Covid-19 Pandemic: Fiscal Policies

Opened the debate

The austerity programme has been one of the most damaging policies our country has seen in decades. There were more than 300,000 excess deaths between 2012 and 2019 due to austerity measures. The NHS was left unprepared for the pandemic because of funding cuts and staffing shortages. Between 2010-11 and 2019-20, the average daily total of available beds contracted by 8.3%, and staff faced years of pay caps and freezes. Public health services were ill-equipped to handle the arrival of COVID due to budget cuts and workforce restructuring. The NHS was operating without enough staff, beds, and outdated buildings when the pandemic hit.

Government Response

I congratulate the hon. Member for City of Durham on securing this evening’s debate. In debating fiscal policies, context is crucial: when the Government were first elected, it was in the wake of the global financial crisis with a significant deficit left by Labour. The Government's approach to reduce the deficit and debt received support from Parliament and was in line with best practice recommendations. This allowed for borrowing £313 billion during the pandemic to provide quick and decisive support to households and businesses. Members will remember the furlough scheme, which supported nearly 12 million jobs, including over 400,000 in the north-east. The economy in the north-east has been one of the fastest growing since the pandemic ended. Despite this, the hon. Member for City of Durham had no alternative plans to lay out. When we look back on the pandemic and fiscal approaches both during and before it, the Government believe that they acted responsibly, allowing us to protect livelihoods up and down the country and ensuring we could afford to do so and bounce back afterwards.