Budget Resolutions — House of Commons, 2021-11-01
Topic: Macroeconomics
Liam Dominic Byrne (Labour, Centre-left): It is shame that the hon. Member for Wimbledon (Stephen Hammond) is not in his place because he put his finger on the nub of the debate. A strategy for growth should have been at the Budget’s heart, yet the International Monetary Fund and Office for Budget Responsibility took one look at the Budget and downgraded our growth forecast. Our long-term growth is something like two thirds of what it used to be The IMF, which has looked out over the next four years, says that we in the UK, for all the Chancellor’s measures, will have the worst recovery from covid in the G7. It is not surprising. While other countries around the world invest in science-led growth, what did the Chancellor do last week? He chose that moment to defer science spending by two years While other countries around the world are going for trade, the OBR looked at the magnificent new global Britain fund that we have heard about and downgraded our trade forecast. The current account deficit, which has been about 3% to 3.5% for some years, is now forecast to be 4% to 5% or 5.5%. A red-tape Brexit has ensnared our traders in so much bureaucracy that exports to the EU will fall by 15% Because growth is bad, taxes are up—we have the largest tax rise since the 1950s. In a couple of years, the average family will pay £3,000 extra in tax, thanks to the Prime Minister. Taxes are going up, not fairly, but affecting ordinary working people and we therefore have flat living standards. This decade is now the worst for pay rises since the 1930s. Of course, because we have a Tory Government, the poorest will be hit hardest. What we have heard today about the universal credit taper cut making up for the removal of the £20 uplift is absolute nonsense. The poorest people in this country will be £280 worse off as a result of the Government’s decisions. That is the reality The net sum of the measures is a catastrophe for social mobility in this country. Once upon a time, the Conservative party boasted about its social mobility credentials; not any more. It now takes five generations for someone born in the poorest cohort in this country to rise up and make even average wages. The gap between private school and public school funding is now so big that it would take £55 billion to fix it. The Conservative party should never again be trusted on social mobility My final point is about the west midlands. The Mayor of the west midlands, my friend Andy Street, is down with covid at the moment. We wish him a speedy recovery. However, many of us were pretty sick when we looked at the settlement for the west midlands. The budgets for the levelling-up fund and the towns fund put together give us the fourth worst settlement in the country—£217 million behind the north-west. In the levelling-up fund announcement last week, £33 a head for the west midlands is the fifth worst settlement in the country. Our transport budget is a £1 billion less than we asked for—one of the worst per capita settlements in the country, as the West of England Mayor was quick to point out This was a Budget for anaemic growth, rising prices, rocketing taxes, record debt, red tape that ensnares our traders, flat living standards and increased poverty. After all the agony of loss that the country has been through, we deserve better.