Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Sheryll Murray Excerpts

Thursday 9th July 2015 Commons Chamber

[Chris Leslie (Nottingham East) (Lab/Co-op)]

Good morning, Madam Deputy Speaker.

When one cuts through the rhetoric and the headlines that the Chancellor spun, one sees that yesterday’s Budget leaves working people worse off. It is the working families of Britain on low incomes, trying their hardest to do the right thing, who will pay the price for the gap between what the Chancellor said and the truth of what his Budget actually means. The Office for Budget Responsibility has flatly contradicted the right hon. Gentleman’s claim to have lowered taxes, pointing out on the first page of its analysis that tax increases are twice as big any tax cuts over the course of this Parliament. It is a Budget that is entirely concerned with chasing headlines to further the Chancellor’s well known political ambitions, rather than putting the working people of Britain first.

Pulling the rug from under people on low incomes with a hefty work penalty in the tax credits system— 3.3 million working families will lose out from these changes, with 500,000 families losing tax credits entirely—despite Tory denials before the election, will hurt those in work.

[Mrs Sheryll Murray (South East Cornwall) (Con)]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Chris Leslie]

The hon. Lady is very keen, and I give way to her enthusiasm.

[Mrs Murray]

Will the hon. Gentleman confirm that former Chancellor Alistair Darling told a meeting this morning:

“Labour is in disarray… We are paying the price of not having a credible economic policy”?

[Chris Leslie]

I did not realise that the hon. Lady was a conduit for the former Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer. I will certainly look closely at what he said, but I did not hear him say those words this morning.

I want to ask Ministers about the work penalty that they have introduced into the tax credits system. Did they know before the election that they were going to hit those who needed tax credits to make work pay, or was it deliberately hidden from public view because of the shock that such a cut to incomes would create? This was a Budget that exposed the Chancellor’s skewed priorities—a Budget that failed to build the more productive economy that we need, that ducked long-term decisions on vital infrastructure projects, and that sought to substitute spin for the support people need to go to work.