Budget Resolutions Debate

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Wednesday 30th October 2024

(3 weeks, 1 day ago)

Commons Chamber
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Desmond Swayne Portrait Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)
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It is an enormous pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Motherwell, Wishaw and Carluke (Pamela Nash). Until recently, my cousin was a minister in Carluke.

Let me give the House a piece of Swahili wisdom. Howezi kuwafukuza swala wawili: you cannot chase two antelope. That, however, is exactly what the Government have been doing since they were elected. They announced immediately after the election, and repeated today, that their overriding priority was to secure economic growth by investing, investing, investing, but in reality their main effort was elsewhere. Their main effort was a creating a narrative in the public mind that they had inherited a wasteland, the worst inheritance of any Government since kingdom come: that the wicked Tories had operated a scorched earth policy leaving absolutely everything broken, nothing working, and a huge black hole. As a consequence, things would have to get worse before they could get better, and there would be implications for tax in the forthcoming Budget—and, of course, we have discovered that today.

The reality is that investment requires an optimistic outlook. By pouring such a bucket of cold water on the British economy, what the Government achieved was to reverse what was soaring business confidence and turn it into absolutely collapsing business confidence; and business confidence is the key to investment, not the great binge of borrowing that the Government are about to enter into.

Tom Hayes Portrait Tom Hayes (Bournemouth East) (Lab)
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Would the right hon. Gentleman welcome the £63 billion of investment that came through the international investment summit as a result of the election of a Labour Government? That money had been held back until the election, and the election led to the investment of those billions of pounds. Is that not a sign of significant business confidence in our country?

Desmond Swayne Portrait Sir Desmond Swayne
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Much of it reannounced, and much of it put at risk by the behaviour of the Transport Secretary, but nevertheless an achievement. Of course I welcome any inward investment. What I think is a huge risk is a great borrowing binge for exactly the sort of investment that we saw throughout the 1960s and 1970s, which never delivered. Real investment—investment that improves productivity—is that which is undertaken largely by medium and small firms to invest in their own enterprises, but it is crowded out by the increased costs that are entirely a consequence of the Government’s great borrowing binge. On that basis, this Budget is a disaster.

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Mike Wood Portrait Mike Wood
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The Chancellor and the Prime Minister made it very clear to voters that nothing in Labour’s plans would require tax rises, other than very specific tax rises that they had indicated. They said that they were not looking to raise taxes on businesses, working people and farmers, which was dismissed as “a lie” in the television debate. We now see that the claims made during the election campaign were untrue only inasmuch as the Leader of the Opposition and shadow Chancellor hugely underestimated how much the Labour Government would hike people’s taxes. Again, a false prospectus was sold.

Page 11 of the OBR’s outlook sets out that earnings growth will halve over the course of this Parliament. This is a betrayal of working people. It is the tax on jobs that the Chancellor was so keen to attack while in opposition. The increase in business rates will add £6,000 to the bills for a typical pub at a time when so many are only just managing. Per worker, the increases in national insurance contributions for businesses will add—

Tom Hayes Portrait Tom Hayes (Bournemouth East) (Lab)
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Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

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Tom Hayes Portrait Tom Hayes (Bournemouth East) (Lab)
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In this Budget today, we are basically asking this question: what kind of country will we be? I think we should first think about this debate because we have desertion on the Opposition Benches. We have used lots of numbers in this debate, and I have quickly crunched some more: 3.3% of the Conservative parliamentary party are sitting facing us.

Tom Hayes Portrait Tom Hayes
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I think the hon. Lady should say the same to her leadership contenders. I think it is important to say that, because we have very big decisions being taken in this Budget. The Conservatives are now the Opposition, and the public have entrusted to them the responsibility for holding this Government to account for getting things right. However, there is a desertion of duty and a dereliction of what they are supposed to do that I think the country will remember.

Having campaigned in many elections and lost many elections over the last 14 years, I know the pain that comes from losing, but I also know the importance of listening to the voters. What we heard in the Leader of the Opposition’s contribution to the Budget debate was a refusal to listen to the result of the general election. So divorced are the Conservatives from the reality of people’s lives that they are projecting absurd notions. Again, I think the Conservative party will be judged on that, but enough about the Conservative party.

With our first Budget in 14 years, this Labour Government are putting Bournemouth and Britain back on track. We are fixing broken public services and broken finances. Unlike the Conservatives, we will fix the foundations rather than accept permanent decline. Unlike the Conservatives, we were elected to be on the side of working people, and we will govern as such. Unlike the Conservatives, we are on the side investment to grow our economy, and we reject austerity.

After over a decade of stagnant wages and out of control prices, we are putting money into people’s pockets. Over 8,000 people across Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole on the national living wage will see their pay packet increase by 6.7%, and they will get a well-deserved pay rise of up to £1,400 a year. Labour is cancelling Tory stealth tax increases by ensuring that income tax brackets will rise with inflation from 2028, and we are freezing fuel duty. After years of economic mismanagement, Labour’s Budget will boost our local economy, and we are restoring economic stability to give businesses the confidence to invest. I welcome the fact that the Federation of Small Businesses has said today that the Budget is

“a huge help for small firms”,

which have been heard loud and clear.

After a decade of austerity and under-investment, Labour’s Budget will give a new lease of life to our struggling public services. We are investing a record £22 billion in our NHS. As somebody who cared for two disabled parents when I was growing up, I know that waiting lists kill. Waiting lists have got longer, and more people are dying because of that. With this Labour Government, there is an investment in protecting people’s lives and people’s quality of life, which we should never ever forget.

We are also providing £2.3 billion of extra investment in our core schools budget and £6.7 billion to rebuild crumbling schools in all of our communities. It is particularly important to me that we are investing an additional £1 billion to start to fix the special educational needs and disabilities system. It is a good start, with more to come. These are just a few of the measures that Labour is taking to boost the economy nationally and locally, and to improve people’s lives.

Labour is making different choices from the Conservatives, and as somebody who grew up, in mouldy and damp council housing, caring for disabled parents who knew the value of a Labour Government, I am so pleased that people across Bournemouth East and across Britain will once again know the value of a Labour Government after 14 years of Tory chaos and Conservative austerity.

I am particularly pleased that those claiming carer’s allowance will see the earnings limit increase, which means that people claiming the allowance can earn over £10,000 a year while continuing to be eligible. That is such an important step for carers, who give so much to their families, their loved ones, and our communities. I commend all that they do in my constituency and across the country—this Government has got your back.

We are investing billions in our public services to ensure that children have access to breakfast at school, that our roads are fixed, and potholes filled. That is all happening because of balanced, careful choices by our Chancellor of the Exchequer to fund the changes that people voted for at the general election. Earlier today somebody was talking about hope. I feel hopeful for the first time in a very long time, and when I go knocking on doors in Bournemouth East on Saturday and Sunday, I am 100% confident that people will feel hopeful too.