Amendment of the Law

Robert Walter Excerpts

Thursday 19th March 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Robert Walter (North Dorset) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Angus (Mr Weir). If he had his way, he would not be in this House to benefit from our long-term economic plan.

When I made a speech last week I said that it would probably be my last, so this one can be regarded as an encore. I am delighted to speak in support of my right hon. Friend the Chancellor’s Budget, which I think is superb. I shall not comment on the Liberal Democrat alternative budget that we heard this morning. After 18 years in this House, I have been elected and subsequently re-elected three times despite the Liberal Democrats. I ought to be an expert on Liberal Democrat policy, but I cannot remember ever having much of a policy debate with them during any of those elections. I do remember the slogan “Winning Here!” on every roadside poster, but I do not think that will be true in the next election either.

I shall not indulge myself for long in commenting on the two kitchens of the Leader of the Opposition. I attest that I am convinced he has only one principal family kitchen, and it is clear to me that the room in which he was photographed, adjacent to his drawing room, is his butler’s pantry. We should always remember that whenever he is connecting with the ordinary people of Britain.

This Budget has suffered once or twice from facetious comments from the Opposition about “the long-term economic plan”. We have had five years of robust policy from my right hon. Friend the Chancellor and the Treasury team—I see the Economic Secretary in her place on the Front Bench—and this plan continues for another five years. I always thought that a week was a long time in politics, but 10 years certainly is. This is a long-term plan, and it is working.

The headlines in the Budget are clear. We are cutting income tax for 27 million hard-working people, cancelling the planned rise in fuel duty, and, not least, taking a penny off a pint of beer or lager and freezing the tax on wine. The new Help to Buy ISA is a superb way of tackling the problem that first-time buyers still have. I think that it is sometimes exaggerated, but it is none the less welcome that if a first-time buyer saves up to £12,000 towards a deposit on a home through an ISA, the Government will contribute an extra £3,000. The help for savers through the abolition of tax on the first £1,000 of savings will benefit some 17 million people.

The commitment to run a budget surplus and keep our debt share falling is particularly important, as is backing the business and skills that will create full employment. As the Chancellor said, we must invest throughout Britain. I know that his pet scheme, if I may call it that—the northern powerhouse—is an exemplar for other parts of the country, including my own in Dorset. The Budget shows our commitment—the Conservative commitment—to a long-term economic plan. Perhaps I am being partisan, but I believe that the only way in which we will deliver on that commitment is to elect a Conservative Government on 7 May, because otherwise we shall put all this at risk.

Let us look at the plan, and at how it is working. Debt as a share of the economy will start to fall in 2015-16, thus meeting our debt target. The deficit is down by more than half as a share of the economy, and is forecast to fall to 5% of GDP in 2014-15, down from 10.2% in 2009-10. The economy is growing, and the growth forecast for 2015 has been revised upwards to 2.5%. The OBR’s forecast was upgraded for the second time after Britain’s economy grew faster than any other advanced economy in 2014. That growth has been balanced, with manufacturing growing 4.5 times faster than it did in the pre-crisis decade.

Employment is going up, and unemployment is very much down. There are more people in work than ever before, and 1.9 million more than there were in 2010. In my constituency, unemployment is down to 0.7%. We heard yesterday that the year-on-year figure was down again, by a further 145, and youth unemployment is down as well. I should like to say that I could count the number of unemployed people on the fingers of two hands, but the figure is a little higher than that, and I do not know everyone who is on the register. However, I do know that we have a turnover of labour in my constituency because we have a vibrant economy, and that the big complaint from employers is that they cannot get the work force that they are looking for.

I think that the Opposition are not entirely sure what they would do differently from the Budget, but the electorate are aware of their record and the legacy that they left us five years ago. The note from the former Chief Secretary, the right hon. Member for Birmingham, Hodge Hill (Mr Byrne), read, classically, “There is no money left”, which speaks for itself. The Government’s record, however, has been very positive. It is a positive story: of growth, the best in the G7; of employment, the best in the industrialised world and an exemplar for most of Europe; of debt, which is now falling significantly; of a deficit that is coming down; and, most importantly, of business confidence, which is up.

This contrasts with the nightmare scenario of the possibility—no more than that—of a minority Labour Government kept in office, or held to ransom, by the Scottish National party. That really would be a nightmare scenario for Britain. So the question is clear, and I believe that the answer is obvious. I only regret that I will not be here in this House to support the next Conservative Government, but I believe that the nation, and particularly the nation’s economy and finances, is very safe in our hands.

[Several hon. Members]

rose—