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Budget: Pre-announcement of Provisions
26 October 2021
Lead MP
Simon Clarke
Debate Type
Ministerial Statement
Tags
NHSTaxationEmploymentBusiness & TradeBenefits & WelfareParliamentary Procedure
Other Contributors: 22
At a Glance
Simon Clarke raised concerns about budget: pre-announcement of provisions in the House of Commons. A government minister responded. Other MPs also contributed.
How the Debate Unfolded
MPs spoke in turn to share their views and ask questions. Here's what each person said:
Government Statement
NHSTaxationEmploymentBusiness & TradeBenefits & WelfareParliamentary Procedure
Government Statement
Mr Speaker, I have the deepest respect for you, this House and all its processes. The Government is set to deliver a stronger economy with five days of parliamentary debate ahead of us this week and next. Tomorrow, my right hon Friend the Chancellor will announce a Budget that delivers a stronger economy for the British people, invests in public services, and supports levelling up through growth and jobs, including a pay rise for 7 million people —5 million in the public sector and 2 million through an increase in the national living wage. I highlight key measures such as raising the National Living Wage from £8.91 to £9.50 per hour, representing an extra £1,000 a year for a full-time worker; investing £3 billion to build a high-wage, high-skill economy with a doubling of investment in 16 to 19-year-olds and quadrupling the number of skills boot camps; allocating £5.7 billion for local transport to help level up communities across England; and providing £5.9 billion for the NHS to tackle backlogs and modernise digital technology, including at least 100 community diagnostic centres.
Houghton and Sunderland South
Question
Will the Chief Secretary justify withholding decisions detailed in press releases? Will he confirm that a rise to £9.50 an hour will place far less than an extra £1,000 in pockets of full-time workers on minimum wage and receiving universal credit? Can he confirm public sector pay rises are real-terms increases as his colleague failed to do so this morning? Will he follow Labour’s lead by cutting VAT on domestic heating bills to 0% for six months? Lastly, will he freeze business rates now and replace them with a better system fast?
Minister reply
The announcements have been entirely accurate when considered in conjunction with all other measures. The national living wage increase is substantial and necessary, despite the Labour party's criticism. Public sector pay rises will be discussed by relevant bodies to ensure they are right given current pressures. The energy price cap protects households with up to £100 off bills per year. Regarding business rates, we need a fundamental review; Labour’s commitment lacks clarity on funding. We aim for a clear plan that balances the books and supports economic progress.
Question
Why is it not right to observe complete Budget secrecy as previous Governments did?
Minister reply
We have observed full embargo rules set by George Osborne in 2013, banning pre-release of core Budget information such as economic and fiscal projections, tax rates, reliefs, and allowances.
Alison Thewliss
SNP
Glasgow Central
Question
I do not know whether to congratulate the Minister on his promotion, as he has come here to give us the Budget a day early. What he has not given this House is an apology. He should not be announcing things on Twitter; we should be waiting for the Budget to see the full detail.
Minister reply
I thank the hon. Lady for her remarks. I think that we are much stronger as one United Kingdom... She asked about the Barnett consequentials. Those will be set out very clearly in the Budget tomorrow.
Jake Berry
Con
Rossendale and Darwen
Question
I am sure that my right hon. Friend accepts that the rabbit may be out of the hat. So if the Chancellor is still looking for a fluffy bunny to present on Budget day, may I advise that we make a huge announcement about the Government’s levelling-up fund? That would be welcomed by communities across the north of England and demonstrate our Government’s commitment to make sure that we level up the peoples of the north.
Minister reply
I thank my right hon. Friend for his question. He is absolutely right that levelling up is a core theme of this Government... I wish that I could start plucking rabbits out of the hat for him now, but he will have to wait just a few more hours to get some, hopefully, very welcome news.
Angela Eagle
Lab
Wallasey
Question
Thank you, Mr Speaker, for granting this urgent question. It has taken me nearly 30 years, but I now find that I agree with the right hon. Member for Wokingham in his question. This is serious... As an Opposition, we cannot look in detail at the slew—the blizzard—of Budget announcements that have been going on week after week.
Minister reply
I thank the hon. Lady for her points. Clearly, as a former Treasury Minister herself, she would never have engaged in any activity of this kind... The point is that there is absolutely no question of our commitment to observing all the proprieties, reflecting the Macpherson review...
Desmond Swayne
Con
New Forest West
Question
There are two sides to this coin. The first is the Government broadcasting without first letting us know. The other is the information that they are trying to keep from us. Why was the leaked information on the substantial costs of winter plan B marked “Not for publication”? What are the Government trying to hide? Why are they frightened of our scrutiny?
Minister reply
I thank my right hon. Friend for his question... I will not comment on leaks—[Laughter.] The absolute bottom line is that we are, of course, committed to plan A...
Clive Efford
Lab
Eltham and Chislehurst
Question
I have been here for many years and have seen many Budgets. I have seen the Order Papers being waved on the day, and then the Budgets fall apart over the following hours and the following days, but this is the first Budget that I have seen fall apart before Budget day. We have heard the announcement about public sector pay, but we have not heard whether, if it is increased, that increase will be funded...
Minister reply
Ensuring that we can move out of the shadow of the public sector pay freeze is obviously something that we are all glad to be able to do... The Chancellor will set out the full details of how that will operate in his statement tomorrow.
Julian Lewis
Con
New Forest East
Question
The Minister is one of the nice guys in Parliament and richly deserved his promotion. What he did not deserve was to be put in this position by an untenable policy... I have to ask him the question: why is it important, right or necessary to share Budget information with the media before it is shared with this House, where it can be subjected to proper scrutiny, and will he give an undertaking on behalf of the Treasury team to stop doing it?
Minister reply
I thank my right hon. Friend for his kind words... As a Treasury team—indeed, as a Government—we are all committed to ensuring that this House is fully respected...
North East Fife
Question
Education has been very much missing from the pre-announcements. Given the amount of learning that our children have lost due to covid, I wonder whether the Minister would give us another leak or pre-announcement by letting us know whether the full £15 billion advocated by the Government’s education recovery adviser before he resigned will be allocated to education...
Minister reply
It is obviously tremendously important that we help our schools to catch up... The Government have committed £3 billion to date to help with education catch-up. The Chancellor will be speaking more about this matter in his statement tomorrow.
Philip Hollobone
Con
Kettering
Question
Funded by taxpayers through Her Majesty’s Treasury, the NHS hospital building programme is a flagship policy and a key part of the Treasury’s medium-term forecasts. Kettering General Hospital is one of those hospitals... When NHS England approves the strategic outline case for the hospital and submits those proposals to the Chief Secretary for sign-off, will he look favourably upon it...
Minister reply
My hon. Friend is absolutely right to speak up for the hospital in his constituency... The Government have committed to 40 new hospitals and 70 hospital upgrades... I would be delighted to have further meetings on the subject with my hon. Friend, if that would be useful to him.
Seema Malhotra
Lab/Co-op
Feltham and Heston
Question
Mr Speaker, the Minister said at the beginning that he respected you and this House, but does he not accept that the reason that we are here now, having this urgent question, is precisely because the opposite has happened? When he answers that question, perhaps he can also enlighten us: has he had discussions with the Welsh Government about the UK shared prosperity fund in the way that he has with the editors of the national newspapers?
Minister reply
There is absolutely no doubt that we have observed all the proprieties by not talking about tax measures in any of the discussions that have been had... I am in regular contact with the Welsh Government. Indeed, I met the Welsh Finance Minister last week and will be speaking to her again tomorrow morning ahead of the Budget, in the usual way.
Question
I welcome the announcements that have been trailed ahead of the Budget, in particular the latest announcement on the national living wage. Will my right hon. Friend outline how this national living wage will help my constituents and his in Teesside?
Minister reply
Ensuring that work always pays is one of the foundational principles of this Government. It is what differentiates us from the last Labour Government, who had a series of policies that did not incentivise work. The national living wage rise is the right thing to do and continues our strong track record of ensuring that our plan for jobs is matched by rising living standards.
Question
Diolch, Mr Speaker. Many of the pre-Budget announcements relate to the so-called levelling-up agenda, of which the community renewal fund is a key element. Given the delay in announcing the initial successful bidders, will the Minister press the Chancellor at this late stage to make an announcement tomorrow to extend the delivery time for those that were successful in the first phase?
Minister reply
I would be happy to look at the hon. Gentleman's recommendation, but there will be further announcements on the community ownership fund tomorrow.
Question
The Chancellor is preparing to tell us tomorrow that the national minimum wage will increase to £9.50 next April, but that remains way below the income that a worker can live on. Will the Government stop treating young people with such disdain and uplift the national minimum wage to £15 an hour?
Minister reply
The Government are committed to ensuring that younger workers get fair pay while balancing against the serious situation of youth unemployment we inherited from the last Labour Government. There will be good news for younger workers in the Budget tomorrow.
Question
These decisions made by the Government deeply affect people’s lives: energy bills are rocketing; inflation is up; food and petrol prices are up; furlough has ended; and universal credit has been cut. Is the Chancellor really going to give his old pals in the City a tax cut in the Budget tomorrow?
Minister reply
The household support fund is specifically targeted to help with the cost of living, reflecting the sense of what the hon. Lady is saying. The energy price cap and warm home discount are also measures we will continue to look at.
Question
VAT receipts have been climbing, which is a good thing. Will the Treasury look at helping those with very high fuel bills over the coming winter?
Minister reply
The household support fund is specifically targeted to help with the cost of living, reflecting the sense of what the hon. Lady is saying. The energy price cap and warm home discount are also measures we will continue to look at.
Question
The proposed increase in the national living wage would not remotely compensate those who will lose £1,000 as a result of the cut to universal credit. With workers facing a cost of living crisis, is it not the case that workers’ living standards will continue to be squeezed?
Minister reply
We remain committed to our ambitious target of the national living wage reaching two thirds of median earnings by the end of Parliament and expanding it to include workers over 21. We have done an awful lot to help with living standards, including doubling free childcare and introducing the new household support fund.
Question
I do not get to say that there is nothing in that for Newcastle, where extortionate bus fares are part of the cost of living crisis that my constituents are facing. Why does he think that the Government should not be accountable to the people of Newcastle upon Tyne Central?
Minister reply
We absolutely believe we should be accountable to the people of Newcastle upon Tyne Central. That is why there will be a five-day Budget debate over the course of the days ahead and my right hon. Friend the Chancellor will appear in front of a Select Committee.
Question
We know that they will not be investing in carbon capture and underground storage in Scotland, and we know that they will not be match-funding the Scottish Government’s £500 million just transition fund. Yet the Treasury has raked in some £350 billion of oil revenues over the decades.
Minister reply
We are a Government committed to the success of the whole of the United Kingdom. The Budget will contain within it many things that reflect the major benefits of the Union for Scotland just as much as for England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Question
In the past few days we have had more announcements than you get on the Clapham omnibus about the Budget. When were the newspapers given details of the announcements the Government were making in the Budget?
Minister reply
All announcements are made as usual through the normal Treasury and cross-Government processes to make sure that those announcements are released to the media.
Question
Does the Minister agree that being drip-fed Budget snippets from the press rather than in this House makes it more difficult for right hon. and hon. Members to fully consider the principles without the biased slant of the media? Is he prepared to consider allowing Members access to the Budget the night before, under strict embargo?
Minister reply
Clearly we all look to make sure that the Budget documentation is as full and as frank as possible—to make sure precisely that the Budget debate that follows can be as fully informed as possible.
Shadow Comment
Bridget Phillipson
Shadow Comment
Thank you for granting this urgent question, Mr Speaker. We face an urgent cost of living crisis with rising prices in shops, petrol pumps, and heating bills. Families and businesses are waiting for action from the Chancellor, but details of his Budget already appear incomplete. I have five questions: will he justify withholding decisions detailed in press releases? Will he confirm that a rise to £9.50 an hour will place far less than an extra £1,000 in pockets of full-time workers on minimum wage and receiving universal credit? Can he confirm public sector pay rises are real-terms increases as his colleague failed to do so this morning? Will he follow Labour’s lead by cutting VAT on domestic heating bills to 0% for six months? Lastly, will he freeze business rates now and replace them with a better system fast?
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