Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Sammy Wilson Excerpts

Wednesday 28th October 2026 Commons Chamber

[Sammy Wilson (East Antrim) (DUP)]

The advantage of this House is that the Chancellor has brought forward a Budget, albeit one that is inadequate. In Northern Ireland, we are seven months into the financial year and the Sinn Féin Finance Minister has still not brought forward a budget for Departments in Northern Ireland, leaving people in the dark as to what money is available for health, education, roads and all the other issues. I welcome the fact that in today’s Budget we have got a £270 million uplift as a Barnett consequential, as well as the £750 million that was available under the review, and I hope that that will stop any further excuses for not having a budget declared in Northern Ireland.

As far as the measures in this Budget are concerned, there are some that I welcome, although I think the Chancellor should have gone further. I welcome the fact that some pensioners at least will not be dragged into paying tax. I also welcome the support for people with their energy bills—although, as for other Members representing rural areas, 60% of people in Northern Ireland will not be impacted by it. They heat their homes using oil, and therefore will not be covered by the relief that has been made available. I think small businesses will appreciate the increase in business rates relief, although it is up to the Northern Ireland Executive as to whether they pass on those changes to businesses in Northern Ireland. The freeze on fuel duty is also welcome.

However, in a place in the United Kingdom that depends greatly on road transport for both getting goods in and getting goods out, the price of fuel is prohibitive. Given that the Government have made billions from the additional VAT on fuel as a result of price increases, I believe they could have gone further.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

My right hon. Friend has rightly outlined the issue for hauliers in Northern Ireland, where we have to transport everything in and everything out. Does he also recognise that farmers—for instance, with tractors—as well as the farming community and the agricultural sector, also need to be considered when it comes to such help and provision?

[Sammy Wilson]

Of course, any of the big diesel and petrol users would have benefited from greater support from the Government.

On the big challenges that the Government are facing, and which they admit they are facing, there has been very little in this Budget. First, if we are going to get out of many of our economic difficulties, the main issue is to have economic growth. While much has been made today of the micro policies that will affect businesses and encourage entrepreneurs, the fact of the matter is that we are stagnating because we are taxing the life out of businesses. We have the highest tax burden ever, and businesses tell us all the time that the tax on employment stops them recruiting and that the tax on profits stops them investing. If we are going to have economic growth, we must address the issue of the overall burden of taxation, but that has been studiously avoided in this Budget. I am thinking of the farming industry in Northern Ireland. Only yesterday, I met the Ulster Farmers’ Union, which told me that 90% of farmers have now stopped investment plans because of the inheritance tax fears, and I suppose that is true in many other places. With taxation halting people’s investment decisions, that will of course have an impact on economic growth.

Secondly, we have to reduce the debt, yet the Chancellor has told us today that we will actually be borrowing more year on year over the time of this Budget. If we are borrowing more, we are adding to the debt, and if we are adding to the debt, we are adding to the interest we pay on that debt. The Chancellor has even accepted today that £14 billion extra will be required this year just to pay for the increase in the interest we have to pay on the debt. As we continue to borrow, we are not going to get that debt down, and as we do not get that down, we have to tax to pay the interest on it. Again, that has an impact on economic growth, and there does not appear to be a willingness to address it.

[Sam Carling (North West Cambridgeshire) (Lab)]

May I draw the right hon. Member’s attention to page 22 of the Red Book, which states:

“The IMF also forecasts that the UK will deliver the biggest reduction in borrowing in the G20 between 2025 and 2031 and will have the second lowest government debt in the G7 by 2031”?

[Sammy Wilson]

We may be improving in relation to other countries in the G7, but the fact of the matter is that we still have a level of debt that, as the Chancellor has said, is absorbing more and more of our tax revenue to pay—and that is to pay only the interest. We are borrowing more and we are adding to the debt.

Thirdly, we have to reduce energy costs. Today’s announcements mean that we are going to shift some of the burden of the policies that have added to the cost of energy in the United Kingdom.

One of the biggest costs has been the Government’s net zero policy, because it has required investment in wind energy, 25-year commitments to paying premium prices for that energy, and increasing the grid network to bring that energy from dispersed sources, as opposed to the single power stations we used in the past. All of that goes on to energy bills, yet the commitment in the Budget today is to continue with that policy. On the one hand, the Government want to reduce people’s energy bills, but on the other hand they continue with a policy that has increased, will increase and will require infrastructure spending that will further increase energy bills.

The next big issue, of course, is defence spending. What have we got, despite the urgency to increase defence spending? We are going to have the review next year and we are going to have a taskforce, but we are not going to address the issue of spending more now. I understand why, because the Government are not addressing, in the first place, the issue of how we get in more revenue to spend.

The last big issue is the welfare bill, which has been well aired in the debate today, and how it is increasing day on day. As the Chancellor said, the increase in the welfare bill and the way we do welfare is condemning a whole generation to no work—to not working, being on benefits and being reliant on benefits—and it is taxpayers who are having to pay for that. Yet that issue has been pushed aside with the Government saying, “Next year, we’re going to have a White Paper”, etc.

The problem is this. We have a Government who know what the problems are. They talk about the problems in this House and they talk about them to the general public, but despite the fact that we have a Government with a majority of 170, they have still been unwilling to take the hard decisions to address these issues. Unfortunately, it seems that we have a Government who, instead of a backbone, have a wishbone. They wish certain things, but they do not have the courage to take the decisions to sort the problems out.