Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Debate between Stephen Kinnock and Pat McFadden

Tuesday 21st March 2023 Commons Chamber

[Mr Pat McFadden (Wolverhampton South East) (Lab)]

Let me begin by paying tribute to all the right hon. and hon. Members who have taken part in this Budget debate, not only today, but throughout its four days. Today, many Members from across the House, including my right hon. Friend the Member for Walsall South (Valerie Vaz), and my hon. Friends the Members for Newcastle upon Tyne North (Catherine McKinnell), for Ilford South (Sam Tarry), for Bolton South East (Yasmin Qureshi) and for Leeds East (Richard Burgon), have raised the issue of the cost of living crisis. Other Members have spoken about individual measures in the Budget, such as investment allowances and devolution deals.

Some Members, such as my hon. Friend the Member for Vauxhall (Florence Eshalomi), called this Budget a missed chance, whereas others, such as my hon. Friend the Member for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney (Gerald Jones), talked about the number of Labour policies adopted by the Government in the Budget. My hon. Friend the Member for Lewisham East (Janet Daby) and the hon. Member for Newbury (Laura Farris) talked about childcare. The hon. Member for Basildon and Billericay (Mr Baron) rightly warned the Government against being left behind by the measures being taken in the US and the EU to ensure the green transition.

The right hon. Member for North West Hampshire (Kit Malthouse) urged us all to have more children. Perhaps when all other growth plans have failed, that is all that is left.

The Budget is a critical part of our economic and political framework, and I congratulate the Chancellor on surviving long enough in his post to deliver one. Here we are a few days later and he is still in his post. That is a rare achievement among Conservative Chancellors of modern times.

Outside this House—indeed, on the day that the Chancellor spoke—there is significant turbulence in the financial system. Even though we debate these measures, it is imperative that the Treasury and the regulators are alive to the risks elsewhere in the system and to what other risks may be there.

The Budget was billed by the Chancellor as a Budget for growth. He opened his statement last week by asking us to give thanks that, this year, the economy is expected to shrink, but just not by quite as much as was previously thought. A flatlining economy is now defined by the Government as success.

[Stephen Kinnock]

My right hon. Friend is making an excellent speech. The Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said earlier that this was a Budget for growth and that it would deliver more economic prosperity, but the reality is that the OBR said that we will not see a rise in living standards for another decade. Does my right hon. Friend agree that the Government have had their chance?

[Mr McFadden]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. After 13 years, there really is nowhere left to hide.

Despite the Budget being billed as a Budget for growth, the UK is still experiencing the slowest recovery from covid in the G7. All the countries that make up this group had to cope with the pandemic. All of them have suffered the consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, yet Britain’s recovery is the slowest.

What is it about Conservative stewardship of the United Kingdom that makes us stand out in this way? Is it the political chaos inflicted on the country by the Conservative party, which makes a Chancellor who gets to deliver a Budget such a rarity? Is it the fact that, since 2010, our productivity growth has been the second lowest in the G7? Is it the disastrous Tory mini-Budget last year, which they would like to bury under 10 feet of concrete, but which people will not forget? It caused borrowing costs to soar, put our pension system on life support and rocked international confidence in the UK economy. Is it the former Prime Minister’s Brexit deal, which was supposed to give us global Britain but instead gave us the problem of how to send a sandwich to Belfast?

It could be all those things, but whatever the reasons, the overriding fact for our constituents is that they are still living through the biggest fall in living standards in living memory. Their money goes less far, their incomes have been squeezed and they are living in a country that is poorer than it was four years ago.