in communities across the country. Yet now the Chancellor has refused a levelling-up bid to redevelop the Fearnville leisure centre in east Leeds to make it a wellbeing centre fit for the needs of my community. My constituency is one of the most economically deprived in the whole country, so it deserves the Government’s backing for that levelling-up bid, but they refused to back it. Instead of investing in our areas, the Government have chosen to hand out tax cuts to bankers. That is an appalling decision, but I say to the Chancellor that he still has time to change his mind on the levelling up bid for the Fearnville centre in east Leeds.

Lastly, I wish to make the point that the Government are leaving people to sink when faced with a deepening crisis. As we have heard, the Chancellor, ahead of his Budget speech, talked of an “age of optimism”. That just shows how out of touch the Government are. The IFS estimates are that over the next five years household income is expected to barely grow, at just 0.8% per year. That comes after workers have already faced the biggest stagnation of wages since the age of Napoleon. There should have been an emergency plan, to get people through the winter. That means that free school meals should have been extended.

The cut to universal credit, which affects more than 14,000 families in east Leeds, should have been restored. There should have been a windfall tax on fossil fuel companies such as BP, which today announced huge increases in profits, to fund a one-off winter fuel payment to help every household in the country through the winter.

At this Budget, the Tories had a chance to stand with ordinary people who face an unprecedented crisis. They chose to stand aside. The rhetoric of the Conservatives may have changed, but their callous disregard for ordinary people has not changed and remains constant.