Budget Resolutions

Sojan Joseph Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Sojan Joseph (Ashford) (Lab)]

I congratulate the Chancellor on delivering a Budget that protects the national health service, reduces the national debt and eases the cost of living. I warmly welcome her decision to find money to reduce energy bills, freeze rail fares and freeze prescription charges. I also welcome her decision to help to lift 2,600 children out of poverty in my constituency.

It is pleasing to see the announcement in the Budget of millions of pounds of new investment to upgrade technology in healthcare. Providing funding for new digital technology to automate administrative tasks and allow swifter access to patient information will improve NHS productivity. Instead of spending time on admin, NHS staff will be able to focus more on caring for patients.

Since being elected to this House, I have pressed for more to be done to shift healthcare to the community and help to take the burden off hospitals, such as the William Harvey hospital in Ashford, so I welcome the announcement of neighbourhood health centres in the 10-year health plan. I am delighted that the Budget provides funding to ensure that the first of those will be rolled out across the country.

The Budget also provides support for young people taking the crucial first step into long-term employment through apprenticeship funding. That initiative builds on the Labour Government’s small businesses plan, which brought prioritised investment in apprenticeships and digital training by working with local colleges and providers. Ashford college in my constituency is doing excellent work in that area.

This Budget and its priorities stand in stark contrast with what is happening in my local area of Kent. While Labour chooses to invest in public services, rejecting the failed Tory policies of austerity, Reform-led Kent county council is continuing with reckless cuts and fantasy economics. The council, the leader of which said that it would be a “shop window” for how Reform would govern nationally, recently revealed that it had a £46 million overspend.

The Leader of the Opposition wants to turn the clock back. She has argued that the Chancellor should not have made the choices that she did in the Budget, including more than doubling the fiscal headroom. That choice has been welcomed by the financial markets and will provide greater financial resilience, but the Conservatives rejected it, arguing instead that we should return to the days of austerity and cut spending instead.

As someone who worked in the NHS, I saw the damage done by the Conservative Government’s approach to our health service and other public services. It also meant that pay for NHS workers, teachers and other public sector workers was frozen for years, which had a detrimental impact on staff morale, recruitment and retention.