Budget Resolutions

Virendra Sharma Excerpts

Monday 1st November 2021 Commons Chamber

[Mr Virendra Sharma (Ealing, Southall) (Lab)]

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in this vital Budget debate.

After nearly two years of boosterism and bluster, last week’s Budget was yet another opportunity missed by the Government to finally spell out how they are going to level up left-behind communities throughout the country. The Prime Minister and the Chancellor boast of bringing about a low-tax, high-wage economy, yet the Conservatives are increasing the tax take to its highest level in 70 years. In fact, according to the Resolution Foundation, the Government’s tax rises will cost British households an extra £3,000 by 2026-27. The Government could choose to use that money to help Britain’s poorest families during the worst energy price crisis in a generation, or to reverse the universal credit cut that is needlessly forcing millions into poverty; on the contrary, the Conservatives have handed tax cuts to the likes of Amazon and the banks, to the tune of £12 billion and £4 billion respectively. They are levelling up some of the pandemic’s most profitable companies at the people’s expense, yet they have no plan to remove the enormous tax burden they have placed on working people and small and medium-sized businesses.

Although the Government have provided some welcome relief for the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors, which are so critical to my community in Ealing, Southall, they must go much further to fix the broken business rates system and truly level the playing field between the high street and tax-avoiding tech companies.

At a time when families are suffering from a cost-of-living crisis brought on by the Government’s incompetence, they should not be punishing poorer families for their lack of luck. The cost of heating bills, food shops and fuel are all rising at a staggering speed. This winter, millions of families on universal credit will be forced to choose between eating and heating. If the Government were serious about levelling up, they would reverse the sickening cut to universal credit that is hurting millions of working families. The Government cannot claim to be levelling up while they chip away at the lifeline of some of our most disadvantaged.

As a result of the Government’s failure to properly pay and recognise professionals in nursing and midwifery, the NHS is now short of almost 40,000 nurses. The Chancellor offered no detail on how the Government plan to recruit or train more doctors and nurses, and there was no workforce plan for the NHS, only vague commitments yet again.

I urge the Government, instead of papering over the cracks as the Budget does, to actually help desperate families during their time of need, to protect and empower small and medium-sized businesses and to give NHS staff the pay rise that they truly deserve. Only then will the Government be able to say that they are truly committed to levelling up our society and economy and ensuring that no one, regardless of their wealth and background, is left behind.