Government's Management of the Economy — House of Commons, 2021-02-23
Topic: Macroeconomics
Stephen Paul Barclay (Conservative, Centre-right): With the leave of the House, I will close the debate for the Government. I thank hon. and right hon. Members for their participation in the debate. We have heard a wide variety of arguments and many helpful and insightful contributions. It is clear that the House is united in its desire to build a stronger economy, although we may not always agree on how to achieve it Today’s motion asks us to reflect on the past decade. As the hon. Member for Edinburgh West (Christine Jardine) pointed out, the Labour party seems to particularly want to talk about the past, so let me once more remind the House what the coalition Government inherited: unsustainable public finances, an economy in deep malaise and a fundamental lack of public trust in the financial system. Over the years that followed, we worked to bring the national finances back to strength and to inspire confidence in the UK economy, and those efforts paid off. Before coronavirus hit, the economy had expanded every year since 2010, growing faster than France, Italy and Japan. We had succeeded in reducing the Budget deficit, and by the end of 2019 over 3.8 million more people were in work compared with 2010, with 85% of that growth being in high-skilled occupations and youth unemployment nearly halving Over the course of the debate, we have had a number of excellent contributions. In particular, I would like to pay tribute to my right hon. Friend the Member for Sutton Coldfield (Mr Mitchell), who correctly identified how the Leader of the Opposition, in so many areas, is simply following the Government in our agenda on levelling up. He rightly reminded the House that the last Labour Government were borrowing £1 in every £4 they spent. My hon. Friend the Member for Grantham and Stamford (Gareth Davies) spoke about how the Conservative Government had delivered, before covid, the lowest levels of unemployment since the 1970s, and about the benefit of reducing the deficit in good times to be stronger in the bad times My hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool North and Cleveleys (Paul Maynard) noted that the financial resilience now is due to the difficult decisions taken over the last decade, and also the fact that, from a progressive perspective, the top 1% pay a greater share of tax than under the previous Labour Government. My hon. Friend the Member for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland (Mr Clarke) emphasised our bold plans to build back better, and the opportunity this offers for areas such as Teesside. My hon. Friend the Member for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk (John Lamont) highlighted how the deficit has been reduced over the last decade, ahead of the pandemic, enabling us to enter that from a position of strength—steps every one of which were opposed by those on the Benches opposite My hon. Friend the Member for Ashfield (Lee Anderson) talked about the practical difference that this Government are making in constituencies such as his, such as the £6.2 million funding from the future high streets fund or the £1.5 million from the towns fund, in contrast to the waste on schemes such as PFI that he had seen in areas like Ashfield. My hon. Friend the Member for Ynys Môn (Virginia Crosbie) spoke about the covid support in her constituency and what a material difference that has made. My hon. Friend the Member for Heywood and Middleton (Chris Clarkson) highlighted the gap between the briefing last week for the speech from the Leader of the Opposition, with language akin to Beveridge reports and the lacklustre content contained therein My hon. Friend the Member for Hertford and Stortford (Julie Marson) correctly identified the resilience from decisions over the last decade that has enabled the package of covid support, praised by the IMF and others, that the Chancellor has been able to deliver. My hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent South (Jack Brereton) spoke about the increased prosperity in constituencies such as his, and his pride in what the Government are delivering. My hon. Friend the Member for Broadland (Jerome Mayhew) identified the importance of the reduction in the deficit by more than 80% since Labour was last in power, and how that enabled the package of support announced by my right hon. Friend the Chancellor. That is particularly important to the levelling up agenda, on which he spoke so powerfully My hon. Friend the Member for North East Derbyshire (Lee Rowley) highlighted how, over the last decade, the economy has been turned around from that inherited from the previous Labour Government and the fixation of those on the Benches opposite on simply spending more. My hon. Friend the Member for Stourbridge (Suzanne Webb) spoke about the unprecedented economic response, particularly the importance of supporting jobs and the work in her constituency to that effect, with the Chancellor’s £30 billion plan for jobs being a key component of that My hon. Friend the Member for Bury South (Christian Wakeford) spoke about the nine years of economic growth and the practical support through tax cuts that have been delivered, as well as schemes such as the national living wage introduced by those on these Benches. He contrasted that with the poor delivery of Labour local authorities. My hon. Friend the Member for Darlington (Peter Gibson) spoke about how the Government support has helped businesses in his constituency, and indeed how it helped him over the last decade in his own experience of business, as well as about how important that is to the levelling up agenda on which he secured election, as did many of my colleagues My hon. Friend the Member for Wakefield (Imran Ahmad Khan) highlighted the economic legacy that was left by the Labour party after its time in government and contrasted that with the growth in the economy and the repairing of public finances that we have seen over the previous decade My hon. Friend the Member for Thirsk and Malton (Kevin Hollinrake) highlighted the flaws in the policy proposals of the Labour party and how little substance there is in the proposals brought forward in the debate A range of contributions have made clear the importance of the resilience that comes from reducing the deficit from more than 10% when Labour was in power to less than 2% and how that has made possible the package of measures that the Chancellor has been able to bring forward. It is the actions of the Government over the past decade to restore the public finances that have enabled the Government to respond with more than £280 billion of economic support—one of the largest and most comprehensive support packages in the world. Schemes such as the furlough scheme and the self-employed income support scheme, the increase in the universal credit offer, the guaranteed loans for businesses, the grants, the tax breaks and the support to businesses on cash flow are a consequence of difficult decisions taken over the preceding decade I would also remind the House, and the hon. Member for Oxford East (Anneliese Dodds), that this Government’s proud record of public spending long before this crisis has enabled our public services to weather the storm of the pandemic. We have made a legally binding commitment to put an extra £34 billion into the NHS by 2023-24, with the core health budget growing by £6.3 billion next year, allowing us to deliver 50,000 more nurses and 50 million more GP appointments We have said that we will provide up to £15.8 billion to the police over the next financial year. That is £636 million more than in 2021 and includes more than £400 million to continue our commitment to recruit 20,000 extra police officers, on which my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary has made such excellent progress We are increasing the schools budget next year by £2.2 billion and are on our way to delivering an extra £7.1 billion by 2022-23. We are investing in providing lifelong learning as well The motion suggests that Labour wants to focus on the past. Let us look at what past policies it wants to focus on. During his leadership, the Leader of the Opposition has said that he wants to renationalise huge swathes of the economy. He has been clear that he wants to remove the 50% turnout measure for industrial ballots, allowing disruption of workplaces with minimum support. He has described the economic policies of the previous Labour leader as "the only platform going forward", which is slightly at odds with his message that the Opposition are under new management This is a Government with a record of real economic achievement. We have succeeded in providing better public services and supporting millions of people on low incomes, while significantly reducing the deficit in the pre-covid years. We are succeeding at safeguarding the UK economy, while protecting public health, when faced with the greatest challenge since the second world war. We will succeed in securing the UK’s recovery from coronavirus and in creating an even stronger, greener, more equal economy, which this country and its people so richly deserve Question put.