Budget Resolutions

Richard Drax Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd November 2021 Commons Chamber

[Richard Drax (South Dorset) (Con)]

I refer Members to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Brighton, Kemptown (Lloyd Russell-Moyle). I do not always agree with him, but it is always a pleasure to listen to him.

While my right hon. Friend the Chief Secretary to the Treasury is in his place, let me say—I have already shouted at him quietly in the corridor—that we in Dorset Council are very disappointed that levelling up does not apply to us. With some of the deepest pockets of deprivation and poverty in my constituency of South Dorset, we put a huge effort into making our application to the Government. I praise all those who took part, including the business community. Regrettably, however, because we went to unitary status, we went from category 1 to category 3, which is blatantly unfair. I appeal to the Government not to forget us in South Dorset. We are getting a little tired of being forgotten.

Moving on to the Budget, I want to talk a little about our Conservative philosophy. We have had a few days to digest the Chancellor’s enthusiastic delivery of the Budget statement last Wednesday. First, let me acknowledge that we are living through unprecedented times; the financial pressures on the Government have been extraordinary, particularly now, post pandemic, when all the chickens are coming home to roost. I applaud the Chancellor’s deft handling through three controversial lockdowns, although I did not agree with them. There is no doubt that the furlough scheme saved countless jobs and is now enabling the economy to bounce back impressively.

There is a lot in the Budget that I welcome and will help my constituents, not least the funding for skills, which I absolutely endorse; the taper relief to universal credit, which will help a lot of my constituents; and of course the help for businesses with business rates, although, as many Members have said, we long for business rates to be reviewed completely.

However, alarm bells are ringing for me as a Conservative. A further £150 billion spending spree caused an intake of breath, I have to say. With the UK’s total debt now over £2 trillion and taxes at their highest for 70 years, I wonder how long it will be before the country’s credit card finally expires. [Interruption.] We hear the customary groan from those on the Opposition Benches. I expect that, because they just spend money like water.

The majority of the Budget was contrary to our philosophy of less state, lower taxes and a free market economy. It was more big state and “the Government know best how to spend individuals’ money”. They do not. Our job is simple: to create an environment where business can thrive, allowing the entrepreneurs and innovators in the UK to do what they do best while attracting the best from around the world to invest here, which, post EU, we are now in a position to do.

To that end, the final few sentences in the Chancellor’s 70-minute Budget speech, which ran counter to the first 67 minutes, gave me hope. We left the EU for many reasons, but one of the most significant was to enable us to govern ourselves and make our own laws. The vision during those torrid pre-Brexit years was of a low-tax, Singapore-style country, producing and innovating our way to a new and prosperous future. I believed in that then, and I believe in it now, but it will not be achieved if we continue to favour big state spending, establishing an irreversible trend that can only continue to rise. Is that something that we Conservatives are prepared to countenance?

What we need, and urgently, is a vision, a narrative, a plan, and the political courage to promote it and see it through. However, that will be unsellable and unworkable unless it is accompanied by radical reform. Take the NHS, for example. Do not get me wrong. I have absolute respect and admiration for the doctors and nurses who work on the frontline and they have done a fantastic job throughout the pandemic. However, one commentator recently noted that the NHS was an organisation with a country attached. It is predicted that day-to-day Government spending on this behemoth could rise to a staggering 44%. This is an altar at which the country simply cannot afford to worship any longer. Does any other country have a system like ours? They do not and I do wonder why.

When moneys are short, why are we not looking at reversing our priorities? When we consider that the private sector accounts for 85% of the workforce, why do we continue to pour good money after bad into the public sector without reform? We need a public sector, of course, and it makes a valuable contribution, but it is paid for by the hard work of taxpayers—those on the Opposition Benches simply do not understand that— who are expected to dig ever deeper into their pockets for inefficiencies in so many areas. And this under a Conservative Government with an 80-seat majority.

Some years ago, we called for a bonfire of the quangos. You may recall those days, Madam Deputy Speaker. Depressingly, I read recently that they have only increased in size and influence—the latter totally unaccountable. All Departments have done is delegate their responsibilities to those who, all too often, are pursuing a very different agenda. Do you wonder that planning, the countryside, environment, energy and health to name but a few are mired in red tape, extra cost and, all too often, controversy? While we throw billions of pounds into, a broken system is too strong, but it needs reform, we cut defence spending, an irresponsible and incomprehensible act. What on earth are we doing? This, after our armed forces so magnificently came to the Government’s rescue and did such a great job during the pandemic. Let us not forget that they were not paid £70, or whatever it is a truck driver will get now. They lived on their salaries—what they get as soldiers—and the Government got a fantastic service on the cheap.

Our first priority is the defence of our island, which we ignore at our peril. The country sits at a crossroads. Double jabbed and better protected against covid, we must never, ever, ever lock the country down again. The consequences financially, physically and emotionally would be catastrophic. We must learn to live with the disease, as we do with any other. So I urge the Government to forget every other plan—plans B, C, D and E—except the most important one, which is a return to normality. Burdened by high tax and threatened with the spectres of inflation and rising interest rates, and a consequent cost-of-living crisis, there can be no other option. We are Conservatives and this worrying lean towards a big state must end, as the Opposition will always outspend us. If we do not get a grip on all this, we will, as Baroness Thatcher once famously said, shortly run out of other people’s money.