Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Tony Lloyd Excerpts

Monday 8th March 2021 Commons Chamber

[Tony Lloyd (Rochdale) (Lab)]

Let me begin by agreeing with my hon. Friend the Member for Wirral South (Alison McGovern) that the measure of a Budget is not the Pollyanna-ish speeches of the Culture Secretary but the slow peeling away of the unpleasant and unfair political choices that the Chancellor made last week. I lay on a ventilator while medical and non-medical staff were saving my life, as they did the Prime Minister’s, and I did not come out of hospital to clap those NHS workers and then say to them, “But you will have a real-terms pay cut.” It would have been hypocritical of me to do that, as it would for anyone else.

One of the crises we face in this country is the crisis in social care. We know that the sector is dominated by low-paid women workers—indeed, far too low-paid. We have to do something about that, yet we saw nothing in the Budget to relieve those problems.

Rochdale is a town in a borough that has seen £170 million taken away by successive Conservative Governments since 2010. We have very high unemployment among our young people—probably 50% higher than in the country as a whole—and 17,000 universal credit claimants. With that kind of background, it makes no sense to say that universal credit will be cut by £20. That will take £17 million a year out of the Rochdale economy, and stopping furlough in September will do equal damage.

If this is a jobs-first Budget, what about the missing millions—those who got no help, such as Sarah Graham, who runs a business in Rochdale as part of the Travel Counsellors franchise? She has had almost no financial support for the last 12 months and will probably have no income for another 12 months, because that is the nature of her work. It makes no sense for businesses such as that to be put at risk. Where is the ambition in the Budget? Where is the hope for the future? Where is the plan for investment in education for our young people or jobs skills training for the future? It is not there. Where is the commitment to Northern Powerhouse Rail? We have heard it promised so many times, but not a spade has yet hit the ground.

This is a Government that talk the talk on greening our economy, but nothing in the Budget will address the urgency of the climate crisis. This Government have failed, this Budget has failed, and the Chancellor has failed the nation. [Interruption.]